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PayPerPost Is Now Officially Absurd
techcrunch.com — At PayPerPost, bloggers are offered cash to write about products. Disclosure is optional, and often the bloggers are required to only express positive comments. The company is now well funded, and a number of competitors have launched. This “virus” seems here to stay.
koregaonpark- 329 diggs
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- jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -0/+5I guess the massive over-use of donate buttons has actually decreased the amount of people donating.
- bitcloud, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10I would like to see this dead and buried.
Integrity must count for something... I understand that sites *do* need revenue... adblock is cleaning the internet of ads, but also cleaning the internet of content, but constantly interacting with ads in the form of "PPP" isn't the way to go...
Search engines need a way to flag pages, posts and whole sites as "advertising" and have these display accordingly a-la diggs "the content of this page is flagged as spam by x number of users" (when the number of users reaches a certain level)- TheReport, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2"adblock is cleaning the internet of ads, but also cleaning the internet of content,"
I disagree, I think by cleaning the Internet of frivolous ads, we as consumers are giving the online advertisers a run for their money. The simple ability to interact with a webpage instead of having too sit there like a mindless drone waiting for the commerical to end so you can continue with your heart warming dramedy forces online advertisers to be more content motivated and more clever about their product placement online, and with outlets like Google, Advertisers are now reaching their target audience by letting the consumers come to them. We as online consumers hold the power in what we decide to see and what we choose to ignore in this power struggle to maintain a strong advertising arm on the Internet. I think PayPerPost is just another example of everyone winning in the end, that is what has made the internet such a powerful tool. - HaltingPoint, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7People seem to think that just because someone uses PayPerPost that they can't maintain integrity.
Nobody is FORCING people to take the opportunities that only allow you to write positive things without disclosure.
I use PPP on my blog since I make WAY more than I ever did with Adsense, but every post I write for it I disclose. And I always make sure to take posts that allow for a positive/negative opinion to maintain my integrity.
Of course, there's really no way to tell who is being honest and who is not, and that is the real danger of this system. - igraham09, on 10/12/2007, -0/+7ok, i am a PPP blogger, and i have things to say.
PPP's policy is that; you must separate your payed posts with one or more non-payed posts. This means that, a PPP blogger's blog isn't ALL ads.
Something else. People didn't read my blog to begin with, so i figured "hell, no one look s at my blog anyway... why not make a little money off of it by using for an ad site?" ***very few PPP opportunities require a certain amount of traffic***. Also, i only take posts that interest me. I have a technology centered blog, therefore, i take technology centered opportunities.
In conclusion; my blog is TINY, which means that i am not "hurting the blogosphere" by running post-ads on it
[edit] P.S... as HaltingPoint said; PPP gives you MUCH more money than AdSense - igraham09, on 10/12/2007, -7/+1sory double post, bury this
- TheReport, on 10/12/2007, -5/+2"adblock is cleaning the internet of ads, but also cleaning the internet of content,"
- odaen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+40PayPerPost is an excellent service and helps to provide internet readers with reliable well researched views and opinions. I would recommend this service to anyone else.
Moeny plz - bennop, on 10/12/2007, -1/+2The irony is that any one of us has an ego inflated enough to acutally think we are objective or ethical enough to completely remove our emotions, biases, and own agendas, from any opinion we may have.
Some kind of regulatory framework is probably a good thing.
Arrington is coming off sounding v high and mighty. But the basics of his message I agree with.
PayPerPost is bad. Disclosure policy just makes it look less bad than it is. - chris9902, on 10/12/2007, -0/+9who reads these sites anyway?
I spend a good chunk of my day online and every couple of weeks there is a site that is making millions and getting millions of people that i've never heard of.- rouben, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3By the same token, who orders viagra from spam anyway?
If there's a service, then there must be a demand for it. Unfortunate, but true.
- rouben, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3By the same token, who orders viagra from spam anyway?
- XooX, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8So do you think these PPP bloggers are the only ones earning unethical money. Any high traffic bloggers (those who call themselves pros) are paid money for reviewing new gadgets or stuff in their area. And most of us never mind reading them because they are from pro bloggers, who we trust.
PPP is for the lesser mortals who cant manage that kind of traffic, but still want money for their reviews..- Kamino, on 10/12/2007, -0/+4Yeah, fair and balanced means nothing these days. I have the feeling developers of some scripts and websites deliberately break support in IE (not much needed for that tho, lol) in order to get people to click their "Get Firefox w/ Google Toolbar", which leads to revenue. I found BugMeNot guilty of this already and I am afraid more will follow.
- goatrandy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1@Kamino - I used do something similar on my website. I was trying to work around some stupid IE CSS bug in one of my templates, and finally I just asked myself "Why am I bothering? 90% of my readers are already on FireFox."
So I set up Explorer Destroyer, blocked ALL IE users and made a couple bucks in the process. At least I was up front about it though. I even explained WHY I had made that choice in my "None4U" error message.
I took it down when I realized that I was also hurting people stuck in restrictive corporate environments that don't allow 'un-approved' software, but the template is STILL broken for those users and I refuse to 'break' my CSS just so IEs brain damaged ass can render it right.
- superpixel, on 10/12/2007, -2/+4XooX you got any evidence to back that up? Arrington, Block, Malik, Ali, Winer, Scoble, etc... they're all getting payola to brag about crap they ordinarily wouldn't care for? That's your claim? You're gonna stick with that? OK.
I often as not use Amazon to read reviews of products because a) they have the best selection of crap and b) the majority of reviews are from people "just like me" using the product innocently enough, and honestly reporting their experiences because they DO NOT have a vested interest in the success of the product.
Some people are really being quick to rally to PPP, which makes me suspicious of the critical thinking skills in our society... oh right, people sue because they get burned by hot coffee. Never. mind.- XooX, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1yes..There was a news article on professional bloggers in India and one of the most famous ones was asked what were his means of earning. He said apart from Adsense, he also gets paid for reviewing new gadgets and softwares on his blog.
- danrua, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1The day TechCrunch adopts a DisclosurePolicy, whether created at DisclosurePolicy.org or by hand, so we know exactly how he plans to disclose cash/non-cash comensation is the day Michael's opinion actually matters on this topic.
- Morky, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0I'm going to file a complaint with the Consumer Protection Agency.
- cekim, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3"often the bloggers are required to only express positive comments"
Yea, and if dont want to lose your integrity, you just don't click on those. If I was using this I would probably be giving most of the products negative reviews. Also, there is no rule against telling everyone that your post is an advertisement. You can say "Ok, payperpost is paying me to write this so here goes:" The only bloggers that will use this in a negative way are the bloggers you probably already don't want to read. - dattaway, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2This is just an evolution of the chain mail problem, but with a business model attatched to it. "If you want to kill the internet . . ."
- YourTechSupport, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3I'm still waiting for someone to pay my to blog about my love for hookers, blackjack, and white russians. Sadly, I can only find menial payment options for blackjack. Maybe I should give Poker another try....
- hackershandbook, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1payperpost also has things called BLATANT ADS - you could place those in your blog with the words BLATANT ADS and it would be no worse than having google adsense or amazon or whatever ....
... and now a word FROM OUR SPONSOR ... - drewolanoff, on 06/10/2008, -0/+1For the millionth (and the last) time. This is the worst idea ever, and if continued and supported, the blogosphere will be damaged.
- hansamurai, on 10/12/2007, -0/+3Wow, thanks for the tip off, I think I'm going to sign up for this payperhost thing.
- 0KonTroL0, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Wow, what controversy. I did sign up, but this would be equal to something like metallica would be to music. sellouts.
They can have my account. I am not filling my blog with ads. bah. This will ruin the internet if it continues, not just blogs. - hackershandbook, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1the "blogosphere" is the Emperor's New Clothes .. the minute someone notices that there is nothing there they will go onto the "next big thing" (tm) which will be exactly like the "last big thing" (tm) ... Web3.0 anyone?
- HMTKSteve, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2I'll tell you right now that it is mildly annoying to see several thousand hits on your website and then check your AdSense data and find that 60% of those hits do not count as the ads were blocked.
Are you aware that bloggers can make money just on the ad impressions? Running Ad-blocking software is killing bloggers who are trying to just make enough to pay their hosting fees every year.
It's no wonder pay-per-post is coming out now. You can't block a pay-for-post blog entry, but you can choose not to read it.
Unless you are on dial-up how much does a text-ad hurt you?
I can completely understand blocking an annoying pop-up ad or those very annoying flash ads that move around the screen and get in your way, but, basic AdSense text ads? Please... - hackershandbook, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1not only that but blocking adsense ads is stupid - you might learn something from one of those little ads or, heavens forbid, actually find something you want ...
.. and when you block ads you can never figure out why all your friends think that a certain singles site is such a hoot - because you will never see the advert that shouldn't be there - but adsense picked anyhow ...
.. not to mention the greatest thing - the adsense ads are the BEST BITS of many spam-blogs ..
.. and I forgot - they can be the best bits of a lot of non-spam-blogs as well .... - XooX, on 10/12/2007, -1/+1http://digg.com/programming/New_way_to_buy_links/blog
- Pelapp, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0What's the payment for these paid blogs entries ?
- davidshq, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I like PPP. I use it. I select products that I find interesting and not ones that require me to say something positive. A lot of their products are worth mentioning. Some of them aren't. I haven't posted anything new from them in a while b/c I haven't found the ads to be interesting enough or paying enough.
- tmcdigg, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Believe me: if you digg hard enough.. you can wade though the crappy products.. just, if you suspect that a product may be crappy for ANY REASON.. buy it at a brick and mortar store first, to check it out.. or better yet try it in the store without buying it (if possible). Then, if someones giving a "snow job" call them on the carpet!!
Sometimes you need to digg past the first 5 positive comments to get to the real dirt.. but occasionally its possible to see comments from people who are technology illiterate, so take SOME comments with a salt substitute! hehe,
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