PayPerPost is a Sellout?
by Sapphire (September 21, 2006)
Yeah, okay, I have plenty of ads around here. I am, after all, trying to make a living online. But all my ads are obviously ads. I’m not fond of people who substitute Google AdSense for the site menu, thus tricking people who don’t know better into making false clicks for them. I never would have used those things that look like Windows error messages and give people heart attacks, back when those were popular.
But PayPerPost falls solidly in that gray area between deceiving your readers and just placing an honest ad. You get paid to write an article around a link with certain text, if I understand correctly. The article is going to pass for one of your ordinary, everyday articles. It’s going to have your name. It’s not going to say “post sponsored by…” No one’s going to know it’s an ad.
Which makes it roughly the same deal as if I pimp a friend’s blog on here as a favor to her, or in exchange for money. You wouldn’t know if I’m linking to her because I think her post rocked, or because she paid me. In that sense, PPP sounds pretty fair.
I haven’t used it yet myself, but I’m thinking about it. I’m starting a new site that’s going to mix original content, reprint stuff, submissions from readers, etc., and if I find anything on PayPerPost that I was going to write about anyway, cool beans. I’m just not sure I’m comfortable with writing about something ONLY because I found it on PPP. In other words, I may go to PPP and search for the topic I was going to post about, and if I find it, go for it. If not, I’ll post anyway, for free. Only it’s not really for free, is it, because every post I make enhances the value of this blog to its sponsors.
I just hope that every post also enhances the value to my readers. That, in the end, is what counts.
Posted in Ad Networks, Blogging
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September 30th, 2006 at 8:35 pm
I’ve done a few PPP posts (and been paid for them), but like you I’m not comfortable with the idea of writing about anytihng and everything just to get the cash. I only write posts that I feel are on-topic for the blog, and I always include some sort of disclosure to let everybody know it’s a paid post. Sor far, it’s all worked out well, and I don’t feel like a blogwhore or anything.
September 30th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
That’s a good example of how I would feel comfortable doing it. I have a new blog that might be perfect for this, once it’s old enough and meeting the traffic requirements for PPP.
I should definitely look into it further.