The Uproar Over Paid Blogging

It appears that TechCrunch isn’t too happy with the business model at PayPerPost.com, a new way to advertise on blogs and such, Scoble talks about it and I even found a post from News.com that said, How to kill blogs: PayPerPost.com. From their site,

For Publishers:

PayPerPost is an automated system that allows you to promote your Web site, product, service or company through the PayPerPost network of bloggers. Advertise on blogs to create buzz, build traffic, gain link backs for search engine ranking, syndicate content and much more. You provide the topic, our network of bloggers create the stories and post them on their individual blogs.

For Bloggers:

Get Paid to Blog. You’ve been writing about Web sites, products, services and companies you love for years and you have yet to benefit from all the sales and traffic you have helped generate. That’s about to change. With PayPerPost advertisers are willing to pay you to post on topics. Search through a list of topics, make a Blog posting, get your content approved, and get paid. It’s that simple.

I don’t understand what all of the uproar is about, it’s been around websites and done for years already, it’s called affiliate marketing and webmasters have been posting links and reviews on websites for years in hopes of making money, so why not on blogs? There are many ways to make money on the internet and this is just another way to do it, TechCrunch has multiple banners, Scoble has Amazon links to his book, and all benefit and are compensated in more ways than money, as my friend Wayne Porter says, it’s not just about money, it’s about relationships and knowledge.

From TechCrunch,

Is this a bad joke designed to torpedo the blogosphere’s credibility in general? It doesn’t appear to be. If we’re all trying to negotiate a space between Hollywood and mainstream journalism, this is taking things way too far towards the most insipid parts of Hollywood.

Please, give me a break, talk about over hyping something. From their advertising page,

If you have a new product to showcase, TechCrunch is the place to do it.

So, which is it? Why shouldn’t TechCrunch get paid for some posts? I bet they could command a much higher rate than most bloggers and would deserve it because of the buzz and traffic they could and do provide. And I’m sure one of their sponsors won’t like this comment by Marshall, comment number 90,

Abe, I wrote the original post and I don’t like the service from our sponsor that you link to here either. I do think it’s different, however, as that service does not specifically target blogs. Advertisers are Mike’s department, though.

On it being up to individual bloggers, I think it would be much better PR for this company to require disclosure. Not doing so is bad.

I wonder if TechCrunch would like it if I pointed him to that comment.

I have no problem with the PayPerPost site, not sure if I would use it or not because I have not signed up to check it out first hand yet, and I have posted reviews before of products before because I received one from a company, like the Oakley Thump2 review I posted on Tipsdr. I received a pair to try out because of a post I made on RealTechNews, when I mentioned I would have to try them before I bought them because I have an un-usually large cranium, hehe. I posted the review because I received the glasses, but it did not influence my feelings for the product, and how much I liked and continue to like them, I have ample opportunity to use them when I mow our little league ball fields.

I will always say how and where I get something for review, whether I buy it myself or someone sends something to me, it’s all part of the story, so why not mention it?

Scoble was even calling to out such blogs, saying “How about we start a blog where we can “out” bloggers who accept free stuff without disclosing that?” Ya, that sounds like a good idea, lets start a witch hunt while we are at it, wait, they already are.

Jason Calcanis jumps in with this post, PayPerPost: Stupid and evil.

The currency of blogging is authenticity and trust… you pay folks to blog about a product and you compromise that. I would almost care about this, but it’s so obvious to everyone that this is either a joke or an idiot that there is nothing more to say.

From the Weblogs, Inc site which he started,

Looking to get paid to blog about subjects you love? Tell us what you’re passionate about and let’s find out if there’s a fit!

So, it’s okay if he pays them, but not anyone else? I don’t get it.

Posted by Jimmy Daniels July 2006

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