This blog was recently approved for a pay-per post service, Sponsored Reviews. Sponsored Reviews is just one of several, such as Smorty and PayPerPost that offers you money to post about predefined topics, normally a website, service or product. Payments on Sponsored Reviews start at about 5 dollars per post, which Sponsored Reviews takes a percentage of (I think you keep about 65% or so). You write a quick post 50-500 words in length (determined by the advertiser), add some links in, and post. Simple as that, and you have made some really easy money. The main problem with these kinds of services, is that if Google sees this, Google cuts up your PageRank and flushes it down the toilet. We all just love Google, don’t we? So should PPP be part of your blogging monetizing plan?
My question to myself when entering this article was: Should I post for SponsoredReviews (dot) com? Google seems on edge more than ever, disabling my Adsense account, destroying their referral program, and now cutting page rank for what is basically advertising. What my question comes down to, is PageRank really important for my blog, Blogosis, to be successful, or would I obtain more money going ahead with Sponsored Review.What is PageRank useful for? Bigger advertisers will want to gain links from highly ranked web pages and blogs. Also, pages with a higher rank get better results for Google search results, especially with competitive keywords. Is this important for Blogosis as it stands now? No.I am building links to this blog using word of mouth, commenting other blogs, social media, personal contacts, and my contest seems to be building up the steam, too. I have done very little search engine optimization. While it is in the works, I just don’t feel like this blog has reached a point where I really need to focus on keywords, especially cause the topic of blogging is so broad. I also have a deep disgust for Google. They already took my money, they don’t need anymore for my keywords.So in this sense, yes why not post with Sponsored Reviews? I will tell you why I am still iffy about it. It would make my blog look messy, I might have to try and sell a product that I don’t really endorse, and with that comes the ethics of pay to post.I don’t want to have to write a whole blog article to sell a product. Blogosis would look like a maze if I started blogging about things that just don’t fit in. There are many different products to make money from, but not many that might actually deal with your niche. For instance, if you have a make money blog (which is a subcategory of this blog), you wouldn’t find ads for affiliate programs, but ads for loans, gambling sites, and insurance deals. You can see how they just might not fit the context of any blog.Of course, if I added these posts to Blogosis, it would be for my own personal gain. The problem with that is that this blog is here to help you, the reader, the subscriber with your own adventures into blogging. I don’t want to start posting positive reviews on things I don’t actually use. They almost all require you to make the blog entry positive and natural. You are selling a product when you post these kinds of things. Is that really ethical though, sponsoring a product you don’t use of care for?
Thats probably the biggest deal with this kind of posting. I wrote a blog about Jack from Jackbook (dot) com on one of my other blogs. He made a really gushy post of why he stopped posting paid posts. He felt bad for his readers, like he was doing something wrong. The ethics of it were so poor he “felt bad with his heart.” I guess selling a poor product can have that effect. What if you end up actually making someone buy in, and they end up with something that was opposite of what they expected. As humans, we would naturally feel guilty for that kind of action.
So, will I do paid for posts? Yes, because I am greedy. Haha. Actually, what I think I will do is only do it when the product works with the site, if it is worth while to sell (we’re talking money, people.), and only when I have enough posts to wrap around it in one day (I post one blog entry for Blogosis, post the paid post, and then another article for Blogosis). This will keep it away from the top of the blog, where I want the important messages to be. Also, I will take 25% of any money I make from Sponsored Reviews, Smorty, or other PPP services and put it towards the Blogosis Monthly Contest. How does this sound? If I am going to put crap on this blog, I at least want my subscribers to benefit.
For more information on PPP affiliates, check out my right sidebar or these links: Smorty and SponsoredReviews
Is making money from PPP ethical for you? Why or why not? Comment and let me know.
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I agree with you that it makes a blog look a bit messy but since I quit my job I’ve had to post these pay posts but after a while I guess readers get used to it and just go on to the next post. Even big blogs do the same so I think why not.
As for Smorty that is one of my favorite places to blog for since they have some interesting things to blog about for money, like game sites and things relevant but I am sure you would of found out by now since I see the Smorty banner on top there.
Yeah, I notice most of the really big blogs get paid personally to do it (ex. John Chow). He makes over 450 dollars on reviews, but most of these are website reviews. A little more relevant than what you can get from Sponsored or Smorty.
I just noticed I spelled sponsor wrong… wow. Haha
Justin Dupre
i say go for it. google slaps people who use payperpost. but sponsored and smorty…they haven’t touched yet. looking messy…hmmm. most of your readers won’t mind and probably will understand that you’re trying to make a few bucks. and if you’re gonna hand out contests with the money you make…more power to you. ur readers will appreciate that.
Thank you for your wisdom Noob. Yeah, I might just go for it. I would post it on other blogs, but I am so dedicated to this one, I don’t set aside time for the other entries. They have been worthwhile so far though. I just got my PayPal conformation for about 15 dollars for 4 posts.
Justin
Google is acting like the Web police now. I don’t consider paid posts/reviews to be paid links (which is what Google is trying to crack down on) if it’s completely editorial. If I was to write a paid review, the compensation is for the time and effort that goes into evaluating the product, not for the links on my page.
And it doesn’t affect my opinion on the product. If I’m required to write a positive review, I’ll write a positive review for products that I would recommend and that deserve that positive review. If I don’t like it, well, I’m not going to write the review. And if I don’t like the product, I’d write a review anyway with a negative tone and don’t ask for compensation.
I don’t like how Google is taking over the internet. In my own personal opinion, the only reason they do this is to lower down competition so webmasters would have no choice but to only use AdSense. They claim to want to make things “fair”, but I don’t see anything fair by them banning only certain sites. I don’t even sell text links and they take away my PR 3! Then you see other blogs selling text links, and guess what? They still have their PR’s of 4,5, and 6’s.