Oct

23

MediaRhythm on PayPerPost

October 23, 2006 |

Jordan from MediaRhythm writes the following about PayPerPost. I just feel I need to say a few things about this, as his comments make little sense to me.

I appreciate Jeff’s verve, and certainly, journalists are made and destroyed on account of their credibility. But I don’t think credibility is Colleen’s primary concern. She is building community, not factual account.

But what is that community based on? Praising products on command? Of course credibility is not her first concern (or the first concern of anybody who uses PayPerPost for that matter). If it was, she wouldn’t be hawking some mobile phone seller on her site. And if she is building a community, it’s apparently only people from PayPerPost on her site, judging from the comments.

If we take a step back from the madness, PayPerPost isn’t all that different than Bath and Bodyworks giving out free samples at the mall. It’s a sign of good will. The distributor isn’t forcing it upon people. They aren’t saying: only if you rave about this to your friends. They aren’t saying: love it or else.

But that’s exactly what PayPerPost does. The advertsiser (and what a sorry bunch those must be that they can’t use regular word of mouth to sell their crap) tell you that your post has to be positive, or at least neutral. And by posting about it, you are playing your role in getting those products rated higher in search engines. You are, essentially, forcing it down everybody’s throat.

They’re giving it away because they believe in the product. Certainly, there are two sides to this story. But it’s up to Colleen’s audience to judge credibility, not us.

Nobody is giving away anything - if these companies that use PayPerPost believed in their product, they wouldn’t have to revert to unethical means of getting the word out. And the advertiser pays - the blogger gets money. Also, lets not forget, we are Colleen’s audience - directly, if we find her site through one form or another, or indirectly - if she and the other PayPerPosters get crap to move up in the search engine rankings.

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9 Comments so far

  1. Jordan on October 23, 2006 6:22 pm

    > And if she is building a community, it’s apparently only people from PayPerPost on her site, judging from the comments.

    Will this community grow into something larger? I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

    > And by posting about it, you are playing your role in getting those products rated higher in search engines.

    This is an interesting point, there are certainly some negative externalities. I do believe blogging traffic is different than static pages we’ve grown accustomed to dealing with on the web; and search engines need to evolve to take this into account.

    > what a sorry bunch those must be that they can’t use regular word of mouth to sell their crap

    Bootstrapping a product launch is difficult. Claude Hopkins developed the coupon to help solve this problem. Not because he was hawking “crap”; but because stores have limited inventory and need incentives (such as pent up demand) to experiment with an untested end product.

  2. Frederic on October 23, 2006 6:31 pm

    Jordan, thanks for your comment.

    I agree, bootstrapping a product is difficult, but you shouldn’t have to revert to unethical means to do so.

    My problem with PayPerPost is simply that a post such as the cell-phone post I linked to above goes undisclosed and is hence misleading the audience and in the end makes the rest of the blogosphere (including your site and mine) less believable.

  3. Jordan on October 23, 2006 8:06 pm

    It’s so easy to craft imaginary houses with imaginary fences. And to yell at those on the outside with fervor: unethical!

    I suppose I’ve just always been more interested in inviting people in than keeping them out.

  4. Frederic on October 23, 2006 8:49 pm

    Jordan, I don’t think this is a question of inside or outside (of what?), or anything imaginary.

    The ethical problems with PayPerPost are real and I am sure the majority of people using PPP are aware of the issues with it and chose to disregard them.

  5. Suni/bulletproofsoul on October 23, 2006 10:09 pm

    If you look at the majority, they ARE disclosing their posts as being sponsored. If you look at the majority, even if they don’t state which posts exactly are being sponsored, somewhere very plainly on their blogs they are known as PPP bloggers. If you look at the majority, they are holding the banner of PPP proudly and only posting on articles that actually interest them or may benefit people they know that read their blogs on a regular basis. Please don’t go into generalities because you found one or two people or posts that have not explicitly stated “this is for profit”.

  6. Frederic on October 23, 2006 11:26 pm

    Suni - so you consider tagging something with ‘profit’ as disclosing your relationship with PPP? Seems like I see a lot of posts on your site that could be sponsored PPP posts, but only one is disclosed. I those are not PPP posts, then it points to exactly the problem I am talking about - I can’t distinguish between when you are genuine and when you are not.

  7. Frederic on October 24, 2006 12:16 am

    I randomly went to the first couple of blogs I found looking through a threat on the PPP forums. These are the first five I found - all run by people very vocal on the PPP forum. Not a single one discloses the PPP posts.

    http://www.whateverifeellike.com/
    http://www.consoleboards.com/
    http://www.crashutah.com/blog/
    http://adulthood-101.livejournal.com/
    http://www.blogforpeace.org/

  8. Journalistic Integrity at MediaRhythm on October 24, 2006 6:29 pm

    […] Following up on yesterdays debate, Jack Shafer with a bit of journalistic criticism: Journalists play a similar game whenever the bean counters order layoffs or buyouts in the face of tumbling or stagnating revenues: They equate the loss of warm bodies in the newsroom with the end of civilization. […]

  9. Mohan on October 27, 2006 4:39 pm

    Hey Fredrick…
    Mohan from BlogForPeace here :) Thanks for the link to my site :P

    Anyway, I used to reveal PPP posts earlier on, but I got fed up, because some advertisers dont like it… And why would I simply try to take the pains to do it? I usually select oppurtunities to my liking and matching my blog…

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