I never thought I would be running a campaign on PayPerPost. But I had already given up a free $100 advertising bonus before, without much thought. Yesterday I checked my advertiser account, and found that there was a $100 incentive to advertise on PayPerPost. So I decided to split the money into three campaigns initially. The last being funded with my own cash, partly.

So what did the campaign teach me? Well, let’s look at what the campaign I created was. It’s always a good idea to think clearly about the opp before you begin.

Opportunity Description:

Check out the blog. Write a buzz type post about InvestorBlogger.
Create a link to one post in the archives (you can search the archives and find something worth commenting on) as well as a link to the main page.  Feel free to disclose this post as you wish. PR is not required, but your blog must be listed in Technorati (must have the Technorati badge).

 I chose to pay for a 50-word buzz type posting. I kept the requirements as simple as I could: a Minimum Tack of 3 Required, Any PR/RR, Location open, categories fairly open, and a positive type buzz. I only offered $5.00 because I felt it was an easy opportunity to write up.

This cost a total of $38.75 or so. In return for this I received five posts by the time I woke up this morning from the following sites: InvesterBlogger, Investorblogger, Learn What it Takes, Guide to Better Blogging, and InvesterBlogger Tips. Out of the five posts, three were excellent to well-written, one was bare minimum, and one failed miserably because it didn’t meet the basic conditions, didn’t link as required, wasn’t listed as required, and mispelled the blog’s name.

In addition to the posts that were made, the five posts were read 168 times; and one of the blogs generated four visits to InvestorBlogger Dot Com, in less than 24 hours.  I didn’t expect much from this campaign at all, because it was my first.

 On the Upside

• It was completed very quickly by the bloggers at PayPerPost. In fact, it was completed within 12 hours.
• Three of the posts were very nicely done. And one was acceptable.
• The posts generated traffic amongst their own readers, and four clickthroughs. That’s a 2.4% rate of conversions, all from one blog article.
• Increased Technorati Ranking a little.

 On the Downside

• I wasn’t able to effectively control the actual quality of the content this time.
• I was shocked that two of the posts just included the name of the blog in the title, were done in such an obvious haste, and spelled the name wrongly, in the title!
• Worse, though, there was no easy way to warn that the post was insufficient, I had to raise a flag about the post.
• The marketplace model is kind of at odds with the requirements that each opp is vetted and each submission is rejected. Each of these steps slows down the process as I had to wait two days before being approved. Then each post had to be approved, too.

Improving My Campaign

So I added a tack recommendation table on how I’d vote on the opps. I also widened some scopes to include more bloggers of a better rating. Let’s see how it goes.

Overall, I’ve been surprised at how the system actually works. As a blogger, being on the other side of the fence really helps me to see what is wrong, what advertisers are really looking for, and how to do better as a blogger when working for a particular advertiser. As an advertiser, it’s fairly easy to set up a campaign, but the interface is still slow at times, and dumb at other. In that respect, it’s the same for the bloggers.