Blogging

Ideas for Blogging, including websites, information, and tips.

Open letter to PayPerPost: Goodbye and thanks for all the fish!

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This is my letter to PayPerPost, resigning my blogs from their system.

Dear Payperpost,

I recently took three opps from PPP for advertisers, however, I received a letter of complaint from John who wrote:

Thanks for your post! Unfortunately, we cannot approve it at this time because it does not meet our <a href=http://www.payperpost.com/company/tos.html>Terms of Service</a> in regards to Inline Ads and Links.
According to our Terms, “There are to be no third party links, ads or other detractors located within the sponsored post.” Please remove all third party links and banners from in or around the post and re-submit the post to us. Also, According to our Terms, “PayPerPost bloggers must disclose to their readers that they receive compensation from PayPerPost advertisers. Disclosure may be in the form of a site wide disclosure link on all blog pages or on a per post basis. (Unless the advertiser requires otherwise) ” Visit <a href=http://disclosurepolicy.org/generator/generate_policy>Disclosure Policy.org</a> for further information. Thanks! John

The reality is that I am unwilling to remove the advertisers who are currently helping me pay the approx. $1000 per year hosting bills I face. The $50 dollars in opps that I have received from PPP barely pay for one month at best… So here is my problem:

Since PPP has only offered me these four opportunities in the past FIVE months, I have no choice but to defer to my own advertisers for this. I cannot remove the advertising from the post. If you check my blog, you will see what I mean.

As such, I have decided that I will remove all of my blogs from Payperpost for the time being. I had submitted a third blog on ESL teaching with a PR3 which would have been a VERY good blog as it is my specialty. It too has been rejected. Which is okay.

While I will retain my account, it’s unlikely until nofollow becomes a reality in Social Spark or PR is dropped from PPP or hell freezes over (whichever happens first) that I will be requesting for reinclusion. Sorry.

Please cancel the remaining posts as I believe they too are in breach of TOS as it stands, and since my posts will all be nofollow by the time you read this, they will also be in breach for that reason, too. I should simply NOT have taken them. That was my fault.

I’ve really enjoyed working for Payperpost over the past two years. I think it’s time to stop. Thanks for all the fish, I mean it. I wish nothing but the best for you all at Payperpost. Really.

Kenneth

It’s quite sad for me in some ways, as I’ve really learned a lot about blogging and I have to thank the PayPerPost Team.

Whose blog is it? Google’s? Payperpost’s? Whose…?

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Whose blog is it? Whose?

These days bloggers increasingly kowtow to the likes of Google and whoever else seems to have their sticky paws in the honeypot of blogging… Why? To make a little dough, dosh, cash, readies, … whatever you wish to call it.

FAD: Fading or not?

While blogging is pretty much the fad of the decade, online journals preceded blogging by quite some time. I know because I was trying to do this in early 2000, but didn’t find any really good software to help me maintain the entries. I wrote them on my PDA of the day, a Palm Pilot IIIX (I think) back when Pilots were revolutionary, and WORKED! Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any way to handle the HTML in an easy fashion, and no way to link the entire blog together properly. Of course, the blog hadn’t really been invented, though Blogger existed in late 1999 as did a few others!

I blogged on and off since about 2004 with the registration of my second or third domain here. Most of that blog is now located at Obblogatory, as this is InvestorBlogger II. As a writing teacher for more than five years, and having some ability with words (thanks to years of reading classical Greek translations written in the 19th Century) that developed over the years, the act of blogging has been something that has spurred me to write more and more online.

The Ups and Downs

And I enjoy blogging. I really do. I like the challenge of encapsulating thoughts, ideas and experiences into posts. I enjoy the thrill of getting comments from bloggers from all over the world. I feel that blogging has helped me to articulate ideas, develop my own writing skills, and stimulate my brain.

But recently I’ve been getting frustrated. Not with blogging, but with those largish conglomerates that are starting to populate the world of blogging, and which posture and huff’n’puff as if they really were something. Why does it piss me off? Because…

I’m Pissed Off

Because of stupid emails like the one I got below… despite having ads for months on my blogs.

Thanks for your post! Unfortunately, we cannot approve it at this time because it does not meet our <a href=http://www.payperpost.com/company/tos.html>Terms of Service</a> in regards to Inline Ads and Links.
According to our Terms, “There are to be no third party links, ads or other detractors located within the sponsored post.” Please remove all third party links and banners from in or around the post and re-submit the post to us. Also, According to our Terms, “PayPerPost bloggers must disclose to their readers that they receive compensation from PayPerPost advertisers. Disclosure may be in the form of a site wide disclosure link on all blog pages or on a per post basis. (Unless the advertiser requires otherwise) ” Visit <a href=http://disclosurepolicy.org/generator/generate_policy>Disclosure Policy.org</a> for further information. Thanks! John

Well, John. I don’t know how long you’ve been able to write or spell, but really… my blog has had a disclosure page (well, sorry you couldn’t find it!) for nearly 1.5 years now.

But what really bugs me is that I’m busy paying for the hosting for my blog out of my own pocket (which I don’t mind), and here comes a company that is acting as a middle-man (sorry for the sexist term) and tries to tell me how to maintain my blog. Eh, excuse me, but where was that check for my hosting bills, my electricity bills, my computer repair bills? Wasn’t it in the post? Oh, no…

Dear John,

Thank you for your reply.

Unfortunately, due to contractual reasons, I cannot remove the
advertising from that slot. The code is entered above the post. Also,
FYI, my blog has displayed a disclosure for over 18 months, I’m sorry
that you can’t find it… but if you looked you would know.

In common with many people, we have avoided using set terms and
phrases in our blogs to prevent Google from automatically deranking
our blogs. Again, if you have been working with bloggers for a while,
you should know this.

I’m removing the post, because I expect PPP to support us as we are
providing the means by which PPP advertisers reach out, esp. as Google
is making life difficult for us. While you may cite your TOS, it takes
more than just contracts to retain good relationships with your
bloggers.

Yours
Kenneth

Well in the five months since I did my last post for PayperPost (and the Google SmackDown!), I guess I’ve been paying for my blog and so have really appreciated advertisers coming on board and helping me defer the costs of blogging: currently running at about $1,000 per year all-told.

PayPerPost: Best of the Bunch?

But it seems to me that I’m mostly favorably inclined to PayPerPost. Not so some of the other intermediaries that try to get between the bloggers and the readers. Why? The fact is quite simple: without blogs, Payperpost could not/would not exist even though advertisers did. Blogs are to Payperpost what drivers are to cars. No drivers ergo no cars. No bloggers ergo no Payperpost.

And that goes for a number of other companies that are self-serving in a far more egregious way than Payperpost.

Top Leeches in the Blogging World

Here’s my hit list of such companies:

1. Google Search – for not running their Search Engine efficiently enough to tell what is a popular blog and what is a splog; for requiring bloggers and all websites to use rel=”nofollow” despite not being consistent in their own policies on their own websites or on their primary advertisers;

2. Google Adwords/Adsense- for getting greedy as it tried to make last quarter’s targets: cutting out referral bonuses (like they don’t need more advertisers or publishers – hello, China! Taiwan! Brazil! – I can hear 5 Billion People Out There! Why can’t you?), cutting payouts, providing free advertising on your Adsense, allowing bloggers to be paid the vast sum of 1c per click; for not being transparent enough in its Adsense payouts despite asking for transparency from its users;

3. Google Adsense – for creating additional requirements for websites and advertisers who want to participate in their program, despite the decreasing payouts, decreasing click throughs, etc.. I know it’s your program, and you’re entitled to set your own policies; but you need to remember – the bloggers who use Adsense are ALSO your customers. No bloggers ergo no Adsense. Wonder how that would increase your earnings…;

4. PayPost – for increasingly adopting policies as a tool for managing their bloggers. I know that there are over 100,000 bloggers on their network, and that many of their bloggers are really ‘below par’ in terms of quality. I’ll be detailing why shortly. So policies are a requisite: but my advertisers are currently helping to pay the bills for this blog, and PayPerPost is not. And its stupidly recalcitrant policies for zoning posties, insisting on PR as a factor in its system (even while publicly disavowing it! Good one!) are not helping. SocialSpark is anything but social. There are increasingly strict policies that are detailed in a number of places: TOS, Code of Ethics, FAQ, and BEST Practices! Wow! Blogging for $5 requires a lot of work these days.

5. Blogrush – for allowing itself to portray itself as great plugin with huge benefits for bloggers when in reality it simply sucks up bandwidth, and creates an unbalanced opportunity for bloggers. You advertise the widget with their company on your blog. On the widget are some stories that take readers away from your blog as well as advertising in the hope that on another site, you might (MIGHT!) just get some readers from them. In reality, it is just another blackhole for bloggers that sucks traffic, and returns very little. Even EntreCard is better than that.

Et al.

There are a number of other companies seeking to sponge off the work of bloggers, too: SponsoredReviews (what’s with their bidding? and for failing to take into account ‘nofollow’), Technorati (for adding an extra page between your post and their website – what a leech?), Adsense (oh, wait I already mentioned them), … I’m sure you can add your own…

And I’m mad as hell today.

So, yes, I’m mad today. Why? Because bloggers like myself work hard at our writing, trying to come up with original content (unlike the hundreds of make money blogs out there that simply copy each other!), yet we are being made to jump through all sorts of hoops for benefits that are hugely weighted in favor of the middle-man. Perhaps without such exploitation, these services would largely not exist. Am I right? So, bloggers, if you are trying to make money online, it’s time that you stop letting yourself be exploited by these guys. Stand up for your rights, stand up for your blogs.

Five Steps to Managing a Carnival: Policy and Action

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I’ve been running a blog carnival for some time now, in fact, I have three Carnivals that I run right now. Over the past few months, I’ve learned a number of tips and tricks that make for a good carnival.

Five Tips for a successful carnival

#1. Your article must be unique (no articles from online article directories) and also must be previously unpublished in this carnival. All articles will be checked for originality.

I did this because I was getting numerous submissions from people who were just using articles from article directories. The result was that many of the submissions were already published in numerous places on the internet and wouldn’t add any value to this new carnival. Conceivably, it was also possible to get the SAME submission from different people – how would you choose?

#2. No spam or articles that are pitching something for sale. This is not an advertising carnival. Your article MAY, however, include advertising and affiliates as you wish…

I also received a lot of articles that were either blatantly or in some way disguised advertising software or whatnot. Since the article wasn’t useful to those who didn’t know the product (it was pitched at insiders), I simply hit the delete button. Spam.

#3. Please make sure that you aren’t posting irrelevant articles! Or if you think it’s relevant, or off-beat, highlight its relevance to this carnival.

Another trick was to submit articles that were on irrelevant topics, but worse the writer failed to tailor the submission to the particular carnival in the comments section. Sorry! You may borrow, beg and steal articles, and possibly get away with it, but submitting irrelevant articles is just dumb. The other greatest offender was the in-group post: it would refer to people, information, and blogs in passing, but the information was such that you had to be an insider to know what the hell they were talking about.

#4. No more than one submission will be accepted from an individual in one edition. One article per person/blog only. I like to maintain variety of sources and topics. Additional articles may be resubmitted in the next edition. Multiple submissions to the same blog will be deleted, possibly including the first instance. So submit ONE article from one blog once only.

When I started out doing carnivals at the end of 2007, I was happy to entertain several submissions from one writer, but I quickly got tired of dealing with those writers who were click happy. In fact, I had one writer submit six articles to my carnival last time. Of course, I nixed all of them without second thought. Why? Because if a writer can’t be bothered to check my carnival policy, then I couldn’t be bothered to check their submissions.

#5. Comments MUST be enabled on any post submitted to the carnival: I’m hoping that we generate interest in the submissions and that traffic generates comments. Let’s not frustrate our readers.

While others are free to run the carnival in their own way, I felt strongly that it was a BLOG carnival, hence those who didn’t permit comments on articles (for whatever reason) were abusing the notion of a BLOG carnival. Later on I tightened it to include blogs that also required registering to comment. There is no reason for that step nowadays. A blog post is designed to elicit comments, why should you stop people from commenting?

The Blog Carnival Process: From submission to publication – in brief

To process the carnival submissions, I take a number of steps and it usually whittles down the 65 submissions considerably.

  • 1. Copy entire list of submissions to Excel, then rank them by name. Duplicates and multiple submissions are immediately weeded out. (20% gone).
  • 2. The remaining number are then uploaded as an unpublished post, and checked one by one.
  • 3. Out go those that are completely irrelevant. Out also go those that aren’t blogs (or don’t permit comments). (35%).
  • 4. Of the remaining, I then vet those for being articles from directories. Out go those that are discovered to be so. (10%)
  • 5. Usually by this stage, only about 35% of the articles are remaining. I’ve nixed most of the weaker articles, and those that break the guidelines.
  • 6. It’s at this point that I really read the remaining candidates, and approve or remove those that are dull, too insular, uinformative or poorly written. I don’t mind if the writers don’t include comments, so I’ll add those. (10%)
  • 7. I also visit the blogs and leave comments on each accepted article.
  • 8. Then I tidy up the submissions, by categorizing them, adding my own commentary where I need to, and choosing the best or recommended articles.

This process usually works quite well, but I’m always sad at having to leave out more than a couple of good articles or posts for various silly reasons. While I don’t have the same policy across all my carnivals, the bigger ones are usually much more strict. And it works.

The last carnival had only 17 published submissions, and in future I may only publish 10 or 12 submissions, because I want to create a quality carnival, or at least, one that doesn’t waste readers’ time.

You can visit my carnivals at:

Carnival of Making REAL Money Blog and Dot Com Carnival. You can also find out much more at BlogCarnival itself.