A lot of PPP’ers have had problems with segmentation‘s arrival. While it’s more than likely a good thing overall for advertisers in general, and bloggers in general. I wonder if there’s another side to segmentation, that hasn’t been explored as much. In other words, is segmentation a sword that cuts BOTH ways, for both advertisers and bloggers?
For advertisers they get more focused postings, perhaps from higher rated blogs than before. But they may no longer get a breadth of postings from different kinds of blogs: is that good or not? E.g. you may have a blog tool that you want different postings from, but because of segmentation, you only get bloggers posting about tech stuff or web stuff…
For myself as a blogger, I realized that since segmentation has come, I’ve started segmenting my own opps much more carefully. I guess this is something we all did from the beginning, actually.
It’s odd: I used to post more PPP than I do now. In fact, now I’m much more selective than I used to be. Days can go by without my posting a PPP opp now, though I post twice or more on my blog most days.
In fact, this is (for me) my own form of segmentation in fact.
- I don’t do opps that don’t fit well, even though they are in my category and pay WELL.
- I don’t do opps that require too much (unless it fits really well).
- I don’t do opps that pay poorly (200 words for $5). I don’t chase the more popular opps (no more multiple clicking on opps for me).
- I resubmit opps that have problems quickly, UNLESS the problems can’t be fixed. In that case, I remove the post.
- I don’t do opps that have websites that don’t work, look sloppy, look like scams, (and these are the ones allowed by PPP!), sell snake oil like products (you know what I mean!), or opps that would likely have a negative effect on my blog or its PR ranking (this is very open!) (I have a finance blog).
- I no longer do opps that repeat often, even if they are from different advertisers, I can only do SO many posts about credit cards and loans.
Since I began blogging I have kept the basic stats about the number of posts, price, and so on. Reviewing my stats this month, I was quite surprised at how segmentation has changed my blogging.
The numbers tell an interesting story by themselves (apart from Sept.). The more I blog, the less money I got per post. In Dec, I did 27 posts, but in Feb. I only did about 55% of that number, yet I achieved a markedly higher return per post, despite the total dipping. In March (to 28th) I only took 12 opportunities, that is the lowest number since I joined except for October, but I earned nearly $12.50 per post on average. In addition, with my blog, I was able to earn additional revenue through Blogsvertise and private postings that came my way.
As I expected, it seems with PPP segmentation, plus my own, I’m becoming more careful in which posts I take, preferring to take higher paid postings when possible, not worrying about taking $5 opps much now. Result: a more efficient return on the time spent.
However, I don’t know if that was PPP’s intention or not. But it has clarified my own intentions regarding the program: to cut the number of times I post, to cut my dependency on PPP somewhat, and to try to take the better paying opps. Perhaps PPP’s intention is to help bloggers who would post sporadically rather than bloggers who post opps 2 or 3 times a day on the same blog (I’m guessing).
However, PPP’s success is solely dependent on the bloggers’ goodwill who make up the ranks. For most bloggers, it is NOT a full-time job posting opps for PPP. Therefore their requirements can’t be too onerous as it will drive away the contractors and/or it will drive up the price (see above).
A blogger wondering where it’s all heading… Could it be just a mirage of white elephants stampeding towards Shangri-La? Comments, please!
