It seems that the recent announcement at PayPerPost has sparked a real fury on the boards at Izea over the last few months. To recap: PPP has offered a shortened discount period for posts but it seems that the whole thing has gone belly up. Recently PPP increased the price of a post to 50% of the final cost from 35% to recoup some of the increased costs.

This has had the obvious effect of cutting into bloggers compensation, and in some cases raised costs for advertisers lower down the rung. To drum up additional business, Ted Murphy recently launched the new opps for January.

But this has fomented something of a rebellion on the boards at Izea.

mrsmecomber writes: “I’m sorry, I cannot expect to recoup my expenses for blog hosting/image hosting/etc and generate endless streams of posts for 50 cents/$1 each. I would have to write about 20 posts a day (not including the interims) PER DAY to earn $10 here. And please don’t give me the line that the interim requirement will be changed someday in the sweet by and by, etc– I’m talking about NOW, that what is legally required and is very likely to remain the same.”

For more of the discussion check the threads on the boards.

It’s being advertised as a way to “understand how the market operates when arbitrary words/post and $/post floors are removed. Bloggers and advertisers still control whether transactions happen or not, and at what words/prices.” But I find this most puzzling. If you remove the floor, won’t the obvious happen? Advertisers will simply cut their requirements, and those bloggers who don’t mind lower payouts keep taking them. Since the deal making will still go on, there would have to be other variables in the experiment.

Anyway, I’m surprised that they would want to experiment in this way because I can’t see how it would relate to improving things for everyone. I’ve already pulled this blog from PayPerPost, and terminated my account. It just seems a somewhat underhand way to achieve your objectives to cut prices and offerings for your advertisers as well as your bloggers.

Jeff

Neil Diamond’s Coming To America

It seems somehow apropos in this Credit Crunch scenario, but it has a very hopeful tempo and upbeat sentiment!

From Wikipedia’s article.

“America” (also known as “They’re Coming To America” or “Coming To America”) is the name of a patriotic song written and originally recorded by Neil Diamond, released in 1980 as part of the The Jazz Singer soundtrack album. The song was a hit single in 1981, reaching number 8 on the Billboard Hot 100. Although the single version was a studio recording, it sounds live because of crowd overdubs in the song.