Cash Creates Questions at PayPerPost: Can the Nascent Paid Blogging Network Actually Succeed?
That a publication should keep editorial and advertising content separate and clearly marked is an ancient journalistic maxim. Bloggers are not required to tell their readers if a post was sponsored through PayPerPost. Some fear that undisclosed posts could lead to blogger bias and a general mistrust of blogs by readers. PayPerPost must also approve a sponsored blog post, something that some bloggers remain wary of. The company though argues that it only checks to make sure a post meets the advertiser’s requirements, and that it doesn’t appear on a blog with objectionable content. But then again, it’s not always easy to distinguish Big Brother from a professional review process.
Rather than shying away from the controversy, PayPerPost actually encouraged it to get more exposure. Ted and his team had “the PR savvy to originally seed the controversy and [go] along with it. That really gave us a leg up when we launched.” He places responsibility for the accuracy of a blog and the trust of its readers on the blogger. “I think that everybody has a bias based on something. People blog for a reason. What we try to tell our bloggers if they can’t be honest about a product, service or opportunity that’s out there, then don’t take it. I really think it comes down to the individual ethics or morals of the blogger themselves.” After all, if a person’s going to write about a subject anyway, why shouldn’t they get paid for it?
Murphy does recognize the need to keep PayPerPost free of online riff-raff. PayPerPost recently added several new features that lets its users rank and ban other bloggers and publishers who don’t behave. Murphy mentioned one instance where an advertiser wanted a blogger to pretend they owned a laptop computer and then write a review about it. That advertiser got the boot.
An individual blogger can also banish offers from a particular advertiser, so they don’t have to see them. And advertisers can choose to keep certain bloggers from receiving their offers if they feel that blogger either did a bad job previously, or isn’t up to their standards. If a blogger or advertiser gets flagged a lot, the PayPerPost people can go in and manually re-review that user’s activity and kick them out. Murphy also noted one instance where bloggers flagged an advertiser that was using PayPerPost to collect email addresses for spam. PayPerPost was again able to quickly ban that advertiser.
The benefits of PayPerPost to advertisers are obvious. The tool is inherently targeted. The bloggers themselves know what their audience will tolerate and what they will not, and it’s the bloggers who choose what paid blogging offers to accept. Advertisers can also specify how they want a blogger to link back to their site, and what tags to include. That means a paid post campaign can also boost search rankings, since an advertiser’s home page will get lots of inbound links tied to a specific keyword.
The PayPerPost SEO effect is a phenomenon that MindComet has been capitalizing on to boost its search rank for the term “interactive agency.” “MindComet was [ranked] 20 a week ago,” says Murphy. “Now we’re number three.” The benefit to bloggers is obvious, too: money. Every blogger could use a little extra income. It seems to be bloggers who already make money from existing advertising, who have objected the most to PayPerPost.
Murphy himself recognizes PayPerPost as advertising rather than marketing. Eventually, he hopes the service will encompass all forms of consumer-generated advertising. There are already PayPerPost video testimonials on YouTube. “It’s going to spread out to all the other social networking sites,” adds Murphy. “We’re flipping the advertising model. Instead of the advertising agency saying ‘okay this is our creative, and this is how we’re going to promote this product or service,’ we give a little bit of information to the consumer and let them do the work.” And of course, it pays cash, and they’re glad to do it.
It’s important to maintain editorial integrity, both for the sake of your readers and for the sake of your own conscience. It’s also nice to make money doing something you would normally do anyway. Not all the offers put out through PayPerPost are to promote specific products and services. Most are looking for reviews or buzz, but a few want bloggers to write opinions about certain issues. The problem isn’t that these posts are paid. The problem is that because the presence of paid posts doesn’t have to be disclosed, PayPerPost’s anti-riff-raff detection system has to be almost 100% effective. That’s a level of trust that some bloggers can’t or won’t give to an unknown third party.
Reader Comments.
- Pingback from Adotas Cash Creates Questions at PayPerPost: Can the Nascent Paid Blogging Network Actually Succeed? « A Media Circus
This is a huge issue, and I really think the IAB and other industry associations should be tackling this topic aggressively and proactively. The disclosure issues raises many important questions. I blogged extensively about this a month or two ago. It’s a very important debate with consequences well beyond “Pay Per Post.”
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