Remember This Name: PayPerPost to be Called Izea
The very controversial service PayPerPost, which pays bloggers small sums for writing about the products of advertisers, will change its name tomorrow to Izea. Izea will be the parent entity of a wide variety of services the company provides, from PayPerPost to various other projects that I've never been able to hold my nose long enough to look at closely. Darren Rowse at ProBlogger.net reported first on the change. Rowse says it's a good move as the company's varied services are used by some bloggers who love the PPP brand (like the charming Chad W. Smith in the video below) and others who hate it.
PayPerPost is a venture funded Search Engine Optimization scam that threatens to torpedo the reputation of the already widely questioned blogosphere. It may also be a perfectly fair way for small time bloggers to make a living, depending on who you ask. You won't see a lot of moms or retirees among the more financially comfortable A-list blogger set, though those bloggers making substantial sums of money from blogging have had to work almost as hard as a mom to get where they have.
None of us are pure and there are few firm lines established regarding what is and is not acceptable when you're trying to make money blogging (I called a paid review service brilliant just last post) - but disclosure of payment is one of the most basic requirements for paid blogging to be ok. Even with disclosure, PPP is a sketchy operation; the disclosure story at PPP has always been a little murky. The company instituted a requirement of some on-site disclosure at the end of last year, but even some major brands patronizing PayPerPost require "no in-post disclosure."
Just a quick note so that the next time you see the name Izea, you know who you're dealing with.
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Seems that Mr Marshall Kirkpatrick drank the google kool aid that says selling links on your own website is a scam. Maybe selling advertising buttons is also a scam since it makes a company known not because of "merit" but because they have ad dollars to spend.
Rico, it's more complicated than that. I don't think I do agree with Google's policy - entirely apart from that, I think it's a scam to pay a bunch of people tiny sums to spit out links to your site in what used to be a sincere medium of personal expression and potential to change things politically. Maybe sincerity is a privilege of the well paid-blogger and spreading some ad money around like this is a democratizing step for the web to take. I don't think so, though, I think it's an eerie cult that preys on economically marginal people online.
So is PostieCon now Izeacon and are their reviewers Izears?
LOL
Wow! Thanks for posting my vid - and the link. I just came here to read about the name change, didn't expect to see my face staring back at me.
Oh, and thanks for the "Charming" compliment, too.
I am a regular reader of Chad's blog, and I am relieved that despite being one of the earliest members of Payperpost, that he seems to have no plans to change his name to izChad.
I haz a reader?
Kuhl!
Celling Chad is amuzed!
I don't think paying for someone to post about your product or service is a scam. I think Rico made a great point saying:
I do think not disclosing that you've been paid is deceptive, but I'll leave that to the integrity of the reviewer to decide. And, it's not like you have to review something you don't like.
I understand why folks like Marshall are sensitive about these things, but as long as it is labeled as such, I don't see it as any different than any other ad.
I met with the folks from Izea last week. Izea is everything that PayPerPost should have been. I'm not saying that this is a perfect or ideal platform, but it's worth a good long look.
I realize that those who are the so-called "elite" bloggers look down on us "po folk" that have to take "tiny" sums just to make our incomes on blogs and that is what makes our blogs "impure". This is said by those who have ads galore on their blogs, getting paid while they gripe about the "lowlife bloggers" who make a disease of their impure blogs.
Actually, I work at PayPerPost occasionally because, when I started getting paid to blog, that's where I got the most money for what I do online, yet, I find myself agreeing with some of what was said here. I do not wish to be known as izJaz myself or izAnything.
But I am offended by the idea that we who do this are inferior to others who blog. I'm sorry we "small time bloggers" haven't done what everyone else has, "MADE IT BIG". But I think I should point out that none had MADE IT BIG until they stepped into a great idea and it took off. Or possibly, someone just happen to put up a video that took off at campaign time. You know who you are.
Maybe the rest of us just don't see the vision but I am getting tired of being berated because I blog for money while those who MADE IT BIG now look down on us. You are so right. We are not on the "blogger A-list".
And for what it's worth, I don't like PPP or what they have done (I do not feel like a cereal--Postie). I don't like "Googoo" (Sounds like a baby with no English skills) and what they have done. I do NOT like the whole "take over the world" attitude they have.
I am a Mom and a (sort of) retiree and I blog for money because I have no other way to make enough to survive. So, you "elite" can live on your "blogger A-list" and we will try to attain the goal. But, of course, we are not good enough for that A-list so we live in the shadows, now and forever.
"a sincere medium of personal expression and potential to change things politically."
O Rly?
What's the climate like on your planet?
And how many times do you write about something in exchange for "access"? Money is not the only form of payment.