A new service called PayPerPost will pay bloggers to post positive reviews of the products and services of their advertisers. The company only wants articles from bloggers who believe in the company they’re endorsing, saying:
It’s up to you to pick the Opportunities that best suit you. If it doesn’t feel right, if you don’t own the product, or if you can’t be honest we ask you to pass on the Opportunity.
It was inevitable that something like this would come along. Time will tell its level of success, but I see no reason to doubt that a large number of both bloggers and companies will jump on this opportunity.
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June 30th, 2006 at 4:07 pm
This turns my stomach. Paying for bloggers to write positive posts is destined for failure, or the blogosphere is. If we assume everyone is getting paid, how do we know what an honest opinion is?
PayPerPost.com should be renamed PaidShills.com.
June 30th, 2006 at 6:56 pm
The reason I read bloggers is that I want a nonbiased educated opinion from an industry expert. Any blogger who partakes in such an arrangement would loose credibility in my mind.
July 1st, 2006 at 9:56 am
The question here, I think, is one of intent and integrity. Clearly, initiatives like Cheez Ads and IndieKarma look to generate personal revenues off blogging and, as the old adage goes: “everyone has their price” - see: http://www.cheezhead.com/2006/04/20/penny-for-my-thoughts/. The more important question for me with PayPost would be: “How could “selling out” every generate the personal and financial rewards of monetizing something built on unbiased (not to be confused with opinionated perhaps) and original content?
Also, unlike Cheez Ads where clearly he has a money-motive - and why not? -, I read Joel’s post as a report of something new and not necessarily an approach he is, or is not, endorsing. What is your position, Joel? Are you going to do it? There are many who look to you for leadership in these matters. Where will you leadership take us?
Amitai.