Pay-Per-Post and why it's such a tragic failure and scam Dec 6, 11:16
One of the things that should be illegal is presenting a sponsored post as a legitimate review. Or even presenting it to yourself and to others, as “Market Advertising.” (Or the beginning of “Market Advertising”.) Let’s have a show of hands: How many of us have technologically impaired relatives browsing the internet? I’m sure most of us have more then one, hell more than ten. How would you feel if someone close to you were duped into buying a shoddy product from a shoddy company simply because they believed the “review” they read was legitimate. I’d be pretty damn pissed off, but that’s just me personally.
I’m someone who thinks that if you’re going to use something then you should learn how to and bloody well leave me alone. I don’t like being a support-line for my parents when they don’t know how to create a new tab (or even explaining why I insist on using tabs at all). My mother barely grasps what a right-click is and it’s unlikely she’ll ever fully understand how to use the computer, her generation is so far behind in terms of technical knowledge. (My apologies for the generalization to computer savvy people from my parents generation.) So why should she be punished for thinking a “review” (sorry, advertisements!) of patio furniture was legitimate?
She shouldn’t.
Plain and simple: You shouldn’t punish people for being ignorant. And that’s exactly what those money-grubbing assholes doing Pay-Per-Post are doing. They’re accepting money from what is probably a rather shoddy company to insert links to websites of things they’ve probably never heard about before. In most cases the link is contained within, what a newcomer to the internet would assume is, a review so they’re lulled into a false sense of security, thinking that it must be good if someone who has cute kids or an otherwise interesting blog liked it. But these Pay-Per-Posters don’t really like the products and services they review, oh no, they’re doing it for the money and do whatever they’re told to by They Who Hold the Money. To me that is one of the worst things you can do: Deliberately misleading people for money.
It’s not so bad if the links and “reviews” (sorry I slipped again: advertisements) are clearly labeled as sponsored posts. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was a disclaimer at the beginning of each and every post clearly stating that “I have not tried this product and I am basing my opinion purely off of what They Who Hold the Money told me to do.” Of course, this defeats the whole purpose of blogging for money so it’s doubtful that anything like that will ever happen. Mores the pity.
If you’re in the website scene then you probably already know that Google recently went after people who accept money for links by reducing their Page Rank to 0. Jenn told people to stop using Google so that they would reconsider and roll the Page Ranks up to a higher level. Why? So more people can be duped into believing fake revi- advertisements so Pay-Per-Posters don’t have to get a job that involves more than moving their fingers over a keyboard and sitting on their asses. The horror, gasp, shock. I sympathize with those who have no other option, I really do (I’ve been there, I’ve been poor and with no job prospects), but the idea of misleading people is, to me, repugnant and not something I would be able to do easily. And if I were to ever resort to Pay-Per-Post I’d have to have 8 starvin’ chilluns and completely and totally unable to secure a real, honest job. Since that’s unlikely to ever happen I’m not worried about my opinions changing. My uterus is stopping at two, maybe three, chilluns and no more thankyouverymuch. Hell just to get my rocks off I might scam the government by not getting married! That is, however, another story for another time.
For further reading and a much better explanation as to why sponsored posts are a blight on the internet I recommend you read the following posts:
In the example above, notice that the post says “I myself had never heard of this treatment process until now.” On a subject as serious as brain tumors, it’s troubling if someone is getting paid to review and link to a site, especially if it appears that they weren’t aware of this treatment until they were paid to write about the subject. In researching this incident, we saw lots of people doing paid posts about brain tumors who admitted that they weren’t familiar with the subject beforehand.
Matt Cutts: Selling links that pass PageRank
Information about buying and selling links that pass PageRank
If you do Pay-Per-Post then I’d like to ask a few questions: How do you deal with the reality that you’re duping people who don’t know any better? How do you deal with being on the same level as those “Nigerian Princes” who send out emails promising riches beyond our wildest dreams? Most of all: How do you sleep at night knowing you just “reviewed” a surgical procedure, or something equally as serious, with little to no research? Are you truly okay with making money off of false reviews?
Just a note: I know that I’m repeating much of what has been said elsewhere in a much better and more concise way. I’m just venting my frustration against Market Advertisers the best way I know how, by blogging!
LOL @ boycotting Google. Google owns the fucking world and if 10 people stop using their search engine, it won’t affect them in the least. That’s like saying you’re going to boycott Dove by purchasing a different brand of soap even when a million other people still buy from them and Dove sells a million products besides soap. It won’t make a difference to a company that big.
I mean, doesn’t Jenn post stuff on YouTube? Is she forgetting Google owns that, too? Even if she weren’t just one person, it would be completely impossible for her to impact Google that much.
Plus, PPP is a total scam and you’ve perfectly explained why. It makes me not want to read a blog anymore when they get involved with that shit. Text links don’t bother me so much, but PPP? Argh.
You should also refer people to adfreeblog.org. And specifically their FAQ page. It has links to some more articles people have written about PPP and the like.
It’s funny, actually.. There was a brief moment that I considered doing PPP when I was having some medical problems and needed a little extra income (I ended up not doing it specifically because I refused to write about anything I didn’t have direct experience with) and before PPP really took hold. I posted about my thinking about it on a well-known forum, and if I remember right people told me I’d be selling out my blog, that they didn’t think it was worth it, etc. Less than three months later, some of the very same people who put me down for thinking about it had signed up for PPP. Ah, the temptation of the almighty dollar.
My PR might not be high (it’s a 3 right now) but at least I have one that I’m not going to sell out!
I love you. I love this post. I love all the obvious references. I simply love you :)
Aside from everything that’s already been mentioned, what also bothers me is how utterly SHITE these entries are from a literary perspective. “Today we went shopping and bought (link)cables(end link). These (link)cables(end link) are really great. They let you connect your (link)DVD player(end link) to your (link)TV set(end link). Next time we go shopping for (link)cables(end link), we’ll definitely check out (link)cablesformorons.com(end link)!”
^ It was a while ago – a whole bunch of PPPers did it because PPP base how much they pay per ad by how much PR you have, therefore with a PR of 0, you get little or no money, I would have thought. Anyway, said PPPers got all upset about it because oh noez less moneyz.
PPP is why I hate the internet at the moment. I don’t care that you have 486946836 kids, are unable to work, have severe disabilities, etc. etc. etc and need money for all that – stop polluting the internet. Instead, sell your computer and stop your super-awesomely-fast-and-top-of-the-range internet package and oh look, spare money. People who pull the “but I need the money and I blah blah blah blah [insert range of stupid crap here]” can seriously shut the hell up.
PPP/paid blogging is one of those topics that really gets me going, I haven’t hated something so much for a long time. * Calms down *
I think I love you. Your blog is very interesting and entertaining to read. I’ll link you. :D
Anyway, to get on topic, I used to PPP and I’m so glad I’ve stopped. I only did it for a while but it was nasty and didn’t do my site any good. I’ve seen the light and realize I don’t need an extra few quid, especially not to ruin my site I worked so hard on anyway.
I find it amusing that people are going to “boycott” Google because their pageranks have gone down. As if a handful of people are going to send Google into ruin.
I used to do paid posting at an extra blog that gets no traffic. At first I was like WOW! How neat I’m getting paid to write these bullshit entries that no one even sees! And then I realized that I’m contributing to clogging up the internet with a bunch of garbage. Shame on me.
I laughed really hard at the thought of boycotting Google. No, that’s alright, I have a job and I enjoy using Google. It’s not that serious.
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Hi I'm Becky, often referred to as The Knitting Hillbilly and Pussybear, owner of this site and general nuisance. I'm a knitter, serial complainer, known whistle blower and I run the ever popular
I’m sorry, but I laughed a lot when you mentioned those Nigerian Princes, mainly because I’ve received their mails.
I liked this post so much, and I was fascinated because when I read this I verified that you are genuinely a good person, contrary to what many people think due to the reviews of the Internet Police. But back to the topic, I ask myself: are the 16 dollars (maximum) that the bloggers obtain for putting in danger the visitors whorty?
The quality of a blog diminishes (in my opinion) when I see those posts. They make me not want to return.
Frankly, I prefer the google ads.
#1 Anna Dec 6, 15:42 Permalink