December 3, 2006

The morality of PayPerPost

Once again, after the launch of rockstartup.com, the morality of PayPerPost is being called into question. This is quite sad, really. Especially when you consider those who are complaining about it the loudest - professional bloggers - (ie people who GET PAID TO BLOG). PayPerPost does just that - it pays people to blog. It pays bloggers (ie - us, I blog for PayPerPost) to write - *in our own words* - *our own thoughts and opinions* - our own *HONEST* thoughts and opinions - about a given website, product, or service. Let me explain. I go to PayPerPost's website. I see a list of 30 - 150 opportunities (depending on how many are available that day - it varies) and I pick which one, two, or three - if any - I want to write about. They have a set number of words - they may have a certain link they want, or a certain picture or video they want included - or they may want me to make a video. But I pick which one, ones, or none, that I want to do. Sometimes, the advertisers only want you to be positive about their site, product, or service, - most of the time, they just want your opinion - postive or negative. I've been paid by companies to *COMPLAIN* about their product. No - they didn't ask me to complain - they just asked for my opinion, and my opinion was that their product sucked. And I got paid to say that. So, ultimately, I am completely in control of what I write, what I link to, and what I do not write or link to. There is no moral issue here. I have a disclosure policy in place that lets my readers know that I am paid to blog. I have done a number of blog posts, paid and unpaid, where I talk about me working for PayPerPost. I've even made a number of videos promoting the fact that I make money by blogging for PayPerPost. I can't get much more transparent here. There is no hiding the fact that I am paid to write about certain things. I don't see any moral issues at all in what I am doing. Otherwise, I wouldn't do it. I actually think it is more honest work than slapping some code in your website that lets other people control what your blog says directly. I'm talking about banner ads and contextual ads. The author of the site has little or no control over what actually appears on the screen when a visitor shows up to their site. With PayPerPost, I type every letter. It seems a lot more honest to me.

What do you think?

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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I don't think it is necessary to have to justify why someone is getting paid for writing. You are being paid for your skills to write and the time you spend writing the article.

The controversy has to do with the fact that traditionally you have to knock at the door of the big media and press world, have a bag of money, to get published. The new model of publishing and advertsiment is being redefined with new comers such as PPP and others but there are people and organizations that will not adopt the changes easily.