I’ve been contemplating joining PayPerPost. I’ve signed up and been nosing around, asking a few questions before throwing myself in head first. Their community is incredibly friendly. Everyone’s keen, helpful and nice and I think I could enjoy it there. But as I poked around I got a little unsettled. Maybe I’m a bit cynical but I don’t believe there’s such a thing as altruism and as I’ve heard a number of bloggers bashing PPP posts I did a bit more digging into it. I’m now torn. I have to admit, I have difficulty with elemtents of it.
It’s not the Sponsored posts themselves with which I have difficulty. I’ve yet to meet a 4 year old who can’t recognise an advertisement when they see one and we, as readers, are all more than capable of making the choice to read one of those posts or to skip it. So, in my mind, to say it corrupts the blog content itself is naive. On most blogs the other posts are normal and we’re all media savvy enough to take sponspored posts with a pinch of salt and maybe even learn about something new, the blog we’re reading or ourselves. So I see the posts can be quite useful, which is why I’m contemplating them.
No, for me, the problem with PPP comes from elsewhere. The higher your blog ranks in various methods of measuring these things, such as Google, Alexa and Technorati, the more your blogs posts are worth and consequently, the more the blogger can earn. It makes sense for advertisers to reward those with larger readerships and greater internet exposure expontentially. But that brings with it unscrupulous exploitation.
There are a number of PPP bloggers who are increasing their Google and Alexa PageRanks by exchanging links with anyone who asks, not just sites they like. When I visit a site, there are certain things that will make me warm to it and its owner. Usually it’s a shared interest or outlook on the world, and it’s this perceived connection that makes me feel I can trust their judgement. I’ll take time to visit their admired or blogrolled links assuming that there will something of interest to me somewhere there as well.
Take Valiant Knife as an example. I discovered this webmistress years ago and felt like I had found a kindred spirit in her passion for literature and history. So after exploring her site, I visited the sites on her links page and, sure enough, I found several other sites I visit at least once a month, even years later. Some bloggers, such as Jenn clearly label the links they exchange for PPP purposes, but I’ve visited many that don’t. I’ve followed links and found myself looking at sites that are about things the first person has clearly stated they abhor. True, they could still be friends but the cynic in me says it’s to do with rankings. And that contradiction confuses this poor old brain of mine.
Even more worryingly, in my mind, is the manner in which some of the bloggers themselves are manipulating other sites, and consequently deceiving all of its visitors. I find it to be morally dubious and a subversion of everything I love about the internet. Strong words, I know, but let me explain.
Sites such as Technorati are built on word-of-mouth and this word of mouth has to be honest. I’ve seen a number of people add numerous sites to their technorati profiles because someone else has asked them to. This ‘you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours’ attitude is subverting the organic nature and accuracy of other recommendations. When I visit technorati, I expect a favourited blog to be someone’s favourite not a favour for a stranger. Where’s the honesty? the transparency many of these people have declared in the individual ‘Disclosure’ policies?
There’s nothing wrong with doing a favour for a mate, but if they are your mate then you’ll have done these things already, so you won’t need to ask strangers. These sites should showcase the best of user-generated web content and it’s made me wary of them.
And it’s not PayPerPost’s fault: it’s the individual bloggers themselves who make those choices. So my question is: is it possible to become an active and successful member of the PayPerPost community without compromising my integrity? I guess there’s only one way to find out.
Thank you for the replies (1):
May 10th, 2007 at 2:55 am
I too see the ups and downs with PPP. I’m with PPP for two reasons: #1 to make money. #2 to be exposed to new products and services. That sounds cheesy, incredibly so, but I have found a few that are of worth to me, or to family members.
And I too frown upon exchanging links with everyone and anyone. I did the PPP blog roll for a bit, but took it down because ultimately, while a higher PR would be nice, I don’t want to obtain one falsely, because where is the sense of accomplishment with that?
I don’t feel that PPP ruins blogs, provided that the blogger does offer their visitor more than PPP posts and filler content in between.