Oct 10, 2007

[Web] Now on PayPerPost!

EDIT 10.23.12: I'm not sure why this 5+ year old post spiked in views recently, but I thought it appropriate to clarify that (a) I did not enjoy the types of topics available on PayPerPost, (b) I think I only tried posting 1 or 2 articles, (3) I was very worried about things I had read about how such posts can result in penalties in your SEO rankings, although I have not fully validated this and (4) ultimately I did not pursue an active relationship with PayPerPost or even the mentioned Sponsored reviews. I've updated the links to nofollow links to add to my non-endorsement of the service.

Well, I finally got approved for PayPerPost today, right on the heels of my approval for SponsporedReviews. All bias aside, it's been an interesting first day and given the similarity of the programs, I doubt I can avoid comparing the two services. While it's very early in the game, I think one site has taken an early lead over the other so far...


First, sign-up and approval. I have to admit both sites had opportunities in this area. While it's true that both sites only promised that you'd get reviewed within 24-48 hours, it doesn't mean you're going to get feedback that soon. Both sites took almost a week before sending back approval feedback - Sponsored Reviews took less time, if that counts for anything.

That leads me to consider how they determine approvals - as best as I can determine, PayPerPost relies mainly on Google PageRank and Alexa ratings to come to a decision, which is pretty standard given the industry. SponsoredReviews tried to be more diverse by also looking at Technorati, and Link Pop, which are okay but not exactly common. SponsoredReviews wins brownie points for trying to be diverse but I'd still have to go with PayPerPost for business sense.
Then comes the marketplace - both have unique methods and circumstances around it. SponsoredReviews certainly presents a pretty robust marketplace but despite numerous applications, nothing has happened yet. Out of 6 bids, only one has responded so far - by declining. Other than that, there's not much else to do there. So far PayPerPost has been a lot more interesting so far given they don't just depend on marketplace opportunities. Instead they also offer a wide variety of affiliate programs for referrals, encouraging users to review your entries for shared income and a way for advertisers to get in touch with bloggers directly, which seems pretty exciting. I'm waiting for my first opportunity.

Lastly comes the income scheme - PayPerPost is pretty direct with its prices. What you see is what you get, as they say. The list price is exactly what you can earn while for SponsoredReviews, they take a pretty hefty percentage of your bidding price - 35%! Ouch! Plus the eventual PayPal fees you'll also have to pay to address things are bound to be annoying and that'll really eat into your profits.

I guess the ultimate difference this early in the process is the fact that I'm writing my first PayPerPost entry now while I'm still waiting on SponsoredReviews to come to a decision. Sure, SponsoredReviews may seem to start in a shorter period of time, but clearly PayPerPost gets you actually working a lot sooner after approval.

This should be a very interesting business relationship.

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