In September 2006, I discovered a great little company called Payperpost that I thought was innovative and exciting. It offered a whole new model for paid blogging that was novel, exciting, connected, and free of the problems associated with Adsense.

My PayPerPost Track Record

Since then I wrote over 180 opps for Payperpost and earned something around $1650 or a little more. During the time I learned a tremendous amount writing for a blog, my blog’s various themes, the WordPress platform, marketing my blog, and much more… For that, I’ll always be grateful to the wonderful people at PayPerPost (and SocialSpark) but today I had another frustrating experience with the limitations of their blogging requirements.

Rejected Again?

I recently did my SocialSpark opportunity that was rejected. In the past, I simply would edit the post to satisfy the requirements, but this is my third rejection and I’m beginning to wonder if all the work that went into each of the posts was really worth it. So let’s look at the posting process…

How it works!

The typical opportunity offers the payout of about $8.50 (at least that is my long term average over the time I was involved with PayPerPost). For that payment, you are required to perform a number of steps.

1. Log into the Payperpost system;

2. Navigate to the opps – there could be dozens for you, there could be none;

3. Find an opp that is available to you and one that you find appropriate for your blog;

4. Once you’ve selected an opp, you have to read the opp in detail, then visit the website page that relates to the opp, click ‘take opp’, enter a captcha code, read the basic details;

5. You then write the post according to the requirements of the opportunity, making sure that you include the required links (at least one), the disclosure, the tracking image, any additional images. In addition, you have to make sure that your opp fulfills the word length, the tone, and the type of post;

6. Of course, your post must also be written in good English with good grammar, punctuation and style. It must also be relevant to the advertiser’s wishes;

7. You then submit this opp through the system; if approved, you will then allow the advertiser 30 days to advertise on your blog for either SEO or traffic reasons; if rejected, your advertiser will have had days of advertising for free; if rejected prior to payment, it’s all for nothing;

8. While you wait for payment, you are then required to post an intermediate post that is of sufficient quality and length BEFORE you can take another opportunity;

9. While you are waiting for payment for this post, a good blogger will seek ways to increase exposure, traffic, your PR, respond to comments about the post;

10. Even before you are paid, you have already granted accepted that:

Blogger grants PayPerPost and the specific Advertiser purchasing the content a worldwide, royalty-free, non-exclusive, sub-licensable, unconditional, perpetual and transferable license to use, display, perform, reproduce, republish, and distribute the content or any portion thereof in all forms of media and through any media channels (now known or hereafter developed), including but not limited to television, radio, print, Internet site and other electronic communications.

11. Oo! It was rejected. You’re invited to resubmit it, sometimes this will be a quick edit, other times you will spend a lot more time finding out what’s wrong.

And that’s… how much?

In other words, you have done a heck of a lot of work for a post that you are paid for only once. Now how much did you get? $5? $8.50? $15? Oh, and by the way, the blogger is still …

… responsible for the payment of all federal, state and local taxes on compensation received from an Advertiser, (iii) responsible for any reporting requirements imposed by the federal, state or local government, and …

… you have to pay for your hosting each month if you take this even half way seriously… there are additional costs related to PC repair, ADSL connections, software purchasing (if you buy blogging software), etc.. that the payments do not cover…

In return, and much of the reason that I no longer enjoy doing posts, you are not free to write posts as you see fit; you cannot include any other links, videos, referenced materials, or other “distractors” to the Advertiser’s opp: “There are to be no third party links, ads or other detractors located within the sponsored post.” You are also not expected to remove the posts as they are part of the archive.

Is it time to give up posting for pennies?

While there are few restrictions on other sources of revenue that you can generate for your blog, such as private advertisers, Adsense, Text-Links, etc… there is a lot of potential for alternate streams of income. In reality, the way that the system works encourages bloggers to “post” for pay. In fact, some of the other revenue streams, I’ve been finding, offer a lot more rewards for a lot less messing about. And I get to write about what I like, how I like, when I like. I’m wondering: is it time to give up “posting for pennies”? Mmm.