Sponsored
With recent developments in the sponsored blogging arena, PayPerPost found themselves lagging. Their bread and butter, low-dollar open market system had been replicated by their major direct competitor. But from that blow has come retaliation. The brand new PayPerPost direct system allows advertisers to request a post from a specific blog rather than attempting to segment everyone else out and hope that the better bloggers would take it. That will be a big positive for advertisers who have used PPP in the past and have a few favourite authors. This way they can take their list of favourite blogs and toss them some exclusive offers as the need arises.
For bloggers, here’s an opportunity to make money blogging by setting your own prices and haggling with advertisers over points of contention. There have always been some ops that I think I could have done a better job if I had been able to do some give and take negotiations with the advertisers. While they certainly have a good idea of what they want, this is a new method of advertising and can certainly benefit from speaking to bloggers who know their audiences. Also PPP takes a much smaller cut from the direct ops on your site. According to PPP, they “only charges a 10% fee, 5% of which goes to transaction fees for PayPal and credit card processing.” That amount is added to the advertiser’s price, so that suggests that the price you stick on your blog is the amount you will get in hand. Not 50% of it like other programs…
One of the really smart things that PPP did this time around was learned when they fell flat on their last system/policy change. They put out an excellent video demonstrating the new feature to both advertisers and bloggers. Whereas some of us were stumbling in the dark on previous releases, this video has helped clarify this feature completely.
Is it perfect? Heck no. I dislike the fact that the default for the post tone is positive. I would like to see that changed to neutral otherwise, the community is about to be bombarded by requests for positive reviews, something that most PPP bloggers have already voiced their displeasure upon. The video also makes it seem like the PPP system is very quick and snappy in updating your PPP tools status. They claim that it takes “a couple of minutes”. Well it’s been a couple of hours for me so far and the system seems to be 100% functional. The page where you get the code actually says that it can take up to 2 days for it to update. That’s a major discrepancy and is insanely misleading. I don’t know if I’ve installed it improperly or if it’s going to take 12 -24 hours. They’ve also introduced yet another massive footprint. The great war has begun with Google trying to nerf the effectiveness of programs like PPP. From PPP’s perspective if they make themselves big enough, they feel they can win. From an individual blogger’s perspective the question of who will be cannon fodder comes to mind.
So why have I signed up despite all of these negatives? Why not? Nothing ventured, nothing gained. I’m in up to my eyeballs in PPP already so further developing the footprint on this blog will actually make it easier to pull back should things go poorly. In the meantime it’s a great opportunity not only to try and drum up a few extra dollars, it’s also a chance to start building very real relationships with advertisers on a one on one basis. That my friends, is very, very significant. If you can find the right fit between a blog and an advertisers both parties can walk away very, very happy. Just be creative, friendly and open to discussion with advertisers. Don’t push anything and be willing to concede small points in order to solidify a good relationship. Some advertisers will be unreasonable I’m sure, but don’t waste your time with them. Work with the ones that fit your blog and have a good head on their shoulders.
PPP Direct is a chance to earn revenue in a more strategic way and has the opportunity for you to build solid relationships that will outlast the current campaign that an advertiser is running. I’m giving a shot and if you’re into PPP, I think you should try it out too.
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