Izea to get rid of Google PR

In response to request from hundreds (if not thousands) of PayPerPost posties who were punished by Google, Izea has decided to remove Google PR from PPP entirely. Instead they would be using a backlink count. Read Ted Murphy's post on the Izea blog: "Customer Experience Survey Results".

According to a postie on the PPP boards, Izea will be using the Yahoo backlink count. For more information read this post on UTheGuru.com: "How to Count Inlinks / Backlinks to Your Site using Yahoo".

Checking the page strength of my blog on SEOmoz.org, gives me:

# Links pointing to full URL: 11186
Source: Yahoo! Site Explorer

# Links pointing to domain: 12049
Source: Yahoo! Site Explorer

That's not really the stats of a "Dot Com Mogul" but it's not bad at all.

How should Izea respond to Google

I don't know about other posties out there, but it has been ages since I last took a sponsored opportunity on this blog. I am still being punished by Google and my Page Rank (PR) still shows a big fat "0". It is obvious from the the posts on Izea discussion boards that I am not the only one and there's a lot of anger there. This is not a conspiracy theory and Izea founder and CEO Ted Murphy blogged about it saying "If you have been hit by Google unfortunately there is little we can do". Duncan Riley predicted on TechCruch that there would be "an exodus of bloggers out of PayPerPost".

Izea founder and CEO Ted Murphy says that "the PayPerPost market is not melting down" as reported in a Wired article. However, I do notice that several posties have removed the PayPerPost referral badge and others have even gone to the extent of removing all their sponsored posts from their blogs.

So what should Izea do?

Well it has two options:

1. Bow down to Google
- Have posties add "nofollow" tags to all sponsored links.
- Have all posties put up "sponsored post" badge on all sponsored posts.
- Allow posties to give "free for all" reviews.
- Negotiate with Google.

This should shut off several critics of Izea including long time PayPerPost hater, Michael Arrington. On the other hand, this might lead to an exodus of advertisers who are with Izea for SEO purposes and there are a lot of them.

Then we have the second option,

2. Eliminate Google from the picture altogether

One of the reasons that the PR downgrade hurt a lot of posties was due to the fact that Izea uses Google PR as the main requirement for taking an "opportunity". They have introduced their own ranking system called "RealRank" but many advertisers still prefer to use Google PR for screening Blogs to carry their ads. There is no way Izea is going to win in a fight with Google. David defeating Goliath happens only in stories.

So my suggestion is to get rid of Google PR as a requirement altogether and use only Alexa and RealRank. Izea might also want to get rid of the special tracking codes altogether as they are like beacons in code signalling, "Hey! we are posties. Come bury us".

Would love to hear what other posties and non-posties out there think of my proposal.

PayPerPost referrals

Some of you might recall me talking about affiliate programs and how they don't really work for me in my post about the launch of the Pepperjam affiliate network.

Anyway, a few days back I happened to look under ppp tools after logging into PayPerPost and discovered that I had been paid $15/ for referring a Collin DeRuyck. Thanks Collin.

Better still, I also found out that I have seven more pending referrals. I get paid $15.00 for every successful referral. the whole process works like this: The blogger takes an opportunity on PayPerPost and posts it up, the posting is then reviewed by the PPP people, approved and then finally accepted 30 days later. Then I get paid.

Here are the guys with pending referrals along with their joining date:

Ron H. - 02-25-2007
Raja Ainun Shaira - 03-21-2007
Jason H. - 08-04-2007
Anthony J. - 10-01-2007
Larry C. - 10-12-2007
Enbarani R. - 11-27-2007
Reena H. - 12-11-2007

I am not sure why but the first on the list joined in February 2007 but still haven't been accepted.

If you are one of the guys listed above, go to the PayPerPost.com site, login and see whether your membership has been approved. Once you are accepted, you can start taking opportunities and writing sponsored posts on your blog.

PayPerPost PC

Had been planning to buy a new PC for quite sometime and I started saving up all my earnings from my sponsored posts, since October last year. My initial budget was around £350 (around $693). Even though I passed the mark, I kept putting off purchasing one as I didn't think it was that necessary. My fear was that an occasion might suddenly rear it's ugly head where I would HAVE to spend money.

Anyway, the recent crash changed my mind. Started surveying around for the best deals and it was actually good timing because a number of retailers are cutting prices right now. Heard that Dell was offering free delivery and £20 off on selected Inspiron models. Read the details in my post "Deals on Dell PCs". For the same specs, the Dell PCs were the cheapest and finally decided to go for the entry level, Inspiron 530 DT. Without the monitor, the total price came to £ 279.02 inclusive of VAT.

It will be delivered on the 8th, next Tuesday. I have a quirky habit - I like to give my PCs a name. The one that crashed was the eBay PC and I have decided to name the Dell, the PayPerPost PC. It reason is very simple - it was bought by my earnings from sponsored posts that I got through PayPerPost.com.

The Microsoft XP activation countdown is still going on and I will probably reformat the hard disk before the time is up. I have always wanted to try out Linux and decided to load up Ubuntu on it. I have already requested a free installation CD and I should have it in a few weeks. That should be an interesting experience.

PR updates and earnings

I am still in the process of evaluating the effect of the recent PR update on my total earnings. Before this, my top income earner from paid posts was my Freebies blog. Since the update (PR went down from 3 to 2), my earnings have fallen drastically. It's amazing what just one point drop on your PR can do. However, this drop was more than made up by earnings from my oldest blog - ah ok lah.

I can fully understand why a lot of bloggers with blogs that dropped from PR5 are unhappy and making a lot of noise. I simply can't believe the number of high paying opps now available to me on PayPerPost (now under the parent company, Izea). My objective now is to try to bring this blog up to PR 5. In order to do this, I would be be taking a number of steps. Writing regular posts would be my first priority.

Would love to hear what steps you guys are taking.

List of companies that pay you to blog

Updated: 3 Oct. 2007

• Bloggerwave.com

• Blogitive.com

• CREAMaid.com

• LinkWorth.com

• LoudLaunch.com

• Nuffnang.com.my (Malaysia and Singapore Only)

• PayPerPost.com

• Payu2Blog.com

• ReviewMe.com

• SponsoredReviews.com

These are the companies that pay you to write sponsored posts on YOUR blog. Thus, I have not added About.com, Helium.com or Squidoo.com.

Despite what the critics have to say, sponsored posts are here to stay. I guess in the end, the companies that will survive will be the ones, able to attract the big companies to advertise with them (with big bucks of course) and able to keep their bloggers happy at the same time. A tough balancing act to keep up.

PayPerPost.com is clearly the market leader right now. However, I am wondering, whether it was also the earliest pioneer to introduce this form of blog advertising?

Is Google going to get rid of page rank?

At first I thought it was impossible but after going through all the rumours on various blogs as well as discussion groups, I am seriously wondering whether Google is actually getting rid of the page rank (PR) system. Read Goodbye Google PageRank? and Rumors about Google doing away with Pagerank?.

Doing away with page rank would be a serious blow to various companies specialising in customer generated advertising. This includes PayPerPost, Review Me, Sponsored reviews and a host of others, as they all use PR as a means of ranking blogs that are registered with them. The higher the PR of your blog, the more higher paying opportunities you get.

If that ever happens - I mean In the absence of Google PR, I guess they would have to come up with alternative ways to rank blogs. Despite criticisms about it's accuracy, Alexa is already used by several companies and might become the default blog ranking system.

Another option is of course, the Technorati blog authority, the blog search engine or in their words,

the recognized authority on what's happening on the World Live Web.

View blog authority

The hugely popular, The Truth Laid Bear ecosystem may be another option. Said to be the "definitive weblog ranking system". According to their website,

TTLB receives an average of 1,535 visits and 3,846 page views per day.

Can you think of other blog ranking services?

iByot - the multi-tasking next generation house robot

Please vote for me on Blog Battle Royale: iRobot Voting Begins. My entry is #15.

As a long time Issac Asimov fan who knows the 3+1 laws of Robotics by heart, I was really excited when I learnt about the PPP Blog Battle Royale.

The challenge:

If you were creating a new robot for the company iRobot what would it do? What would it look like? What would you call it? How would it make your life easier? How would you market it? What makes your robot so special?

So I give you my vision of the next generation robot.

1. What would it do?
The iRobot Roomba robot vacuum was the first generation. This is the generation to come in the future and it will do more than just vacuum the floor.
- It will also wash and then dry carpets,
- Disinfect the air using ionizers,
- Act as a smoke and toxic gas alarm. Will give out a warning whenever it detects toxic gases including smoke via it's advanced artificial nose,
- It will also release natural fragrances into the air on demand. So if you want a little bit of aroma therapy to relax yourself after a tough day at the office. Just say "I am tired. Need some relaxing fragrance" and it will automatically release natural sandalwood fragrance.
- It would record events in high definition video and hifi sound, everything happening before it in the house. Owners would have the option to turn off this feature.
- It would be able to hold semi-intelligent conversations with people using pre-recorded information and it's advanced artificial intelligence developed by the company.
- Of course, it would also be able to fetch a drink from the fridge without spilling it.

2. What would it look like?
Taking some inspiration from the recent Transformers movie, I envisige that my robot will open up into a fantastic looking work of art while working and just curl away into a sphere when it is inactive. However, I wouldn't want it to have human features. That would be weird. I would rather they have a "robotic" inanimate look.
Customers would have the choice to have them in different color combinations and surface patterns. I imagine mine would look like a replica of the earth when inactive. A conversation piece by itself.


3. What would you call it?
Coming up with a name was not easy. My first choice was iBot but found out that there was a company as well as a variety of powered wheelchair with the same name, so I decided on iByot. That's the only one not taken up as yet.

4. How would it make your life easier?
It cleans the floor as well as the air, follows your command and brings you a drink. What more can we ask?

5. How would you market it?
It would be marketed as a eco-friendly, customizable, space saving, advanced transforming robot for the household. Customers would be able to personalize and customize it on it's own special page on the iRobot website.

6. What makes your robot so special?
It's an eco-friendly robot built from recycled plastics and aluminum among other materials. It will also not need to recharge from a power socket. It will recharge itself by a combination of different mechanisms, namely, motion (meaning it will recharge itself while moving) and solar energy. There will be also a wind up feature in case it has been inactive for a while and the sun is not very bright.

It's artificial nose would be almost equal to that of a human and even better to detect toxic gases. Might even save lives. It's voice recognition software will be highly advanced, enabling it to take order of only it's registered masters.

The fact that it would be customized according to the taste of it's owner would be a selling point as everybody wants something unique.

Forgive me if I got a bit carried away but that's my vision.

High ranked Blogspot blogs

updated: 17, Nov. 2007
Made numerous changes to the list. Had to drop a number of blogs from the PR 5 list. This includes among others, Paula Neal Mooney's blog which is now a PR3.

My Blog ah ok lah is now in the list.
................................................

Right after I wrote my post "Don't ignore blogspot blogs", I went over to the PayPerPost boards to see what other fellow posties and advertises thought about it. I was really surprised at the response. Almost everyone who replied to the thread were against it. Not surprising as almost all posties who replied were NOT Blogspot users. I know that a lot of posties are Blogspot users and I expected them come out in support of my campaign but they didn't.

It seemed like most of those who replied had decided that Blogger (Google) banning blogs that carried paid or sponsored posts in the future, is inevitable.

One advertiser even asked:

If you're on a free host, how seriously do you take your blog?

What do you think?

Would love to hear your views on this issue. In the meantime, here are some high ranking Blogspot blogs (with PR 5 and above).

PR 5

• ah ok lah
  
• Baby Care
• Don to Earth
• My Mum's Blog by Thoroughly Modern Millie (From PR 6)
  
• Pi's Twist
  
• RantingsbyMM
• rocky's bru

PR 6

• Digital Inspiration Thanks for the link Paula.
• Dummies' Guide to Blogger (from PR 5)
  
• Echidne of the Snakes
• Ikea Hacker
• Paleo-Future (from PR 5)
• Pedram's stream of consciousness (from PR 7)
• PostSecret (from PR 7)

PR 7

• continuations
  
• Dr. Razavi's Good to Know Info
• Ego Food (from PR 6)
• grokster
• Peter Fleischer: Privacy...? (from PR 5)
• Piaw's Blog
• So Many Games...
• The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs (from PR6)
  
• Stevey's Blog Rants
• Technical Revenue

PR 9

• 
  

Tell me if your's is missing from or you know of others missing from the list.

Malaysians crossing the $10K mark in PayPerPost

Malaysians are doing quite well in PayPerPost. First was Emily who goes by the online name of Cyberpartygal and has a blog with the same name - Cyberpartygal. She crossed the $10,000 earnings mark on Jun 23, 2007. Next on the list is Chan Lilian, who is better known as 5XMom. I thought she had already crossed the mark yesterday but found out that she is just $81 short of reaching it (when I last checked).

Another lady fast reaching the same is Amy. The PPP dashboard shows that she has earned $7,766.35 so far (as of writing this).

A few things I noted:
1. All of them are ladies
2. All of them have multiple blogs. For example Amy has got 8 blogs.
3. They are highly productive, writing several posts a day.
4. They are highly creative and have a way with words, especially Lilian.

I too am following in their footsteps and hope to cross the $10K earnings mark on PPP soon myself.

How to PayPerPost

A lot of friends were amazed to learn that I could earn that much as I do from blogging and were interested in starting their own blogs. As you can see, money is one of the best motivators. Some already had their own blogs and were interested in monetizing them. It was interesting to note that many of them already had Google adsense on their blogs but were hardly earning anything from it.

Out of all the companies I am using to convert my creative content into income streams (monetize my work), PayPerPost has helped me earn the most. I have introduced many of my friends and relatives to this company but this proved to be quite challenging especially when it came to those who were not bloggers.


Yesterday, I cam across this excellent online tutorial, that shows you how to start earning from PayPerPost,in just 5 easy-to-follow steps - right from the creation of your own blogspot blog on Blogger and creating a Paypal account to taking opportunities (opps) on PayPerPost.

I would like to warn you guys against being too optimistic. His earnings estimate of "$50 every single day of your life" is on the high side. There may be several days when you may not being able to take a single opportunity and thus unable to earn anything, especially if you are outside the US and your blog has 0 or low Google page rank. Having said that, there are indeed some posties (PayPerPost members) who do earn more than that on an average every day.

Go over to the 'PayPerPost Pocketbook' tutorial now.

PayPerPost Gets $7Million

I was just going through the PayPerPost blog and reading their latest post 'Get Lucky today with Lucky 7's'. They sure had some fantastic news. Clicked over to check for new opportunities and sure enough, there was this Opp and I was able to grab it.

This is part of what they call the "Lucky 7's" promotion, which will last for 7 days starting noon today. During this period, PayPerPost will release $7k in PPP Opps, and this happen to be one of them. I guess it's my lucky day.

Their new website went live yesterday and though it was not evident at first, there were several new features. One of them happens to be the blog ethics page, stressing on the importance of disclosing that we receive payment for blogging about a certain topic.

Be Honest with Yourself and Your Readers

I totally agree with that.

Initially many of my friends in academic circles (and I have a lot of them) were against the idea of sponsored blog posts on ethical grounds. However, after many debates, they have slowly come around. Disclosure on blogs that carry sponsored posts were definitely one of the reasons they did.

Anyway, here is the full press release:

~*~*~*~

The PayPerPost Revolution Accelerates, Sponsored
Blogging Marketplace Secures $7 Million Series B

Draper Fisher Jurvetson leads round and joins Board of Directors

ORLANDO, FL – (June 12, 2007) – PayPerPost, the leading marketplace for advertisers to reach bloggers and other consumer content creators, today announced it has completed a $7 million second round investment led by Draper Fisher Jurvetson, an investor in the company's Series A and one of the world’s leading high-technology venture capital firms. The financing brings the total amount of capital raised by PayPerPost to over $10 million, giving the company considerable resources for further development as the industry’s leading Consumer Generated Advertising marketplace. Additional participants in the round include existing investors Inflexion Partners and Village Ventures as well as new investor DFJ Gotham. With this investment, DFJ Managing Director Josh Stein also joins PayPerPost’s Board of Directors.

“PayPerPost created this exciting new advertising space and has established itself as the industry leader,” said Ted Murphy, chief executive officer of PayPerPost. “Although we’ve only used a portion of our first round capital, this added support from investors unlocks significant growth potential. Our content creator and advertiser ROI metrics clearly demonstrate the upside for PayPerPost’s model. We intend to use this capital to build the infrastructure, visibility and professional expertise necessary to reach and retain a greater network of advertisers and content creators than ever before.”

Since its founding in June of 2006, PayPerPost has signed more than 6,500 advertisers to its groundbreaking service, which has enabled Consumer Content Creators to be compensated for their efforts discussing specific companies, products or services via blogs, videos or other media. The content creators are required to disclose relationships with advertisers on their blog, providing transparency for the end reader. Over 125,000 Internet postings, most in the form of blogs, have already earned money for their creators through PayPerPost’s innovative marketplace. PayPerPost recently released PayPerPost Direct, a disruptive new service that allows advertisers to contract and negotiate directly with individual bloggers they identify through a safe, managed system.

“PayPerPost has laid a strong foundation for the future,” noted Tim Draper, founder and managing director of Draper Fisher Jurvetson. “It continues to attract a critical mass of participants from both the advertising and blogging communities. Analogous to Overture’s sponsored search model, we believe PayPerPost’s business model holds disruptive potential and will enable the company to thrive in the evolving paid-content arena.”

To mark the $7 million dollar funding, PayPerPost has launched a new website detailing the company’s service offering at http://www.payperpost.com. Bloggers and advertisers can easily sign up at the site and begin leveraging the self service marketplace.