I hate Pay Per Post - the whole idea of being paid to write a few hundred words about XYZ is anathema to me. If I want to write about something, I write about it. If I don't, I won't.

I've had discussions with other bloggers over the past 12 months about Pay Per Post - and every time I've said "do what you want with your blog, but don't expect your readers to like sponsored posts". Now, this still rings absolutely true, and is the reason why you will never see any Pay Per Post type posts on this blog - I value my own integrity when writing here.

However, I have a whole raft of blogs, and one of them is ripe to make PPP type posts on - it's a blog which gets hundreds of visitors daily, has high PR, highish Alexa and so on. I write a post per day, so thought I could fit in a link now and then and be paid for it. I suppose a leopard can change it's stripes

My experience with Pay Per Post

Firstly, I had to create a "blogger" account. Seems easy? Sure.

Problem #1. I already had an "advertiser" account from back in the day - but my account was of the wrong type - and I could not find a way to change it to a "blogger" account. So I had to create a whole new account. No big deal, just a bit of a pain to have two accounts and two passwords for what is just 1 website. Ho hum.

Once you have created the right type of account, it's then time to add your blog(s) into the system. You get to see quite a helpful page which includes the following details;

click to see larger

Step 1 is completed quite easily. You simply fill out a form which has all your blog details and stats. As per the graphic, I was then attempting to go directly to Step 2. Obviously I did not read the small print, which shows that Step 2 (and 3) are available only after your blog is accepted.

Note to PPP. "Opportunites" should read "Opportunities" on the "3 steps" page.

OK, so I have to wait for my Blog to be reviewed and accepted - I can understand that. In the meantime, I wander off to the Forum and peruse what other users are saying. I find that a Sponsored Post, when written, may not contain any other forms of monetisation, including Adsense. Fair enough. All bloggers must also use a Disclosure Policy and tag each post with a link to said policy. Again, good stuff - agree totally with that.
Problem #2. I had to work out a way to get rid of Adsense only on posts that will be PPP. 10 minutes of coding work later and this is done. I should not have had to do this, sample code should be readily available on the PPP site. I also made it so that the link to "disclosure policy" automatically appears on PPP posts.

My Blog ain't good enough…

My blog has been reviewed…

I was unable to find a link to your archives. Please make sure that it is in plain site and that your archives list chronologically, not categorically. Also, the archives cannot be just 'previous pages.' For example, it should be set up to where I could find a post on Jan. 30th very quickly. Please re-submit when this requirement has been met. In the meantime, feel free to use PPP Direct and Affiliate tools while you work on meeting the requirements of our Marketplace!

There is absolutely no mention of this when signing up. If I don't want to have Archives on my site, I shouldn't have to. After all, a PPP sponsored post is good for only 30 days - after which it can be deleted. What's the point of Archives? A search facility is just as good, if not better.

So, I add archives into the sidebar - it takes no more than 30 seconds. I then try to find out how to re-submit the blog - it's not explained in the rejection email and the blogger dashboard is not intuitive.

Problem #3. The help files/FAQ are no help as I cannot find them! Do they even exist?

So I open a Support Ticket…

I ask how to re-submit a blog. A day later I get a reply telling me I have to "edit" my blog details - even though those details have not changed. Isn't that intuitive?

So I do that. As of now it is 7 days later and my blog is still not approved (or rejected). It appears that the blog is in some sort of PPP limbo.

So, as I know that Dan Rua has some clout with PPP (he is THE man, apparently) and that he reads the osWorld blog now and then - perhaps he can have a look at how PPP deal with new bloggers, the ways and processes of the unbelievably poor PPP dashboard, the lack of a FAQ, and the speed at which PPP reviewers actually review blogs!

Conclusion

I'm about to delete my blog from my account. I'll then ask PPP to delete both my blogger account and my advertiser account. There are lots of other ways to make money online - and I was never that enamoured with the PPP style of earning anyway.