Never Attribute to Malice that which can be Explained by Imcompetence

TechCrunch » Blog Archive » PayPerPost.com offers to sell your soul

Some days things get handed to you on a platter.  Payperpost.com is a service that lays it all out there.  I recall last year Ross Mayfield had some soul searching because he was receiving books for free and then sometimes he'd write about them.  This shows Ross how bad things can actually get.

Payperpost.com pays you if you write things they like about their clients.  Oddly enough, it is not owned by Karl Rove, but by a fellow named Ted Murphy.

The rules are essentially: (1) write fluff about our client and (2) let us approve your fluff.

Journalistic integrity be damned!  I want some green to speak well of a product and/or service.

I love this stuff.  Somewhere, someday, someone (likely Ted Murphy) had to wake up and say, "I think it would be a good idea to pay people to post good opinions on their blogs."  And then, maybe in the shower think, "Why, this is such a good idea, I'll bet bloggers will love me.  They'll make so much money talking about the things they love!"

Again, this is a business decision that does not understand community.  One that was likely made with the "best" of intentions by people utterly ignorant of what community means.  On a lazy pre-fourth of July Friday, Murphy got his love in a blogstorm of angry postings (like this one).

As you can see.  People really hate this idea.  And that's reassuring.  The bloggers know that the way we'll monitize our blogging - if indeed we want such a thing - will not come from simply selling out to the Ted Murphies of the world.  Hell, I have a hard enough time justifying AdSense.

But conversation reaps its own rewards.  I've met amazing people through blogging that have provided me with incredible experiences and opportunities.  Blogging is a conversation and it leads to situations.  It is not an advertising vehicle for people with underdeveloped imaginations.

technorati tags:PayPerPost, blogging, community_indicators, bullinchinashop, ignorant, mindcomet, badpeople

Blogged with Flock

Comments

[Webomatica]

Hey J. I just wrote a post on "flogs" and PayPerPost and got an interesting comment from someone inviting to try out PayPerPost. Makes me feel a little smarmy, but I'm leaving that comment there in the interest of debate.

So I'm doing more research on the service and your post is pointing me in the direction that blog integrity is more important. Thanks.

[McNasty]

PayPerPost is done for. Ted Murphy's megalomania has finally crossed the line.

They've dropped the minimum payout to bloggers to fifty cents