Raven’s Range
Blather around a virtual range

IZEA (owners of the brand PayPerPost) just updated their terms of service, bless their pointy little heads. Before, your blog had to be ninety days old with at least one post a week, for a total of twenty posts. Now, before you qualify to do paid posts, your blog need only be thirty days old with a mere ten posts.

What is wrong with this picture?

It’s patently obvious that PPP is struggling

Regular readers by now should know why I’m still not friends with Google. My previous post highlighted how I thought that there was fault on all sides: the cultishness of an unfortunately vocal minority of PPP supporters, IZEA’s advertising on Google, and Google’s lack of even-handedness. But by making this move, IZEA really is not doing itself any favors.

The page-rank slapping has left numerous members who can’t get much work unless (like I suspect some do) they sit there hitting refresh all day on the job board…how boring! I’d rather use that time to improve my sites and find other income streams, or to go for a motorcycle ride. So, the solution, thinks IZEA? Yeah! Lower the standards! Let everyone in!

Sacrificial blogs and an insult to the longer-standing members

Why am I reminded of that scene in The Two Towers when the soldiers of Gondor, hopelessly outnumbered, go out to be slaughtered? That’s what the vast majority of these new blogs will be–spam blogs, set up solely to make a bit of dosh before their page rank is slapped down to zero, and then abandoned. It’s a real insult to those of us who’ve built our blogs up with good content, answered emails and comments, and added to the blogosphere with our writing and involvement. What value does that give to the advertisers?

The IZEA neighborhood was never a shiny new gated community. With the PR slap-down, it’s become a divided community with the haves and have-nots. Now, it’s going to be overrun with undesirables, the kind of people who, once they move in, turn it into a dangerous slum. Are advertisers really going to want to associate with that?

I’d urge IZEA to have a good rethink of their model and to understand that this is not a solution. In the short term it might help their cash flow but in the longer term it just causes further damage to an already tarnished reputation.

It’s not smart.

They did make one or two smart moves, though

The company has offered its advertisers a full manual review of all blog posts. The sploggers are not known for making an effort with their paid posting, and this process, while undoubtedly a more expensive add-on, might increase the overall quality. Before, posts were usually only checked to make sure they had the correct elements (disclosure, tracking links etc.) and not for quality.

And they’ve also set some systems in place for advertisers who change their minds to “reach out to bloggers” (presumably an easy way to mass-mail everyone who did their post). A time or two I’ve been contacted by an advertiser making a change. Most usually they want me to remove disclosure after they realise that their own page rank is being affected. (This is why all paid posts should be required to include nofollow tags.)

Since I refuse point blank to do posts without in-post disclosure, I generally just remove the post as I do all of them after a while (why should someone advertise on my site for free forever?) This leaves me with an ethical dilemma, wondering whether the requests are for real because many come from gmail or equivalent email accounts (and how unprofessional is that?) I usually just field them to customer service.

It’s therefore nice that the advertisers have the option of going to IZEA and asking for a mass email from a known and “trusted” (I now use the term loosely) source.

So, will I be getting a new job?

Oh, I dunno. For me, PPP has gone from an attempt to support my real goals of being a professional magazine writer to a bit of a hobby. One $15 post a day on each of my four main blogs would provide that support, but it’s not like I’m getting that any more. On the other hand, I can see the potential of building a network of blogs for promoting my book and projects such as Markeroni.

I’m definitely going to be directing my time and energy into sustainable income streams because with this last change I can’t help but feel that IZEA is sinking fast.

My message to IZEA

If I could say only one thing to IZEA it would be get their new social media site up and running fast, even if only in beta, and work on growing that.

If I could say two, I’d add this: For heaven’s sakes, revert back to your ninety-day, twenty-post requirement. Keep the sploggers out!

For now, I’m sticking around because there’s something just grimly funny and fascinating about watching this process, and I really am interested to know how this next adventure will unfold. Increasingly I feel like I’m on the outside looking in, and I’m gaining an object lesson in how I don’t want to treat my customers, i.e. as a disposable commodity.

One last thing

As annoyed as I was by overzealous moderators and clannish attitudes on the PPP forums, some members of PPP formed their own alternative forum. No moderation. No “silly little person for expecting the site to work properly.” No locked posts.

So now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to join a forum. ;)

Subscription links

If you enjoyed this post, please consider subscribing to the Raven's Range RSS feed! Click here for the raw feed or links to feed readers.

If you liked this, you might also like these

• I’m still not friends with Google (7)
• A little light reading (0)
• Can someone please explain this to me? (10)
• Cause and effect (0)
• This has not been my day (0)