V7N Contextual Links -- No Disclosure Allowed
A couple of days I read about V7N Contextual Links (sorry, I can't remember where I read about them) and signed up to see what it was all about. Essentially, you submit your blogs, and advertisers pay you for links. The links don't have to be in posts about the site you're linking to, although there should be a broad connection. For example, if a car dealership was paying you for a link, you could put it in any post (even an old post) about cars, car sales, etc.
So today I got my first "Link Placement Request." Interestingly, they run the whole thing through the V7N Forum, so the "placement request" came in the form of an email notification that I'd received a private message at the forum. The message told me which blog the link was to be placed in, the URL for the link, and a few instructions. All I had to do was write the post (if I didn't have an old post that would do the trick), then reply to the PM with the URL of the post, and I'd have $10 in my Paypal account within 24 hours. Sweet!
Except for one problem. The last sentence in the instructions was "Publishers MAY NOT disclose the fact that the link is paid." No disclosure. It's not an option. In fact, it's forbidden. Which means I won't be doing it.
Apparently for a lot of people, this is old news. Darren at ProBlogger talked about V7N Contextual a couple of months ago. I must've missed it. Too bad, because if I'd read his review, I wouldn't have signed up for it in the first place. The no-disclosure thing makes it something I don't really want to get involved with.
And it got me thinking more about the "paid content" companies I am involved with, like PayPerPost, Blogitive and ReviewMe. With those posts, I always disclose that they're sponsored posts. And I try to make sure the sponsored posts fit reasonably well into the general themes and subjects of the blog I'm posting them on (although I'll admit that sometimes it's a bit of a streeeeeeeetch). And I don't accept offers where I'm not free to say what I want -- positive, negative, or neutral.
And I can see the "product placement" comparison. V7N doesn't require a review, or a testimonial or anything. No opinion or commentary required. Just a link. Then they pay you for the link, on the condition that you don't tell anybody you've been paid for including it.
It also got me thinking about the Amazon Context Links. I don't disclose that each of those links is an affiliate link. I don't even create the links myself. I let Amazon do it. So why does that feel OK, while the thing with V7N doesn't? I guess it's because I figure anybody seeing one of those links knows that it's an affiliate link. There's nothing sneaky about it (is there?), but with V7N, I feel like there is something sneaky going on. And sneaky doesn't really fit in with what this blog is all about -- making money online without having to get involved in a bunch of sneaky or shady stuff.
So today I got my first "Link Placement Request." Interestingly, they run the whole thing through the V7N Forum, so the "placement request" came in the form of an email notification that I'd received a private message at the forum. The message told me which blog the link was to be placed in, the URL for the link, and a few instructions. All I had to do was write the post (if I didn't have an old post that would do the trick), then reply to the PM with the URL of the post, and I'd have $10 in my Paypal account within 24 hours. Sweet!
Except for one problem. The last sentence in the instructions was "Publishers MAY NOT disclose the fact that the link is paid." No disclosure. It's not an option. In fact, it's forbidden. Which means I won't be doing it.
Apparently for a lot of people, this is old news. Darren at ProBlogger talked about V7N Contextual a couple of months ago. I must've missed it. Too bad, because if I'd read his review, I wouldn't have signed up for it in the first place. The no-disclosure thing makes it something I don't really want to get involved with.
And it got me thinking more about the "paid content" companies I am involved with, like PayPerPost, Blogitive and ReviewMe. With those posts, I always disclose that they're sponsored posts. And I try to make sure the sponsored posts fit reasonably well into the general themes and subjects of the blog I'm posting them on (although I'll admit that sometimes it's a bit of a streeeeeeeetch). And I don't accept offers where I'm not free to say what I want -- positive, negative, or neutral.
And I can see the "product placement" comparison. V7N doesn't require a review, or a testimonial or anything. No opinion or commentary required. Just a link. Then they pay you for the link, on the condition that you don't tell anybody you've been paid for including it.
It also got me thinking about the Amazon Context Links. I don't disclose that each of those links is an affiliate link. I don't even create the links myself. I let Amazon do it. So why does that feel OK, while the thing with V7N doesn't? I guess it's because I figure anybody seeing one of those links knows that it's an affiliate link. There's nothing sneaky about it (is there?), but with V7N, I feel like there is something sneaky going on. And sneaky doesn't really fit in with what this blog is all about -- making money online without having to get involved in a bunch of sneaky or shady stuff.
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Labels: Amazon, Blogitive, Paid Content, PayPerPost, ReviewMe
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