PayPerPost Direct

If by any chance you're reading this by visiting my blog instead of through your favorite feedreader, you might have noticed the new "PPP Direct" badge I've got in the sidebar. Wassit all about? It's PayPerPost's answer to competitors like ReviewMe, Blogitive, etc. Now advertisers can offer opportunities for sponsored posts to individual bloggers, with PayPerPost acting as the middleman. Sound familiar? That's because it is. But the cool part is, PPP's commission is a helluva lot smaller than their competitors. They collect a 10% fee, which I think is reasonable. I mean, compared to their usual "marketplace" commission, which is 35%, that's sweet, and compared to some of the other services like ReviewMe, which charge anywhere from 50% to a 100% commission, that's awesome.

All a PPP blogger has to do is login to their PPP account, click on "ppp tools", set their price, then cut and paste the code into their blog template and they're ready to go. Then advertisers can click on your badge (and I think there's also going to be a directory of PPP Direct bloggers that advertisers can use to find the blogs and bloggers they're looking for) and negotiate a deal with you. The advertiser gets the blog post they wanted, you make money blogging, and PayPerPost gets a cut for providing a sort of escrow service that ensures that neither party screws the other one.

Sounds easy enough, and I can't wait to find out if it really is as easy as it sounds.




Technorati Tags: PayPerPost, ReviewMe, Blogitive, problogging, paid content, sponsored blogging

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Payments for April 2007

eBay	$78.32
ReviewMe	$20.00
Blogitive	$5.00
PayPerPost	$20.00
ePoll	$30.00
Esearch surveys	$1.00
Lightspeed Panel surveys	$10.00
KRI Panel surveys	$15.00
Total:	$239.32
Year-to-Date:	$749.52

When I sat down to start this post, I was thinking it wasn't going to be a very good month. I knew the profits from eBay sales was going to be a lot lower than last month, and lower our average. But total income for the month turned out to be right about average, and came from a higher number of sources, which I'm happy about. After all, part of what I'm trying to do with this blog is show that there are lots of different ways to make money online. So I'm happy not to have all my eggs in one basket.

One reason for lower ebay profits this month is because we've just increased our prices, which was necessary due to increased import/shipping costs. Another is because we've launched some new advertising campaigns, which has resulted in quite a few new customers trying out our products. New customers usually make smaller purchases, especially the "trial pack" we offer, which only costs them a few dollars, and from which we make almost no profit. But we know that those low-cost trial packs are great for us in the longer term, so hopefully sales will pick up in the coming months. In any case, I'm definitely not complaining. Over $75 profit on around $275 in sales, and all I do is put up a few auction listings each week, answer a few inquiries, and a few trips a week to the Post Office or the nearest mailbox.

I'm also happy with the money I made from sponsored posts last month. $45 in total, with $20 from PayPerPost, $20 from ReviewMe, and $5 from Blogitive. I think that's probably about as much as I'll ever make in a month, unless I add sponsored posts to some other blogs. I really don't want to just start throwing up a bunch of sponsored posts that have nothing to do with the topics I normally blog about here at FCS, but I've been thinking that it might be a good idea to start a new blog, or re-purpose an old one, that's better suited to sponsored posts, affiliate sales, etc.

And the third way I made money in April was from online survey companies. $56 in total, with most of it paid in the form of Amazon gift certificates, which is just as good as cash in my particular case. I loooooove shopping at Amazon! That's more than I've earned from paid survey companies in a long time. What's changed? For one thing, I think many of the companies are sending out more surveys, so that helps. The only change I've made is that I've got all my survey invitations going to a single email address, and I'm trying to check that email account several times a day, and do the surveys ASAP. Some days I do the "screeners" and don't qualify for the full surveys, other days I do one or two surveys, so it probably averages out to be about 20 minutes of "work" a day.

So as it turns out, I'm quite happy with my earnings this month. Not only did I make over $200 that I wouldn't have otherwise made, but I did it doing stuff I enjoy anyway. Blogging, selling stuff on eBay, and sharing my opinions. Sweet!

Technorati Tags: make money online, PayPerPost, Blogitive, ReviewMe, eBay, paid surveys, ePoll, KRI Panel, LightSpeed Panel

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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.

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Get Paid to Review My Blog Post

You might've noticed a new graphic in the footer of each of my posts. The one that says "Get Paid to Review My Post -- PayPerPost. Wondering what it's all about?

Basically, it's a cool way for people to make money from PayPerPost. The way it works is, you click that little graphic, sign up to PayPerPost, and then write a review of my post. Once your review is approved, PayPerPost will pay you $7.50. And they pay me $7.50, too!

I think this is a pretty smart move on the part of PPP. It gets more bloggers to sign up and start making money through sponsored posts, and it not only rewards existing members for their referrals, but it also helps them get more links to their blogs. It's a win-win (uh, make that a win-win-win) situation.

All you need to get started is a blog. Written in English. And it has to be at least 90 days old, with at least 20 posts within those 90 days. In other words, you can't start up a new blog and start filling it up with sponsored posts. If you've got a blog that meets those requirements, click the little PayPerPost graphic, sign up, review my site, and start making money. If you don't have a blog that meets those requirements, why not start one and start blogging. Then don't forget to join PayPerPost in three months or so and start getting paid to blog.

Once you join, you can ever get paid for writing posts like this, talking about PayPerPost. That's right, this is a sponsored post. PPP is going to pay me $10 for it. This whole blog marketing thing is pretty cool, huh?

Payments for February 2007

This month, my online earnings were:

eBay: $137.44
PureProfile: $27.15
PayPerPost: $6.00
Total: $165.19

Year-to-date: $259.40

The eBay profits would've been higher, but we've had customers waiting since November for items on back-order, so we shipped their items free. We also had an item arrive damaged, so we sent a free replacement. All these things cut into profits in the short-term, but pays off nicely in the long-term, when happy buyers become repeat buyers.

The PureProfile payment took about a year to accumulate. I've been a member since 2002, and I've made over $100 from them. And I like the fact that they pay directly to my bank account, instead of mailing a check or paying via Paypal.

The PayPerPost payment was for a post about online coupons, sponsored by CouponChief.com. That's a total of $40 from PPP since I joined back in July 2006. They've expanded a lot since then, with an affiliate program (pays $15 when somebody signs up using your affiliate link, and then gets a post accepted), and the new "Review My Post" feature, where people can earn $7.50 from PayPerPost for writing a review of one of my blog posts. And even better, I get paid $7.50 as well!

Paid by PayPerPost

I recently got another payment from PayPerPost, which brings my total payments from them to $40, with another $5.50 pending. Not a lot, but not a bad way to get paid to blog.

And another thing that I like about PayPerPost (besides, you know, the "get paid to blog" thing) is that since a lot of the "opportunities" involve blogging about a new product, or a new website, it's another way for me to find cool new things on the web, and then blog about them. And get paid for blogging about them.

So what am I going to do with the money? At this point, my plan is to save up for an iPod shuffle. My wife's got one that she wears at the gym and she loves it. I borrowed it the other day and I can see why she does. Now I want one too!

It might take a while to do enough sponsored blog posts to get the money, but I'm in no rush. If I were, I'd have to get a bit more serious about this paid blogging stuff. I had no idea, but apparently the top PayPerPost bloggers have earned from $4,000 to $7,000. Thousands! They must be doing a couple of sponsored posts a day to pull in that kind of money.

I have to admit, the thought is tempting, but I don't want to fill up FreeCashSpace blog with a bunch of sponsored posts that don't really have anything to do with the main topics of the blog. Maybe what I need to do is submit a few more blogs to PayPerPost, so that I can put sponsored posts on different blogs. I think I'll have to give that some serious consideration.

In any case, I've already got $40 in the bank (well, actually in my Paypal account), and more on the way. In fact, I'll get paid for this post because PayPerPost reward members for letting everybody know that this "blog marketing" thing is real, and that you really can make money by including sponsored posts on your blogs. I've been paid 5 times now, with absolutely no hassles.

If you'd like to sign up and see what it's all about, click on the PayPerPost badge below and join.