Look around the blogosphere and you’ll probably hear alot of discontentment from posties writing for a big paid post company which boasts more than 50k posties. You know whom I’m talking about right?

Their recent Term of Services dictates there should be an interim post placed between ALL sponsored posts. Not only their sponsored posts, all sponsored post from their competition as well. Nevermind the competition allows back-to-back paid posts.

I was initially saddened by their decision. Frankly, it does not affect me in anyway. I’m only writing for them and occasionally for Bloggerwave which does not present plenty of opportunities in the first place. The rationale behind their new TOS is because they want quality blogs. Quality blogs that constitute at least 50% paid and non-paid posts to balance the credibility of the blog itself.

From a neutral standpoint, I can understand what they’re driving at. I’m going to be dead honest, I’ve seen plenty of blogs which is totally made up of paid posts with no original content. Ok, maybe a few lines or two to break the ice, but definitely a blog you would not bookmark and come back for read. I do ask myself, “gee, do people actually read these blogs?” Obviously the blogger cannot care less. Readers do not pay… the paid posts do.

Now, I am not to judge what a blogger can or cannot do to their blogs. It’s their life, it’s their choice. From my own standpoint as a blog reader, I can say I won’t read such blogs. This is my choice and this is my thought. I am not saying everyone should prescribe to my view, but then I’m merely presenting my view. According to that big paid post company, these are the blogs they are trying to weed out. I’m with them.

Honestly, I can understand from an advertiser’s standpoint, it is just no good paying these blogs to write about my products when these blog owners care zit about readership.

Having said that, I’ve seen quality good blogs which can carry a good balance. But then when it comes to good blogs, this is always subjective. Paid post companies cannot afford to view each individual blog for assessment and therefore the only way to weed out non-quality blogs is to assume a conservative 50-50 ratio between paid and non-paid posts for a reasonably ‘quality’ blog. I know, there are grey areas in this assumption. I do not dispute that.

A lot of bloggers who solely keep their blogs for monetary purposes without regards to quality or contents, should understand there is a world of difference between what works for you and what works for the advertisers. An understanding should be reached. You can of course disregard what the advertisers want and dwell on ‘what works for me, period’ but at the end of the day, it is the advertisers that pay. At least the advertisers at PPP.

Am I happy PPP is finally taking some quality control? Definitely.

Am I happy they’re changing their TOS? No, I am not. I know it does not affect me, but then I do feel the blog is mine and I should have my say on what I want to post.

Am I leaving them because of this? No. It is just sad innocent bystanders are caught in the cross-fire as casualties of war.

A war PPP should have fought earlier on with a simple more stringent acceptance policy to only allow quality blogs.

This entry was posted on Thursday, September 6th, 2007 at 7:12 pm and is filed under rants. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.