Affiliate Programs

With Googles latest rampage against paid links, some are questioning whether or not this is the death blow to the pay-per-post type companies.

Since Google seems to have manually decreased the page rank of several high profile websites, it’s clear they’re trying to send a message to blogs and websites. Use paid links and we’ll slap your site down.

I’m not a pay-per-poster. I’ve thought about it many times, but honestly I’ve just never got around to signing up. I do have a few blogs that might do well, but it seems like you have to be on top of the request or miss out. I don’t have that kind of time.

Let’s face it. Many companies who hire pay-per-post companies to blog about their product or service want two things. Many want the PR that a blog can pass to their website while others want visitors. If you get both, that’s just a bonus!

The Problem With Pay-Per-Post’s As Seen Through Google’s Eyes

Google sees pay-per-post’s as paid links. Clear and simple.

Pay-per-posters say these are nothing more than paid reviews.

So who’s right? Well, since Google owns the search engines, if they say it’s a paid link and treat paid post as paid links, it doesn’t matter who’s right! It’s Google’s game and if you want to play, you have to play it their way or they take their toys and go home.

Unless, you can make them think you’re playing their game while you really play it your way

I do find it interesting unethical that Google sells paid links, but they don’t remove page rank from their site. This goes to show that Google feels their site is more important than any others.

Can Pay-Per-Posters Survive Without Google?

A problem occurs when Google starts removing page rank from websites and blogs because it cost the blog owner in the price people are willing to pay for a review.  High PR sites command top dollar. Advertisers and pay-per-post companies use PR as one of the ways they determine what to pay a blogger. A low PR site will make less than one that is PR5 or PR6.

In order to survive in the future, I believe bloggers will have to convince pay-per-post companies and advertisers alike that PR is not an accurate way to judge a blog.

Traffic stats are one way a blogger can try and convince companies and advertisers that they can deliver targeted leads. But everyone knows that traffic stats can be manipulated.

Forget about using Alexa. Their stats can be inflated also.

So what is a blogger suppose to do?

I have no idea! But as long as pay-per-post companies and advertisers insist on using PageRank to judge a blog, Posters will continue to get less and less money per post.

You can include the “nofollow” attribute to all outgoing links in a paid review, but then will advertisers till pay top dollar for a paid post? They haven’t been willing to up to this point and I don’t see them willing to do this in the short term unless you have a high traffic site like John Chow’s.

I believe the wiser bloggers will figure out a way to sell paid post’s. Ways Google can not detect.

What Bloggers Should Do To Prepare For The Future

Lately I’ve seen a lot of blog networks popping up that were built for nothing more than paid reviews. A lot like back in the day when content sites were popping up in order to capitalize on Adsense.

Where are all the MFA (Made For Adsense) sites now? They’re either at the bottom of the Search engines or they’re cleverily disguised as content rich sites.

If I were a paid-per-poster and my blog was my only income, I’d be a little worried about right now.

First off, the last thing I would do is start making more Made For Review blogs.

Putting all your eggs in the pay-per-post basket is dangerous. Think Enron.

Blog owners will have to diversify if they’re going to survive.

Continue to build your traffic and implement affiliate programs into your blogs. It certainly wouldn’t hurt to have content rich blogs and websites set up with affiliate program.

Many bloggers are very talented. You should consider writing eBooks or eCourses on your subject matter and sell those on your website. You can also start your own affiliate program and have others sell your ebooks and courses if you want to make more money. After all, people come to your site to get the information you’re offering. They’ll buy your ebook also!

As I stated above, I’d work on the stealth links and stealth post.

As the last resort, you can agree to settle for less money and “nofollow” all links from a paid review. Which means you’ll have to work more to make the same amount of money you did before…which means less free time. More time and money is one reason people have turned to blogs to supplement their income. Now it’s back to the drawing board!