Welcome to Something for Nothing

Over on my blog called Smuggle Me, I’ve started what I’m calling Quick Blogging. It’s a revolution in blogging that I’m pretty sure all bloggers will want to participate in. I won’t really be doing Quick Blogging on this blog. Although, maybe it will just become who I am and I will. However, I think the idea of Quick Blogging is great. If you aren’t a blogger, then you won’t understand quick blogging. Let me help you understand if you are a true blogger.

Do you drive in your car thinking about how you want to blog about something you heard on the radio?

You might be a true blogger.

Do you lay in bed at night writing posts in your mind?

You might be a true blogger.

Do you tell your wife that something will make a great blog post?

You might be a true blogger.

Do you scream at your kids for making a mess?

You are NOT a true blogger.

Do you get excited when your kids make a mess, because that means you now have a Great blog post?

You ARE a true blogger.

If you consider commenting on blogs, social interaction…

You are a true blogger.

Now for all of you out there that don’t do these things. It’s ok, you could start.

One other key element to a true blogger is that very few of these potentially great blog posts make it to your blog.

This is the essence of Quick Blogging. I’m releasing all of you from thinking great blog posts which never get to see. You shall no longer be afraid to post something you’ve thought. You shall no longer say that’s a great post, but I’ll get to it later.

In Quick Blogging…

You Think It…

You Blog it!!

PayPerPost has started a new affiliate program that is designed to help bloggers get more traffic to their blogs while getting more people involved in PayPerPost. They call it Review my Post.

From a blogger’s perspective Review My Post is a great idea to be able to generate traffic for your blog. Essentially people will get paid $7.50 to do a review of any post on my blog that includes the following image:

I think it is pretty creative of them to come up with a program like this. I must admit that it is a little confusing to put your head around. Also, if I just do the regular referral program I can get paid $15 for someone that signs up.

So, do I prefer a link to my blog on someone else’s blog or would I rather have the extra $7.50? Well, I guess it’s a decent trade off either way for a blogger. With PayPerPost’s new way of classifying blogs and paying them according to their PR, Alexa ranking, and tack rating the extra link will become more valuable.

From PayPerPost’s perspective this is a really good way for them to get new bloggers to join PayPerPost. I still would have to argue two things that PayPerPost needs to do to really get traction for their product.

1. Get as many quality advertisers as possible. Bring advertisers and bloggers will come.
2. Get higher page rank bloggers to use PPP. This will be a challenge.

Unfortunately, it’s kind of like which came first, the chicken or the egg. You can’t get Advertisers without big time bloggers. You can’t get big time bloggers without advertisers.

I guess one secret of the “Review My Post” program is that PayPerPost is trying to help its current bloggers become big time bloggers. I know they’ve helped my blogs. I just had one blog go from PR 1 to PR 5. Not a bad jump and it absolutely wouldn’t have been possible without PayPerPost.

Well, things have really been busy for me. Sorry for all those that have been reading my blog and haven’t found me around. I have my new little girl that is taking up a fair amount of time. She is beautiful and great. You can check out my new baby girl on my family blog.

I’m back on board, but I also have started to pick things up at my Crowdsourcing and Entrepreneurship blog. I’m really excited about what it could become. It’s something that I think could really add value to my future career. Whereas this blog is just one that I do because I love blogging. Anyway, watch for more info over time.

I’m working on my masters degree in Information Systems at UNLV. One of my fellow students is working on his Masters Thesis on blogging. He’s asked for help in distributing a survey he’s created for his research. Here’s the message he sent me:

A group of researchers at University of Nevada, Las Vegasو are investigating effects of Weblogs on “Social Interactions” and “Trust”. Therefore, they have designed an online survey. By participating in this survey you will help researches in “Management Information Systems” and “Sociology”. You must be at least 18 years old to participate in this survey. It will take 5 to 12 minutes of your valuable time.

Your participation is greatly appreciated. Survey for Research on Blogging.

I’d appreciate anyone who takes the time to fill out this survey for my friend.

I’ve been pretty open in my enjoyment of PayPerPost. Well, recently I’ve cooled off on the PayPerPost product. I think the biggest problem has been the lack of great opportunities and the diminishing number of advertisers that are using PayPerPost. I absolutely believe that in order for PayPerPost to make good on their $3 million in funding, they need to sign up a TON more advertisers. I sincerely believe that if PayPerPost has enough advertisers, then they will have absolutely have no problem finding more bloggers for their product.

I was recently asked about these comments from Website Magazine who is doing an article on PayPerPost. I spent so much time on these comments that I decided to offer them on my blog. I call it some free consulting for PayPerPost. You have to read it from my point of view writing to a reporter, and no I didn’t proof read this. You’ll just have to enjoy it as is.

Finding advertisers is a huge challenge for almost any company. Advertising budget is one of the first things to go and is hugely hit or miss in my opinion. I haven’t thought much about it from an advertising perspective, but I’ll tell you the first thing off the top of my head.

A few things that PayPerPost has done recently to improve their ability to get advertisers:
-removed the countrackula link so that it isn’t as trackable by Google
-required saying that it was a sponsored post (although they could improve this part)
-purchasing performancing which will allow them to better filter bloggers for advertisers and also to provide advertisers with quality feedback on the ads on people’s blogs
-signing up HP

It’s going to be really key to see how well PayPerPost can implement performancing’s metrics program. That will be a big challenge and may determine their success in the long run.

HP’s success as the first major corporate sponsor will be crucial to signing up future advertisers.

I think PayPerPost has missed the boat in not creating an affiliate program for posties who sign up advertisers. I don’t think this would take much to accomplish and could yield new advertisers.

I think that PayPerPost could be very valuable in getting feedback on a product or service and creating a buzz over that product and service. The service could be refined a little, but getting good quality feedback on a website is worth a lot of money and bloggers are a great way to get feedback. It does take some managing of the responses, but I think there’s some definite value in bloggers feedback. Plus, as a review the blog post seems much more natural.

Major enhancements to the way advertising opportunities are displayed could significantly improve PayPerPost’s product offering. They have a sort of rotating links, but there is a whole lot more that could be done to better promote a company.

So far the community at PayPerPost has really been blogger heavy. PayPerPost’s promotion to bloggers has been excellent. The same can’t be said for advertisers. I think they should focus more effort on advertier testimonials and other advertising stories and promotions.

I’m not the best salesman in the world. In fact, I’d say that’s my weakness. However, these are some thoughts off the top of my head.

I just reread your question an realized that I answered a different question than you asked, but I think there’s a few things in what I said that apply to your question. Here’s my short synopsis of the value an advertiser can receive:
-SEO link value
-PR value
-Constructive feedback/Product Insight
-Blogger buzz (one blogger blogs and the other follows and the other follows that)
-Temporary Spike in Traffic

In order to allay fears:
-It’s very similar to a link from a blogger that just found your website and liked your product
-Make your opportunity creative so that you get a variety of responses that are valuable
-Use a higher Page Rank
-PPP should just be one layer in your internet marketing package
-Use a variety of links that are randomized

Those are really some tough questions [How do you sell advertisers on the value they can receive and how do you allay their fears]. I wonder what Ted would say to those questions. Also, if you want a good question to ask Ted. In the beginning almost all of the opportunities were from people that advertised with Ted’s other marketing company called MindComet. I’d be interested to know what percentage of advertisers have been MindComet clients. Second, how many of MindComet clients still want to use PayPerPost. In fact, why not call the MindComet people and see what they say about it.

Agree? Disagree?

Ted decided to brave the chilly temperatures of a Chicago winter and do a postie patrol. This was a pretty unique postie patrol since HP was sponsoring it and so there was sort of a theme and there was also much better give aways.

The funniest part of the whole video was when the postie had to tag herself with I (heart) HP on her forehead. Of course her comment after was that she should have done it earlier, because then more people would have probably helped her. Take a look at the video for yourself. It’s a little long.

I’m not sure how much I’d really like a postie patrol. Sure who wouldn’t like to get some cash and some HP gear and do some Digital Photo Printing, but it would depend a lot on what I had to do. I guess I’m just not adventurous like that. We’ll see. Either way, I’m pretty sure that PayPerPost won’t be choosing me for a postie patrol.

Brought to you by HP

Tagging is all the rave these days. All sorts of cool web 2.0 sites are using tagging to classify information. I can’t say that tagging isn’t a great idea. I actually really like a lot of the concepts of tagging.

The thing I don’t understand is what’s the difference between technorati tags on my blog and just categories which for all intensive purposes are tags. There’s even a Wordpress Category Technorati Tag Plugin. That’s a mouthful that doesn’t make much since. If I put a long list of tags at the bottom of my post am I really going to get any more traffic from technorati? My guess is no.

Now if you really want to see a great implementation of tagging using categories you should look at Wordpress.com’s tagging system. Take a look at the tag for my favorite (at least one of my favorite) TV shows So You Think You Can Dance. That tag has driven thousands of people to my blog. Now that’s the real power of tagging.

Everyone knows that I’m addicted to reality tv. It’s pretty much evidenced by this blog with all its reality tv and my other fully dedicated reality tv blog.

Of course being a techie, I’m even more interested in a reality TV show that is being shown completely online. It’s called RockStartup and basically follows Ted Murphy as he starts a new company. Oh yeah, it hits entrepreneurship which is another one of my interests (see my high school sports fundraiser idea).

Well, take a look at the third episode of the only reality tv show online (at least the only one I know of):

I like this episode quite a lot. It gives a nice insight into starting up a company. They already have rockstartup episode 4 out and I’m not as impressed with that episode. I’d like to see more start up and less drag, but that might just be me. I can’t wait to see more of this show as it progresses.

This post sponsored by:

I think there is something really interesting and unique happening online. People that could never have produced a TV show are now able to product a TV show and put it online at relatively low costs. I think that’s pretty neat.

Ted Murphy of MindComet and now PayPerPost fame is one of those that is testing this new media by creating an online reality TV show about him starting up a new company. I must admit that I’m completely interested in this type of web reality show. I love most of reality TV and since I have the heart of an entrepreneur I find it fascinating watching Ted go through starting his company. I have to admit that he seems to perform for the camera a little too much. At some points you can really see what Ted is really like and at others you can see Ted playing up for the camera.

What I like most is seeing some of the methods he uses to promote his business. It’s awesome to see a marketing person start a company. When I was doing my undergraduate degree at BYU I quickly learned that marketing was the key to any successful business. There are two people that are worth every penny you pay them if they are good. The first is a graphic designer. Creating a good looking site that funnels customers to the right places is worth it’s weight in gold. The second is the marketer. I don’t care what product you have, there is no such thing as a product selling itself. It’s a myth. There are products that are easier to sell than others, but they all require effort to be a success. This is a long story of why I think Ted is so interesting. He knows marketing well and while not all of his marketing efforts are a success, he’s always thinking about the next way to market an idea.

Here’s the latest two episodes of Rock Startup. I enjoyed them. I think you will too:
Episode 1 - The Setup (8:34min)
Learn about the background of the show and what it’s all about. Take a trip with Ted and Britt to New York to setup for a tradeshow.

Episode 2 - The Trade Show Boogie (8:25min)
Ted and Britt tackle The Today Show and Ad:Tech in New York City. Tag along to see Ted get a little nervous.

My wife recently blogged about my addiction to PayPerPost. I must admit that it isn’t PayPerPost that I’m addicted to. I’m addicted to the money that PayPerPost sends to me. Wouldn’t you want to make money from blogging? A quick look at my blog certainly tells you that I don’t mind ads on blogs. In fact, I think it’s great for people to put ads on their blog anytime that they want. The key is to find ads that actually pay for being on your blog. Well, PayPerPost puts the money where there ads are and so why wouldn’t I love PayPerPost?

What my wife doesn’t understand is that I love the community of people that do PayPerPost as much as blogging. There’s a great community on the PayPerPost forums that has become quite close. We take care of each other. We help each other. We teach each other. We pray for each other. We give advice to each other. We comment on each other’s blogs. It’s great.

Today, my wife even mentioned that she was thinking about getting started with PayPerPost. I have enough blogs that she could share in the fun. She was concerned that she wouldn’t be very good. If you read the article she wrote about addictions then you know she’ll be fine. Really she was just confused about how you got paid. She thought you were rated and that determined your pay. I think she’ll really enjoy it. The hardest part will be doing it with my son. I’ve got a plan though.

Here’s my plan (although I thought I posted this somewhere):

Each night when I come home I will take my son to the park. This will let my wife have some quiet time and could enjoy doing PayPerPost. She’d be able to blog about whatever and make a little extra money for our family. What do you think? I can see it working.