for W3c validation

I wanted to weigh in on PayPerPost, the most recent company to get funded in this Web 2.0 world that is seeming more and more like 1999- I don’t think it will work and I can’t believe they raised $3 million! There is a large difference between sponsored posts (where the host blogger doesn’t actually write the article) and a post where the blogger gets paid. My reasons why this payperpost model won’t work? Two main reasons-

1. For one, I think bloggers that get paid to write about something will produce crappy posts for the most part. Forced blogging hardly ever works. Just relate forced blogging to a forced job to get an idea about how bad of an idea this is. I’ve worked in warehouse jobs when I was younger and I occasionally worked with people who would literally slam a brand new DVD player against the side of a truck just for fun. Abuses such as these are sure to occur at some point with a payperpost model where the blogger is being forced to blog about a certain company. Sure, everyone needs to make money somehow. However, I’m sure you’ve heard people say that passionate people are always the most successful. IMO, the same holds true in blogging- if you don’t love doing it, you’re not going to be good at it. And chances are you won’t love writing on companies that “force you” (by paying you) to write about them.
2. Secondly, bloggers are going to revolt against bloggers participating, particularly if it becomes known that certain bloggers don’t disclose when they are getting paid to write a certain post. Those that do this will suffer a large decline in readership. The blogosphere will find out who they are eventually- word of mouth spreads like wildfire in blogging.

I think advertisers can find better uses of their money than to pay a blogger to write a post about them. If you want to advertise on blogs, PLEASE write the post yourself and mark it as a sponsored post or get your logo on a prominent blog by paying for an ad placement. If you want to read more about this subject, Rob Hof of BusinessWeek covers the news here and there is also a podcast here!