Seth often has advice on how to blog better – choosing topics and so forth. And it is a pleasure to see that some can turn their passion into money – like Dooce. Others, like myself, whose passion is more self centered (competitive eating, some computer things here and there, Vegas, child rearing…I’m wondering where Sal learned to stand like that – and he doesn’t seem phased either, that Vanessa’s kind of leaning away) and thus, less generally interesting to any particular audience don’t get a chance to make money off such limited readership. Though I do have plenty of enemies reading up to plot their revenge…
Then enter PayPerPost – who wants to turn blogging into a means of income. They’re adding a personal touch to link farming and generating buzz around their products and their advertisers products. I’m having fun being part of their web experiment.
And their payouts are getting big. There’s a post around their movie – RockStartup – that could payout $1,000 – if your blog qualifies. And there’s another dozen or so that are over 30 bucks each too.
I think, by being on 360, I’ve got some inherent limits on how well my blog can be ranked via their algorithms, but it is nice to see that they’re pushing the envelope with their advertisers. (I think this particular promotion is their own, it’ll be a good case study for them to use with potential advertisers that want to get the word out.)
Anyway, I’ve got some “eat your own dog food” issues and I’ve found htis 360 environment comfortable, so I won’t be changing anytime soon. Not like some VP/GMs I know that want to get all professional and all (congrats on that GM title too by the way.) Maybe they’ll change their algorithms down the road sometime to help out their faithful, yet somewhat less focused bloggers.
Somehow 360 fell awkwardly between being a blogging platform and being a social network, and so gets no respect from either world. Alas.
But, I think the upside is exactly what you describe as your less-focused approach. People should be at the center, not topics or ideas. So, sometime, in another iteration, this type of blogging will move up the food chain.
Until then… well, we dont get of the any cool widgets, badges, or anything (pay-per-post) that the cool kids get…. major bummer.
does Mr. Kennedy (if I’m guessing right) get right of reply on ur post?
Yeah, the advertiser gets to “okay” the post before having to pay for it. And optionally give one a “star” rating. And maybe enough good star ratings helps in the valuation of the blog…someday.
I am still not sure what to think about 360… social network?…whore house?…mental vomittings?…therapy? For me it is mostly a way to unwind during my kiddos nap-time.