Fly Plain Jane Mom. We love to fly and it shows. Well, replace "fly" with "eat"…

Note this post is from March 2007. There are no sponsored posts on Plain Jane Mom.

(Update: Check out my mid-point report from March 16th, 2007.)

This is not a sponsored post.

So you’ll probably have noticed that I have “Sponsored Posts” on my site these days. Yep, it’s true. Some might say I’ve crossed over to the dark side. And I know for sure some of you out there are shaking your wagging-finger at me.

“Bad blogger, bad blogger! Polluting the Blogosphere! Blog Whore!”

I’m not going to debate the correctness of getting paid to post reviews of companies or products, but I do want to be really open about it. I’m not hanging my head in shame and hiding in a corner. I’m trying an experiment that will hopefully help my family’s financial situation.

I’m giving it a month and then I’ll see where I stand. My criteria for success:

  • Making a decent amount of money. I can’t say what that is in absolute numbers as it has to compensate me for my time writing the paid posts. At the end of the month I’ll look at the money earned and weigh that against the time and any aggravation in the process.
  • Not pissing off my readers. Do you hate what I’m doing? Are you going to stomp off in a huff and stop reading my blog? Leave a comment on your way out so I know that’s what happened.

You’ll always know right away when you’re looking at a post I’ve gotten paid for — the first sentence will be “This is a sponsored post.” Let me know if I’ve become a whore. If so, I’ll need to get new clothes.


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17 responses to “Fly Plain Jane Mom. We love to fly and it shows. Well, replace "fly" with "eat"…”

  1. Karly Avatar

    I have no problem with sponsored posts. Its your blog, make money off it! I don’t usually read the sponsored posts, though, unless its a product I was already interested in. ;)

  2. Robin Avatar

    I don’t have a problem with it. It’s not like you’re trying to trick us, or force us to read something we don’t want to read. What is the blogosphere for, if not experimentation?

    Besides, your clothes don’t matter here anyway – we can’t see you.

    8-]

  3. whitetrashmom Avatar

    Selling out is a luxury for people that don’t really need to pay the bills. You have good writing that people like to read—-if some of it is sponsored and that is seen as a “turn-off” then WTM says WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE. It’s a capitalist system. Baby has got to have new shoes.

    Good writing is good writing—-it does not matter if it’s “sponsored”.

  4. viv Avatar

    Totally off-topic, but I love your stuff. I guess it isn’t off-topic, really, because if sponsors are what you need to write, than I am fine with that. I’ve blogrolled your site, and I will be coming back.

  5. Plain Jane Mom Avatar

    Can I just say again how much I love all y’all? This is what I mean by not wanting to piss off this great community. Thank you so much for your support.

    Of course I still want to hear ALL opinions. If you’ve got negatives, please bring it. I want all this out in the open.

  6. Elizabeth Avatar

    This is one of those weird coincidences that happen in the “blogosphere” all the time-I wrote a post today about how I had decided to join PayPerPost, and how I was promising my readers that it wouldn’t change the quality of my writing. But, I didn’t use the word “whore” in my post, do you think I should go back and add it somewhere?? LOL

    I figure if Blogher is using PayPerPost as a sponsor for their Business Conference this year, it must not be that bad. And money is money, and I do like to eat and occasionally buy shoes. So, I’ll definitely keep reading here!

  7. Plain Jane Mom Avatar

    PPP is a sponsor for the BlogHer biz conference? That’s really, really interesting to me. Hmmm. BlogHer ads (the ones at the top right of my pages) cannot be shown on PPP posts. Again I say hmmm.

    And yes, you must go back and use the word “whore” in your post. Didn’t you read the PPP agreement? Sheesh.

  8. karrie Avatar

    I’m not in favor of having paid posts on my site,but the occasional paid post or ad on other blogs doesn’t stop me from reading–unless it is really cluttered or overdone.

    Good luck!

  9. Jamie Avatar

    I did my first paid review a while back through ReviewMe. It does not bother me in the least as long as you are up front about it being a paid review. With two kids in full time daycare I will take all the extra moolah I can bring in. I also do reviews for free products but I try to be very picky about what products I review.

    So I’m a blog whore right there with ya! ;)

  10. Mom on Coffee Avatar

    I think its fine when bloggers present as you have, in a short blub where if one wanted to read it, they simply click to read it. However, it isn’t intrusive on the concept of the blog. Good for you!

  11. Suzanne Avatar

    I say, good for you. You can’t please everyone, so it’s most important that you please yourself. And I think you handled this whole topic beautifully. I hope that it does yield a good amount of income for you.

    Keep on rockin!

  12. crunchy Avatar

    I have been messing around with it on my Crunchy Ramblings site… I have been hesitant about it on my CC site for some reason.

    I keep hoping the ad dollars would be enough.

    I am just looking for something to pay for the hosting and all that…..

    and it doesn’t bother me…the blogs I frequent that do it alot all have come up with good ways to deal and so more power to them!

  13. Soccer Dad Avatar

    I’m not a huge PayPerPost fan, but wouldn’t hold it against you. You’ve made them easy to ignore :)

    But I think it’s irksome that they seem to have made you pull all your other advertising (or maybe you did that on your own) I’m not about to give that much control over my site to an outside party, even if I made more off PPP than ads (likely) I tend ti tinker with ads more to learn about various types of advertising and such – if I clear $200/mon in advertising – rock on! :)

    That said – I find PPP kind of useless and I think over time the advertisers will too. Any time you go to a blog and read ‘this is a sponsored post’ it’s very hard to stay objective in reading the post because you know the author probably wasn’t all that objective about it – I mean how many products you review have you used, etc. Most PPP posts I’ve seen on various sites seem like regurgitated talking points from the products marketing people. Shoot – why not just pay me the same $$$$ and I’ll give you a 400×500 ad box or something to put your own ad in and we’ll call it even :)

    So, no, not going to hold PPP against you. But I wonder if it’ll last that much longer and if it’s worth all the hassle. Besides, I have to admit I’m kind of like a kid at Christmas when I open my inbox and see “You have a new pending ad from (textlinkads, blogads, etc)” Always interesting to see who wants to actually advertise on my site.

    Weird, I know :)

  14. Plain Jane Mom Avatar

    Soccer Dad: just to be clear, PPP didn’t ask me to do anything about the other ads on my site. I took them down myself since I was doing PPP ads on my site instead.

    And yeah, I like getting email that I have a new BlogAds ad, but I prefer getting $50 for a post that took me 10 minutes to write instead ;)

  15. Soccer Dad Avatar

    Yeah, I can see the financial aspect. I just wonder how long that’ll last – for $50 (and it obviously costs the advertiser more since ppp gets a cut) You have to wonder if the PPP posts people write are generating more clicks than your average square web ad.

    Definitely interesting – good luck with the experiment – look forward to hearing how it goes after the month is over!

  16. Karen Avatar
    Karen

    It’s my first time here and I thought it wasn’t too bad and as long as the ads don’t flash or pop-up whilst reading your blog I don’t have a problem with it. I just hope they are making it worth your while.

  17. […] started an experiment to try writing posts for Pay Per Post and ReviewMe — go ahead and read Part 1 and Part 2 of my notes on it if you haven’t […]

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