Mid-point report on my sponsored post experiment

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

As you know, on March 1st, 2007 I started writing sponsored posts for PayPerPost.com, and I am now at about the half-way point of my one month experiment. (Read the first post on this topic to get caught up.) I’ll be honest: I’m on the fence about it, and it is really, really easy to say why. Pro: I have made very good money. Con: lots of ads on my blog. (Today PPP asked me to make a change to the way I was displaying the posts on my site.)

After evaluating the past couple of weeks I’m going to make a couple of changes to what I do.

  • First of all, I’m going to remove the other ads I have on this site. There’s one pre-paid from a company I really like that will stay up for another month, but after that I won’t take new sidebar ads.
  • I have already been skipping PPP posts that pay under a certain amount, and now I am going to raise that threshold. This will mean fewer PPP posts on my site.

And now for the big question: How much have I made so far? That’s an interesting question without a simple answer. I’ll explain how it works.

After you sign up with PPP you check their site to see what posts (called “opportunities” or “opps”) are available right then. If you see something that you qualify for (by subject matter, pagerank, alexa score, and / or technorati rank) you click it to “reserve” it for an hour.

You have up to an hour to write the post, post it on your site, and submit the link back to your PPP account. At that point you just wait. Some time during the next 2 weeks or so you’ll get an email saying that your post has been reviewed and approved for payment. (I’ve not yet had a post rejected, but that can also happen.)

30 days after you first submitted your post you get paid via PayPal. Since I have only been doing this for 16 days I haven’t gotten payments yet, but I have had a number of my posts approved. I do worry, though, about posts getting rejected, but I’ll just have to wait and see if that happens.

Anyway, back to the question of how much I have made. In 16 days I have done 33 posts, and if all these posts get approved I will have made $630. Each post takes me much less than the allotted hour to complete, so that’s a pretty good return on my time. The question is, do I have a price? And is it a thousand dollars a month? I’ll get back to you in April.

(This was not a sponsored post.)


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12 responses to “Mid-point report on my sponsored post experiment”

  1. Toni Avatar

    Hum… I have seen these popping up everywhere! I checked into it a little, b/c who can’t use a few extra bucks? I decided for me, personally, it’s not why I started blogging. I want to be the only one who has control over my blog. If you are comfortable with it, continue to do it. As for your price… only you can decide!

  2. Ivy Avatar

    Holy moley. That’s a totally decent amount of money. That’s kind of surprising, I didn’t think there would be that much money in it.

  3. Plain Jane Mom Avatar

    Ivy, I agree. It is real money, and that’s why I really have to figure out what I want to do…

  4. sherry Avatar

    It’s really nice. I managed to make enough money off a series of PPP entries that I did back in January that I actually managed to pay for my baby’s birthday party. That was great.

    It’s changed a lot though. You used to be able to take any opportunity as long as you fit the category but now there are so many ads I don’t qualify for. I’m not super high ranking but I’m higher than average and *I* get discouraged so I can see how PPP could get really discouraging for a blogger who only started, say, a couple of months ago and can only qualify for five ads.

    It’s really easy money though! I just try to stick with things that don’t bother me morally, and I like the payoff!

  5. Jamie Avatar

    I’ve done one review for ReviewMe.com and made a whopping $30! But the companies contact you so it’s not as profitable. But still.

    You have made a chunk of change, though!

  6. design mom Avatar

    Jane, I can’t tell you how much I appreciate your candor on the topic. I never have a sense of how much people are making from ads/pay per posts/etc.

    You’re the best!

    I hope next month your earnings double!!

  7. Can You Actually Make Money Blogging?…

    Plain Jane Mom tells her (extensive) readership exactly what she’s making from writing Product Reviews for a company called Pay-Per-Post….

  8. Suzanne Avatar

    That is some mad money. It sounds worthwhile to me. Good job!

  9. Her Bad Mother Avatar

    VERY interesting.

  10. Mama Luxe Avatar

    I gave it a brief spin as well.

    I couldn’t give it as good as a trial as you could because my high PR blog has too many gaps and my other blogs don’t have PR yet.

    I ran into logistical problems on the first post. I put it up the way they required and it was rejected. I fixed it, then they had changed a requirement. I fixed it again, and they then asked me to remove an Amazon.com script. I did and they never got back to me.

    In terms of looking at the bigger picture…to me it isn’t writing. Of course, PPP could inspire you to great artistic heights, but really the companies are paying for high Page Rank links. So, the question becomes, are they paying a fair price for what you are offering them.

    Given your popularity, I think you could make more doing less.

    For me, personally, I know I make more with my “real” job than I can with PPP at this time. So, it isn’t worth it financially.

    At any rate, I look forward to hearing more from you about what you decide and why!

  11. susiej Avatar

    Thank you for being so candid. I would appreciate a blogger I trust writing a ppp article.

    I assume you wouldn’t take an assignment about a product you believe in and secondly, I think you would be truthful.

    If you can write, and they want to pay you to help spread the word about their product — then go for it.

    susiej’s latest post: Get more space in your refrigerator

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