Izea, Former PayPerPost
As its name shows it clearly, PayPerPost (PPP) is a program which pays bloggers to post about some given topics. They have recently re-branded themselves, so now they are also known as Izea. This article will further refer to PayPerPost, or Izea, as PPP.
Joining PPP as a publisher (blogger)
Publishers are people who publish various things on their websites. When you join advertising networks or paid-to-post programs, you’ll be called a publisher. PPP found an original name for publishers: posties. So, once you join with the purpose of writing paid reviews, you’ll become a postie.
Anybody can join PPP for free, the only condition being to have a PayPal account. Unfortunately, this is a must, so bloggers who live in countries not accepted by PayPal cannot use PPP.
When you fill in the registration form, you’ll be prompted to choose the account type. The options are: blogger, advertiser, or affiliate. If you want to write paid reviews on your blogs, you have to select blogger.
Then you’ll be able to submit your blog to PPP. As soon as you do it, you’ll be accepted into PPP Direct, which means that your blog will be listed in the PPP directory, and advertisers will be able to see it and contact you directly for a review. All you have to do is to insert a code in your blog’s template. The code is not visible for humans, but it will be detected by PPP robots which will get your blog listed in the directory.
If your blog is a semi-unknown, it is a very small probability that you’ll make a lot of money from this listing. You need more: you need access to the Marketplace. This will be granted to you after an editor manually revises and approves your blog.
What is PPP Marketplace
PPP Marketplace, as the name says, is an open market where all opportunities for paid reviews are published. The process goes like this:
For each opportunity you’ll be able to see the following:
- The amount of money you’ll be paid if you take that opportunity and write a valid post about it
- The requirements for your blog to be eligible to take the opportunity (PR, geo-location, RealRank)
- A brief description of the service or product you’ll have to write about, if you take the opportunity
How to get your blog accepted into the PPP Marketplace
Before submitting, make sure you fulfill all these requirements, as stated in PPP’s TOS (Terms Of Service):
1. Blogs Only. PayPerPost only accepts blogs, and not websites, message boards, e-mails, IM or other similar services.
2. English Only Blogs. The blog and all posts relating to PayPerPost Opportunities must be in the English language or such other language as is identified in the particular Opportunity.
3. Original Blog Content. The blog must contain original editorial content in addition to Opportunity-related or other paid posts. Blogs that exist primarily for payment will not be accepted.
4. Minimum Blog Age. Blogs must be live for a minimum of thirty (30) days, counted from the date of the blog’s first post, with at least ten (10) pre-existing posts written in the 30 days prior to registration with the PayPerPost Marketplace.
5. Chronological Archives. Blogs must have a chronological archive to verify age. Categorical archives will not be accepted. You acknowledge and agree that PayPerPost may also verify compliance with these age and posting requirements via a third party spider.
Even if it fulfills all above mentioned requirements, your blog is not eligible if it falls under any of the following categories:
1. No Follow Blogs. Blogs must not include nofollow tags in the robots meta tags, though Advertisers may request nofollows with their required links. See Section 3.5 Posting Regulations.
2. Photoblogs and Vlogs. Blogs whose posts are primarily composed of non-written entries (such as Photoblogs, comics, or vlogs).
3. Third Party Content Blogs. Blogs whose entries are made up entirely of song lyrics, quotes, poems, online quizzes/surveys, information directories, or other such lists that do not constitute written entries.
4. Community Blogs. Blogs with more than one contributor/author.
5. Blog For Money Blogs. “Blog for money” community blogs such as BlogCharm, BloggerParty and WritingUp.com.
For example, this blog cannot be accepted in the PPP Marketplace, because it is written by two authors.
How to write posts that get approved from the first time
After you take an opportunity, you have 6 hours to write your post and to submit it to PPP for approval. If you did something wrong, you’ll get an e-mail letting you know what you need to fix in order to get approval. This can be very annoying in the beginning, because very few people actually read the Terms Of Service, and then get upset because they have to work a lot to fix things that could have been avoided with a bit more attention.
These are the posting requirements, as stated in PPP’s Terms Of Service (TOS)
1. Frequency of Posts. You may post a maximum of three (3) PayPerPost Marketplace Opportunity-related posts per blog in any given day. PayPerPost posts may not appear consecutively on your blog. Each PayPerPost post must be immediately preceded and immediately followed by at least one non-sponsored, original content post. The prohibition on consecutive ’sponsored’ posts apply to both PayPerPost Direct and Marketplace Opportunities, as well as other sponsored posts from competitive services.
So, if you write for more than one pay-to-post networks, you’ll have to make sure that the PPP posts are preceded and followed by non-sponsored posts. This doesn’t mean you cannot use affiliate links in them. If you are honest, you won’t have problems.
2. Interim Posts. Your last non Opportunity-related post must have been within the seven (7) days immediately preceding your Opportunity-related post. After any break in blog activity of seven plus (7+) days, interim posts, that is, posts between Opportunity-related posts, submitted on the same day as your paid Opportunity-related posts will not count towards this requirement.
So, if you wrote today a non-sponsored post, and 8 days later you want to take a sponsored opportunity, you’ll have to write first a non-sponsored one, then to publish the sponsored post.
3. Private Posts. Interim posts must not be labeled “Private” or locked out. Interim posts must also be of a reasonable length, at least one (1) paragraph, three (3) to five (5) sentences. If your blog’s interim posts lack quality PayPerPost may terminate your account.
4. Obstructions. Elements on a blog page must not obscure any portion of an Opportunity-related post and the posting must be visible, readable and reasonably coherent.
Beware of pop-ups, in case you use any, or at EmptySpaceAds, not to overlap with the post content.
5. Inline Ads and Links. There are to be no third party links, ads or other detractors located within the sponsored post.
Don’t insert any link to other sites than the one specified in the opportunity, nor any photos or videos which are not from the advertiser’s website. Don’t embed AdSense ad units inside the post, not even between the post title and the content. This is not OK, and your paid posts will be rejected. It is OK, however, to place the AdSense ad units in the header, footer or sidebar, or in the post itself, but above the title.
6. Unique Content. Identical or nearly identical Opportunity-related posts will not qualify for payment under the Marketplace and may result in termination of your account.
Don’t copy from others.
7. Time Shifting. A submitted Opportunity-related post’s date of submission to PayPerPost must match the date of creation as reflected in your blog time stamp, date line or archives. A submitted post’s date must also be relative to the timeframe of an Opportunity’s life span.
From the time you accept an opportunity, you have 6 hours to publish. After publishing, immediately submit the link to PPP. Unfortunately, you cannot use the Wordpress timestamp feature for paid posts.
Other requirements:
8. Use of Software. Software may not be used to create posts or otherwise place PayPerPost code in a repetitive or not original fashion
9. Manipulation of Code. Any PayPerPost Link code must be pasted directly into blog pages without modification. PayPerPost participants are not allowed to alter any portion of the code.
10. Holding. Attempting to ‘hold’ a post by submitting to the ‘Take this Opportunity’ screen but failing to provide a written post to the requirements of the Advertiser will result in immediate suspension of your account.
11. Inappropriate Content. Posts submitted to Marketplace Opportunities may not include or support: excessive profanity, violence or racial intolerance, illicit drugs or drug paraphernalia, pornography, adult or mature content, any other content that promotes intolerance, illegal activity, or infringes on the legal rights of others.
12. Nofollows. Nofollows may only be included within the required link of a post, or additional required links, if the Advertiser chooses the nofollow option during Opportunity creation. Unless an Advertiser chooses this option, required links are not to have nofollow attributes within them. Here is an example of a nofollow attributed link:<a rel=”nofollow” href=”http://www.example.com/”>Anchor Text</a>
You’ll get paid for each post 30 days after it gets approved by PPP. In your account’s dashboard you have a report which mentions all your posts, with their approval date and the number of days left until you get the money.
As you see, it is simple. However, you need to be aware that because of Art. 12 above (sponsored links which don’t have the nofollow attribute), you risk to be penalized by Google, by losing your PR. For a PR0 blog, there are not so many opportunities available in the PPP Marketplace, and those which still exist are very poorly paid.
It’s your choice, but even if you decide to use PPP, you should be informed about the risks and the possible consequences for your blogs.
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Simonne, you are really spending a lot of time in analyzing these services. Wow, great!
Life is Colourful’s last blog post..Lead Management Software Review
Thank you, Life is Colorful. I still remember the times when I didn’t know what programs to choose, because almost nobody was writing about them. This is one of the reasons we started this site: to put everything together and explain how such programs work, what to do and what not to do, in order to save your time.
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