In the early morning hours of May, 24th, Pay/perp0st launched Pay/perp0st Direct. P Direct, as it’s come to be known in the short time that it has existed, was created to let bloggers interact and accept advertising offers directly from advertisers. Just as the name implies.
Over the last year I’ve work with a number of companies that have been created in order to allow advertisers to use a new form of advertising to promote their companies, services, or products on blogs. Each company is a little bit different from the other in the way that they do business with bloggers and advertisers.
Poy/perp0st direct is the best deal around:
I can only speak as a blogger, as I’ve never signed up with any of these companies to create advertising opportunities of my own. Therefore, from a bloggers standpoint, I have to say that P Direct offers both the blogger and the advertiser the best deal all round. Pay/perP0st direct only charges an extra 10% on top of the fee that the blogger sets as his or her price for a post. 5% of that fee goes towards covering the cost of Paypal and credit card transactions.
I say this because I know that each of these companies either take fees from the bloggers stated price for writing a paid post, or they add fees on top of what the blogger is paid to write an article.
I’ll break it down for you.
The original, and still available Pay/perp0st:
Pay/perp0st still allows bloggers to get paid to bl0g through the system that they began using back in July of 2006. That system allows advertisers to create advertising opportunities for whatever amount they’d like to pay, with the minimum payout to the blogger being $5. The bloggers can then pick and choose which opportunities they’d like to create as a post on their blog.
On Pay/perp0st this method of advertising costs advertisers a $5 service fee whether they create 1 opportunity or several hundred. There’s also a 35% charge on top of each opportunities fee. An advertiser could get 14 posts for $99.50 for a cost of $6.75 per post. The blogger would get $5 for a post that costs the advertiser $6.75.
100% markup at Rev1ewMe
Sites like Rev1ewMe have 100% markup. Tricia’s Musings is listed in the Rev1ewMe marketplace. When an advertiser decides to have me write a post through Rev1ewMe my price per post is listed at $150 at Rev1ewMe. I only get $75 of that fee, and Rev1ewMe gets the rest. I don’t know if Rev1ewMe charges the advertiser any other fees on top of the outright fee of $150 that he or she would have to pay to have me discuss their site or product on this blog.
I believe the lowest price that a blogger can charge at Rev1ewMe is $40, with of course $20 going to the blogger, and $20 going to Rev1ewMe if that bloggers site is chosen for a post.
35% removed from bid price at Sp0nsoredRev1ews
Spons0redRev1ews takes 35% of whatever I bid on any advertising opportunities that are listed in their marketplace. The amount that I bid on Sp0nsoredRevi1ews depends on what the advertiser is asking for, and what price limits they have set.
If an advertiser posts an opportunity and they say they are willing to pay between $10 and $125 for a post, well, I’ll usually bid $80 for a post on this blog. A bid of $80 would pay me $52 for a post if my bid was accepted, with the other 35% going to Sp0nsored Rev1ews. Again, I don’t know if Spons0redRev1ews charges advertisers any other fees on top of the full price bid by each blogger.
The lowest price an advertiser can list on Sp0nsoredRev1ews is $5, but with 35% being taken off the bid it’s really not worth it for a blogger to do a post for $3.25.
There are several other companies out there where advertisers may create writing opportunities for bloggers. The fees vary at each of the companies.
Pay/perp0st Direct:
P Direct is just the first part of a new Pay/perp0st release. I believe the second part will be the creation of a marketplace on Pay/perp0st where advertisers could easily pick and choose which blogs they’d like to offer a direct writing opportunity. I don’t know yet if Pay/perp0st will increase their low 10% service charge for advertisers that use the marketplace, but if they do, I would imagine that it will still be the lowest price of any service.
The way P Direct works at this time is:
1. Bloggers place a P Direct Badge on their site. Mine is located in the top left sidebar.
2. If an advertiser, or perhaps another blogger happens across a blog with a Badge on the site, and they decide that they’d like to have that blogger write about their website, company, product or service they can simply click on the badge and a form will pop up that looks like this:
If the form comes up with an error the advertiser should be sure that they are using the address listed in the top right of the pop up form. Sometimes the inclusion or exclusion of the www causes an error. I believe that is fixed now, but if you get an error you know what you should try – check that the url is the same as what’s listed.
3. The advertiser would then fill out the form, listing exactly what they’d like the blogger to write about, and specify the amount of words from 50 to 300, whether the post is a detailed write up, buzz or opinion, and the tone of the post. At this time the tone is set by default to positive, but the an advertiser could choose neutral or negative if they’d like.
Considering that most bloggers write their best posts in a neutral tone, and are not comfortable with being asked to write a positive article my suggestion would be for Pay/perp0st to make the default tone neutral. I for one prefer neutral requests.
The lower right corner of the offer form clearly states what the bloggers minimum fee is set at, and that there will be a 10% charge on top of the fee offered.
At this time I’ve set my fee at the low price of $20. I believe this is an excellent price for a detailed article such as this one on a popular blog.
An advertiser using P direct to request a post would be charge 10% on top of my $20 charge for a total cost of $22. Considering that an advertiser would pay 35% to 50% more, plus possible service fees either through regular Pay/perp0st, Rev1ewMe, Sp0nsored Rev1ews, or another service I think this is a pretty good deal.
4. Once an advertiser has finished creating their P Direct offer they would hit the submit button and I believe they will be taken to the Pay/perp0st website where they can either sign in with their existing advertising account information, or create a brand new advertising account. The advertiser would also have to deposit money into their advertising account to cover the cost of the offer they just created. I believe that an advertiser can use a credit card or Paypal for their payment.
5. The blogger would then be sent an email message telling them that they have a new P Direct offer. To discover exactly what the offer is the blogger would have to sign into their Pay/perp0st account and visit the P Direct area by clicking on the Opportunities tab in the dashboard.
The P Direct area as viewed by a blogger:
6. They would be able to see any P offers that they have waiting once they reach the P Direct area. A blogger could use the arrow buttons on the left of each offer to expand one offer at a time in order to see the specific offer.
Here’s what this P Direct offer looked like:
7. The blogger could accept the opportunity immediately or, if a blogger decided that the request deserved a higher price due to amount of words or links requested, or would prefer a different tone of post than was requested by the advertiser they could click on the negotiate button and send a message to the advertiser, to which the advertiser would have to respond in order for the blogger to be able to accept or decline the offer.
To learn more about how the P Direct system works for advertisers and bloggers you can view the video in this Pay/perp0st Direct blog post. The video is an excellent tutorial and I only wish that they had more tutorial videos throughout the whole Pay/perp0st website.
Why use P Direct?
Now the big question. Why would a blogger and advertiser use this system rather than deal with each other directly? For security reasons of course. Pay/perp0st offers the security and safety of an escrow-like service.
The money deposited for the post is held while the blogger writes the post. The advertiser has up to four days from the time the completed post is submitted to decide if they approve of the post or not. During that time period the advertiser could also request changes to the post if necessary. Payment is made to the blogger when the advertiser is happy with the post, or once the four day time period elapses.
Sure, bloggers and advertisers could deal directly with each other but what happens if payment isn’t made when stated or when one party isn’t happy. Wouldn’t it be nice to have the security of that middleman?
To clarify your question about whether SponsoredReviews charges anything additional to the advertiser, we do not. Our fee is a flat 35% with no additional charges to the advertiser.
Hi Trish,
I honestly have mixed feelings about your $20 P D offering.
I agree that it is great for the blogger and advertiser, but then I look at your account in our system and see the huge amount of money you are making through us.
I then ask myself is it fair to us to list you in our directory, send you tons of advertisers, only to have them come to your site and see that they can purchase a review for $20.
At $20 a pop you would have to do a ton of reviews to make the same money you have made with S R.
I’m honestly at a loss at what to do here. We spend a lot of money promoting the blogs in our system and sending you guys work.
Any suggestions? am I crazy to think that we should not continue sending you advertisers?
I have no problem with P d. If you guys can create your own advertisers, then you should make a larger portion of the pie, but biting the hand the feeds you isn’t exactly kosher either.
-Jarrod
Jarrod and I had this apples-to-apples fee/markup discussion on another blog.
S R’s 53% ($28/$52) “markup” equates to a 35% ($28/$80) “cut”.
P Marketplace 35% markup equates to only a 26% cut.
P D is even lower, with a 10% markup equating to only a 9% cut.
Andy Beard’s latest review of P provides even further detail on what bloggers make and advertisers pay with various systems, including S R. You can see for yourself who puts the most in blogger pockets while charging advertisers the least:
As for Jarrod’s other comment above, I’ll bite my lip for now, but I think all the marketplaces need to remember that advertisers, bloggers and audiences are the hands that feed — providing value to them is the core to building this industry.
Jarrod
I can understand that you have some concern over my offering P D for $20, but I did try to make it clear – directly under the badge – that I was offering this price for a limited time only.
You’re right. I have made quite a bit of money through S R and I’m very pleased that I’ve done well with your company. I would very much like to continue working with S R.
I hope you understand that P D is only a week old, and I, like many other bloggers who work with P, was eager to try out this new system.
My price was set much lower for P D than I list on S R or any other site that allows me to list my desired price simply because I wanted to test the system and get an offer or two. By no means was I attempting to game the system and lure advertisers from your site. I hope that you don’t think that.
I have absolutely no intention of keeping my price at $20 for much longer. In fact, I might change my price later today.
Each week that goes by I get more and more private offers to write reviews on my sites. It’s for that very reason that I embraced the idea of P d.
I like the idea of a middleman. It’s good for bloggers and advertisers in that there’s a system in place to ensure that both parties are happy and that the blogger does in fact get paid when the review is accepted.
When you do private deals there’s no guarantee that a blogger will be paid unless they demand payment in advance, and if they do, will the advertiser be happy with the final product? Who knows. At least with P d you can negotiate back and forth with P as a mediator if necessary.
I’ve been getting private offers for longer than S R has been around. In fact I’ve been getting private offers for well over a year. I get them for my websites too.
Where these advertisers come from I don’t know. In most cases I’ve never seen any of them advertise on any of the blogging sites that I work with, so by allowing them to deal with me through P d I don’t believe that I’m taking away potential business from a blogging company, I’m just giving them a way of offering me work in a way that I feel comfortable doing business.
You said: “At $20 a pop you would have to do a ton of reviews to make the same money you have made with SR.”
Actually, while I have a decent list price on S R of $80 I don’t actually get accepted at, or even bid my full price all that often.
I just spent some time adding up the price I was paid for all the reviews that I’ve completed so far and divided them by the number of reviews and my average payout per review is $30.87 if I did my math correctly. I think that means my average bid is about $45.
I don’t really expect that I’ll ever get as much work through P D as I do through S R, regular P or any of the other blogging companies where I’ve registered my sites. However, just like many other bloggers who earn money through blogging I don’t like to keep all my eggs in one basket, so I felt compelled to try out the P d system.
You said: “Any suggestions? am I crazy to think that we should not continue sending you advertisers?”
Well, I’ve already told you that I will be raising my price on P D. I don’t know what I’ll set my price at yet.
I do not think it would be very fair of S R to single me out and penalize me for using P D. You’ve voiced your concerns and I do understand your point of view. I do hope that you now understand why I set my price at $20 to begin with, and how I hope to use P D.
I don’t believe your problem is really with me, but P D and how not just I, but other bloggers as well, are promoting direct reviews?
You said: “I have no problem with P d. If you guys can create your own advertisers, then you should make a larger portion of the pie, but biting the hand the feeds you isn’t exactly kosher either.”
It was never my intention to “bite the hand that feeds me”.
The post you have commented on was actually a P d review from P itself. They took advantage of their own system and used their bloggers to advertise their new feature. As Lucia said in her own post about this issue P is pretty good at self advertising.
The review request asked that we compare the new P D with other blogging companies. I’m sorry if anything that I said in my review bothered you. I was trying to state the facts as I know them and not trying to be critical at all.
As I said earlier I get private review requests ALL the time. Some are for pay, others send me products and samples to review – regardless of how they come about I’ve never seen any of these companies or individuals advertising on S R, Rev1ew Me, P or any of the other companies so yes, I have been able to create my own advertisers and it is my hope that they will use the P d system.
Am I wrong in thinking that you were prompted to leave this comment mainly because of the price I set for my P D reviews?
If that is the case, have I reassured you that my price will be going up?
I plan on changing the price to an as yet undetermined amount later today. Right now it’s 5:20 a.m. and after being upset by this comment all day I don’t plan on doing any more today – I’m going to bed and I’ll be changing my price when it comes to me sometime later on today.
I must say that I do feel singled out. There are many other bloggers using the P D system and S R as well. I’m sure others set their P D prices a little on the low side for their blogs in order to try the system out as well.
I would very much like to continue working with you and your company. I will not stoop down to begging though. 🙂
You now know my side of the story, and I hope you know I didn’t mean to cause any ill will between S R or any other companies that I do work for by setting my price at $20. Perhaps instead of being upset I should be flattered that you think a review on my site should be worth more? 🙂
I hope that whatever decision you come to is based more on how your company should respond to P D as a whole, rather than to this single instance of blogger versus S R.
Do you have any comments or suggestions?
Would it be your preference that bloggers who use both S R and P D do not use the P D badge that lists their price? (there is another badge that doesn’t show a price). Perhaps that would level the playing field a bit?
Tricia
Hi Tricia,
Great response.
Yes, the biggest problem we have is with the $20 amount of the badge. It looks bad when your price listed in our system is 4 times the amount of the price showing on your site.
Are we going to do something about bloggers who show a lower price on their site from what they have listed in our system…. I honestly do not know. It hasn’t been a problem. Most bloggers I’ve seen so far are listing their Pd price the same or higher then their S R price.
You ask why I singled you out. That’s not the intention, You just happen to be very active in our system plus you are very vocal about review companies, and you were one of the first sites I noticed that was listing such a low price compared to the price in our system.
Keep up the good work.
Hi Dan,
I’m honestly suprized every time I see you responding on a blog. Don’t you have companies to fund or something 🙂
Your numbers do look compelling, and yes S R is a smaller company without millions of dollars in our war chest. Slightly Higher transaction fees are needed to fund our marketing and staffing requirements.
With that being said we are paying out thousands of dollars each day to bloggers just like Tricia who I assume appreciate any work they can get.
Will S R ever be the size of Pt? Probably not anytime soon. But will we continue to convert advertisers into paying jobs for bloggers, absolutely.
Thanks for the great review. I have been a p member for a while but i haven’t used p d yet. I always wondered how much they charged and now I know. I guess I will try it soon.
Looks neat, maybe I’ll give it a try and have you review one of my sites 🙂