Pay Per Post came out with a new “PPP Direct” service recently. Loads of Posties signed up immediately- and for good reason. It seems like a handy way to get around problems using the opportunities board at PPP! But no a problem arises: How do you set a good price?
This question sounds easy, but it’s obviously tricky. If you set your price too high, you won’t get any sponsorships. In that case, why waste space on your blog displaying the PPP direct button?
If you set your price too low, you’ll get offers, accept them, fill your blog with sponsored posts but make less than you should given your blog quailty. Moreover, if you post too many sponsored ads, Google is going to figure out you pretty much just post links for money; that will make your blog less attractive to advertisers. (Not to mention, too many sponsored posts tend to bore the heck out of readers!)
I suggest setting your lowest asking price based on the fees you can easily collect every single day using other monetizing services or practices. Here are the guidelines I plan to use:
- Don’t accept less than $5 under any circumstances. You can easily make $5 a post using PayU2Blog and Blogitive. Blogitive permits you to review open offers and accept or reject those you don’t like. PayU2Blog sends offers by email and gives you tons of time to fill the offer, but you are required to accept the offers extended.
- Join Loud Launch and find out how much they’ll pay you. My PR 4 knitting blog rates $7.50 under their system, so I won’t take less than that from an advertiser who contacts me directly.
- If you have a blog that qualifies for V7N Publishing don’t take less than $10. Just join V7N. They permit you to include extra links of your choice in a post, so it can be easier to compose a post to your liking than with a PPP post. However, you do have to take offers they extend.
- Don’t accept less than you can easily obtain every single day at PPP without making any ridiculous compromises on blog integrity. On any given day, I can visit the PPP board and get a $10 post at for a PR4 blog while still refusing posts about credit cards, loans or anything I happen to find truly wretched; I usually take only $15-$20 opportunities on a PR4 blog.
Based on this, I’d set my minimum price for a Pr4 blog at $10. That’s the minimum, and I would negotiate higher if the advertiser wants something more than a 50 word text post with one link.
Eventually, I’ll figure out whether I can ask for more or not. What if I found I got no bids after a month? I’d take the PPP Direct banner down! I can easily make more posting ads less frequently using the other services.
Todays tip is: While posting “regularly”, read and analyze the typical screening rules set up by for pay to blog services. After all, your goal is to eventually permit your blog to qualify for one of these services. And even if you end up not working for these services, these rules kinda-sorta encourage some aspects of “quality” in a blog.