PayPerPost Secures $10M Prepares Launch of "Argus"

Tuesday, September 4th, 2007 by Andy Beal

PayPerPost Secures $10M Prepares Launch of "Argus"

While Marketing Pilgrim has never accepted direct payment for a blog post review, it seems enough other bloggers have done so to convince investors to plough $10 million into PayPerPost.

The Orlando Sentinel covers the story and provides a good recap of the company’s stormy launch–when it didn’t insist on blogging disclosures–its growth to 50,000 bloggers, and its constant criticism by TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington.

Interestingly, the adage “all publicity is good publicity” seems to be true for PayPerPost.

There’s no question the negative publicity helped the company. The popular technology blog TechCrunch, with more than 650,000 readers, has written about PayPerPost more than a dozen times. The headlines included “PayPerPost.com offers to sell your soul,” and “The PayPerPost Virus Spreads.”

Still, any other startup probably would kill for that many mentions.

“The naysayers were a godsend for the company,” said Dan Rua, a managing partner in Inflexion, a Florida investment firm funding PayPerPost.

The article mentions you can buy “positive, “neutral,” or “negative” reviews. Most opt for “neutral” but I wonder who would select “negative?” Maybe someone buying negative reviews of their competitors? That’s just evil. >:)

Lastly, they allude to a new product launching soon called “Argus” with no further details of what it is.

(Note: Not that it matters a hoot, but you should note that PayPerPost competitor SponsoredReviews is an advertiser with us.)

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11 comments on “PayPerPost Secures $10M Prepares Launch of "Argus"”

Steven Bradley Says:

September 4th, 2007 at 12:33 pm

Interesting Andy. With all the negative talk I’ve heard I’ve been under the assumption that the pay per post model was losing ground. I never would have expected to see them get funding.
Jay Virdy Says:

September 4th, 2007 at 1:57 pm

I was initially surprised to see some top bloggers openly advertise that they will review sites/products for $$$. I went on to read a few paid reviews and thought they were actually quite detailed and professional. My only complaint was the disclosure should have been near the top rather than the bottom of the blog. With 8,700 advertisers and 50,000 bloggers ready to write reviews, it’s not hard to convince investors you have something interesting.
Blogs: Alive and Well at Gypsy Bandito Says:

September 4th, 2007 at 2:04 pm

[...] it means when PayPerPost secures $10 Million in [...]
Andy Beal Says:

September 4th, 2007 at 2:11 pm

@Jay – the problem with disclosures is the same reason you’d like to see them – readers stop reading when they see a post is sponsored.
Andy Beard Says:

September 5th, 2007 at 3:36 am

It all depends on how good your average content is. If you don’t break the social trust with your readers, there is no problem.

A paid post can be good enough for a front page Sphinn, and the same story was a featured article on Searchnewz.com a couple of months ago.
Owen Cutajar Says:

September 5th, 2007 at 7:02 am

It’s pretty impressive how far PayPerPost have come. There’s something to be said about having the right mix at the right time, and having the guts to push ahead amidst negative publicity.

Anyway, you mention Argus, there’s more on this on PayperPost’s blog: http://community.payperpost.com/blog/2007/09/what-is-coming-.html

Is sounds like a ground-up rewrite of PayPerPost’s blogger/advertiser marketplace based on what they’ve learnt over the last year. I could be wrong though …
William Says:

September 5th, 2007 at 8:19 am

I think all fair bloggers should place “review for money” near all such posts.
Bidding Directory Says:

September 5th, 2007 at 11:21 am

I’m just wondering how much you earn er motnh via payperpost? I’m using review me and i’ve earned around $40 so far.
05network Says:

September 6th, 2007 at 5:59 am

我是中国的seo学习者,共同学习,希望有更多的机会交� �合作!
I am a Chinese seo learner, common study, hope to have more opportunity exchanges cooperation!
Buy and sell Says:

September 8th, 2007 at 5:39 pm

Whats quite sickening is that if i was a little bit less lazy i could have been at their level myself. I was there when PPP started out.
Matt Says:

September 30th, 2007 at 11:10 am

I know this whole paid post phenomena is quite controversial. My own attitude to it is that if you disclose that the post is paid, then that’s fine. And if you’re doing more paid posts than free ones then I think you are losing your blogging soul. (But then it’s up to the blogger him or herself to make that decision, of course.)

What amazes me is the continuing growth of this industry. I thought this was just going to be a temporary thing that would boom until Google found a way of penalising blogs with paid posts, and/or readers got sick of it and left in droves. But it looks like neither of these things has happened — and maybe never will! — since PPP is going from strength to strength.

Marketing Pilgrim