LoudLaunch launches, another paid content service
PayPerPost, ReviewMe, Blogitive all are services to help to blogger make a quick buck from her/his blog. With LoudLaunch a new service has entered the space.
Earn from $5 to $200 per post.
Are all those services really bringing you the much desired honey pot or is there more you should know?
First, let’s have a look at what LoudLaunch is.
LoudLaunch allows bloggers to be compensated for distributing our advertisers LoudLaunch press releases. Search through our advertisers latest press release campaigns, select campaigns aligned with your blog, post a Micro Press Release on your blog based on the advertisers campaign, and be compensated based on the exposure your blog can deliver.
Just like with PPP you will have to browse the opportunities and select campaigns you will blog about. Grab your unique chance to become the new Michael Arrington.
Squat the opportunity board at LoudLaunch and PayPerPost and write review after review. Look forward to that paypal check, start planning your future laptop or new iPod. Maybe even a new HDTV?
But didn’t you forget a thing?
Did you start a new blog?
Those services are nothing more than link builders, a quick way to generate a little buzz around a new product, but mainly to build PR. Probably most of them are not interested in your opinion anyway, they just want to boost their PR.
And IMHO most respected bloggers will review new services they like even without being paid for this. That is what creates the buzz, not 50 mommy blog entries about a product.
So why do you need to start your new blog while posting entry after entry?
The answer comes from Google in persona.
Google wants to do a good job of detecting paid links. Paid links that affect search engines (whether paid text links or a paid review) can cause a site to lose trust in Google.
Matt Cutts in a comment at SeoMOZ
...the strategy of participating in link schemes might have previously paid off. But more recently, Google has tremendously refined its link-weighting algorithms. We have more people working on Google’s link-weighting for quality control and to correct issues we find. So nowadays, undermining the PageRank algorithm is likely to result in the loss of the ability of link-selling sites to pass on reputation via links to other sites.
Building link-based Popularity at The Off. Google Webmaster Blog
Those services surely provide any blogger a great opportunity to build some revenue, but it also looks like the Google Spam team around Matt Cutts has recognized the possible spam nature of said services and will punish advertizers for using them.
The obligation to disclose makes recognizing paid entries a pretty easy thing for Google.
And like any other God1 Google will never openly say what they plan.
Use the services, but be carefull. And don’t spam your own blog with review after review. Your readers will drop faster than flies. Unless you’re the new Michael Arrington. But then you would be selling your soul.
1 Google never does evil. 
Disclaimer : I janked the image for this entry from Text Link Ads (aff) new TechCrunch Campaign.
You must be an avid reader.
David Krug said this on December 26, 2006 8:50 pm
Haha… rather a very informative OPML file. And lately I manage it more and more to leave my feed reader.
Btw, with a 3 screen setup FeedDemon were the best $30 I ever spend. It surely makes reading blogs less of a burden when you see the articles come in every hour and can skim them within minutes.
But I try as much as possible not to write what everyone already writes about.
Franky said this on December 26, 2006 9:43 pm
It’s called TrustRank. And some people will charge you a gazillion bucks per hour when you consult with them on how to enhance (or keep) your trustrank with all this link-selling and buying going around.
The Sheriff said this on December 27, 2006 12:27 am
I recently used loudlaunch.com as a supplementary marketing effort for my recent Playstation 3 console giveaway. It seemed a great way to potentially announce your campaign to the blogosphere. There are serious problems in the way Loudlaunch.com operates and any advertiser thinking about using the service should be aware. First off you cannot specify what blogs or category of blog that will post on your subject. As a result while the individual posts are solid, the blogs target audience might not be a match for what you are looking for. As you cannot control who may or may not post on your subject. Worse yet your money may go to support terrorism! This has happened to me and my promotion for Earlymiser. A blog call Israel Watch (I REFUSE to link to them) which openly advocates the destruction of Israel and the Jews chose to blog about my PS3 promotion. I find it astounding that my advertising dollars are being spent supporting anti-semitic rantings. More importantly who knows what group is behind the site Israel Watch? I find the views on the site deeply disturbing and I didn’t authorize the post. So the brand of my comparison shopping site is at risk. Can you imagine how I felt about the situation? Worst yet Loudlaunch.com doesn’t have a customer service number and their whois is protected by Domains By Proxy. I have fired off several emails but haven’t gotten a response. Why does Loudlaunch support terrorists?
If you use Loudlaunch, there’s a good chance your brand or site will be featured on a hate site. Don’t do it.
Update:I have spoken with Phil at Loudlaunch who informed me
“This blog is being removed from our approved bloggers list and will not be able to post ever again. The person that approved it was viewing statistics and did not pick up on the political undertones which are not appropriate for our advertisers. Apologies.”
to which I said, “Not a lot of fracking confidence in your “reviewers”. Missed the whole destruction of Israel thing huh? Yeah well it was the whole point of the blog.”
Loudlaunch is issuing me a credit for the campaign. Thanx. Spend $100 testing something and do thousands of dollars of damage to your brand. This after I was told the following by Chris over there before I started my campaign.
“Thanks for signing up as an advertiser. We appreciate your business. I spoke with Phil today about your online conversation. Let me quickly give you a bit more information about the way we rank our bloggers and how they are paid for blogging on your campaign.
Our model is simple: we pay bloggers based on the expected exposure/ traffic that they can bring our advertisers. To do this, we rank our bloggers based on Technorati stats, Alexa stats, and a personal review of the blog. Therefore, there is no exact model to publish.However, based on your feedback and suggestions, we will add some additional instructions or tips on our site that help better explain how this works.
One final note. You can check any bloggers stats, who has posted on your campaign, by entering their information in technorati.com or alexa.com. We could have an all day conversation about how to interpret those stats, but in general, they are used as guidelines along with a physical review of the site to determine their rank or payment per post.”
Now thanx to Loudlaunch all the Israeli hating/Hamas supporting terrorists know about my Playstation 3 promotion. How much personal attention could they have paid to the blog? I went to it and it took me all of 30 seconds to determine it was an anti-semitic hate site. Un ‘frackin’ believable. Clearly no “physical review” took place. Avoid Loudlaunch.
Brian Despain said this on January 13, 2007 12:42 pm