Tonight I was excited to discover that PayPerPost has implemented the ability for its bloggers to cash out balances lower than $50. Unfortunately, they assess a $2 fee in order to do so, so unless you don’t care about $2 (I’m a cheap-skate that does care!), you should use this feature wisely.

Screenshot:

Here’s more information from PayPerPost themselves.

Not that this has come as much of a surprise, but Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post, the company that allowed me to take $109 worth of work and now refuses to pay me for it (and additionally has blocked my home IP address from their website and is blocking emails from my x@jenn.nu email account), has sent no responses to the dozens of emails I have sent their way over the past few weeks.

What’s said is that I’m not in the minority here. Dozens if not hundreds of bloggers have been scammed by Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post. A simple Google search turns up dozens of results and details of their scamming, deceptive ways.

Read the full details of what happened to me: Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post is a scam.

Spread the word. The blogging community has the power to put these scamming assholes out of business by 1) refusing to do any work for them and b) spreading the word about the bloggers they have ripped off.

I was able to use an alternative wireless network connection to login to my Blog Advertising Store account, take more screenshots of the opps I have taken and have been approved for. I also copied down the URL of every advertiser that is currently working with Blog Advertising Store. I am going to contact them tomorrow to inform them of the shady business they are dealing with, since in the end scammed, pissed off bloggers will yank down their written posts, which will ultimately hurt the advertisers themselves.

Jenn

Well over a year ago I signed up for Blog Advertising Store, though at that time they were calling themselves Paying Post. Between then and this past February I have written $109.00 worth of opportunities for article directories, weight loss websites, personalized baby toys. I followed the instructions on each opportunity, included the required links, wrote relevant, high quality content, and submitted each opportunity on time. Every opportunity that I did was approved, and as of April 2010 I was eligible to receive payment, as my balance had rolled over $100 (that is Blog Advertising Store’s / Paying Post’s minimum payout amount).

Only… I didn’t receive a payment in April. I didn’t receive one in May, either, despite Blog Advertising Store’s / Paying Post’s dashboard stating that I would be paid $109 on May 1st, 2010.

Screenshot of Blog Advertising Store’s / Paying Post’s Account page

Screenshot of Blog Advertising Store’s / Paying Post’s My Posts page

On May 6th, 2010, I sent the following email to support@blogadvertisingstore.com and support@payingpost.com:

To whom it may concern:

As of May 1st, 2010 I was due for a payout of $109.00 to my PayPal account x@jenn.nu. It is now May 6th, 2010 and I have not received anything.

I have been a bit wary completing posts for your company, as in the past I have read some unsavory things about your business practices and the handling of payouts. Please ease my anxieties and compensate me with the money I am rightfully owed. Again, the balance due is $109.00, and my PayPal account is x@jenn.nu.

Thank you very much.

I forwarded the email to them on May 8th, 2010, and again on May 9th, 2010.

As of May 11th, 2010, I still had not received any kind of response, so I sent the following email:

I will continue to email every day until I receive payment. I will continue blogging on multiple blogs about this issue. I will post on Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, Twitter. I will contact the Better Business Bureau. I am also going to contact all of the companies that bloggers have written posts on behalf of in order to let them know that while they are paying you, you are not doing your part in paying your bloggers.

Please, prove to me that you are not the scamming, fraudulent company that the majority of bloggers who have worked with you claim you are. Pay me what is rightfully owed. The balance is $109.00, and my PayPal address is x@jenn.nu.

I forwarded the May 11th email to them on May 12th, May 13th, May 14th, May 15th, May 16th, and May 17th.

Last night I sent the following email:

If I do not receive a payment of $109.00 to x@jenn.nu by 5pm EST tomorrow afternoon, I will be blogging about your company and its scamming practices on the following blogs:

http://www.blogging-girl.com

http://www.heytechgirl.com

http://www.in-my-bag.com

http://www.jenn.nu

http://www.kitty.nu

http://www.mamahood.org

http://www.thatfatchick.com

Additionally, I will be posting about your company on the following forums/public groups:

http://www.payu2blog.com

http://www.lavish.nu

http://www.ning.com (every single product review/paid blogging/mommy blogging community I can find)

Finally, I will be spreading the word on at least a dozen social networks, including:
Facebook, Flickr, MySpace, StumbleUpon, Twitter

Please, take the professional route and pay the money that is RIGHTFULLY OWED TO ME.

I sent yet another email this morning:

I will also be contacting every single company that I have written a post on behalf for through your company, as well as every company I find listed in the open opportunities list.

It is now after 5:00pm EST on May 17th, 2010 — over two months past the date I should have been paid $109 for the opportunities I wrote and had approved by Blog Advertising Store and Paying Post. Interestingly, I suddenly am unable to access blogadvertisingstore.com or payingpost.com, though the few people I asked on AIM reported being able to access it with no problem.

Summary

Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post is a scam. Do NOT take any of their opportunities, as you will not be paid for the work that you do. Essentially, Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post and the advertisers that they work with will be getting free advertisement on your blog(s).

Unless I am paid the $109 that Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post owes me, I will stand firm in my belief that the company is a SCAM. They collect money from advertisers and turn around and provide opportunities to bloggers, only they do NOT hold up their end of the bargain and pay the bloggers for their work.

Spread the word

Spread the word about the SCAMMING COMPANY that Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post is! Please don’t let them continue to get away with this behavior! We can effectively shut them down by refusing to work for them. With no bloggers to blog about their company and the companies and products of the advertisers they work with, Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post will eventually go out of business.

If you have a Twitter account, please spread the word by tweeting about this post:
Blog Advertising Store AKA Paying Post is a scam! http://bit.ly/basppscam #paidblogging #scam

That’s a damn good question, one I’m going to do my best to make sure that I’m eventually able to answer with, “Yes”. You see, Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post is pretty notorious in a few blogging circles for being late with payments, not making them unless hounded into doing so, or not doing so at all. Yet in others reports of them paying, albeit a little late, are abound. I wasn’t sure what to think when I initially signed up, so I go ahead and took the chance.

As you can see from the screenshot, I’m owed $109, a balance that was due to be paid out on May 1st, 2010. I emailed support@blogadvertisingstore.com on Thursday night with a payment requested (high importance), and I forwarded the email to them on Friday morning, and again yesterday morning. I plan on doing this up until next Friday, at which point I’m going to double the emails I send to them every day, as well as blog publicly about them being a scam. From the experiences of other bloggers, hounding them and publicly calling them on their BS seems to be pretty effective in getting money that’s owed.

Of course, I hope I won’t have to take this route. I’m going to give Blog Advertising Store aka Paying Post the benefit of the doubt!

I do sponsored posting for a handful of companies, but hands down my preference is PayU2Blog. Why? Well, the work may be mundane, and it may not vary in price, but what is most important is that it is consistent. I always have a decent payout from them every single pay period. And every little bit things get spiced up with product reviews, YouTube assignments and special assignments.

Another nice thing about PayU2Blog is that they’re not as heavily focused on bloggers having decent Google Page Ranks. For them, the focus is more on visitors and decent, high quality content.

The downside to working for PayU2Blog is that getting in touch with the guys behind the scenes isn’t as easy, but they’re there, and the work is reliable, so I’m not complaining!

Disclosure, as you know, is the act of making something obvious. A disclosure policy is basically a personal statement that acknowledges that you post sponsored content in exchange for compensation. The sponsored content you are disclosing may be links, paragraphs or entire blog entries, and the compensation may be money, gifts, products, or some other type of valuable item or service that you are given in exchange for producing and posting sponsored content.

It’s a good idea to have a disclosure policy, so that readers know where you stand in terms of sponsored content. By opting for full transparency with a disclosure policy, you will not only be showing respect for yourself and your standards, but for your readers as well.

You may be wondering how to write a disclosure policy. The good news is that there isn’t much to it. Here is a copy of jenn.nu’s disclosure policy:

jenn.nu is my personal domain, and all content contained on this domain has been written by me.

You should know that I sometimes accept payment in exchange for sponsored posts and sidebar links. I also receive various products and online services to review, but I am not compensated for these reviews, except with the products and services themselves. Also, unless I specifically say so, I do not endorse any products or services that I link to.

Although I do receive payment in exchange for sponsored posts and sidebar links, I do my best to be honest and unbiased with my opinions, and I carefully screen third party links before placing them on jenn.nu.

In most cases, sponsored posts will be categorized under Commercial Break, so you will be able to easily distinguish them from my own personal opinions and endorsements of products and services.

This disclosure policy has been in effect since January 30th, 2007.

Feel free to copy it and adapt it for your own use. You may also write something from scratch. Or, opt for the convenience of having a disclosure policy generated for you. DisclosurePolicy.org is one site that uses the type of blog you have, the type of content you post and some details about your blog and its author(s) to generate a customized disclosure policy. Here is a sample of such a policy (this is Blogging Girl’s disclosure policy, by the way):

This policy is valid from 30 December 2007

This blog is a personal blog written and edited by me. This blog accepts forms of cash advertising, sponsorship, paid insertions or other forms of compensation.

The compensation received will never influence the content, topics or posts made in this blog. All advertising is in the form of advertisements generated by a third party ad network.

I am compensated to provide opinion on products, services, websites and various other topics. Even though I receive compensation for posts or advertisements, I always give my honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own. Any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider or party in question.

This blog does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

IZEA is in the process of launching Sponsored Tweets. Sponsored Tweets is just what it sounds like — sponsored updates (tweets) that are posted to a public and active Twitter account.

I am not new to paid tweets. I have been doing a few of them via be-a-magpie.com. I haven’t done enough to get a payout (an account balance must reach $50 before a payout can be completed), but I will one of these days.

Anyway, I am all for paid tweets — just as I am all for paid blogging — so long as there is disclosure. When it comes to blogs, I prefer per-post disclosure, but am willing to do sitewide disclosure. But with Twitter, where every individual update is limited to only 140 characters and can’t be hidden or obscured from viewing, as you can parts of blog entries, I feel that per-tweet disclosure is an absolute must.
And because Twitter provides so many updates from so many users, all of which are available on public timelines, I think it’s important for Twitter users to be responsible and considerate of their followers, and not go overboard with posting sponsored updates. Personally, I plan on adopting a 1:10 ratio — no more than one sponsored tweet for every ten of my own tweets.

I’m really excited to try out Sponsored Tweets. I was invited to be an early adopter of an account, and I have an active profile set up, though so far I haven’t received an offer from an advertiser. I’m sure I will, and I will update again on sponsoredtweets.com when I have had some experience with it.

In the meantime, I’ll keep tabs on what’s happening via Twitter and technology blogs. I have also been contacted by a reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, who will be doing a piece on sponsored tweets. I’m really looking forward to the phone interview!

I’d also love to hear your feedback. What are your thoughts on paid tweeting, and paid blogging in general?

My new laptop wouldn’t be complete without a snazzy bag to match, right? Besides, the one I’ve had for the past three years and three months is just too bulky and heavy. It’s a briefcase style laptop bag, which means that there are more compartments and pockets than I’ll ever wind up using. So, I downgraded. Or upgraded, depending on how you look at it.

So, the new bag? It’s a Yak Pak Deluxe Courier Messenger. However, mine does not look like the ones shown on the yakpack.com website. My messenger bag features a black, pinstriped exterior with a bright orange interior. I love it! ?

it looks a lot like this — only with gray pinstripes!

Psst… this particular bag is advertised as accommodating 15? laptops, but it holds my 17.3? laptop perfectly!

Blogvertise is a paid blogging company. They’re certainly not as well known as the A-listers whose names everyone thinks of when the term “paid blogging” is heard or seen, but they function in pretty much the same manner. You sign up, add your blogs and wait for approval. Then, on a pretty sporadic basis, you’re assigned tasks to complete. Usually you just have to write about the advertiser and include any information they specify in the notations section of the task.

There are three things that I’m not crazy about when it comes to Blogvertise. First, the payout can be as low as $4.00 for a task. Second, you are required to include three (3) links to the advertiser’s website in a sponsored post. And finally, at least in my own experience, Blogvertise is very good about randomly rejecting tasks with half-assed reasons that really aren’t valid. But they don’t do it right away. They’ll let your posts sit there on your blog for a few days or even a week or more before they reject them. And reject them again, and again, and again. So finally you give up and just take the post down, but not without providing the advertiser with three weeks of free advertisement.

That’s not to say that Blogvertise is totally bad. I have had a few posts approved by Blogvertise, and I have been paid out for those approved posts. But when I consider that I only seem to get a few tasks from them every other month or so, and then it’s a battle just to get those few tasks approved, I have to say that overall, I’m contemplating having my account with them deleted and just washing my hands of them.

In summary, if you do decide to blog with Blogvertise, good luck, and I hope you have more patience than I do!

In my last entry, I mentioned the double-edged sword issue with PayPerPost v4.0. Basically, while you specify how much you wish to be paid per word and per link, so far the existing opportunities are designed to pay you per word only, and you are required to include the link (which the advertiser is essentially getting for free). Well, I had mentioned this issue on the PPP message board several weeks ago, but since it got no “official” response, I went ahead and posted a new topic at the IZEA Get Satisfaction page. And here is the official response from an IZEA employee:

We’re going to release a change next week to the pricing that you will love. The new pricing strategy will add the price of the link to the price per word for opps that have minimum word requirements. So for example, say you have $5.00 for a link, and $0.03 per word. A 100 word opp would earn you

$5.00 + (100 * $0.03) = $8.00

Sweet!