Saturday Saved- The Best for Last #1

My brilliant blogpal Windy who blogs from Windmill on the Hill came up with a new Meme entitled Saturday Saved- The Best for Last.

I am not only participating in this new meme to support a friend but because I strongly believe that this is a great way to showcase our articles which we think deserves wider readership. This meme aims of achieving that. The article could be newly written or it could come from your archives.

This week’s featured article is entitled WHEN ALL YOUR POSTS ARE NOTHING BUT PAID POSTS:

I am one of the many bloggers who is enjoying one of the countless perks of blogging- getting paid to blog. When I first came to blog, it’s primarily because I want to express and not to impress. Then came the companies who were able to lure me with a few bucks by writing for them. Indeed, it became a huge motivation for me to stay infront of my PC longer hours than necessary. And why not? I get to earn dollars by just writing a few words.

I am FOR paid blogging but while I get to enjoy the monetary aspect of it, we must admit that it also has its downsides.

BLOG CONTENT IS SACRIFICED

Though I have always believed and emphasized that quality is subjective, content is still KING. When one gets to write a post with a couple of paid links for advertisers and there’s a need to beat the deadline, the tendency is for one to be in a hurry and just write in random, include the needed links, hit the publish button and get paid. That’s all there is to it. I admit I am guilty as charged. Sometimes I even forget that there is a certain ratio needed for paid reviews versus personal posts- 1:2 is ideal. It’s hard to do it especially when one has multiple blogs (like me). I admit I can only manage to have one (1) interim post after each paid reviews.

What’s striking here, and frustrating I must say, is that we can see a LOT of blogs where every post is a paid post. Some even don’t write an interim post when there is no new assignment at hand. In my opinion, it will hurt our blog if we do that more often. Just take for instance this blog. It was ranked 3 by Google a couple of weeks back. When I grabbed assignments from one identified affliate for a week, my Page Rank dropped to 2. Why am I not surprised at all? I know Google is a little unpredictable but the heck with Page Ranks!

Now going back to paid posts, I do not know the technical consequences of it, but personally, seeing blogs bombarded by paid links is rather dismal. I always take more than three (3) hours a day dropping cards on blogs, reading and commenting. I admit there are a few blogs where I do the “drop and run” phenomenon. I am sorry but your posts must be bombarded with paid links. If it’s any consolation at all, majority of the blogs I get to spend more of my time are those that are very interesting to me and they are all worth spending my time.

I don’t want to cease being a passionate blogger. I truly enjoy the REAL perks of blogging and that is free speech. I can get to write whatever comes to mind in random, paid post or not. I don’t want to disappoint my visitors when they take time to visit my blogs and all I can offer are paid links. I don’t want to steal your time and waste it by letting you know that my advertisers have become my master. Though I don’t write for an audience, I feel I should be responsible for whatever things I write because I am involved in some communities where I am inviting my fellow bloggers to visit my blogs (EntreCard, MyBlogLog, BlogCatalog, etc.).

UNDERMINING READERS’ INTELLIGENCE

While it’s true that most of us are paid to blog, a lot of bloggers have quite forgotten that personal posts should be written by REAL people. Some bloggers tend to plagiarize just for the sole purpose of breaking the monotony by writing paid reviews. Bloggers must exude prudence and decency to give credit to where it is due when quoting or copying someone’s work. We can not always undermine our reader’s intelligence more so fool them in believing that we are such a great writer. We are not fooling them but we are only fooling ourselves!

As what, Tony Feriozzi, Payu2Blog support staff warned and I quote:

“What I have run into a few times now is a blog full of 60 word posts with links, all paid and nothing else. That blog, if thats all it is, will eventually not get assignments. So do your best to do some real posts on your blogs if you aren’t already, it will be better for you and us. “

Let us all remember that with blogging comes responsibility. And blogging is not about how articulate and eloquent we are as a writer. It’s about the effort we put in by writing down our OWN thoughts, generating pleasure just by doing it and how we convey every message we wanted relayed to our readers (if there’s any, hehe!).

HAPPY BLOGGING TO US ALL!

You’re invited to join Saturday Saved – The Best For Last. Showcase the Post you prefer most readership. Please enter the URL of your Post here. Next, get this code at WmotH Saturday Saved-The Best For Last is meant for Saturday Saved participants only.

I wish you blue skies and all things nice,