Beyond the Rhetoric

I’ve never denied that I’m trying to make a couple bucks from blogging. It’s far from a full-time income, but I manage to recoup the costs of domain registration and web hosting without too much effort. At the same time, making money from this blog has never been the primary focus (though there’s nothing inherently wrong with blog marketing). Sure, I’ve been accused of being a Google whore and I’ve accepted a PayPerPost opportunity or two, but I write here because I want to write, not because it makes me money. I have my freelance writing business for that.

Unfortunately, just as there are sites that are Made For Adsense and serve no purpose but to grab a quick buck from advertising, there are also blogs out there that are not personal at all, have no sense of cohesion, and completely whore themselves out to the highest bidder. Ed Lau, John Chow and Stephen Fung have all said that PayPerPost is a little icky. I think there is nothing wrong with PayPerPost itself. The idea is great — it gives low traffic bloggers the opportunity to make a few bucks — but then there are people that take this way too far. It’s because of nitwits like Lemmy that PayPerPost is getting such a bad reputation.

EVERY post on his blog is sponsored. Yes, EVERY POST. He seems to alternate between affiliate posts (like CafePress t-shirts) and PayPerPost entries (on everything from calling cards to lingerie… they all have nothing to do with his blog at all), selling his soul with every word he types. What’s more, he oftentimes forgets that his posts should have FULL DISCLOSURE. That is a requirement of PPP, but it should also be a requirement of any ethical blogger.

When John and I pointed this out to him, he went ahead and deleted our comments so that no one else would notice. That’s a clear lack of ethics. If someone were to comment on my blog, pointing out some place where I may have gone astray or indicating some other error I may have made, I acknowledge the mistake and reply accordingly, leaving their comment(s) untouched.

With Lemmy, it doesn’t even end there.

He made a a post telling me (and John) to cry him a river, without mentioning me (and John) by name. I made a comment on that post saying something that I don’t recall exactly… it was something like “If you had any integrity, you would have left my comment alone and just replied to it.” He didn’t delete this comment, he edited it:

I took the above screen capture before he could manage to edit the second comment (which was deleted by Lemmy about 10 minutes after I posted it). Not only is Lemmy a PPP sellout, but he is also an absolute loser. His girlfriend has even been banned from Blogger for doing the same thing: she now sells knockoff “designer” products like Rolox, Pradu, and Louie Vitton. Thanks for ruining it for the rest of us, Lemmy. Why don’t you just crawl into a ditch and stay there.

Don’t let Lemmy deter you from PayPerPost (aff). They are starting to offer some big dollar opportunities (as high as $1000 for a single post), so they are still worth having a look at. And do you know what’s the best part? This post is actually sponsored by PayPerPost.

Filed under Stuff.