How does it feel like to have your comment on a blog post deleted? When I leave a comment on a blog, which I rarely do, I make it a point to go and check that my comment is approved and published, no matter how busy I am. This is one reason I do not leave comments as often as I would like to. I simply can’t spare the time to double check

Anyway, I recently left a comment on a blog. I don’t know the author personally but I felt compelled to comment as she has achieved something so Congratulations was in order.

Unfortunately, I make a typing mistake, so I left a second comment, asking her to edit my typo and to only publish the first comment, and not the second.

While waiting for moderation, she did correct my typing error but after sometime, my comment was totally left out from her blog. I wonder why??

I can understand it if she has overlooked my comment as spam. Heck, I myself nearly deleted some legitimate comments but there was no way that mine could be overlooked when she DID edit my typo in the first place.

Naturally, I was pissed and since then, stopped visiting her blog.

The other day, I was angry to discover that someone copied my sponsored review and submitted it as her own. Well, I reported her and put it down to bad luck since this copycat Google searched blogs for the specific keyword and found my post.

Today, with some free time on my hands and the chance to finally blog hop, I came across bloggers saying that so-and-so has wholesale copied their posts including tags, memes and sponsored posts.

I have been blogging for a long time now but have not heard of this blogger before. Maybe because I am not the kind to 8 here, 8 there. Anyway, while I was mad that my post was copied, I believe the victims of the local blogosphere felt many more times worse than I did because they considered her one of their kind. Imagine getting back stabbed like that.

This is also one reason why I usually keep to myself. I have had many of my ideas copied before and these copycats with blogs more popular than mine had people commenting on their blogs as if the idea came straight from them. Bah!

Just because my blog is relatively unknown doesn’t mean that I can’t write good posts. And just because popular bloggers publish a certain post does not mean that it is 100% original and gospel.

I came across this open source software called Blosxom – pronounced Blossom that is supposed to make blogging easier. I don’t know how far true this is. If there is someone to set up for me, I am willing to try. If you ask me to install and configure it myself, then no thank you lah. I will get a monster headache and give up. I hate technical issues, you know? But please don’t tell me that I am a “typical girl” because I am not.

Anyway, I tried searching for blogs that are published through Blosxom but I cold not find any and have no idea where to start.

I think the Blosxom site should have a directory of blogs that are using the software so that we can see the features that it has and can do in a real blogging environment.

If you are interested to try this out, check Blosxom’s website.

Although I write a lot of sponsored posts, I read a lot of them as well. Not to steal ideas, mine you, but just to see how people interpret each assignment. No two people can ever write the same unless it’s a copy and paste work because each person has a different perspective of things.

Recently, I submitted a post which after submission, thought that the advertiser will not be happy that I have took up the opportunity because I thought that he will think the theme of my blog is irrelevant to his product. If I have pondered on this before writing and submitting my post, I would have foregone the opportunity.

To my surprise, the advertiser left me a comment saying that he liked the way I presented his product and also as a side remark, mentioned that some other people who took up the opportunity wrote in slang that he could not make head or tail of what was written.

On one hand, some bloggers write in slang to better gel with their regular posts or they like to sound ultra friendly and at the same time provide back links to the advertiser’s website. On the other hand, advertisers like to read about their own products and when they are written in slang, the advertisers just do not get it, so better not.

If you do not already know, I am a proud member of the exciting blog marketing company, PayPerPost. Since I joined them as a Postie, I have been quietly making a tidy sum of money that goes towards extras for the family.

The good news now is that not only do we get to earn cash through, we can WIN great electronic gadgetry as well! May is a high tech month at PayPerPost where every Tuesday, PayPerPost holds HDTV Tuesday and the latest Audio Video equipment are slipped into specially marked Opportunities. Well, they don’t look especially special outwardly, until you click them and get a “SURPRISE!”

Until now, my fellow Posties have already won themselves cool stuff like Apple TVs and a PS3. And for those of us who failed to grab them, we still have hope in winning something as there are three more Tuesdays in May, including an HDTV at the end of the month.

Today, 15th May, 2007, we stand a chance to win *hold your breath* a Slingbox, a Nintendo Wii, a Yamaha Surround Sound System or a Logitech universal remote. This contest is made possible by Bid4Prizes, a cool company which runs a unique auction house, where the person with the lowest unique bid wins!

One thing though, I suspect that all HDTV Tuesday prizes are only available to Posties in the United States but that won’t stop me from participating in the excitement! You can read more on PayPerPost’s HDTV Tuesdays on their blog.

Although I was pissing mad that I wrote four posts with over a thousand words in total and then told to remove them because of credit card fraud, I did not lodge a complaint with them because they too are just as much a victim as I am.

However, after a few days, this marketplace paid me, and other people in the same boat, out of their own pocket. In my case, out of the four reviews, I was only paid for one. I don’t know about the rest of the bloggers but it is better than not getting paid at all.

Strangely, although the post has been removed about one day after going live, I still have traffic coming to my blog from searching for that particular keyword. That’s why, even when the posts have been removed, it is unfair to us if we are not paid. And it is also a loss to the marketplace to pay us with their own money since they have returned the advertising money to the rightful credit card owner.

But then, who said there’s no risk in doing business?

The administrators of one of the blog for pay marketplaces said that some members have complained that they never see any offers. So the administrators say it is because all the offers have been snapped up by the same ol’ bloggers.

And by the tone of it, they are blaming these people who work hard in booking offers and completing them within the stipulated time frame.

It’s really GRAND. And this is not the first time.

Why blame people who put effort into booking offers by logging in to the site and refreshing it regularly waiting for offers to be released? If you do not see any offers while others are seeing them, then shouldn’t you change the time you log in or whatever, because the problem definitely lies with the individual and not the system.

Because of all these complaints, the administrators have placed new restrictions trying to help these lazy bums. People who never make an effort to book the ads, log in a minute a day, do not see any offers and then shoot an email to complain. Yes, this is how I look at it.

Instead of rewarding people who work for the company, the administrators are placing obstacles in their path trying to trip them.

Imagine yourself running a 100m race. Just when you are about to win, they change their tune and say that from now onwards, this is a 100m hurdle race. Can you beat that?

This company has lost its gloss. Previously, nobody minded that they are paying a flat rate of $5 per offer. However, now they want two non-paid blog posts in between. And as if that is not enough, now they even want a review way longer than the stipulated minimum 100-word. OR ELSE!

If the length of our posts determines the score that internal staff gives us, then by all means CHANGE the required word length from 100 to 200 IN THE offer itself, just like how they suddenly changed their requirement of TWO non-paying interim posts, without a prior announcement or notice. I was caught off guard too.

Previously, this company started blog for pay to offer SEO services to advertisers through back links from bloggers. Hence the minimum of 100-word per post and the minimal rate of $5. Bear in mind, bloggers are not advertising or advocating anything to their readers but providing live links within relevant content in their blogs to be spidered.

Now, with all these restrictions, I too feel disenchanted with the company. It’s bad enough that I am losing 3.9% + USD.30 each time I receive a payment from them without all these additional stress.