….. SPONSORED!

I am sooo happy, I finally have an own-hosted blog in the system. I know, this blog is right now unranked and does not offer much value to advertisers but let’s be patient and wait for the next Google Page Rank update, ok? I just hope that Google will not take as long as it did in the previous update. I am confident I will at least be assigned SOME rank!

For the past few months, I have been sidelined and punished by advertisers for using a free blog host. However, even now with this blog in the system, I do not foresee too many sponsored posts as not many advertisers would want a new blog with no ranking writing for them.

Anyway, there will always be a perfect post for this blog and it will be the 1K Tuesday on PayPerPost! Woohoo I must be dreaming to even dare think I will get one of the four opportunities!

Two weeks ago, I registered with a new paid to post program that is actually a bidding marketplace. This has got to be the worst marketplace for me. Since the day my blogs were approved, I have yet to write even one post through them.

For one, when we submit our blogs, we have to set a value to our blogs. How high could I go with the STILL incorrect Technorati rankings?

Upon approval, we have to bid for the opportunity to review a product or website. From my experience, the advertisers who do not want you to post for them will decline you straightaway but those who are of two minds and would like to wait for a better offer will leave your bid pending for ages with no decision made to approve, reject or to make a counter offer.

There was this opportunity where the advertiser offered $10 per post. At a commission of 35% to be paid to the host, the blogger only gets $6.50. As the product was suitable for my blog and I was agreeable to the rate, I made a bid for it.

The advertiser made a counter offer for $4 and since I am only getting 65% of that price, I will only be getting $2.60. Are you kidding me? $2.60 for a 200 word review!?! No way, man.

I have written a 10-word post for $2.50 and 100-word posts for $2.80 but $2.60 for a 200-word post is a new low I do not wish to dip down to, even if the product is 101% relevant to my blog.

I did not even bother to make a re-offer to such an unreasonable advertiser. I know my blog’s value, although not much, is definitely worth more than $2.60 for a lifetime live link on a Google Page Rank 3 that will only go higher as time goes by.

I believe many of us have multiple blogs. A guy once told me that it is a bad idea to keep multiple blogs as I will have my attention divided and I will not be able to build my blog as well as I could if I only concentrate on a single blog.

Many people have even wondered WHY in the world one needs that many blogs when we could just clump everything into a blog and separate the various topics with something called Categories.

I guess this is not something that could be easily explained. I call these blogs my passion blogs. I write on specific topics on each blog and I write them because I am passionate about the subjects.

Many people think that we are keeping multiple blogs so that we can accept more offers of sponsored post. Personally, none of my passion blogs have sponsored posts, and I do not intend to publish any there.

These passion blogs are kept solely for my writing pleasure and I have no plans to monetize them save for the couple of Google AdSense codes, which I am so used to, I treat them like blog decoration.

I write so many original posts per day on my blogs that I keep as drafts and set them to publish on specific dates on my WordPress powered blog while on my ** An Anonymous Journal ** I keep them as drafts and shaft them in between sponsored posts as and when required.

As a result, I do not actually remember what post is published and what are still in Draft.

Therefore, when I chat with my friends, I cannot even ask them to go and read my blog lah because what I have written does not equal to what I have published. Even I myself get confused by blogging in advance.

My train of thoughts is running faster than my fingers can type.

Last week, Ted of PPP tore a postie’s blog apart publicly on the PPP blog. Well, some thought it was bad taste, some said this is a good way for us posties to learn what to do and do them right, and what not to do lest we garner more bans from advertisers.

Anyway, the posties decided that it would be better to volunteer their blogs to be  dissected publicly instead of being targeted at like the first blogger.

From the first few blogs that were reviewed by the head himself, he was saying that their sponsored posts were meeting the minimum requirements ONLY. In the first place, I had thought that these advertisers are not really seeking advertisement on blogs, but rather buying links. The more popular a blog is, the higher the advertiser offers.

And the fact that we have to write a few paragraphs of words is because the search engines pick up text better if it was surrounded by text of similar subject. When I joined PPP, I understood that I am not writing and publishing sponsored posts to persuade my readers to click on the links of the advertisers. If they click on them due to genuine interest, then well and good, but if they did not, the value is still there on a Google Page Rank 3 blog.

However, does that mean that my blog will remain a three forever? No, the posts will still be there even if I managed to achieve a Google Page Rank of 5, for example. So what does it mean that most posts only meet the minimum requirement?

Writing sponsored posts reminds me of an old story. There was once when I was still in school and we were required to write an essay. My classmate wrote an essay, inserting “You are a jerk” right in the middle of the essay and the teacher gave her a large tick at the bottom of the page.

Where is the relevance? I don’t know. Writing sponsored posts just reminds me of that very funny episode.

I read a blog comment recently which says the following: I blog to remember who I am. This aptly sums up my post, My Blog, My Diary.

I don’t know about others but for me, time really flies. Sometimes I wonder where every minute has gone to. Did I waste my time doing inane things? I think I did, especially when I was younger. Thankfully, I am more focused now.

I do not blog for other people to read. I am not an attention seeker. My main purpose of blogging is to record down the milestones in my life, the good and the bad times and generally the things that have happened to me.

Things that may affect me much and seem like a big issue now may feel like only a minor irritation years down the road. Irritation like a small grain of sand in the shoe that is soon forgotten, if not for it being typed out.

I don’t understand people. They make noise when their internet surfing habits are tracked by cookies or spyware, maybe by some toolbars installed or something like the notorious Alexa Toolbar.

But then how come so many people install MyBlogLog on their blogs? Well, none of my blogs have MyBlogLogs. I am not a member of this service but from what I understand, this tracks blog visitor activity right down to which URL he (or she) has clicked.

And if you want to track your blog readers, you have to join the service and let it track YOUR activity when you visit blogs of fellow MyBlogLog members.

I mean, why would I want the blog owner to know when I have visited his (or her) blog and which posts I read and for how long, etc.? If I wanted the owner to know, I will leave a comment.

To me, what MyBlogLog is doing isn’t that far off from what Alexa is doing, except that MyBlogLog tracks blogs only while Alexa tracks the internet as a whole.