Design Pitstop

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A hot topic of debate in the “blogosphere” has been the topic of advertising. Why do people look down on advertisements on blogs? Sometimes it’s because they’re intrusive. Other times it’s because there are more ads than content. But sometimes it’s because it’s hard to distinguish the difference between paid articles and actual content.

So I signed up with a service called Smorty because I wanted to see what they’re all about. Basically, they give you “assignments” to write about, and they pay. I don’t know what the payscale is, but so far I’ve seen them for $4.50 and $6.00. From what I understand, the number of assignments you take, your alexa score, and your google pagerank all contribute to the amount of money each assignment pays. The theory being that if all of those are high, your blog is more valuable. Sounds solid to me.

So yes, I’ve begun accepting “assignments” because I need to pay the bills. It’s the same reason you see Google ads on this site, and the occasional Amazon.com offer. But instead of just taking every assignment thrown my way, and exploiting the service and my readers in the same fell swoop, I will only be writing about assignments that deal with the subject of this site: Operating Systems, Design, and Technology. Furthermore, I will not be writing any reviews without actually having reviewed the product/service in question. This is dirty pool, and the nobody wins- The advertiser is getting publicity, yes- but their advertising channels will soon dwindle as readers catch on.

So what does this mean to you? Well, if you’re a reader of mine, you may be seeing a reviews section creep up. It’s ugly, yes- but necessary.

If you have a service, you can use Smorty to advertise on blogs, and be reasonably sure that most bloggers will follow the same guidelines, and only deliver your ads to your relevant audience.

If you’re a fellow publisher, it means you can check out Smorty if you are interested in getting paid for blogging. But remember, in the same vain as today’s biggest release, with great power comes great responsibility. In other words, respect your readers, deliver content first, get paid second, and every one will be happy.

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