Special guest: Ted Murphy (Founder / CEO - PayPerPost)
Ted was kind enough to visit us at Project X headquarters live in the studio.
download: video | audio | ipod
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transcripts
contact: cast [at] calacanis.com
CalacanisCast 19 beta
Reader Comments
(Page 1 of 4)2. I feel dirty watching the end of this.
Posted at 2:48AM on Mar 25th 2007 by Kevin Wood
3. haha, wow, great calacanis cast (beta). Greatest podcast ever? hmmm, possibly, but some of the gilmor gangs are up there though. Best of all, you finally converted to PPP :-).
-JLB
Posted at 3:25AM on Mar 25th 2007 by Jason L. Baptiste
6. Wow, after watching this, you just seem to have no idea of what marketing is, how marketing works. You also mention "most people," but every time you've got it completely wrong, I know a lot of people that don't fit into your "most people" category. I know very little who fit into that category.
Go take a course of high school marketing man, they'll teach you a little about how it all works.
8. J.
you are the ultimate ring master! This is classic. But I think you could have had hime for $750. (:
Posted at 2:56PM on Mar 25th 2007 by Keith Powers
9. The end is priceless. Jason, make sure Robin actually get's paid!!!
Posted at 3:19PM on Mar 25th 2007 by Jeff O'Hara
10. People who care about disclosure will click on a disclosure button. People who don't care won't. Is that too complicated for you, Jason?
And I'm wondering, do you really think that just because you believe something, "most internet users" also believe that? You kept talking about "most people" but where are the statistics that show this? Where is that poll? Was it a cross representation of the entire internet or just your blind sheep followers?
Interesting interview, anyway. Looked like you two had fun. But then, Ted's a fun guy who doesn't take himself too seriously. I like that in a guy.
Oh, wait! Maybe that's why the whole writing-on-the-forehead thing confused you. You take yourself far too seriously to ever consider having fun with something like that. That's a shame. You seem to have the potential to be an okay guy. Come on over to the dark side and let us show you how to have fun. ;)
11. Jason, I applaud your efforts to truly understand how PPP works, and even venture over to the dark side. ;)
But one of the things that bothered me about your interview, is that you said "most" people feel they are being deceived if we don't disclose right at the top of the post, or in the post itself.
The day before your interview, I asked for reader feedback on my blog.
Not a single person who responded, said they couldn't tell which ones were paid and which ones were not. I even asked them if they wanted a per post disclosure tag line or button, like I had been doing. They all said no, that only a moron wouldn't be able to tell those posts are paid.
I have disclosure in my sidebar, it's readable on every single post I publish regardless of paid or not.
Since the day I started being paid through Blogads or text ads, I have posted about it to my readers, told them what I was doing, asked them how they felt.
That's something you don't seem to understand, our readers are who we as bloggers have to account to. If they tell me they want a tag line at the beginning of my paid posts, I'll give it to them. If they tell me they don't like all those ads in my sidebar, I'll cut those numbers down.
No one has said any such thing to me. My readers are the opinion that matters to me, not the "A-listers that don't really exist", not the critics who have never even read my blog but have decided paid blogging is the doom of blogging, my readers matter most.
They are the ones who keep coming back to my blog day after day, commenting, following a long with my life.
They also know I would never post anything that was dishonest. I have never taken an opp for PPP just because it was a high dollar amount, but I felt was garbage. I have never lied to my readers for the sake of money, and never will.
12. I came on board with Payperpost in November, just as mandatory disclosure was becoming a policy. The first advertising opportunity I took was for PPP themselves, who paid me a fee to write about my disclosure policy. Every opportunity I've taken since then has been disclosed at the point of the post, either within the post itself or in the tagline at the bottom. When advertisers were allowed to request that a post not be disclosed as sponsored, I chose not to take those opportunities. Many posties were not comfortable with that and it is no longer an option. I have a Payperpost sidebar button on every page of my blog. It's large, bright blue and green and very near the top of my sidebar. It cannot be missed by any reader. I spend way too much time in the Payperpost forums and reading postie blogs, and know for a fact that most posties prefer, not just full disclosure, but prominent disclosure. Posties who were in the system earlier have guaged reader reaction and embrace full transparency also, at least in part because they've found it's what their readers want. It's an evolving marketplace and the Payperpost system responds to the feedback from posties, from advertisers, from the reading public and from outside influences, like Calacanis.com and others. I'm fully confident that this will continue as this new advertising medium matures. I'm equally confident in Ted Murphy's leadership ability as he and his team respond to the dynamics of the marketplace
I am, however, disappointed that Ted didn't hold out for a thousand. (Corrected: I see that he did! Guess I was laughing too hard the first time around to catch that.) I hope that the spirit of cooperation exhibited in the negotiations for your advertising on his forehead will continue. It's a step in the right direction.
13. I thought it was interesting how you kept dodging the whole "disclose in the first line" thing that you yourself brought up. If you are going to call for that type of disclosure, you should be doing it yourself. I shouldn't have to read your blog post and find the implied meaning behind "I" and "we".
Besides that, I have asked my readers as Kat has asked hers about what they thought. Since I have integrity, my readers were happy to see what I honestly thought about different products, sites, and services. I get lots of comments and feedback where they are happy that I have come and told them the truth about whatever I have written.
I personally write all my blog posts. I personally tell what I truly think about anything that I am blogging paid or not. It's all my personal content with my personal thoughts and feelings. No one gets deceived because I write what I personally feel... get what I am saying?
We bloggers that have integrity never post positively about anything that we don't feel positively about. You cannot bankroll every blogger into the same category just because it bothers you that advertisers can say "hey write only positive things".
I wrote about many products for free BEFORE payperpost came into play. Am I to be called out for that? I didn't say that I wasn't paid for those posts. Was it still my original content? Sure. My personal opinion? YES. Positive or not.
It seems that the only thing that will make it okay for you and some others would be for a big pop up flashing bright yellow disclosure ...but then it would be the wrong color.
PS..what "majority" do you keep referring to?
14. Suni - I think he is referring to pretty much everybody who is not part of PayPerPost. I just went over to your website - didn't see much in terms of disclosure there, by the way.
And yes, a big, bright flashing light would be a beginning, as well as maybe a meta-tag on you site so that search engines would ignore it and its links by default. But that would ruin the fun, wouldn't it? The who purpose of PPP is to be deceptive.
Look at some of the posts from the PPP users who posted here: Skeet is all into labia reduction surgery, Kat lives in Florida, but would probably love Idaho and is really interested in the local real estate market, and Suni seems to love shopping for cars on AutoCity101.com. Am I really suppose to take any other posts on this site seriously? Can any of you seriously say you would have written about this stuff if it wasn't paid for?
15. Also, you talk about how product placing, most people have come to expect, and it doesn't harm anybody. How about when it first came about? Disclosure? Maybe a little line at the end up the credits. As you mention about the disclosure policy on blogs, nobody reads that. Nobody ever watches the credits to see if Coca Cola really did pay for the hero to drink a Coke, or if the director just stuck that in there. People were being deceived there! But it continues to happen, and we accept it now.
16. @Frederic: Look at mine. I choose those things that I want to write about. Everything I write about is something I would write about without getting paid for. Look at how I write them, look at which ones I choose, try to pick them out (hint, voip and music).
17. "Kat lives in Florida, but would probably love Idaho and is really interested in the local real estate market"
Frederic,
Yes, I actually would love Idaho because it's climate and lifestyle is very similar to Maine where I originate from, and yes, I am into the real estate market. I am always watching the prices of homes in my area because I plan on buying a home of my own in the near future. And, i have been helping my sister with her new home she just bought and learned a great deal about home buying and selling, through her dealings.
All of these things are things I have blogged about before, will always blog about.
Don't assume anything about me. You don't know me, you skimmed a few posts, goody for you. You know every thing there is to know about who I am and what I am into. You are now officially an expert on my life after a few posts.
I have been blogging, and linking to other sites and products of interest since 1998, only now, I'm being paid to blog about those same exact things.
I will say it again, I have never, will never, post anything for money that i am not truly interested in.
18. "Kat lives in Florida, but would probably love Idaho and is really interested in the local real estate market"
Frederic,
Yes, I actually would love Idaho because it's climate and lifestyle is very similar to Maine where I originate from, and yes, I am into the real estate market. I am always watching the prices of homes in my area because I plan on buying a home of my own in the near future. And, i have been helping my sister with her new home she just bought and learned a great deal about home buying and selling, through her dealings.
All of these things are things I have blogged about before, will always blog about.
Don't assume anything about me. You don't know me, you skimmed a few posts, goody for you. You know every thing there is to know about who I am and what I am into. You are now officially an expert on my life after a few posts.
I have been blogging, and linking to other sites and products of interest since 1998, only now, I'm being paid to blog about those same exact things.
I will say it again, I have never, will never, post anything for money that i am not truly interested in.
19. @Dew - and that's exactly the problem. I assume your post about Cisco is paid for (two links to the same site, looks like PPP to me, but a regular user would have no idea), so is your post on Unsigned.
I assume the stuff about games and posts with links to blog posts are for real, but I am not sure. In the end, I would feel sorry for a reader who takes your paid post serious and I am sorry that none of your other posts can be taken seriously either, because it is never quite clear what is real and what is not.
Also, your disclosure policy is at the bottom of your page - nobody would ever see that. Very crafty.
About your other post: just because others deceive their audiences doesn't make PPP's deception any more ethical.
20. @Frederic: That's the thing, I would normally write about music and voip. In those posts, I wrote my genuine opinions, on something that I have used. The more people that start using voip, the better. The more people that listen to different kinds of music, the better.
1. Tyler...I think you should change your intro...it's always "Tyler Here...Da, da, da..." and that's what shows up in the iTunes subscription description, not the name of the guests or what the podcast is about, just your intro. Unless of course one goes to the extra effort of clicking the little info button. Makes it very hard to skim my podcasts and see what's up, what's new and what I want to listen to. Just click your iTunes link and take a look and you'll see what I mean.
Posted at 12:22AM on Mar 25th 2007 by PXLated