Payperpost goes after Gawker Media... my take on PPP and my idea to help Payperpost

Valleywag has a post this afternoon showing an email from Ted Murphy, Payperpost CEO to Brian at Gizmodo asking him to sign with PPP. I am guessing this took some guts from Ted knowing how most major big blogs really are not happy with the current situation with PPP.

I like this part from the email, "We offer high profile blogs like gizmodo special treatment such as guaranteed revenue. All of our content requires disclosure and you can opt to take only neutral opportunities (meaning you don't have to write a positive review). "

So PPP does accept clients who will force a blogger to write a positive review. That's shameful. For example, from what I can tell, ReviewMe does not force this. I already believe that writing ANY negative reviews will hurt your chances for future purchases.

Here is my (first) suggestion for PPP: Change your business model. Become an advertorial company. Do what TV, print and radio does... charge for a slot. So for example, you could buy a full page post on Gizmodo, CN, TC, BB, anywhere that will allow it (I am not saying these will/would). Then the advertiser provides the full content for that post, title, links, etc.

Frankly, when I listen to the radio, stations run all kind of ads and NEVER say that this ad is sponsored. When the DJ's promote a product, they are essentially doing a paid post but there is no disclosure. Yesterday, the ad came so close to the end of a segment it appeared as if they were talking about the product as part of the segment, when later I realized it was an ad.

If PPP was to change their model to this advertorial model, each paid post would begin with a simple disclaimer: "This is a paid advertorial, the opinions reflected may not represent XYZ site." The same disclaimer would end the post.

The real benefit to this is that then the users of that web site or blog could post comments based on what the company thinks the pros/cons of their products are in an independent manner. I could see some real strength in this. So do you agree or disagree?