This is one of the greatest things I have read all month. One quick question though. Is this just PPP, or does it include SS as well?

This has been sorely needed for quite a while! Good luck to all the reviewers. Remember to take frequent coffee breaks!

I hope that others share your thoughts corrin!

Good news indeed! There are some blogs in the system that are an embarrassment to the more serious bloggers among us. It will be good to see them go.

This is very welcome news!
Best of luck to the reviewers in accomplishing this major endeavor!

Cyn
(Caprica)

I hope you have a special Cake Plow planned for the end of this project! I’m hoping all my blogs in the system make the cut but if not, I promise not to have any hard feelings

I wonder if the declining quality of PPP blogs coincides with the decision that was made to allow blogs as young as 30-days old to join?

I put a lot of effort into my blogging…something I enjoy very much. I really hope I make the cut and I am glad to see that the company cares about quality.

I can only say this…

YES!

I have nothing against any bloggers or blogs. But i agree with Skeet totally.. embarrassing to be associated with such bloggers/blogs.

Wish there was a way to learn why certain blogs were ‘pruned.’ Feedback is always welcome.

Well, just got the mail. I’m cut. Oh well. Being in the PPP network nuked my PageRank anyway, so I guess it was good while it lasted. Checking my Google analytics, I still get a fair number of hits from some of the past opp. articles. All the best to the “quality” bloggers still in the flock. Onward and upward!

Unfortunately, my blog which I thought was of better quality was cut and the one that I had announced to be keeping solely for the ‘ice cream’ was approved.

Also, my fave blogs that I don’t do sponsored posts on, just sponsored links, have been demoted to PR 0 from 3s.

Yep, great week for me.

I think that the PPP must give specific reason for rejecting any blog. If they give specific reasons for rejecting a post, I think that it would unfair to bloggers if the blogs are rejected without assigning any reason. There must be a chance to make up for the shortcomings.

By the way my blog has been approved.

Well, I hope that while you are all patting yourselves on the back and saying what a good idea it is, someone is not disqualifying your blog and putting a big Thumbs Down (Delete) on your dashboard. Y’all better go check.

Loyalty to PPP means nothing. Taking PR slaps because of PPP means nothing. Following all the PPP rules means nothing. 4 out of 5 stars rating after 2+ years means nothing.

My crime? I think it is staying on Blogger because I could not afford to lose PR during the move, as the RRs mean nothing. I moved my travel blog to its own domain months ago, and it sits with zero page rank.

I wish you all the best.

CyberCelt

Thanks for deleting my blog from PPP.. I really appreciated that, what a waste of time and effort.

Wow, you really screwed your advertisers on this one, because guess what? All the posts already paid for, will be deleted from the smart bloggers pages, and as payments come in, the posts will be deleted, and therefore, your advertisers will have paid for nothing, since they’ll have had a link and review for a month, not a permanent link. WTG!

I’D URGE ALL OF YOU DENIED TO DO THIS – DELETE POSTS THAT HAVE BEEN PAID FOR AND AS PAYMENTS COME IN, DELETE THOSE POSTS AFTERWARDS TO ‘UP’ THE QUALITY OF YOUR BLOG SINCE PPP ISN’T LOYAL TO YOU, AND THEIR SPONSORSHIP ONLY CLUTTERS YOUR BLOG AND MAKES IT ALMOST WORTHLESS. THE ADVERTISERS AND IZEA HAVE THEIR MONEY, BUT WON’T KEEP YOU, SO THERE’S NO MOTIVATION TO KEEP PERMANENT LINKS ON YOUR BLOG. Gomen Nasai for your rejection, PPP, but bai~

Curious! I got cut. I wasn’t getting much since it was a bravejournal blog and they are usually NOT qualified, I was trying my best to get my 10 posts reviewed (I’ve done 11 and was doing my 12th when I got “smacked”. lol) Only 6 have been approved. I was hoping to add a different blog with an owned domain, but of course I can’t now because I still need approval on 5 posts, which I’m sure I won’t get, and the system still recognizes this and won’t let me submit the other blog. Funny, I put a ticket in last week, maybe that’s why I was cut? We’ll have to see if other blog is allowed after the dust settles.
Good luck to everyone who “made the team.”

I could understand cutting blogs that aren’t understandable, are inactive, or haven’t produced good content, so have gotten low tacks and bans/benches. What I don’t understand is not getting an actual reason for getting cut, since apparently you have enough people to review them… Someone could easily come up with a generic list of common problems and just copy and paste that into a form as to why the blog was cut.

I will be bannining Izea now, as it seems to be a snobbish club with no critique given, no positive criticism, and no warning. Awfully suspicious, like the post above, that there’s been a huge delay in approving my posts lately… Seems you wanted to get the work but then make these cuts and not actually have to pay for it. Will be deleting my posts like another commenter said, and therefore, those advertisers who did pay, and who said they enjoyed my posts, are getting screwed, because as a single mother, I don’t work for free, I don’t market items for free, and as a published author in magazines and journals, I most certainly don’t write for free unless it’s for my own publicity and store.

I was approved to stay on with one of my blogs, but will not be, since no reason was given for the other cut, which had a higher page rank and therefore was eligible for more opportunities. Thanks for the gifts you bought my son that I couldn’t afford, but otherwise, screw you, Izea, and your little clique, who probably all work for you. Your posts are all gone, and your advertisers paid for nothing, so I hope they’re happy about all the money I did make during the long while I was with you.

I received a comment from PPP on another (non ppp) blog after I wrote about the “cuts”. Aparently they WILL still review old posts and pay if they are approved. I appreciate the fact that they commented and they must be searching for bad press?

Hi Ted and gang!

I was wondering if most of the blogs that are being cut, are blogs being hosted on livejournal, myspace, blogger, etc., etc, etc. Have you included in the assessment of blogs, those owned by individuals? If livejournal blogs were the ones you cut today, how long before the others are cut from the team?

I got my 2 blogs are cut the one which has PR3. I do have some blogs which are retained and I hope they already checked on it and will retained long. I am surprised my 2 blogs are cut, well…whatever! Anyway, it is annoying that Google is also reducing my ranks and others went back to PR0. WHATEVER!

oh my gosh! i was shocked and surprised when I turn on my computer this morning and check my PPP status…one of my blog is already cut off…I was sad and I really don’t know what I’m going to react but well,hope I can find another place where I can work-at-home. PPP can we get back in your service after awhile? Hope soooo….huhuhuhu.

I’d also like to know what the criteria used here was. I read the email and it gave no reason just a link to here, so I came expecting there to be some meaningful content here, but instead just find the same vague fluff, with no answers given.
I know my blog is really not all that popular yet. I hope with more time and more effort to improve that. So I could have understood if I came here with clear explanations about how my blog doesn’t have a high enough rank yet or something, but no, no reasons anywhere.
Reading here I assume the fact that I use blogger is part of that.

I don’t care that much. I believe I managed to make $15.01 in the whole time I was here, it wasn’t like this payed my bills. And clearly I have a very different perspective on things, cause looking at the blogs of people who were embarrassed to be associated with my blog, they are not things I would have any interest in wasting my time reading. Clearly others feel very differently, because I still have fewer readers than you all, but that’s ok with me. I’ll stick to what I find important, and if not enough people find that worthwhile to read, so be it.

Oh, and yeah, I intend now to delete the old posts I was payed for, because what the hell reason would I have for leaving them up? But, surely you must have seen this coming, so clearly you don’t feel you owe your advertisers who have already paid all that much either.

I think that with your new idea; there will be more opps available soon. It will help all the bloggers to be more serious about what they are writing; that they will take time to write a quality post just to keep their blogs from getting booted out…LOL. That will make us work harder for sure. No more easy money, jot down a bit and you are done. Some people are so good at it, and so maybe this is the chance to be fair with everyone. It is not really fair to have too many blogs and make too much while others wait all day and get none. Limiting how many blogs you can submit is good, too, to give others a chance. Okay, till here, I just thought I’d share my opinion. Good luck and more power!

I reread this post to shed some more light to your reason on disapproving my blogs. The reasons stated therein are vague and subject to bias, even discrimination. It is no wonder that the blog assessment you are currently undertaking is causing some negative furor among bloggers.

I have considered Payperpost and Izea as a business partner since I have started taking opportunities here and in the world of business, the least you could do to a partner if you are kicking them out is to be clear of your reasons as well as motives.

Personally, I have been to innumerable audits through the years due to the nature of my work and as business courtesy to the auditee, audit guidelines were usually indicated prior, after and even at any time of the assessment. Sadly, the guidelines nor requirements given on your so-called assessment were yet to be clear. If I may suggest, this should have been properly and clearly indicated before you have done your assessment. Further, if there have been any improvements needed for the blogs you were assessing, you should have indicated so. For sure, any proper blogger would have done some effort to improve and to do what needs to be done. Apparently, you do not care much about it but just axed the blogs you do not like sans clearcut assessment guidelines. Really, that is no way to earn goodwill from anybody.

Nevertheless, thank you for the business opportunities. I have learned alot from you and hopefully, you have learned a lot from your business partners. Good luck!

I agree with marites – Instead of just blankly cutting people, surely you could have given some improvements that needed to be made and let the blogger try to make those. If they didn’t, then cut them, but it would have shown some loyalty to those who have taken pagerank hits in order to stay with Izea. And considering I made over $1000 in posts that are deleted, you ripped off your advertisers big time. But I suppose those small companies that need the word out don’t really matter to you, since you’ll be looking to pull in the big corporate ones now who can pay more. You’re a bunch of idiots and I can’t wait to watch Izea go under from all the bad press – that’s given for free, not for pay, because of this.

I find it comical that some people are talking about deleting sponsored posts because of the audit. Now that only means that they will also do the same with other sites that in any time can kick them out? There is no loyalty there; they won’t stick to their guns. The minute they are mad they start deleting posts; that is not fair. That is being irrational-I think so.

I have to agree with Rational. Would you undo work that you did for a brick-and-mortar employer? An employer, by the way, which is allowed – in most US states – to terminate employees “at will” – without providing a reason.

We have to ask ourselves: have we gotten lazy, doing only what is absolutely necessary to get by? If so, perhaps those blogs that failed the audit should self-assess their content. Could the posts have been more complete? Are there spelling and grammar errors that reduce the quality of the writing?

Are these rejected blogs only interested / blogging for income? Are they filled with third-party ad banners and links? I lost PR through my association with PPP, which has reduced my opportunities to virtually nil. But my blog continues to have posts and content. (Perhaps because it’s impossible for me to shut-up, and I enjoy “talking-with-my-hands”.)

Obviously, as a non-staffer, I can’t speak to the criteria used in the audit, anymore than I can explain the Google PR algorithm. I, like many commenters here, have seen and read blogs that appear to be written with a seriously limited grasp of the English language. Is this the quality that advertisers require and expect?

All I can say is – blog for yourself first, enjoy what you write and contribute to the Internet Universe, and let PPP worry about PPP. Do you write to Google about their PR algorithm and expect them to divulge their processes?

I didn’t think so.

In my case even if my blogs are cut off, I will just leave it as it is. I will not delete any posts there. Why would I delete anything when in fact I’m paid for it! Also, I experience not being paid by other sites and I didn’t even delete those things. So for these blogs of mine that are horribly dropped down, it’s fine for me. I’ll just try my best the next time and improve my quality of writing. PEACE!

In the two years that I’ve been with PPP, they have always promoted changes as ‘better opps for bloggers’. Yet, they continue to allow advertisers to offer gazillion word opps with a ten cent pay off. This latest change is nothing new. And with 200,000 bloggers, it really doesn’t matter. Fortunate for PPP, bloggers aren’t smart enough or astute enough to have a ‘boycott PPP’ day, week or even month.

As for me, I’ve written some posts for PPP that were received well by advertisers and readers. I’m not about to delete those entries. But since I have fulfill my contractual obligation, I can remove links and change a word or two to remove its PPP association.

I think bloggers are forgetting that PPP is going to do what it thinks will make today’s bottom dollar, even if the policy isn’t the best in long-range planning. Bloggers, especially the short-sighted ones, are expendable. Advertisers aren’t.

@good grief … ditto!

@anyone … did any of the posties get any type of notification about the impending assessments?

@anyone with insight … This reminds me of a time when I worked for a fast food specialty hamburger place in SC. They hired too many people thus causing an over abundance of worker vs work to be done. They started the initial crew at 20 plus hours, then when they had the masses assembled, they cut everyone’s hours to less than 10 per week.

I was serving as an ambassador in the area for one year and was obligated to retain a job of at least 20 hours per week. Needless to say, 10 hours didn’t cut it, so I had to quit and seek work elsewhere. What does this have to do with PPP? Well, lets hope they don’t meet the same demise as this company. As a result of over hiring, they lost their best employees and the doors closed within six months.

What PPP has done feels so much like that experience. The only difference is that this felt more like a fishing trip, where the initial posties were bait to draw in the bigger fish, the PR 6 blogs. In the end the little blogger was tossed back in to the “river” until what time it could grow into a big fish. The only problem then is that PPP won’t have them back.

Once axed, twice shy?

@don’t delete posts ~ there is a poll posted over on the ppp boards in the drop box asking the same question about the pictures bloggers submitted to them to place on the GWoP … lol … GWOP, for some reason that just looks funny ~

@Susan….good decision!

For others, I know how you feel! But what is worst, the blogs that are being cut off by PPP or the entire blog that’s being erased in your account by a site which is offering free blog platform but doesn’t want commercialized blog sites under them (meaning everything you have written in there are lost)?

If your blog is cut off with PPP, then make another one, get your own hosting to have a safe storage and be good with writing your articles. Also, keep on praying that whatever new sites that you have, PPP will accept it. As long as your account is there and your name is still accepted with PPP, I guess there is nothing to worry about. Besides, it’s their own company and they can do anything they want to do! PEACE!

I only agree with deleting posts because it will improve the mysterious ‘overall quality’ of my blog since it won’t appear that I’m a sellout. I mean, honestly, I had more readers before I started taking sponsored reviews (though, most of them stayed because they understand that I am a single parent who enjoys learning about new sites and writing for money, so it was a good choice for me. Also, I categorized everything so that sponsored posts could be filtered out, which kept it uncluttered for those who didn’t care about learning of new sites). I met my requirements – the few advertisers I decided to purchase from, well, they have word of mouth from me along with a paid purchase, so they got what they wanted, one of those being Zenni Optical since I wear glasses. I’ll be recommending them to everyone I know regardless of the fact that I only learned about them because I was paid to.

And yes, it is the equivalent of them trying to get a big site started only to cut for the PR6 and such blogs. I have a better chance of reaching that rank without sponsorship, since I have a store, gallery, contests, a forum, and many other things on my site besides a blog about politics and technical tutorials. The only time PR mattered to me was as a paid blogger, since it’s more about the sales I make, friends I meet, and having a way to communicate. However, it isn’t fair to the advertisers that this isn’t helping their PR at all, or getting them more visits, since their links have been deleted.

I wonder how many PR6 sites get to stay even if they don’t speak English, or have about 100 of those annoying flashy ads on there, no originality, and the same generic layouts that come with most blogging programs because they have no customization skills. I’d rather use my creativity and ability to write for something more useful, but, you know, thanks for the $1000 and all. I’ve noticed since I’ve gone back to the site that the quality and the payout of the opps has improved, but I guess that’s because you’re only doing higher PR bloggers now.

It would have been nice to know how I could have improved my site, since I am always open to constructive criticism, even if it were only a thing from a checklist, but I wasn’t given that option. Since my other sites seem very happy with me, and I have a lot of people telling me what a great job I’m doing, I believe it’s arbitrary on their part and that they are losing good bloggers along with the bad, either because of PR or because these cuts are actually being made blindly rather than by an actual human being reviewing them.

*shrugs* Yes, I needed the money, but you know what? Not that big a deal, because even though I’m disabled and have a kid, I work hard at all my projects, and I will more than make up for it by concentrating on my current serious work, since it wasn’t worth refreshing the PPP page constantly in hopes of grabbing a measly $5 opportunity, when I could have painted in that time and made much more. So I’m going back to my roots, and it’s too bad that they’re losing a quality blogger who does more than just blog – who teaches, who photographs, who does community work – but it is no longer my problem. It’s between PPP, their advertisers, and the ones who made the cut.

I’ve seen some comments above hinting that PPP’s criteria for making the cut includes race and the last comment insinuating that bloggers from third world countries are not good enough. Let’s stop the prejudice and also accusations about prejudice. I’ve read crappy blogs and outstanding blogs from all race — there are just good bloggers and bad ones.

And I assure everyone that PPP’s criteria does not include race. I’m an Asian blogger and I made the cut. I work hard on my blog and I make quality sponsored posts — I believe that’s the reason PPP kept my blog. I don’t make as much money as most bloggers because I don’t do my posts in a rush hoping to get more opps. I make sure advertisers get quality posts regardless of the value of the payment I get. IZEA and its advertisers have helped me a lot in coping financially and I am truly grateful for the opportunities that have been given to me.

my blog with a PR3 was cut. i cannot reconcile with the fact that my blog was cut whereas there are still plenty of ppp bloggers out there who can’t string a proper sentence together much less do a review. this made me more curious as to why my blog was cut. i wrote and asked support and i was graciously answered. my blog was cut because, according to their assessment, my blog is a monitizing blog. support said i have ads left and right and paid posts after every non-paid post – meaning i have more paid posts than non -paid post. support also said that my blog has no theme – no cohesive content.

ok. my reply was: the ads are adsense; the widgets are from entrecard and project wonderful. i only started doing sponsored posts in april 2008. my blog has about 400 posts. it is not possible for me to have more than 200 paid posts in the short span that i’ve been doing sponsored posts. in total. i’ve done about 20 opps from ppp since march/april 2008. my other opps came from other sites. my blog has a theme: it’s all about me and my family, parenting, motherhood, and all other related issues. my subject is quite varied, but still, i have a theme.

i do not who reviewed my site. i guess my affiliation with other paid blogging sites has something to do with the cut off. race has nothing to do with it. to the advertiser who ridiculed the 3rd world bloggers, please, as cherry said, there are no black, white, yellow, or brown bad bloggers… just BAD bloggers. funny, if you specified N american bloggers only to do your opp, then you should blame ppp and not the bloggers. pls take note that most asian blogs have high US traffic . check alexa.

to all those cut off from ppp, take a good look at your blogs. if you feel you deserved to be cut off but was not, please do your best to produce quality blogs and posts. if you feel you were done an injustice ( money is tight and i really could use the extra i earn from ppp), well, there’s nothing you can do.there are other opportunities waiting out there for you. in my case, i think ppp should have at least given me a warning to correct and improve my blog- after all, it was just a matter of deleting some ads and widgets.

does ppp have a list of criteria in cutting out bliggers? better be diligent in your blog pruning. i just read a post from one your bloggers and she wrote ” blogging is my fashion”. another cherished blogger wrote “drop your entrecard here and i will drop you too”. good luck ppp!

I am so sad my 2 blogs with PR was cut. I just want to share my feelings that I really love blogging. I hope PPP will reconsider blogs like mine.

mgmarly@gmail.com

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