As If PayPerPost Wasn’t Enough, Enter BlogKits

I'm an old-school blogger. I'll say that right up front. I truly believe that in order to have any believability as a blogger, I have to be completely honest in my writing. The idea of getting paid to write a review BY a company pimping a product doesn't mesh well with that mentality.

Don't get me wrong; I still write product reviews for sites like Epinions where you might make a few dollars on a review if you are LUCKY, but the difference there is a layer of transparency and volunteerism: I write the review based on my own experiences and if I make money on the review, fine, but if not, that's okay, too, because it's out there.

When it comes to this new brand of "getting paid to blog" however, the transparency is no longer there; you are paid directly based on a fairly simple equation: hit count and popularity. PayPerPost already has had complaints from its writers that if you do post a negative opinion, and don't have a high traffic blog, you quickly fall to the lowest rank of the system, and pay follows your ranking downhill.

The newest entrant in this arena, BlogKits, seems to eliminate the ranking system for pay, but links the majority of bloggers' compensation to click-rate: the "best weekly submission" for a certain campaign can receive $100, but for the rest of the campaign participants, it's the clicks that count.

This latest adjounalism trend is disturbing, at best. If a blogger really wanted to make money from BlogKits, it's fairly obvious that you'd have to rely on positive reviews; how many people are going to click through to a company or product you've just panned, especially if they are loyal readers who already place some value on what you have to say?

BlogKits is managed by ForgeBusiness, an affiliate marketing firm. I realize that with so many blogs out there, ad programs like AdSense aren't often covering expenses for many bloggers, much less paying the rent. But I can't believe there isn't a better way.