I’mmmmm BACKK!!!!!!

Was at Manila for a few days, and I can actually write quite a bit about it, but I think I’ll just do so after I have sorted out my photos which I took there. Nonetheless, today, I have decided to talk a little bit (or maybe a hell lot) on Paid to Post.

Anyway.. I’m quite sure some of you have noticed that my blog is like packed or jammed with Paid Post or Paid Blogs. I always try to put em in between my usual updates, so that you guys get the latest updates, and don’t end up reading my paid post, although it would be nice if you would also spare time to do so. I signed up for quite a few paid post advertisers, which I am eligible to join. All were actually paying really well, until Smorty (one of my online advertising companies) decided to cut me out. At that time, I was actually attending a course, and with exceptional internet connection, I just wanted to log onto my Smorty Account to do my opportunities.

Well.. surprise.. surprise… I couldn’t do so. I thought it was something to do with the connection, but when I checked my yahoo mail.. then I got this ‘heart dropping’ message:

 

Dear Cyril,

Smorty Blog Advertising has opened a dispute for the payment made to
 you on
Oct 10, 2007 indicating that they never received the item.

Your Transaction ID:21G91000VM711810E
Buyer's Transaction ID:8N935924C93583228

There are many reasons why this might have happened. It could be that
 the
item is still in transit or was accidentally delivered to the wrong
address. Sometimes buyers open a non receipt dispute too soon because
 they
underestimate how long it can take for shipping and delivery. 

By opening this dispute, Smorty Blog Advertising is asking for your
 help to
resolve this issue. This is your best opportunity to resolve this
 problem
before the buyer escalates it to a PayPal claim or files a chargeback
 with
their card issuer.

Ouch!! That email just spoiled my day. I was amazed, stunned.. or whatever we common people call it. Nonetheless, I knew exactly what was wrong. Just that morning, i took up some opportunities from Smorty which I just could complete on time, so I left it the way it is so that I could complete it when I get back from work. What did I do?? Well, I just put in a few phrases, and then kind of booked the post. This way, I’m not breaking any rules which they have stated as below:

Blog application rules:

 

1. You must have a blog setup with written content in order to use Smorty’s service. Unfortunately we do not provide any hosting.

 

2. A Smorty administrator may approve or decline your account and/or blog post for any reason. It is the sole discretion of the administrator.

 

3. You can only apply for a blogger account with a root domain. e.g. www.domain.com you can not use www.domain.com/myblog , however you can use subdomains e.g. www.myblog.domain.com

 

4. A Smorty administrator may terminate your account at any time. It is the sole discretion of Smorty to do so.

 

5. Blogs that are not indexed, have little or no content, are banned from search engines or contain hate related and crude content may be rejected or put on Probation until corrected.

 

6. All blog posts MUST BE PERMANENT. Bloggers who remove posts after being paid will automatically be declined and will no longer be accepted into the Smorty network.

 

Blog article rules:

 

6. Bloggers get paid on a weekly basis only for the approved blog posts.

 

7. Once a campaign has been accepted by the blogger, you have up to 72hrs to confirm the link in your post before ownership is given to another blogger.

 

8. You will be assigned topics for each campaign write your opinion about in your blog. Within your entry you must include anchor text links to the campaigns website URL in your blog. You do not have to necessarily endorse the advertiser’s website products or services, just mention them in your blog. It is entirely your opinion to post, however, please keep in mind that the advertiser has the opportunity to dispute each individual post based only on our terms. If your post fits within Smorty’s terms then Smorty administrators will still approve your post so you get paid.

 

9. All posts must be written using correct grammar. If the advertiser finds your post to be using incorrect grammar it will be disputed and removed from your completed posts list.

 

10. There is a minimum requirement of 150 words and a maximum of 400 for blog entry approval.

 

11. Your blog post must appear either as one of the recent blog entries on your home page, or be a clear link accessible from your home page. Posts will not be approved if they can not be easily found from your home page.

 

12. A Smorty administrator may withhold or cancel payment due to a user account at its sole discretion. This will not happen if you run an ethical blog.

 

13. Your blog post must remain online and be permanent.

 

13. Smorty does not allow pornographic/adult oriented blogs at this time due to paypal rules regarding adult content.

 

14. Anchor texts with backlinks to advertiser must not contain “no follow” tags.

 

15. Posts must not be tagged with another companies badge.

 

Okay.. I was wrong. Obviously, Smorty does not agree with what I am doing. So they complained to PayPal, asking me to refund all the money they have paid me. Hmm… Being the ‘bengkeng’ type.. or maybe the ‘kiasu’ kind of person.. I protested. I complained to Smorty and at PayPal’s advice, communicated with them. I explained that there is no where in their rules which states I can’t do so. They replied :

 

You have been writing your posts with only a link and no post content, we have been monitoring your submission behaviour. An email was sent to you earlier.

Smorty

I countered… and put up all of their rules on the message board, and said..

Smorty Ads, I would like to settle this issue as soon as possible. It is not fair to charge me just so suddenly when not all post are done in such a manner. I strongly suggest we find a solution. After all, all the post are there, and are with content.Pls do reply ASP so that this issue can be revolved. Thank YOu.

And so.. they(Smorty) replied me..

10. There is a minimum requirement of 150 words and a maximum of 400 for blog entry approval. Please take special note of thsi point. When we reviewed your account for every post over the last few weeks you have only placed a link with no content. If you have tried to fix this now to cover your tracks it is too late and we show in our terms we can terminate our contract with you for such behaviour.

Okay, so you monitored me.. so why not give me a warning?? I mean, look at Rule no 10. And when they say “past few weeks”..ya right.. it hasn’t even been a week…. I wanted to counter them with their rule no 7 which says “

7. Once a campaign has been accepted by the blogger, you have up to 72hrs to confirm the link in your post before ownership is given to another blogger.

but it seemed weak. So.. I waited for them to reply me while drawing my final course of action.

Finally, I decided to refund them their money, with a few condition… which is actually to let me know of all the post I have made for them so that I could delete all those post from my blog. Think about it.. its reasonable.. I have done the post for them, so if they don’t pay me.. I should withdraw the advertisement. I can’t do free advertising, right?

Anyway… my decision never materialized because something happened… and I’ll let you know in my second episode of Free Advertising [ep2]..ehhehe.. so wait up!!

 

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 27th, 2007 at 12:13 am and is filed under Rants and Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.