Florida based PayPerPost just launched a new site called RockStartup, which chronicles the birth (and I hope, ultimate failure) of their ethically-challenged startup.
RockStartup seems to be heavily influenced by the movie Startup.com, which tracked Kaleil Tuzman and his team (and multiple girlfriends) through a web 1.0 startup. Some of the scenes in the first two episodes of RockStartup are near duplicates of scenes from Startup.com. Of course, RockStartup is being consumed real time, whereas Startup.com wasn’t released until after the company folded.
I can’t wait for the episode where Ted (the founder) goes to jail. 
I’m not going to go into the whole payperpost argument again. Not after seeing a naked guy in bed trash me on YouTube. If you want to know my opinion on PPP, see our previous posts and listen to our interview with the founder after their financing.
Update: “PayPerPost are offering bloggers like myself cold hard cash to voice their opinions about a TechCrunch story posted by a dude called Mike.” Incredible.
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Wow! Is it cold in here?
Hey, he spelled your name right.
(i.e. take what you can get.)
I have to admit Ted, you are somewhat of a cheeseball on camera.
My view is still this: People need to be honest. If they are honest about their opinions, then there is no ethical problem. That responsibility falls on the blogger, not on PayPerPost. I’m always honest when I blog, I disclose the posts are paid (although I don’t think it’s necessary to disclose as long as I am honest), the overwhelming majority of my posts are not paid posts, I try to keep it interesting and relevant, and the collected funds will go to charity.
Besides, blogging is not some holy sacrosanct as it’s being made out to be. It’s information, it’s personal discussion, it’s ideas, and honesty is important.
They’re amorality, wow, that’s a pretty big accusation.
*amoral
if you hate them so much, why are you giving them all this free press- if you didnt report this story it wouldnt have made mcuh of a difference
Jack - yes, that’s a good question. My hope is that they are eventually pressured into requiring blogger disclosure. There is hope for them. They aren’t evil.
[VOR] - I have no problem admitting that. I don’t claim to be a professional television personality. I’m just a guy busting my butt and giving you all a peak into the insanity. I won’t hide who I am, you’ll see the real deal…. cheese and all.
AWESOME! Great way to get the word out! Thanks for that post!
I am a PayPerPost Postie - and I am offended by the connotation that what Ted Murphy and his crew are doing is amoral and illegal “gets hauled off to jail”.
Here are some of my thoughts on the subject:
http://chadwsmith.blogspot.com.....rpost.html
http://chadwsmith.blogspot.com.....hical.html
http://chadwsmith.blogspot.com.....-evil.html
http://chadwsmith.blogspot.com.....mpany.html
And here is my disclosure policy:
http://chadwsmith.blogspot.com.....olicy.html
Jesus these videos suck ass. I want to punch that guy from PayPerPost in the head. Typical hick from the midwest. I hope PayPerPost BURN.
HOLY COW!!!!
“They aren’t evil.” - M. Arrington.
Does this mean I can take the devil horns back to the costume shop?
well…. I feel the love in here. Cute videos.
Mike, I don’t think thats going to happen - if you look at them vis. ReviewMe, PayPerPost relies on “smaller” bloggers who wouldn’t get many offers, while ReviewMe and others go for the “more high-end” market - $40-$1000 a post. ReviewMe blogs are generally larger so they have a rep. to consider compared to PayPerPost blogs where there isn’t much of a rep. at stake.
Personally, I don’t really care about the whole thing, its the bloggers decesion and if a blogger is looking to earn $200-$500 a month in extra cash by using PayPerPost they can go right ahead for all I care. Like you said in previous posts , few bloggers that I read/ blogs that I run are going to risk their rep. over an extra $500 a month.
Well, controversy creates buzz creates cash. If we’re going into the whole conspiracy theory thing, what makes you think this post isn’t sponsored by PPP? o.O
BTW, I saw you had some new writers at the site so if you need one more, let me know
Oh Mr. Arrington. I can’t wait until ReviewMe does something like this and you give it all the praise in the world. Grats on being two-faced.
Mike, I think you start losing credibility when you wish for a persons jailing for an Ethical question that doesn’t even have a consensus opinion.
And, in the light of disclosure, I am a payperpost employee. So my opinion, much like yours, is biased.
Eric, I was not being serious about wanting Ted to go to jail. I think most people will realize that.
Why am I biased?
“Goes to jail”? Are you seriously hoping the founder is imprisoned?
You think an entrepreneur for a ethically questionable business? You seem to be confusing ethics with the law and questionable with explicit.
Some find ethical errors with your work, Mr. Arrington.
Wow. Don’t even know where to begin but this guy is jackass. The evil — and yes I will say evil even if Arrington won’t — cackle upon learning the folks at DFJ will fund them shows the whole story. There is excitement and then there is evil greed cackling through and that’s what Ted was showing. Ah…the hubris. Ahhhh…..the class. Also, please - -if you think setting up for an old school mid-level trade show is a bore and doing 1999 things like guerrilla marketing at the Today Show — trust me, it is more tedious to watch. I don’t care what the business does…I find the people involved too self absorbed to care.
Here we go.
Well, it didn’t seem like a joke, since none of the rest of the post seemed like a joke. And considering how much it seems you hate PPP, it seemed possible.
HAHAHA This comment thread is more fun that reality tv!!
Eric - Do you really think I’d continue to cover PPP if I thought it was completely beyond hope? And do you really think your CEO would continue to send me news if he didn’t love the coverage? Think. Then write.
why was my comment removed? Here it is again:
[deleted]
Michael Arrington: Think. Then write.
Wise words indeed Michael.
Glad to see you’re still writing your openly biased (as per your WSJ interview comments) advertising based blog, just like our bloggers.
isn’t it a free market?
All these opinions are biased - this recent wave of PayPerPosters to this post is because PayPerPost members are being paid $10 to write a post about this blog post
Jack - The opportunity is neutral as is every opportunity that PayPerPost sponsors. The bloggers can say whatever they like and still get paid. If they think the show sucks they are free to say so.
really? Ted, is that accurate?
The ironic thing is how often your sponsors get plugged on your own site (and even occasionally without a proper disclosure that you are desiring).
I’d have to agree that PPP is evil, but it’s not very different than other tech sites (maybe like this one).
I don’t really see where the controversy is!
Many bloggers already agree to ads on their blogs whether they endorse them or not.
The code of ethics rests with the writer. If he/she agrees to do a review the responsibility of being honest etc is with him/her ultimately. In any case, if they are selling their souls, they will probably not survive long since their reviews will ultimately lead them to a fall from their viewers choice for poor judgment or value of their articles (i.e. the product suck yet the reviewer is raving about it)
The real reason the whole blogging phenomenon took place is because there was finally a choice outside of what was imposed on us by the mainstream media. The captive audience of the TV, radio, newspapers, magazines no longer had to buy only what they were sold. If the mainstream media had better to offer we will see it eventually but personally I have not seen it yet.
I watched Micheal Arrington on a webcast with an interview with Guy Kawasaki and there I first heard his aversion toward pay per post.
I liked Mick for his incisive (seemingly unbiased writing at that time) and I have his rss on my netvibes page, but with his vermin against payperpost, I don’t have such high regard for his articles again.
His personal attack as per payperpost is unwarranted, he does not want little bloggers to chip away the blogging empire he wants to build, knowing fully well that if payperpost is established, the advertising dollars that should come to him would go to them. Maybe this assertion is just a paranoid one but Mike, you should continue hailing innovations not attacking them.
It is the bloggers responsibility not payperpost for disclosure, disclosure only gives credibility to any review and even without disclosure, historically some bloggers write sense while others write nonsense. Arrington covers some companies because they raise lots of money not because they have value propositions, not that this is wrong considering to raise money there should be some value (but can that be said in a bubble?).
So if a blogger reviews a product because he truly believes in it, his recommendation would be valid and his readers would always come back for more recommendations. But if like Mike, who occasionally covers companies because they sponsor his articles, then people who see no value proposition in those companies stop reading his articles. A road I am going down on, reading more of “mashable” … I don’t really care who raised a zillion dollars …
Totally accurate. All opportunities that we pay for promoting ourselves are neutral, and we happily pay people to say whatever they feel appropriate about us.
Michael~
Every opportunity that PPP post about themselves is indeed neutral. If we think it sucks, we can say so, and I have!
Just to be clear: What Jack said is that you are paying your users to post about this post on techcrunch. Is that accurate?
Yes it Is
Wow. That’s…amazing.
Where’s my cut?
I am not getting paid.
Just using the journalistic skills they teach in all those courses
LOL - Make a post about this post and get $10 to link to your own blog and this video site you already linked to.
It would be cool if the YouTube Guys or Kevin Rose (even though he does diggnation) did something like this.
Like sand through the hourglass, so are the days of our web twilight zone.
Michael…
“Wow. That’s…amazing.
Where’s my cut? ”
Does that mean you are going to join pay per post?.. or are you already a member?
woho! gotta love this gossip
Is this intelligent looking guy Ted really connected to PPP? Hilarious! Totally awesome.
Bob, Take a wild guess.
No, what Jack said is not at all accurate. We don’t pay people to post comments on other peoples sites, digg or anything like that. Anything we pay for is strictly limited to the bloggers blog.
There is an opportunity to read this story and write a post about it on their own blog with their own opinion.
ok, well, thanks for the links I guess.
Well, we put up an opportunity that was neutral about launching RockStartup, then you wrote your piece - I guessed you were one of our posties now!?