Cutting the Chai has moved to a new domain: cuttingthechai.com.
You can get in touch with Soumyadip at www.soumyadip.com.

Friday, August 17, 2007

My Blog's Being Pimped and I Didn't Even Know

A few days back I had put up a post on sponsored blogging and my take on the practice. Today, I find this blog featured on SponsoredReviews and the displayed rate to 'buy' a review on this blog is $100 [Click on image for a bigger view].

Though in their FAQ section says that bloggers "are paid to write in-depth, honest reviews" and the "constructive criticism is not only appreciated, it is expected," they didn't ask me to be a part of their game. In fact they might be involved in deceptive display of non-member bogs to lure customers in.

SponsoredReviews jumped into the pay-per-post bandwagon early this year and perhaps in their eagerness to get a bigger share of the PPP pie they're getting a little overboard. Meanwhile, I've informed them that this blog didn't ever volunteer to be a part of their network and requested for removal.

I also happened to discover Sonia Falerio's blog being sold at the same price as mine [Click on image for a bigger view].

But all was not wrong with the discovery. Finding my blog to be priced higher than many of the others (that I randomly checked) was an ego booster. And I also got a couple of referral hits from their site (but I didn't link back to their site on purpose).

Update: Jarrod from SponsoredReviews has responded (both via email and as a comment to this post):

We apologize that your site was added without your approval. We have suspended the blogger who added you to their account. We are not sure what they were hoping to gain, as they would have not been able to get paid.

Once again we apologize for the inconvenience.

4 Comments:

Accidental Fame Junkie said...

Heyy Soumyadip, I am flabberglasted! What a world we live in! People will even strip of your writing if they had a chance.
I am totally with you on this one.

Anonymous said...

We apologize that your site was added without your approval. We have suspended the blogger who added you to their account. We are not sure what they were hoping to gain, as they would have not been able to get paid.

Once again we apologize for the inconvenience.

Accidental Fame Junkie said...

Great! Justice at last! :)

Soumyadip said...

AFJ Well justice has been delivered. But I have my doubts.

Jarrod Thanks for your response and action.