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Opportunity Creation 101
I have been here at PPP for about four months now and my experiences thus far have been great! Working with different advertisers everyday is both challenging and rewarding. It’s challenging because all advertisers have different needs, and it is sometimes difficult to come up with campaigns to satisfy those needs without exceeding a specific budget. After all the hard work is finished and the campaign finally goes live, it’s rewarding to see the opportunity materialize with the Posties’ wonderful posts. Of course, the most rewarding part is when the advertisers are happy with the results and agrees to a renewal campaign! One of the most common questions I get from current advertisers is “How can I make my campaigns more successful?” The most fundamental answer I can give is…. “How the opportunity is written has a profound affect on results!” This includes not only what the Posties are asked to do, but also how you target. That being said, here are the top THREE things an advertiser should consider when writing an opportunity: 1.) Goals If two different advertisers are promoting the SAME exact product on the SAME exact website, but Advertiser A’s goal is to drive traffic and Advertiser B’s goal is to get reviews…. the opportunities should be written drastically different. ONE opportunity should focus on ONE goal. If you have multiple goals, then you should create multiple opportunities. By focusing each opportunity on one specific goal, you maximize the effectiveness and impact of the campaign. 2.) Targeting Remember, you are not targeting the blogger, but rather the READERS of those blogs! Just because the blogger is a 36 year old female from Idaho, doesn’t mean her readers are. Just because the blog"s category is not directly relevant to your website, doesn’t mean that the readers of that blog would automatically be disinterested in what your company offers. I highly recommend casting a wide net, and in doing so you will get better results! Karen made an excellent post about this a while back 3.) Engage the blogOsphere Opportunities that are fun and unique for the Posties always perform better. Ask yourself, “What’s the hook?” The hook can be a few things: a. Monetary Hook - a good payment b. Creative Hook - engage the Posties and let them showcase their imagination c. Content Hook - provide the Posties with exclusive content e. Contest Hook - provide the Posties with the potential for a payoff where they can grab more cash or a prize f. Ego Hook - provide the potential to publicly promote the person making the post in some way g. Elitist Hook - provide something of value to the postie that they can't buy (ties with Ego Hook) Creating an opportunity that entices and engages the bloggers is the single most cost-effective way of driving traffic, creating awareness, and generating buzz. By taking into consideration those three topics (Goals, Targeting, Engagement) you will create opportunities that get taken faster, achieve better results, and will cost you less. And of course, if you EVER need assistance in creating an opportunity you can reach out to me at Joe [at] PayPerPost [dot] com. Have a wonderful weekend! Joe Vaughn

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Tricia said...

Joe I also think it's important that advertisers be realistic in what they are asking for as well. I've seen opportunities for websites that pretty much only have one page with very little information on it asking for 300 words, and sometimes more than one link. Do you know how hard it is to come up with 300 words when you've only got 150 words of information to work with?

May 18, 2007 5:10:00 PM

weirdoux said...

yeah.... that's right tricia!!!

May 18, 2007 6:04:00 PM

clare3 said...

The $ offers for the posts seem to be going up and I am grateful for that. I am working for supplemental income and the fun of it. If it came to a choice between prizes and money, it's no contest. Money wins out. Thank you

May 18, 2007 7:05:00 PM

Fendi said...

Yea right! I'm with you.Some sponsors asked 300 words and provide too little information. :(

May 18, 2007 7:10:00 PM

Lynda Lippin said...

And in one recent opportunity I was asked to revise my post twice to add "at least 3 sentences of original content"--which I already had in the post. I added more and they declined my post again. For the little they were paying this ended up being the only post I've ever deleted!

May 18, 2007 8:33:00 PM

Opal: Vegan Momma said...

Remember, you are not targeting the blogger, but rather the READERS of those blogs! Just because the blogger is a 36 year old female from Idaho, doesn’t mean her readers are.Excellent point! At times I smile when I see advertisers requesting ops be done from a specific locastion. I honestly think they forget that with the internet you can touch thousands from all over the globe. In fact, a large amount of my daily readers are actually located in the countries they say I need to reside. :-)Tricia made an excellent point. If I'm not giving a lot of info or a website where I can go and get familiar with what they're looking for. Trust me I always go to the website and do a lot of looking. I'm not going to write about it. There have been a few ops that I was really interested in but there wasn't enough info in the actual op or on the website for me to give it a quality write up.

May 19, 2007 7:00:00 PM

webduck said...

I have only been posting for PPP since January. Most of my posts go beyond what they ask for in length because I believe in doing a good job. BUT, if they are going to be paying me something like $5 for 300 words AND make me jump through lots of hoops, I am not going to take the post. It seems to me that as my PR has gone up, I have less and less opps to choose from. I am willing to work with any advertisers who will put in plain English (not in industry-speak) just what they would like me to say. Also, my readers are from all over the planet too, not just the USA. I would suggest that advertisers realize that women do home improvement, we do have online friends in South Africa, Scotland, the Philippines, Japan, people in the military that travel the world, etc.. Writing for PPP is just supplemental income for me also, but please don't try to take advantage of me by asking for complicated adverts and only paying a small sum.

May 20, 2007 9:18:00 PM

Dee said...

I'm glad that posts and feedback are becoming a little more clearer and easy to understand. I think I had to make several minute changes to my last post because, I swear, the anchor link keywords changed AND they weren't too clear on where to put the link. Still, I'm looking at $5, maybe $10 for just half an hour or so of writing. Darn good investment if you ask me.

May 21, 2007 5:04:00 AM

irishlass said...

I don't want to be persnickity, but I ran an opportunity asking for buzz about a contest I am having. 2 of the posters mentioned nothing about the contest. Their posts are nice, and I'd like to have a positive relationship, but the contest is the thing. I wrote to ppp feedback and they haven't even responded. I'm not a big giant corp with unlim funds, but I'm not asking you to write about loans either ...http://thingsyoushoulddo.com

May 22, 2007 5:05:00 PM

noob said...

Holy "Wall of Text" - L2ParagraphBreak

Jul 31, 2007 10:18:08 AM

Linky Love said...

Joe,

In your above post:

"It?s" should be written "It's".

Mind your English: Payperpost already weeded out all Asia because of our English, you don't want that to happen to US-bloggers also do you?

Aug 31, 2007 11:45:00 PM

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