Sunday, August 7, 2011...11:26 am
Bribery and corruption? Sadly, I think you have the wrong blog…
In the spirit of full disclosure – here’s an irresistible offer just received by the Freelance Unbound bribery and corruption department.
Hello! I was wondering if you took paid guest posts on Feelance Unbound? Not a traditional “guest post” but one you’d be compensated for and have complete editorial control over.
Wow – fantastic. This is better than those lame press releases for worthy museum exhibitions (sorry, Gemma).
I’m part of a business that does high-end brand placements worked into guest posts on a variety of subjects. Our posts don’t advocate or review our clients, they are informational and/or newsy. We include a reference link to our clients amongst other topical links inside the content. We’d provide the article, written by a domain expert, and pay you a bit of money for you to review and post it upon your approval.
High end brand placements? Are we talking Louis Vuitton? Or Porsche? Sounds great! Sign me up.
(If you don’t take guest posts, we also have arrangements where we discuss your upcoming post and find one in which a link makes sense and pay you to include it.)
Even better – I’ll work it into something to do with higher education, no problem. That’s probably what higher education will have to do, anyway.
Is that something that you would be interested in and if so, how much would you want us to pay?
Susan Daniels at 43a.com
I should say so! How about an even five grand? I think that should cover it. My highly targeted (read: small) audience of influential opinion formers (read: shabby and jaded journalists and academics) will be well worth reaching with whatever “high end brand placement” content you supply.
Or not. I suspect “Susan Daniels” at 43a.com isn’t really in the market to pay me money to publish her guest posts. Given that 43a.com is an internet marketing company (read: spammer), probably they just want to reel me in as a potential customer for whatever barely legal pyramid marketing scheme they are selling this week.
Oh well – back to the day job.
13 Comments
August 8th, 2011 at 10:28 am
I now reply to these things: “I’d be delighted to work with you. My minimum fee for link placements is $1m. I accept payment through PayPal.”
I’m now immensely rich.
August 9th, 2011 at 1:18 pm
Hey,
I just received the same email from Susan Daniels, with the same exact text. Thank you for posting this it reassures my initial reaction (of most likely spam).
Best,
Corey
http://coreymckeon.com
Twitter:@xmckeon
August 9th, 2011 at 1:28 pm
Hi Corey
Thanks for your comment – it’s useful to get confirmation of these things…
August 10th, 2011 at 10:04 pm
Same story as Corey. I received the same email. I have been actually emailing with her. It seems that she want to pay more like 20 dollars an article. I agree it seems very spammy and her website is terrible, but I am waiting to see if she every sends me an actual article.
Do you see any potential real risk?
August 12th, 2011 at 5:15 am
I got the same email too. But I asked her how much she is willing to pay and to give me her best price but until now she isn’t replying. Thanks for this post at least I’m warned.
August 19th, 2011 at 11:53 am
It seems that Susan Daniels has been replaced by Brandy Olson. I think I am going to reply to my email, just to see what happens. That’s kind of what I do on my blog – report on crappy social media experiences. I definitely do not expect it to go anywhere.
If people can reply with their further experiences it would great.
August 19th, 2011 at 1:39 pm
Neither of them exist, probably. Just two fake IDs for this fake offer…
August 24th, 2011 at 12:17 pm
I have not done any research into this however my guess is that these are just simple link sharing disguised as “guest posts”
Here’s mine I received this morning:
From: Brandy Olson
Date: Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 10:48 PM
Subject: Blog Question
Hello! I was wondering if you took paid guest posts on [site name] ? Not a traditional “guest post” but one you’d be compensated for and have complete editorial control over.
I’m part of a business that does high-end brand placements worked into guest posts on a variety of subjects. Our posts don’t advocate or review our clients, they are informational and/or newsy. We include a reference link to our clients amongst other topical links inside the content. We’d provide the article, written by a domain expert, and pay you a bit of money for you to review and post it upon your approval.
(If you don’t take guest posts, we also have arrangements where we discuss your upcoming post and find one in which a link makes sense and pay you to include it.)
Is that something that you would be interested in and if so, how much would you want us to pay?
Thanks,
Brandy
August 24th, 2011 at 12:22 pm
Like the rest of you, my BS alarm went off when I read the 43a.com from Brandy Olson, an exact copy of what’s displayed above. I googled the domain to see what I could find: she has a LinkedIn profile with 447 connections, including five of mine, but no work history or photo. Are people really connecting to a phantom? That wouldn’t surprise me. Real or not, I’m sending her a brief reply of “no thanks,” but I’m sure a lot of desperate folks get taken in.
August 29th, 2011 at 2:59 am
Thanks, I got the request and am actually writing a reply to the dude right now.
The person replied previously and seemed nice anyway, but does smell like a phantom.
But that aside, has anyone actually accepted their offer?
What do you think are the consequences for accepting their offer should we decide to publish their content?
Hoping to hear a reply from you guys soon.
August 29th, 2011 at 4:45 pm
I don’t think there are any major consequences. I also accepted their offer, but they have never sent me any content. I actually think they might have submitted my website to some kind of article submission directory because now I am getting all sorts of people asking to do the same thing, but none of them ever give me money or content. Look at there website <a href="http://www.43a.com/". It is the most unprofessional thing I have ever seen and they are internet marketers? Clearly they have no idea what they are doing. In my opinion I think it is a complete waste of time.
Hope this helps!
August 29th, 2011 at 9:10 pm
I sent a reply asking for the copy to review and pricing and never heard a reply.
August 31st, 2011 at 5:16 pm
I also contacted by 43a but it seems that they are so nice. She offer me a 40$ per post and she already me one article.
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