Someone buy a cluetrain ticket for Blogads

I like the whole idea of Blogads. I’ve made some decent money with them. But I am thisclose to telling this company to shove it. I’m not pleased with how I’m being treated.

For those who don’t know, Blogads is a company that acts like a freelance ad sales rep for blogs. Businesses looking to buy space on blogs can browse Blogad’s list of member blogs and pick and choose on which blogs to place ads. These advertisers collect the cash, take a cut, and send the remaining swag back to the bloggers.

I don’t mind paying the commission because these are ads I wouldn’t otherwise sell in a million years.

One “out of the blue” ad came from the Ford Motor Company. Perhaps you recall seeing it. It ran in the left sidebar for the better part of the month. The ads started running on Aug. 8, and I expected a nice little payout the 15th of the following month, which is when Blogads pays out. That happens to be today.

And there’s no payout scheduled.

It started last month, when this letter from Henry Copeland of Blogads appeared in my inbox:

You probably noticed a blogad titled “THE FUTURE OF FUEL, THE FUTURE OF FORD” in your inbox today.

In my view, it’s the most exciting ad to cross Blogads’ servers in our four years of business.

The ad promotes a film in Ford’s BoldMoves weekly documentary series. Click and you’ll hear people saying “Ford has the worst fuel efficiency of any automaker in America… years and years of mistakes… these guys don’t have much time.”

This is an ad? Yes. The first Cluetrain ad.

Back in 1999 the Cluetrain Manifesto predicted that people-powered-publishing would spark a commercial revolution. Magnified by cheap web sites and hyperlinks, passionate individual human voices would drown out bland corporate-speak.

As Cluetrain put it, “most corporations… only know how to talk in the soothing, humorless monotone of the mission statement, marketing brochure, and your-call-is-important-to-us busy signal. Same old tone, same old lies. No wonder networked markets have no respect for companies unable or unwilling to speak as they do. But learning to speak in a human voice is not some trick, nor will corporations convince us they are human with lip service about ‘listening to customers.’ They will only sound human when they empower real human beings to speak on their behalf.”

But since 1999 we’ve heard very few real human beings speaking on behalf of corporations. Though it’s clear that web-powered human voices ARE winning, most corporations remain Cluetrain victims rather than victors.

Now, down a few billion bucks and peddling gas-guzzlers, Ford has drunk the Cluetrain cool-aid. Eschewing the “same old tone, same old lies” and the “soothing humorless monotone,” this Ford ad celebrates the brutally honest conversations that are essential to its revival. And Ford’s BoldMoves project finds an ideal counterpart in the blogosphere, the great American brainstorm.

So, enjoy your latest blogad, the first Cluetrain ad. I hope the American industry is lucky enough to create more like it.

Henry

I was enthused. I cheerfully approved the ad and started planning on how to spend it. The ad began running the instant I gave the approval.

Then I got this letter, dated Aug. 18, from Henry Copeland:

To maximize clicks, we’ve deferred the Ford ad so it can run again next week when there’s creative up for a new episode.

Remember, at this point, the Ford ad had been running for 10 days.

That’s more more than one week and less than the two-week ad I approved and for which I expected to be paid. By deferring the ad for one week, that meant they were due to run only an additional FOUR DAYS. What actually happened was that the ad started back up in about a week and kept running on my blog until yesterday, Sept. 15, and it stopped only because I finally contacted Blogads to ask why a payout wasn’t scheduled.

This is their reply, from “Justin:”

The Ford ad was a two week ad. The cache on your adstrip must not have reloaded, for whatever reason, since the campaign ended. I’ve just gone in and reset it, so that ad definitely won’t be appearing any more. Sorry about that!

Justin then goes on to try to get me to switch to the upgraded Blogads. I’m not sure I want to stay with the company at all.

I received the following letter this morning from “Hano:”

I have just checked you account in the old system and the amount for ad#3471388 is $220 which is your share of the ad. The payment from the advertiser to blogads is still not complete so we are unable to include this ad in payments to you. Once we receive payment for the ad you will be able to receive payment.

I hope this helps. Please let me know if you have any other questions.

I replied to ask if the Ford Motor Company is a late payer.

The reply:

They are not late payers, with these bigger ad campaigns and advertisers we need to invoice the advertising companies as with larger companies they cannot make payments via C/C or PayPal as there is more of a process to have the payment cleared and then sent to us. As these large advertisers do the bulk of the advertising this is something all of us can live with otherwise there would be fewer ads been sent to bloggers.

To which I replied:

So … Am I going to have to wait until October 15 for a payout on a two week ad that started on Aug. 8?

I’m being paid later than usual because a multi-billion dollar company doesn’t have a PayPal account?

Geeze …

What really ticks me off is that this ad ran for about five weeks on my site because the cache didn’t clear on YOUR end. That’s three weeks of a free advertising for a multi-billion company. I don’t know about you, but as a capitalist, I expect to get paid for the services I provide. The way it looks now, I’m going to be out $150 AFTER you finally pay me for the services I provided to your client. I don’t think that’s right.

New math: By my calculations, this ad ran for a total of 30 days. My rate for a one-month ad is $500. Ford was supposed to pay them $275 for a two week ad that — according to Blogads’ own posted payment policy — should have been paid out by the 15th of the following month.

Bear in mind that during this “free ad” period, I had NO ability to take this ad off my site, without removing Blogads entirely. I seriously thought Ford had extended the length of the ad buy.

I’m not getting any response to ANY complaint about being paid the full amount I am due. I’m getting lots of apologies for the lateness of the payment, which I understand in a way (they needed to tell bloggers upfront that the payment would be delayed).

But I guarantee you that if any media organization ran an — especially one from a large cofrporation — for more than four weeks on the say-so of an ad agency, and if that agency later said: “Sorry, there was a communication problem on OUR END and our client only wanted the ads for two weeks; you’ll have to eat the other two,” that agency wouldn’t be in business long. At the very least, some other company would come along and eat their lunch.

Blogads needs to buy a ticket for that “cluetrain” or someone will come along and replace them.

TOTAL FARKERS: I’ve got a brief update here.

UPDATE: It’s Monday, Sept. 18, and I’m exchanging emails with Mr. Copeland and we’ll probably talk by phone tomorrow.

Blogads,Henry Copeland,Ford,Cluetrain Manifesto,BoldMoves