I believe it's due time we all clear the dust bunnies away and start on reviewing which advertisers are still in their game, which ones scams you, while which are the ones that gives empty promises. I know it's hard for bloggers to make money online with only just blogging alone, you need the Page Rank to ensure that advertisers pick you more than the others. But then, sometimes, it's not about the bloggers, it's more on the advertisers' part. Here's the list of advertisers I am currently diaplying banners for, and my take on their attitude.

When I first signed up with Blogsvertise, they were actually nice in the beginning. In fact, I went from not much blogging opportunities to at least 1 blogging opp every single day I logged on. And not forgetting those Grab Bag Tasks that I also managed to get every once in a short while. Then suddenly, everything about them changed drastically. For a fact, let's take a look at how Blogsvertise works, according to their words:

Advertisers contact us and let us know what kind of blogs they would like to advertise on. We then look for bloggers that match what they want, and we send them assignments, or “tasks”. When an advertiser wants to advertise on your blog, you'll get an email notification. You then write a post on your blog about the advertiser's company. Make sure you follow all the directions the advertiser provided.

Once you've published your post on your blog, you submit your entry to Blogsvertise for approval by giving us the specific URL (or address) of that blog entry. This is so we can verify your entry and approve your work for payment.

But apparently, I think they gave the task of looking for bloggers to the machines. I kept getting more and more opps on stuffs related to gambling, alcohol, cigars. Basically, the type of opps I do not want to do, and has intended so when I made an account with them. But no, they just kept sending and sending and out of frustration, I just stopped blogging for close to a year on and off previously, in a bid to make those people understand that. But unluckily for me, that's where Blogsvertise used the opportunity to "blacklist" my blog for their own initial mistakes.

Fast forward to a month or so previously, I managed to convinced them nicely that bygones are bygones, that I am back and even re-update my profile on the types of blog opps I have absolutely no interest in (gambling, alcohol, cigars). And I got a blogging opp and to date, that's the only one I've gotten. I duly wrote out the required blog post and I even wrote that damn post long enough so it doesn't look like a "sponsored" post of any sort, included the required links to the relevant advertiser. And then bam!

They emailed and claimed that they cannot find the link in the blog post. Granted that it's my fault, I took the liberty to include 2 links as some sort of "peace offering" when they wanted one. And each time, they kept emailing and insisting that the link wasn't there. And each time I checked the post, the link WAS there, never taken down nor changed at all.

And up till now, when I should have gotten that miserable USD$9.00 at the end of September, my PayPal account is still pathetically empty. And mind you, it's already 4 October now, 4 days have passed since September has ended. Makes me wonder if they are literally doing the "wake me up when September ends" parody. The experience I have with Blogsvertise went from good, to bad, then to downright ridiculous and currently obnoxious. In other words, they are the last bunch of people I would have imagined tried to cheat me of my deserved USD$9.00. And I was actually looking forward to that money to get this blog it's own domain name. And trust Blogsvertise to betray that hope and trust I placed in them.

VERDICT: Sign up with them at your own risk. They'll be nice to you in the beginning, but as time passes, they'll start treating you like mindless idiot(s) when they are the real idiots.

I've only signed up wth B2B (a.k.a Business 2 Blogger) for less than a full month. And up till now, I don't see any types of blog opps that are suitable for this blog or what I am capable of blogging about. Granted that I'm still new with them, and once in a while when I did see opps that I am passionate about, I'll apply for it. But then, no good news so far.

No doubt that there always seemed to be blog opps listed under World wide, but it isn't really "world wide" when a region name is tagged behind it. For example, World Wide Venice. Despite it being for bloggers "World Wide", they definitely wanted bloggers based in Venice, if not, why put "Venice" behind "World Wide"? If it's going to be "World Wide", then leave it as "World Wide" instead of tagging another country/region name behind it. A fresh perspective not from your country or region is always good for new ideas that you may not have thought of.

VERDICT: I'm just going to give them another 6 months to a year before deciding whether I want to call it quits with them.

From the first day I signed up with BuyBlogReviews, I've noticed that the advertisers who went through BBB are mostly the cheapskate ones. The lowest budget offered is always USD$3.00 and the highest I've mostly seen is up till USD$5.00. And all these years being with BBB, I've only managed to bagged 3 blog opps and nothing more.

Considering the known fact that if you are an advertiser who wants publicity for your product(s) and can only afford to pay a miserly USD$3.00 or less to bloggers, do you feel you still have the right to choose which bloggers you want to introduce your stuff(s)? I don't think so. Any publicity is good publicity, even overseas/foreign ones, the more global outreach, the more people will know about you and what you can offer to your consumers.

Plus the little fact is that most bloggers will probably try to under-bid what these "advertisers" can afford to pay in a bid to have the chance to write and earn makes this a blog ad program that most bloggers should probably steer clear of. How can an organization claimed to bring advertisers when the so-called advertisers are actually too cheapskate to pay a minimum of USD$5.00 (maximum is between USD$7.00 - USD$10.00) per blog post/review?

VERDICT: If you are just someone who wants an additional blog ad program to go to in the event your other blog ad programs are devoid of opps, then go for this. If not, steer clear as it may take more than 3 years before you can even earn a decent USD$10.00

Ah ha, the most disappointing of the lot I have here. They were previously known as PayPerPost before they are now known as Social Spark. May I say that they are actually racist towards Non-USA bloggers. I once came across a blog opp when they were still PayPerPost, applied for it as there were no mention of being a region-specific opp. And when it's time to submit the link in after painstakingly writing out the blog post, guess what happened?

They suddenly claimed that the particular blog opp isn't for Chinese (chinese-speaking specifically) bloggers, which totally screams and reeks of racism. Never anywhere in that opp stated it's for any specific region/language bloggers or anything, and when it's time to submit, they claimed otherwise. I suspect there's a real-life hitler running this company ever since.

Fast forward to now, after 4 - 5 years of blogging on and off, their "new" company a.k.a Social Spark now finally approved my blog. Like what am I? Chopped liver when you ran out of bloggers? This action of theirs just simply proved to me that every blogger who applied for a chance is just simply at their whim and fancy. They'll start by being nice, than turn racist on you, then suddenly became nice to you again. Currently, I'm waiting for them to do their racist act on me when I get an opp and consequently get rejected for doing it cos I'm a Chinese.

VERDICT: Unless you can blog as much as Singapore's XiaXue, then this is another blog opp program you may want to think twice before joining.

To be honest, the payout from the respective advertisers who chose to advertise with Sponsored Reviews do pay decently, but then, they are very picky about bloggers though. From the time I sign up with them up till now, I always apply for a lot of blog opps for a chance to be able to write at least 1-2 blog posts, but most times, they choose to disappoint.

And for now, I have only managed to earn a paltry USD$7.80 from them. They needed at least a PR2 blog which this blog qualifies and a dedicated and passionate blogger who choose topics that she wants to do, but with little success. And once again, it's th advertisers, not me.

VERDICT: The same as Social Spark, unless you can blog as much paragraphs/words as Singapore's XiaXue, then this is another blog opp program you may want to think twice before joining.

This is also another disappointing blog ad program. From the first day I sign up with them, I've yet to get an opp that I can do. In fact, I really wonder if there's actually humans working here anymore. Less than 3 months after signing up with The Grapher, blog opps suddenly died down to nothing. No blog opps, no nothing!

And sadly to say, the reason why I am still leaving their miserable banner on my blog is because I kinda "used" their services when I cannot find any blog opps from my other advertisers listed. But most times, I cannot be bothered to log into their site simply because I know there hasn't been an opp for more than 3 years already and I highly doubt they will have anymore.

And lo and behold, I've only jonied this miserable organization for less than 1 month and upon logging in, learned that my "Yahoo! Contributor Network account has been closed due to a violation of their Terms of Service." And listen to this, I've only submitted a topic once before, and it's a re-post on the Swoop entry I've done here. Obviously, Yahoo is run by a bunch of bigots, idiots in particular, who doesn't know how to do their work. Awesome Yahoo, you just ptoved to me you sucked. Real bad.

VERDICT: Stay clear of this, they're just a waste of your precious blogging time.