Anything Goes

After more than 3 years of blogging, I finally decided to write a review about sponsored post services and the first one I will be talking about is Smorty. I have read quite a number of posts in blogs and other forums asking other people if Smorty is a scam or legitimate.

For one thing, since I did get paid before I can say they are not a fraud. But what they say about paying bloggers every 2 weeks is false. Their website is pretty old. The content that is. They have not changed their FAQs probably since they first launched it because the payment information about paying bloggers every 2 weeks is still there when in fact it is not true.

Getting opportunities is not easy as well. There is no consistent time when one can see even one opportunity in a user’s account. Plus, you have to be equally fast whenever you get to see one because it is a matter of first click first serve.

The downside to their system is that you cannot get more than 1 opportunity at a time. You would have to submit the first one you accept then get the next opportunity available. That is … if it is still there by the time you finish submitting the first opportunity you got.

Now, here is the more interesting thing. My last payment from them was last May 2011. As of November 27, 2011 I still have not received any payment from them. Crap, right? I asked them why and they said that some bloggers removed old posts that is why they are holding payments. That is just BS. Not all bloggers do that so why are they holding their payment to me?!

Sadly, I do not know what is happening behind the scenes. I know that is just their excuse to delay the payment and probably keep it for themselves. I hope not. That would really suck.

Customer service is also bad. Sometimes they reply, sometimes they do not. Plus if you do something wrong, they do not give you any warning.

Adding blogs is tricky too because after you add one, you have to wait for them to approve it (which takes days). If you want to add another one, you wil have to complete at least 5 approved posts. At the rate that their opportunities are appearing, I would say, good luck with the waiting.

Overall? I cannot say now that they are decent considering that they have not paid me for more than 6 months now. Maybe when I still do not get paid by next year, that will be the time I can say that they are a scam.

One more thing, make sure your blogs have page rank. That is after all, the essence of sponsored posts.

Thoughts? Are you a Smorty member? Share your experiences here.