Why I Left Today . Com

Back in January I saw a post in one of the forums I check frequently about a place where you would be paid to write a blog. It sounded intriguing - write a post of at least 100 words and get paid $1 for it.

I didn't really know much about SEO (Search Engine Optimization) when I chose my blogs name, (in fact, I'd never heard of it before.) So I chose a name I liked, The Single Frugalton, without really thinking about whether or not it would make a good searchable term.

At first I received a lot of help in figuring out how to make my blog better, both from administration and from other forum members. I really enjoyed getting to know the many different people in the today . com community through reading their blogs and reading their postings in the forum.

The first sign of discontent appeared when with very little warning, and no discussion, the administration decided to force everyone to have one uniform blog theme. I noticed that a few of my favorite bloggers were no longer updating their blogs. I just assumed that they had decided to seek greener pastures due to disliking the change.

Then, not very long after having adjusted to the forced universal theme, I checked on my site one day only to find that my sidebars had been reversed! Eventually we were told that this was a tempoary measure and would soon be changed. It never did change.

About this time I had become eligible to start a second blog. This second blog would only be paid by numbers of unique visits. We were encouraged to make sure each of our posts included a picture, as well as to use Entrecard and other social traffic sites.

I chose to only use Entrecard on my first blog because I'd heard some rumblings about how you'd get better google traffic without it. So I wanted to experiment.

I kept a close eye on my traffic stats and the money earned for unique views. Something strange was going on, because I was earning more money on my Storytime For Children blog than I was on my The Single Frugalton blog.

I had at least 20 - 25% more visitors to my Single Frugalton blog than my Storytime blog, but most of that extra traffic was either Entrecard or Google Images. Others also were noticing that not all unique visits were being paid the same.

I wasn't very happy about not getting paid for all impressions equally, but I was still getting my $1 per post, and still enjoyed the community.

About this same time is when Entrecard decided to go to paid ads. At first, today adminsitration said that we would be required to remove Entrecard from our blogs. That caused an uproar. Finally, they relented and said we could keep it, but we would not get paid for any unique visits coming from Entrecard.

A lot of bloggers wrote posts regarding this. We were then told by administration that if we didn't edit our posts to take out information about how today . com was not paying for Entrecard traffic, that we would not be paid for that post.

Then, this past April, shortly after the monthly payday, I received notice that my blog had been taken off pay per post. I was dissapointed, but not really shocked. My blog had never made it very high in the list of today blogs, the highest it ever ranked was 138 out of 800+ blogs.

I checked in at the forums to see if anyone else had been dropped from the pay per post program. What I found there absolutely shocked and dismayed me. Numerous bloggers who were in the top 50, and even some in the top 10 today blogs, had been demoted.

Understandably, people were upset and asked for answers. A number of bloggers wrote posts on their blogs stating that they were going to be taking a break from blogging, or that they were going to be on a vacation. Others expressed their keen disspointment.

Soon I received an email from a fellow blogger who'd been coaching me on ideas of how to make my blog better for SEO. She asked me if I'd been having any trouble logging into my account. I let her know that I hadn't.

That's when I found out about the bloodbath of today bloggers which had occurred. Virtually every blogger who had expressed dissatisfaction with what was going on, or had posted that they were taking a break from blogging, had been locked out from their account.

In the forums administration made posts stating that if you chose to leave on your own volition, or if you posted a goodbye post on your today blog or on your personal blog, that you would be locked out and forfeit your pay. Your blog also could be handed to a new blogger. They also made it clear that if you posted anything in the forums that in any way showed any kind of disagreement with today policy or procedures, that you would be locked out.

Since I was within $3 of payout, I decided to keep my mouth shut (publicly at least) about what was happening. I extensively used BlogExplosion to send paid traffic to my sites, and finally reached payout shortly before the deadline. During this time I started this blog, as well as my Children's Books blog.

On May 8, the Friday before payday, we were informed that we must fill out a W-9 form and they must receive it, before any payments would be released. Up till that point, the forums had been pretty dead. This news however, caused many who had been silent to speak up.

Quickly we were assured that this rule only applied to those bloggers who'd made $600 in 2009, or would make that amount with the April payment.

Finally, on May 11, very late in the day, I received my April payout. I breathed a huge sigh of relief to be finished with a company which treats its bloggers in such a terrible manner.

• If you don't mind writing content for a blogging network which will own what you write, and can and will lock you out from it at any time, go write for today . com.
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• If you aren't worried about making your voice heard about issues affecting your blog without fear of censure or censorship, go write for today . com.
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• If you don't care about having any control of what your blog looks like, nor what advertising may appear on it, go write for today . com.

However, if you do care about any of those above things, then I would strongly advise you to stay away from today . com!

For other peoples stories of how they were treated by today . com, check out Today Exiles