I am no longer blogging on Today.com - along with a whole lot of other good bloggers, I was kicked from their program for asking questions and having opinions. Used to be, once upon a time, we were encouraged to ask questions and have opinions - but Today.com is no longer interested in working with their bloggers.
It's all about the advertising these days .... oh, and selling products through one's blog... and doing everything they can to avoid having to follow through on commitments made to their bloggers as well.
If you are thinking about joining Today.com, I encourage you to do some reading first... here is a list of just some of the recent articles written about blogging with Today.com:
- Hospitalera: Today.com closed my Golden Prague Blog down
- Flit: Locked out of today.com forums?, today.com advertising;Official letter from today.com; Forum & Blog Posting Guidelines Regarding Rate Changes, Performance and Today.com's T & C
- Stephanie the rocket scientist: Why are so many torqued at today.com
- Bookishgal: Today.com exiles post here
- The How and Why of Self Reliance: today.com Explat
- Lost for a reason: I've Been Kicked off Today.com
- 30something & searching: Today.com Update; More reasons today.com sucks
- My Mutterances: Do not do business with Today.com; More on today.com; today.com: lying bastards
If you are thinking about advertising with Today.com, you should also reconsider - they are selling advertising space on a whole lot of blogs that no longer have bloggers associated with them. Most, if not all, of the today.com Exiles bloggers, for example, are still listed in the Most Popular sites for your advertising spots - that is as of today, 4-May-09.
So sure - you can buy a spot - but the site you place your ad on may or not be updated or promoted. You pays your money, you takes your chances, I guess. They have told us that they may well give our blogs - complete with all of our content - to new bloggers whenever they want - so perhaps that is their plan: if someone should happen to buy an ad on a now-defunct blog, they'll assign someone else to that blog.
That was not part of the deal we signed on for - it is part of the slimy business practices they have invoked in an effort to punish us for asking questions and having opinions - as is their ~oh so gracious offer~ to allow us to buy back our content by paying them every cent they ever gave us (including bonuses) plus 10%.
Their Headliner packages are also of questionable value. I - and many others as well - tried it and with 1000+ impressions got, as far as I was able to tell - a big fat 0 clickthroughs. Others reported similar results. You should also know that with the Headliner package, they will not provide you with clickthrough data - and that their advertising packages are set up to bill you regularly every month - you have to go in and cancel the monthly payments in PayPal or they will just keep taking your money.
Today.com does not play fair - and I would advise against advertising or blogging with them.
