On December 27, 2006, it was announced by TechCrunch and Mike Arrington that PayPerPost would be acquiring a portion of the assets of Performancing.com.  Later, PayPerPost published the press release confirming that they had in fact:

“…has signed a Letter of Intent to acquire select assets of Performancing LLC, operator of Performancing.com, a popular Internet community site for professional bloggers. Through its purchase PayPerPost gains a number of powerful blogger support tools including Performancing Metrics, the leading, free blog analytics service, and Performancing Exchange, an online “classifieds” for bloggers.” (emphasis added)

Ted Murphy was quoted in the press release as saying:

“PayPerPost is committed to furthering the development of a strong and viable professional blogging community. Performancing has created several very innovative services that help bloggers become more successful in their work,” said Ted Murphy, chief executive officer of PayPerPost. “We believe this acquisition not only helps marketers and bloggers, but also solidifies PayPerPost as the premier destination for those who make their career in weblog publishing.” (emphasis added)

I wanted to emphasize the bold portions of the quotes because I think this gets to the heart of the acquisition and the eventual reason for the downfall of the deal.  Performancing carried some heavyweight contenders in the professional blogosphere, bloggers that had worked hard to make themselves professionals and worked even harder to create a credibility that now seemed to be tarnished by the acquisition.  The press release also reveals this fact about Performancing when it stated:

“Written and maintained by individuals who make their living in the blogging trade, Performancing.com has amassed a community of over 28,000 professionals since its launch in 2005. In addition to information and discussion on the subject of professional blogging, the site provides a means for advertisers to connect with bloggers and place ads on their weblogs based on the site’s subject matter, readership and ad pricing.” (emphasis added)

The numbers may be a bit inflated but the idea was clear–PayPerPost was going to ride the coattails of the community built from the ground up by Performancing “solidifying” their credibility.  The corps of professionals amassed was the real gem being purchased.  The metrics application and the classified advertising section of the community was the gravy.

In just a few days the writing on the wall was clear about the intent behind the acquisition.  The concerns about the intent to purchase the “assets” was questioned  making PayPerPost founder Ted Murphy address the concerns.

In the spirit of maximizing value for existing Performancing members, PayPerPost has created an ad opportunity at PayPerPost.com specifically for existing Performancing Metrics members to review the Performancing Metrics and Performancing Exchange platforms on their blogs and get paid for doing so.

They offered to pay Performancing members $10 to consumate the deal, and all they had to do was sell their credibility for a sawbuck  This is almost too poetic.

A member of the Performancing group was very clear about his consternation as stated in the comments to Ted Murphy’s post:

raj said…

I’m unhappy that my personal posts on Performancing are being transferred to PPP. Nick says that the system makes it difficult for him to delete my posts.

I’m invoking the Berne Copyright Convention, which the U.S. as a UN member nation follows. PPP does not own the copyright to my posts on Performancing, and as such, if Nick is unable to remove my posts, I expect PPP to remove them or completely delete my Per account – whichever is easier.

12:36 PM

The “professional bloggers” wanted no part of the deal.  They were not a party to it but somehow they became collateral damage. After seeing some of the reactions and comments in this post from Nick Wilson, it was only a matter of time before the PayPerPost wolf was exposed for its sheep’s clothing.

If the deal were truly to acquire assets of  Performancing to include the metrics application and the classified portions of the brand, that could be easily accomplished.  In my opinion, the problems began when transferring more than just the applications and the site.  When it came to transferring the trust and credibility of 28,000 users, the game was over.

Tags: TechCrunch, Mike Arrington, PayPerPost, Ted Murphy, Performancing, Nick Wilson