This idea (quoted below from Society6) is smarter than it appears on the surface. I would not suggest Facebook as the only (or best) option to place the survey. I would not pay for boosting the post or using Facebook services to create the poll either. You can do it yourself, without spending anything but some of your time.

• • Create this as an image file with a few of your art creations displayed. (Come up with a few unique, different from each other creations).
  • Write up the information about this being a survey to measure the saleability of your artwork. Keep the explanation simple, short and readable.
  • Play with the image sizes for your artwork. Not too small and yet not so big people will be happily making copies rather than spending something to buy your original images or product.
  • Combine the explanation text and your images into one web graphic which you can post to Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, the sidebar of your website, anywhere...

You get to promote your work, your site and get information from the survey itself. Promotion without feeling like you're selling anything is brilliant and works much better than straight sales promotion people are trained to ignore due to overkill.

What other ways can you create a promotion like this? Contests and giveaways, but those require more organizing and a prize to be sent. Simple is better.

2. Run a very simple survey on Facebook

A quick and easy way to survey is to setup a 4-design block of artwork and ask people to rank them in order of favorite to least favorite. Repeat as many times as necessary and narrow down to the most purchasable artwork. While a quick test of likes & comments is a good indicator of interest, you may discover differences between something people love and something people would actually hang in their homes. You want to lead with compelling work that is also likely to be purchased.

Is this abuse or just stupidity/ carelessness? On the part of the “job” poster, I mean.

I’m not sure about ProBlogger itself. It is possible no one verifies, checks, or cares what gets posted there. I have seen others posting “jobs” which are not jobs at all. Keep in mind, these job postings are paid posts for ProBlogger. Do they just take the money and have no interest in creating a resource for job seekers? ProBlogger is very marketing friendly. User/ reader/ job searcher beware, right?

This isn’t the first fake job post I have seen come up on the boards. I’ve also seen jobs which don’t pay, jobs which are pretty scammy and jobs which ask writers to contribute (work for free) or accept pennies from affiliate links.

Don’t rely on the ProBlogger job boards. Try somewhere else first. Eventually, when the spammers and scammers stop paying for listings, it will just close down and sink like another old shipwreck of the Australian coast.

One source for Google search alternatives is alternativeTo. The listings come from people on the Internet, using sites, services, and software and deciding which they like to use best. (Of course, software developers, businesses, and marketers are also free to post on the site too). Overall, the alternativeTo site is not so popular that marketers have flooded it with junk. So, the site is a really good source for software reviews and alternatives to try.

**A few to get you started: **

• DuckDuckGo
• StartPage
• SearX