I think it’ll be a round for a while though, look at what everyone thought of PPP (payperpost) and it is still around and going strong from my understandings.

I think it’ll be a round for a while though, look at what everyone thought of PPP (payperpost) and it is still around and going strong from my understandings.

I think it’ll be a round for a while though, look at what everyone thought of PPP (payperpost) and it is still around and going strong from my understandings.

1) Writers must say that it was a paid review. I think this is extremely important and should be told.

2) Writers DON’T have to write positive reviews. For example, in my own review I told people that it would be impossible for me to recommend ReviewMe by saying “it’s good way to earn money” – because frankly, that was my first review. Anyone else recommending it or saying that it’s good way to earn money doesn’t really know that – we all have to wait until next month to see whether we actually get our money or not.

That being said – I took a critical view on ReviewMe and I personally don’t mind if somebody gets paid to make reviews – and clearly states that. I don’t actually understand what harm could it done for ProBlogger to accept the money – you made the (non-paid) review anyway, and you are recommending Adsense/TLA/other affiliate programs and you get paid (when people sign-up) for those programs. I don’t see much difference on this. I understand that i people don’t like doing sponsored posts, then I suppose that’s okay attitude – but telling people that one is using Chitika or other systems is not much different.

I must also point out that I don’t want to bash Darren in any way – I’m grateful for the tips I’ve received and appreciate his way to deal with issues. I simply would like to hear more reasons about why he did not take the money – yet made the review?

Regards

Advertisers will be using ReviewMe irrespective of what the reviews say because ReviewMe is really, to quote Scott Karp, a marketplace for purchasing influence.

All adveritsers are really doing is taking advtage of purchasing some quality inbound links from potentially very high page rank sites.

Bottom line? Its all google juice gold — and all available at a great price.
Much easier than doing your own SEo and in a blink of an eye as well.

My own pithy words on the topic:
http://www.deepjiveinterests.com/2006/11/11/how-advertisers-really-benefit-from-the-reviewme-revolution/

And others:
http://www.yardley.ca/blog/index.php/archives/2006/11/11/optimizing-your-reviewme-purchase/
http://publishing2.com/2006/11/11/reviewme-creates-a-currency-and-marketplace-for-buying-influence/

Cheers
t @ dji

Our service, Get Them Blogging, is a database of bloggers willing to write up reviews. PR and marketing people are already using blogads to find bloggers to pitch and we decided to make things easier after fielding yet another poorly targeted pitche on my own personal blog.

Now we’ll have to see if we can drum up enough blogger interest since we won’t pay for reviews. (For one, we have no venture capitalist funding and for two, we’re about editorial not advertorial.)

You can see my post here – Should Bloggers Accept Money For Reviews?

The comments coming in on my blog make me think the model can work, if the blogger is very careful with how they construct their reviews. It’s a touchy issue but really only one thing matters to me – do I risk damaging my credibility and reducing my readership by doing paid reviews?

Yaro

ReviewMe.com, a Business Model With Nowhere to Go:

1. What advertiser is willing to pay for a product whose quality they cannot review ahead of time?
2. Forcing bloggers to disclose they are being compensated automatically creates perception of bias, even on the most credible of bloggers offering unbiased perspective.
3. Pressure to produce positive reviews will continue since bloggers will not want to jeapardize future earnings from potential advertisers who will have an opportunity to see the blogger’s review history and shy away from bloggers with a significant negative review history.
4. By eliminating smaller blogs ReviewMe effectively sacrifices the entire “tail” play of smaller blogs who in aggregate have an opportunity to produce significant earnings for the company.

Gene Kavner

First of all, are advertisers going to read through your entire archives to figure out what is positive and what is negative? And it’s as if everyone who signs up with ReviewMe will stop what they were previously doing and only write reviews for ReviewMe. For my part, I post something nearly every day, sometimes multiple times a day. If a paid review with full disclosure is here or there, how would an advertiser know where to look without reading half my blog?

I don’t know if the business plan will work out, but I don’t think it’s fundamentally flawed. I think blogger and advertiser behavior is hard to define. The results will tell us how it works, not our over-simplified hypotheticals.

I’ve reviewed ReviewMe here and think it’s worth a shot:

http://www.computers.net/2006/11/paid_blogging_r.html

Quite simply the window to accept or decline is too short. I believe I have to provide more content before I can in another sponsored post. It comes down to volume of content vs. ads and what readers are willing to put up with.

Also you have to think would you have written about the product or service without payment – even if it is in your niche. Everytime I get an advertiser contact me I will carefully study what I can say about their product before accepting or declining. I wish there was an option to send feedback to the advertiser stating that why you may have declined them – especially if it is just because the 48hr window is too short.

The smart thing for me is to write extensive articles about the product or service, that combine with good content.

Top reviewers have always gotten paid… they get free gadgets to review. Seems like a free PS3 is worth a heck of a lot more than a little $30 check.