I don’t really use these paid blogging thingys seriously, as I go through sites and only pick those that “work” for my interests. The others come and go.

For me, this opens an arena of sites I wouldn’t have noticed otherwise and I learn a lot from seeing them, which I wouldn’t have, if I remained with my “usual sites”. So yeah, for me, this works, though I don’t take up every offer.

Besides, most of the paid reviews on sites that I see are negative and fairly humorous anyway as the person asks what on earth was the person thinking paying for them to review their site.

I do know that the couple I’ve done, I’ve had positive response across the board.

If so, then I read the entire post in detail, otherwise I let it be.

Oh well? Here’s a quick review:

Adesnse takes too long for small sites. It’s really hard to sit and wait for months and months for your revenue to slowly climb to $100.00. Doing a quick review is a nice way to knock off some hosting fees. You stick a few review posts on a well updated blog and everyone’s happy.

As with all other methods or gaining revenue on a blog, it all depends on how it’s done. I’ve seen blogs with gaudy Adsense and sites with nice layouts. Same with paid posts. Some or ridiculously off topic and other blend right in.

What I don’t agree with, however, are READERS that give up on a blog for a paid post. If it’s relevant and well done, then why not? Also, most paid posts have disclaimers down at the bottom of the post, so do you guys scan to the bottom to determine whether it’s a review? I don’t think that’s right.

My Two cents

Otherwise if you need few money you can post one or two reviews a week .

Now I see a lot of you guys mention ReviewMe. ReviewMe has minimum traffic requirement that they have. None of my blogs have been accepted. If you’re receiving that amount of traffic, then usually AdSense would do just fine for you so you don’t really need paid review money.

As with all revenue for bloggers, it depends on how it’s done. If I go to a site and AdSense is splattered all over, then it turns me off. Some sites do a very good job of either blending or placing their Ads where they actually compliment the rest of the site.

Most of the sites I’ve seen that do Paid Posts have the disclaimer at the bottom of the post, so do you guys scan the post and look at the bottom before reading? Why are we in such a witch hunt for paid posts? The companies that I do paid posts for usually allow you to give a good or bad review. If the topic is relavant to my blog, then why not? I’ve read countless paid reviews on other blogs: a lot of which I didn’t even know were paid until I reached the end.

IMHO, paid posts are a great way for new bloggers to help pay their hosting fews, instead of waiting months (some years) to see AdSense revenue trickle up to $100.

I have recently as an additional incentive added the new RMP (Review My Post) links from PayPerPost – I have never written a review for them, but think this is an excellent viral marketing system that is win/win

Personally, I have not been doing paid reviews on my blog. Most of the paid reviews that are out there would probably not fit into my niche.

However, I don’t object to bloggers doing paid reviews any more than I object to paid reviews being in the newspaper, magazine, or any form of media. (It’s interesting that many writers fuss about writing for free, yet expect blog posts to be written for free. Sometimes I actually wish that I had a blog where paid reviews would fit into the theme.)

I do think disclosure of paid reviews is important as is objectivity. This is true of advertisements found in other media as well. I want to know who paid the reviewer. Was it a professional blogging outfit, the manufacturer of the product, or somebody else?

As a consumer, I turn to reviews (including blog reviews) only when I am actually interested in the product. Otherwise, I skip over them. That’s true whether the review is on TV, in a magazine, or on a blog. If a blog were made up of nothing but paid reviews then it probably wouldn’t hold my interest.

To summarize, I think paid reviews can be an excellent income source for bloggers who might still be waiting for that elusive ad revenue to trickle in. If it’s done sparingly and openly it can actually enhance a blog.

I think where most bloggers fail with paid reviews is by reviewing things that are irrelevant to their readers or not providing an honest review.

As a reader, I will read a paid review as long as the blogger keeps the honesty and perspective that makes me want to read their blog anyway. If the blogger brings their insight to the post a review can be very worthwhile to read.

To do a good review takes a lot of time though. For example if a blogger is paid to review a web application, they may need to spend a good amount of time actually using it in order to write an informed review.