Quote:
Originally Posted by bhopkins  I was preaproved for this service. I have not even investigated it and I'm not sure I will. Kind of sounds like pimping yourself. I wonder if they still pay if you do a bad review, which I doubt and is the only way I would consider doing it for any amount of money. |
I was pre-approved too and haven't checked it yet. I see reviews of ReviewMe popping up everywhere, I'll look into it carefully sometime - it's really not on top of my priorities right now. However, this is what I know so far from what I have read in some blogs:
- As a requirement, every review must contain some text making it clear it's a paid review - “Sponsored Post:”, “The following is a paid review:” “Advertisement:”. (which I think it's a good thing because this allows a distinction from the rest of your content and keeps the whole thing honest.)
- Apparently, you don't necessarily need to write a positive review. I'm not 100% sure that this is true and I couldn't find the answer to that in their FAQ, but that's what I read on someone's blog. If this is true, then it starts making more sense to me - even though, why would someone pay you for a negative review? THAT doesn't make sense! Does anybody know if this is true?
- All reviews need to be at least 200 words long.
At this point, I really don't know how I feel about paid reviews. What I do know is that I wouldn't do it for the money alone. I guess I would be ok with being paid for something I would comment on or review even for free. And if I indeed have the freedom to share my true opinions on products and services, be they positive or negative (meaning I can really be 100% honest in my review), then I could consider giving this a shot. Otherwise, if I'm just being paid to endorse something I wouldn't naturally endorse, then I don't think I'd feel very comfortable with that.
When I first started thinking about this, I thought about paid text link ads (in general) - it's not the same thing, because a text link ad, when labeled as such, makes it clear to your visitors that it's an advertising, you're not necessarily endorsing it and you're not even sharing an opinion. We don't have much control over what shows up in our AdSense ads, for instance. Unlike Text Link Ads - which allows you control over every link posted. But still, even having control over them, doesn't really mean you endorse the advertisers necessarily. But then I wonder, in essence, is it really that different to post a paid review? I mean, the only difference is that you're adding an opinion to it, but it's still advertisement, in essence.
I don't know, I'm thinking out loud here. Like I said, I still don't know how I feel about this, I'm trying to gather as much information as I can in order to form a clear opinion.