New blogging money-maker: ReviewMe

[Henry]

FYI - There was a launch of a new site called ReviewMe.

It's a site where advertisers PAY you for reviews. The amount of money you get depends on how popular your blog is. For example, if you're a 5-star blog (Top 100) or so, then you get like $500 for a review. If you're a 1-star blog, you get around 40 bucks a review.

Oh, also you have to say in the post that it's a paid advertisement.

Here's a like to a review of ReviewMe: Reviewing ReviewMe « John Chow dot Com

Link to ReviewMe: ReviewMe | Write reviews for cash!

[Phil Newton]

I'm not sure how I feel about these kinds of things. It's nice that you can be paid to write reviews of products, and it almost makes you a freelance writer.

The main problem I have is that I feel it can ruin your credibility as a blogger. I'm not sure I'd read a blog if it was clear the author was only writing reviews for the money. I realise it's not as black and white as that, but I'm still not sure.

[Steve]

Most bloggers seem to have the same concerns. I posted a review of ReviewMe for $20, but it will be interesting to see if I get any other offers.

What concerns me the most is how readers will react. Who wants to read a blog that is just full of product reviews?

[michael.shearer]

I use epinions.com for products I am considering purchasing and a blog full of product reviews would be useful if others are able to comment and there is a building consensus for or against the product.

[mattinglot]

I just made one too, this is really interesting. I just wonder how the whole review system works... clearly someone must ask for a review on my site and be willing to pay the money, but how do you review something in 48 hours? And what if it's a service that charges? It seems to favor shallow mentions of products rather than true reviews.

I have no intention of trying to make money reviewing things, unless it's something I wanted to review anyway. Single payments just aren't as attractive as the passive income an article can earn over the long run through other means. On the other hand if it's possible to get some extra money for reviewing that product then it's not a bad idea to do so.

[Leonard]

You may be writing reviews but since you are being paid by ReviewMe, your reviews will be considered neutral and not one-sided. And if you have been providing your readers with good content, and have built a rapport with them, I don't think there is going to be much of an issue here. Because eventually, you will still have to come up with content that people want to get your site growing.

[Dating Specialist]

Originally Posted by Leonard

You may be writing reviews but since you are being paid by ReviewMe, your reviews will be considered neutral and not one-sided. And if you have been providing your readers with good content, and have built a rapport with them, I don't think there is going to be much of an issue here. Because eventually, you will still have to come up with content that people want to get your site growing.

My sentiments too. This is similar to the discussion on paid blogging as advertising, where bloggers are paid to blog about a product. People have voiced their sceptic views that the blogger is doing that for money and not because the product is really good.

Well I think it depends really. If the blogger is one who has established himself with good credibility and reputation like Steve for example, I don't think they'll want to ruin that by giivng a one-sided review on the product or a blog per-se just for the money.

So if you have a blog and your content is really good and useful, then when you review another blog chances are your readers will buy your opinions, whether or not you are paid to do it.

[Waffle]

I just created an account on ReviewMe and Paypal...
Each of my reviews will be worth $60 this month but I only receive 50% of the payout which is $30 dollars...
Oh well... Perhaps I should try reviewing ReviewMe and wait for some offers...

[DmitryDavydov]

Originally Posted by Waffle

I just created an account on ReviewMe and Paypal...
Each of my reviews will be worth $60 this month but I only receive 50% of the payout which is $30 dollars...
Oh well... Perhaps I should try reviewing ReviewMe and wait for some offers...

It's more of a theory. In real world it's going to be WAY DIFFERENT. It's exceedingly unlikely that your reviews with generate 60 dollars a month each.

Here is an example. Remember, Steve said that he makes 300 a day from AdSense? The number has probably gone up, but anyway. Google says that StevePavlina.Com has 2500 pages, Yahoo indexes 5000 pages (Google tends to lower the real number of pages by quite a bit).

Do the math. Steve gets anywhere from 4 to 2 dollars from a page per month, if I did my math correctly. AND StevePavlina.Com is very popular.

[Steve]

Originally Posted by DmitryDavydov

It's more of a theory. In real world it's going to be WAY DIFFERENT. It's exceedingly unlikely that your reviews with generate 60 dollars a month each.

Why do you say that? If a vendor wants him to review a product, they have to pay $60. What is theoretical about that?

[Henry]

Originally Posted by Waffle

I just created an account on ReviewMe and Paypal...
Each of my reviews will be worth $60 this month but I only receive 50% of the payout which is $30 dollars...
Oh well... Perhaps I should try reviewing ReviewMe and wait for some offers...

Why are you only getting 50% of that?

[Waffle]

Originally Posted by Henry

Why are you only getting 50% of that?

That's the thing... Go to Manage Your Site page and see the Payout...
For me, it writes 50% of the fee will be paid to me...
I don't quite like that idea because it's too high a "commission" for ReviewMe...

[Henry]

Originally Posted by Waffle

That's the thing... Go to Manage Your Site page and see the Payout...
For me, it writes 50% of the fee will be paid to me...
I don't quite like that idea because it's too high a "commission" for ReviewMe...

Waffle, I caught your ReviewMe post.

I think I'll do one too. I wonder if I'm allowed to do it from the advertisers point of view.

[Waffle]

Ok. My ReviewMe review has been approved and now to collect the $30 next month...

[Phil Newton]

I didn't get accepted, so I can't even experiment with it.

[Richard_Todd]

I registered my finance/stock trading blog just to check it out, and was disappointed to only see them rank me at 1 star. Any ideas about how I can improve the way I'm ranked?

It says it looks at alexa/technorati and estimated rss subscribers. How does it estimate rss subscribers? Maybe this is where I'm falling down. Should I use feedburner, or something, even though I have perfectly good wordpress feeds already? If I start now, will I always be "missing" all my existing subscribers from my rankings?

[Blaine Moore]

I did the review me review, and have only had one person try to buy another review from me. Unfortunately, it was for a site that had nothing to do with my content, so I declined it.

[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.

[Patricia]

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:

1. 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.)
   
2. 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?
   
3. 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.

[scottyp]

I don't see a problem with paid reviews, but you can't necessarily be neutral all the time. I run a blog that is mainly reviews of music/sound equipment, and if a product is exceedingly bad, my review will not be neutral at all, I will trash the product. That kind of honesty is important.