ReviewMe.com
This post was sponsored via ReviewMe
If you have ever took a good look around this site you will have noticed that I have adverts from Text Link Ads and a few other ads from interested people who offer a little sponsorship in my sidebar. I know that many people don’t like adverts of any sort and that it is a sure sign I have sold my soul to commercialism. I think they are reasonably unobtrusive and you can easily ignore them if you don’t like them. They also help to keep this site online and doing what I do.
Today I received an email from the Text Link Ads who were inviting me to try out a new advertising system called ReviewMe.
The whole idea if you haven’t already guessed is that you get paid to write reviews of advertisers products just like this very post. Yes, I am being paid to write this! And Judging by the $25,000 they have put in the kitty to pay bloggers for reviewing ReviewMe so are many others.
The idea is simple. First you have to sign up for an account and wait to see if your blog is accepted. You are not guaranteed of acceptance and it seems from the FAQ that you will need a decent amount of traffic to get accepted. Once accepted you sit and wait for somebody willing to pay you to review their product.
A couple of things that I found uprising are that you have to declare that the post is sponsored in some way, hence the “Sponsored Post” at the top of the post. Personally I think this is essential and any paid advertisement should be declared just like it is in the main stream media. We shouldn’t trust everything that we read and it helps if any outside interests are fully disclosed.
The other surprising thing is that you don’t have to write a positive review, so you can be honest. If you don’t like something then you can say so and still get paid. At least that is how it is supposed to work - I’m not sure you are going to get many people willing to pay you if you if you never have anything good to say about anything. I think the key is to be honest and truthful. It’s no good making up a good review if the product is bad or making a bad review if the product is good. Honesty is always a good idea and a little tact and diplomacy won’t go a miss either.
So what do I think? Is ReviewMe a good idea?
It’s an old argument and I am sure many people will be strongly against it and equally many people will be strongly for it.
I’m not sure! Do you think any less of me for writing this? And yes you can be honest!
This post was sponsored via ReviewMe
This entry was posted on Saturday, November 11th, 2006 at 12:45 am and is filed under Advertising. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
November 18th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
As long as it’s clearly labelled, I dont see the harm in a blogger making some money!
November 20th, 2006 at 4:56 pm
Well a couple of things come to mind. In theory it is a good idea for making some extra money for reviews. As an advertiser in various areas on the web this appeals to me to reach a larger audience.
What I do disagree with is the license to ’say what you want’ in your review. Quite frankly this leaves the process open to abuse and from sharp practise by business competitors.
A also don’t like the idea of having to state this is sponsored by ‘your company.com’ this leaves me with the feeling “oh it’s another ad” don’t bother reading. Nothing seamless or discreet about it really
November 20th, 2006 at 9:07 pm
Hi TechZ, No I don’t either but there does seem to be a strong feeling against paid reviews amongst some bloggers.
Vincent, I’m not sure it is a licence to say what you want. What I mean is that it has to be truthful. If I wrote about your product and wasn’t truthful wouldn’t you think about taking some sort of legal action against me? I can see that some may be tempted to write negative reviews because they can, but I can’t see that happening for long. Advertisers aren’t going to put up with untruthful negative reviews.
As for the sponsored by link, I think this is almost a unwritten rule of blogging ethics and it is here to stay. Anyone who doesn’t disclose that a review was paid for will probably face a lot of critisism from their peers.
November 21st, 2006 at 12:54 am
Hi Ainslie
In retrospect I agree with you about the ethics of blogging and yes it should probably be stated that it is ’sponsored by your company.com.’
On the other hand I am still unsure about having products reviewed, I guess it is down to trust factor and the history of the reviewer.I’ll keep an open mind about this and watch. If it works then that would be great as it is soemthing I would use for some clients products.
November 21st, 2006 at 6:46 pm
I think it can work but as an advertiser you will want to be sure you are going to get a fair review.
I may say this is good… I like this… and that’s great but I don’t like the way it does this. I can see that if it is honest, constructive and written well it can be good advertising but then you will probably have to address what the reviewer doesn’t like and use it as a positive exercise.
Like you have suggested, I think you will need to pick your reviewers carefully to ensure that you get a fair review. It is a bit of a chicken and egg situation - you won’t know what to expect until there is enough reviews to be able to review the reviewer.
Personally I don’t think I shall be doing many paid reviews as I’m not really sure it’s what blogging is about but if I did I would probably turn down reviews where I couldn’t find anything good to say about the product.