When I started blogging less than a year ago, one of my personal rules I set for myself was that this blog had to be self sustaining.
Now, thanks to the few advertisements I place on my site, the costs incurred by domain registration and hosting, were being covered – but only just.
When PayPerPost came along I toyed with the idea of using them as a source of site revenue, but decided their terms and conditions may end up compromising the integrity of my blog. For those unfamiliar with PayPerPost, it is a service that pays bloggers to write about topics determined by the advertiser.
While it may sound good on the surface, there were some key issues bothering me.
- The fact that I could get paid for posting a story without disclosure would leave some of my real unsponsored reviews in question.
- Worse still, the tone of the review (positive/negative) would be completely dictated by the advertiser, leaving me to be nothing more than a mouthpiece for them to praise their product, or criticize their competitors.
Having considered this, I then decided not to participate in PayPerPost blogging.
ReviewMe however, is a similar service which uses a more ethical model than PayPerPost. It still pays bloggers to write about topics sponsored by advertisers, but they require disclosure that it is a paid post… and more importantly, the writer is given complete freedom in regards of the tone of the review, where the writer can slam the product if they don’t like it.
ReviewMe matches advertisers to bloggers by letting advertisers choose which blogs to target, and bloggers in return decide which projects they want to take on. The more popular the blog, the higher the price.
While at first glance it may seem that smaller blogs may be marginalized by this system, but I feel that if I was an advertiser, I might consider targeting a few smaller sites first, to test the waters, rather than target the A-list bloggers from the get go and risk falling flat on your face with a number of highly exposed bad reviews.
Also, I think it’s important to recognize that it’s not all about creating buzz. Paying a group of smaller blogs to review you, and actually tracking what they say, is a great way to get new ideas and feedback, as they act as a sounding board and a focus group of sorts.
So far, the future looks uncertain for ReviewMe. Aside from other competitors like CreamAid, LoudLaunch entering the same space, and PayPerPost having a first mover advantage, and an underhanded approach, ReviewMe may find it hard to get the attention it deserves.
Going down the ethical road may seem like the right thing to do, but it remains to be seen if advertisers are willing to pay big bucks and risk getting harsh reviews all around.
Disclaimer: This is a paid post of ReviewMe.com, but please note that all opinions expressed in this post are completely my own, and have not been influenced by the advertiser.
[...] PayPerPost and, more recently, ReviewMe, have both created some controversy over their pay-to-post services. Some have compared this to selling your soul, others have been a little more welcoming, when money was involved. [...]