ReviewMe Launches Paid Product Reviewing Service
ReviewMe is a new service that just launched, which is designed for advertisers to get their products reviewed by the blogosphere. It appears to be PayPerPost done the right way, without the hidden agenda and lack of disclosure. ReviewMe seems to be quite cognizant of the blogging community and how transparency is needed when conducting reviews of products in exchange for some form of payment.
Anyone can sign up for an account on ReviewMe. I just did, and completed the registration process with ease. Once you are finished with the sign in process you are offered the opportunity to add up to 6 blogs. Each blog is given a ranking based on an algorithm that takes in to account the sites Alexa and Technorati ranking as well as the number of subscribers to its RSS feed. The ranking then ultimately determines the price that advertisers will pay in order to have reviews placed on your site.
You, the blogger, will ultimately see 50% of the price that an advertiser pays in order to have you review their product. In my case, a review on jarkolicious will cost an advertiser $100, allowing me to pocket $50 for a few six-packs of beer, some pizza with a little pocket-change left to spare.
The whole premise is a little shaky – having bloggers paid in order to review a product gives me the impression that negative reviews will be hard to find. It appears that the only requirements for ReviewMe are that the posted review be at least 200 words in length and that there is some form of disclosure. Although positive reviews are not a requirement, what advertiser truly desires to pay bloggers to speak unenthusiastically about their products? I am very apprehensive about their formula but feel much better about ReviewMe than I do PayPerPost. It should be interesting to see where it leads.
Just to see how the service works, I have signed up for an account. I wonder what companies desire to have their products reviewed by jark? The idea, although shaky, may prove to be more fascinating than anyone ever imagined. Maybe? No? Okay, I did not think so.
As part of their launch campaign, ReviewMe is giving away $25,000 to bloggers that write about the service. Nice to see them engaging their own business model. I wonder how effective it will be?
It will be interesting to see how this service pans out.
I wrote my thoughts on it here: http://engtech.wordpress.com/2006/11/10/reviewmecom-reviewed-a-look-at-the-algorithm-from-a-bloggers-point-of-view/
I wonder how many of us will be only get this first payout? Still, it’s good that they ponied up 25k to get the ball rolling.
good thoughts!
Have you signed up for any other services that pay you to blog, like Blogitive for example? (They’re at http://www.blogitive.com ) They’re really ramping up now and putting the call our for bloggers.
Colleen: Thanks for the link. I had never heard of Blogitive until now and will definitely take a look at them. Much appreciated!