Why You Should NEVER Offer Paid Reviews!
Ummm, let me ask you a question:What is trusting you worth?
$50? $100? $200? $1000? $20,000? $1,000,000?
Because when I see a little icon at the top of you blog, telling me how much you can be bought for, the value I place on your information goes waaaayyy down.
If I can buy you off for a measly $200, why would I listen to what you’ve got to say?
I won’t is the answer. I don’t care what you tell me. It’s meaningless. Even if you tell me that it’s a “paid for” advertisement, I’m wondering why you haven’t monetized with something that is surely more profitable. Like your own scalable product.
If your Blogging Model is site reviews, I still don’t think “paid for” reviews are a good idea. Simply because the affiliate review model is much more trustworthy.
If you’re promoting an affiliate product, you MUST KNOW:
- It converts.
- It’s ACTUALLY GOOD.
- People want it.
But if you’re promoting paid reviews, you’re either selling the review owner a bum deal - because you know you’d make less money just being an affiliate selling from your blog. OR, you’re selling yourself short, because you’re choosing to make LESS money than you could as an affiliate.
Either way, you don’t look too good.
Affiliate marketing cuts the SHIT from the BULL because it pays off in performance - not EXPECTATION.
EXPECTATION PRICING is what traditional mass media does - and it’s a complete joke. Television stations guard their REAL viewer numbers like the CIA guards it’s spies, because they don’t want “would-be” advertisers to know what they’re actually getting for their advertising dollars.
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September 18th, 2007 at 7:44 am
It’s paid review, not giant infomercial in print.
Most of these are more objective than regular affiliate posts making sure to bring out the good and bad without bias.
As with anything written or expressed, some people do so in trust and good faith and others do not.
It seems dangerous and borderline ignorant to categorize reviews as plainly and unilateraly as you just have.
On another note, keep up the great blogging.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:46 am
Small addition:
Have a look at reviews written by Andybeard.eu or other quality bloggers.
Often times, what the buyers get is in depth consulting from some of the stronger critical minds and better informed players in a particular industry.
Have a looksee, I think you might be able to garner a new perspective or at least some nuance to the old one.
September 18th, 2007 at 7:49 am
Yep, no question Andy is a quality blogger.
There are exceptions to what I’ve just written, however, this post applies to 99% of what I see.
September 18th, 2007 at 9:54 pm
i like your perspective on on this topic. what do you think of just having the “get paid to review my post” under each post?
September 18th, 2007 at 10:27 pm
@Israel: Like the social media buttons, having a “Get paid to review this post” thing isn’t necessary. Because the only people you would bother getting to review your site, are probably not reading it. You need to find them, because it’s unlikely they will find you.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:19 am
I support your view about the trustworthiness of a blogger going down with a paid review, but as long as there are people who are willing to pay, there will be people who will whore.
September 19th, 2007 at 3:23 am
@ BloggingProfits: LOL
September 19th, 2007 at 1:30 pm
SBJ,
I fully dont agree with what you ve written. Arguably most blogs just review something for the heck of it say to earn money - for example I write PPP posts in full earnest. But unless you put a get reviewed by me button, no one will know that you are ready to take their requests. next, if you specify something like $2 or $5 for a review it shows you are getting desperate for money. now on the other hand, if you charge say $50 or higher, it either means - you are foolish with a PR0 site doing that, or you are legitimate since your site is PR5+ which means people will notice up what you write. ultimately content is king. what you write is the only thing that will bring up your reputation in front of others. So it must be a mixed mode use of get reviewed by me button as long as you, the reviewer is legit!
srikanth
January 20th, 2008 at 4:36 am
As if you can really trust one of those affiliate marketing review sites that are all over the Net … “reviewing” products and giving an “honest” opinion so the buyer can make the right choice. No difference at all. I only accept reviews for products that I would also personally recommend. Most affiliate marketers will sell anything that converts even if it is a scam.