Sponsored Post: ReviewMe
When PayPerPost and ReviewMe first popped up on, I was pretty disappointed. I really felt as though ‘blogging for dollars’ was going to take a turn for the worst. Tonight I noticed a few posts on other blogs that ReviewMe was actually utilizing their own system to pay bloggers to review themselves. It caught my attention so I signed up to check it out.
It’s an interesting concept. Based on your blog’s exposure (Alexa, Technorati, RSS, etc.), your blog is provided with a dollar amount that you will be paid when you complete a review. In other words, you’re compensated based on the number of folks that read your blog. Not a bad idea. I think this may be a really nice approach for advertisers. More on that…
ReviewMe doesn’t require that you write a positive review! In other words, you can be absolutely honest. I suppose that will attract advertisers with great products, but ReviewMe is going to drive away the unscrupulous advertisers. Hey! That’s good for both of us, isn’t it? The last thing I want to do is pander to folks who read my blog to try to make a couple bucks. That would be putting my readers at risk and that’s something that I have put in a LOT of time trying to build. I don’t have a big name or billion dollars, so I’m small-time. People tend to gravitate towards the big boys.
The other thing I admire is that they want you to be clear that it’s a blog post that you’re being compensated for:
You must disclose that the post is a paid post in some way. Here are some ideas: “Sponsored Post:”, “The following is a paid review:” “Advertisement:”.
So from a business standpoint, I respect ReviewMe’s service and wish them well! There are times that I really have trouble trying to think of a post to put up, but I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place. If I do not post daily, I absolutely see a trend in downward traffic. If I do post daily, I see an upwards swing in traffic. Content IS king with my blog. What I don’t want to do is waste your time here, though. So, I have forgone the posts on certain days when I just didn’t have anything constructive to add to our conversation.
I’m going to try ReviewMe for a while… not as a source of revenue, but I’m going to see if it can fill those ‘voids’ where I should post about something but do not have enough to go on. I’ll be honest with you folks, too, and let you know what it’s happening. I don’t want to put our relationship at risk!
As for the service, it’s pretty straight forward. I do have to say that the site is confusing as hell, though! There’s an advertiser section and a blogger section. It’s pretty simple to figure out which side of the line you’re on, but the site isn’t really set up that way. There’s a horizontal menu, left menu, then options within the content area, a footer menu…. I still remember seeing my ranking in there somewhere but I can’t figure out how to get back there!!
So… great product, lousy usability. My advice would be for the folks at ReviewMe to map out all of the business processes that advertisers or bloggers would take through the site… registration, adding a blog, adding a review, setting up payments, etc. and then design the interface around that hierarchy and business processes. I think I would make a HUGE distinction between the advertiser and blogger pages and processes. Having the buttons above each other is a little strange and isn’t intuitive.
Well, that’s it! This is my first Review on ReviewMe… of ReviewMe! I hope you appreciate my candor.
Research: Shopping Expectations of U.S. Consumers
What do U.S. consumers expect from their digital shopping experience today?
Follow-up: I received payment via Paypal for this entry today.