I’m Not A Big Fan Of Blog/Product Reviews - Here’s An Alternative
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Reason is quite simple, I usually don’t read reviews posted on other blogs, so I don’t see why I should post any on here. I don’t feel it would be relevant, and I’m not sure it would be useful to my readers, unless some product or blog totally rocks.
I did write some reviews in the past, but quickly realized it wasn’t my thing. So I simply stopped. And I must say I’m happy I made that decision.
Alternative To Paid Reviews
I’m definitely not against reviews, I think bloggers should be rewarded for their efforts, work and time they put in their blog(s). I simply don’t feel like writing reviews. But, I do feel like helping others.
I’ve been thinking about this for a while now, and I got many e-mails from bloggers and from some companies wanting me to review their blogs and products, but I’ve always declined the offers, despite the great monetary compensations some companies offered me (and I mean, really great!), since, as you probably guessed it: I’m not a big fan of reviews!
Here’s What I Have To Offer Instead
People ask for reviews not only to get links back, but also because they want to improve their blog, and by writing an unbiased review you help those bloggers do just that, which is great.
Companies, on the other hand, want more exposure and sell more products, so they ask bloggers to write reviews to hopefully generate some buzz around their website and products/services. And usually companies will pay more for a review than bloggers, cause they have the financial resources to do so.
Bloggers: If you’re looking for an unbiased review, or even a chat session on Skype to have my opinion on your blog (for free), please drop me a line. You won’t get a link back from my blog, unless I spot a really nice post on your blog and include it in a “Smart Posts Worth Reading” post or something similar.
I find reviews to be really useful if you’re looking to improve your blog. I don’t think a link back is necessary. Wouldn’t it be more fun anyway to be able to chat with the reviewer, instead of reading the review?
Companies: As much as I’m interested in the monetary compensation for writing reviews (and some of you made me some kick ass offers), I want to keep my blog free from reviews as much as possible. So the other alternative would be to contact me if you’re interested in advertising on my blog, or try TLA.
I probably will not write a review, but you can still give it a try and contact me, if I find your product or service really interesting and innovative, maybe I will want to share it with my readers, never know. :)
Just one last thing I would like to add. If I don’t write a review of your blog or company, please don’t get upset, it’s certainly not against you! I do like the fact I make money from my blog, but will not sacrifice readership just to make a quick buck. I’m interested in the long term relationships with my readers, not so much about writing reviews.
Your Turn To Talk
Would you like to have your blog reviewed even if you don’t get a link back? If you’re a blogger/writer, what is the primary reason you ask or purchase blog reviews? Same question if you’re working for a company or have products or services to promote. I would really like to know what motivates you to ask for reviews, I think this will be an interesting discussion. :)
Oh, by the way, I cannot and don’t want to spend my day on Skype, or review blogs all day, so it is possible it will take 3-4 days before you get a reply. Thanx!
Take care :)
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What? A blogger who doesn’t sell out?!? There is a revolution brewing in the blogosphere!
- Martin Reed
I’ve turned a few requests for reviews and I’ve always given the reason ‘I won’t be doing reviews until the blog has a page rank’.
At this time I’m still not sure whether to do them. I don’t think I want to do paid reviews until it’s worth my time. If reviewme prices a review on my blog too low I will remove my listing.
However, the review would still have to be relevant - eg a new blogging service or whatever
Jonathan - I think if you get a review request and the site is related to your blog you should consider doing the review.
Hey Martin, hehe, revolution? nah I just don’t like posting reviews. :)
Kevin, I’m with you regarding relevancy, I posted about Pownce and others because I like those ideas, I’m just not into the paid reviews thing, I prefer to give my opinion for free :)
If a blogger or company has an amazing blog or product I will definitely link to them often, and I already do this quite a lot, there are some blogs I could include in every single “smart posts” posts I write. I just feel the paid reviews or the “review me I review you” thing is not something my readers would benefit (unless you guyz tell me otherwise hehe)
This is kinda funny because I actually felt the same way about my blog as well. But I came up with a new feature that helps bridge the gap between my content and these types of postings, so hopefully that will go over well.
Hi Cooliojones, that’s cool, I like the idea of simply talking about a blog just like that and giving good (or bad) points about it. This way it seems more transparent. I honestly like the idea of making some money for reviewing blogs, but seeing how services like reviewme and others rank websites and what they take into account when setting the price tag for a review, it doesn’t really appeal to me.
:)
I’ve sought reviews of my site simply for the opportunity to garner input from a respected and established blogger who might be able to offer some insights and suggestions that I never would’ve come up with on my own.
So, I geuss you could say that self-improvement is my motive. If there’s a resulting backlink that brings in more visitors to my site, well, so much the better, but I wouldn’t NOT ask for a review just because I knew there’d be no link love.
Hi Rob, that is exactly what I think, some are asking for reviews just to get links back, if on the other hand they are looking for honest reviews to help improve their blog, I’m in and will definitely take the time to help them the best I can.
I got your e-mail by the way,thanx a lot for writing, I will definitely get back to you on that, surely this week end, or maybe tomorrow. :)
Jon,
I have to agree with your point. If a blog or even a product has merit the market will find it.
I’m not against getting out there to bring attention to your blog, product or service but a blog, product or service that has a good message will find it’s way.
Keep up the great posts.
John Clark
http://www.lifetosuccess.com
Hi John, thanx a lot. I think you,re right, market will find it.
Another cool way is to do something similar as Create Business Growth did, they’re having a contest where they give away $300 in podcast gear, and they have advertisement and banners on many blogs, that is a great way to generate some buzz, and it seems to be working great.
[…] Smart Wealthy Rich - Jon is a guy who doesn’t like taking money for reviewing other blogs or companies because he just isn’t into that. I think this guy is 1 in a million bloggers that would turn down cash on the morale he doesn’t like posting reviews on his blog! […]
I wouldn’t like to spend the whole day on Skype either. Reviewing a product takes time, and true, not everyone like sto read product reviews, but you do sometimes get higher rankings on search engines for that. (if you reviewed iPhone and someone searches iPhone, you may come up in the list)
Hi Grace, absolutely, I get a lot of SE traffic on the post I wrote on Pownce, since everyone seems to be looking for an invite cause it’s still in beta.
This post was hugely popular, probably cause of, well free invites! and also unbiased review. I wrote this post mainly because I think Pownce is a nice service, and it definitely got the attention of social networking sites :)
[…] I’m Not A Big Fan Of Blog/Product Reviews - Here’s An AlternativeJonathan of smartwealthyrich.com shares why hes not a big fan of sponsored reviews. […]
you right - I dont like those review pages I mean it does not make sense to review lesser blogs or read about a lesser blog (not to be mean)
product reviews I mean that is different I tent to put several reviews on my site such as blogcatalog, sphinn, etc - I think they are necesasry
I know there is a blog review exchange system out there i forgot who it was by - but blog reviews are poor but it does work for John Chow and lots of people review his blog to get his share of his traffic
Hi Ian, well honestly, I wrote a review of John Chow back when I started and it did help get things started (although I got only like 800-1000 hits from JC), I just think at some point the reviews are not useful, especially when the sole purpose is SEO. Just link to nice posts and articles, that’s a sure fire way! :)
Product reviews o the other hand are useful depending on the product, just have to keep things relevant, and not annoy people with too many reviews. I most probably will write other product reviews in the future, if I find a nice and innovative product to review or if I think it could be interesting to my readers.(like Pownce)
:)
[…] I’m Not A Big Fan Of Blog/Product Reviews - Here’s An Alternative - Jonathan of smartwealthyrich.com shares why hes not a big fan of sponsored reviews. […]
I’m not a fan of the paid reviews also. I noticed that SponsoredReviews is implementing a rating system now.
This should weed out some of the lower quality reviewers and the better writers will get paid more.
Hi Log Cabin Guy, that’s great news, at least if someone is making money writing reviews it’s cool they’ll get paid more if they write quality ones.
[…] I’m Not A Big Fan Of Blog/Product Reviews - Here’s An Alternative - Joanthan tells us why he isn’t planning on doing paid reviews on his blog. […]
How nice of you to offer free reviews via Skype. I agree with you that selling reviews on sites is a “quick buck” and sacrifices the long-term relationship built with readers. It just isn’t relevant. There are plenty of ways to make money online that is actually beneficial to viewers.
Buy Websites, exactly, reiews are good, but maybe I feel this way because too many people abused the “review me for a link back” deal. I believe in constructive reviews, and I usually prefer to give my opinion in private, but that’s just me :)
Personally, a review is a share of knowledge. If one has made a list of positive findings out of it and others can potentially gain out of them, I don’t see why a paid review is necessarily a negative thing.
After all, without your precious knowledge, it may cost your readers from learning the lesson the hard way.
I noticed you have a “charity” tag. If you are uncomfortable with the cold hard cash received, why not disclaim a paid review along the line of “This review is sponsored for such and such charity” and link back to this charity :)
Hello Sunny, well it’s not a negavtive thing, but with the overwhelming number of reviews you find online these days, it has almost become a niche all by itself.
I’m not uncomfortable with the cold hard cash, definitely not! :)
But I reallly do like you idea, I might doit, but I already give to charity. the review thing is more a personal choice.
If a company has an incredible product or a blog has that little something I like, and I know I can bring value and help, and my readers will actually read it, and it’ll attract traffic and links, I’ll review right away. I’m just not really into the “review me for 40 bucks” nor the “review me for a linkback” thing
:)