ReviewMe is a new review site where they pay bloggers to review sites. I am now disclosing that this is a paid-for review BUT they are not paying for my decision over what’s good and what’s bad. Anyway, they commission all new users to write a review of ReviewMe and pay them for that review.
The way it works from there-on: advertisers can join their site and can commission 1-to-many bloggers each to write an article or review on their product. They can specify how many works each review needs to be but they cannot specify what light the review shows them in.
That’s all good and well but if you scathe an advertiser on their product are they going to pick you to review something again? I think of myself as quite a fair guy. Knowing that I’m being paid to write something is probably going to make me question the morals and my conscience will probably make me write it even more unbiased but is everyone like that? That is one problem with the whole sponsored-article market place. If advertisers can pick and choose who writes the articles and the reviewers can be very positive about all of their products, what’s to stop them reviewing anything personally? Nothing.
The only thing they mandate is that you disclose that the review you’re writing is being paid for. ReviewMe checks randomly, I believe, just as advertisers should – not that they would complain, because it benefits them. At the end of the day, it’s up to the people that read things to decide whether something is biased or not.
If you’re considering joining up, not just to get the initial pay-off, but for the long term, you should realise the model of this system. Advertisers specify which bloggers they’d like to write things. You cannot apply directly to the advertisers and therefore, if you’re a low or medium ranking site chances are advertisers won’t ever see your site on the system. This is a good measure to stop publishers spamming around asking people to use them, but not great if you’re just trying to earn an honest buck.
You should also realise that ReviewMe take 50% of your earnings. ThePCSpy.com is rated as a $100 site (where reviews cost that much) but I’ll only ever see $50 per article. Not too stingy, but still… They’re earning a LOT for just sitting in the middle.
The final part of my review cannot be typed yet. I’m still waiting to see if ReviewMe pay out but I shall update as soon as I can.