Last month, you probably have seen me accept a couple of paid reviews here in my blog and to be honest I know you don’t like seeing two paid posts in less than 10 days especially that this blog rarely does paid reviews.
The truth about paid reviews is that you rarely pass on them. Practically, it’s the most expensive form of advertising one can avail and for the bloggers; it’s the most lucrative one. And again, I don’t think most bloggers would pass for the opportunity of getting paid. As long as it’s related to what your blog is, then I don’t think there’s any problem with that. Of course, it can hurt your blog in a way or another.
I have learned some few lessons on doing sponsored reviews but before I talk about that, I would like to share with you how I really discourage advertisers from purchasing a review from this blog. First is I price my review too high. Ok, although it seems like $50 is a small amount for the audience I have, it actually is $50 way back when this blog is in 200K Alexa (w/c means I need to raise). Another thing is that my blog is pr0, meaning you don’t get organic boost. And worst, I even no-follow the links! And lastly, I don’t let it last too long in the front page. Doing this sponsored post is really painful in my ass BUT for the money-sake, you obviously do it as long as it’s relevant.
Anyways here are the key tips that I learned in doing posts that are paid:
- Tell them everything – I always tell people to tell your client/advertisers what to expect. After I learn that someone has purchased a paid review, I usually personally contact them with the details, along with how long the review would be there and the nofollow thing. And besides, I believe I clearly stated in my advertise page.
- Adjust quickly – If you’re like me then you have a ton of drafts that you are planning to publish anytime soon. So imagine everything is planned already and all of a sudden somehow requested a paid review, how would you react? Adjust rapidly! Make sure you don’t alienate your posting frequency by breaking it. On the other hand, also make sure that the advertiser realizes his post will not be posted immediately but on a scheduled date.
- Tell your readers you’re paid to do that – There will be times when you would get consecutive review requests or even 3-4 requests in one week. I’m sure it would cross your mind not to disclose some of it because you’re worrying your readers might get annoyed with those reviews. Listen, disclose it! Don’t even think, just disclose it and talk in such a way that you’re still doing your normal posts.
- Be honest – This is an ancient tip with paid reviews yet still many bloggers are afraid to do it. When you’re paid to review someone’s product, you either get your reputation tainted, or get the advertiser’s expectations not met. I would rather get the second one. With my last review about PasteWeb, I was constructively critical with the program itself but I can tell that the advertiser was not mad with me. Here’s one key tip: You know your audience, you know what type of audience they are so think of them when doing your review. Conclude the review based on whether it can benefit your readers or not.
Obviously as I was mentioning this, I still have a couple of paid reviews on the way but I can assure you this will not bore you to death nor will it make you not want to visit this blog again. How about you? How do you deal with sponsored reviews?
So I have never posted anything this month that has something to do with blogging. I just thought I would post one. 🙂 Well, paid post or paid reviews is a thing that is really in right now. I mean almost everyone has given their a blog a go signal to have it. It’s just surprsing how many people do not actually know how to do it the proper way. In forums and discussion threads, I always hear “you have to choose between the pr and the money” and some “oh, I don’t want to piss Google” and such stuffs. The thing is there is really nothing wrong with paid posting and links and blah blah. 
