Jul 06
Initial Thoughts on Pay Per Post, Review Me and Sponsored Reviews
I wrote a little while ago about wanting to finally try these services and apprehensions I had with starting to use them - Mostly a fear of losing my visitors. Thanks due to the support of all you guys, I charged ahead and took the plunge. I gotta say, so far - It’s not what I expected. Maybe truthfully, I didn’t know what to expect but I thought on the whole it would be a different experience. As you read my experiences, don’t forget that for the time being, this site is a PR 1 with an Alexa rank> 400,000. All these sponsored post sites often use a combination of Alexa rank and PR to determine your blog’s value too. *ahem* Without further ado…
Pay Per Post
The first place I signed up for was Pay Per Post because it’s obviously one of the biggest players in the sponsored post game. Being so popular, I expected exceptional customer service, fast sign up, and overall just a well oiled machine. That wasn’t really the experience I got. After I initially signed up, it took them a couple days to look at my blog to see if it was ok. When they did, my blog was
REJECTED.
The reason? I had very recently gotten into the habit of making my posts continue to two pages using the “More tag”. And apparently that’s against their TOS. I was told that because my blog “automatically” truncates posts, I was rejected. I quickly responded to this w/ a ticket saying that I was the one manually truncating my posts so there shouldn’t be a problem. And then I waited for a response. I waited. I waited. And I waited some more. I waited for probably about a week with no answer.
Thankfully I had remembered reading somewhere that PPP sometimes sat on things like this, and that you really had to get on them to make sure they give you the time of day. So I submitted another ticket (a bit on the scathey side) saying I had been waiting for so long blah blah blah and that there were 10 recent posts on my site not truncated blah blah blah. And soon after submitting that one, I got a response, my blog was approved and I was ready to go. But if you thought I was sitting on my laurels this whole time waiting for Pay Per Post, you had another thing coming…I had already signed up at Sponsored Reviews!
Almost immediately I liked this service more than Pay Per Post. Signup was quick and painless and it seemed that “immediately” my site was approved. More than that, they even updated my site stats from the start (alexa, link pop, etc). Sure you’d think that they’d all do that when you sign up, but not the case. It’s been a freakin’ while now, and I think this is the only one that has stats for my site (despite me already writing a post for Review Me *rolling eyes*). Unfortunately though, this is where my love for Sponsored Reviews ends.
After gaining acceptance, I submitted my site for 5 jobs (and of course this is like a week and a half ago) and I’m still waiting. I don’t think this is Sponsored Reviews’ problem per se because I think it’s the advertisers who are being lazy. But it would be nice if the site stepped in and had some kind of time limit or something so I didn’t have 5 jobs pending. In fairness I do have to keep in mind that my site is PR1 with an Alexa rank of > 400,000. Maybe that’s the reason I’m having problems here. I don’t know, but it IS frustrating. Wish I could tell you it wasn’t.
And finally there was Review Me. I wish I had come here first on the sponsored post train but honestly, I don’t like their logo. It looks hokey so I didn’t give the site much credit. But you know what - So far, they’re the only one I’ve completed a post for.
It feels a bit different than the other services in that once you’re all setup to go, you just sit back and wait for advertisers to contact you. And for someone like me - This was maddening. I wanted to find them myself, submit my blog and go. But that’s just not the way it works. To that end, offers come and go seemingly very quickly. Right now I’m just constantly logging into and out of the site to make sure I don’t miss any, because if you don’t see it, it’s gone. They don’t stick around. What I SHOULD do is subscribe to the RSS feed, that way if my feed reader auto refreshes, chances are I won’t miss too many opportunities. (I use Sage with FF now which is far from auto).
My one big qualm with them right now is in their FAQ - they say you can change how much you charge for the opportunities you take by changing your price on your member’s page. Problem is *SHOCKER* they don’t have my stats up so I don’t have a price! So everything I take on is a whopping $5. YESSSsssssss. BIGGGGGG Money.
Initial Conclusions
Review Me is nice since you can start so fast, but when you don’t have any stats, $5 a post just doesn’t fill you with that warm and fuzzy feeling. Especially now that I’m up and running with Pay Per Post and I see that there is plenty of stuff available to me from $10-$20 (even though they don’t have my stats either). For many of these sites, they say stats are updated 24-48 hours or monthly and you just WISH it was automatic. I mean, it can’t be that hard to make a script to get this stuff right? Geez. Well, there I am.
How about your experiences with these? With time does it get better? With better ranks do they take you more seriously? And also - Do you have to get some reviews under your belt before some advertisers will look at you? (Sorry for this MONSTROUS post)
July 7th, 2007 at 12:19 am
Well, Bush the biggest problem is that no one will entertain you much untill, you get good alexa rank. If you want to earn big, then you need to have good alexa rank and better PR can always be helpful. You should concentrate on building those first and then I’m sure you’ll have better experience with these services.
I’m still working to build better alexa rank and then only I’ll go for anything like this.
July 7th, 2007 at 12:50 am
I’m a member of all three but I like Sponsored Reviews the most because you get 65% compared to 50% from ReviewMe. I actually haven’t done a review for PayPerPost yet since I’ve focused on the other two.
My advice would be to wait until the pagerank update scheduled for later this month, then have all 3 update your stats. You should get higher paying offers by then.
July 7th, 2007 at 1:12 am
Hey Bush, good post! I’ve been thinking about doing a review of my own now that I’ve had a few months experience with the first two.
PPP is a bit picky at times. I’ve had my posts rejected a couple of times, but was able to rectify the situation and get them approved. They are indeed a little slow in approving posts. And I don’t like their rule of not having two reviews posted “side-by-side” (which is one crime I committed). But after inserting a new post between the two by backdating, it made them happy again.
Two other things that bug me about them: 1) I can’t get MAMD submitted until I have completed 10 posts with my current blog; 2) there are some decent opportunities, but far too frequently I find them greyed out, thus not really an opportunity for me at all. I’ve concluded that every mortgage company and coupon service only advertises on PPP because I see them so often there. Don’t they ever give it a rest? :)
Not too sure about ReviewMe. Still trying to figure them out. I’ve done a pretty good job with SponsoredReviews, but I agree with you that they really need to implement a time-out or withdraw feature for bloggers. I’ve had some bids pending for quite a while.
July 7th, 2007 at 4:41 am
@ Bush : I’m really not concerned about PageRank. Its already 6 :) I’m concerned about Alexa Rank because that’s also an important aspect when it comes to setting up the price.
July 7th, 2007 at 9:45 am
I’m a member of not one of these services. I would not write a paid review of another site, nor would I pay to get reviewed.
What would be a reasonable fee if I work for about an hour on an article? Can I really earn money this way? What if I end up doing a review each week or each day? Would you read my site when one of the five posts I do in a week is a paid review?
July 7th, 2007 at 10:13 am
PayPerPost is the only site I’ve made any money with. Of course I may never make any more money with them, now that it seems there’s a whole lot of cheating going on there. I haven’t seen anything new and worthy to write about it a month because as soon as new opps are released they are IMMEDIATELY scooped up. The theory going around on their forums is that someone or a groups or someones are using scripts to snatch up every new opportunity. It seems possible. Also one of the top three earners on PPP is apparently cheating but they’re using a different method. PPP hasn’t done a thing about it.
The other two services you listed I’ve earned a combined total of zero dollars on. There’s NEVER anything to write about for Review Me. Regardless of what category I place my blog in, it always says there are no opportunities available.
I’ve lost track of how many bids I’ve placed on Sponsored Reviews. They sit there awaiting approval for weeks (or even months in some cases) before they just magically disappear without a word from anyone.
July 7th, 2007 at 7:40 pm
Sponsored Reviews just doesn’t work for some people. (After all, if Review Me worked for them would they be going to Sponsored Reviews to look for jobs, rather than have jobs come to them?) I like PayPerPost… I didn’t know about the “more” issue. I think it’s mainly because I always forget to put the More! tag on! That’s why, if you visit my blog right after I wrote a post, you don’t see any Read More tags. If you visit it later, the Read More tags exist. :D
July 7th, 2007 at 8:36 pm
@Everyone - Thanks for the great comments on this post! I had a feeling it would be popular, and I’m glad to see so many people speaking about it! I think I’m going to go back and edit this post a bit to a bit more straight forward as far as information is concerned but I’m going to keep my initial impressions there too. Oh-and my apologies for letting comments build up for a second here, but I’m not at my regular computer so I didn’t get a chance to check in until now!
@Review Saurus - Yeah, and actually I think when I redit this post, I’m going to put more emphasis on Alexa rank and PR. I’m working to build mine now, but first and more importantly, I’m just trying to make sure this site is good for you, me and everyone else!
@Brown - I’m very eagerly anticipating the PR update! Even though we shouldn’t base our life around PR, it’s always good to be able to see hard work paying off (even for a “fictitious”(sp) thing as this).
@Mark - Glad someone else is feeling my pain on all those different fronts. And on the edit, I’m going to also try and nail down the requirements for blogs. It’s good that some only require you to have 10 posts…That way we can throw newer blogs into the mix, even though they haven’t been around for too long. On that note though-If they haven’t been around for long, not very likely it will have good stats and therefore would be able to make some decent coin.
@R-Saurus - Wish mine was PR6 but everyone has to start from somewhere right? (#):)
@Zep - A lot of things you’re voicing here are concerns I had too. I think for everyone, those concerns can be addressed, but it’s what you’re comfortable with and what you think your readers will be ok with. For me, I try and write honest and good reviews, and most importantly, surround them with quality content. As far as how much money you can make, you can certainly make some if you work it. I think it’s easier if you have multiple sites so you can spread things around but…maybe that’s a post for another day. (#):)
@Mike - You bring up a lot of stuff I had NO idea about. Especially (and obviously) the script/cheating thing. That’s really too bad. Maybe if enough ppl speak up, they’ll do something about it.
@Grace - Thanks for the input! Yeah, I think I’m going to like PPP too just because I can make “ok” beginner money with them. (And maybe I’ll try the later on “More” thing too!) Ha ha!
July 9th, 2007 at 9:35 am
My favorite is Sponsored Reviews I average about $35 per review the reviewers might not respond to you. You’ve to remember they receive 100’s of emails from people like us who are bidding on their opportunities it would be a pain to respond to every single one.
I have twenty-seven bids that haven’t been responded to, twenty-eight rejections, and eight accepted reviews. If you get rejected don’t take it they might have filled their requirement or they might think that your website is not the right fit. I don’t sweat it I submit, wait, review.
They recently added a feature where bids waiting approval that is over a certain age (I think three weeks) will expire.
Mike.
Does the script alert the poster when a new opportunity becomes available? It would explain why the better opps get snatched up so quickly. I don’t have that type of time to be sitting on the website constantly refreshing the page. I wonder if that would be considered cheating since you would still have to log in to actually accept the opportunity.
The cheating I’ve saw a few times happened when they gave you 60 minutes to write a review. I’ve seen posites write the review, publish it, and then immediately put it into draft mode. This gave them more than the alloted time to write the review. The only reason why I knew this was because I was on the websites when it was done. The first time I saw it happened I was confused for a few seconds but logging into PPP It dawned on me what they were doing. They now give you six hours to write the review.
Pay Per Post is ok but they I’m finding way too may loans and credit card opps on their website. I definitely won’t be writing about that. I’m not trying to get people into more debt. I’m amazed at some of the reviews I’ve seen they’re crap I wouldn’t want to pay for that. That got me to thinking maybe the advertiser really wasn’t paying for a review but for a link?
July 9th, 2007 at 11:23 am
@Opal - Great thoughts and comments as usual. And thanks for cluing everyone in with your experiences with sponsored reviews. Personally, I have 6 or 7 that are pending right now…I can’t believe that you can get up to 28 or so Geesh. But I guess what you said does bear consideration - That they have so many people e-mailing them everyday for those opportunities. And I year ya on those PPP opportunities too.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:27 am
Opal: No one is positive as of now that there’s a script being used to snatch up opps, but that seems to be the theory most people have as to why they are gone immediately. Even with 28,000 members it seems impossible that opps would be snatched up as soon as they go live. You still have to actually read what’s required before you take the opp. Either there’s a whole lot of speed readers on PPP or something fishy is going on.
I hear ya about all the loan stuff. I won’t write about them. The thing is there ARE interesting opps that are being added but they are gone immediately. The only way I even hear about them or know they existed is by reading others mentioning them on the PPP forums. It’s frustrating to say the least.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:46 am
Correction I meant to type I’ve seen posties write the title post it with no actual post (just the title) and the requirements to get it approved and then put it back in draft mode. That was straight up cheating since the post wasn’t actually written.
I’ve been on auto approve, with Pay Per Post, since my 15th review, and I don’t think that is a good idea since a person can dump crap into a post if they are looking to break the rules. Then again that goes back to what is really going on. Is it a review or are they looking for a link? That would explain why a high amount of crap reviews, I’ve seen have been approved. That is another reason I find myself doing less reviews with PPP because of that.
Mike,
I noticed the good opps disappearing almost immediately about four - six weeks ago that was about the same time when PPP did their update. I didn’t really think about a script but since you mentioned it that makes a lot of sense.
July 9th, 2007 at 11:59 am
I can’t believe that people are dolling out at least $5 for ONE link. Doesn’t seem cost effective. Maybe that’s just me though.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:21 pm
Bush,
From what I’ve been reading some of the SEO types suspect that Google might view too many links within blog posts as spam especially if they are pointing to the same source. That would explain why they are only looking for one link.
I’ve read, from some, that they are cracking down on the paid post, but then again that is speculation?
Have you ever wondered how Google views blogs that point to one business using the same exact keywords? Sometimes it’s 100’s of websites pointing to one business using, often the exact same keywords. How does Google view that? Do they consider it spamming and if so and they decide to punish someone who will it be? The blogger, business, or both? At times I think too much, lol.
These days I’ll rarely accept reviews that force me to do use and excessive amount of links.
Oh by the way I sent you an email.
July 9th, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Well I know it’s considered good SEO to have links to your site using your target keywords. So whether it’s on a “regular” site or a blog, I’m not sure it makes much difference to Google and that’s one of the ways you get your site up on the SERPS for a certain kw. I think in Google’s eyes, you just have to make sure the site your link is on isn’t a “link farm” or else bad things could come from it. In that case, I think the “link farm” site has already been punished, and then when your site’s link goes on it, you might feel the backlash too.
And thanks for the e-mail, I will check it immediately. (#):)
July 9th, 2007 at 3:26 pm
What would you consider a link farm non stop paid posting? I remember several people on the Pay Per Post forum were upset because their ranking actually went down. I had just joined and hadn’t even started posting at the time.
The blogs in question went from regular blogging to predominantly paid blogging. There were links in every post. Those blogs were also virtual ghost towns went to commenter’s.
My PR went from a five to a four but after research it seemed to point to me changing my blog name that’s the only thing I did differently.
I didn’t care too much about my PR back then I didn’t follow it and I seem to be getting back to that place again, lol. I just want to put good content out there.
I have noticed that I’m receiving more offers from advertisers since my Alexa Ranking has dropped below 100k. I’m averaging at least one offer per day.
July 9th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
Are those direct offers or opps you can scoop up through one of the services (sponsored reviews, ppp, etc)?
July 9th, 2007 at 4:11 pm
No way! I had read about this from a few people who reached 100k. A few had mentioned that advertisers actively sought them out. I thought that was interesting.
I’ve been leaning more towards purchasing my own views directly. I definitely can market myself. I received three direct offers last month, and they paid a lot more than my highest paid post company (Sponsored Reviews.)
I have set goals with VeganMomma and so far I’ve reached everyone. A blogger that would drop random knowledge about SEO stuff was GeekNewsWeek he hasn’t posted in over two weeks. I hope he posts soon I miss reading his thoughts on the subject.
I’m also getting more requests for links from others who have websites similar to my own in some cases their PR is great I’m taking my time to review their sites before I make a decision I’ll link to them if I like their website regardless of their PR. I do that with anyone I add to my blogroll.
I’ll be curious to see how the websites that have done a high amount of paid posts do this time around. I’m talking about posting at least five times per day with virtually nothing besides paid reviews. I’m thinking some of them might see a drop, but I could be wrong it’s just a wild guess. I think they are looking at short-term income as opposed to what they could be making over time.
I made a few changes to my website so it will be interesting to see whether how that affects Vegan Momma more importantly I want to see how my new websites do. They’ve done very well with their Alexa rankings one of my month old sites is a almost at 200k.
I’ve done a lot of work. I’m like a kid with a new toy, testing out all the features, before I really start playing with it.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:16 pm
I meant to type..
I’ve been leaning more towards selling my own blog directly. That dawned on me that I would make more money that way my first full week doing paid posts.
July 9th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
SOLID follow up comments and advice for everyone. BTW, I’m really looking forward to the PR update, but I still have to work on getting my Alexa number lower…It’s a fun little game. (#):)
July 13th, 2007 at 2:29 pm
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