Make Money Online - Sponsored Review/Paid Posting Review Part 2

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This article is the second of a series of articles I will be writing about becoming a sponsored review/paid posting/sponsored post blogger and advertiser. As I mentioned in the previous article that gave a quick overview and background of sponsored reviews (aka sponsored posting & paid posting) there is a wrong way and a right way to do paid posting. This article will be covering and reviewing some of the top sponsored reviewing companies. My hope is that this article will give you a better understanding of sponsored reviews so that you can include sponsored reviews/paid posting intelligently in your money making ventures using your blog.

First of all I would like to say that not all sponsored review/paid posting companies are the same. There are actually two basic types of marketing platforms.

• Sponsored posting/reviews with the purpose of link building. These types of paid reviews do not necessarily require a blog to have high page rank or visitor. The advertisers are just seeking to build links to increase there own page rank and traffic. These types of offers average between $5- $7 per post.

• Sponsored Reviews with the purpose of getting a full review on a high traffic blog. High traffic blogs will bring visibility and traffic to the advertiser. These types of offers can be between $10 - $1000 (the highest offer I have ever seen was $1,000).

Now lets get to the reviews. I will first give reviews from an advertisers perspective and then from a bloggers perspective.

High Paying Companies (pay out ranges from $5 - $500 per review/post):

PayPerPost (PPP) ($5 - $20 average range per post) -

For Advertisers: PPP offers advertisers basically two types of advertising options. You can distribute your money among many bloggers and pay low for each offer or you can pay a higher amounts to get a few good reviews on high traffic/high PR blogs. Bloggers will then choose your offers. As an advertiser you can establish requirements for your bloggers. So if you are only interested in reviews or buzz articles from PR4 or higher with a 100,000 or lower Alexa score you can indicate this when you set up the offer.

For Bloggers: Bloggers have the ability to choose offers available. Good offers are often grabbed very quickly but once you have accepted the offer it is on hold for a half hour (this is still true I think). Offers are on average ranging from $5 - $20 with a minimum of about 100 words required ( on average).

Recommendations for Advertisers:

Though PayPerPost may have th loudest voice among these types of companies it has a few flaws. They are trying reach advertisers that will pay higher per posts amounts to bloggers. But, what they have really done by allowing a marketplace where bloggers choose advertisers is create a ‘grab it before it’s gone’ type of marketplace. Advertisers really have very little control over who chooses ‘grab’ their offers. Yes, they can set up a requirements but you still don’t have the ability to ‘hand pick’. For the advertisers that are just seeking link building or buzz marketing and don’t really care about reviews, then PPP is a good option. But for those that are looking for some good reviews by blogs that can really influence the market you are targeting I would not recommend PPP. The problem with this type of advertiser market place it attracts bloggers that are ‘paid posting focused’.

Recommendations for Bloggers:

The good part about PPP is that bloggers can search for offers they would like to take. You can see upfront how much money your getting paid and all the details of the offer. The problem with this type of advertiser market place is that it unintentionally encouraging ‘paid posting focussed’ blogs. Advertisers will soon discover that they could have paid $5 for $20, $30 or $50 post if you don’t set yourself a higher standard of payout.

ReviewMe ($20 - $750 per review) -

For Advertisers: Unlike with PayPerPost ReviewMe advertisers can hand pick the blogs they would like to review their product/service/website. ReviewMe is basically a marketplace of blogs that advertisers can browse through. If you are searching for good blogs to review your product, service or website this is probably a good place to start. However, I am not not please with the 50% cut. This company is probably not the best to use if you are seeking link building unless you have an huge budget. You also want to be sure you are not over paying the blogger for you review. Visit the blog and see if you can see recent repeat ’sponsored’ type posts. If so you could probably get the same review for $5 - $10. Lars-Christian had a personal experience as an advertiser that might help those considering paying for reviews.

For Bloggers: Unless you are John Chow dot com (or have blogs like it) your offers will probably be few and far between. The fact that ReviewMe takes a 50% cut really irritates me but it is a affective marketplace for advertisers to find bloggers. But I can’t help but thinking I could have gotten $60 instead of $30 for one review if it weren’t for those greedy pirates . I mean it’s just a glorified directory after all. Did I just type that out loud?

Recommendations for Advertisers:

Be sure you visit the blog that you are considering paying for a review. You don’t want to kick yourself later for paying more than necessary.

Recommendations for Bloggers:

I recommend signing up for ReviewMe even if you never intend on taking an offer. You blog can get some visibility just by browsers of ReviewMe. I also recommend that if you are going to be serious about sponsored reviews than use the ReviewMe price as a price guide . I am not saying you have to set your price what ReviewMe values your blog at but you can use it as a gage to determine your price. I also do not recommend using the ReviewMe button that displays your price. For one, I think the button is very unprofessional looking and wish they would get a clue that not everyone wants to include a cartoony button on there blog. The other reason is that I don’t think you should remind your daily readers that you being paid to post. In my opinion it is becoming a bit tacky to have a button that says “I am worth $60″. I am not saying this to offend, just sharing my thoughts and opinions.

SponsoredReviews ($5 - $100) -

For Advertisers: SponsoredReviews is both an advertisers marketplace and also allows advertisers to contact bloggers. Bloggers can search offers that advertisers have listed and then set a bid price for that review request. Advertisers can then counter offer, accept or reject the offer. SponsoredReviews also only takes a 35% transaction free rather than the high 50% that ReviewMe takes. This benefits you as the advertiser as well as benefiting the blogger. As an advertiser you also have the ability to browse through the blogger marketplace and buy reviews directly from the bloggers.

For Bloggers: SponsoredReviews is so far my favorite company to work with. I am able to search through the advertiser marketplace and bid on the offers I am interested in. Sometimes my bids are rejected but I have made more per review than with any other company. I have received review requests that have offered high payments for reviews as well. There are a number of offers that have payout ranges from $5-$10 but if you set your minimum price higher than I don’t recommend you take low offers.

Recommendations to Advertisers: Like I said with ReviewMe, visit the blog that you are interested in paying for a review. Make sure you are not paying to much for a review.

Recommendations for bloggers: Remember to set yourself a price that you think your blog is worth. Don’t be quick to take low offers because you will not likely get very many high paying offers or review requests. SponsoredReviews offers some good tips on blog content.

Low Paying Companies (average payout $5- $7 per post)

The companies below are primarily targeting people who are seeking link building and buzz from low traffic sites. Because I don’t feel these companies are good for blogs seeking to set a higher payout standard I am not going to review them.

Blogitive ($5)

LoudLaunch ($5 - $10 average)

Blogsvertise ($5 - $10)

PayU2Blog ($5)

Creamaid ($1 -$10)

In the next articles on this series I will be discussing how to establish a price advertisers will pay, advice on what types of offers you should take and offer some examples of sites that handle paid posting/sponsored reviews the right way (at least in my opinion).