My original How To Get More ReviewMe Reviews was greeted with mostly positive comments. However, a few readers commented that some of the advices are only good for bloggers who have already done a few ReviewMe reviews. Let’s face it, you can’t show a case study if you haven’t done any reviews and advertisers are hesitant to order reviews from someone who has never done one.
It’s kinda like a catch 22 – advertisers won’t order reviews from you because you haven’t done one. You can’t do a review if advertisers don’t order. How do you get out of this situation?
Sponsor You Own Review
Create a new blog category call Sponsored Reviews, ReviewMe Reviews, Paid Reviews or whatever. Then write a review of a commercial site that is related to what you blog about and place it in your new review category. Follow the ReviewMe rules of at least 200 words with full disclosure. In other words, say the review was sponsored. You’re not lying when you say that. The review was sponsored - by you. At the end of the post you can even add, “This is a sponsored review. If you wish to order a review, you may do so here.”
Now, when a ReviewMe advertiser comes to your blog to check you out, they will see your review category with a review in it and will be able to check your quality. If they like what they read, chances are much higher they will order a review from you than from someone who has no reviews to show.
If you are truly evil, you will do a review of a company that has an affiliate program. This way you maybe able to make some money at it. Many of you belong to Text Link Ads. Why not do a review of TLA with your affiliate link and call it a sponsored review? The advantage of this is you’ll be able to track how the review does. If you sign up some new sites for TLA, you now have the makings of a case study to show advertisers that your reviews can give a return on investment.
Getting that first review is the most important. Once you have the first one, it’s a lot easier to get the second. I find the more reviews I do, the more review requests I get. Like everyone else, Advertisers are drawn to sites that show momentum. You can create a sense of momentum by showing a bunch of reviews in your sponsored posts categories. There’s no rule that says the post has to be sponsored by an advertiser. 
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(7 votes, average: 3.57 out of 5)
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There’s definitely a reason you’re successful
and evil
How To Get More ReviewMe Reviews Part 3:
1) Build a large, loyal reader base for your site like JohnChow.com has.
2) Put a BIG ARSE ReviewMe advertisement in the sidebar of your site.
Thank you,
http://WesleyTech.com
John does have some great marketing ideas, that’s for sure
How To Get More Review Reviews - Part 2
Hmmm, Don’t you mean “ReviewMe Reviews”?
Anyways, I like the article, it gave me some nice info
Or commenting on a blog post like this and telling advertisers to come to my site could also work? what do you think?
Some might consider that spamming.
some might call it evil
Spamming is worse than evil
Spamming is death, you don’t want to die right?
right, it was just a joke people. calm down. sheesh!
For me it seems spamming is very alive
I think spamming will always be around in some form or another. As long as the opportunity presents itself and it is tolerated, unfortunately, people will do it. But thank gawd for my spam filter
Yup, you will piss people off if you try that probably
I think most would consider that spamming.
Spam will never die out. Sad, but true!
thanks god for akismet eh!
well i was thinking along the line of reviewing that method too … so now i know it’s allowed, and i won’t be banned
thanks for the guide john
I really hope that all bloggers would consider that spamming.
You’re right Anthony. I think all bloggers would consider that some sort of spamming.
Well, I got rejected from ReviewMe because my poor site is too small for now! But I hope in the future that would change
By now you can sponsor your own reviews as john said
Patience!
You will be big enough one day
Hey John would you not consider direct review requests even from your own loyal readers!?!?!?
Sure! But it’ll still cost $300.
DAMn it! No Discounts.
LOL…now that’s evil!
What about $290?
Haha, so evil!
evil but 300$ is 300$
$300 is $400! do the math
Why do I think there is going to be a 100 reviews of TLA this weekend?
You should get them to pay you for suggestions like this John. or is there already evil at work here?
Sponsored reviews…kinda like your very own ReviewMe resume — I like it a lot.
Truly Evil and I love it. Evil is goooood!
The ReviewMe category and a ‘test’ review is an excellent idea to get the ball rolling!
Yup, John comes through with some winning strategies again
Wow, some decent points there.
An evil use of the classical ‘military service’ technique. I’m from Chile, I don’t know if in other Canada there is obligatory, and therefore *for free*, military service, but this is a technique every business shall use in the beginning: give away their product for free in order to say to new prospects “hey man, look, I have this and this customer, now why don’t you buy my product?”.
Evil as usual
I would say it’s smart
As soon as I read the first tip (post a ’sponsored review’ by yourself) I thought that ReviewMe have got to display a record of what reviewers have posted, so potential advertisers can check them out.
But they don’t! So till everyone abuses this technique & ReviewMe lists reviews, go to it
(or don’t, if dishonesty sits badly with you).
I thought the same thing. And just like Technorati, untill they find a way to stop this, or even notice this, people will take advantage of the opportunity.
It’s not really an abuse, it’s showing potential reviewers what you are capable of in terms of writing a review!
John, don’t you think on of the reasons that you get asked to do more reviews is that you put a lot of effort into your review? (whether the rev. is positive or negative).
If you check out the reviews that Shoemoney and Shandyking have done lately, yours are much better value. I think your extra effort converts to extra visitors for the sites you review, and they appreciate that. You get repeat business (eg Mitch Harper) and word travels that $300 is well spent on your blog.
Of course. I always have to think value for the money. I posted that in my first ReviewMe tip. When an advertiser spends $300 for a review, I want him to feel like he got his money worth. More importantly, I want future advertisers looking at the reviews to say, “Wow! This would be $300 well spent.”
By sponsoring a review yourself, you can show advertisers your quality level.
It’s all about the return on investment. You have to assess what your quality will return. In this case, John’s quality will return plenty. You should raise your reviews back up to 500, do a few self sponsored reviews and see if any catch. One way to implement your own idea, if you haven’t already
Not only that John gives great reviews, but Michael also does an excellent job himself!
And when Michael writes it, John doesn’t have to worry about it.
Bonus points for evilness 
Nice tips, but theres still the old problem of being accepted by reviewme… hurry up PR update!
I bet PR will be updated until 16th of this month!
That sounds like a lie to me.
Why not writing that it’s a test review or just asking the permission to the reviewed first? Saying that the review has been sponsored it implies by the reviewed, or at least not the writer.
This kind of trick sound exactly like the trick I used for my blog’s subtitle
Hmmm… good ideas, think I’ll give it a shot.
Shoot!
When you aren’t getting love from advertisers, you sponsor your own first. It’s a great way to jump-start your blog.
You could also sponsor a review of another website you own and operate. Getting yourself free publicity in the review
Evil idea…I think I will do it!!
You’ll find those thoughtout this blog…it’s what makes this so great