In addition to the technology review site Futurelooks, my friend Stephen Fung is also the owner of Mega Tech News. I was talking to Stephen two days ago about trying ReviewMe (aff) from an advertiser’s standpoint. After all, they now have an affiliate program that gives you $25.00 for referring an advertiser. And since I can refer myself, I can get $25.00 off on a review.
Stephen thought that was a great idea and ordered up this ReviewMe review of Mega Tech News on the last day of the 50% sale using his own ReviewMe affiliate account (BTW – the 50% coupon code still works, but I’m not sure for how long). Not to be outdone, I ordered up a review of John Chow dot Com on Stephen’s blog. His blog cost $60 for a review. 50% off gives it to me for $30. The $25 I made for referring myself brings the price of the review down to $5.00. 
*Evil at work*
It’s Not Just Tech, It’s MEGA Tech
With a name like MEGA Tech News, you expect the blog to be filled with mega amounts for technology news. And MEGA Tech News does deliver. The site is updated multiply times per day. There are 30 news categories containing nearly 600 posts. The post count would be a lot higher if MEGA Tech News posted each news piece individually instead of using a review and article round up on some posts.
An outsider may wonder how much time it takes to find that much news to post. The answer is none. MEGA Tech News sources most of its news from Futurelooks, which receives dozen of news stories every day. Instead of going out to look for the news, the news comes to MEGA Tech. If you have a technology related story and want it to appear on a MEGA Tech News, then you can send a news release to news@megatechnews.com and they may post it.
It’s Too MEGA!
Everything about MEGA Tech News is big, too big really. The headline font is huge and there’s a big 3D RSS button next to the mega MEGA Tech News logo. However, clicking on the button brings you back to the MEGA Tech home page instead of the RSS feed. Stephen may want to fix that.
Like many tech sites, MEGA Tech News has a mega number of ads. There’s TribalFusion, Google AdSense, TTZ Media, FastClick, Vibrant Media, you name it, it’s got it. Stephen has learned my “Never put all your eggs in Google’s basket” lesson very well. If you wish to have an ad free version of MEGA Tech News, then you can simply subscribe to their full feed RSS. You’ll get all the news, without the ads.
First, it was the Google IM ads, now it’s, “I’ll buy a review from you, you buy a review from me.” What next?
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{ 43 comments }
So evil John – So evil – haha.
Had never heard of this site – definitely something I will add to my RSS reader.
i like the master planning of basically getting a review for free. im sure something else will be coming up where you can exchange as well. working on something like that similiar myself
That would definitely require some careful planning, mustn’t it? I am looking forward to that in the future as well.
I should buy a review for my blog
Would defineately be interested in that, I need to exchange some links, reviews are far better from an SEO perspective, how were you planning to implement this??
So Stephen Fung owns MegaTechNews, but then in the latest news story he thanks himself: “Special thanks to Stephen Fung for the note. MegaTechNews is now SECURE”
Interresting!
I may own it, but there are other forces at work. I like to slack off
lol, so you didn’t thank yourself?
I thank myself for getting others to do my work
haha.. well that is sure plain evviil. (Note the double letters)
This is true. Stephen is “slacker” personified.
He’s thanking himself?! Looks like John’s evilness is rubbing off onto Stephen!
theres a lot of evil around here
His blog cost $60 for a review. 50% off gives it to me for $30. The $25 I made for referring myself brings the price of the review down to $5.00.
*Evil at work*
That’s genius! What great thinking, that totally worked out in your favor!
definitely something i need to work out, free review can’t hurt
“The $25 I made for referring myself brings the price of the review down to $5.00.”
Did not really get the point of this. Anyone? John?
His blog cost $60 for a review. 50% off gives it to me for $30. The $25 I made for referring myself brings the price of the review down to $5.00.
It’s pretty simple…
Lyndon, it’s pretty straight forward. The price to order a review on Stephen’s blog is $60. It’s at half price, so it costs $30. John gets a $25 referral fee for referring himself. $30 – $25 = $5 (net price).
Cunnig stuff, If they offer another half price review I may spend the small amount I have earned from review me on other reviews…
Definitely the work of an evil genius.
Woo nice little review! Though I’ve never really like Tribalfusion ads
Ahh the wonders of having money to throw around
MegaTechNews really needs to fix its feedburner, that’s why it’s got only 22 readers. The template is more or less like urs, John, with all the gadgets ads around… How long has the site existed?
WHOIS info says 2006-03-07. It started since last year or so?
It started a month ago. I did nothing with it till then.
Whoops.. Seemed like a month. First post was on DEC 11.
The feedburner seems to be working fine…
http://feeds.feedburner.com/MegaTechNews
This is actually the first time I’ve promoted it. Most of the readers seem to have found it by accident, or through the link on my blog.
I still dont get the advantage of feedburner over normal RSS subscription. If you have an rss feed anyway, whats the advantage??
No thanks, I´ll stick with Gizmodo and Engadget…
Too many ads for my taste. Even though I’m aware I could use RSS feeds, I don’t use them.
I agree, it reminds me of walking into Wal-Mart. The site is very busy and needs to be toned down a bit. On the other hand, he probably has a good CTR.
Right, there really is a lot going on there – everything needs to be scaled down!
I like Gizmodo a lot better than Engadget. The latter site loads really slowly.
*shameless plug alert*
Mobile Magazine (mobilemag.com) is really good too
The site was actually built for me so that I could keep up on news without having to go all over the place. I sometimes post stuff that’s interesting to me, or use it to bookmark stuff I want to read later, but I let the others keep me interested.
looks good, I like his heading, its big
Great Review, I like the site
John you are too evil….you just took $70 from your friend and $50 from ReviewMe
My math below….
John’s out of pocket expense for $60 review (assuming 50% off, $25 discount, 50% revenue share)= -$5 + $125 for reviewing Stephen’s page = + $120
Stephen’s out of pocket expense for $250 review (assuming 50% off, $25 discount, 50% revenue share) = -$100 + $30 for reviewing John’s page = – $70
ReviewMe out of pocket expense for two reviews (assuming 50% off, $50 referral discount, 50% revenue share)= $250 + $60 = $310/2 = $155 – $50 (referral discount) – $125 (revenue to John) and – $30 (revenue share to Stephen) = -$50 loss
But wait..”What if” John gives Stephen “$70 gift” and split ReviewMe revenue. They both make $25!!
Someone check my math but ReviewMe just paid $25 to each reviewer for a link on blogs. Who is reviewing who!!
Now that is evil
I think that’s correct. An easier way to do it is that with the 50% off coupon, ReviewMe makes $0 on each review ordered. HOWEVER, they have to pay out the $25 referral fee still, so they have to pay out $25 x 2 = $50. That math is easier.
I like the site – the “hugeness” of the site matches the name well and it all just fits – and plus isn’t a high CTR the point when trying to make profit?
Not so sure on this one.
Either a high CTR or a instant turn off – that what you mean Stuart?
Don’t care about the strategy, or calculation ….
The site is simply great….A lot’s of really mega Techy stuff and toys there…..
At least, the publisher is covering that profesionally and we can be updated with new gadget toys
This way to get an extra $25 off only works once. The $25 is for each new advertiser you sign up. If they area already an advertiser on ReviewMe, you don’t get the $25 commission.
It worked for John because he basically created an advertiser account under the referrer for his blogger account.
Isn’t this sort of in a conflict-of-interest to your other website techzone or wahtever?