If you were going to order up a review from ReviewMe and the above is what they show as the first 10 blogs, which blog stands out the most?
I think it’s great that ReviewMe allow publishers to set their own price. However, as you can see, some publishers are taking advantage of the system. Because blogs are listed from highest price to lowest price, a few lower ranked blogs are pricing themselves super high in order to show up on the first page. Why would they do that? They’re using ReviewMe as a source of traffic instead of a source of income. They know the chance of getting a $750 order on a two star blog is very slim but it may make an advertiser visit the blog and check it out. While that may send some traffic, the conversion can’t be very high.
All this price gaming makes my blog look like a bargain. I’m the only five star blog on the list but I’m nowhere close to being the most expensive. This may help to explain why I get so many review requests. It also makes me feel like raising my review price.
I think ReviewMe should continue to allow publishers to set their own price. However, to prevent price gaming, a limit should be placed on the price range based on blog rating. For example, a one star blog can choose between $0 to $100, a two star blog can go up to $200, three stars go up $400, four stars up $750 and five stars have no limits. That would prevent lower ranked blogs from trying to game the system just for traffic. I would love to hear from some of the lower ranked blogs how much traffic you get from being on the ReviewMe first page. Looking through my own referrals, I doubt it’s that much.
Did you enjoy this post? Get John Chow Dot Com updates via email...
Stay up to date with all of John Chow’s tips for making money online and blog posts by subscribing via email. Your email will be kept private and never shared with anyone.
One of the most common complaint (or excuse) I hear from potential new bloggers is they don’t know how to install WordPress. Terms like FTP and CPanel are like a foreign language and setting up a database might as well be setting up the space shuttle for a launch. Because of the technology barrier, many would-be bloggers never start their blogs...
{ 79 comments }
That picture says more than a thousand words. Just reading the title and looking at the picture said it all.
I was looking at that page earlier today. I thought that $750 was a ReviewMe Error. It’s a good (
) traffic scheme nonetheless!
I just don’t know why he doesn’t go for $752…
I still think the reason John gets so many ReviewMe requests is due to his big arse ReviewMe icon on the top right sidebar of JohnChow.com. If this is the source of most of the ReviewMe requests, then John is bringing in the reviews, not ReviewMe.
Thank you,
http://WesleyTech.com
I’m pretty sure $750 is the maximum price.
Not sure how effective it is though. It might take away from any potential reviews if someone ever did consider it. If I saw a site that gamed ReviewMe I wouldn’t consider them if they dropped to their $100 worth based on principal.
I do not think all the sites on that list even will do reviews. They can raise the price all they want because they do not care if they ever do a review.
ReviewMe should penalize that kind of conduct!
How? All they could do is force a lower price and/or drop the blog altogether. Remember, the blog does not want to do reviews.
I doubt it even brings much traffic in…
I think Dave is right. How much traffic will this bring to blog owners? I’m tempted to try just to see…
Don’t waste your time..
The traffic it does bring would be advertisers, so if they liked your site but not enough to buy a review from you they might try to advertise on it a different way… so that traffic could be pretty valuable.
Looking at those prices and rankings, you could definitely up your price and still have many takers. I’d say go for it!
I agree. 50 bux is 50 bux. And with 5 stars, you can probably get away with an increase without losing orders.
Busted! LOL… I was one of the first to do that. Oh well, I have put my price back down to a normal level. It was fun while it lasted! Man, some people are quick to catch on! I did that less than a week ago, then I told DoshDosh about it two days ago, then I noticed JohnTP doing it… Sheesh! Cat got out of the bag real quick.
Ok Mr. Chow… I have my sites back at a normal amount! LOL
Just to clarify something here, now that Garry Conn has mentioned my blog.
My blog pricing on Review Me has got nothing to do with his suggestions two days ago.
My blog has always been priced in this range for sometime.
@Shokthx, Alex Bamo and John
Just because a blog prices a review at a certain price doesn’t mean that it is naturally gaming the system nor does it mean that the blogger in question does not want to do any reviews. Assumption of motivation is the biggest error here.
In my case, the price set is appropriate to the amount of time I can choose to spare for an advertiser, especially on one that doesn’t interest me in the first place.
Gaming ReviewMe for traffic is just plain silly when you have a dozen other social websites that are more efficient at sending massive amounts of visitors to your site.
Supply and demand, John. Raise that ReviewMe price! Actually, I would keep it at $300 and go for sheer volume of reviews. $300 for a review that takes 30 mins to an hour? That’s evil right there.
I think John could still hold decent volume at $500. But interestingly enough, he could go for broke and charge $1000 and still seem like a reasonable choice on this list
The big question is, what is better, spend $300 in a review or $300 in a good PPC campaign?
I really would like to know what is better, and i’m almost sure that the review is not the best option…specialy if the site that asks a review is not a blog.
I can’t see them get very much traffic at all since the people ordering reviews are too few.
John you are a bargains because of your credibility and transparency. When you talk people listen which cannot be said for many other higher traffic sites.
I don’t call $300 a bargain
I supose that you are rich, calling $300 a bargain
I think Dean was complimenting John here, Jonix
What is the minimum google page rank to join ReviewMe?
FT
I do not know about PR but I think they look at Alexa rank for the minimum.
Maybe I should see what my PR5 site does for review me instead.
As I recall, they don’t look at the Google PR, just Technorati rank!
I’m not sure they look at Alexa because my rankings there are horrible, but I have a Google PR of 5 on both of my sites that were accepted.
I think John should do something in the $500 to $600 range.
I have read posts that talk about gaming reviewme for traffic, but your are right. It cannot convert well.
I think you should raise it higher than shoemoney’s $2500.
ahhh to low….go for the $10000, go go go!
Please…leave the moon and come back to earth.
Nice to finally see myself on the main page of John Chow! My chances of getting a review for $50 are slim so I hiked it up to $750 just for the fun of it.
I’ll get there some day.
Are you actually getting any traffic from that?
Ha baron, you evil panda! John slays pandas you know
HI
I do come to your blog every day ,can I ask a question here, ReviewMe, are we playing all members that ReviewMe $300 each for any members that review your blog.
Your question is incomprehensible
I am willing to bet most of the blogs listed on there don’t do many reviews. In this case I think it may be worthwhile to have a high ranking blog and charging a “bargain” price, thus increasing the number of applications and allowing you to be more picky with what you choose. Or you can review them all and make a lot more money based on volume.
As baron pointed out… there were no takers at $50 – so definitely none for $750.
All the good review offers go to the good blogs (naturally). I will say that I disagree with John’s statement that I’m trying to game ReviewMe for traffic. I didn’t even know the page used for the screen shot even existed until I read this post and I haven’t seen ReviewMe show up in the referrals in any significant way.
If anything I’m helping John Chow’s blog look like a bargain so His Evilness should be happy to have me there. The problem is when 100 other blogs jack their prices up to $750 and John doesn’t show up in the Top 10 period!
*deep thought*
Great points, baron.
You want to be truly evil? Keep it at $300 and take a cut of the PROFITS generated by any sales for the products you review. That’s truly evil.
Evil as it gets
Listening to such great advice has certainly helped John become the evil dot com mogul that he is — cheers!
Time to up the anty, dude!
How about $1000
put one more zero, that’s better!
Hey John,
Congrats on breaking into the technorati top 100 and the 11,000 referrals on Agloco. Here’s hoping for greater abundance.
He’s technically not in the top 100 of technorati…even tho he has more blogs linking to him than blogs in the top 100.
I wonder if its a push for traffic or just wishful thinking? I see a lot of low end sites on different advertising formats trying to get more for their site than they are worth. I suppose its like that old cartoon of the boy selling lemonade for $10,000 per glass a man walks up and says your price is to high you will never sell a thing. The little boy responds I only have to sell 1.
Yeah, you should increase your price, John.
Supply & Demand theory, you know.
Set it at an equilibrium price, and get a ‘reasonable’ number of reviewme requests instead of ‘so many’.
but i’ll end saying, a review in a blog (doesn’t matter what the blog is) should never pass the $150 barrier.
Wow! I’m only charging $40 and I’m rated at 3 stars! I didn’t realize some people charged so much…maybe I should raise my price?
Kumiko
I heard ShoeMoney is charging $2,500 per post on ReviewMe. Is it a flase rumor or ReviewMe gives him exceptions for charging beyond $750?
I think that is just a rumor.
I heard that is charging $5.500
I heard the rumor but I don’t believe it.
I heard Alex is charging Eleventy Million for his ReviewMe posts.
What was that number again?
Here is the post:
http://www.pronetadvertising.com/articles/how-to-make-2500-from-a-blog-post.html
I agree; to avoid “strategic” price gaming, a limit per star rating should be implemented.
Fantastic idea! That would reduce cheating..
5 visitors , Money Tag.
Wasn’t John’s ReviewMe at $500 why the price drop?
His Technorati rank jumped raised to top 100, it was a mistake..
They might do this to increase traffic and hence their rating in the long run. How much traffic besides advertisers does this bring in anyway?
The best place to be is in the middle – not the most expensive and not the least.
More value than the inexpensive “cheap” offering, and a “heck of a deal” compared to the high priced offering.
This is no different than having three widgets: the “cheap”, the “overpriced & expensive” one, and the high “value” item…
John please don’t raise your price too high. I like your blog and I know it makes you a lot of money but when your blog becomes just about making money for you I don’t like it as much.
$300 is a lot of money for some of us and who makes that value? It is the number of readers who come to your blog, so don’t make fools out of us.
I’m sounding like Agloco now aren’t I.
in fact John, you should be giving us your money!!
Take care and have fun!
The one-star-blogs might not get much traffic out of it, but i guess it’s pretty hard to get traffic, that is this targeted. Every visitor the list gives you is highly interested in advertising or at least some nice pr. Oh, and that was not from experience. Just in case your wondering.
there’s some bad in that url, or i’m hacked
put a reasonable price
Im still waiting for them to re-review my site! (my other site) I foolishly entered it way to soon when it was just a couple of weeks old. Three months on and they still havnt re-reviewed it, but I’m sure it would get in this time if they did….grr
Matt,
Email Patrick and present some stats to him and show him that your site is ready. That is what I did and he manually approved my site for me in 24 hours. *That was actually Text-Link-Ads… but I am sure that if you present decent stats to him and show him what you are doing towards working on building your site and provide a few references, he will approve it.
Nice. $3000 dollars for a review….what i wouldnt do wid that cash
David K
No wonder why, I would definitely give a call to the company after seeing that.
wow $300 a pop … my blog was rejected once, applied again under consideration for now
anyone with similar plight at reviewme?
any advise
cheers
lucky lucky
I agree with Matt Jones. It likely wouldn’t bring random traffic but rather sophisticated advertisers that could potentially drive revenue. This falls into the area category of indirect monetization which is something that all brand marketers are aware can only be measured the way scientists measure dark matter. If you want direct calculatable conversion I recommend a less esoteric approach. Something trackable unlike organic SEO techniques.
The reason why I was doing it was because that is a PR5 page and I wanted to have a great link back to my site from that page. But since it all got caught on so quick, I just put my site back to a normal price and it’s back to business again. LOL!
i would be happy just to get the $40 reviews, been on there a month and have yet to get one, how many reviews are you averaging a month through them now?
True! Reviewme has to put some kind of limitation on this price gaming, as you told may be based on stars or alexa ranking etc.