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ReviewMe Offers Advertorials

written by John Chow on July 11th, 2007

Logging into my ReviewMe account today, I noticed they’ve started offering advertorials as well as sponsored reviews. An advertorial is the same as a review except the advertiser writes the content. According to ReviewMe, advertorials have the following advantages for advertisers:

  • You can browse our marketplace of top blogs and choose the blogs to run your message which you remain in full control over.
  • Advertorials also feature full impression and click tracking so you can measure your return on investment.
  • Advertorials are a great way to generate buzz and traffic while controlling the message and measuring your results!

You can see an example of an advertorial running on the Text Link Ads blog. It is best to create your advertorials first and then browse the ReviewMe marketplace of advertorials to find the Blogs you would like to publish your ReviewMe Advertorials. The price to place an advertorial is the same as the price for a sponsored review.

From the blogger’s point of view, this has positive and negative points. On the positive side, you don’t have to do any work or research to do the review since everything is written up for you. On the negative side, you have no control over the message. Like all standard ReviewMe reviews, the publisher has the option to accept or reject the advertorial.

So now the question, would you accept advertorials on your blog?

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  1. No, I rather do the review myself if I get one order :mrgreen: But my blog is talking about make money online so whatever can make money it would be worth to try.

  2. Will they still require lots of pageviews, vists, etc? I’m still working up to their standards.

    BTW, thanks for the help with Kontera - I’m running thru your eBook doing what I can as soon as posible.

    pam

    p.s. how is everyone getting their pic with their comment?

  3. Yes I will Accept advertorials on
    http://www.blogadollar.com and I hope that
    I will be able to submit one here on
    johnchow dot com soon. Hey john! I’m
    a regular reader and I’ve seen your
    price increase and increase ’til this
    $400. It would be cool if you lowered
    it again so we all could order a review
    advert here. Choosing between reviews
    or advertorials? mmmm …
    For the kind of blogs like mine
    http://www.blogadollar.com I would go for
    an advertorial. Definitely…
    To Be tested though.

    • The price increase came because of the increase in traffic and page rank. If you want a review, you’re going to have to pay the $400 just like everyone else, lowering it wouldn’t be fair to those who have already paid the $400 price tag. Not to mention that a lot of blogs at John’s level are probably charging more than $400 so this is already considered a bargain to many.

      You might want to consider paying the $400 now rather than wait till it jumps to say $600 then kicking yourself for not doing the review sooner.

      • I have to echo what Steven said, $400 is a bargain when you look at the prices of competitors. There are other blogs with less traffic and less reach who are charging a few hundred dollars more.

        Regardless, you cant blame any blogger/website for increasing the price of advertising when traffic goes up. Thats just supply and demand. :mrgreen:

    • Can anyone plug their own blog more than this one? I’d like to see you try…

  4. I would still give the better bloggers the opportunity to review the blog themselves, especially if the price was the same.

  5. I would do it. I would think of it like any advertisement but with more information for the readers. They won’t have to go to another site if they don’t want to. If they do, it’s because they like the product/service. Of course, I will add a category for it.

    I don’t think anyone would read a blog full of those but once a week, it would not hurt.

    I do free reviews of other services that I was not paid for. With some, I even paid from my own pocket. So, this time I will be paid to test this marketing ideal. Plus, I can accept or not the offer if I think it would be useful to my blog.

    So advertisers, make me an advertorial that I would like!

    P.S.
    I’m on both side of this(advertiser/publisher). See my reviews if your want to know more.

  6. I think as long as you can see the advertorial text before accepting I would use them. It is basically an advertised post - how is that different from an adsense unit or a banner ad as long as it is clearly labeled?

  7. Nooo, I would probably not want that. :???:

  8. Absolutely. Of course this is provided that I am able to see the copy of the ad first and approve it. I would also like to be able to fully disclose that it is an advertorial out of fairness to the reader.

  9. Takes the point out of review ME to be honest..

  10. The question for me is, what advertisers are going to use advertorials? They would basically be the same as press releases, something which companies can already release and broadcast for free. And since most reputable bloggers are going to shy away from publishing them (as evidenced by these comments), advertisers are going to have a hard time finding a well-respected, quality site to place their advertorials on - it’s the ol’ ReviewMe/SponsoredReviews vs PayPerPost divide again. If a company is confident that they truly have a good product and want the world to know, I think they could get a better result from an unbiased review on a large, well-respected site than a press release on an untrusted and forgettable splog.

  11. Wow. That seems like a great feature for both bloggers and advertisers. It’s like hiring a ghost writer, but getting paid for it :-)

    Now I know what to do the next time I take a vacation.
    Thanks for the heads up.

    Best Wishes,
    One Man

    One Man. One Year. $100,000 online. How’s he doing it?
    http://www.oneyeargoal.com

  12. I’d stick to writing my own reviews. If I want other user-generated content, I’d invite a guest-blogger instead. :lol:

  13. As long as the advertorial in question isn’t written like a complete sales pitch, I’d consider publishing one. However, i’d state clearly it was an advertisement :mrgreen:

  14. As long as the message is consistent with the blog, I think advertorials are an acceptable practice similar to a guest blogger. However, I would expect that the blogger has final approval.

  15. Hahaha, excuse me if I smile. All you ‘NO’ guys saying NO take the money away - Get THee Behind Me Satan - I have my principles ! Hahahaha - how many of you wear Nike shoes or Calvin Klein underwear or a neat little ‘look at me’ iPhone or iPod or you name it with a little logo - and you pay through the nose for the privilege of advertising some rich guy’s stuff ! Lol ! You guys crack me up. Please don’t put an advertorial on my site - I’ve never done it before please be gentle ! My blog is too pure, my readers’ brain cells might be irreversibly damaged ! Lol ! Too much.

  16. Idk, I’d like to write to the readers in my own voice. You post something that’s not written like your voice then it screws things up.

  17. As long as advertorials are required to prominently provide full disclosure, sure, I’d run them.

  18. I implemented review-me into my site today :)

  19. As a lazy blogger, I sort of like this… I can see where you may lose out, and lose your ‘editing’ power, but my site’s about making money, and the faster I can do that, the better.. . That said, I’m sure they will have, or should have where you can at least choose what sponsors to accept or not, and view their advertorial before hand, to make sure the site at least conforms to your site…

    I mean adsense ads though fit into the context of your site, easily enough, I’m sure if you post enough content these will too- as your other posts will drown them out…

  20. So sad until now still haven’ get approve by ReviewMe

  21. There is no way I’d accept one of those. It takes away the one redeeming feature of ReviewMe, honesty. At least normally you can write an honest review, with this it’s just an ad. It would destroy any credibility you might have.

  22. I reckon that I couldn’t accept this sort of thing on any of my sites. The idea of getting payed for an “honest” review appeals to me, but to just chuck an advert like up on my blog does not appeal to me at all.

  23. I don’t think I could use them. While I do tons of sponsored posts, they all carry my voice, tone, structure, etc… I don’t think I’d personally be comfortable with an advertorial.

    I have seen blogs where they would fit though. One like John’s where he has multiple authors already. It will fit in better in that type of environment.

    It doesn’t really matter though since I’ve never had any offers come from ReviewMe anyways. I don’t see that changing anytime soon :)

  24. I think writing your own reviews is the way to go.

  25. I think I’m in a bad mood today so sorry for the tone! I think people choose to read a blog because they like the content, information and style. If you don’t have a consistent level of each then say good-bye to your readers. Shopping out your reviews and other parts of the blog is fine if there’s significant value in the post TO THE READERS but make sure you balance it out with a lot of great original content of your own.

  26. This sounds quite interesting, but I am not sure many bloggers will want advertorials. After all, they do not really have much control over the content…

  27. It might be good in some way. Sometimes you need some fresh content and if they pay you and you like it than you take the money and there is no work involved.

  28. I’m really not a big fan of reviewme. From a publisher view I get it, but its not really a good thing for readers for the most part.

Trackbacks

  1. ReviewMe Launches Advertorials - Internet Marketing - Virtual Marketing Blog - July 11, 2007 at 7:42 pm
  2. Marketing 101: What’s an Advertorial? | BlueFur.com - July 12, 2007 at 1:40 pm
  3. Why ReviewMe Advertorials could be good | Steve's Tech Blog - July 16, 2007 at 7:27 am
  4. ReviewMe Launches Advertorials · djanggo.com - July 18, 2007 at 9:58 pm