Jason Pereira and Fabian Speak Their Minds About Paid Reviews
written by Anthony Dinh
As a newbie blogger, I’m always looking for new ways to get my name out there and to generate some buzz about my site within the blogging community. The concensus among most seasoned authors seems to be that Paid Reviews is the way to go. So, I started researching for some prospects and in my travels, I discovered that the going rate ranged anywhere from $50 to $500+. The decision was tough, but I finally was able to narrow my choices down to a few of the more reknowned bloggers like JohnChow and ShoeMoney, but then I came across a couple posts that stopped me dead in my tracks.
What Jason Pereira Says
Jason Pereira, author of TheUniversityKid, wrote a post entitled “You Are a Moron if You Buy Paid Reviews for Exposure” that quickly changed my mind about paid reviews. Jason feels that paid reviews are worthless and stated that about 90% of the time these reviews do not convert, and the short-term buzz that they generate will eventually die off. He pointed out that The Social Millionaire was an exception because there was some decent publicity surrounding the launch of this site. I tend to agree with this, however, though the site was off to a good start early on, it has lost considerable momentum and appears to have plateaued at $3,362.15.
Reviews lack longevity, usually increasing your traffic through curiosity for maybe a day or two at most, then it will be forgotten once the next review comes along. At the minimum review rate of $50, you’re paying roughly $2/hr for exposure. On the flip side, purchasing an ad slot for $30-$35 on a well trafficked site will buy you a month’s worth of exposure which comes out to about $.05/hr, a much better return on your investment.
Jason recommends utilizing guest posts as a means of showcasing you and your blog for free! Not only is it free, but unlike reviews which are a once and done deal, it’s possible for you to guest post regularly, especially if the hosting author diggs your style. Eventually, readers will become familiar with you and your blog, and you may even gain some loyal readers from that community. One last thing Jason suggests is running contests. Readers love winning free prizes, and one prime example is in the case of Guytae Park’s contest which landed him hundreds of reviews and free press. I would imagine that the total value of these reviews exceeded the true value of the contest prize by tenfold.
Jason acknowledges the fact that his blunt opinion may hurt his future review sales, but he candidly stated that he makes a lot more money in his other business ventures, and that he’s willing to take a bit of a financial loss to save newbies like you and me from wasting our money on worthless reviews.
What Fabian Says
After having had a poor experience, Fabian of SmallFishBigMoney now echos some of the same negative thoughts on paid reviews as Jason did. Last month, in his efforts to increase RSS subscriptions and to build a larger community, Fabian bit the bullet and purchased a paid review, but he was in for a rude awakening. He came to realize that the traffic, the effects, the buzz, the review…fake, fake, fake, it was all fake! The review itself was not to blame as it was top notch, but the traffic that it generated was very dismal.
To support his argument, Fabian provided two real life examples which you can read about in his post entitled “Shocking Revelations…Traffic from Paid Reviews“. Only in the rare event that a mammoth-sized blog like TechCrunch covers you, will you stand the chance of gaining some worthwhile traffic, visitors and possibly RSS subscribers.
Fabian concluded by saying, “paid reviews are good for exposure and publicity…nothing more, I repeat, nothing more. Trying to get the readership of a blog - to buy a product, subscribe to your RSS feed or do anything more than that is like trying to get a 9 year old kid to eat his vegetables…it just won’t”.
What Anthony Says
In short, I’m glad that I found these posts before I squandered my money on paid reviews. I will have to refocus my efforts and spend my advertising dollars elsewhere, but where is still to be determined. What are your thoughts??
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Thanks for the mention mate, think you’ve covered it all in the summary. If you want to do a guest post on TUK, drop me an email at this address or add me through instant messenger
Jason, I would love to guest post. I want to submit my best work, so I’ll drop you an email when I have an original idea that’s guest post worthy.
Here are my thoughts:
You see, when you pay people to review your product or service, you need to ask them, if they submit the review to article directories, if no then better NOT pay for it. I know there are people who charge $400 to $500 dollar, but you had to understand that you are paying him because of their reputation and high traffic, not for the product or service review.
So next time, better ask them if they submit the review to article directories and ask them for the url of the article they post to make sure they did their job for the money you pay.
Wong, you make a valid point about people only paying premium prices for paid reviews because of the host author’s reputation and traffic. Also, I will be sure to ask the author to submit the review to article directories for maximum exposure if I ever pay for one.
I remember reading that post on TUK, just after I had asked at Blog Premiere if anyone wanted to be reviewed.