Caydel’s SEO Blog

This morning, ReviewMe, a new company run by Andy Hagens and Aaron Wall launched. Similar to some extent to PayPerPost or the upcoming LoudLaunch, ReviewMe is a site that seeks to link companies to bloggers.

The basic idea is this: You log into your account at ReviewMe, and submit your blog. If approved, you will provided a set of products, services or other items to review, with a certain amount of monetary compensation.

It also appears that your blog is listed in a directory on ReviewMe, through which Advertisers can browse. Each blog’s listing contains some statistics about the site, including Alexa Rank, Technorati Rank, an estimated number of RSS subscribers, and an overall ranking out of five stars for the blog. Each blog has a specific price attached to it, for which advertisers may purchase a post on that blog. I hope these rankings are updated often, as this blog seems to fluctuate randomly on each of those statistics. Currently, my Alexa and Technorati rankings are lower than typical.

One slightly disappointing note: While my blog currently carries a price tag of $40 for an advertiser to offer to sponsor a post, the share going to the blogger is only 50%. I would have liked to see ReviewMe follow other programs such as Adbrite or Performancing Partners in that they pay the blogger 70% of the total advertising cost.

Where ReviewMe stands apart from the crowd is it’s focus on full disclosure. In a bid to ethically remain on the white side of the line, they require their bloggers to include a disclosure policy in every post written for ReviewMe. This separates ReviewMe from other services such as PayPerPost where a disclosure is not necessarily required.

Previously, I have spent some time looking at PayPerPost as a way to monetize my blog. Unlike PayPerPost, you are free to express your own opinions about the products and services you mention; there is no pressure for your review to be positive. The view taken by ReviewMe is that the advertiser is paying for a review, not a sponsored praise piece.

ReviewMe seems to hold a lot of potential for the blogosphere. It seems to take on PayPerPost on a higher ethical level. While there no doubt will be some initial resistance by many bloggers on the idea of sponsored posts, this will provide ways both for marketers to get word out about their products, and bloggers to make a little extra money to cover their costs.

P.S. This is a sponsored review. Please note that this post represents my true views on the subject at hand.