No offense to all that do, but hear me out anyways and you’ll probably change your mind.
I was talking to Jim @ The Net Fool yesterday on MSN… he told me that he was interested in buying a paid review on TUK and enquired about the cost. Now, I could have taken the money quite easily – this blog makes nowhere near what it should – I however advised him against it. Why? That’s what I’ll be talking about now.
You Are A Moron If You Think Buying Paid Reviews Will Get You A Decent Chunk Of Exposure.
Let’s take the biggest blogger in this niche right now – that is the “make money online” niche that everyone craves to dominate. Despite well… not talking about anything that has helped make anyone money over the last year and a half, John Chow does fairly well with his blog – so well in fact that he charges $500 for a review and gets at least ten or so a month.
Now fair enough – the man does have 30,000 RSS subscribers, and quite a chunk of traffic. However, I will say this once, and some of you may disagree (feel free to add in a comment, those are always good 
) – if you have bought a review on John Chow ever, you are a moron.
Sadly, 90% of the time these reviews do not convert – in the case of the Social Millionaire, it did because the hype built up was pretty decent. However, how many of you can remember which website John reviewed last week? Go back two weeks – nope, nothing. Whereas reviews build buzz short term, in the long run they are worthless – should a website that buys a lot of reviews stop doing so, their traffic will near die off completely (and there are a few very good examples of this in the blogosphere).
Before someone points this out – I have bought a review in the past, however to the best of my knowledge I have only paid for a solitary one. That is the review of Blog Premiere on Can’t Get Rich – I however did not buy it for the exposure. I bought it a) because it was a cheap price b) because I wanted some feedback from someone that is not afraid to call shit, well – shit and c) because I wanted to support CGR, as it’s a blog I like. The picture was pretty cool too 
Apart from that, I have never bought reviews with the money out of my own pocket – if I have, it was when this blog was a baby blog (and that was a big mistake) – I cannot remember, to be honest as that was ages ago. I do not believe I have bought much advertising either, in my time at TUK – it is the lesser of two evils, but you still do not need it. 
A review is a one time thing – and then bam, it is gone forever. As little as 24 hours of exposure – you are paying $50+ on most blogs for this. $50 for 24 hours of exposure on a review gets you a day or less exposure for around $2/hour; buying an ad slot on a trafficked blog from around $30 – $35 gets you a month’s worth of exposure for $0.05/hour. See the difference? If people see your brand image around enough, they will visit – it may not even be from the website you bought advertising from, but say they see the same name of X who is advertising on Blog A and has left a comment on Blog B. That’s twice they’ve seen your name, so when they come across that comment at Blog B – you’ll get a visit.
You should only buy paid reviews if you don’t have time.
Now fine – companies, people that run organizations and stuff – I can understand them not having time, and I fully agree with the buying-paid-reviews-on-every-blog-under-the-sun thing. On the other hand, blog owners like you and me – social bloggers – stop trying to pretend you’re busy, you’ve got the time. If you have the time to run a blog, you have the time to build free exposure for yourself – and the best thing about free exposure is that it is well – FREE. (for the slightly dense ones out there )
Two things – I may sound like a stuck record that continues droning on, but take my advice and you’ll understand why.
GUEST POSTS
I cannot believe how many people pass up guest posts on medium sized blogs. Heck – even the big ones; why pay $500 for the Chow review (which isn’t even written by him) when you can have a guest post put on there… free? This is why I cannot understand companies that pay for reviews – heck, pay me a couple hundred and I’ll write you a killer guest post for Chow; bang, you’ve saved $300
Jokes aside, a guest post allows you to showcase you and your blog far more than a paid review ever would – what if the writer of the paid review say – had a bad day and doesn’t really like your site? Negative exposure. On the other hand, with a guest post you are pulling the strings – to take a lesson from my Psychology class, it is very easy to shape people’s minds if you know how.
That’s not all. A paid review is say – a one time thing. With guest posts, you can further them – why stop at one? Submit a guest post once a week for two months and run a “Series of X” – you are eventually going to stick to the minds of that blog’s readers and there is a good chance you could nick about half of their community. I’m not talking about big blogs, but the little guys – between around 100 – 700 RSS subscribers. You nick half of my readership over the course of two months, you nick half of Blog B, C, and D’s readership, and you’re doing pretty fine.
Another thing – contests. Do you guys remember Gyutae Park’s? He had hundreds of reviews about him – completely free, and the total value of those reviews probably surpassed the value of the contest prize. How hard is it to get prizes worth a lot? Heck, bump up them values – an hour consultation with me is probably worth a couple dollars (hehe ) but people have decided to value it at $50 – $80. There are also simple things that can greatly inflate the value of contest prizes – see, I could donate 10,000 copies of my $1 eBook to a contest, and bang – prize value is over $10,000. Is it really? No, as no more than a few hundred will be given away, but people like to see big numbers and that it how you can do so. Give away PLR – heck, rewrite a PLR product, stick it up as your own, value it at $xx and give away one hundred copies. People will be clambering over themselves to join your contest.
Will this post hurt review sales for this blog? Probably. I don’t really care much, to be honest – I make a lot more elsewhere than this blog ever will, and I can take a bit of a loss financially to save newbies from doing the same.
This is a rant of sorts, but one hopes I raised decent-ish points. What do you think?
Yes, I am looking for guest posters, so if you feel up for it you can start the above tomorrow. Also, I have received more than one hundred domain suggestions, so I will look over them and announce the winner over the course of the week.
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May 5th, 2008 at 7:38 am
I agree, paid reviews are good for short term exposure to get loads of traffic. Few days later and it’s worthless. There are many more advertising options a blogger has to better the ROI.
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May 5th, 2008 at 10:52 am
On all ways to advertise, blog or site, I have never paid and never will pay for “paid reviews”. Why? Simple and clear – I never read them.
Aleks’s last blog post..Funny picture – Grill
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May 5th, 2008 at 10:54 am
TheSocialMillionaire hardly converted did it? He’s a long way of a million yet
and John Chow’s review was a long time a go so I think he’ll need a few more reviews to get that going.
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May 5th, 2008 at 11:08 am
I totally agree! Paid reviews suck! I’m more of a guest post person myself, since my content is useful, more readers flow in, so I can hardly imagine that a reader will follow a famous blogger’s link who reviewed a ton before.
Amino’s last blog post..Freelancing Wagon: Part-time or Full-time? (Part II)
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May 5th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
Great post, the one thing I feel is for blog reviews you’re right, but for product reviews you’re dead wrong. Product reviews can lead to sales, and in the case of a great one on a highly reputed blog, can make you a nice penny if the users catch on. This is to say, review a free websites = a no no usually, review a product = possibly a good idea.
Moneybites’s last blog post..The Google Webmaster Guidelines
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May 5th, 2008 at 3:33 pm
Ouch!
In all fairness, I wasn’t going to pay $55… haha. That was just my way of sliding into a cheap deal. But hey, the point remains. Good article!
Jim’s last blog post..Sunday Link Love & Contest Update
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May 5th, 2008 at 4:21 pm
@ TSG, true that.
@ Aleks, that is an excellent way to look at it. I’d have to say the same, unless it is a brilliantly done review of course
@ Carl, he had an ROI of around… 2x, i think. Anything above 1 is good. The millions are far away, but as long as he comes out of it with a profit – I don’t think he’ll mind
@ Amino, I prefer guest posting too even though I haven’t had the time of late (exams – gaah). Going to get back into them soon though
@ Max, good point. All depends of course on how how excellent the product is and how well the hype is built
@ Jim, cheers for the being the inspiration behind the article
PS – I don’t think you’re a moron, but in blogging strong titles always win out. Sorry!
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May 5th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Well damn. On BP I asked if anyone would pay me to review them. I now know they won’t. Guest posting is much better, because the readers of the blog can actually see your work, and they may like it and follow to your site. Contests also work well for promotion. I think Mark Cuda (a.k.a. monkey blogger) talked about how contests really help.
Nathaniel’s last blog post..It Seems I am Starting All Over
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May 5th, 2008 at 11:15 pm
Guest posts totally kick paid reviews to the curb!
Emma’s last blog post..Those pics in the header?
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May 6th, 2008 at 1:45 am
You got a good topic to read today for me
Guest posting is the one you always mention, but i am noob at writing things
Chetan’s last blog post..Apple Macbook Tip – Copy and Delete a File Together
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May 6th, 2008 at 3:40 am
@ Nathaniel – you never know, they may want a review just for feedback
@ Emma, nothing to say ‘cept I agree
@ Chetan, if you’re a noob at writing things, you shouldn’t run a blog where the primary forte you need to have is well…. writing. No offense
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May 6th, 2008 at 1:39 pm
way to express how u really feel, even at the risk of possibly losing some future reviews, but it will surely save newbies like me from wasting our money. i totally agree, purchasing an ad slot is way cheaper and you get more bang for your buck$$! also, guest posting is a great alternative to gain exposure, so where do i signup? ;p
please check out my blog to get a feel for my writing style.
anthony dinh’s last blog post..Don’t Be Foolish, Backup Wordpress Regularly and Before You Upgrade!
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May 6th, 2008 at 4:45 pm
In the >10 years that I’ve been an entrepreneur online, something never change. So many people want a quick fix – I simply say, put in the time to network and become more than a name/face to other sites/businesses in your niche. They’ll probably be happy to review your product for nothing (especially if you offer an affiliate program to boot).
Data points,
Barbara
Barbara Ling’s last blog post..Danger Will Robinson! CommentLuv and Feedburner DANGER and how you can fix it
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May 6th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
[...] 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 [...]
May 7th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Jason, the blogs which allow guest posts are having topics which i am not good at. I write stuff which is loved at my blog and not anywhere else, this is my feeling
That’s why i consider myself a noob
Chetan’s last blog post..Youtube India – Watch Indian Popular Videos Online
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May 7th, 2008 at 2:57 pm
Those are really useful for new web or blog if they want more traffic.
David Chew’s last blog post..Does Nang And Dang Both Important?
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May 9th, 2008 at 5:58 pm
Jim from the “thenetfool.com” is very generous when it comes to blog promoting. He recently launched an awesome contest with very great prizes to win just for promoting his blog.
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May 12th, 2008 at 7:21 am
[...] isn’t it, as I’d always have reviews and advertising revenue to fall back on. That was until this post at least, which I still point any blogger who has had his blog up for less than one year at… [...]
May 12th, 2008 at 7:28 pm
[...] I’m sure most have you have either read or heard about Jason’s previous post “You Are A Moron If You Buy Paid Reviews For Exposure” in which he expresses his disdain towards worthless paid reviews. I was actually in the [...]
May 19th, 2008 at 6:03 am
The ROI on a review is generally a loss unless your looking for the hidden values of maybe someone sharing something you missed about your site, some moderate exposure, and of course a few links for your PR.
Big Ben Patton’s last blog post..Traffic Generation part 5
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May 22nd, 2008 at 8:12 am
[...] Now me personally – I don’t care about PR; it is only a number, and after I’ve made certain posts on here I am not going to make much money off it. For some webmasters though… they start developing [...]
May 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
[...] you can afford it, but what about those of us that do not have the money or those of us that think paid reviews are for morons? Well then… you have a [...]
June 5th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
Cool, this makes a lot of sense. I like the fact that you put it out there like this, but it makes so much more sense to actually get out and network, becoming part of the blogsphere.
Offering real comments, and even guest posts are some of the easiest ways to start getting yourself known. You could pay for a review, but how long will it be featured? Most blogs do at least a post a day, if not more, so your review will quickly get pushed down.
At least the other methods are free, and if you’re around enough, some will eventually review your site themselves. I know I usually give props to the sites I come across and like……
JK Swopes’s last blog post..I won Joel Comm’s secret classroom
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June 8th, 2008 at 2:58 am
Come on Jason – not even a link to my website
As another user pointed out in the comments reviews are only an excellent option if you are selling something. Blog reviews are the new replacements for press releases except they are a lot cheaper and more targeted.
Hit me up on email if I would be able to do a guest post for you!
Pat Hankinson’s last blog post..Optimized Site and Changed Cloud Structure
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July 8th, 2008 at 11:40 am
Again a great post. I was thinking of searching for good blogs for guest posting. And i was always not in the side of going for Sponsored reviews.
Your post reiterates my views.
Regards
Thinkjayant
TJ @ Smartblogtips’s last blog post..TinyURL gets a makeup, adds custom alias
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August 15th, 2008 at 8:38 am
Thanks for the heads up, and this tips
This will do wonders for my blog
Ryan @ SmarterWealth’s last blog post..Taking The Big Step: Going Into Business
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September 9th, 2008 at 4:59 am
Another great post. I almost got myself into paid reviews too. Its a good thing I have stumbled to your blog and read about this article. Now I will get it off my system for sure.
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November 18th, 2008 at 7:01 am
That’s one way of looking at paid reviews. I bet John Chow doesn’t think the same
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September 25th, 2009 at 10:26 am
[...] works. Now me personally – I don’t care about PR; it is only a number, and after I’ve made certain posts on here I am not going to make much money off it. For some webmasters though… they start developing [...]
April 21st, 2010 at 1:29 am
A paid review is nice if the cost is cheap. Otherwise, the best route to go is guest posting. I bet people wouldn’t mind being paid $50+ just to review a blog lol. The customer is the one at loss.
d3so´s last blog ..Supposed New iPhone 4G – Leaked by Gizmodo
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May 27th, 2010 at 6:59 am
This is such a great resource which you are providing and you give it away for free. I love seeing websites that understand the value of providing a quality resource for free. It?s the old what goes around arrives around routine. Did you acquired plenty of links and I see lots of trackbacks?
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