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Shocking Revelations…Traffic From Paid Reviews

A Background About Paid Reviews: The buzz about paid reviews started ever since sites like ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews and Smorty (to name a few) were launched. Everyone was overjoyed about them…it was literally free money for some, especially the ones who filled their blogs with reviews of bad credit, casino’s etc…It seemed like it would never end - the buzz, the hype, the crazy cash for some! Then Google came along and burst everyone’s bubble, but that’s not what I am going to talk about today, that topic has already been covered, twisted, bent and spun around countless times in the blogosphere.

ReviewMe.ComGetting A Paid Review For Your Blog: A few weeks ago, I decided that SmallFishBigMoney needed some exposure and buzz. I said, why not get a paid review, maybe I can get a few extra RSS subscribers for my blog and build a larger community. So, I got one, I was pretty hyped about the review and I was excited that it would bring greater exposure for the blog. But I discovered what I might call a rude awakening…

Don’t Get One, Unless The Blog Is Huge: I do not encourage anyone to get a paid review for their blogs. The only reason you should want to get a paid review is to make yourself known - because that is all you are going to get. The traffic, the effects, the buzz about paid reviews is all fake, and I have real life examples from two sources to show why that is. Only when a blog like TechCrunch covers you, may you get some worthwhile traffic, visitors and possibly RSS subscribers.

Alvin Phang Talks About The John Chow EffectAlvin Phang from Gather Success: A while back, Alvin paid John Chow for a review of his product (Atomic Blogging), Alvin was excited and looking forward to the review…as anyone would be - you have paid this guy $400 USD after all. The day arrived, the review was written and the swarms of traffic…were pretty much non existent. Alvin explains how the review failed to give his product Atomic Blogging any sales whatsoever, read the report here: (PDF)Alvin Phang Analyzes The John Chow Effect…Much To His Dismay

The Report Alvin Wrote Up: The report Alvin wrote up and created is filled with screen-shots about the paid review, Alvin gives detailed statistics about the amount of traffic that came to the Atomic Blogging Site as a result of the review, and how shocking it was. From what Alvin shows in the form of analytical data, John Chow failed to bring in sales and the traffic only amounted to a mere 800 visits. Now I know some of you may think that is good - but a good StumbleUpon submission can rake in triple that if not more…

SmallFishBigMoneyDotComMy Review Experience: A couple of weeks ago (March 2008), I decided to get a review…one thing I cannot fault was the quality of the review - it was top notch and I got a lot of praise in it for the site. But the traffic was unfortunately very minimal indeed, I got only 120 or so visits that day…and I wonder how many of those were from the Mixx, Sphinn and StumbleUpon submissions I did.

Concluding Sentences: 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 happen! :)

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Posted on March 30, 2008
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8 Responses to “Shocking Revelations…Traffic From Paid Reviews”

  1. no imageRyan (Check me out!) on March 30th, 2008 4:03 pm

    I think you missed the true point of paid reviews. ANCHOR TEXT LINKS! If you are looking for keyword rankings, paid reviews still provide a powerful source of anchor text links.

    Ryan’s last blog post..Why Do I Get So Much Chinese Spam?

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    		3.2 (1 person)
  2. no imageTim (Check me out!) on March 30th, 2008 10:10 pm

    You got that right, the best reason is in branding and exposure, and that is really quite important. But then again, it’s true that you should be quite popular already before using that as a promotion angle.

    People may not visit your site based on seeing one payed review, but if they see many, and a lot of buzz about your site, then they will be more inclined to visit.

    Tim’s last blog post..NeverblueAds Review - Affiliate Network Review

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    		3.3 (1 person)
  3. no imageFabien (Check me out!) on March 30th, 2008 11:17 pm

    :arrow: RYAN: If you read Alvin’s report, John Chow actually used an affiliate link to direct people to Atomic Blogging - which is quite shocking and therefore the anchor text links are of no real value…probably worse for Alvin’s blog if anything.

    :arrow: TIM: Branding and exposure are quintessential, but as you said, you should already be quite popular enough as a result of your own publicity, but reviews help with that aspect. I think review exchanges are still a great way of getting backlinks and exposure for both parties involved.

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  4. no imageHock (Check me out!) on April 5th, 2008 3:26 am

    I got a review a while back on CarlOcab.com and the resulting traffic I tracked coming from the site was pretty dismal. I thought it would be better considering the #1 ranking for that site for the term “make money online”.

    The moral of the story is to be sure to track every single source of traffic, especially the ones that you pay for. :)

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    		3.3 (1 person)
  5. no imageFabien (Check me out!) on April 5th, 2008 7:56 am

    :arrow: HOCK: Thanks for confirming the fact that traffic received from paid reviews is quite bad. I think that sites should either stop doing paid reviews or perhaps reconsider the value of them. I charge $5.00 for one and I do not think charging more than $100 for any paid review, be it from ProBlogger or JohnChow is worth it. The thing is, each of the so called A-list blogs have only about 250 to 500 active participants…and those even then, only a minute proportion of those people will visit your site.
    Thanks for commenting Hock.

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  6. no imagetom (Check me out!) on April 12th, 2008 12:39 am

    I think the problem was that Alivins product was not something that John Chow readers would be interested in. Most John Chow readers already know how to do everything that Alvins product talks about according to the review.

    Was Johns review fair? Well Alvin said that John skipped out on the last few chapters. The book was 82 pages so it seems to me that John Reviewed almost all of the ebook, and I can only assume that the pages John did review were accurate as Alvin made no complaints.

    Bottom line, if you are going to pay someone to review your page or product, don’t just look at the numbers which is what it looks like Alvin did. Look at the Reviewers blog, or other work. Get to know the reviewer and thier readers.

    tom’s last blog post..Blogging and playoff hockey don’t mix!

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    		3.2 (1 person)
  7. no imageFabien (Check me out!) on April 12th, 2008 2:33 am

    :arrow: TOM: I definitely understand where you are coming from and I must agree with you, many people have commented that Alvin’s product is for the absolute beginner who wants to make money online.

    As much as creating this type of product is fair, the fact of the matter is that John is more likely to make a review positive if he thinks the product is good for his readers and has a certain amount of value.

    Thank you for taking the time to comment, it is always much appreciated. Your comments are very valid and well justified, I also agree with the point that the review purchaser must find out what kind of reviews the reviewer is likely to give and decide whether or not to get a review. Kind Regards and Many thanks, Fabien. :wink:

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  8. Jason Pereira and Fabian Speak Their Minds About Paid Reviews | Diaries Of A Blogger on May 6th, 2008 6:45 pm

    [...] support his argument, Fabian provided two real life examples that you can read here.  Only in the rare event that a mammoth-sized blog like TechCrunch covers you, will you stand the [...]

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