ReviewMe is a new form of ‘PayPerPost’, a way of paying bloggers to review products and services. Other methods of reimbursement for product reviews have been criticized by many for their ‘insincerity’, that is, posters are required to give a positive review if they want to get paid, and their is also no indication to the reader that they are getting paid for their review. ReviewMe fixes this issue by assuring reviewers they will get paid for an honest review, and by requiring that the review be labeled as a ‘paid advertisement’.
Their are two sides to ReviewMe, the ‘Bloggers’ who submit their blog to be considered for reviews, and the ‘Advertisers’ who then pick the bloggers they’d like to have review their product or service.
The Bloggers
Signing up is easy. Go to www.ReviewMe.com and click on ‘Sign up now!’. You’ll see the form at the left asking for typical information required for you to get paid (including SSN), and offering the option to get paid via check or PayPal.
Once you’ve created your account you’ll want to submit the site(s) that you want to place your reviews on. You’ll need to fill out a form that describes your site to potential advertisers. For a site like mine, that includes information in many categories, this can be a little tricky (as far as picking the ‘type of site’ you have). After submitting the form, ReviewMe will check to see if your site qualifies to be a part of the ReviewMe process. If approved, you will be notified of your acceptance, and of what your payment level will be. Payments can be anywhere from $20 – $200, based on how your website ranks in some popular sites such as Alexa and Technorati, and your estimated RSS feed subscriptions. My acceptance notice appeared instantly after submitting the application form.
After that, you wait to be notified about a requested review, and you have the right to accept or decline any proposals. As a starting incentive, ReviewMe will even pay you to write a review about them (which is what I am doing now)!
The Advertisers
If you’re an advertiser, and you’d like to order a review from a blogger, their is a handy search tool on the home page. The tool shows the most common ‘tags’ associated with participating blogs, which you can simply click on, or you can type in your own search term. Either method will provide a list of potential blogs, which includes their profile (the part you fill out when you submit your blog), ranking (based on Alexa, Technorati, and estimated RSS feed subscribers) and the cost to order a review. You can them pick as many blogs as you like by adding them to a shopping cart. If you’re not sure which to pick, you can even get a ‘Free Custom Proposal’ from one of the ReviewMe experts.
Once you’ve chosen your blogs, the ‘Checkout’ has you fill out some information on the product that you’d like reviewed. The bloggers you’ve chosen are then notified and have a chance to accept or decline the opportunity to write a review.
Conclusion
Since I’ve just started with ReviewMe, and this is my first review, I don’t have a lot of experience with the process. Based on what I’ve seen and worked with so far, it looks to be very promising. The ability to give an honest review is the most important aspect of this tool, which will help it gain credibility from both advertisers and bloggers. The site is easy to navigate and understand, and the payment system scale appropriately rewards more popular sites. Give it a try, you’ve got nothing to loose!
