DISQUS

TimeforBlogging: How to Write a Proper Website or Blog Review: What Elements to Include in a Paid or UnPaid Review

  • Paul · 2 years ago
    Great post, I'm bookmarking this one ;)
  • David Airey :: Creative Design · 2 years ago
    Excellent article, just when I'm about to write another ReviewMe post too.

    Thanks for this one Josh.
  • Joshua Dorkin · 2 years ago
    Thanks guys! I've got some to write myself, David! Thanks for the reminder . . . I was procrastinating.
  • Chris · 2 years ago
    You know, it annoys me that I've not got a bean out of ReviewMe and yet clowns like that get paid - it wasn't even finished!

    Have you no comeback as the review purchaser Josh? That was truly awful....
  • Chris · 2 years ago
    I've just flicked back thru that blog: It's awful, just one paid review after another + I think she's breaking TOS on just about everyone she's taking opps from. Does nobody review these things?
  • Joshua Dorkin · 2 years ago
    It is quite annoying Chris! I actually sent an email to ReviewMe to see what they had to say about it. I'll keep you posted.
  • Steve · 2 years ago
    I just look at the review. It's short and does not say a thing. Plus, after the "from", I taught there was more to come but nothing.

    Chris: Me too, I'm waiting to get a review. :(
    I'm missing something? How can I get a review if they don't know that I exist?
  • Alex · 2 years ago
    Nice post! I'll keep this in mind when I buy a blog review.
  • Tom · 2 years ago
    That is the problem with a 5 dollar review. Ugh, he should have made change...

    Of course, it led to a 100 dollar post, this one, so it pays off in the end.
  • Joshua Dorkin · 2 years ago
    Totally true, Tom. On the other hand . . . he gets a quality link from me, but when anyone sees the crap he's putting out they are highly unlikely to bokmark or go back to his site. Unfortunately I had to include the link to make my point.
  • Steve's Tech Blog · 2 years ago
    I done my first ReviewMe for $5 today. It was mostly a trial run for me and had much more than 200 words ;) I also check this post for tips.

    Plus, I did the reverse for my business website. The first review was mostly cut and paste from my ReviewMe description and part from my site. I paid $30 for what seem to took 5-10 minutes for him/her. I got 2 more coming and 7 free spot to come (crossing my finger for better result or at least more professional)

    I wanted to put a link but did not want to give a free trackback. ;)
  • Kumiko · 2 years ago
    Great post. I think that writing a good review is a lot harder than people realize as it takes a lot of time and research before you even start typing. You've provided some great tips to help bloggers who may be entering the review game.

    With regard to crap reviews - you get what you pay for. Think it about on an hourly rate...for me, $5 gets you about 5 minutes of my time. You can't expect a good review for that price. Smart advertisers also don't use an open marketplace where anybody can write the review. The best advertisers use the marketplace to find sites they want to be promoted on and then use the marketplace to order the review from that specific site.

    Reviews aren't easy to write and smart advertisers should look for previous review examples before purchasing a review.

    If you're interested in promoting your site Josh, I'd love to help you and I'd give you a great discount!
  • Joshua Dorkin · 2 years ago
    Kumiko - You're absolutely right about getting what you pay for. I actually was just experimenting with the ReviewMe marketplace when I got the crap review. I had seen that Shoemoney tried it out and got a few good ones for $10 a pop and figures I'd see if I could get the same. So far, 1 of the 2 I've gotten have actually been fairly decent.

    Great piece of advice about seeing if reviewers have previous examples of their work.

    See you around!
  • Susan · 2 years ago
    Yet another great post and definitely one I will reference as I write reviews. Again this will will appear in the May 15th (ok 19th) edition of the Blog It and Earn It Carnival hosted on my blog. The post will be live in just a bit but here is the link Blog It and Earn It May 15. Hope you get a chance to stop by and thanks for the submission!
  • Markk · 2 years ago
    That's an excellent writeup about bad reviews, Josh. I clicked the link to the "bad review" blog out of curiosity and I'm seeing some things that look odd and fishy after snooping around. It seems this person has 4 Blogspot blogs and they are fairly new. Two of the blogs have the Alexa widget which reads the ranking of one blog as 15 and the other about 143,000+. Fantastic figures! There's no Google PR. And yet these two blogs are doing reviews for ReviewMe and SponsoredReviews.

    I'm not sure what's going on here but it kinda smell. Take a look at the "buddies" this person links to and you'll be wondering how these blogs could be accepted by ReviewMe and SponsoredReviews and given post opps. I know of blogs with good standing and quality content but still couldn't get assignment approvals from SponsoredReviews. But this person's blog has the greenlight. That leaves the unlikely question: Are ReviewMe and SponsoredReviews being gamed by some of these blogs or they accept blogs without really checking them out properly?

    Based on my observation, these blogs are usually managed by some Asian youngsters with poor English and, obviously, not matured enough to fully comprehend what they are doing.
  • Markk · 2 years ago
    Hi Josh, I've to come back and place another comment. I just discovered that my site The NextPost got a crappy review from a crappy site called Blog Corner which is doing all kinds of crappy reviews of other sites. I had placed a review campaign with ReviewMe and this is what I get. Something is not right with ReviewMe if I may say so. I'd thought they were supposed to be very selective with their sign-up bloggers. I had my blog rejected twice before I got my PR4 and their approval. And I'm now seeing blogs that are just tacky, quirky and crappy doing this kind of sponsored posts. This is something to talk about.
  • SIAL · 2 years ago
    nice .......
  • Maria · 2 years ago
    You did this on purpose, right? Spell "grammar" as "grammer" in that bullet item that discusses spelling? Just to see if we were paying attention, right?

    I am!
  • Joshua Dorkin · 2 years ago
    Grammer and spelleng is what's its all about. I am glad that someone caught it. Good proofreading, Maria!
  • New Orleans Web Design · 2 years ago
    Great article, a lot of people write reviews about blogs, but leave out elements like message effectiveness. They tend to focus on either the design or the subject matter, not the delivery of the syntax.
  • Rebecca Miller · 2 years ago
    I had to giggle a little.

    You misspelled something.

    Look up "grammar."

    Other than that, this is really an informative article.

    Rebecca
  • Melvin Houston · 1 year ago
    Man i'm just here to tell people who wears jordans and air force ones about this website called authenticsforall.com they've got some nice ass kicks. I ordered like 4 pairs of af1s from there they were nice and REAL which i wasn't expecting because of the low prices they've so this is just a heads up to ppl that wear those buy from there if you want to save money. they're located near WASHINGTON D.C.
  • Janice Nelson · 1 year ago
    I was asked to write a website review for a class and did not know where to start. Thank you!!! Wonderful info and easy to understand:)
  • Marie · 1 year ago
    Hi there! I was given the assignment to make a review about this site: http://knowingpoe.thinkport.org/default_flash.asp.
    This is my review. Is it a good one, a bad one, you tell me. Please be honest, I don't mind some input.
    Kuddos. =D

    A Conference with Allan

    As a part of the introduction to the Romantic Literature Era, we have begun studying famous mystery writer Edgar Allan Poe. And to help us out a little, we were given a site dedicated exclusively to this outstanding author. This site, "Knowing Poe", had many links that would give you all the information you might ever need to know everything about Poe. But maybe not everything...
    The eye appeal was very detailed thought for; the colors, the animations, the letters, everything with some sort of attractive side was neatly chosen and applied. A very good example of this is a raven that appears flying in. This of course is from the famous poem "The Raven". This also sets the very main point of the site. Poe is recognized by this black bird, servant of the night, therefore this is a symbol representing Poe and his peculiar taste and style.
    As mentioned, this site has various links to inform you bits and pieces of Poe's life. Certainly, people won't necessarily agree with the information being given. The "Point of view" section was most appealing and interesting for it explained briefly yet explicitly what a point of view was and the effects it makes on the mood and the way of readers to understand and capture the message and image the author is trying to deliver. Aside from that, it shows one great story to demonstrate this effect. "The Cask of the Amontillado" is a perfect example to explain point of view, for the story itself has three points of view. There was a bright spot, now for the downfall. Some links, like “Poe the Perfectionist” wasn’t as interesting as the rest of the whole site. Writer’s style and editing methods may vary, but they don’t just may vary, but they do vary, therefore his way of editing and making his work perfect are kind of irrelevant.
    This site fits with people who are just curious and bored and happen to be interested in this writer. But for people who are into really scrutinizing his live detail by detail, this is just the wring place. It might be good, though, to pin point the areas you might want to search, it’s kind of an organizer of thoughts; it is a list, giving you all the things you need to research to become a Poeologist. For example, if someone wants to know only about all the Poe stories, this site might give you a head start with the “Poe’s Work” section.
    In the end, whether you have nothing to do or you’re really into not sleeping at night, this site will help you organize your ideas about Edgar Allan Poe.
  • Medical Web Experts · 6 months ago
    Good work kemis.. Impressive work.. The do’s and don’ts were quite helpful. We generally get very annoyed by popups. And nowadays, everyone have a built in popup blocker in their browser, so it’s of no use. Many such unwise practices that designer use in our website, may hamper the popularity of the website. I have hired a web designing and marketing company named Medical web experts for designing my cardiology clinic in Los Angeles. They have started working on my project. I will be having many functionalities like forums, patient online information portal, eConsultation , medical videos for patients, health games and quiz etc including the basic tenets required in medical website. You can see how it would look like at www.medicalwebexperts.com.
  • Jessica · 4 months ago
    Although initially hesitant, I am now truly amazed by how accurate the review you wrote is! It points to weaknesses I could never have spotted myself, and provides clear paths to improvements that need to be made. Will definitely consider reading more of your posts.
    Thank you!
    Jessica
    www.forexsoftware-free.info