All New CommentMILK Version 1.0Getting The Most Out Of Your Review
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Being bloggers, something we’re all familiar with are the numerous sponsored reviews that are being posted every day in the blogosphere. Website reviews, product reviews, affiliate reviews, most likely every single one of you has either paid or got paid for one or more. Its no longer something readers frown upon since the nay sayers seem to have finally caved in. There’s money to be made with these reviews, so there’s really no stopping it. Consider it an extension of your ad campaign - a positive endorsement by a leading figure in his or her relative niche can work wonders. Take Shoemoney for example; He said a thing or two about the Million Dollar Wiki project a few months ago, and the founder of the MDW ended up generating over $40,000 in new sales instantly!
The ‘problem’ with these reviews in general? The cost of getting one! Sure, it might seem like a lot of money to dish out a couple of hundred bucks, but it you’re getting a good review, with the right audience exposure, your ROI (return on investment) might be doubled many times. Having said that, some of us simply do not have the budget to get in on the big blogs like Shoemoney and JohnChow. This is where you’re going to have to make a decision and find a balance between how much of your budget you’d like to spend and how much exposure you’re looking for.
Let’s say you have $500 to spend. There’s the possibility of blowing it all one one review on a top blog and hope for the best. Another option you have is to spread out that budget over a few smaller blogs with lower review prices. Then, there’s the option to get featured on a medium sized blog and use the rest of your budget to sponsor a contest on that same blog.
A review is a review, and once it’s gone from the front page, not many people will remember it. However, if you’ve tied in a sponsored contest, your brand recognition will receive an instant boost, the contest will lead to more free exposure on other blogs, because to win your prize, people have to write a small post about the contest and link back to you for example. Take a look at WinningtheWeb.com for example. The blogger held a contest and put up a review on JohnChowcom and us as the main prizes. How did they make sure everyone knew about the contest? By ordering a review with Chow and us and having us let the blogosphere know about it! They are now sitting on 500 RSS subscribers and have a steady flow of traffic.
In this case, the blogger did have to put down quite a bit of money for the reviews and prizes he put up, but he got what he wanted - insta-fame.
Next time you’re thinking about ordering a review somewhere, don’t think you’re done once you’ve paid the reviewer. You should squeeze every last bit out of that review to make it work for you. As soon as your review is published, don’t just sit back, looking at the comments coming in and replying to anyone that happens to disagree with the product or site that was reviewed. Its time to become a social worker. Tagging the review on all your favorite social media sites is a start. Ask your friends to join in and vote you up. Link back from your own blog(s) with relevant keywords so the sponsored post will gain more organic SEO traction. Once again, a positive endorsement on a well known blog will work much better than when you keep talking about your own product on your own blog.
You’ve paid for it so you might as well make sure that everyone knows about it. A pleasant side-effect for the blogger that gets paid is obviously the effort you’re putting in to drive traffic to the sponsored post. A win-win situation if you ask us. 
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I’ve thought about ordering reviews from several blogs in the past, the money isn’t that big a deal but in the end I’ve always chickened out and invested it elsewhere instead (I’m a sucker for Adwords).
Making The Money’s last blog post..Have You Ever Tried To Teach Your Partner How To Make Money Online?
that’s the problem people want it the easy way and the fact is that you can’t make it the easy way. It goes to show that even ordering a review from johnchow you still have to do work to keep building
Alexander batista’s last blog post..How it’s really done
Great post.
Jorge’s last blog post..It’s not about the shoes…
The traditional review model isn’t profitable to most of the advertisers anymore.
Jorge’s last blog post..It’s not about the shoes…
Absolutely correct Cow. Some people do not know where to throw their money. I’m about to EXITCARD myself…
-Mike
Mike Huang’s last blog post..Webware 100 Top Web 2.0 Apps
It also helps Cow to follow this post
More comments, More inbound links and more organic search traffic. The money isnt enough 
I figure, you paying the money because that blog has all the above attributes already, then you spend the time doing those things for YOUR blog, not someone elses
Great post. I have done a few paid reviews on my blog and it always amazes me how much traffic the reviewed site gets from reading my review.
I believe that if you are using the right blog to do your review, you really can gain from it.
Well said bob, the contest thing is a definite. Will be doing one tomorrow ^_~
Winning the Web did really well. He is having another even bigger contest now.
Tom Beaton’s last blog post..What is SEO continued - On Page SEO
Great points there Cow. Looks like a great way to pump some juice into your reviews. Unfortunately for Winning the Web, it would appear that his posts really didn’t have enough pull to captivate readers into sticking around very long. I think a solid review on a big site can definitely have a great effect though
Jim’s last blog post..What’s the Deal With Microsoft and Yahoo?
I’m have to admit I’m only now starting to get into paid reviews. I’m very interested to see just how much traffic, and especially conversions, they can generate.
Here’s to success!
Stephane Grenier’s last blog post..EBook is ready!