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You know, running a blog is like running a TV station. It’s new media for one thing and secondly, it’s one of the most powerful means of new media. Everyone has an opinion and unlike a TV station, for a fraction of that cost (or no cost at all), you’ll be running a blog. And like all interactive media, you’ll have a list of followers – subscribers for your blog. And like all journalists, you’re free to be opinionated and offer your opinion through your blog. And this is where blog reviews come in.
Offering your opinion through your blog can both play out for the better and the worse. There will always be people going against your opinion. But by starting a blog, what you’re indirectly trying to say is that “My opinion counts and therefore I want to express it”. Talking about blog reviews, that is exactly what you’re saying. Nowadays, there are blogs dedicated to offering reviews; And even blogs dedicated to specific niches.
And what all blog reviews do is that they convert a reader of that review to a user of that product or service. In a simple instance, if I’m doing a review of a product I find interesting, what I want to do is convert as much readers as possible to try out that service.
A blog review can go a long way. But frankly said, everything depends on the impact that particular blog review makes inside a specific community of prospective users of the product or service reviewed. And creating this impact depends on a number of factors.
So what are the incentives that blog reviews offer? Of course, the foremost answer would be “money”. Alright, so you get paid to review stuff. What else? You know, what I learnt from my rather short existence in the MMO niche is that money is not everything.
Out of all the reviews I’ve done, only about 5%-6% are paid reviews. Others are done for the sole objective of letting my readers find out what’s worthy of their time. So most of the time, that’s the only incentive that I’m offered. And in return, I’m giving my readers an incentive to follow my blog, so that they will strengthen my reader-base so that my future will reviews will create a greater impact.
Occasionally, I tend to get the opportunity to network with top people from the products/services that I’m reviewing; Since at times they tend to check out who’s linking to their web site or contributing to the buzz.
And being transparent throughout the reviewing process, you can establish yourself as an unbiased blogger, not swayed by the incentives that the sponsor offer – in a sponsored review, that’d be money. The greatest return of being ethical would be the loyalty of your readers. Your opinion tends to be placed with more value. Like I said, “somethings are more important than money”.
Well, that really depends on your style. I tend to reject offers when advertisers ask for a “100% positive” review. Why? I’d obviously find loopholes in any system and I’d offer constructive criticism. If you’re recommending something to my readers, you need to tell them things that they should look out for. Sure, by offering criticism you’d probably prevent a few of your readers from actually testing the service. But if you don’t tell them, chances are likely they will stop following you around because of you giving them hollow promises.
What I understand is that your blogs presence is not challenged as long as you maintain your code of ethics. And your code of ethics wont be challenge as long as you’re being honest.
If you want a more inside look at this, please refer to this post on “Is is ethical offering paid blog reviews?”.
So, what are the incentives of being honest? Well, for one, establishing yourself as an ethical authority will bring you a lot of incentives. By doing that, people will buy what you have to say, and more people buying stuff means more advertisers for you. And that means more money and more everything. So you see, if people don’t buy what you produce, the demand will drop, and so will your blog.
To the extent of my knowledge, you will not be able to experience all the wonders of the honest blog reviews unless you add your own twist to it.
Coal is black. Everyone knows it. There’s no point in doing a review about coal to say it’s black. Likewise, you should be more concerned about looking beyond the obvious facts of a product or a service. With so many people contributing to a popular service which is creating so much buzz in the blogosphere, everyone will write the same thing. And the only reason why people should read your review is because, well, you bring something different to the table. Because you added your own twist to it.
Try highlighting something that everyone doesn’t see. For an instance, I was recently featured on the Woopra blog because of my post about the “Woopra Sharing Access”. When everyone was telling how cool their interface is I added my own twist to it by showing the benefits of how private advertisers of a blog can benefit from WSA.
You know, I believe every blog review, sponsored or non-sponsored has some incentive to offer. The question is whether a blogger is ready, capable of understanding and open to receive all the benefits. Some say that paid reviews will drastically decrease the quality of a blog, but I disagree. I haven’t had negative feedbacks or any negative return by doing paid reviews.
Honestly, what keeps me going is the money I make, people I’ve met and all the readers I’ve helped from being truthful in my reviews. And yes, as you might have already suspected, it had done wonders for me.
I couldn’t agree more. I think the first thing to be honest about, is if it is a paid review or not…then when readers see a good honest review (with the good bad ugly thrown in), they wont give a hoot about the money.
Cutting the complaint off before it happens, so to speak.
I always give 100% honesty, but am darn sure to provide “fix’s” for any negativity that I find, so it’s a truly helpful review….for the reviewed and readers. After all, theres a good chance someone reading will recognize they have the same problem you just described in the review! LOL
As I always say, we’re here to help people, NOT bash them for all their hard work.
BTW, I also put in what I believe to be an important “disclaimer”: “any review here may NOT be considered an endorsement on our part, unless specifically stated as such.”
Anytime a blogger does a review (paid or not), honesty is always best. If you steer people wrong, all it does is harm your reputation. That adds up, and soon your name could mean nothing in blogosphere.
Great post with superb information.
Insightful! I agree with you.. Some people will always complain about the paid review thing and the others won’t as long as the review is unbiased..
Cheers!
Thanks Barbara! Honesty is the best thing – you nailed it.
Cheers!
When you do a positive review, you lend your name to that product, site or service. But there are times, in my experience doing paid reviews, it is not the review that advertisers are after, but the link to their sites.
But the twist you put into the reviews are for the readers, so that they will not leave you when you do paid reviews.
Yeah.. Pretty much.. Then again, some people just do not care to think twice when they see the “paid review” tag..
Cheers!
It all depends on who you are if you ask me. I can review a product honestly and if nobody knows me I could be talking bull. People can hide behing a blog persona like other places on the net. You need to build up a rep and that will then carry weight when reviewing.