Review Me Launches

i signed up this morning, and wrote the paid review. So far, your service looks pretty good, although it will be hard to truly judge it's value until more advertisers join the program.

Either way, good job - it looks good, has some strengths to compete on. Good luck, and I hope ReviewMe grows well for you guys.

BTW, here is my review - http://www.infohatter.com/blog/reviewme-launches/

Really interested in how you come up with estimated RSS figures.

I was excited and tried to sign up with my new blog. Out of curiosity, what exactly is your minimum acceptance criteria?

Looks nice :)

re - tamar : I have a feeling its a mix between Alexa, Google PR, and Technorat, but most imporantly (i recon...) is technorati rank tbh.

Aaron,

I'm still working on my main project, so I didn't sign up, but I had a few questions....

Are you looking for reviewers within various areas of interest?

For example, would it be of benefit to for someone to review law related sites (or law related info concerning the web, such as copyright issues)?

Take care,
Danny

Just put in a fairly large order. Lets see how it goes.

Hi Aaron
Good luck for this idea, ill be following development closely. I like the web 2.0 no-fuss, clean and pure design. Users should have no trouble using the site and finding appropriate info - always important.

What's your opinion on bloggers themselves giving (quality) affiliate links directly from the body content of their blog posts ?

Im in Europe and this doesnt seem to be happening much over here...although the idea is related to what you are doing here.

Is this something you will integrate into your idea? Does this kind of thing actually happen much in the states? Do you think its a worthwhile idea for bloggers who have understood the opportunity?

If you get a second to reply Id be very grateful !

Best regards

Paul

That's great, thought there is only PPP service. Great, really great!

What are the minimum requirements for a blog to participate?

Aaron, I wrote a review, an unpaid one, with how I used another of my blogs to get set up, hopefully it helps those on the fence lean towards Review Me.

http://contentquake.com/blog/2006/11/09/review-me-now-open-to-bloggers/

Aaron ... maybe you already though of this but what if a review is posted, money paid and 2 weeks later your advertiser gets rid of the review?

Will your team monitor past reviews up to 1 year or so? Something to think about.

Aaron,

I've purchased your seo book in the past year, but would like a copy of the latest version. How do I get one?

I guess this is also a way to get decent links back from high profile blogs without the worry of reciprocal linking.

Aaron,

This is a fantastic opportunity, and the next few weeks could be very exciting. I have just had my first advertiser request!

I have also just posted the following blog:

http://www.wedaholic.com/archives/reviewmecom_the_new_way_for_advertiser...

The most amazing thing is that I have just had a wedding company ask me to review their product through ReviewMe.com

I believe when this goes live it will be a great showcase for your site on day one. I feel it is especially interesting because I run a blog in a niche outside technology.

Best wishes

Elle

This is a BRILLIANT IDEA! Site reviews build valuable content and it puts funds into the pockets of the people who need it the most to keep their blogs live and maintain good quality. This is a home run. Well done!

I too signed up for ReviewMe.com - mostly out of curiousity. Honestly it couldn't have been easier. Also I really liked the fact that you had my stats for the site - instantly. I also really liked the fact that I could start the reviewing right away with my first offer... all of that in like, 5 minutes. PPP is going to have to work hard to keep up with this project.

:)

Aaron

I have 2 reviews pending and wondered how long the advertiser has to approve them?

Thanks

Elle

Naturally, I did blog about it, though not on my new blog for reasons I've mentioned earlier.

To reiterate my concern last night (which I focused on in my own review), there's no easy way for a person to understand why their blog might have been rejected. For example, there's no FAQ on the site and I learned about the ranking criteria after reading other blog posts and after my other blogs were accepted. It would actually be a good thing for new bloggers to understand why their blogs are rejected so that they know the areas in which they should improve (Technorati and Alexa are different ranking criteria, even though they are still related in a sense as the bottom line is blog popularity). Just a thought. It was fun to write my review. :)

Aaron,

Bingo - The advertiser approved my review and I'm a happy bunny with payment of $30

If you ever want a testimonial I'm your girl!

Thanks again

Elle

Very well executed.

Great idea.

I think you need to specify better the service. Would it not be more interesting to let bloggers offer their service at the advertisers too.

Also bad reviews are a problem, some people can write blog entries but dont know zero about usability or designing interfaces or user experiences for that matter.

One user reviewing a whole service?

I don't usually comment here but just wanted to say I think this is an excellent idea and I'm glad to see you're implementing it so well. Good luck!

Aaron, thanks for this new tool. This is going to be a social network and community powerhouse site. I can feel it. Being in the consulting industry I hope others can see the value of this website. I look forward to reviewing other sites, and am more excited to have reviews coming in for me. What better way for you to learn and grow your site then this? I look forward to seeing you at PubCon!

Hi Aaron

It would be great if the 48hr window could be extended, solely because if I received a request today I would like to extend it for 2 weeks. Thus in this time I can provide more content to my readers. For me it will be about getting the spacing right between my own content and the sponsored posts.

It would also be nice to be able to inform the advertiser as to why he has been declined. They may never come back and the only reason they were declined was because of the 48hr window.

I'm sure you are working on many features and maybe this is already on the list.

I guess a project like this is never complete.

I wish you every success

Elle

Cool concept Aaron, I can see this going far. Add this to the toolbox of "how to build decent links on good sites".

Hopefully that 25k generates the amount of "buzz" you are hoping for.

Great site, looks like the $25k prize will easily pay for itself with the amount of links and free promotion the site's been getting this week!

Posted my review today :D

An interesting extension would be a bidding process. Advertiser places details and the bidding process runs for whatever determined timeframe was set by advertiser.

Bloggers can bid, and raise or lower their bids up till the close of bidding.

But unlike a typical one-to-one auction type approach, the Advertiser then has set period (maybe it 48 hours, maybe it is a week) to review all of the bids and bloggers, and then accept whichever ones they are interested in, or maybe even counter individual bids... thereby allowing the advertisers and bloggers to reach an agrement based on everything involved.

A blogger might decide that a particular advertisers topic is something that they may wish to blog on that they would accept a lower amount than their standard, or that something might be worth even more.

Likewise, and advertiser can then look at the bigger picture to determine how best to allot their budget, in which case they may decide that three reviews from X, Y and Z at their bids is worth more than 1 review from A at A's bid, even though A may have a lot of social value and they would really like to have had a review from A.

However, I have only really glanced over the site, so maybe some of this is already present, if not, this seems like it could offer a more dynamic market along with the straight forward approach, not necessarily a replacement.

Anyway, good luck.

>Out of curiosity, what exactly is your minimum acceptance criteria?

It is variable based on numerous criteria, and will change over time depending on market feedback, so it probably is not going to make sense to post it.

>Are you looking for reviewers within various areas of interest?

Our idea is to create a fairly comprehensive marketplace of high quality authors.

>What's your opinion on bloggers themselves giving (quality) affiliate links directly from the body content of their blog posts ?

It is good for some sites but it is not for everyone. I have done it before. I think that it probably does not work well from a network level though. If people are directly recommending something on a payout per conversion basis then it is best that they have intimate direct experiece with what they are recommending.

>Aaron, I wrote a review, an unpaid one, with how I used another of my blogs to get set up, hopefully it helps those on the fence lean towards Review Me.

Thanks Joe.

>Aaron ... maybe you already though of this but what if a review is posted, money paid and 2 weeks later your advertiser gets rid of the review?

Hi Igor
Our theory is that most reviews will probably stay published for a decent length of time. Why would a publisher delete it if they took the time to write a quality post?

I think we will update the FAQ page to include something about length of time of the review being online. It probably will not guarantee a year, but most likely something like a month or so.

>I've purchased your seo book in the past year, but would like a copy of the latest version. How do I get one?

Hi Mike
Check your email.

>I guess this is also a way to get decent links back from high profile blogs without the worry of reciprocal linking.

Hi Philip
Our intent is not to sell links. Our intent is to get people talking about your brand / product / website.

>The most amazing thing is that I have just had a wedding company ask me to review their product through ReviewMe.com

It is amazing how well the launch is going. Glad you joined up and like it so far Elle. :)

>This is a BRILLIANT IDEA! Site reviews build valuable content and it puts funds into the pockets of the people who need it the most to keep their blogs live and maintain good quality. This is a home run. Well done!

Hi Dave
That was the idea of ReviewMe. There is a true disconnect between authority and monetization and many advertisers with innovative products are getting priced out of some of the larger online ad networks like AdWords.

>I too signed up for ReviewMe.com - mostly out of curiousity. Honestly it couldn't have been easier. Also I really liked the fact that you had my stats for the site - instantly. I also really liked the fact that I could start the reviewing right away with my first offer... all of that in like, 5 minutes.

Great you found it easy to use Empress :)

>For example, there's no FAQ on the site and I learned about the ranking criteria after reading other blog posts and after my other blogs were accepted. It would actually be a good thing for new bloggers to understand why their blogs are rejected so that they know the areas in which they should improve

Hi Tamar
Thanks for the kind comment. We added an FAQ page now. We still could probably be a bit more specific with the inclusion criteria, but we are being vague because it may change based on market feedback.

>Very well executed.

Thanks Peter. Can't wait to meet again sometime. BTW am moving to the west coast here soon, so it is just going to be a quick hop across the pond.

>I think you need to specify better the service. Would it not be more interesting to let bloggers offer their service at the advertisers too.

Inclusion in the ReviewMe network is a means of offering services in a sense. But we may expand out the types of ways people can connect. Our longterm goal is to profit by removing market friction.

>Also bad reviews are a problem, some people can write blog entries but dont know zero about usability or designing interfaces or user experiences for that matter. One user reviewing a whole service?

Hi Ron
The way we see it, you can look at the website you are asking for a review from and have some idea of what topics they may cover and from what angles. And they may help you find out things that you never would have thought of if you restricted them to one niche.

>I don't usually comment here but just wanted to say I think this is an excellent idea and I'm glad to see you're implementing it so well. Good luck!

Thanks a lot Kris :)

>Aaron, thanks for this new tool. This is going to be a social network and community powerhouse site. I can feel it. Being in the consulting industry I hope others can see the value of this website.

Based on market response it is clear that there is significant demand and value being seen by many :)

See you at Pubcon Mat.

>It would be great if the 48hr window could be extended, solely because if I received a request today I would like to extend it for 2 weeks. Thus in this time I can provide more content to my readers. For me it will be about getting the spacing right between my own content and the sponsored posts.

>It would also be nice to be able to inform the advertiser as to why he has been declined. They may never come back and the only reason they were declined was because of the 48hr window.

>I'm sure you are working on many features and maybe this is already on the list.

>I guess a project like this is never complete.

Great feedback Elle. We are working to add features to ReviewMe based on market feedback like yours.

>An interesting extension would be a bidding process. Advertiser places details and the bidding process runs for whatever determined timeframe was set by advertiser.

Hi Brian
We are trying to keep it simple off the start, but we may add features like those down the road. Remember how flawed the first version of AdWords was compared with where it is at today.

I signed up as an "advertiser" and I feel the reviews are a bit pricey since I am not guaranteed any specified amount of traffic.

With that said, I think this is an brillant idea and my hats go off to you! Additionally, I am considering purchasing a review but is searching for the right blog to submit to. Even though I don't agree with the pricing, I think it may be well worth the money if I get a review from a blog which I am familiar with and know is a top industry leader. The fact that you guys review the blogs and have an acceptance criteria is great and makes the service price worthy. Thanks for the service. Wish you all the best!

this is one awesome service Aaron!

and since i receive the news from TLA newsletter, i assume this is a collaboration between you and Andy Hagans, right?

(checking linkbuildingblog.com)

ouch, it's true. darn, u guys are genius...

btw, this service is great. I'll be recommending this to my clients from now on.

Some things that need to be fixed:

- Right now I can claim just about anybody's blog or site. You'll need to come up with a verification system to ensure that people really own the blogs they submit to ReviewMe.

- The ranking system needs some work. IMO ranking sites on just Alexa data (we all know how reliable that data is..), estimated RSS subscribers (how can you estimate something like that?) and Technorati rank isn't a good way to determine how much traffic a blog/site really gets.

- It looks quite expensive for advertisers, it's not really clear what they will get:
* There's no requirement to leave the review on your website after it has been approved by ReviewMe.
* I could place the review somewhere on my website where no one would see it - a page with zero links from other pages on my site.
* There are no quality requirements.
* I suppose most advertisers expect at least one link to their website somewhere in the review. This is currently not required. Lets say I've just released a new site which can't be found in any search engine yet. If the article doesn't give me a link it may be quite hard for readers to find my site.
* Lets say I've just released a new technology product and I want a popular tech site to review this product. Currently your system doesn't allow me to send a product sample by mail to the reviewer. Or if I just released a new eBook and I want to get it reviewed, how can I send the eBook to the reviewer? In these cases the requirement that the product must be reviewed within two days will also be too short.

Thanks for the feedback Thomas. We will be addressing many of those issues shortly.

Good idea. I went to your registration form for the bloggers. I could not however find a place for entering blog name or blog url. Is every one accepted without submitting the blog info?