You see these images all over the blogosphere, each with a different dollar amount... They give you the opportunity to purchase a review from a specific blog through a company called ReviewMe. The one you see to the right is specifically for ClickNewz, and will initiate a transaction that is brokered by ReviewMe.
A review is basically a write-up, or mention of the website or product of your choice. The blogger will write the review in their own words (unique content!) and include your link. They will even use specific Link Text if you specify it.
You might choose blogs that are popular in your niche. Blogs that have certain ranking statistics such as PageRank or Link Popularity. Or you may choose a blog based on the quality of past reviews and/or visitor interaction. It all depends on what you want to accomplish - buzz, exposure in a specific target market, quality permanent links, or a combination of all of these...
But did you know that you can get Reviews written by some of the same bloggers for as little as $10?
Granted, you wont get to hand-pick your bloggers... but since ReviewMe has opened their Advertiser Marketplace, you can now order reviews at a starting price of only ten bucks!
You arent just paying for a "review", mind you. Let's look at the big picture here... In order for bloggers to qualify at ReviewMe, their blog must meet certain quality standards. This includes age, traffic, subscribers, link popularity, etc. So the review is going to be placed on a pre-qualified blog.
Blogs, by their very nature, are going to be "connected". Their content may be syndicated on other websites via RSS feeds. They have profiles and listings in Technorati results. Since they are pre-qualified by ReviewMe, they have already been indexed in the major search engines. They may also have headlines syndicated on popular social networking & bookmarking type sites.
The bloggers behind those blogs are very conversational and social creatures. They like to blogroll each other, get involved in the discussions by leaving comments, or even blog about each others blog posts.
But perhaps the most important point to make of all is this:
Links in blog posts are permanent links.
What is the value of a link, exactly? To give you some insight, let's look at ReviewMe's parent company - Text Link Ads. To do a fair comparison, we'll use their Ad Calculator to determine the price for one link on a single page at ClickNewz.com. Since they dont sell links in the content area of a page, I chose the section just below the primary content area - which is as close as we can get:
That's $72.00 per month. So you can get your text link that spot for one month for $72 - or you can get your text link higher on the page, and in the content area (ie the focus of the page), permanently for $100.
But the value comparison between those link types doesnt stop there. Without getting too technical on you (with terms like algorithms, seo, latent semantic indexing, etc) there are two main differences between these link types outside of the cost.
I'll start by assuming you already know the value of inbound links, and that your Link Popularity (how many links point to your page) and Link Reputation (the quality of those links) directly affect your rankings in the major search engines. Simply put, the more links that point to your domain (and specifically, to individual pages) - and the more relevant those links are - the better your web pages will rank in the search results.
All Links Are Not Created Equal...
There are two important elements that determine the value of a link that points to your website: location and relevance. A third, equally important, element is age. A permanent link carries more weight over time than links that pop up and then disappear.
Links that are in the content area of a page carry more weight than links that are in the 'static' sections of a web page - such as the sidebar, navigation areas or the footer.
And finally, relevance plays a huge factor. A link to a marketing blog on a page with 20 other links to various niche blogs (unrelated) carries much less weight than a link to a marketing blog in the content area of another marketing-related site or blog.
This brings us back around to the value of Blog Reviews... When you purchase a review from a blogger, they are going to write content specifically about whatever topic or web page you present. When they include your link and publish the review, it creates a permanent one-way link to your web page... from a web page with relevant content. Bingo!
I have heard it argued that blog posts fall off of the main page of a blog within days and then become "buried in the archives". While it is true that the initial buzz and exposure may come in a short burst and then die off - its also true that the link still holds value long after.
To prove that point, in the recent PageRank update across Google Toolbars, many of my archived blog posts jumped to a PR4 (page rank of 4 out of 10). So the blog review you purchase today could turn into a quality PR4 inbound link within a few months. Nice, huh?
You may want to purchase reviews on specific blogs. You may want to purchase a large quantity of reviews for variation. But if you just want to get your feet wet, why not start out by purchasing a few $10 reviews at www.ReviewMe.com.
You get to determine what categories of bloggers get to write a review (pet blogs, political blogs, etc), what they review exactly and the Anchor Text (or link text) of the link that they include for you.
You might have them review one of your products, your website, your blog, your affiliate program - or whatever you need and want more links & exposure for.
I would recommend that you invest $50 for 5 reviews to see how it turns out. You may decide to purchase larger quantities later, or double the payout and include more specific requests from the bloggers. It's all up to you!
Best,
Related: The Latest In Link Building: 10 Reasons Why Sponsored Reviews Are Great For Link Building
Technorati Tags: link building, inbound links, blog reviews, ppp, payperpost, sponsored reviews, text link ads, review me, reviewme, consumer generated advertising, buying links, text links
About Lynn Terry
Hi Lynn...
Good info. I personally like the paid for blogging market. It seems the people who do not like it are the bigger names/companies that have deep pockets. It's just a great way to monetize your site.
I also wanted to turn you on to a place I use called LinkWorth (www.linkworth.com). They pay up to 70% of the sale out, accept most publisher types and the best part is, they have the sell of text links, paid reviews and several other type of products all in one account. They payout on time every month for the almost year I've been there.
Great - thanks Stan, I'll check that out!