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How Paying For Reviews Can Make You Money


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    I was over at John Chow’s Website today and was looking at his advertising prices. The total cost for a site review is $500 which is a lot of money but I had a great idea where a review could actually make you money.

    Now I haven’t done this yet and I probably can’t afford to do this any time soon but I will let you know my idea anyway and possibly you could run with it.

    Instead of getting a site review done you could get a product review done for the same price ($500) and in that review have links to where people can buy this product. By paying for a review you therefore get to keep all of the price of the sale and you don’t have to pay an affiliate commission.

    Soon I am about to release my first ebook for sale “Make Money Commenting” which will be for sale for just $7 (and trust me it will be worth way more than $7). Say I got a site review from John Chow and paid $500 for it. Then I would need about 100 people to buy my product for me to make a profit (considering John has about 30,000 subscribers this is a 0.33% conversion rate which is achieveable. However, if you sell a product where you make $50 per sale then you only need to sell 10 of them which is a 0.03% conversion rate and this is much more achievable.

    So as you can see you can use a paid review to drive traffic to your sales page and you can keep 100% of the revenue (minus the fees some services charge). 

    When my ebook launches in just under 1 month I am going to do exactly this. If I can afford it I will pay for a few site reviews on smaller sites and I will also aim to get some guest posts published on John Chow and other larger blogs which will link back to my sales page to increase the number of conversions.

    I am going to need a damn good sales page if I want to make any decent sort of money from this product. I need to use other people’s traffic and truthfully I don’t have enough traffic yet. If I relied on just my readers alone I would probably sell 10 max. But with other blog’s traffic the opportunity for sales is endless.

    Ok so that was just a simple idea that I had on how you can use paying for reviews as a way you can make tangible money (not just bring in traffic).


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19 Comments
  1. #1 Clog Money
    September 22, 2008 am30 3:42 am

    I wonder if John would do a review for a product that wasn’t yours but contained your affiliate link for that product. Would make for an interesting experiment.

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  2. #2 Ethan
    September 22, 2008 am30 5:32 am

    I like the idea. But, $500 is a LOT of money for someone to pay for an idea that might not work.

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  3. #3 Simple Sapien
    September 22, 2008 am30 9:03 am

    Nice idea Ryan,

    Maybe implementing this method in even smaller blogs (say ones that charge $100 or less) would be more feasible. I don’t know about you, but I don’t have an extra $500.

    Be sure to keep us posted on the progress of your E-book, I am excited to read it.

    - Jack Rugile
    Simple Sapien

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  4. #4 houck
    September 22, 2008 am30 10:41 am

    This I’d like to see how well this works. Keep us up to date ^_^

    - houck

    houcks last blog post..Something to do on those long flight travels!

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  5. #5 Benjamin DiGregorio
    September 22, 2008 am30 11:55 am

    Hey Ryan, I found your site a few days ago and decided to subscribe to the feed.

    Just wanted to drop in and let you know that I think you run a pretty slick blog here. It’s great to see people coming up with innovative ideas like this one about site vs product reviews. Even more refreshing is the fact that you are willing to publish your thoughts to share with the world.

    Keep them coming, I’ll be following along :)

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  6. #6 James
    September 22, 2008 am30 4:40 pm

    One possible downside to using paid reviews is if the blogger doing the review doesn’t like your product or doesn’t recommend it! But that is the chance that you have to take, I guess. I would certainly recommend, before buying a review, that you have a few trusted people take a look at it and make sure that it is ready to go.

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  7. #7 Hussein
    September 22, 2008 am30 8:58 pm

    That must be a great idea. I will also wait for your $7 e-book. Let me see if I could buy one :D
    Husseins last blog post..Sunday Link Love #9

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  8. #8 Mike Collins
    September 23, 2008 am30 12:54 am

    Paying bloggers for a review is definitely a great way to promote your product. Obviously $500 is a hefty price to pay but you have to look at the big picture. You can pay $5 for a review from some unknown blogger with a small following and hope to catch lightning in a bottle, or pay an established blogger with a big following and have a much better chance of success.

    Blog reviews do work by the way…I recently purchased a Wordpress plugin because I read a stellar review of it on Tyler Cruz’s site. I probably never would have heard of it if it wasn’t for that review.

    PS - good luck with your ebook!

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  9. #9 Kevin
    September 23, 2008 am30 4:59 pm

    It’s absolut realistic that you can make money out of buying a review. I have newer think that way.

    In my mind john chow’s review always have been cost too much money, but now i think different!

    Kevins last blog post..Smart søgetip til Gmail

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  10. #10 sean
    September 23, 2008 am30 8:27 pm

    For those looking for a cheaper paid review - check out MenWithPens.ca

    They are good writers and have a lot of readers. They have a good sense of humour and charge $30 for their weekly Drive-by-Shooting’s.

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  11. #11 Dave
    September 24, 2008 am30 6:13 pm

    hmm sounds like achievable, now I just need money to start hehe :P

    Dave

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  12. #12 Jay
    September 25, 2008 am30 11:18 am

    Hey Ryan, you can do the same thing with ad spots on other blogs. Purchase an ad spot for like $40 on a somewhat popular blog and give them your referral link and banner and hopefully there are some referrals that end up making you a profit.

    Jay

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  13. #13 Freddie
    October 6, 2008 am30 7:29 am

    Good idea, Ryan! I like the way you think. You are always looking for a different and better way. Keep that up and I am sure you are going to crack the code sooner or later.

    I have never paid for a review and didn’t even think about having a product review done.

    Start out with some smaller sites to have them review it, then use the revenue earned to take a shot with the Chow man.

    That way, if it doesn’t work, you won’t be out of your money.

    Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

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  14. #14 Escoofield
    October 6, 2008 am30 10:08 am

    I love the idea.. sounds good to me..
    Hope you achieve this plan :) the 500$ is way too high>.< and i woukd be very happy to have it :)
    Jhon Chow is a very good business man:)

    Escoofields last blog post..I’m Hacked!

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  15. #15 Rahul Jadhav
    October 9, 2008 am30 1:06 am

    hmmm…i never thought about it….but i dont wanna spend money

    Rahul Jadhavs last blog post..Adding Feeds To Your Blog

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  16. #16 Escoofield
    October 14, 2008 am30 5:00 pm

    Rahul :) we are the same! i don’t also don’t want spending money but if you know that your money is going somewhere good… i will spend it 100% lOL :)
    Escoofields last blog post..First day being a fire fighter

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  17. #17 computer tweaks
    October 18, 2008 am30 7:22 am

    isnt 500$ too much
    u will get hell lot of seo done with that money

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  18. #18 Rahul Jadhav
    October 19, 2008 am30 4:30 pm

    yup i agree with you…i will pay money only if i am 100% sure about it

    Rahul Jadhavs last blog post..Choosing A Niche For Your Blog

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  19. #19 Eric Tan
    November 16, 2008 am30 9:57 am

    its all about the traffic and your good content!

    Eric Tans last blog post..Dear Mr. Obama

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