It’s been months since programs like PayPerPost and ReviewMe launched – offering bloggers money to review products, sites and services.
In that time there’s been a lot of controversy around the ethics of paid reviews and whether disclosure should be compulsory or not. I don’t really want to get into that again here – but I do have a question.
- When you see a paid review on a blog do you read it?
- If you read it – do you give it any more or less authority or credibility than a non paid review?
I’m asking the question(s) without any agenda – but out of my own experience of seeing more and more blogs writing paid reviews (some blogs are doing them daily and are making good money doing so).
My own experience is that while I don’t ethically have a problem with a paid review as long as it’s clearly disclosed – that I can’t remember too many times when I’ve read them beyond the first paragraph.
Perhaps I am not a typical blog reader and have become a little hardened in my old age – but I’d really love to hear of other people’s experiences. Do you read paid reviews?
I’d also like to ask a question or three to those doing paid reviews:
- What type of response (positive or negative) have you had from readers to your reviews?
- Do you find comments on paid reviews are higher or lower than your other posts?
Again – I’m only asking this out of a genuine interest. While I’ve not gotten into the paid review game myself because it doesn’t quite fit with my style of blogging I’d love to hear from others who have – particularly around the questions of whether you feel the reviews have impacted the quality of the interactions you’re having with readers.
