paid blogging: review of sponsored reviews
I’ve been working with SponsoredReviews.com since shortly after their launch, and I decided they were the perfect site to launch my series on paid blogging, which will review each of the services out there in the internet, as seen from a blogger using those services.
About:
The tagline says, “Bloggers earn cash, Advertisers build buzz”, and that’s pretty much it in a nutshell. This site acts as a middleman for advertisers and bloggers, and allows bloggers to bid for reviews, or be personally selected by an advertiser.
URL:
http://www.sponsoredreviews.com/
How it works:
When you submit your blog for review, the SponsoredReviews system pulls stats on that blog from several sources, like Technorati and Alexa. Your link popularity is calculated, and you’re giving a total ranking of anywhere from 1 to 5 checkmarks. You’re given a suggested price based on vertisers” tab will do just that. These are open opportunities that anyone can bid on. But remember that price you set for your blog? If you want $20 per review, you can NOT bid on offers that had a minimum over $20.
Found something you’d like to write about? Click into the offer and you’ll see the bid amount is already filled in - if you submit now, that’s what you’ll be paid, and yes, I have made that mistake! The dollar amount already in that box is the lowest amount the advertiser is willing to pay. Fill in the price you want - I always fill in the amount I set for my blog here. Do NOT write about the opp until the advertiser ACCEPTS your bid. Submitting a bid doesn’t guarantee they will.
(Example, I submitted a bid to review Sponsored Reviews on my other blog, and it was declined. And yet, here I am, doing it for free!)
Advertisers can also search the list of blogs and approach you with a price. There’s also a way that bids can be counter offered, but I haven’t had that happen to me yet.
Rules & Requirements:
Blog posts must be 200 words long, and all content must be original. You need a 3:1 ratio of non paid to paid content. (Sponsored Reviews has the toughest requirement on that by far, of all the paid blogging services.) You get 7 days to complete your review, and you will get a reminder email about 3 days before it’s due. If you don’t complete reviews you’ve accepted, your account can be suspended. Postive reviews are suggested, but constructive criticism is ok, rude comments about advertisers are not acceptable.
Disclosure:
Disclosure is required in each post for the company, with a single line saying “This is a sponsored post”, or some other similar wording.
Pros:
- Setting your own price has worked out well for me, as well as the other bloggers I’ve talked to.
- I’ve made more money per review on Sponsored Reviews than anywhere else recently. Payments are made bi-weekly.
- I love being able to see what sites that are ranked like mine are charging for reviews, so that I can be the cheapest on the block, and still be making a good rate per review. I think that in part has contributed to my success with the system so far.
Cons:
- Advertisers can decline your offer without letting you know why. I’d love to hear why some offers in particular were rejected.
- The bid and price situation is a bit confusing for newbies.
- There isn’t a huge influx of new advertisers daily.
- Some advertisers take a very long time to accept bids, or don’t accept them at all.
- You can’t bid on the same offer using multiple blogs, if you have more than one in the system. *Edited to add - it seems that this has changed, as I was able to submit multiple bids on one offer this morning.
Thoughts:
Angie of Suncoast Scribe says, “I like the direct contact between the blogger and the advertiser. A review is written only after both parties are happy with the agreement. I know I want to represent their product or service and they feel my particular blog fits their campaign. There are no surprises after the fact.”
Lisa of My Thoughts, Ideas, And Ramblings says, “I have mixed thoughts on Sponsored Reviews. I have submitted bids on several opportunities to get no reply either way back. I also was able to get an extremely high paying opportunity for a PR0 blog for a product that I really like. I see this program as a double edged sword. The advertisers do not seem as dedicated to making this work as much as us bloggers would like.”
Cecile of Moms With A Spine says, “I like the idea that we get to bid on offers. I have three different blogs listed with three different prices and I am able to choose many different assignments. The only problem is, some advertisers take a long time to review my offers. I have enjoyed the offers that I have received and I have made decent money on the offers.
Our Ranking:
I like the concept, and I like the potential here. I’m seeing a good system in place that just needs some more tweaking. I give this one a 4 smile rating, out of a potential 5 smiles! 
:-)
Great review! Thanks for taking the time to write it all out.
Yes, I totally agree they have a load of potential and I have really enjoyed the reviews I’ve done so far for them. They have had some very cool advertisers and I hope to see them grow and attract more like that.
I also like the fact that you can bid on assignments, but I also don’t like the fact that some advertisers don’t accept or decline your offers. They are usually stuck in pending status.
Thank you so much for the review, Colleen! This is one of the sites I haven’t joined yet, so it was very helpful to read all about it here!
Very nice writeup. When I’m not obsessing over the directory I am actually a blogger myself, so maybe I’ll sign up.
For me the biggest issue is the quality of the advertiser and how related they are to the niche of my blog.
Nice review. I don’t like how they don’t tell us why our bids are rejected either. It would sure help to have some feedback with that.
[…] My friend Colleen started doing some very comprehensive reviews of paid blogging services. She did that on her blog Geeky Speaky today and I Dugg it. Go check it out and you will learn all you want to know about Sponsored Reviews and whether or not it’s a program you will want to sign up with. […]
I’ve successfully bid on the same project with two different blogs, so they must have changed it. I’ve been planning to cover this over on Butterflies, but you’ve done a marvelous job here, and I’ll just link to you!
I’m on board with them but haven’t gotten any reviews yet. I’ve bid three. One declined, one I’ve re-bid, the other I haven’t heard from yet I’m still feeling a little awkward with the process, but see a lot of potential here.
Mahalo for a great review, Colleen!
Thanks for this post! I went and signed up. I’m looking forward to doing some reviews.
Thanks for this great information/review.
Hello Everyone,
Thanks for all of the great feedback!
We are taking it to heart and have some great updates happening soon.
The biggest complaint we hear from bloggers is that advertisers are too slow to respond. There are a few ways we plan to address this.
1. Automatically expire bids over 2-3 weeks old. This will encourage advertisers to bid quickly. This is a double edged sword though. We have talked to several advertisers and the biggest reason that they do not accept more bids right away is budget. With hundreds of bids coming from bloggers, many times the advertisers just do not have the budget to purchase them all at once. In fact, we see a lot of purchases in our system from bids over 2 weeks old. It is because of this that we have not made this change already. We do not want to make a rash decision that will end up doing more harm then good.
2. We will be implementing a filtering system to allow advertisers to restrict what categories of blogs they will accept bids from. Again this is a double edge sword for the blogger, as it will limit the number of opportunities available to them, but at the same time reduce the frustrations of being rejected.
3. We will be removing opportunities where we have not seen enough activity from the advertiser.
4. Providing additional Incentives.
5. We have some other ideas in the works but will wait until we are closer to launching them, as we don’t want to give away all of our plans on an open forum
The other problem we have had complaints about is that there is no reason for rejection when an advertiser declines a bid. While this is something we are considering, it is low on the priority list. Primarily because the biggest issue is getting advertisers to accept/reject in the first place, adding another field(or dropdown) for them to use in order to give a reason, would be one more thing for them to do, that they probably would’nt.
With that being said, here are the primary reasons for rejection.
1. Blog is not relevant
2. Blog is too new
3. Advertiser has maxed out their budget
Thanks again for all of your feedback, and good job on the review Colleen. It looks like you have a good following over here. I will be sure to stop by often.
Thanks Jarod on the the rejection reason scenarios. That makes it much easier to swallow
nice review colleen. I haven’t signed up with them yet. Would like to try it sometime soon.
Nicely written. I look forward to watching them grow and change.
I must say this is one good review, even if it’s not sponsored.
Very nice review. I think once they start growing these minor problems will be a thing in the past.
It’s a really well written review.. Good job!
Hi Colleen,
You’ve written an excellent review! Thank you for that. There’s only one thing I don’t understand. You wrote:
“If you want $20 per review, you can NOT bid on offers that had a minimum over $20.”
Do you mean that my bid wouldn’t be accepted, or that I won’t get $20 for the review net?
Hi Ilse,
Say you have a bid price of $30 per review for your blog, and there’s an offer with a range of $40-$100.
If you attempt to submit an offer for $40 using that blog, you won’t be able to do it, because your blog is set at $30.
If you attempt to submit an offer for $30, that won’t work either, because the offer isn’t accepting bids under $40.
Does that help?
Thank you so much for reviewing these sites, Colleen. It has saved me so much time and kept me from wasting my time trying things that weren’t worth the effort. I talked about it on my bloghttp://yesmyopinioncounts.blogspot.com/2007/04/which-paid-blogging-services-should-you.html so others will find your valuable information.
Sponsored Reviews…Review…
Not here though. I did a very short one in the posts where I was talking about making money on the internet. Colleen over at Geeky Speaky did a pretty thorough review of Sponsored Reviews a few days ago…….
Colleen,
What a well-written post! I’ve used sponsored reviews a few times and do like that I can place bids to advertisers. So far it’s been a great way to make some extra money with my blogs…
Great review Colleen. I just stumbled upon Sponsored Reviews myself this past weekend. I’ve got some bids in, had two rejected so far (ouch!) and am patiently (thusfar) waiting for response on the others.
[…] Colleen from GeekySpeaky.com has written a review about SponsoredReviews.com where she gives a great overview as well as some good feedback. […]
Really well done.easy to read and explain really well
the subject.good job
I have one question that I can’t find an answer to anywhere:
What if, at some point in time, you want to end your relationship with SponsorReview– you know, close your account? Is this allowed? Does one have to do this in writing, or do you just fade away?
The idea behind SponsoredReview sounds goof, though.