Will You Be Doing Paid Reviews In 2008?

I think my paid review career may be over. I have done a few, earned about $400 but after the google slap I think I am going to try a few different approaches. The only way that I can see myself doing more paid posts is if the sites make nothing and domains have to be renewed or server fees come due. I have at least 6 months before that happens though.

Darren does get $ for those site review things now...its like $250+/- to get your site mentioned.

So just because somebody tells you that selling text links or adding a naked text link to a review is bad you are going to stop doing it.

You know why they are doing this?? BECAUSE THEY WANT TO CONTROL EVERY WEBMASTER, and they are doing a dam good job.

People need to stop following what the BIG company says, if you own a website do what ever you want to do with it. Do not tell SOME company what to do.

You own your domain, you pay for your hosting, ITS YOUR OWN WEB SPACE.

Remember the search engines are just that, search engines, THEY ARE NOT GOD OR THE LAW!!!!

@john - when your income is tied to those big companies you tend to play along. My income isn't on this site but it is on some others.

I do try and build traffic as if google didn't exist, however it would be dumb to think they didn't matter.

@david - thanks, I didn't know that.

@james - i don't think there is anything wrong with doing paid reviews with nofollow links.

@45n5 - I have been doing this for a long long time, most webmasters do not get a lot of traffic from the search engines and if they do rank for a certain keyword it will not make you rich.

That is actually a good thing, why because you do not want to depend on just one company.

When building a new site I do not wait for the search engines to send me traffic, I usually look inside my own network of sites, I will find a site or two that are relevant and I will put a backlink to my new site.

I am able to control my own flow of traffic this way, if a search engine bans me tomorrow NOTHING HAPPENS.

That is my point, webmasters need to stop thinking that the search engines are GOD, they are not, they are just another url on the Internet.

Now I am not a SE hater, I actually love the way that the search engines manage to provide excellent search results, but its funny how they want to play god and control everything like they are the government.

Webmasters, never rely on the search engines for traffic.

1. Trade Links With Relevant Sites
2. Mention your site in emails, chat rooms, forums, if your site is good traffic will grow automatically.
3. Add several revenue sources for your site. CPM still works! sometimes is better than Adsense!
4. Yes sell relevant links FORGET ABOUT NOFOLLOW TAGS, YOU GOTTA PAY HOSTING BILLS RIGHT.
5. Make content that targets LESS COMPETITIVE KEYWORDS, stop trying to rank for the term "online dating".

Treat the search engines like any other site, if they BAN you (90% percent of the time this does not happen) then there are another million sites relevant to yours that can bring you more traffic.

Example: If you own an Arcade site and can not rank for the term "free flash games" who cares, do traffic exchanges with other similar but not identical sites about games, gaming etc. Go to forums and mention your site, create a UNIQUE game and post it on Social sites. Create a video about your site with SCREEN CAPTURE and put it on Youtube (I know Google owns them).

Final word.

Yes its possible to take a site from 0 to $100 dollars a day in less than 3 months WITHOUT THE SEARCH ENGINES.

Look luck -- 45n5 NICE BLOG I LOVE IT!

It really depends on the new "evolution" of paid reviews. But as of right now, there is no doubt that I am going to continue what I do best, which is to write high-quality reviews for other companines/blogs. They just seem to like the way I write about them and the revenue I make is just worth it.

@john - I agree with almost everything you say however you are coming from the perspective of a webmaster that already has a stable of sites and traffic at their disposal.

Last year 95% of my income came from search engines. Less than 50% now thankfully.

I recommend people build traffic like search engines didn't exist, but I also think it's not smart to ignore they exist because of some foolish pride.

thanks for the compliment.

@sly - yep looks like your already doing it yourself ;)

After you take into account the dollar to pound exchange rate they are rarely worth doing this side of the pond.

While the tiny amount of traffic that google would bring me would be welcome on my site, that is not the main reason I don't want to do any more posts for sites like ppp, The main reason is that I don't feel that it added any value to my site. I may attempt again once ppp initiates nofollow and even then I will only do reviews that I feel will add value to my site and benefit my readers.

No question that the "paid review industry" will evolve. Maybe it will fade out of reach for those at the bottom - but only because they don't have the quality to sustain it.

It was always going to go this way. Once payperpost came onto the scene, there was going to be initial gluttony of "reviewers" that were really never qualified to be one (by virtue of their website) - no problem with them being phased out, it just means people have to build a blog, rather than just use it as a spam review site. :)

Next stage, quality controls will tighten from both ends, especially now that Google has stepped in. Advertisers will look more closely at what they are advertising on, and bloggers will have to step up the game (possibly using some of the techniques you have already suggested).

The only problem I have at this point is will Google ever be able to look beyond whether a link is nofollowed / paid. A link from a quality review should hold just as much weight as a normal link - but Google seems unable (or doesn't want) to be able to judge content quality when it comes to this issue.

But no, I don't see it dying at all...

I stopped doing it a few months ago simply because my readers weren't responding, and I took that to mean it wasn't adding value to my site. In addition to better transparency and (I see no harm in) no-follow and fairer commissions and so on, I think we need better-matched opportunities. For some of my sites, there was just nuthin' in the whole paid post marketplace for me to write about that my readers would want to hear.