Blog Monetization: Get Paid To Write Reviews

Once your blog has reached a certain level of maturity where it stands out from the others as a driving force within your niche, the option to get paid to write reviews on your blog as a method of blog monetization may open up for you.

The ability to get paid to write reviews becomes an option once you have demonstrated your expertise in a given area and developed a following.

In a nutshell, once you have done the hard work of becoming recognized and paid your dues. When your expertise is presented in high traffic formats, catching the eye of companies who use paid reviews as part of their promotion strategy, becomes easier.

Getting Started

The first step required to break into the field of paid reviews is to see that your blog is registered with the search engines and review sites. This makes review sites aware of your interest in working with them and provides them with the opportunity to check you out. As a representative of their product, they will want to ensure that you are legitimate.

Product reviews are being written everyday on almost every product imaginable, such as electronics, cell phones, sports equipment, and the list goes on. Reviews are also frequently written for the entertainment industry. You may want to write a movie or book review. Keep the reviews you choose to do about products that you have an interest in and that fit with the content and audience of your blog.

A couple of sites where you might sign for the opportunity to get paid to write reviews are: Reviewstream.com and Ciao.com. Typically, if one of your reviews is accepted, you will be paid a flat rate for it, and possibly an additional amount if the people who read your reviews mark it as having been helpful to them.

Guest blogging is yet another method of getting your reviews seen and talked about. Your site link will be included in your guest post, which in turn, encourages traffic back to your blog. Guest blogging, particularly on blogs with a higher profile than your own blog, help you to get noticed by those companies that are interested in your area of expertise.

Having your own unique domain name will be a worthwhile investment for this type of blog monetization. If you have been using a free service, you may want to look at either upgrading or moving your blog to another hosting platform with its own domain name.

The downside of moving away from a free hosting service is that you will lose any investment in traffic building you have done up to that point as that traffic will be tied to the name or domain that was previously used. Certainly something to think about carefully if you are just starting out. Is the use of a free service going to be worth the sacrifice later on.

A further consideration, should you decide to move to a different hosting platform is whether you will be using WordPress for your blog. If so, choosing a WordPress friendly blog hosting provider will greatly enhance your ability to enjoy working in WordPress. Click here for our reviews of the TOP 3 WordPress hosting providers.

Choosing What To Do

There is more than one way to write paid reviews. Some companies will pay you per review that you post on your blog. Some things you will want to consider before going with this method are:

The number of reviews required to earn enough to make it worthwhile, and
The quality of the reviews you are being asked to post

You don’t want to turn the blog you have worked so hard in building up into a “post-for-hire” blog. You most certainly do not want to be posting trash that will lower the blog’s value and quality. A simpler method of choice may be to choose companies that allow you to submit your review to them for publishing and that include a link back to your blog.

Sites like Amazon and eBay often allow readers to post reviews on the different products that they offer. These reviews help the readers of those sites to make more informed choices when purchasing and once again, can give you added exposure for you as a writer and also to your blog.

You may also choose to write reviews on affiliate products that you represent, or on any product or product creator that is relevant to your blog and target audience. These reviews can help you to hi-light the pros and cons of products you represent for your readers.

Keep in mind at all times the FTC regulations that came into effect on December 1, 2009. You must be open and up front with your readers when writing reviews of any nature and disclose what’s in it for you if they take action as a result of one of the reviews that you have written.

This requirement has caused a fair bit of concern on the part of those writing reviews. Its intent is to give greater credibility to reviews that people are counting on to help make a purchasing decision. In the long run, this will help, rather than hinder your efforts.

The Downside of Paid Reviews

As one person once said, just because you are able to do something, does not mean it is a good idea for you to do it. The same type of thinking needs to be applied when considering whether or not you want to monetize by writing paid reviews.

Many search engines frown on the concept of paid reviews, especially Google. As with all that you do to increase the revenue from your blog, you need to consider the impact those choices will have over all.

If you depend heavily on being in Google’s good books for other areas of monetization, paid reviews may be a poor choice for you. For a more in-depth look at why you may want to avoid using paid reviews, visit John Lockwood’s article, Should You Write a Paid Review? Ask Yourself These Six Questions

The opportunity to get paid to write reviews on your blog opens up a new income opportunity for you and you only need an opinion on the subject matter to make it happen.

Take into consideration the different types of review writing open to you, and decide if this income source is a good fit for you and your blog. If so, ensure your blog is positioned to take the best advantage of this income stream, and comply with all FTC regulations in regards to transparency and disclosure to get the most out of this area of blog monetization.

To Your Success,

SherryD
http://www.wbobr.com