Do I look like a whore to you?

Dear xxxxx,

Are you tired of boring reviews that don't accurately depict your products? Are you tired of relying on late-night infomercials to lead customers to your stores? Well, good news! I would be interested in reviewing your products on the following conditions:

1. Unlimited free products for life from your stores, xxxxx and xxxxx.
2. A weekly paycheck of approximately $10,000, after taxes.
3. A seat on your Board.
4. All the stock I want at no cost to me.

But that's not all!

If you respond to this message in the next ten minutes, I'll throw in free and unannounced code inspections of your warehouses which will be reported to the Proper Authorities at no extra charge!

That's right! If you act now, you'll get a reviewer, customer, board member, stock holder, and an inspector at the low-low cost of $10,000 a week and all the products I want!

Act now!

XThe NavigatorX said:

So, how would you react to this email? (Note, you don't actually have a blog that's about As Seen on TV products, just one post that ranks very high on a google search for As Seen on TV.)

email:


We noticed that you have a great blog on As Seen on TV Products. We have 2 As Seen on TV stores – xxxxx and xxxxx and would like to potentially have some of our products on your blog for your readers to see.

We would gladly give you samples of products (that we have available) to test and we would pay you for a brief evaluation of what you think of the product (can be negative or positive), and a link to our product page from your blog. We get new products all the time, so we would have thousands of products that you could review.

Please let us know if you are interested.

Thank you,

xxxxx

Click to expand...

Lots of bloggers do paid reviews. I don't think you're a whore for that.

now i can only walk away in wonder at what random chains of letters make my blog appear near the top of google rankings for something that has nothing to do with me...

so disclose it... why not? honesty is the best policy, and given you will probably criticise some of the products, you're going to get to have some fun and get paid for it.

At the end of the day if you sell something you have to believe in the product and take the chance that reviewers might give it a bad review. No different to book reviews. Most reviewers get paid to write book reviews.

The real question is whether it is compatible with your blog and your goals. Some bloggers like to make money but don't consider it essential, by contrast the Deb's of this world do it professionally, and expect to be rewarded for their time and effort. Up to you. What is the purpose of your blog and what are your personal and financial goals?

XThe NavigatorX said:

You are if you don't disclose it's a paid review.

Click to expand...

I thought that was a 'shill'; prostitution is an open exchange.

Congratulations on the compliment of receiving an offer! (I assume it wasn't spam, but a fair-dinkum offer.) If it's not the sort of thing you'd do, fair enough. Have they asked you not to disclose that you were being paid?

What would I do? I'd think about whether it was interesting to me, and whether it paid well enough for the effort, whether I wanted my blog to be used for that purpose, and whether I wanted to commit to doing it over whatever period of time they were asking.

Good luck. Again, congratulations on getting the attention, even if you decide it's not the type you wanted.

Is it wrong of me to be both excited and disappointed by Rob knowing enough to describe the difference between a shill and a prostitute's dealings?

Yes.

The best response would be to tell them you would be opening to receiving and reviewing their products in an honest way, and if they wanted to pay you, they could take out an ad on your site. That way, it is open to everyone to see that you have some sort of business relationship with them. And, you can feel free to review it honestly.

I have a pop culture blog and often get DVDs to review. They don't pay me to review though. The only payment I get is from the actual companies that take out banner ads on my site.

Pay Per Review sites are quite common though. All the "Make Money Blogging" blogs (like Problogger) are continually hyping them. I think it is kind of a conflict of interest though.

I have located - thank you to the OP for giving me a new Google Hobby - a word that one can search wherein MY BLOG IS THE ONLY ENTRY!

Google "Tescorow".

Next time somebody finds that weird spot and tries to google it, all they'll find is me.

If you feel uncomfortable about taking money, take the product and review it and tell them to keep the money.

Book and movie review websites often get the freebies, and their reviewers get to give honest, whatever they want to say reviews. That's the business.

Same thing with products.

The pay might make anyone feel like they would be obliged to give a positive one. You can set up a policy like you have the right to choose if you want to review the said product or not, and you can say what you want. Once you do it for a company, other companies might stop by and ask you to do it.

And it leaves room open for discussion, maybe people reading your blog will try it. It seems a natural fit for your blog to review the products.

Just keep it honest, and readers will trust your opinion enough to come back and do a search on other products when they want to find out if said product 'works'.

Don't blame the company for offering money. It happens all the time with reviewers. It depends on their policy but generally they don't accept money, just the product. Their money comes from the advertising around said website, and like someone else mentioned, they can purchase ad space if they wish. Most times they don't have to. The review will be enough.

And if there is a product you like, but don't really want it, you can hold a contest, give it away to a reader (with permission from the company), making for more fun.

At the end of the blog just post: Product made by: Product provided by: etc.

It's a cool way to get freebies and become the expert on your topic! Now you'll have first hand experience with all those products.