TylerCruz.com: An Internet Entrepreneur's JourneyThe journal of a web entrepreneur on his journey to wealth.

The Power of Paid Reviews

Remember the free-month WordZe offer I posted a a few days ago?

Well, when I posted it I had expected to receive only a few sign-ups and just hoped that they’d enjoy the service and in the future purchase the service. I thought I’d get maybe one or two conversions as well if things went well.

Well, I’ve already sent WordZe 5 conversions, which resulted with $52.50 for me. Not bad for throwing up a quick a post that took all of 10-minutes. What’s more, is that this number is potentially a lot bigger. You see, WordZe’s referral program pays out 30% commission on any trial or monthly subscriptions for the lifetime of the referred customer. So, assuming 2 of those 5 people continue with the service, that’s an extra $20 a month for me for as long as the continue with it.

Now, to be fair, I’m not sure if I’m being paid on just the people that signed up and are using the free service, or have actually purchased memberships.

I think since WordZe was brave enough to offer their 1-month free service, their conversions increased. For example, when I posted my paid review of WordZe back in May, I only sent them two paid conversions. But when I posted a much shorter post with their offer of a free 1-month trial, I signed up 5 (and possibly more).

This is why you should buy a paid review from me 🙂 I mean hey, it’s only $70. You get a lot for your money including an extremely detailed and lengthy post after my research of your site or product, get good insight and constructive criticism from me as well as commenters, get a PR5 linkback with links within relevant content and context, and of course get displayed to a readership of an average of 700 RSS subscribers in a very targeted niche.

And instead of just simply getting your site reviewed, if you’re selling a product or service, why not offer a discount to TylerCruz.com readers? If you run a forum or blog, how about a special contest? Depending on what aconversion is worth to you, often it only takes ONE to make your money back.

For example, if you’re a freelance logo designer and badly need work and charge $50 per logo, if you bought a review and resulted in 4 offers as a result, you’ve got to be happy. That’s $130 in profit (although there’s labour involved), plus you’ve got a backlink, branding, and awareness.

I don’t know… I’m just a big fan of paid reviews on popular blogs. Now, I say popular because I think purchasing reviews on small blogs is a waste of money. I’ve been starting to get the word out for PublisherSpot lately and I’ve purchased another paid review from John Chow (which is my 3rd one from him, and isn’t cheap at $400 each), just purchased one from Michael Kwan (which was extremely detailed and well researched and written. View here…), and have a list of 5-6 other good blogs that I’ll be contacting soon as well.

Even if no conversions are made, I think the branding and awareness that a popular blog helps manifest is easily worth the cash alone. Look at WordZe – they purchased one paid review from me a few months ago, and I’ve already sent them 9 conversions so far. And think about how many new people know about WordZe now. Even if you don’t know what the hell it is, you’re now familiar with the word “WordZe”, and you might come across it again in the future and remember “Hey, I’ve heard of this before…”. I mean.. that’s part of the magic of branding and awareness, and the power of “Buzz blogging”.

For my blog, I actually think that freelancers should try ordering a paid review from me. I know that there are at least a few readers who are always looking for a good PHP programmer, logo/banner designer, or forum skinner…

Anyhow, sorry for the rambled post.. I had just checked my WordZe affilite account and was surprised that my little quick post generated five signups.