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

Introducing: Paid Blog "Plugs"

As many of you know, I’ve worked very hard on promoting paid reviews on my blog. I do this because I think it has a very big "potential" factor in future income, and hope to create a snowball effect where the income from paid reviews creates more readers who are interested in seeing how my blog income is growing as a result.

My plan was working great up to September, where I made nearly $600 in paid reviews alone. However, for whatever reason, October saw a great drop in paid review income at only $175.

Now, this didn’t get me down too much as obviously there will be fluctuations in income, but I must admit that it isn’t fun to hear as I work very hard paid reviews.

In my Blog Earnings: October post, I wrote:

"…In fact, a paid review that I just finished, took me around a total of 12-14 focused working hours to review and write. For the amount of work I put into my reviews and the exposure they get, I actually think they’re worth at least a couple hundred dollars, so I’m constantly perplexed why I don’t receive more offers. $80 is an absolute bargain in my eyes…"

I received a couple of good responses to my frustration:

Posted by Adrian Tapia:

"Maybe the decrease is “because” you do such detailed reviews of their sites.

Lets face it most people are paying to have their site mentioned by an authority site like yours. I wouldn’t want to pay someone to write anything negative about my site.

They want “FLUFF” and a link to their site. Its not a true review, but its good for their site.

Just my two cents, keep up the good work"

… to which Jamie responded:

Posted by Jamie:

"Good point from Adrian.

I’ve noticed in your reviews you give your honest opinion, even if this means a negative review of a product/service.

Perhaps advertisers see this and say we don’t want honesty we want you to say how great we are!

The price of integrity.
Which is why I don’t do paid reviews because I think it could undermine the integrity of my blog."

I have to agree with both Adrian and Jamie. While it’s actually far better if I personally review and endorse an advertiser’s product or service giving it a favourable and positive review, I’m sure that a lot of potential advertisers are concerned that I may say something negative.

I know that I’ve certainly turned down at least half a dozen offers because I wouldn’t just blindly promote and endorse their product, without believing in it myself.

Therefore… I’ve added a new advertising solution on my blog called…

Paid Plugs

For $80, the same price as a paid review, you can order a Paid Plug which is essentially an entire post on my blog written by you to advertise your product or service. You may insert your own affiliate links and write whatever you wish. Please note that there will be a small disclaimer at the top of the post explaining that this is a paid plug and is not necessarily endorsed by myself.

You can either e-mail me your written post, or contact me to arrange for you to have a temporary contributor account so that you can format and arrange the post to insert affiliate links, add images, etc. (recommended).

• $80/month
• Maximum of 1,000 words
• Maximum of 5 images (Max. width/height 615 pixels)

To order a paid plug, send payment via PayPal to twcruz@hotmail.com and e-mail me at tylercruz@gmail.com with your paid plug text/information or request for a temporary contributor account.

This is essentially identical to the Advertorials system that ReviewMe launched not too long ago, but of course I’m avoiding the absolutely insane and greedy 50% cut that ReviewMe takes.

At $80, it’s certainly very cheap. With over 800 RSS readers, this equates to $0.10 per targeted reader. In fact, often all it takes is just one product or service sale to profit.

The launch of Paid Plugs on my blog now gives those advertisers who want to simply promote their product, site, or service a platform and audience in which to do so.

I’ve updated my advertising page, adding Paid Plugs as a new advertising option.

It will be interesting to see how these do, if I sell a bunch, or any at all. But one thing’s for sure. I’ll be happy for each one I sell as it means that I do not have to spend hours reviewing and writing them myself anymore.