I just found out I’m in today’s edition of The Globe & Mail. That was pretty fast considering the Globe photographer came by only two days ago to take my picture. The article was written by Dan Skeen and deals with paid reviews. I was interviewed for the piece because of my involvement with ReviewMe. The Globe & Mail is Canada’s biggest newspaper. It’s basically the Canadian version of the Wall Street Journal.
After finding out the article was in today’s paper, I headed out to get a copy. That wasn’t easy since it was already mid-day and most of the newspapers were sold out. I went to a grocery store near my bank and found the bank closed because it got robbed! There were police cars everywhere. I managed to get the last copy of The Globe & Mail. Afterwards, I went to Save On Food to see if they have any extra copies and found the Royal Bank across the street also got robbed! There was a bunch of police cars around that bank too. Save On Food had 10 copies of the Globe left.
Paid Reviews – Smart Marketing or Deceitful Trickery
John Chow in his home office in Richmond, B.C. May 8, 2007. Mr. Chow’s blog is near the top of the heap at ReviewMe.com, where advertisers browse through blogs and then hire bloggers to write about their clients’ products or services. PayPerPost and LoudLaunch use a more passive advertising method where advertisers list opportunities at a fixed price per post. Any blogger that meets the offer criteria can accept the offer and write a post. (JOHN LEHMANN/THE GLOBE AND MAIL)
The Globe article asked the question if sponsored reviews are smart marketing or deceitful trickery. Two paid bloggers were profiled. One gets $7 a review and other gets $300 (you can guess who’s who). The article doesn’t answer the question. It wants reader opinions on it, which is a great way to generate more traffic. Read the article and then share your view on sponsored reviews. I would love to hear it.