This is an update to my review of ReviewMe, the new pay per post system recently debuted by MediaWhiz. I have been exploring deeper into the site since posting my review and I’ve uncover some serious flaws in the way ReviewMe accepts sites and does its pricing.
While exploring a list of sites available to buy reviews on, I came across quite a few that made me ask, “How can this blog be worth that much?†ReviewMe based its pricing on theme, estimated traffic, link popularity, and estimated RSS subscribers. However, from the looks of things, only Alexa, Technorati, and estimated RSS are taken into consideration when assigning the blog its 1 to 5 star ranking.
From exploring the ReviewMe site, I’ve concluded the pricing system works like this:
- 1 Star Ranking: $40
- 2 Star Ranking: $60
- 3 Star Ranking: $100
- 4 Star Ranking: $250
- 5 Star Ranking: $500
The problem with ReviewMe basing their pricing on this setup is their algorithm can be tricked. I came across several blogs with wacky pricing because the algorithm picked up the wrong Alexa and Technorati information. For example, this blog by a stay-at-home mom has a 3 star ranking because it’s hosted by Blogger, which has a 5 star Alexa ranking. Instead of finding the Alexa ranking for homemom3.blogspot.com (which is a N/A because it’s so low), the algorithm posted the Alexa ranking for Blogger. This means any blog on Blogger gets instant approval, even brand new ones.
The Technorati ranking is messed up as well. ReviewMe gave it 3 stars. A check at Technorati shows this blog with just 64 links. My blog has 1,235 links and was given only 2 stars.
What all this means is a blog with no traffic and a $100 price tag for a review.
On a positive note, it looks like ReviewMe is hand selecting the blogs they choose to do a review. ReviewMe has stated that every blog that signs up will get a chance to review ReviewMe but this doesn’t appear to be the case. Otherwise we would have seen a ReviewMe review at that home-mom blog.
Advertisers will look at the blogs they want to buy a review from. Since all the prices are fixed to the star ranking system, there is no way blogs like the home mom will ever get a buy. Who would pay $100 for it? ReviewMe needs to adjust their algorithm to account for blogs hosted by high-ranking blogging services.
I Can Claim Your Blog!
I read over at Deep Jive Interests that he tried to submit his blog to ReviewMe and was denied. I thought this was baffling because his blog should get in with no problems. Just for the hell of it, I submitted Deep Jive Interests as one of my blogs and it was accepted!
I now own Deep Jive Interests! It looks as if I can submit any other blogs and claim ownership over them as well. ReviewMe has no system for confirming blog ownership at this time. Claiming someone else’s blog doesn’t do anything for me except to block out the true blog owner from signing up. Shortly after the above screen shot was taken, I deleted Deep Jive from my list of blogs. Feel free to apply again Tony!
ReviewMe has generated a lot of buzz since their launching. However, like many new startups, they have some teething problems that need to be worked on. In addition to the pricing and blog ownership problems, the algorithm that decides which blogs to accept and reject requires work as well. Just for fun, I submitted Tech Crunch and got this message:
Sorry the blog you just submitted does not meet minimum acceptance criteria (traffic, other links to your site, etc) at this time.
Man, if Tech Crunch can’t meet the minimum requirements, God help us all!