ReviewMe an online product review broker recently launched as highlighted previously on Somewhat Frank. Like many other bloggers I inquisitively registered Somewhat Frank for the service. Thirty days have passed and I wanted to follow-up with some additional thoughts on my first experiences with the service. To date ReviewMe has sent me four different review requests. I was given 72 hours to accept each offer. I briefly checked out each service and decided not to review any of the products.
Why did I decline an easy $475 or $125 per post? It is simple. The products did not excite me. As Seth Godin puts it, they were not Purple Cows. Not to say that every product or blog post I highlight is a ‘purple cow’ but these did not arouse my interest. It isn’t that these companies aren’t doing valuable things online, they just didn’t catch my attention. After receiving these review requests it is very clear to me that ReviewMe puts bloggers into a somewhat compromised situation since ReviewMe bloggers could be perceived in the blogosphere:
1.) As a sellout if they write a positive review and get paid for it.
2.) As a pompous egotistical bastard if they write a negative review and get paid for it.
ReviewMe presents a tough nut to crack and thus far I have chosen to abstain until the right review opportunity happens to arise, but I would love to hear about other bloggers experiences with the product.
Photo Attribution: sunclover via Flickr
