SOMEWHAT FRANK

Search Engine Marketing Glossary: Online Marketing Resource

A few month's ago a friend of mine took on a new online search marketing job which called for extensive keyword purchasing experience. She asked me for the best search engine marketing resources and I pointed to a number of search marketing sites, podcasts and resources. Unfortunately, I did not realize that Aaron Wall, a well respected search engine marketing guru, had pulled together a glossary to help online marketers with this very question. Search Engine Marketing Glossary is a wonderful resource for online marketers and business folks alike as it offers easy access to a plethora of web marketing terminology.  For example, if you are looking to find the definition for the word "keyword" you can jump to the letter "k" and find not only a definition of the term but also a number of terms related to the word as follows:

A word or phrase which implies a certain mindset or demand that targeted prospects are likely to search for.

Long tail and brand related keywords are typically worth more than shorter and vague keywords because they typically occur later in the buying cycle and are associated with a greater level of implied intent.

It is also worth noting that each term in the glossary is an anchor on the page so it can be linked to directly, like I have linked to the word "keyword" here. The Search Engine Marketing Glossary is managed by Aaron Wall but users can suggest updates or feedback.

Editor's note: After turning down the first four ReviewMe requests, I finally found a product I wanted to write about in the Search Engine Marketing Glossary. This is a sponsored article.

ReviewMe: My First 30 Days of Use

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

ReviewMe: Ethical Alternative To PayPerPost For Bloggers To Get Paid?

ReviewMe, a product recently launched by TextLinkAds, offers bloggers the opportunity to make money for writing product reviews. ReviewMe has a similar business model to PayPerPost.com which I questioned whether it was a potential splog generator last month. ReviewMe has improved upon the PayPerPost.com model by creating a ranked marketplace and currency for a blog post. ReviewMe does not promise a post will be positive and also has every paid review add a disclosure explaining the post is a paid write-up. This disclosure helps to maintain the credibility of both the blogger and the ReviewMe product. Also reviews need to be 200 words or more.

With ReviewMe bloggers can actually capitalize on the time they spend reviewing a product, which in many cases is a product they would have reviewed anyway regardless of whether or not they were being paid. As I receive similar review leads via the blogosphere underground.

Rev2.org recently reviewed the ReviewMe and explained that even though ReviewMe is better than PayPerPost.com in handling ethical concerns they would still never participate in the program. TechCrunch had similar feelings on the product. While others think getting paid for writing reviews might not be so bad after all. Understandably, there are also bloggers getting paid by ReviewMe to review the ReviewMe product.

I just signed up for the service to test it out and I noticed that a number of familiar blogs like Google Blogoscoped, PaulStamatiou.com and TechnologyEvangelist.com were already signed up for the program. Upon claiming my blog I found that a post on Somewhat Frank can be purchased for $250 based on a ranking system that ReviewMe has put in place to determine a blog's value. Blog value takes Alexa, Technorati and other blog details into account to determine a rank. If I were to agree to write a post via ReviewMe, I would walk away with $125.  However, this does not mean the review has to be positive in nature, it could totally tear the product to pieces and I would still get paid. So why wouldn't a blogger want to take part in this program. It is not asking you to lie about a product. It is just asking you to review it and be honest.

I am interested to see how many and what types of requests I receive for product reviews since I only write about things that I find interesting. In my opinion, this model is very similar to being paid to be in a focus group for a consumer product. The only difference in the case of ReviewMe is that the focus group data is being exposed for the public to see in the form of a blog post. So I am extremely confident my current editorial filtration system will keep Somewhat Frank true to its distinct voice. I just hope the rest of the bloggers participating can show the same level of discretion.

Bottom-line:  Most bloggers would not mind getting paid. While advertisers and marketers might not know how to reach out bloggers for an honest review of their latest product. ReviewMe helps to solve this by creating a legitimate marketplace to connect products with reviewers. Sounds good but let's just hope bloggers can stay true to how they feel about a particular product and not fill the blogosphere with splog posts.