There are two perspectives when we talk about Review Sites. One is the Bloggers’ or Publishers’ perspective and the other one is the Advertisers’ perspective. For bloggers, review sites provide an opportunity to monetize their blogs while for advertisers, review sites help them generate the needed buzz for their websites, products and or services. Whether you are a blogger who wants to monetize your blog or an advertiser looking for a buzz, you definitely need a reliable review site.

What are the qualities of a reliable review site to look for? Today’s post takes a closer look at the qualities of a reliable review site both in the eyes of a blogger and advertiser. If you’re a blogger, you would want to be paid for your works and if you’re an advertiser, you surely don’t want to pay for mediocre reviews. By making sure that you do business with reliable and credible review sites, you’ll be able to significantly reduce cases of unpleasant experiences. Before going any further, here’s a brief definition of what’s a review site.

Review sites are generally supported by advertising, a business model that offers slim profit margins and depends on user-submitted content (in this case, reviews and ratings). Business review sites may allow businesses to pay for enhanced listings, which do not affect reviews and ratings on the site. Product review sites may be supported by providing paid links directly to websites that sell the items being reviewed.

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In essense, review sites provide an opportunity for bloggers and advertisers to monetize thier blog by doing reviewsand create the needed buzz and exposure of a certain product respectively. Example of review sites are Sponsored Reviews, PayPerPost, Review Me and Smorty.

Qualities of a Reliable and Credible Review Site

No blogger would want to spend his/her time creating a review for a certian website, product or service only to find out later that he/she is not going to be paid. This sad picture is becoming a common experience among bloggers, especially those who are new to the blogging business. Here’s a summary of what you should look for in a review site before you submit your blog or before you start making a review for their advertisers.

Company ProfileThe most important thing you need to consider when looking for reliable review sites is its Company Profile. Before you jump into creating an account with a review site, you should make sure to read their company profile. You (bloggers and advertisers) should know the company behind the review site. If it’s possible, it is advised that you verify the existence of these companies.You should doubt review sites that do not offer a detailed information about their company, services and products. Reliable review sites normally have an ‘About Page’ in their website including their contact information (e.g. contact person, contact number, email address and office address).

Positive Testimonials From Publishers / AdvertisersWhen looking for testimonials for these review sites, do not be dismayed when you find negative reviews about their services. Negative reviews about these websites should be expected but in order for a review site to be reliable, there should be more positive testimonials from both publishers and advertisers than negative reviews.You should also check who made these testimonials. Make sure that the testimonials came from reliable sources and it should not be paid reviews as most of paid reviews are partial to the whims of these review sites.

Professional WebsiteOperating a review site requires a considerable amount of operating capital. Therefore, review sites that can’t afford a faster server or can’t afford to pay for a professional web designer or can’t afford to pay for a decent program are to be doubted. Like I’ve said, starting a review site requires a large operating capital and if a review site can’t afford the basics, how could they manage to carry out paying their other obligations.While I was searching for review sites, I came accross different websites claiming to provide the needed exposure to advertisers’ products and pay bloggers for their reviews. The only problem is, their websites have lots of Adsense and other advertisements on it. It makes me wonder whether these review sites are earning enough from being a review site or they’re running short of cash that they need to use Adsense? Bloggers and advertisers should be cautious when dealing with these kinds of websites claiming to be review sites.

Application ProcessReliable and credible review sites would normally have an application protocol in place. Sponsored Reviews for instance would have to check the blog you’ve registered before it is officially accepted. The approval process would normally take about 48 hours or more. Once a blog is approved, a notification email is sent to the blogger and the blogger can start to accept opportunities.Although most review sites are not meticulous of the advertisers and their products, a reliable and credible review site ought to be. Gladly, there are some review sites that do not allow blogs and advertisements with pornographic or hate contents.

Detailed Payment InformationThe reason why bloggers are joining review sites is to earn from their reviews. If you are a blogger looking for a credible and reliable review site, make sure that you join only those that present a detailed information about how and when they issue out payments. These information should be made available at their home page and should be brought to your attention during the registration process.The same as through with advertisers, you should be able to find a copy of how and when payments are made. A credible and reliable review site should also allow you to approve or refute reviews made about your products. Also, a reliable and credible review site should give you the option to set a limit or at least control your advertising costs.

Flexible Payment SchemeCredible and reliable review sites offer a flexible payment scheme for both publishers and advertisers. Bloggers should be presented with payment options (e.g. paypal, standard check, electronic transfer etc.). There should also be a reasonable minimum payout. If the minimum payout for publishers is $1000, then you should probably think twice before you register. A reasonable minimum payout range from $10 to $100.As for advertisers, you should be allowed to set your own price range depending on the blog that’s doing the review. Or better yet, you should be given the option to accept of reject blogs and set prices for their reviews. Some review site however like Review Me, sets a fixed price that an advertiser would have to pay to be reviewed by certain blogs. This scheme is also fair as the cost of review is relative to the blog’s ranking and performance.

Fair Terms and ConditionsMostly overlooked by bloggers and advertisers, the terms and conditions presented by review sites must be fair. Hence, it must be carefully read and understood before joining and registering.With respect to the division of income, the common policy of most reputable, reliable and credible review sites is 50/50. That means 50% goes to the blogger/publisher and the other half goes to the review site. Sponsored Reviews is an exception as it gives the publisher 65% of the revenue while it keeps the remaining 35%. This rate is rare among review sites. What’s not fair, thus making a review site unreliable, is a sharing of revenue in favor of the review site. You should avoid exploitative review sites that awards you less than 50% of the revenue you’ve earned from your reviews.For advertisers, to make sure that you get the best out of your investment, make sure that the reviews made about your products and services should be archived in the blogs that made the review. This should be explicitly mentioned in the terms and conditions. The terms and conditions should also clearly address common concerns of advertisers like reimbursement, cancellation of subscription etc.

To make sure that the terms and conditions of a review site is fair, you should try comparing it with other review sites or better yet consult someone in authority. More importantly, the terms and conditions should clearly specify the obligations and responsibilities of all the concerned parties (publisher, review site and advertisers).

Reliable Advertisers / BloggersFinally, a credible and reliable review site should have credible and reliable bloggers and advertisers in its circle. If most of the bloggers registered in the review site are not quality blogs then it is most likely an unreliable review site. Although you should still be careful even if a review site is endorsed by popular and quality blogs. I’ve seen several popular and quality blogs that endorse questionable review sites.Another thing to look for when searching for reliable review site are the advertisers. A review site to be reliable and credible should have a great variety of advertisers. It only means, they have abundant source of income. It also means a more and better opportunities for bloggers. Supposedly, a review site is credible and reliable when well-established companies seek for their services so perhaps that’s another thing to look for.

There you have it. I hope this one helps you identify which review site is credible and which one is not. I would also appreciate your comments and input about this topic base from your own experiences with review sites. Which review site did you join and how are your experiences so far? Thank you for your time.

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