What is Your Thoughts on Paid Reviews?

Nov21

What Are Your Thoughts on Paid Reviews?

10:37 am on Nov 21st 2007 Sara

In reading over the comments in the recent Politics of Mommybloggers and PR post, it struck me how often it came up that people were starting to charge for product reviews.

“…most of my advertisments do pay me, some of my book reviews are just for the book, and include giveaways, but several also pay me and include giveaways.” Qtpies7

“I respond to well-written requests that offer products that interest me, and even then, I don’t guarantee a review unless I really like it, I’m paid for the review (which I will disclose and I still give my honest thoughts) or a giveaway is included for my readers.” Christina

The only person I’ve ever known that charged for reviews was Elizabeth at Table4Five, who has unfortunately had to defend herself quite strongly over her choice to write for PayPerPost. I was under the impression that generally sidebar ads were paid for, and product reviews were not. (To me, PayPerPost is sort of in it’s own little category, since pretty much everyone knows what a sponsored post is.)

So what do you think about paid reviews of say a toy, or a movie? Are you as likely to buy the product or take the review seriously if you know the person was paid to do it? Do you think being paid for a review puts any pressure on the writer to take more care with their words than if they were doing the post on their own? Or should review bloggers look at it as being paid for their time and effort the same as any other profession?

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13 Responses to “What Are Your Thoughts on Paid Reviews?”

J Nov 21st 2007 at 02:25 pm 1

I kinda think that I might take the review even more seriously. My reasoning would be that the person takes the job seriously, as they are being paid for it, and puts more time and effort into it for that reason. I may not be RIGHT in this assumption, but there you go.

I have no problem with people getting paid for reviews. As long as they are upfront about it, so I don’t have to wonder.
Christina Nov 21st 2007 at 02:54 pm 2

Obviously, I don’t have any problem with paid reviews. Professional writers are paid to review products all the time. You can bet most of those “recommended toys/clothes/beauty products” featured in magazines paid the magazine or provided special perks to get their product written about. But we bloggers are in the special situation of not only being the editorial voice, we’re the publisher as well. So why shouldn’t we charge, or at least expect something in return, for our advertisement space?

I’ve only ever been paid for a couple of reviews. Most of the time I’m willing to do them for a free product, as long as it’s something I wanted to begin with. (Still love my iPod. Didn’t expect to love it so much.) But pay or a free product does not guarantee a good review. If it sucks, I say so, or I simply don’t write the review, thereby not giving advertising to a bad product.

Sure, most of my reviews are positive, but that’s because I pick and choose what I want to review. I really don’t want to write a lot of “This sucks” posts, and I don’t want a bunch of junk I don’t like in my house.

I remember last year a group of bloggers were given a trip to Amsterdam in exchange for blogging about the experience. I saw nothing wrong with that, and I enjoyed reading about their trip.

I draw my own personal line at things like PayPerPost, though. Many of those involve advertising something you have never actually tried out, like vacation resorts or insurance services. Unless I’ve actually given it my own inspection, I prefer not to write about it.

So if anyone feels like offering me a Hilton Head resort vacation in exchange for a review, I’m listening.
Mike Driehorst Nov 21st 2007 at 04:01 pm 3

Paid reviews by bloggers are wrong. I don’t mind if you do, but then you’re seen as being able to be bought (even if you do say your opinions are honest, etc.).

I blog (found your blog after say via MyBlogLog that you visited) and work in public relations, so I’m likely a bit biased against bloggers who’ll only do a review if paid for.

I figure, if you blog, you’re naturally opinionated. And, if you’re naturally opinionated, then if I send you a product and you do or do not like it and you choose to bog, that’s great. Whenever I’ve sent products to bloggers, the only thing I ask for is feedback — privately, not a public blog post. I assume you’ll blog, but if not, at least your honest feedback is valuable and worth the effort.

The great thing about blogs is the objectivity; or at least honesty.

If you’re paid, there’s at least a veil of skepticism behind the opinions.
– Mike
Elizabeth Nov 21st 2007 at 05:59 pm 4

The reviews I do for Parent Bloggers Network are usually unpaid, although once in a while the advertiser offers a small payment, usually in the form of a gift certificate. The reviews I do for MotherTalk involve being able to keep the book I receive and I also get a $20 Amazon gift certificate, which I often use to purchase another book by the author I reviewed. I see nothing wrong with being given $20 in exchange for the hours I spent reading the book, taking notes, writing a rough draft of the review, polishing it, and posting it.

The DVD reviews I do on Table for Five are unpaid in exchange for keeping the DVD. As for PayPerPost, I’m not going to go into a long defensive comment about why I don’t think it’s wrong. Yes, I write reviews for PayPerPost of websites. No, I may not have personally used the service that the website offers. But as a writer, I am able to look at a website and what they offer and give my objective opinion about it. The advertiser gets the benefit of both my word-of-mouth advertising and also the links I put in my post that help them with their search engine rankings.

The bloggers that complain about PayPerPost-have they personally tried every product listed in their BlogHer Ads? How is it any different? Thanks for the mention, Sara, I really, REALLY appreciate how supportive you are of me. Happy Thanksgiving!!
Amy Nov 21st 2007 at 09:57 pm 5

I don’t care if a review is paid or not. I don’t, at this time, do paid reviews on my site, I purchase all of the toy giveaways myself and my income is solely from ad spots; however, if I were offered the chance to do a paid review I would but I would also make it perfectly clear to the person requesting the review that my opinion is not going to change with money in the mix. I do what I do because I love toys, i’m not going to change my opinion (which so many parents rely on) simply because someone is paying me for it, after all they read my reviews and know what they’re getting themselves in to.
FoodieToo Nov 22nd 2007 at 07:57 am 6

I dont have a problem if they give you the product or a gift certificate. I like it when I read a review and there’s a chance for me to win something.
TX Poppet Nov 22nd 2007 at 01:48 pm 7

There is nothing wrong with being paid by a third party for a review. It’s when the company promoting the product pays for the review that I have the problem. Imagine a restaurant critic giving his review after receiving a free meal. Yeah. I have a problem seeing that. Speaking of meals,
Wishing you and yours a peaceful, joyful Thanksgiving.
Alli ~Mrs. Fussypants Nov 22nd 2007 at 04:54 pm 8

I want an ipod….
~sighs~
SummerM Nov 22nd 2007 at 09:48 pm 9

I don’t see anything wrong with paid reviews. Like Mike said above bloggers are opinionated. However that often means we give away hundreds of free product reviews naturally. Everytime a blogger writes about something they bought and loved it’s a free review for the product. So if some companies want to offer money as well as the product it’s a great way of acknowledging the hard work bloggers do.
Mike’s Points » Blog Archive » Which is better: paid or unpaid product reviews? Nov 23rd 2007 at 11:01 pm 10

[...] of Suburban Oblivion, while not giving her opinion, recently asked her readers about paid reviews. (She and others do product reviews, but I saw no indication if they’re [...]
Devilish Southern Belle Nov 25th 2007 at 01:45 pm 11

I am not at all against paid reviews. I currently do as many sponsored posts as I can, but only for products/services that I truly believe in. That leads me to my next point: I *do* think perhaps being paid for a review causes bloggers to be more careful with their words than they would be in an ordinary, unpaid post about the very same subject. I only say that because I know that not all bloggers are ethical, and I have seen some sponsored post ops (which I assume are similar to paid reviews) specifically state that the review and the post must be positive in nature. I don’t know if paid reviews operate the same way, so it is hard for me to really say whether or not a blogger has been completely honest. A review should be just that….a review, observations, both good and bad. For all I know, most paid reviews are just that, but it crosses my mind that perhaps there are reviewers out there who were paid to write only a positive review.
Qtpies7 Jul 19th 2008 at 08:36 pm 12

My pay comes in the form of trying the product, rarely more than that. Except payperpost. I don’t understand why people are so freaked out about that. Millions of people write about subjects they have no clue about for pay. At least with ppp people do the research and write an ad. And they can pick and choose things that they do think are a fit for them. It is an ad, and ads pay for the space. It is like being a copywriter. A paid copy writer, thank you very much. I don’t see what difference it makes if that ad is on your television, in your newspaper, or on someone’s blog. Someone wrote it, someone paid. Get over it. Newspapers don’t say “This is a sponsored ad.”
If someone doesn’t like it they just don’t do it. It isn’t like we are even making a living off of it. Most of us, anyway.
Mediterranean Cruises Nov 6th 2008 at 06:41 am 13

How can you charge for product reviews??!! This is not normal. That means that in short time we will have to pay for the air we breathe or what? I don’t know, but this whole world is going up side down.