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?
Tags: blogging, money, products, reviews
