Get the most BANG for your BUCK from REVIEWERS
Recently I've been considering using other bloggers in the genre to post about any new products and/or services I bring out. I know that others have been considering this too, taken from a conversation I had with an online buddy;
I think I am going to buy a review on *removed* blog … his readership vs. cost is the best bet right now
Well, this piqued my interest so I went along to each of the 100 or so blogs at 5starred Top List and searched each blog for Feedcount and their price for a review.
The results were surprising…
Only 14 blogs out of 100 make it easy to find that they write sponsored reviews and have their RSS feed powered by Feedburner (3rd party external service, hence trustworthy). So, armed with those stats, I give you;
The Top 14 Most Bang for your Buck Reviewers…
- www.johnchow.com - 8508 - $440 - $0.05
- andybeard.eu - 2046 - $143 - $0.07
- www.netbusinessblog.com - 1763 - $150 - $0.09
- www.entrepreneurs-journey.com - 5067 - $500 - $0.10
- www.matthuggins.com - 439 - $55 - $0.13
- www.shamoneymaker.com - 244 - $44 - $0.18
- http://momworksathome.blogspot.com/ - 22 - $11 - $0.50
- http://www.gathersuccess.com/ - 189 - $100 - $0.53
- http://www.dailymoolah.com/ - 107 - $60 - $0.56
- http://nkhan.jwmediabox.com/blog/ - 71 - $40 - $0.56
- http://www.5xmom.com/ - 174 - $100 - $0.57
- http://ryanshamus.com/ - 81 - $60 - $0.74
- http://webtalks.blogspot.com/ - 71 - $60 - $0.84
- http://slyvisions.com/ - 92 - $80 - $0.87
The figures are as follows; URL - feedburner count - price per review - price/count (expressed as a dollar amount - in other words the price paid per reader of the blog).
What I want to know is why only 14 of the top 100 offer reviews! Or, if there are others, why not make it more prominent on your blogs?
Caveats
- Some review services like add on a 10% service charge. I have tried my best to include these charges within the above calculations.
- Some blogs have a different price advertised on site than the cost shown in the external review site. An example is www.netbusinessblog.com, whose "review me roy" graphic shows a cost of $250, yet when clicking through to the review me site, a cost of $150 is shown!
- Some more expensive blogs might have a more targetted audience for your needs. That decision is up to you.
- Some lowere traffic blogs might have a better response to your review than a high traffic blog.
Conclusion
It can clearly be seen that there are only a very few blogs offering a review service. The best value at this point, is, in my opinion, Yaro Starak at Entrepreneurs Journey. At a cost of $250 (with no service charge!), for a per head cost of $0.05 - I think that this blog should give best results. Close behind, in fact, VERY close behind is the blog of John Chow, then Andy Beard.
It is possible that of those bloggers that use an external service, you could just email then directly and ask for a straight out price. Some might prefer to deal directly and cut out the middleman whereas others might not. I'd suggest that anyone who would not deal directly with you, is probably not who you want to order a review from…
Update
Since Yaro increased the price of a review to $500, he has slipped to 4th place overall and cannot now be considered the best value based on the parameters given above. I'd suggest that John Chow would be the best bet overall.
Comment by James — September 26, 2007 @ 4:56 pm
Have you considered an unsponsored review?
I am sure that there are many smaller blogs would love to do reviews for free. You would just have to decide if it is worth your time to contact them.
Great list by the way. I think you'll see John Chow raise his price soon if he hears about it.
Comment by Adnan — September 26, 2007 @ 5:32 pm
Hey Burt - Blogtrepreneur should be 6th on the list. At 818 RSS subs today, and with a sponsored review at $120 - it works out to be $0.15 per subscriber.
Comment by Gary — September 26, 2007 @ 5:40 pm
James - it doesn't usually elicit a great response. Also, looking at it the other way - those bloggers who offer the service at inflated prices (let's say above $0.10 per head) might think about making their price lower?
Adnan - if you are not on tha tlist, then your "review offer" is hard (for some readers) to find on your site. Perhaps yu should put a graphic in your sidebar?
Comment by Oli — September 26, 2007 @ 9:26 pm
"What I want to know is why only 14 of the top 100 offer reviews!"
Thought you weren't a fan of paid posts? Isn't that a good thing?
Comment by Gary — September 26, 2007 @ 11:19 pm
I wouldn't make paid posts on this blog (though I would on other blogs that I own). If other bloggers want to get paid for making posts, more power to them
Comment by Donald Mckenzie Jr — October 1, 2007 @ 6:28 pm
The bloggers with higher prices really should think of lowering them to a descent amount. The less the better.
Comment by Chance — October 24, 2007 @ 4:17 pm
Yaro has increased his price to $500 for a review.
Comment by burt — October 24, 2007 @ 4:28 pm
Cheers JC. Post updated.
I was about to order a review from Yaro at $250, but at $500, I'd rather go elsewhere for better value.