Many of you noticed that I threw in a paid post a couple of days back. I have done this a couple of times over the last month or so as I have been stepping up my blog monetization strategy. When I first started this blog 7 months ago I told myself that the first full year I would focus on promoting my blog and would then focus on making money with my blog. Due to my blog rank of pr 3 and my latest month Alexa ranking being under 40,000, I have decided to start monetizing earlier than I planned. My strategy includes adsense, direct ads, affiliates, selling services as well as selling sponsored content. I have written some sponsored content that I have brokered directly mostly with people approaching me and I have also utilized several services as well. Here are the 3 services that I have had luck with and would recommend giving a try.
ReviewMe.com- Some people have asked me which service I used to write the post about the Wall Street Journal. That was through ReviewMe. I was contacted directly by the website owner through the marketplace and was offered $50 to write a 200 word post. For me that was a no brainer, I will take $50 for 5 minutes worth of work any day of the week. I have also written several other posts from this service, all over $25. I have found that this service pays the best out of the three I have been trying out.
Social Spark- I have used Social Spark and have mixed feelings about this service. They have the best website and user interface but that should not be confused with being the best service. The amount of blog post opportunities seems to be very small. I have also noticed that the amount payed to bloggers is relatively low. Last month I wrote two posts for this service both were around $15 or so. The marketplace consists of a lot of pay per click and affiliate opportunities. A related site (same parent company) is Pay Per Post. I have heard good things about this service but I have not tried it yet. If you want to check that out, go ahead and click on the banner ad at the top of this post. If you do, I get paid 26 cents 
…this is a pay per click banner ad that I am trying out from Social Spark.
Sponsored Reviews- This is a new site that I signed up for last month and I have not written any posts yet. There seems to be a decent amount of opportunities. This site works differently, you search through the advertisers and then you actually place a bid on the opportunity and they let you know if you are accepted. The down side to this service is that they take a big chunk of money from the blogger. For example if a advertiser is paying $20, you only get $12 and some change. That really sucks and is a major reason why I like ReviewMe the best. When they say $50, they pay you $50.
There you have it, the three sites I am using at the moment. I will be sure to continue to write reviews as I try out new sites.
Some of you have asked if I am worried about losing my page rank.. My thought is, what good is having a high page rank if you can’t make money from it.
What do you guys think? Have you used any of these sites or any others? Do you think it is a bad idea overall to write sponsored content?
There is nothing wrong to write sponsored reviews in your blog, as long as you write something that benefit your readers. Regarding the Pagerank, it depends on how you think about that, for me Pagerank is important in order to get direct Advertiser since Pagerank is one of the factor they consider to advertise in our blogs.
Anyway, I’ll not be trying these sponsored review site as I don’t want to insert any dofollow link and it takes risk to Pagerank.
Anyway, thanks for sharing Dan!
Regards,
Lee
Lee Ka Hoong@Make Money Online´s last blog ..The Next Generation Google Search Engine : Google Caffeine
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It always amazes me how some bloggers that constantly talk about making money online automatically tie page rank into the mix.
Traffic = $
the rest is all bows and ribbons… or is it smoke and lizards? I think your making the right call, as long as your bank is swelling up who cares about the rest of it.
Extreme John@ Blogging and Business CEO´s last blog ..U Comment I Follow Blog List
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I have also joined these 3 paid reviews but for my personally, Reviewme is the best paid reivew program
Thanks for great post!
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I haven’t taken help of those sites till yet. Yes I tried Social Spark but the problem is that I m below 18yrs which they don’t accept according to their policy.
There is one more site http://www.BuyBlogReviews.com
It’s also having great amount of reviews available but most are of low price rate.
Typhoon´s last blog ..Make Money Online with T3Leads Pay Per Lead Affiliate Program
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I liked to use blog reviews but i have stopped using them because they always were not right for my blog. I haven’t tried for my recent blog. But i think i might get a lot of money from it.
There is nothing wrong giving reviews for money though banner ads are btter but our blogs have not reached that much popularity
gautam hans´s last blog ..Wibiya – Cool Widget for Blogs
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I would actually have to disagree with Extreme John for once. Why? Simply because a lot of advertisers do look at PR when it comes to advertising. With high PR they have a tendency to pay more. Why? Probably because they still live in the old days, as you mentioned.
With that said I would also emphasise on that PR is not that important as many people tend to say.
Stefan´s last blog ..How to Research Valuable Keywords
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I am not into paid reviews but I think if a blogger wanna do it then he should be free to do it. PERIOD!
Kurt Avish´s last blog ..5 Free Romantic Couples Games
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Is PR really going to get hurt if you just do a paid post every now and then? If you’re only about doing paid posts and having affiliate links, I can see why PR would suffer – and with good reason too.
But a usually valuable blog throwing in a few paid posts for every 5 “normal posts” or something, doesn’t hurt, does it?
Klaus @ TechPatio´s last blog ..Apple Builds Giant Data Center In North Carolina – But For What?
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Thanks Dan for letting us know what that ad was all about. Very cool indeed. Definitely a great way to monetize your website as traffic grows. My only concern would be what companies you are able to review. I would only want to review a company that at least has some relevance to my blogs particular niche.
Doug Dillard´s last blog ..I Used to Be a Dotcom Millionaire, Well at Least On Paper!
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Even I have same plans..I am concentrating much more on getting my ranking high..and after that I am planning to monetize it.
Shadow@Compute Live´s last blog ..Compute Live is now “Do-Follow”
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I have account at ReviewMe, i get hardly one campaign in a month and they pay u late, I still haven’t received a payment which i was supped to get 4 months back. I would recommend creativeonlinebuzz.com i have been paid many times and the cheque in a month.
Vikram´s last blog ..ISODisk : Free software to Mount and Create ISO Disk Image
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I have not had a look at any of the sites you mentioned and will try not to either. I want my blog to be about what I want, not what others want.
I understand that you are doing it for the money and thats great for you, but I would rather keep things simple than follow the rest.
George Serradinho´s last blog ..Serious Monday Roundup #6
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Hi there. All those three sites above are pretty good. Actually they are probably the best currently as they still manage to stay out of the crappy ones like PPP. My choice is also reviewme. I also signed up for their Payoneer card, which is approved automatically. You can choose to get paid via that option, but on the side, do not. Unless you desperately need a debit card, my suggestion is to stay out of it. They charge you for everything and it is not worth it.
DiTesco @Make Money Online Business´s last blog ..Make Money With Neverblue Affiliate Network
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I have always stayed away from paid stuff. I think I have the luck of getting caught. =(
shaunjudy´s last blog ..Best MMA Knock Out(s) Ever!
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Always thought advertising was the way to make $$$.
mba resume´s last blog ..Can anyone help me find some resume building websites?
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Well This is very good way to monetize your blogs, writing reviews about the sponsored sites or things like that. A good way to leverage the blog identity. I have noted this Reviewme.com and I will be using it in my new blog.
Lisa@Christmas SMS´s last blog ..Miss You SMS Missing U Quotes Text Messages
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I only earn from sponsored review. Reviewme is not still accepting my application and another socialspark I also try that but I can not able to earn anything from this program.
work at home´s last blog ..List of dofollow blog that I use to comment
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I heard that if people use this kind of service will get slap by google because it is similar like buy and sell link. I don’t know if this true or not.
Ruri @ Free online article directory´s last blog ..Things You Need to Know When Looking for College Financial Aid
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Blogvertise does, but I’ve heard a lot of complaints about them. There are also some sites where advertisers will pay you to blog about their products/services. They pay much better than the pay per click networks and it you accept the job and do it correctly you are guaranteed that payment.
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