There's no way I could resist trying out the new ReviewMe blog advertising platform created by none other than Aaron Wall and Andy Hagans. The idea behind it is to allow advertisers to contact bloggers to ask for reviews of their products or services. Unlike some similar services, ReviewMe has a few aspects that make it more palatable. The most important feature is that bloggers are required to be upfront about the relationship with the advertiser. In addition, bloggers are encouraged to be honest in their reviews, rather than simply getting paid to always write positive reviews.
So, of course, when ReviewMe went live today, I immediately signed up as a blogger. My first review is of ReviewMe itself, and here it is. The signup process was a breeze. It literally took me at most one minute to sign up, and I was instantly approved. I'm not completely sure what criteria is used in the approval process, but it is obviously automated. Since the signup form asked for my feed url, and the payment amount is at least partly based on number of subscribers, I assume it is also a part of the approval process. But that's purely a guess at this point.
The interface, once logged in, is simple and straightforward. They make it pretty clear what the next step is (such as submitting your blog for acceptance). On the advertisers side of things, they can see a list of blog within categories, sorted by advertising price, with descriptions of the blog and a star rating. It appears that the rating is based on Alexa ranking, Technorati score, and estimated number of feed subscribers.
Since all new bloggers have the option of reviewing ReviewMe as their first review, this is the only review request I've had so far. Not yet sure how new review requests come in, but I assume it will be as obvious as the rest of the system is. ReviewMe definitely looks promising, and with Aaron and Andy behind it, I can't imagine anything but success.
This post was a paid review.