PureBlogging

Most bloggers rely on Google’s AdSense or Yahoo’s Publisher Network to monetize their blog, but there are various other means that are more profitable, offer you more control over the content on your blog, and are simply more fun! One very lucrative method of monetizing your blog is through accepting paid reviews.

Paid reviews hit the spotlight with the launch of Pay Per Post in June of 2006 and since that time numerous companies have cropped up offering bloggers the ability to easily accept payment from advertisers to write about their products. Pay Per Post is still the leader in this market, but others you should check out include ReviewMe, SponsoredReviews, and LoudLaunch.

These services offer various terms you must abide by - usually consisting of link requirements (a specific number of links, to specific URLs, using specific text) and word counts. These services also have differing rules in regards to disclosure - take it from me and only go for the services that allow you full disclosure and open, 100% honest reviews. You don’t want to abandon your readers for a few extra bucks.

Pay Per Post
Pay Per Post is seen as the fore-father of the paid reviews industry - being the first to launch out of the gates and the most highly trafficked. Being accepted into the Pay Per Post program is a bit more difficult than the other programs as they validate various stats and metrics from your blog. Don’t be disappointed if you don’t make it the first time - Pay Per Post rescans all blogs in the queue once a month and they’ll let you know once you’re able to accept reviews.

ReviewMe
ReviewMe is probably a close second place finisher compared to Pay Per Post and has a much more use friendly interface in my opinion. ReviewMe’s primary function is allowing you to place a widget/link on your blog that will allow advertisers to submit a review request directly to you. Although, ReviewMe does offer an open marketplace where advertisers can submit requests to the entire userbase, I have found this isn’t used very often. You may find it difficult to generate any substantial amount of revenue off of ReviewMe without dedicating yourself to promoting it within your blog.

SponsoredReviews
SponsoredReviews is probably the least recognized of all the programs but it is by far my favorite. They offer the ability for advertisers to purchase a review directly from your site (like ReviewMe does), but their open marketplace is much more widely used than any of the other services. I have found it easy, and lucrative, to find review requests on SponsoredReviews. One benefit is that they don’t lock you into a specific pricing scheme - you determine the price (based on the advertiser’s budget) and it’s up to the advertiser to accept.

LoudLaunch
LoudLaunch has received a lot of press lately - they are very professional in appearance on par with Pay Per Post. Unfortunately, I have little first-hand knowledge of LoudLaunch because their campaigns are generally too spammy for my purposes. In my experience, LoudLaunch will work great if you enjoy writing about timeshares and vacation packages for $15 a review. Definitely, not my cup of tea (nor my niche).

Michael Wales is currently a Senior Airman in the United States Air Force awaiting a June-July promotion to Staff Sergeant. Michael also writes a blog at http://www.betaflow.com/ about Web 2.0 companies and new media.