I've been commissioned to review the web site Reviewme.com, by Reviewme.com, and I find the concept interesting. During my college days, I (like so many of my fellow students) tended bar for spending money, usually for a weekend's supply of beer. It was the custom and practice to "salt the tip jar," if you will, before each night began. It's a slight variation on the same theme here for Reviewme.com: paying each blogger who opens an account to write reviews of new products to write a review of reviewme.com first. With links from each such review back into itself, likely to increase both traffic and page rank, and improve search engine ranking, the tip jar is being liberally salted as this online business opens the night. I like it.
The business model is simple: enlist bloggers whose sites enjoy good traffic to write commissioned reviews of new products/services, to create the Internet buzz and increase traffic to those companys' web sites. Each blogger is paid for the review, and must disclose that fee arrangement as a part of the review. Ripples extend, buzz grows, traffic and page rank improve, sales grow. Nice model.
The reviewme.com site is simple to follow, clear in its explanation of process, and minimal in clutter and unnecessary content. Both graphical and text calls to action are employed, and the number of steps required to open an account are at the absolute minimum. Each of these aspects represent Internet "Best Practices" and show a well-conceived development plan. The process took less than 3 minutes for me, beginning to end, and at the conclusion I had my first writing assignment - - this review. I wait, now, for a new commission in my chosen field - Food - for my blog, Cape Dining Out, but I am optimistic many will follow.
The model might strike some as hauntingly familiar to many that both sprung up and failed in the late '90s, and, it's not quite totally unique on the web today. But, it's already made TechCrunch, an important hurtle already overcome, and the buzz is good. I think Reviewme.com will be around for a while, as there are a lot of bloggers like me online today, all with lots of words to share. Buzz is buzz, traffic is traffic, and the ultimate measure of Reviewme.com's success will be how well it's business model generates both for companies.
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