h0bbel.p0ggel.org

As mentioned a few days ago, I got an offer via reviewme.com and I had some ethical concerns regarding it. Basically I decided I would give it a try, and then see how I felt when I was done.

This never happened though, as it turned out that the buyers of the review wanted me to review a physical product, not a website. This meant that the product would have to be shipped to me, from the US to Norway, which pretty much makes it impossible for me to complete the review in the stipulated 48h. I contacted reviewme about this, and got the following reply:

Our system can't support reviews of actual products -- it is designed so that bloggers can review websites, designs and content.

I did, however, get contacted directly by the people that wanted a review and subsequently made a deal with them. I said no to the payment, but agreed to review the product if I got a copy. So, at least I'm home free regarding payment for reviews and I really don't think that I will take up any offers through reviewme again.

The thought process this has stimulated made me realize that I really shouldn't get paid for reviews, but if I were to review a product I should at least get a copy of the product to play with. Reviewing products I haven't tested would make no sense after all.

A while back I signed up for reviewme.com, a "service" aimed at advertisers that want to get site owners to review their products for a price. Unlike others, reviewme has a full disclosure policy so that it's all out in the open. You don't even have to endorse the product, you are supposed to get paid even if you are highly critical of the product/site you are being paid to review. Reviewme then forwards 50% of the payment to the site owner that wrote the review, and everyone walks away happy.

Or do they? I hadn't really given this much thought until I got an email today stating that someone was interested in having me write a review for a product related to virtualization topics.

Sure, I could review the product at hand and get an easy payment, but thats where my qualms begin. How would being paid influence my review? I would not consciously let it have any bearing at all, but how could anyone reading it be sure that I'm not just singing the praise of the advertiser?

In this particular case, it's a product I would very much like to see as well as try out, but the payment bit is putting me off somewhat.

I'm not a purist that want to keep advertising and monetizing of sites like mine off the internet, in fact I have both Google Adsense and Text Link Ads in my sidebar and other places, and yes I do make the occasional $$ of my site. That doesn't directly influence what I write about though, it's just an added bonus that helps feed my increasing photography equipment habit.

So, what do you think? Should I do this initial review and see where it leads and possibly hurt the little integrity I might have, or should I stay put on my high horse and "just say no"

At the time of writing I have 29.9h left to decide if I should do this or not (and no, this is not a paid review of reviewme.com).