Does New ReviewMe Model Cheapen Original Intent?

When ReviewMe came on board last year, the blog review service aimed to appeal to high-traffic and perhaps higher-minded bloggers, the types who were panning competitor PayPerPost for not requiring disclosure of ad relationships by bloggers. At launch, ReviewMe allowed advertisers to choose which bloggers they wanted to post reviews of their goods and services. Once they settled on a wish list, ReviewMe would put the call out to the chosen bloggers, who had 48 hours to accept or reject the offer and another 48 hours to post a review of at least 200 words. Minimum charge per post was $40.

The company continues to offer that original service; however, it just unveiled a new option allowing advertisers to create a campaign opportunity and let any blogger in the system agree to write a review. Those reviews start at $10. This system is a lot closer to PayPerPost’s.

It’s an interesting turn, considering ReviewMe’s original offering aims to raise the value of the blog review service and the blogger himself in the eyes of the advertiser. In part because it will let in bloggers who might not have been worthy of using ReviewMe before, I’d expect some may argue the new model somewhat cheapens the original promise. Still, the decision was most likely necessary for ReviewMe to grow its business.