I Sold My Soul for Nothing
Posted by Ken Cheung on Monday, January 8, 2007 in Pay Per Post, Reviews : : 4 commentsIt has been almost three months since my first and only ReviewMe review. I was suppose to be paid $20, but I have not received a penny so far. What's the problem? Well, it appears there is a minimum payout of $25, which makes sense and is low compared to Adsense and YPN. However, I was not aware of this minimum when I signed on for a review of ReviewMe. Take a look at their FAQ:
See, no mention of a minimum payout requirement amount. At the bottom of the "Edit Your Account" area, there is a mention of minimum for a check. I don't remember seeing that before. I don't know if it was there when I signed up or if it was added later. If it was there originally, I would have thought the minimum referred to checks. As you can see in the screenshot below, it's listed as "Minimum Check Amount" (my bold).
You can see why I (and probably other people) might think the minimum only applies to checks and not to Paypal. If I had known there was a minimum, I might have used one of my other sites for the review or not reviewed it at all. I certainly would not have mentioned I was being paid for the review, because I didn't actually get paid. Like I said earlier, I am fine with the minimum payout requirement. I just think ReviewMe should have been clearer about it.
I looked at ReviewMe's profile for my site and noticed a problem. The Alexa ranking has not changed since I joined. ReviewMe reports an Alexa ranking of 212,967 even though it's actually 160,188. I thought the data was suppose to be updated monthly. There are also problems with their Technoratic (n/a) and RSS (no star) data. My Technoratic ranking is actually 50,559 and I have 64 RSS subscribers (30-day average).
Just for kicks, I re-added my other sites to see where they stand. My other four sites would now qualify for the $30 payout. I think this is quite interesting because this site (iZachy) is still stuck at $20 even though it ranks higher than EDA Blog and Daddy Forever.
| Site | Alexa | Technoratic | RSS Subscribers (30-day average) |
Payout |
| iZachy | 160,188 | 50,559 | 64 | $20 |
| Daddy Forever | 188,753 | 80,693 | 49 | $30 |
| EDA Blog | 217,059 | 415,396 | 76 | $30 |
I don't think that check minimum was there when I signed up. I too, haven't gotten one cent. They also haven't updated me, though my stats have improved exponentially. I feel dirty.
Ugh, I hate that. Might be why I haven't done those kind of sites yet.
Probably you already know this, but you can now request to update your site's stats in ReviewMe. Just click a link to update your stats located in the settings of your submitted blog, then ReviewMe will automatically update your Alexa, Technorati, RSS stats.
Pinoy Money Talk
Thanks for the tip. I didn't know you could request an update.