As an aspiring entrepreneur, I’ve been trying to find creative ways to monetize my blog. I recognize that there are netizens who disagree with the idea of making money through blogs, but I’m not sure why. From what I’ve seen, I assume that the general consensus for those who feel this way is that advertisements clutter up the readability of the articles within a blog. This can be true, but only if the advertising utilized is done ineffectively. Furthermore, there are multiple ways to monetize a blog to prevent a plethora of distracting ads, and the number of ways is steadily increasing with the growth of the blogosphere.

The most recent example of such an opportunity is SponsoredReviews. This service allows blog authors to write paid reviews for products, services, and website in an effort to promote them. The amount of money you can offer to charge for a review depends upon the popularity of your blog as determined by your Yahoo! search link popularity, Technorati ranking, and Alexa ranking, which are combined into an overall rating for your blog.

Like myself, your initial reaction may be that this will result in your blog containing posts unrelated to the general purpose of your blog, thereby disrupting the flow of your website and potentially scaring away your readers. However, after looking at the service in more detail, I found that this is simply not the case.

SponsoredReviews allows blog authors to browse advertisers seeking reviews before you even agree to post a single review on your blog. The list is automatically limited to only those advertisers whose reviews fall around or below your desired price. This allows you the opportunity to locate available advertising that relates to the topic of your blog. For example, one of the many review opportunities I came across relates to a new website builder. Being that my blog includes content related to website building (e.g. my AdSense and affiliate sites), completing such a review would only add to the information I have to offer here as opposed to detracting from it.

So how exactly does the service work? First you must be accepted as a new member into the site. My blog is relatively new and has a PageRank of zero, and yet I was accepted into the program, so don’t let this act as a deterrent if you are considering joining. Specifically, the following is the list of criteria your blog must meet in order to be accepted as a SponsoredReviews member.

• Your blog must contain at least 10 posts with 200 words of unique content each.
• Your blog must not be completely automated or appear to be created solely for search engine traffic.
• Your blog must have at least a 3:1 ratio of non-paid to paid content.
• You must complete all accepted reviews within 7 days.

I received my acceptance email within about 24 hours. Once you are accepted into the program, you can see what advertising opportunities exist. Included in the listing is the minimum number of words required for a review to be accepted as well as a pay scale. When you bid on a review, you may enter any price that falls within the pay scale as long as your bid does not go above what you listed as your desired price. (The desired price is what you set for your blog as per the screenshot above.)

After you place a bid — or an order as SponsoredReviews calls it — it is put into a status whereby the advertiser must approve it. If the advertiser does not approve it, you will not be paid for a review, so ensure that your order is accepted before you start writing!

Blog authors who complete reviews are paid through PayPal. It is necessary to have a PayPal account in order to be paid, so if you don’t have one, you will need to sign up there before signing up at SponsoredReviews.

As a kickback for the service they offer, SponsoredReviews keeps 35% of what you are paid. What this means is if you offer a bid of $30, you will receive $19.50 via PayPal. Looking at this figure alone, 35% may seem like a lot to be taken out. However, looking at other opportunities demonstrates that this is fairly reasonable. For example, ReviewMe reserves a 50% fee. In the same scenario as before, you would lose an additional $4.50 leaving you with $15 profit. Given the profitability nature alone, SponsoredReviews is obviously the better choice between the two.

If you’re interested in having me review a product, service, or website of your own, visit my SponsoredReviews page.