SponsoredReviews is kind of an oddball site, one that I have not been successful getting any placements. To explain, SponsoredReviews is one of the many sites that have sprung up offering sponsored posts for bloggers.

The model for this is quite simple: advertisers need places to publicize their websites, bloggers offer a targeted audience, regular updates and, in many cases, a great venue to host such advertisements. To fill this void by matching advertisers with bloggers, a number of companies have started offering middle-men type services to aggregate either offers for bloggers (as in Payperpost.com) or aggregate blogs for advertisers (as in ReviewME.com).

Into this market jumped SponsoredReviews whose model is a mixed model of matching bidders with offers. The system is simple: Advertisers offer opportunities, and bloggers offer blogs. Both have ranges of pricing which can be edited. Bloggers log in and check out the offers from Advertisers, as in the graphic.

They then submit offers based on their understanding, and advertisers log in and can make counteroffers, until a deal is struck. In principle, this should involve several rounds of toing and froing to reach consensus.

In practice, there are a number of problems with this system that make the system less than optimal for all users. The first is that Sponsored Reviews itself doesn’t present enough information to reviewers or advertisers about the process, resulting in aberrations of the process. Sponsored Reviews needs desperately to educate all its users to the process as it really is intended to be: a match making service that allows multiple bids until consensus is or is not reached. That is deal making.

The second problem is that bidders on both sides are seeking to maximize their own prices or costs. Increasingly advertisers are restricting the range of prices that they are willing to accept for the opportunities. Thus, seeing ranges as little as $5 or $0 is not unusual now: e.g. 100 words: NewHomesForSale.*.* – Largest * Property $5 – $5 is currently on offer. Bloggers are on the other hand increasing the prices of posting on their blog well above what advertisers are willing to pay for their blogs. The result is that fewer deals are getting done as both parties are being marginalized. That’s okay for both parties as they can find other places to match their deals, but for Sponsored Reviews, it’s not good. They really need to encourage both parties to respond to offers by bidding more creatively and more frequently.

Lastly, the speed at which most offers are reviewed is way to slow for such a service. I’ve placed 14 offers and been refused on 5. But 9 offers are still outstanding for advertisers. This is money on the table that is going to get up and leave unless the speed of dealing is cranked up.

So, while I was initially impressed with SponsoredReviews.com smooth operations, I feel that there are currently significant hurdles that need to be overcome before they can be a match for the older and more effective solutions, like Payperpost.com. For bloggers, sign up anyway as it’s free and you’ll have fun exploring the system. For advertisers, sign up but be prepared when you don’t get any bites, or initial offers are too high. The system is designed to encourage experimentation: a fact that is lost on most users, and the importance of which seems lost on SponsoredReviews.com administration.

I’m an unsuccessful user of SponsoredReviews.com but this is not sponsored.

Credit Cards provide a convenience, a record and many valuable services for their members, not including the actual revolving loan features. When you consider the loan facilities typically provided, it is easy to see why credit cards have replaced checks and debit cards have not been as popular. In fact, credit cards have replaced even cash on most larger purchases. I daresay there are even people who bought a cappuccino on a credit card! So credit cards are perhaps the most convenient way to keep up with the demands of the modern society and as anyone who likes shopping knows, it’s much easier to sign a credit card voucher than fumble for coins and notes in your wallet or purse!

With so many different types of credit cards available,CardGuide offers a website that helps UK users find good credit card deals. CardGuide recently purchased a link on this website, and in return, I promised a review of their website as a way to say ‘thank you’. As you know, this is a good deal for them: they get a year’s link plus a permanent entry on my blog. Blog entries really do help backlinks and PR rankings.

CardGuide’s Raison-d’etre is the list of credit cards that they offer as you will see from the graphic below. In fact, the database allows viewers to rank and sort the available choices by the type of features that they are looking, say, 0% offers , cashback, etc. It works quickly and intuitively just and the page seems to reload quickly, too, so visitors will find that this tool simple and natural. The results are laid out in a table below, with information about each of the offers and an apply now button on the right. Of the four offers that I clicked, I was taken to application forms as promised in each case. This might seem a dumb thing to say, but in a recent review, a similar website advertising loans couldn’t keep their information uptodate. In fact, many of the loans were withdrawn. It’s important to keep information timely for this kind of business, otherwise potential clients will simply walk. In addition, to the offers, there are a number of credit card articles that are worth reading, and unique to the site. A google search revealed that several of the articles were in fact unique to this site.

Challenges
There are three challenges, some of which are easy to remedy, but the first one is perhaps not so easy.

Perhaps the UK Credit Market is smaller, but there weren’t that many credit card offers, and once ranking by feature was introduced, the number of choices was further limited. Also, I noted that there were quite a few major banks not represented in the list, including HSBC. Obviously, part of the problem is that credit card offers aren’t always available, as they are special offers! The counterbalance is that the information seems very fresh, although choice is more restricted. If your customers aren’t attached to a particular provider then for the webmaster, this shouldn’t be a problem. I don’t know if the webmaster is working with one or more affiliate programs, like Commission Junction, but it would be a good idea to look at others, too.

I noted that the website has a newsletter feature that users can subscribe to, as well as RSS feeds. Both of these really will help to bring back users to the website but please give these prominence. Both of them are tucked away at the bottom of the page. Can these go at or near the top of the page? I think subscribers are more likely to find them there than elsewhere!

Your Google Ads could be better placed. Obviously, the Google Ads could be seen as competitors in some respects to your affiliate links. Larger google boxes like the square or rectangle boxes placed alongside the text (like the graphics in this review) would result in more click-throughs for Adsense, and higher Adsense Revenue. Also, you should place the Ads (whichever form) above the crease. In many cases, this will lead to a higher CPC ratio. Google Ads seem to ‘know’ where they are on a page.

Lastly, and most importantly, get a Privacy Policy on your website. A link next to your sitemap will suffice, but a clear statement of your privacy terms will increase the confidence levels of your visitors, even if they don’t visit it. Also, as I found out from Commission Junction, not having a privacy policy on my websites limits the offers that I can receive from financial institutions, many such institutions are restricted by their own rules from dealing with sites that do not offer a privacy policy. My own blog really needs one, too. In fact, if you collect any kind of personal information, including names, email addresses, etc., you really should have one. I’m working on mine at the moment.

Summary
Overall, this is a nicely laid out website, very responsive with fresh offers and unique articles. For the webmaster, finding more juicy offers and improving your ads/rss/subscriptions placements on the site should result in much higher traffic, returns and click throughs on both ads and applications.

Sponsored Post.