On Blogging Australia

I received this email from the ReviewMe crew yesterday, a couple of weeks after submitting this blog to their program:

Hello Andrew Boyd,

We are sorry but the website you have suggested http://onblogging.com.au has been declined at this time. The main reasons a website is declined are:

- The website is a suspected fake.
- The website does not have enough link popularity.
- The website does not have enough traffic.

*Please note that our algorithm that accepts or rejects inventory submissions can make mistakes and if you feel the above criteria does not accurately describe your website, please reply to this email asking for further review by our editorial staff.

No, I’m not going to submit my blog for further review. ReviewMe, you have issues. Or more to the point, I have an issue with the inference that this is a fake blog.

OK, let’s look at the facts:

• The website is a suspected fake: I am not sure how you judge this - I do have about three posts out of 210 that are direct copies of posts on my other blogs. I wrote every word of them myself. Where I do quote someone else - it is a quote, never a whole article - and it is fully acknowledged. I’ve never had anyone ask me to remove a quote, and if they did, I would do so immediately.
• The website does not have enough link popularity: According to Meg’s Australian Top 100 Blogs Index, I’m number 57/100. Technorati lists an

  Authority of 101 and a rank of 65,568. Google has me currently at PR3. None of this is brilliant, but it does indicate some link popularity.

• The website does not have enough traffic: Alexa lists me as 3387 in Australia, 214,931 in the world. I average over 200 pageviews a day.

So - given that there are indicators of link popularity and traffic, I am left to guess that ReviewMe is telling me I am a fake. Peh.

Are you using ReviewMe? Are you happy with them?

UPDATE: I decided to take ReviewMe up on their offer of a review, and sent them the following email:

Dear ReviewMe staff,

I would like a review of the algorithm’s decision.

I’ve framed my case as http://onblogging.com.au/2008/03/06/reviewme-review-this/

Interested in your reply.

Best regards, Andrew

I’ve also asked for comments around similar experiences from others on the Aussie Bloggers Forum. It will be interesting to see who responds first

UPDATE 2: This gets better I just received this email from ReviewMe:

Hello Andrew Boyd,

Your site http://onblogging.com.au has been accepted and we are now ready to begin accepting review orders.

The Financials

The price for a review on http://onblogging.com.au will be $0.00 per review. You may accept or deny any reviews that are ordered.

*Please note final pricing is set in this range by ReviewMe based on current market demand.

Your check will be mailed to you the 1st of every month. You can login to your account at any time to monitor earnings.

ReviewMe

This is what I had to say about it on the Aussie Bloggers Forum a minute ago:

Cool! Now I can do paid reviews for nothing!

At this rate, I can retire in… ummm…. hmmm. Anyone with a Math degree want to help me out here?

Cheers, Andrew

Well, at least I know that they won’t be making a cent in commission on my free reviews!

UPDATE 3: I heard back from Steve in ReviewMe support. The price is not set by the current market demand at all - I set it in my profile settings. I’l let you know how it works out.

UPDATE 4: bit of a saga, but you can now order a review from me from ReviewMe. Yay!