A problem that many new bloggers and website owners face is building up traffic and readership right from the start. So, what can one do to get traffic and gain readers early on? The simple answer is that there are numerous ways to drive traffic to a new site or blog, and there are many things you can and should be doing to gain exposure.

I’ve been talking lately about writing reviews to earn affiliate commissions or directly getting paid to write reviews. But, what if you simply reverse the idea and now think of yourself as the advertiser paying a blogger to write a review about your website, blog, etc?

You’re basically paying a blogger to write a review about your site. There are a lot of people that pay for reviews, whether it is for a new product, service, or a new website or blog to get exposure.

Is this method of advertising ideal? Is it worth spending that kind of money ($500 is a lot)?

Here are what some other bloggers have to say about paying for reviews:

Jason Pereira at TUK states that “You Are a Moron if You Pay for Reviews.”

Fabien at Small Fish Big Money reports that “Paid reviews are good for exposure and publicity…nothing more, I repeat, nothing more.” Check out Fabien’s Shocking Revelations post to read more.

Disadvantages of Paying for Review Posts

The most obvious disadvantage is actually forking over all of your hard-earned money for a review.  The amount differs depending on the blogger you plan to have write the review. For high authority blogs, you can expect to pay $300 and up, or if you want a review on John Chow’s website, you’ll have to hand out a whopping $500. For small to medium sized blogs, $50 is around normal.

The other disadvantage as pointed out by Fabien is that the amount of exposure is actually very dismal. Not only that, any exposure you do get will be gone within 24 to 48 hours. Buzz only lasts as long as the subject is still being talked about. Since the review is a one-time thing, as soon as the review is written and published, any buzz created will be gone soon after it’s read.

All in all, I think if done right (promoting the review yourself and building buzz about your new site/blog), and you choose the right blog, this can be beneficial to gain traffic and readers right from the start. You’ll have to weigh the pros and cons and see if the money you’re about to spend will justify the amount of exposure you think you’ll get.

Something else to consider is that there are sites out there that will review your site, blog, etc. for free. Anthony Dinh of Diaries Of A Blogger asked the question, “Why Pay for Reviews When You Can Get Them FREE? In his post he shares a list of sites that will write reviews about your blog for free.

I urge you to check it out these other blog posts before you pay for reviews. A better method, in my opinion, and something Jason touched on, was writing guest blog posts. I’ll talk about guest blog posting in an upcoming post and explain how you can get much better exposure than paying for reviews, all for free.

What do you think about paid reviews? Is it worth spending the money? Leave your comments below and let’s discuss it.

Every blog owner dreams of having thousands of readers. In fact, I’m one of them. As of right now I only have 27 subscribers to my RSS Feed. I would love to get that number up. But regardless, that tells me I have 27 people who are interested in my blog and what I have to say. Ignoring them would be a disservice to not only them but also myself.

I’ve ran across some popular blogs that have literally 1,000′s of readers. These types of blogs receive many comments to their posts, and some are specific questions regarding what the posts were about.

What I’ve noticed is that some of these blog owners are completely ignoring the readers by not answering the readers’ questions and responding to the comments. For the life of me I can’t understand why.

In my case, I blog because I want to help people and provide valuable information. If someone has a question, I would be doing a disservice by not acknowledging the reader and answering the question. It just wouldn’t make sense.

But this is what I’m seeing on other blogs. If these blog owners truly want to help people, then why are they completely ignoring their readers?

It’s one thing to have great content that brings in readers and lots of comments, but if you’re not paying attention to your readers then what’s the point? Your readers could just go elsewhere to find the information they’re looking for.

I’m saying this from experience. It takes a lot of guts to post a comment on a respected blog for the first time. If I’m going to take the time to comment and make it meaningful, the least the blog owner can do is acknowledge me.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that feels this way. Personally, I’ll probably leave the blog never to return.

I would much rather keep my blog readers coming back time and time again. And, I want my readers to feel comfortable and feel free to comment. If they have a question, I’m going to answer it. I won’t leave them hanging.

So if you’re reading this and have a habit of ignoring your blog readers, just remember, you could lose them and potentially lose some money in the long-run.

If you’re a reader of this blog and have yet to comment, now’s the time. I want to hear your thoughts on the issue.

Oh, and THANKS for being a valued reader of this blog! I truly appreciate it!