I don’t think paid reviews are dead but I do think they are dying in their current state. However I do hope they evolve.

Not using nofollow, not being creative or different, poor transparency, and paying an unfair commission for the honor of using a paid review service is dying in my opinion.

In the following video I discuss how paid reviews can evolve and find their place on blogs in 2008:

To watch the video on youtube click here

Some ideas I mention are engaging your readers to participate in the “review” or make “feedback” posts or add polls about the product or do a “caption this company’s product picture” etc.

Not sure if we should even still call them “paid reviews” but for sure there are some ethical ways to transparently let people pay their way onto your site, make you some money, and still add some value for your readers.

What do you think? Will You Be Doing Paid Reviews In 2008?