Beware of ReviewMe

Making extra cash from your blog is always a plus, but has paid solicitation gone too far?

Most people are aware of Google Ads. “AdSense is an ad serving program run by Google. Website owners can enroll in this program to enable text, image and, more recently, video advertisements on their sites. These ads are administered by Google and generate revenue on either a per-click or per-thousand-impressions basis – wikipedia.”

Amazon Associates also offers a paid advertisement service. Amazon Associates uses “[a] computer program [that] reads [your] blog, matches the topics to various books Amazon sells and places ads for those books on [your] site – bloggernews.” By linking to Amazon products and services you can receive up to 10% in referral fees.

Yet another paid for advertisement service is ReviewMe. ReviewMe works more or less like this: you signup your blog, ReviewMe analyzes your blog and gives it a "value" (e.g., $60 per a review), you wait for an advertiser to pick your blog, you write a review based on the advertiser's specs, and you get paid.

According to ReviewMe, “People ignore ads. In much the same way that banner blindness set in, many publishers [notice] their contextual ad click through rates and earnings drop over time.” ReviewMe’s solution is to trick site visitors by making their ads appear as legitimate blog articles. “Because [ReviewMe’s] reviews are not formatted to look like ads, publishers are able to deliver more attention and value than through advertising via any other marketing channel.”

Last month MATCHinform wrote an unsolicited, unpaid review on MillionaireMatch. MillionaireMatch uses the ReviewMe service to pay other blogs to review, and thus advertise, their site. Compare our review of MillionaireMatch with Cupids ReviewMe review.

While I cannot fault someone for trying to increase traffic to their site, the audience should be aware that these blog reviews are solicited and the content is influenced by the purchaser and cash.

Ask Dan and Jennifer is a popular dating advice site that also uses ReviewMe. There are numerous positive reviews by bloggers for their site. For example, see the Ask Dan and Jennifer review by All Tips and Tricks, Finding your Marbles, Balanced Life Center, and Seeds for Wealth (just to name a few). Also, for $150.00 Dan and Jennifer will write a glowing review for your site on their popular blog.

Dating advice blogs, like the Great Mate Debate and Ask Dan and Jennifer, have insightful content. However, when reading and deciding whether to execute their advice, realize the corporate and/or monetary influences that are in place.

It is important to distinguish between corporate/ReviewMe sites and those who aren’t constrained by the internet dating lobbyists. Again, it is not that the corporate/ReviewMe sites don’t offer meaningful advice, after all they have the money and backing to ensure their content is top notch. However, their corporate and promotional interests will always be a factor, and you should be aware of these motivations.

MATCHinform welcomes its 1000 MySpace friend!

Less than two months after joining the MySpace community, MATCHinform welcomes its 1000 friend. Thanks to everyone for your comments and suggestions. We appreciate your input and assistance making MATCHinform a useful tool for the online social networking community.

PlanJam removes MATCHinform's comment

Yesterday, in an attempt to present another perspective on the issue, MATCHinform left a post on PlanJam's weblog in response to their article "How To Handle Your Ex." PlanJam seems to have removed the comment.

It is our hope that our submission did not offend PlanJam's people in any way or violate any of its policies with regard to posting a comment.

The missing posting can be viewed on Matchinform’s Blog, so that readers can decide for themselves if it should have been removed.

We hope PlanJam is not limiting postings to only those that are in 100% agreement with the blog, as we feel an open discussion, with as many perspectives as possible offers more value to readers.

Libelous Posts in Craigslist Personals

The popular classifieds site Craigslist has gained attention once again for scandalous posts in its personals section. This is not a new issue and has been reported by the media for over two years. MATCHinform has previously posted a warning in the form of a press release for users regarding the Craigslist personals section. While we strongly discourage anyone from using Craiglsist to find an honest and meaningful relationship, the salacious posts are fun to read and popular.

While it appears that since Matchinform issued its press release, the number of postings offering illegal services have decreased drastically, according to recent reports from major news organizations, Craigslist is still the subject of investigations for operating a venue that allows such advertisements.

Beyond solicitation and other illegal activities, Craiglsist has also had an issue with its users posting libelous content about third parties. In the last six months Craigslist has added some new features in addition to its self-policing to cut down on these activities.

When one posts a message, there is now a delay of five to twenty minutes for that post to be published on the website. Craigslist appears to have improved their filters to catch proper names and other personal information. Also, one can no longer respond directly to a post. For example, if someone posts "My Boyfriend Loves Apple Pie," there is no longer a link that allows you to respond directly, which would automatically give your post the subject line "Re: My Boyfriend Loves Apple Pie."

By adding / deleting these features, Craigslist has made it more difficult for users to link posts together and thus, search for posts containing libelous content. Without ease and immediate gratification, we feel users are less likely to participate in such activity. While libelous content still gets through these blocks, over the course of the last eight months, we solute the management of Craigslist for making an effort to curtail improper activity on the site, and truly hope this is a continuing effort to make the forum safe, legal, and useful.

Report Myspace Members

There has been some confusion, so to answer all of your questions:

If you file a MATCHinform report on www.matchinform.com for a myspace member, please identify the myspace member by their myspace member ID. This is the number at the end of their myspace profile URL.

To determine a myspace profile ID, first access the member's myspace page by clicking on the appropriate link (for example, click on their picture or name). The myspace profile ID is the number at the end of the URL (after the = sign). Note: the URL is the "http address" in the address bar. Typing their "My URL" directly into the address bar may not access the correct information.

For example, http://viewmorepics.myspace.com/index.cfmfuseaction=user.viewPicture&friendID=12345678
The myspace member ID is 12345678

MATCHinform Matchbooks are Here!

MATCHinform has just received their first shipment of promotional matchbooks. Let us know what you think of the design!

MATCHinform will be handing out matchbooks in our hometown of Washington, DC. If you are in our Nation’s Capital be sure to look for the silver matchbooks with the MATCHinform name.

MATCHinform warns against Craigslist

MATCHinform.com, a website dedicated to increasing safety and efficiency when using the internet as a venue for meeting others, has received many complaints regarding the personals section on Craigslist.

The personals section on Craigslist appears to have become a venue not suited for those looking for any sort of an acceptable relationship and, in our opinion, is reducing online social networking back to the time when such methods were generally regarded as only acceptable to those seeking non-traditional lifestyles.

We acknowledge that many of Craiglist's sections including housing, for sale, and jobs are valuable. As a classifieds resource, the ads in these sections are among the best on the Internet. However, for reasons we do not understand, Craigslist has opted to add and maintain a personals category which, upon perusing one will discover immediately has become a venue for sharing pornography, offering illicit drugs, solicitation of prostitution, and under the rants and raves sub-category, the defamation of character and libel.

Some users of Craigslist have published ads on the website that are clearly personal attacks, and many of these posts include personal information about the victim. Proper names, social security numbers, telephone numbers, addresses, email addresses, places of work, etc. should never be acceptable postings on any website, unless permission has been granted by the individual to whom such information belongs. In our opinion, Craigslist has done nothing to curtail these practices, and by providing the personals section on their site, has actually promoted this activity.

Craiglist is easy to use and allows almost total anonymity for its users. While this might be attractive to those selling or buying used goods, we feel it might also prove very attractive to those with less than noble intentions. Because there is no registration process or user name attached personal ads on Craigslist, individuals posting ads are seldom, if ever, held responsible for its content.

We hope now that Ebay has taken a 25% stake in Craigslist, Ebay will pay attention to this rotten apple in what is otherwise a useful barrel. Until Ebay and Craiglist develop a solution to this problem, MATCHinform cautions individuals about the potential danger associated with using the Craigslist personals section to meet someone online and seriously recommends NOT using Craiglist for the purpose of social networking at any level.

Matchinform Welcomes Itself to Blogspot

At Matchinform we have dedicated our website to improving the online relationship experience. We believe that online dating has now grown well beyond the "computer dating" stigma once attached to it. Internet dating is now a mainstream means of meeting and dating.

Matchinform's founders have discovered that while meeting over the internet may have achieved mainstream status, this medium carries with it inherent risks. Almost everyone involved in this form of relationship searching knows that while each service offers a brief description or profile of the person of interest, the information, unfortunately, is only as good as the person who authored the profile. There are virtually no means offered to verify the identity, character, marital status, or any other aspect found in the profile.

Some studies have shown that up to 20% of the membership of these services are married or otherwise seriously involved in relationships, while others have been very generous with regard to describing their height, income, employment status, education level and more.

The objective of this site is to keep singles from wasting valuable time, when a simple search allows you to spend that time on more productive dating experiences. You will create "credit reports", giving you the opportunity to pass on accurate information regarding your experiences with particular Internet dating members. This information will be available to those using Internet dating services. Through user cooperation, we will expand our searchable database, giving members of the online dating community the ability to use these reports to make an informed decision before communicating with members of dating services. Singles can limit distribution of their personal contact and other information to those who do not meet their dating goals.