Being paid to write a review?

[Ja sa bong]

Positive reviews are important to any business, products, brand or projects. It's what convinces others to patronize the services sold. A lot of business owners pay for positive reviews be written account their brands in review sites like Trustpilot etc.

Have you been offered a payment incentive to write a positive review? How much did you get paid?

 

[guyyanthony]

i have received reviews, and frankly i don't think they are worth it.

 

[Kyng]

No, and I don't think I'd accept payment for it either. At that point, I'd be under too much pressure to write an overly positive review - and at that point, I would no longer be writing a review: I would be writing an advert.

 

[ClicketyKat]

I didn't realize people paid for those...but it makes sense now that I think about it. I know that some people offer incentives to receive positive reviews and I suppose that it's the same thing as being paid. It's just in a different way.

 

[Uncrowned]

I have had a few Amazon sellers reach out to offer discounts and such for a review. I will generally review the product honestly if I do review it, but normally I mark it for later and never come back to complete the review.

 

[ClicketyKat]

I have had a few Amazon sellers reach out to offer discounts and such for a review. I will generally review the product honestly if I do review it, but normally I mark it for later and never come back to complete the review.

I was actually sent a free product once by someone on Amazon because they wanted a review (positive or not). For another Amazon seller, they offered to reimburse me if I left a review (positive or not) and I quickly took care of that one!!

 

[Uncrowned]

I was actually sent a free product once by someone on Amazon because they wanted a review (positive or not). For another Amazon seller, they offered to reimburse me if I left a review (positive or not) and I quickly took care of that one!!

Sadly most of mine have been products that I really only buy a few times. I believe one was insoles for my shoes and another was a speciality tool for my vehicle. Not exactly things that a month long discount code will help me with.

 

[Nomad]

When I was active on freelancing platforms like Upwork and SEOClerks, I wrote a lot of reviews for clients. Since I was paid to write reviews, I only wrote positive reviews. I ignored all the bad points of the products I was reviewing.

 

[Heatman]

If you're freelancer, you're definitely going to get a lot of such offers. The offers even come from clients who want negative reviews for a particular item/product/service and they are willing to pay well for it. I've received an offer of $50 to write 30 fake/bad reviews for an item.

 

[joelr]

When I was active on freelancing platforms like Upwork and SEOClerks, I wrote a lot of reviews for clients. Since I was paid to write reviews, I only wrote positive reviews. I ignored all the bad points of the products I was reviewing.

A lot of times, manufacturers want a mix of both good and bad, to lend an air of authenticity. Most sites will now highlight both the most useful Good and the most useful Bad review. This is intentional, because if all of the reviews are good, it's too good to be true. You need just enough bad reviews (but not too bad!) to make the other reviews credible.

 

[Nomad]

True indeed. If the review you do intentionally omits negative points, people will easily suspect it to be a sponsored review. However, since you have received incentives, you also cannot be too harsh on your client. You need a balanced approach.

 

[Shortie]

I had heard that people paid for those but I was unsure if that was the case.

I have not been approached to write reviews for a monetary incentive. It does get you thinking though if you spend a lot of time shopping online, how many of the reviews you read are from someone who bought the product or someone who was paid to write the review.

 

[Thomas10s]

A lot of times, manufacturers want a mix of both good and bad, to lend an air of authenticity. Most sites will now highlight both the most useful Good and the most useful Bad review. This is intentional, because if all of the reviews are good, it's too good to be true. You need just enough bad reviews (but not too bad!) to make the other reviews credible.

This so true. If I come to a website where 100% of all the reviews are positive, I will have doubts about them because I know there's no way everyone will be treated right by a company. It's not possible from my experience with many businesses. There will be one or two persons who are left out as aggrieved customers.