Make Money Resource The Make Money Resource
Me writing this blog is not just about me making an income online (although it is about 90% of that if I’m being completely honest), but it is also about helping you guys and girls make money as well. And to do this I need to be completely honest all the time, so you should not be too shocked when I start this review off by saying that Link From Blog is quite possibly the ugliest sponsored post network that I have ever come across.
Now take a moment to let that sink in.
This is not going to be a demolition job of them and their network, far from it, I actually look upon them quite favourably, but the fact that they have a horrible design layout can not be ignored and it almost put me off signing up with them.
The design is not the only thing that needs drastic improvements (sorry to go on about the design but it is really horrible), they need to have a look at the way the review opportunities are listed. There is no easy way to find out which reviews are new and which ones have been there for months or even years.
The new opportunities are supposed to be marked with the word ‘New‘ coloured in red but most of the time this does not happen, in fact it was by sheer luck that I discovered that they have developed a program for your computer which delivers to you an update when a new opportunity goes live.
This really is a nice little program, and every review network should be using something like this, but why oh why are Link From Blog not shouting about this program from the rooftops and linking prominently to it on every page of their site?
Not only is this little gem of a program hidden really well, but they also seem to want to hide their help pages.
For example there are three types of opportunity:
Post: A post means the advertiser requires that you slip their link and anchor text into a blog post. It doesn’t have to be about their company or product, although it would obviously hurt your blog if you did not try and blend the link into the article.
Short Review: The advertiser requires that you publish a short review of their company or product on your blog. This would be about 50-100 words long and normally requires a link or two being slipped in.
Detailed Review: The advertiser wants a really detailed and in-depth review done of their company or product. This will normally includes several links and even pictures some times. You’re looking at about 250+ words.
When I first signed up to the network I was not aware of what those three option meant, I had to really dig out the help page that relates to explaining them. Again this is the kind of thing that they should be putting out front.
The types of opportunities you will come across are very wide and range from credit cards right through to security and education, so probably something for everyone. Although the prices can be rather ridiculous at times. $0.10 for a post? $1.00 for an in-depth review? No thanks!
They do have an affiliate program, which is something that I think makes a network a whole lot better when you can earn a passive income. But before you get too happy about that even this is not as it should be. Any blogger or advertiser signing up under you has to earn/spend $500 before you will receive your referral fee of $50.00.
Even though $50.00 is a nice offer, I do think a minimum of $500 is a tad high, especially for a blogger as most bloggers won’t earn that much with 19 Blog Review Networks, never mind just one. Their payout of $50 is rather high as well I fancy.
As I said, this is not meant to come over as a demolition job. They do have a lot of happy members, and a regular stream of opportunities and as I write this they have just shy of 800 review opportunities on offer.
Pros:
– Regular opportunities.
– Wide range of topics to blog about.
– They pretty much take any blog.
– They offer bonuses of up to $4 for submitting additional blogs.
– You can spend any money you earn on advertising.
Cons:
– Horrible, horrible, design.
– Hard to determine new offers from old offers.
– High $50 payout minimum.
– Need referrers to earn/spend $500 to receive your bonus.
Don’t be afraid of signing up with them though, if you have a PR2+ blog then there is a great chance you can earn enough to hit that $50 mark within a month, sooner if you add more than one blog.
