The following is a review of the Debt Blog. As you will see by reading other posts in the same category and by reading this post, I make every effort to make the reviews as honest as possible.
As a PF Blogger, I have what I like to call a little bit of experience reading and reviewing blogs. Most PF blogs are all about debt, debt reduction and the methods to relieve ones self from said debt. I have to admit that I was a little surprised when I received the email that notified me that someone had purchased a review of a debt blog. Most bloggers can’t really afford to pay for a review of their blogs. I know I really couldn’t justify the expense.
It didn’t really take me long to figure out why they had requested the review. The debt blog is a blog only in name. It is a sequential series of posts ordered by date of creation. It is hosted on blogger.com. What it also is, is a blog that has existed for over 1 and a half years and has only amassed 14 posts.
An even more complete look at the blog shows that each and every one of the 14 posts is about the author’s FICO score. There are little tidbits of debt removal interspersed with some credit card info and a little on balance transfer arbitrage stories.Mostly it is 14 posts of keywords designed to draw traffic and get funneled through to affiliate sites that make the author money.
Really a fairly cleverly created site. I would imagine that if the author/owner can afford to pay for reviews, that it also is fairly effective as well.
All in all, there are some useful tidbits in the posts. The author is obviously educated on the subject and could probably put together a rather decent string of posts if he wanted to. I can’t really fault him for monetizing the blog in the way that it is.
If the author were to take anything from this review, it is that more frequent posting might actually grow a readership and garner better links and higher ranking in the search engines. While the current method may be making money with little work, a little extra work could multiply the returns.
[tags]debt,debt blog,credit cards,review,reviewme[/tags]
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Out of curiousity, how much did debtblog pay for the review?
While I can’t speak for debtblog, I can probably tell you that I received(or will) $50 for the review. I believe that is what was paid as Review me is having a special this month, but on any other given month, they would have paid $100.
In my defense, I post entries whenever I have something to blog about. I don’t like short blog entries, and I cannot stand the idea of blogging for blogging’s sake. I blog whenever my credit score changes, or if something significant happens in my life that affects my finances. I know my content is honest, revealing and, most importantly, useful. If you want to know what it takes to raise your credit score and get ahead financially, then read my blog.
What I don’t like about your review is that you give the impression that my blog contains little useful content — “some useful tidbits” as you put it. Not a fair way to describe my blog, IMHO.
Having communicated the above, let me write that I am a reasonable person, so I will wait to see what other reviewers have to say about my blog (I paid for 3 reviews via ReviewMe.com, including yours.) If all reviews have a similar tone, then I will return to this blog entry and let you know.