ReviewMe is the new kid on the block in the pay-per-something game.  For now, it's competing with PayPerPost, the site that recently won the "Leaves Worst Taste In Mouth" award.  As TechCrunch points out, ReviewMe has two major advantages over PayPerPost:  Required disclosure and honest opinions.  Every post about a ReviewMe product/website needs to be announced as a paid post.  One of the biggest criticisms about PayPerPost was that posts could look like they were unbiased when they were in fact paid.  This wouldn't necessarily change the content of the post, but some people didn't like being left in the dark.  The other big criticism was that advertisers on PayPerPost could require that a post be positive.  This essentially amounts to bribery, and it obviously left many people with a negative view of PayPerPost.  The only real requirement for ReviewMe posts is that they're 200 words or more.  At first that sounds like kind of a lot (I didn't write papers in college; I did math problems), but it turns out that 200 words are pretty easy to come up with when you have a brain oozing with nonsense. 

Another interesting thing about ReviewMe is its payment model.  Different bloggers will get paid different amounts for doing the same thing, based on each blog's "importance" according to Alexa and Technorati.  So basically, it's a popularity contest.  But that's how it works in other venues as well:  A 30-second ad during the Super Bowl will obviously cost more than a 30-second ad during a late-night infomercial.  This means that somebody like zefrank will make around $1000 per post, while somebody like me will make a few soybean seeds and be told to sell the plants to make real money. 

A final interesting thing is that ReviewMe is owned by Text Link Ads, the somewhat elitist marketer with the beautiful website.  TLA is sort of a big force on the internet; it just keeps popping up everywhere. 

This is a sponsored post. #technology