Selling out? I don't think so. . .

A little while back, I stumbled across Neatorama's review of Victoriana Magazine. At the end of the post was appended this message: The review above was sponsored by Victoriana Magazine, through the ReviewMe website. Although I am compensated for this review, the words and opinion, with exception of the quoted passage, are all mine. There was no editorial pressure to write only positive reviews.

"Wow," I thought. "Someone is getting paid to read about Victorian stuff and write about it? And there's no pressure to write positive reviews? Where do I sign up?"

I clicked on over to ReviewMe, a service that helps purveyors of products and services use blogs to disseminate word of their offerings. I thought "What the hey?" and signed up The Clutter Museum as a potential review blog. And this morning I received word from ReviewMe that I've received my first request for a review.

I signed on to ReviewMe as much for the fun of discovering new sites and services as I did for the nice little sums they pay their bloggers. (Pay depends on a blog's Alexa ranking, estimated subscribers, and other such statistics. ReviewMe splits the price of a review 50/50 with the blog's author. Blog authors make between $20 and $200 per review.)

Some of you may find such freelancing/sponsored posts distasteful, and if so, feel free to skip them. That said, I've chosen my ReviewMe keywords carefully, and will only be reviewing sites and other resources that may actually be of interest to my visitors. In addition, I'll always highlight the fact that a review was solicited--a step which ReviewMe requires of all its reviewers, and something that I think is very important.

If you're curious as to what my first review will be about, click on over to The People History Site. The site aggregates ordinary people's memories of their lives from the 1920s forward. A visit to the site may prove worthwhile merely to find out what happened the year you were born. For example, my birth year was a banner year for movies Mr. Trillwing has either made me watch or has pestered me to view (OK, not so much with the Benji). Here's the list provided by the site:

* Jaws
* The Towering Inferno
* Benji
* Young Frankenstein
* The Godfather Part II
* Funny Lady
* Murder on the Orient Express
* The Return of the Pink Panther
* Tommy
* One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

But I digress. . . Go check it out and then come back in a day or two to read my review and see if we view the People's History Site's kind of effort in the same light.