"The two sites that were most frequently mentioned by programmers who contacted Wired.com were TheiPhoneAppReview.com and AppCraver.com. Both sites appear in the top four Google search results for the search term “iPhone app review.”"
"Driven by that demand, app review websites are offering to “expedite” reviews — that is, bring apps to the front of the review queue — in exchange for a fee. But at least one site, ThePhoneAppReview.com, has gone even further, and threatened to shun products whose developers haven’t paid for reviews."
"The two sites that were most frequently mentioned by programmers who contacted Wired.com were TheiPhoneAppReview.com and AppCraver.com. Both sites appear in the top four Google search results for the search term “iPhone app review.”"
"Driven by that demand, app review websites are offering to “expedite” reviews — that is, bring apps to the front of the review queue — in exchange for a fee. But at least one site, ThePhoneAppReview.com, has gone even further, and threatened to shun products whose developers haven’t paid for reviews."
Anyone have an experiences?
it is business as usual. if you want publicity then you need to pay. Every body need to make money for a living. I will pay a fee if it generate more sales. Why not?
I maintain my view that sites that charge for reviews are unethical; and should be avoided by both developers and customers. As a customer I see no reason to trust sites that are providing a review service paid for by developers, as a developer I see no reason to pay for a review I wouldn't trust as a customer.
I've had reviews from TouchAholics.com, iPhoneGamerBlog.com and IndieAppolis.com, none of which charged for review. I think we should try, as devs, to draw attention to sites that provide reviews for free to help both them and us. And help guide more ethical standards generally.
I'd note, as well, that most of the biggest iPhone games sites have rejected this practice.
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AppVee does reviews when you sign up with their MediaBrain media package... meaning that some lady calls you over and over again on the phone trying to get you to buy some advertising. And here I thought they were going to call me to talk about the apps. Bleah.
it is business as usual. if you want publicity then you need to pay. Every body need to make money for a living. I will pay a fee if it generate more sales. Why not?
It's unethical because they are presenting themselves to the public as unbiased review sites. It's a bad deal because they have no affect on sales.
It's unethical because they are presenting themselves to the public as unbiased review sites. It's a bad deal because they have no affect on sales.
Quote:
Originally Posted by cakesy
...threatened to shun products whose developers haven’t paid for reviews."
Based on the accusation in one of the articles, it's downright criminal. In my limited understanding of the law, "pay us money or we'll do you harm" is extortion, no?
It's unethical because they are presenting themselves to the public as unbiased review sites. It's a bad deal because they have no affect on sales.
I think I start getting what you guys mean by unethical. At first, I think they might not able to get enough money from ads. So why not charge money to review app? Since reviewing app take time and time is money. except if they said they are unbiased then it is different.
No problem as long as they disclose that. Something like "This is a paid review".
From one side - if they say "this is a paid review", then they might lose some popularity. People will think "ah, it's just an advertisement". That's why they don't mention that and pretend it's just a review site. But they can't have both ways. They either need to do it for free and then claim it's unbiased or charge money, but mention it.
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Both sites mentioned in the subject have almost no traffic on them according to alexa.
There is nothing to pay for.
Is there a sence to pay for almost nothing?
And there is lot more of such dead sites with no real people visiting them. Most of the traffic - poor developers that post review requests there in deperate hope of being published for free
I see quite a number of such sites that claim themselves as #1 or top review sites and only complete idiot can belive these lies as a quick analysis shows the truth about their real positions and rankings.
Not only they claim themselves being big sites - they impudently demand not that small money for reviews and etc. like $500 monthly for ads on a site with 50 developers lurking on their site instead of real users while the appshopper.com for example offers lesser price and brings significally more traffic.
Most of sites with the real traffic take no money for reviews.
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Is there a sence to pay for almost nothing?
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Yeah.. just to have a video done for $25. Last time I have spent 3 hours for my lousy video (I don't have neither equipment nor experience for even average quality video). So, yeah, I'd pay $25 to save me 3 hours and have some review video (I assume I'd have rights to distribute it).
I don't think they are committing any sin by offering paid reviews (as long as they disclose it). Yeah, major sites do it for free, but that's major sites. Yeah, Google offers "Google Earth" for free - should we now blame some indie dev for trying to make a 3D app with 10 times less functionality and charging money for it? Don't like it - don't buy it.
Getting to be reviewed by major sites is next to impossible. They more likely have deals with EA, Gameloft, etc. They make consistent income for reviewing major players. So small indies need small review sites. Apples to apples, oranges to oranges.
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That is the only reason why the small sum like $25 can be paid to native english speaking reviewer.
I've also ordered one review from one site. It was more or less nice but as a developer I've seen that the reviewer did not catch the main principles of the application thus I've bought Sony VCR and now recording everything myself.
I don't think they are committing any sin by offering paid reviews (as long as they disclose it).
That's rather the point though, isn't it? These sites aren't disclosing it. They're parading as unbiased review sites when they're actually pay-for-review sites. As for needing smaller sites, that's true, but there's plenty of more ethical small review sites out there too.
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Dodgy review sites charging for reviews, beware TheiPhoneAppReview.com and AppCraver
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