Sponsored Reviews – Overview
If you decide that you’d like to take advantage of EngageWP’s readership, your WordPress plugin/theme will be promoted in the following ways with our WordPress sponsored reviews:
- A comprehensive review written about all major aspects of your product, such as design, functionality, usability, practicality, code, etc. For this to happen, it must be used and put to the test. Reviews are written only after considerable evaluation and testing. Sponsored reviews on EngageWP are written in a strictly objective fashion. If you are looking for a venue to paste your sales copy, this site is not it. Sponsored reviews are published under the “Reviews” category of the EngageWP blog.
- An email will be sent to the EngageWP mailing list within 5 days of publishing the review. To avoid filling up a reader’s inbox with useless email, these emails should provide a real incentive for readers and, therefore, will only be sent if the author is willing and able to provide some type of “special offer” to accompany the review (i.e. a 10% discount for a limited time). See below for more on this.
- A featured section that is included within the content of all EngageWP blog posts. This is where the real exposure will come from as the location is in optimal positioning to catch the eyes of over 400 targeted WordPress users per day (average). This section will remain active for 1 week.
So who will benefit from a sponsored review?
Simple: plugin and theme authors just starting out in the WordPress product market and who have little to no following. An EngageWP Sponsored Review serves as a quick way to tap into an existing readership that is targeted directly at their prospective customers.
Why should I pay for a review on EngageWP?
While EngageWP is not the largest WordPress blog on the internet, it’s run by genuine WordPress fanatics who will dedicate the time to review your product in the most useful, comprehensive way possible to make sure everyone benefits (i.e. you as a seller, the reader as a customer, etc.). Any blogger can charge $100 to paste some marketing copy into a post but does that really do anyone any good? We take the time to thoroughly analyze your product and write a quality review that will rank well in search engines and educate your customers.
How do I start?
Getting started with a sponsored review on EngageWP is intended to be as simple as possible. All sponsored reviews are treated equally (no tiered levels that review “special treatment”) and have no hidden asterisks. To sign up for a sponsored review for your WordPress plugin or theme, you simply agree to the following requirements and fill out the form at bottom of this page:
- A copy of the product must be submitted for testing and review. If a license key is required to unlock any functionality within the plugin or theme, one must be provided as well. All files and license keys (if applicable) are used only for the purpose of creating the review.
- An incentive must be provided for readers. This means that, at a minimum, a unique discount code of no less than 10% must be created and remain valid for at least 30 days after the review has been published.
- A sponsored review fee of $300 must be paid upon registering for a review. This fee guarantees the delivery of the promotional content/methods discussed above.
Other Questions
Will I be able to read the review you write before it is published?
Sure. If you wish, a plain-text copy of the review can be emailed to you prior to publishing. Should this be requested, the review will be emailed at least three days before publishing.
What if I don’t like the review or any specific part of it?
This is something you need to be comfortable with prior to securing a sponsored review. As mentioned before, sponsored reviews are written in an entirely objective manner to ensure quality for EngageWP readers. If you are looking for a way to have your product reviewed in an entirely positive light without any question of quality, EngageWP is not the site for that. Also, if you are not confident that your product will receive a positive review, perhaps it’s not ready to be reviewed. That all said, once a review is secured and the review process has begun, the sponsored review fee is non-refundable. However, if you do not like the review, you can choose to have it remain unpublished…think of it as a paid, independent study. It can be scrapped altogether or picked up after you can address some of the points of issue. Our goal is to work with you on getting your product and brand out there, not to destroy it. A less-than-stellar review will never be used for extortion! 🙂
What if I am not able to provide a discount for my product (i.e. I sell through a marketplace)?
If you can’t provide a discount incentive for readers, you should offer some type of bonus content. From a user’s perspective, reading a review without any incentive on a blog is acceptable because reviews are often sought out by the reader. Reading a review in this manner is entirely voluntary…it’s not thrown at the reader. However, emailing readers is a different story. Sending sponsored reviews to someone’s inbox that lack incentive is, in our opinion, rude and spammy. Therefore, to give email recipients a real reason to open the message, an email must include a sufficient incentive. If one cannot be provided or is not of any real value, emails will not be sent.