Asking for Negative Reviews of Your Blog Might Just Be The Best Thing You’ll Ever Do.

by Matt on Feb.18, 2007, under Blogging

In Missed Opportunities with PayPerPost I toyed with the idea of creating an opportunity which required the blogger to write a negative review about my blog. Sure enough, last Sunday I set this into action and it has to be one of the best decisions I’ve made so far. The criticism itself was worth treble the $100 I spent on the opportunity!

Anyway here’s what I’ve gathered the following so far from the reviews.

The font is far too small on the page.
The index page seems to go on forever (I’ve since reduced the number of posts that appear on the front to 5 from 10).
Far too many categories (this was before I shaved 20 or so categories from the list).
My posts are poorly organised (I think this related to categorisation as well).
My attempts at “humor” dilutes the content.
The design itself is lifeless, boring and generic. It isn’t distinctive or even remotely interesting.
The content is “inconsequential”.

I’ve taken a good few of these suggestions on board and it’s my aim to work towards improving the blog in the highlighted areas.

As well as the criticism, the “buzz” generated by idea has resulted in an additional 5 or so backlinks from other bloggers.

The reviews definitely added something for the bloggers themselves too by highlighting errors that are common throughout the community. As I’ve mentioned before, I think Paid Posts will flourish as long as they starting adding more value to both parties. Overly positive reviews serve only to bolster the ego of the person who created the opportunity. They also tend to breed distrust throughout the readership. Think about it this way - why should people believe anything you say if you continually whore out your blog with fake sounding reviews?

To summarise - I can’t recommend this approach enough. It was hard to take the influx of criticism to begin with but since then I’ve realised that each piece of criticism has provided me with the basis to make improvements to the site.

11 comments for this entry:

Adam OK
February 18th, 2007 on 7:40 pm
I was one of those guys who did the review and to tell the truth, I am seriously considering having a go too - I mean negative reviews.

However, I disagree with the suggestion that “attempts at “humor” dilute the content.”

I think it makes your blog more unique. It’s not just another cut and paste site like so many others that have proliferated throughout the web.
Radu's Toronto Real Estate Blog
February 18th, 2007 on 11:20 pm
If anything, you are indeed getting truly constructive criticism.

That is worth the money spent.

Great idea.
Matt
February 19th, 2007 on 4:28 pm
And not to mention 10 inbound links!

It’s win, win
David Airey
February 20th, 2007 on 5:57 pm
I’d like to congratulate you on reducing the number of categories from five to ten. That alone would be a great topic for a new post!
David Airey
February 20th, 2007 on 5:57 pm
Oh, and I like your ‘top commentators’ section. Great way to prompt another comment.
Mike
February 21st, 2007 on 7:40 pm
Cool post! Constructive criticism can help you find the problems that you might never see yourself!
danzupancic
February 21st, 2007 on 9:18 pm
good feedback is hard to get, everybody is either too harsh or too positive.
Henry
February 21st, 2007 on 9:45 pm
Clever idea. I hope the people that reviewed the site actually took sometime to come up with some constructive criticism rather then throwing together a post to make some money. I wonder if anyone has ever used pay per post to attack a rival?
Kevin Henney
February 22nd, 2007 on 8:44 am
I love that you made the reviewers incorporate Olde English in their reviews. I think I might have to order some reviews just for the fun of creating bizarre requirements
alzack
February 22nd, 2007 on 1:49 pm
Intelligent strategy there…
Excellent insight
Gregg Hawkins - "Judge One Not By His Charms, But By His Qualities"
February 24th, 2007 on 12:45 am
[...] got this idea after reading the review John Chow did on Take More Risks. I’d have to agree with Matt from Take More Risks, that the best thing for your blog are the [...]