Hours after I posted the review for Ghost Action 1.1 I received my free license from GhostParkSoftware. I want to thank Jacob Wallström for his work – which is Ghost Action if you didn’t realized this yet – and for the opportunity he gave to me. I will surely use this license, and, who knows, maybe in the future I will completely switch to this GTD app.
And this lead me to an interesting analyse. The “Review my software for a free license” it’s a damn good marketing model. It’s incredible how simple and effective this is: you just promote your product by letting the user speak about it. Wonderful. The Ghost Action license is the second one I received after this type a review. The first one was for MindManager from MindJet, and guess what: I becomed a regular user of MindManager.
And I am so enthousiastic about the results that I even initiate – with the kind help of the guys from MindJet – my own contest [link] which have a free license as a prize. It’s for real, check it out, and give us the best mind map, or use of a mind map you can.
Back to the original subject, you may ask: “Why is this model better than a professional review?”. I will answer first: “I don’t know if it’s better, I jus know it works”, and I will give my 2 reasons:
- first of all, because it’s punctual, it only show the views of a single, non-affiliated person, which gave much more credit to the review than a “maybe biased by the content manager/or editor/or client” review in a professional review site
- and second, because it’s balanced by other posts in the user’s blog, if the guys is deluded, you can qiuckly find out just by browsing a little more. And you can also realise if he knows what he says. Also, from this viewpoint, a blog with only reviews, as interesting as it might sound, it’s less creditable than a regular blog with only several reviews
So, if it’s really working, let’s stick to it, right? And I think it’s time to announce another contest that would take place here, most probably next month, which involves another mind maping software, called Concept Draw. More details soon.
And since I talked about the software that I already reviewed and got a free license, why not start a little meme and list 4 software packages that I really want to review and get a free license for that. Here’s my list, feel free to continue this on your blog, with your 4 software packages, just be sure to link it back, so the actual list of desirable software could be tracked by their producers:
- Life Balanced, I really liked the “auditing” feature, and I think it’s the only one that had something so elaborated on this functionality
- of course, OmniFocus, when it will be launched
- Devon Think, I really like the power of the digital collections and as far as I know, Devon Think scores big at this
- and, finally, of course, I am soooo modest, Mac OS Leopard, if you don’t mind. Please don’t mind. Pretty please…
And before we close this, just a quick thought: I recently saw that Review Me is making a promotion, cutting off 50% of the review price, and giving it all to the blogger. Meaning they will not get anything financial out of it. The promotion last only for February 2007, if I’m not wrong… So, that could mean the free reviews are taking out more and more from the market? Anyway, I personnaly think that a paid review is also a good and decent method of promotion. As long as anybody knows that is a paid review.
Ups, I almost forgot: here is the mind map used for this, just as a quick way to let you know the advantages of mind maping: Review My Software For A Free License (1008). Feel free to use it if you like to. The entire post, with the mind map drwaing, took me less than 45 minutes. Nice, isn’t it?
Technorati Tags: review, software, marketing, contest
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m not so sure about the “independent” review you would get if you know the reviewer is either getting paid for the review or maybe receiving a free license, as you describe.
However, there is only one way to find out and that is to try it! Besides, a bad reputation is earned very quickly on the internet, whereas a good reputation is very difficult to build, let alone maintain!
On the same topic, maybe PayPerPost may be interesting for you or other readers, they offer payment for reviewing blogs and products I believe.
I know about PayPerPost, and I will try them soon. But the very fact that you review something, and you are clearly stating that you are receiving something in exchange, should give enough credibility to your post. I don’t really see nothing bad here, because they are not paying for “good” review, they are paying for a review. And yes, I really think you can get your moneyt even if you write a not so favorable review…
It’s an interesting subject though…
I agree with gtdfrk about the dangers of this model. I also wrote about Ghost Action, and decided not to make use of their offer in order to maintain my credibility. The choice whether or not to review a product should be made independently from any reward.
Hmmm, maybe we are getting too cautious here? I think using or not using an incentive it’s entirely up to you. Making public this fact is the key. Look at the Merlin Mann post about Stickkit. It’s less viable because Merlin Mann it’s on the Stickkit adviser board? I don’t think so. As long as the incentive status of a review is public, you always have credibility. The value of the post is however decided only by the user, who is always smarter than we think.
A review on a magazine that shows on the next page an ad for the just reviewed product is, in my opinion, far less credible than a blog review where you clearly state that you get or not get incentives, and the value of them… For the reasons I just wrote: you have a personal opinion, and also you have the other posts on the blog and you can make a balance…
Dragos, Jeroen, there is only one way to find out if this works or not by just trying it. I think I might like to toy with the idea of reviewing a product or blog or whatever. But I will definitely show clearly what I’m getting for the review and I would insist on reviewing more than one product or blog from the same category. Simple advice to everybody: if it doesn’t feel right then don’t do it. If it does feel right then try it and see how your readers respond! Let’s keep each other informed on how it’s working out…
Good point, gtdfrk, as I told you I haven’t had any problem yet with any of my reviews, either with or without incentives… But that’s interesting, let’s keep us informed