iPhone App Websites Charging for Reviews?

Apple has not only managed to change many industries with the iPhone, it has also enabled many of us to attempt to make a living off of the iPhone. There are plenty of iPhone app review sites on the Internet these days. The decent ones do get a lot of traffic and have an easier time breaking even and even make a profit. So what is an app review website? We all refer to them to find new cool applications and read honest reviews on them. Nobody wants to pick up an app without knowing what it’s really capable of and how it can perform. Besides, iPhone app portals can be useful in helping iPhone owners find new apps to play with. It’s easy to assume that the app review websites that you find on Google are honest and provide accurate reviews of iPhone apps. But can you trust them when they charge for their reviews?

As someone who has worked for an iPhone app portal in the past, I can tell you that trust is everything if you want your website to have any success. Charging for app reviews is not exactly how one can gain trust in this business. Developers are not stupid, and they are going to share their experiences with your website with their colleagues. So getting money under the table to write reviews almost always backfire on app portals.

Not every developer is going to agree to pay for reviews. Many developers don’t have trouble finding partners and ways to promote their apps. But if you have spent months developing an app and are desperate to make it, you may be prepared to spend some money promoting your app on these review sites. That’s how some iPhone app websites take advantage of developers as Wired puts it:

They prey on people who need exposure. It strikes me as a paid ad, really. They never seem to actually ‘review’ it

It’s not easy to find these websites these days. When you read a review, you can almost tell whether it’s real or not. If it sounds like an advertisement, it probably means that the people behind the site are not putting enough time to write real reviews or are just getting paid and are lazy to do their job.

charging for writing reviews is truly the best way to sink your app portal. How can one stay neutral and write an honest review when they have been paid? Thanks to the FTC, iPhone app websites will have to disclose what they are getting from developers. So if they are charging money, they’d better put a disclosure line under their paid posts. It’s always tough to judge people without knowing all the facts. That’s why being transparent pays here. If you are an iPhone site owner and are getting paid for your reviews, just put all the facts in front of your readers. Misleading them is not going to work out for them nor for you.