I’m always looking for quick, easy ways to boost my income or get points to get things I want. I’m a busy mom and wife in addition to working a full-time job, and life can get expensive. I have a debit rewards card from my favorite gas station that saves me 2 cents a gallon gas and gives me 1% cash back on everything I use it for each month. I use reward caps from bottles of diet coke to get cool things like telescopes and coupons for the Nike store. I tend to lean towards easy and things that I can do here and there as I have time.
I was recently informed of an opportunity to write reviews for pay for Amazon.com. If I write 11 reviews for products I own or have tried, or books I have read, I can get a $5 Amazon gift card. Despite the fact that is relatively easy to do, and would be an easy way to earn a little bit of extra, the fact that I’m being paid to write reviews makes me a bit uncomfortable. Reviews written by paid reviewers will not be marked as such on Amazon’s site, making this a really iffy deal in my mind. There’s no requirement that I had to buy the product from Amazon or even prove that I own or have ever owned the product.
When I am on a website with a review system, I want to believe that that system is unbiased. If you’re paying people for reviews, then how do I know you’re not paying for positive reviews, and not for negative reviews? It’s a very sticky wicket, that’s for sure.
What are your feelings on such things? Do you trust reviews from Amazon now that you know they are paying people to write them?
It sure makes me question them more than I did before. I’ve gotten the emails asking me to write reviews for items I’ve purchased, but never got the offer to be rewarded for writing the reviews.
On the surface, as long as they aren’t asking for a positive review, it doesn’t hurt anything, but it seems like slippery-slope territory for the authenticity of their product reviews.