No, my blog hasn’t turned into a review site yet. It so happened that the two were sent almost one after the other. I’ve been a pretty lazy blogger lately anyway—I really don’t know what to make of the Kutitots redesign (well, there goes the bloggies!). I’ve been planning to enter the new design in the 2007 bloggies, but the deadline is already tomorrow so forget it.

The following is a paid review through ReviewMe for Traveler’s Joy.

Maybe I’m a bit biased when it comes to the light blue and orange color scheme, but design-wise, I can honestly say that they did a good job. The soft tones set the “vacation mood,” making you really look forward to your honeymoon. Since in the design of the site is already good, I decided to focus on its functionality.

I was a bride myself about a month and a half ago, but I never really experienced signing up for gift registries. My job dictated that I stayed at home (my work is home-based), so I didn’t really have the luxury of going out and signing up for registries at the mall. I don’t know why, but most (if not all) registries here in the Philippines require both the couple to be physically present at the shop to sign up.

Luckily, the site owner allowed me to create a sample account in order to test the site for my review. Read more

Once again I apologize for the seemingly lack of updates. A lot has been happening the past few days, and I haven’t really gotten the time to sit down and blog—a cousin came to visit from Canada, my sister celebrated her 21st birthday, a new template for Kutitots is underway, and Marc decided it was time to do some very minor (but work-intrusive) renovations on our house. So yeah, I probably won’t blog if I wasn’t requested to. Heh.

The following is a paid review through ReviewMe for CardroomSupply.

I wasn’t really planning to take this review. I thought I had to review some Poker product, and between you and me, I’m not a gambling person. Though a few of my cousins play this game (without actual money involved), I honestly have no idea how it works. Good thing that the review requested of me is of the site’s design, and not of the products. Read more

Sorry I haven’t really been posting much the past few days. There was a lot of stuff I had to take care of. Actually, there are still more things I have to take care of, but hey, I just can’t leave this blog hanging.

Anyway, if you’ve been regularly visiting my site, you’ll notice that some ads have been coming up before and after my entries. Well, I did put them, so you can be assured that you’re still reading the same site and not some spammy thing.

I actually started with monetization on my geeky blog, Filipino Web Designer, about two months ago. My earnings from Adsense are really pathetic, but the Text-Link Ads (TLA) ones weren’t bad. I figured that since Filipino Web Designer isn’t a personal blog, I don’t see any moral obligations to not put ads there.

I don’t really know what came over me that made me decide to monetize this blog. It’s always been just a personal playground for me. Maybe because I’ve been designing blogs with ads integrated into the layout? Probably. Regardless of which, who am I to refuse disposable income for doing something I love?

ReviewMe came at an opportune moment. I got the email notification about the new service this morning, and seeing all the good response from my blogger friends, I jumped right in. Anyway, just so you know, the preceding is a paid review by ReviewMe.

I have yet to see the real potential of ReviewMe, to tell you the truth. I’ve only experienced a “sneak preview.” It works basically the same way as Text-Link Ads (not surprising, since this new advertising system was launched by them). You sign up, then submit a maximum of six blogs for their review. If your site qualifies, then you just have to wait for advertisers who’d like to have a sponsored review on your site.

Pretty easy? Yeah, it’s easy. But there’s a catch. You must have enough Blog Juice to actually earn something significant.

I found this out by comparing the price-per-link of my two blogs (Filipino Web Designer and Kutitots) on TLA with that of ReviewMe. With TLA, my projected earnings for Filipino Web Designer are higher than that of Kutitots’. But with ReviewMe, it’s the other way around.

Filipino Web Designer has a higher PageRank than Kutitots, but Kutitots has a higher Blog Juice. So from there, I concluded that maybe these two systems use different basis for determining the price. Anyway, I don’t mind the difference. Both are mine, so what the heck. Heh.

One of the things I like about this ReviewMe thingie so far is that they don’t require positive reviews of the advertisers. Read the FAQ, you’ll see what I mean. As a daughter of a photojournalist for one of the country’s top daily newspapers, I know for a fact that these advertisers will be taking a huge risk with this disclaimer. For the past years, my dad had brought home extra cash and a lot of freebies from some of his photo assignments. Some of those people whose photos he took do their best to make my dad and the writer feel appreciated so they’ll have good photos and a nice review.

But with ReviewMe, it’s different. Advertisers can’t require good reviews. If their product or service is crap, then I can say that it’s crap, without any effects whatsoever on my earnings.

ReviewMe, though still a noob like me (hehe), seems to be a promising service. I happen to already like TLA, and since ReviewMe was launched by the same guys, I guess we can expect a lot from it in the near future.

As I said, I’m still a newbie with all this pro-blogger thingie—it doesn’t matter, some of the Top Pinoy Probloggers are good friends of mine hehe I can ask them for advice (come on now, guys, you will help me! Ahaha)—but so far, I’m enjoying the extra cash. It’s nothing compared to my design-related earnings, but hey, it doesn’t hurt to get some extra moolah from something I like to do just for fun.

Besides… Any extra moolah would be great, you know. The clock is really ticking, in a few days, I’ll be getting married. And it would be really nice that Marc and I will have a bit of pocket money when we go to Hongkong for our honeymoon (courtesy of my generous uncle and godmother).