BinaryWolf

Wirefly Mobile sells cell phones and wireless plans.

You can view all of the phones they sell by carrier:
Alltel, Amp’d Mobile, Cingular Wireless, Nextel, Sprint, T-Mobile, U.S. Cellular, Verizon Wireless.

You can view all of the phones they sell by brand:
Amp’d Mobile, Audiovox, Blackberry, Firefly, Kyocera, LG, Motorola, Nokia, Novatel Wireless, Palm, Samsung, Sanyo, Sony Ericsson, UT Starcom.

Wirefly has created a Wireless Basics resource, where the cell phone features and wireless plans options are explained in common terms, so that you can use this knowledge to decide what’s more important to you. You will find an easy-to-follow explanation of such cell phone features as:

Advanced Features: What makes a cell phone more than a phone, such as camera, video recorder, music player and data capability. Messaging features: The ability of a cell phone to send and receive text, multimedia and other types of messages. Personalization and Fun: What makes a cell phone a fun companion for games and everyday entertainment. Core features: The essential applications of each cell phone model. Battery Life : The essential applications of each cell phone model. Technical specifications: What main technologies the phone employs to link to its network and perform its main tasks. Carrier-specific features: What unique technical benefits different wireless carriers offer for their cell phones.

I’ll throw in a couple of tips for you when shopping for a phone. Make sure one battery charge on your phone covers at least three to four hours of talk time. Keep in mind that usage affects battery life, as does the signal strength of your cellular service. A phone that constantly searches for signals will run itself down quickly. Depending on the phone, recharging the battery should take about an hour or longer. Also, ask about E911: This is especially important if you are purchasing a cell phone to replace your home phone line. You should ask your provider if its emergency services can track a handset to its exact location. Enhanced 911 service is especially important if you intend to use the phone for emergencies.

I have yet to purchase anything from their site, but it’s worth a look to see the attractive layout and large variety of products and services available in one place at the Wirefly Mobile site.

I am disclosing that this post is a paid review and that any paid-for-review that I accept will be placed in the sponsored post category, as is this post.

In an earlier post I wrote about my experience with PayPerPost, a sponsored posts program. At the end of that post I recommended Text Links Ads (TLA), an online link advertising system. Today I received an email from TLA, announcing their new blog advertising system, Reviewme.com.

We have just launched a brand new blog advertising system called Reviewme.com. Your blog has been pre approved into the publisher system! Please note that unlike TLA, Reviewme works on any blog including: Typepad, Blogger, etc because no ad code is needed (if your site is not a blog my apologies for this message as this network is for blogs only).

Please visit Reviewme.com and also check out our promotion where we are giving out $25,000.00 for bloggers who review Reviewme!

So I went over to ReviewMe and easily signed up. Since this blog was preapproved, I was automatically accepted into the system.

Thanks for signing up to be a ReviewMe member! Your membership allows you purchase reviews, as well as submit blogs for publishing. You also will receive special discounts and breaking news on issue[sic] pertinent to your membership.

Then I went back to accept the the review of ReviewMe for which I am supposed to be paid $30!

You have accepted an offer to review ReviewMe. You have until 11/12/2006 to complete your review.

I am disclosing that this post is a paid review and that any paid-for-review that I accept will be placed in the sponsored post category, as is this post.

Do you have to do a “puff piece” for an advertiser to pay you? Here’s what ReviewMe says in their FAQ:

We do not allow advertisers to require a positive review. The vast majority of reviews are measuredly positive, although many do contain constructive criticism. We view this as a bonus: how else can you quickly and cheaply get feedback on a product or service from influencers?

From the other side of the fence, if you are a new player, you can pay an established web author (BinaryWolf Blog dates back to 2004), to review your product or service.

Here’s the part where I disagree with ReviewMe. They claim that many publishers have noticed their contextual ad click through rates and earnings drop over time, because, people ignore ads. In of itself, that statement may be true, especially since they qualified their claim by using the term, “many”. However as someone who has been in the game for some time, that is not the case for me. They use that claim to setup their proposition that because our reviews are not formatted to look like ads, publishers are able to deliver more attention and value than through advertising via any other marketing channel. Well, that remains to be seen.