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Review Stream may be a hidden gem that you might not have known about.
If you’ve been interested in freelance writing, currently write for blogs or other websites, or just want to use your writing skills to earn cash online, Review Stream could be a good opportunity for you to boost your income.
With a little research, I’ve been able to learn a little more information about ReviewStream.com.
I will be the first to admit that this website does seem rather confusing and it does take a little clicking around to understand what’s going on.
So, I dug around the site to give you this ReviewStream.com review so that you could better understand who the site is for and how to make money from it.
What is ReviewStream.com?
Review Stream is a website that pays you to write reviews.
It sounds simple enough: Write a review about something you’ve actually used (like a product or a service) and make money.
They don’t accept fake, poorly written, or obnoxious reviews.
They only want real reviews on products that you have actually used in the past.
After all, their motto states “real consumers real experience.”
You might notice that on consumer websites, like Amazon, you can leave in-depth reviews about products you’ve bought and used, but you don’t get paid for them.
Review Stream gives you the chance to earn money from those lengthy reviews that help other people.
This site has been around since 2005, kind of around the time that product reviews online became a big thing.
So many people nowadays head to the internet to learn more about products and what people think about them before they buy, so it’s not surprising that there’s money to be made in this area.
Since Review Stream makes money for its site from advertisements and affiliate links for products and services, it shares some of the money with you, its writers, who help the site continue doing what it’s doing.
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Type of Reviews that Need Written
There are multiple products listed on the Review Stream website.
I saw quite a few baby items that needed reviewed, all the way to electronics.
There are CDs, movies, and even canned goods that need reviewed.
Basically, anything you’ve used before can be covered here in a review.
The only catch is that you have to have actual experience with the product or service.
You can’t make up what you’re writing or you might forfeit any cash you could have made from your review.
Reviews should also be helpful for others.
If you hated a product, then provide constructive criticism for it but be honest at the same time.
If you loved something, explain why you love it so that others can learn more about the items they’re considering buying.
Some of the categories in which you can write about products here include:
- Software
- Medicine
- Books
- Electronics
- Cosmetics
- Perfume
- Laptops
- Art
- Travel
- Hotels
- Phones
There’s even a section where you can review web sites you’ve visited, so if you’re a frequent internet browser, this is good news for you!
How to Make Your Reviews Stand Out on Review Stream
From what I can tell about Review Stream, some people seem to have a lot of luck making good money here while others don’t at all.
I’m willing to bet that some people have mastered the platform and all its nuances while others just simply write and hope to get paid.
So, I want to share a few expert tips from others who have used Review Stream that could help you boost your income and become a top reviewer on the site:
Review popular stuff.
Review Stream has a voting system (we’ll get to that in a little bit) that gives reviewers even more money when their reviews get voted up by other members.
You might notice if you browse the site that a lot of more popular and well-known stuff get more votes than products people don’t know as much about.
That’s probably because these well-known things get more searches for reviews, so more people see them.
It could be a good strategy for you to think of some products that people might use more often than others, or websites people visit more than others, that no one has reviewed on the site yet.
Then, not only do you have the chance to get a lot of views on your review, but you might also get a lot of votes on your reviews!
Think of what you’d want to know.
It’s so important to think of other people when you’re writing your reviews.
Step into their shoes!
What would you want to know about this specific product before you bought it?
Is there information about its colors, smell, or functionality that could help others decide whether they should buy it or not?
Address every concern you’d personally have about the product and you’re likelier to help others in the process.
You might also look around the web to find questions other people are asking about that product or similar ones so that you can address them too.
Being incredibly thorough will help you make the most of your time on the site.
Be completely honest, but also thoughtful.
It’s okay to say you disliked a product if that’s the truth.
In fact, Review Stream encourages complete honesty with all its reviews.
The problem is that some people say they dislike something without ever saying why.
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The whys are what people need to know!
If you fill your review with things like “I didn’t like it” or “It could be better” without ever giving an explanation, you probably won’t get many views or votes on it.
The same goes for the other side of the coin, too.
If you like something, explain what’s so great about it!
This is the information people need to know before deciding to make a purchase.
Browse the site to see what reviews are doing well.
Although you should never steal someone’s ideas or plagiarize someone’s thoughts, it’s always a good idea to see what kinds of reviews are performing really well on Review Stream.
Before you start writing, spend time looking around the site in various categories.
Take note of the categories that people seem to frequent most (ones with lots of reviews and a lot of votes and questions on those reviews).
Find reviews with a lot of votes and find similarities in them that could be making those reviews stand out more than others.
After a while, you’ll probably start noticing some trends that could spark some ideas for things to write about and how to format your reviews.
Review only products in categories you know a lot about.
You wouldn’t want to read a review about a power tool from someone who’s only ever used a power tool a couple of times in their life, right?
It’s crucial to have expertise in the categories you’ll be reviewing items in.
You should know enough to be able to accurately tell whether a product in that category really is better than another and why.
People who are actual experts in that category will be able to call you out in no time, which could affect your authority on the site.
Go through the Content Creation Academy before you start writing.
Review Stream offers a Content Creation Academy for all writers who sign up.
The Content Creation Academy has a lot of information that can help you learn how to navigate the site, write stand-out reviews, and make the most of your time on Review Stream.
It’s kind of clunky and a pain to get through, but it’s worth your time, especially if you’re new to the review writing scene.
Review Stream doesn’t require that you complete this orientation, but it strongly suggests you do.
Promote your reviews.
Once you’re finished writing a review, you should always remember to promote it!
Link to it on your blog or social media channels.
Let people on your email list know about your new review.
The more popular a review is, the higher your chances of getting paid a good rate, so it’s important to get as many people to see it as possible.
Pay of Writing Reviews
Honestly, this was the trickiest part for me to find out (and, after researching it, I’m still thoroughly confused).
I had to dig pretty deep to find this answer.
The FAQ section on ReviewStream.com states that the rate is subject to change at any time.
So, you could write a review on two different days of the month and get paid different amounts.
When I signed up to write a review, you can see what the pay was via my screenshot.
Just keep in mind that the FAQ says that it’s clearly subject to change.
The price for your reviews can be completely different from each other depending on the category they’re in and the type of review you choose.
For example, you can choose to use an in-depth research template or a viral template, which help to format your reviews in different ways.
For most reviews, the viral types tend to pay the most, probably because they’re the ones that are expected to get the most views.
The good news is that, once you figure out what category you’re writing in and the type of review you want to do, you’ll see the projected price for that review at the top of the screen, just like in my screenshot above.
Review Stream does note how much you’ll make per image upload, too, which is 5 cents per image (it’s suggested to add high-quality images to every review you write).
You can also earn 10 cents per reply you have on your review (when someone posts a question about that product, you can reply to earn more money).
Please make sure your email is signed up for PayPal or else this could affect you getting paid.
You can see the amount you’ve earned through the control panel in your account on Review Stream.
Keep in mind that your account has to reach a minimum in order to be paid, and according to Review Stream that minimum is based on what they paid you for your first piece of content in each payment cycle, multiplied by 10.
If they paid you $5 for a review, for example, times that by ten, and $50 is the minimum you need in order to be paid for that cycle.
This is to ensure that you keep writing quality reviews to receive your pay.
Other Ways to Make Money with Review Stream
I noticed that there were a few other ways to make money with Review Stream, too, when I researched its pay rates.
One way you can get paid is through “votes” which means a Review Stream reader can vote for your review.
Currently, Review Stream is paying 10 cents per vote and you have to reach a minimum of $5 to be paid via PayPal this way.
Unfortunately, most reviews don’t seem to get a lot of votes.
But, even if you end up with only 10, that’s still an extra $1 for your work.
Another way to be paid through Review Stream is by something known as bulk rate.
In my opinion, this doesn’t pay nearly as well as writing a regular, well thought out review on Review Stream.
The bulk rate is what Review Stream will pay for reviews that don’t meet their criteria, such as those with a lot of grammar issues or ones that aren’t thought out well.
With every review you write, you can check whether you want it to be considered for the bulk rate price if it doesn’t match the site’s criteria.
If you don’t check the box and your review doesn’t meet the site’s needs, it’ll just get rejected (you can resubmit it though).
If you do check the box, you’ll automatically receive the bulk rate if it fails to meet criteria.
This next part is straight from the Review Stream website explaining how bulk rates work:
“Sometimes we receive reviews that don’t match some of our criteria. In these cases we are still ready to buy it, but we’ll pay you the bulk rate for it.
After you have written your review on the Write Review page, you’ll have to decide, if you’re ready to get paid at the bulk rate for your review. If yes, check the bulk price box. If not, don’t check it. “
The bulk rate for these reviews is the regular rate divided by 5.
If you wrote something for $10 as a regular rate, you’ll receive $2, as an example.
It’s not great, but at least it’s something for those less-than-stellar reviews.
Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much information about how this works.
Who decides if your review isn’t up to standard, for example?
You could have spent hours writing what you thought was an excellent review only to get swindled out of your regular rate just because someone decides it’s not good enough.
Finally, there is a referral program for you to earn a little extra money from everyone you refer.
When you refer other writers to sign up, you’ll make 2% of everything they sell, and the 2% comes from the regular rate even if they sell it for the bulk rate!
So, say your referral has a review for a regular rate of $20 but sells it at a bulk rate of $4.
You’ll get $0.40 from that piece of content.
Get a lot of referrals and that money could add up fast!
Is Review Stream Legit?
Review Stream is, at best, very confusing.
However, I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a scam.
If I was trying to earn money quickly, this would not be the best avenue – that’s for sure.
While the pay of a single review seems to be great, the overall process of waiting to get paid sounds a bit obnoxious.
Call me old fashioned, but I don’t like to beat around the bush when it comes to getting paid.
Tell me what you will pay me upfront and then I can decide whether or not that price works for me.
With that being said, there’s plenty of reports online that people do get paid, even if it takes a while.
Where I have the biggest issue is with the bulk pricing.
It’s really low and there’s honestly no telling when you’re writing whether your review will make the cut for regular price or go into the bulk rate pile.
To me, it seems like Review Stream offers the bulk rate as a way for it to get discounted pricing from its reviews, which isn’t fair.
However, if you’re not 100% focused on making a huge income from this site and think it could be a fun way to make some writing money in your spare time, then it’s probably a good place for you to do just that.
If you’re ready to sign up as a review writer here, head to this page and start writing!
Do you want some other alternatives to get paid as a freelance writer or review writer?
Check out some of our other articles that can point you in the right direction:
- Get paid as a greeting card writer
- Review-writing sites that pay
- How to become a book reviewer
- Write makeup reviews for cash and free stuff
- Write about video games for money
- Get paid to review movies
Have you used Review Stream? Did you get paid? How did the regular rate vs bulk rate issue work out for you? We’d love to hear from real people who have used the site, so drop us a comment below!
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Join Ipsos iSay, one of the few Faithful and Honest survey panels and earn prizes, gift cards and donations. Stack your points and redeem them: Simple! No hidden fees and completely free!
Thanks for the review Jess! I was thinking about trying ReviewStream but I’m like you. I don’t like having to dig around for a long time just to find out how I’ll be compensated.
Oh my gosh! You weren’t kidding about “Not very clear.” I dabbled with Review Stream several years ago and it was clear and easy to use, no complaints. This version is a mess and not at all user friendly. I’m clicking around going in circles trying to figure out how to get anything accomplished. How on earth do you even get a review started?
I’m a bit confused, I stumbled on the site just yesterday and it seems pretty straight forward to me. I easily started writing my first article. I guess it’s harder for those that knew the old website. But it took me all of ten seconds maybe. They seem to pay a lot more than other places, and they are just reviews of products, I mean if you want to be paid 50 dollars for your review on tampons, yeah, you’re in the wrong place. But I don’t think people should honestly value product reviews so highly. I’d be fine with getting 7 dollars on a product review. I’ve got so much makeup products, I’d make a killing.
SO confusing. There’s so much information that you have to read between the lines.. what happens if you don’t meet the minimum payment requirement? …is it just ‘oh well’? It seems pretty sketchy, I wouldn’t even want to link my Paypal account.
Hi there,
I just started earning Money with reviewstream. I needed just 5 minutes to find out how it worked and so I started. It was really simple and when I sent the Review in it only took 2 days for them to publish it and give me the Money. There are 6 ways to make Money and yes the pay varies a lot but you get paid the Price it was at when you submitted the Review.
I think it is a good way if you don’t mind waiting for them to look over the Review and publish it. I already earned more than I do with my 9 to 5 Job just by submitting Reviews. And the good part is, I can do it in the evenings, send the Reviews in anytime and still go out and go to work.
Sorry for the long comment. Just wanted to let you know my experience with reviewstream.
The thing with any “side work” like this is I do not expect much. this company is consistent, they have stayed around and rarely do people complain about getting paid in general. They have to be able to make money to pay the reviewers and I think the bulk rate is just fine for 5 or so minutes of my time on an honest review. I type around 70WPM so I am probably not the norm on that but I just spent an hour look around my house for products, wrote 9 reviews and if I make the bulk rate of 1.59 (current) on all of them I will be happy with the 14.00 or so dollars for an hours worth of work. I figure at that rate, I could spend an hour a day writing reviews and I would happily accept an extra 400 a month- hey that’s my electric and water and cable all wrapped in one! If i really wanted to push myself and do another 9 reviews a day I could almost cover my Mortgage instead!
Vana,
It seems you are looking for pie in the sky to me. You wrote 9 reviews, then want to “look around your house” for 9 more items, etc. Do the math Vana. Do you really think you have enough things to pay your mortgage?
I have to agree that review stream is a little confusing on how it is set up but not horrible.
When looking at a new site like this, I go to the FAQ first and take a look around. It is frustrating that they do not have a standard rate of pay but understandable that they will pay based upon the review that is submitted and that the rates fluctuate, as many things in life do. However, below the current rate it does tell you what they have been paying for reviews of different kinds in a time line so you are able to see what the trends are for reviews at that time.
It looks to be that you can review anything and there is also requests for reviews, that you can get to on the same page to write reviews, which you can go through to see what you may have already and review it honestly.
Currently I am waiting to see whether or not my two test reviews that I did will be accepted which I did on two that were requested. Depending upon the outcome I may do more since a few minutes of work to review what you already have for a few dollars is not a bad way to earn some money.
I wrote reviews for Review stream AGES ago. Probably seven years or so. The site was unattractive, but relatively easy to use. Reviews were only paid $2 at the time, but reviews were more readily accepted at the full pay rate, as opposed to their current process. I made a LOT of money doing this. A lot. I easily replaced a part-time job and was one of their top reviewers for over a year. I recommended it to everyone, and shared it on every social media platform. However, they started to auto-reject my submissions (which they were previously consistently accepting) so I skipped out for a bit.
A few years later, I revisited the site to earn a little extra cash, and it was entirely revamped. What a nightmare it is now. God forbid you post a profile picture, because they wont let you change it or remove it, claiming that it was uploaded to their site and they own it. Due to the increase in full rate pay, far less reviews are accepted at the full rate, understandably, but it also made the site practically useless for most, with a $50 minimum pay out. I think bulk rate was only $.50 at the time, for reviews that take 20 minutes to write, in most cases… because they auto reject reviews that are too short, and have actual people reject reviews on products they feel are outdated, or reviews that are too vague… though try to ask them what isn’t vague, and their answers are more vague than the reviews are…. It’s ridiculous.
The owners are absolute jerks. At first I thought it was a language barrier issue, but no… they are just relentlessly awful. So let’s hope you never have to contact their “support” for everything. I couldn’t figure something out on the new layout, and wrote to ask them about it, and they called me stupid. Nice, right? Oh, and let’s not forget that you will be BOMBARDED with email notifications whenever someone votes for a review you wrote or asks a question on a review you wrote. I contacted their “support” to inquire about being removed from the mailing list. They made it clear they paid for my review and I was of “no more use beyond what I submit”, so I told them that I’m not being paid to answer questions and would like the emails to stop. They have refused to remove my email from the mailing list. I’ve just had to mark everything from them as spam.
Is it legit? Yes. Will you actually get paid? Yes. Will you be condescended to and insulted by their staff? If you ever contact support with anything other than glowing praise, yes.
Hey Krystal, you hit the nail on the head. They’re a terrible site that spams people with emails and I can’t even get my picture removed. My only saving grace is that it’s not very identifiable and I didn’t use my real name.
People listen to what Krystal says before you start writing for them. I was a “top reviewer” on their site and now I can’t get my picture removed or get them to remove me from their mailing list.
I don’t know I find them a huge scam and suspicious people.
They get very suspicious of their users when they churn out reviews fast, like 4-5 a day. (But this is very normal; we would most probably use more than 5 products in a day)
They start to ask you to resubmit every single review that isn’t image based. They are so afraid you’ll cheat them with stock images, that they need you to be taking more photos. Most text based reviews are rejected for this reason. (It happened to me and my 2 other friends using the site).
Even when I am writing about a cooking sauce. They need me to use the image base template which requires at least 5 images, so I ended up taking photos of the bottle from 4 different angles and the content inside … The readers aren’t idiots, they don’t need 4 angles to know about the product! It is ridiculous.
One of my friend who is more dilligent in writing is nearing his minimum withedrawal already and then the nightmare starts! They start to reject all of his reviews and I mean ALL!
Everything he reviewed on, ranging from movies to phone accessories to game applications all got rejected for ambiguous reasons. All his text based reviews were rejected because they want him to use the image based template, even it is just about a portable fan.
His movie reviews were rejected because of lousy image quality when they’re much better than some of the photos on the site.
I don’t know, it just seems like a scam because they readily accept all our reviews when we started and start to nitpick when we’re so close to minimum cash out amount.
It’s just very obvious to me – they’re not eilling to pay.
A group of people with poor command of English reviewing and rejecting reviews.
They don’t trust their users. I’ve been asked a few times “Did you make the pictures yourself? Please take unique photos.”
Contacting their customer service is asking for insult and humiliation. “Useless” and “lousy” are their favourite vocabulary.
They’re a waste of your time and effort.
People, why do you believe this company MUST buy from you?
They buy what they believe is valuable for them. You usually act the same way, don’t you?
The buyer is always right. Do what is the best for the buyer, if you want to sell. These are the basics one should study, before starting an e-commerce. Otherwise blame yourself.
I don’t think they HAVE to buy anything. I tried it and I have found out that they are very picky about the reviews. I’ve tried reviewing candy bars (and they don’t want those reviews). I’ve tried reviewing some movies (and they don’t want those reviews, either).
Reviewstream is a scam. In the end, even if you do manage to get a payout or two, the cons far, far outweigh the benefits. Writers are rarely ever paid the regular rate, and they force them to upload personal pictures on the site which they refuse to remove when you decide not to write for them anymore. Also, they refuse to remove you from their contact list, so even years after I stopped writing for them I am still getting the messages that fill up my inbox.
For those saying that the company doesn’t have to buy your review, why is it that after being one of the top reviews for a long time, all of a sudden, when I started making too much money, they started rejecting my work? I always read those stories on the net, but didn’t believe it after it started happening to me. Notice that there’s also no address for where the company is located on the website? That alone speaks volumes. There are many more reliable, anonymous and legitimate ways to make money online without having to sacrifice your soul for a measly few dollars. You were warned.