Sites that charge for reviews - ending this bad practice

[AppyNation]

Hi all,

We're a mobile publisher who likes to try to make a difference. So when it came to our attention that certain websites and blogs charge developers a fee for reviews, we thought we should investigate.

We've written a post about it here but it boils down to this: some sites charge for reviews, some sites charge for 'expedited reviews' and all of them are basically charging for a service that should be free. Not only that, but it means the editorial they do post cannot be seen as impartial - which defeats the entire point.

Anyway, we've put a post on reddit here - and we know that the more people who find out about this and avoid these sites (and of course help spread the word) the better for everyone. gamers, developers, publishers and reviewers.

Thanks for your time, please do fire some questions at us, and if you spot any then call them out to us. We're going to make the article a resource, not just a one-off.

[Robert1981]

I just came across this and I had to join just so I could comment.

So Appynation you said "charging for a service that should be free".
Why should this be free? Why do they owe you this? So I assume that you're going to spend money on advertising with websites to help them out then right?

While I'm not an advocate for paid reviews, I don't think that these websites owe you anything.

So tell us what sites did you actually support by buying advertising?

I checked out your apps and I can see why they wouldn't offer you a free review.