Can You Trust This Review?
Guys who operate most review websites (and it’s almost always guys) dream of escaping their day jobs. Writing BS reviews on the side is their ticket to perceived freedom.
Most get wiped out whenever Google rolls out a major algorithm update. But in the short term, you get to endure their “unbiased” reviews in search results.
I’m different.
I’m an entrepreneur who, with my wife, has built a portfolio of brands in the careers space.
The businesses run without me.
I don’t have a day job that I need to escape. My bills are covered, and I live a comfortable life one block from Bondi Beach.
But I’m a tech nerd with two decades of business experience. I also enjoy writing, so I started this blog.
Some brands pay me a commission when you buy products I recommend. While I welcome the income stream, I don’t rely on it. In fact, I reinvest most of the revenue back into the blog.
This freedom allows me to remove corruption from my reviews and offer recommendations that serve you, not me.
Some Verdicts Shoot Me In The Foot Financially.
For example, I recommend the Steelcase Leap as Australia’s 3rd best ergonomic office chair and the top choice for people with lower back issues.
Steelcase doesn’t have an affiliate program in Australia, so they don’t pay me anything for my plug.
I could easily earn more cash by replacing it with a brand that does pay me a commission.
Yet, I continue to recommend the Leap – because it’s a remarkable office chair (at the $1,500 price point).
It’s a little boring to look at but very ergonomic.
(If a Steelcase employee is reading this – c’mon guys, let’s do something together 🙂
What Products Do I Review?
I only review products that I have first-hand experience with:
- Business Tools. With almost two decades of business experience under my belt, I can give small business owners practical advice on choosing the best HR and recruitment packages, CRMs, payroll and accounting software, website builders and e-commerce platforms.
- Home Office Gear. All my teams work remotely from home. I’ve done the same for longer than I remember. I know what it’s like to set up a home office on a shoestring, the downsides of working from a kitchen table, and what it’s like to build a dream home office. I’ve done all three.
- Business Travel. I write about business luggage, airline business lounges and hotels – because I travel often. I also review coworking spaces, because I’ve hot-desked from coworking spaces in Sydney, Melbourne, New York, Playa Del Carmen, Barcelona, Bali and Berlin.
- Investing Tools. Wealth is one of the keys to freedom. I work towards my financial goals by learning smart money habits and building long-term investment portfolios. A few tools stand out to me, and I share my insights here.
What This Website Is Not.
I believe two types of review websites have gone past their expiry date. I work very hard to build a review website of the future:
- Corporate Monster. Review websites are big business. Seemingly impartial product reviews are produced by professional editorial teams and SEO agencies on $50,000/month retainers. Most of their authors have little first-hand experience with the products and, more importantly, the context they’re used in. As a result, the reviews are generic and lacking detail.
- Copycat Niche Site. The other type of review website you’ll encounter is what’s known in the industry as a “poor quality niche site”. Focusing on a narrow vertical (e.g., gardening, gadgets), they scrape existing reviews and outsource their rewriting to overseas freelancers or ChatGPT. You get regurgitated, often misleading information with very little domain expertise.
How I Get Paid.
I’ve alluded to this already, but let me provide more detail. Some brands pay me a commission when you buy a product I recommend:
- When you click on product links, you are redirected to a brand with which I may have a commercial arrangement. I don’t have commercial arrangements with all the brands I recommend.
- Clicking on affiliate links does not increase the price of the item. This brand covers the commission from its marketing budget.
I hope this editorial policy helps you see why I do what I do. Thanks for stopping by.
If you have feedback, tell me how I can do better in the comment box at the bottom of every review.
Steven
