[ikk157]

I already have created a post about Supporting Sponsors but I thought creating this topic as a suggestion because of recent developments at Post4VPS. My suggestion is to Make Google Review or Facebook Review a requirement for having a VPS here. Especially for those who unable to provide a proper link-back. But I think it should go for all VPS holders.

There are practical limitations and downsides of this link back rule. These links won't have any value unless it's from a site which regularly updated. Random links don't help sites anymore. So this kind of links won't help sponsor much anyway. It's a headache for VPS holders too if the person doesn't have a website. Also if you can't provide a link then the sponsor gets very little in return for what he gives us.

Personally I think Google Reviews or Facebook Reviews are the best solutions for this. We all use either of these services or both. So it's quite easy to do it. These ratings and reviews are very valuable for providers, So much more than a back-link. New providers will able to build-up real testimonials and reviews this way which would increase their reputation and development of the brand name.

This is not something hard for VPS holders either. All you have to do is use the server for a month or so then write a positive review at Google or Facebook or both. These product reviews would give our sponsors more value than anything we offer right now.

I know none of us to want to do extra work but I think sponsors deserve it. Also, this might help us to attract more sponsors too. After all, they would get genuine product reviews from real people who use their service.

I strongly agree with your suggestion of making positive reviews to our beloved sponsors here at post4vps.

And especially your point where you’ve mentioned that a backlink won’t really do much for the sponsor. A backlink would only be effective if it’s put in sites with a good amount of traffic, which increases the chances of attracting more people to the sponsor (which is the entire point of having backlinks). However, most of us here at post4vps don’t have sites with that much, if any, traffic.... heck, some people over here dont have sites to beginning with. 

So what has been happening is even though we do have backlinks to our sponsors, no one is really looking at them simply because our sites don’t have enough traffic. 

This is exactly why we lost HostLease as a sponsor. They used to get a lot of traffic and potential customers through the backlinks at the beginning, so sponsoring the VPSs actually allowed them to get more sales which pay for the sponsored VPSs. However, they no longer get any traffic from those backlinks (due to the reason I’ve mentioned above), so they saw that keeping the sponsorship wasn’t benefitting them anymore. And it’s only a matter of time before the other sponsors might end up doing the same.

However, unlike backlinks which require the sites to have a good amount of traffic, reviews at major services such as trustpilot would be much more beneficial as those have huge amounts of traffic, increasing the odds of people actually seeing your review.

I do have one concern though, if the holders find negative aspects with their VPS (e.g. performance issues, not having a panel, etc...), it seems wrong and untruthful to lie in the review and make it seen like everything is fine. Sure we’re trying to encourage people to use our sponsors, but making fake/untruthful reviews is against my morals.