Seems like there are review blogs popping up everywhere. How can you get in on the action? Obviously you’re not going to be contacted by Frigidaire or another big company in the first month of blogging. If you explode on to the scene with a unique angle and get a ton of readers in the first year you might get contacted then. ”Might” being the key word.
Truthfully many of those big review bloggers have been blogging and building their readers for a while, OR they have gone to a bunch of conferences and actually met PR people.
If you have the finances to fly around and attend conferences you will see faster results for your goal of getting products to review. You have to remember that blogging is one of the newest forms of marketing and a lot of the traditional PR people don’t know how or who they should contact. They are happier if they can talk to you face to face.
I’m one of those who is not able to attend a lot of conferences. Here’s some advice for any of you in the same boat as me.
Write about products you already have and use. This will enable you to call yourself a review blogger, help you get used to writing reviews, and be examples for companies to read.
Work on building your loyal readership. Companies usually want to know your stats. To get a good response you need to have readers that trust you, and aren’t just there to win a giveaway.
Put a disclosure policy on your blog. DisclosurePolicy.org can help you with that.
Work on a media kit. Mom Bloggers Club has a free template you can download.
Check your favorite companies websites for blogs. Become an active commenter there. See if they have a representative on Twitter. Be in their face in a nice way.
If you like to read, look for a book review group. That was the easiest for me to join.
- Check publishers. You can sign up for different genres, including children’s books, right from some publishers.
- Find your favorite author’s blog. They will write about their new book and mention if it will be featured in a blog tour. Then you can try to join the group organizing the tour.
- Find a blog that talks about books you like. See if they do a book review and who sent the book to them.
Look for a review group or forum. Ask if you can join. Put the word out that you are available for reviews.
Decide how much time you want to spend for small items. Time is money. If you are only getting a $10 product and you have to write a detailed review and run a giveaway is it worth it? Don’t undervalue yourself. Always ask for a product sample. If you are running a giveaway ask the company to ship the prize to the winner. Some bloggers will not run a giveaway without compensation. The product sample is compensation for the review – not the giveaway. Giveaways take time, and time is money.
Now you have some ideas of how to get on the road to reviews. Nothing can stop you now!
About Jendi
Another tip I have – as this is something I do daily. If you are reaching out to a company via email contact their press department. You are a member of the press since you are writing about and getting their product out there.
Also, a few great forums to join are: Extraordinary Mothers (http://www.extraordinarymothers.com) and Mom Dot (http://www.momdot.com)
Andrea @ Mommas Review´s last blog post..One Week – One Room: Suzzi Homewrecker Apron Giveaway
Awesome tips! This is something I would like to do more of (although not exclusively) and I appreciate the guidance here. Good points of reference.
Debbie´s last blog post..Are You Stressed Out, Mom?
These are some great tips. I recently started to do reviews. I have reviewed two books so far. The first book, I bought and read because I was going to be on a radio show with him. The second book I just emailed the author and she set me a review copy. I didn’t know they had forums. I signed up to be apart of Team Mom and apart of Momselect. So we will see what happens.
Felicia – I Complete Me´s last blog post..Get Fit Friday – Yoga
Thanks for letting me know about the disclosure policy and the media kit. I would never have thought of those. I was just going to start with reviewing products I know and love to get my foot in the door.
Erin Hill´s last blog post..Positive Person Of The Week: Tough Guy With A Big Heart