How did I get into this reviewing schtick on my blog? Well for starters when I started my blog I had no interest in doing reviews for products. It was just a place for me to write my thoughts and mainly where I could post my race reports. After doing my blog for a couple of years and finding it hard to come up with new content I noticed other blogs were having giveaways after giveaways. Seemed like a cool thing to do and plus I would get cool new gear in exchange for an honest review. So here are my tips on how to get companies to send you stuff to review.
1. You need to build up your blog.
Companies need to know that you actually have followers and a good amount of traffic in order to want to send you things. My blog, to my surprise, had 20,000+ views when I first started receiving offers to do reviews for products. This was mainly due to my race reports and post about running. I built up a strong enough base for companies to believe that if their product was featured on my blog it would actually be seen by a good amount of readers.
2. Review some of your own products that have to deal with the niche you are writing about.
You probably have many products that you own that has to deal with your niche. Find them and write up a review on them to get you started and so that companies can see what kind of reviewer you are. My first review was about a GPS watch that I owned. It was a honest review that is currently my #1 most viewed blog post.
3. Send out emails to the companies that have the product you would like to review.
Once your blog is established and you have done a few reviews on your own this is the best time to approach companies. If you see a product in a magazine or at a race expo that you think you and your readers would be interested in, go ahead and email them. I like to make my emails personal to each company telling them about my blog stats, FB page stats, and any other social media stat that there is out there. You have to be appealing to the company for them to want to send you their product for review. Also in the email let them know if you would like to do a giveaway.
Giveaway's are a great way to bring traffic to your blog and thus to the product. The companies know this so most of the time they are willing to participate in giveaways.
4. Writing the Review
Be honest about the product. Just because the company sent you their product you have no obligation to write a rave review about it. If the product sucks say so and if the product is great then share that with your readers as well. After writing the review, email the company with the link as they may want to share it on their social media as well.
Doing reviews are fun but it is a little bit of work. Write honest, well-written, and interesting reviews and companies will keep sending you products for review.
If you have any questions on this topic please write me a comment below.
No comments:
Post a Comment