Comments on: Being Approached to Write about Products on Your Blog

By: Hundreds of US Bloggers Have Wikipedia Pages by Blogging Pro

Hundreds of US Bloggers Have Wikipedia Pages by Blogging Pro — Wed, 20 Sep 2006 18:09:44 +0000

[...] A very interesting thought indeed, but one I am not sure many companies are taking advantage of. A while back I posted about being approached to write about products by a company, and the comments I received seemed rather split on if it should be done or not, and if it is done, how it should be approached. Interesting that PR companies have so many directories where they could tap into the top niche of bloggers, and yet, this is not being talked about more. [...]

By: Starked SF, Unforgiving News from the Bay » Blog Archive » Talk of the Town: Monday, August 21

Mon, 21 Aug 2006 13:56:51 +0000

[...] BloggingPro’s thoughts on when people want to pay you for plugging them in your blog. [...]

By: Angsuman Chakraborty

Angsuman Chakraborty — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 17:43:22 +0000

Normally my reviews are pretty direct and self-motivated. I don’t try to wash my hands off or save my a**.

I think a paid review, if undertaken, must be prefixed with the highlighted information that it is paid and what are the conditions of payment.

By: Martin

Martin — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 03:40:23 +0000

I have no problems about being approached - it’s the way traditional journalism essentially works.

As long as that those doing the approaching know there’s no guarantees.

What you don’t want is to be told how to write-up a piece. The company should give you every available materials so you can come up with a totally unbiased review.

If there’s money changing hands well that’s another story and is in fact just simple “advertorial” copy - if you don’t disclose this then you’ll soom be found out, called out and lose your credibility.

By: steven

steven — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 03:25:58 +0000

If they have a good product, they would have no reservation for placing it under review. That’s what customers ultimately do.

Your job is to be accurate and thorough in your evaluation. If it is indeed a good product, it is beneficial to both the company and the customers to get the word out. If it is not . . . that’s important too.

By: May C

May C — Sat, 19 Aug 2006 00:37:29 +0000

I do try to be as objective about a product as I can. Of course, especially if I’ve been asked to do a review on a product, I need to be careful about not slamming it (I don’t really slam anything) but try to provide as objective of a review as possible, pointing out the positives as well as negative. And if I have something not so positive, I do try to stress that it is my opinion (to cover my butt) and that results may vary.

From time to time, I do get some emails from readers who don’t agree with my review and sometimes they are a bit hard to deal with. I try to avoid confrontation and just continue on.