Do You Write Reviews if The Product is Loaned to You?
I do not actually see why companies are so greedy when it comes to blog reviews. It`s like they don`t…
Generally, I don’t do review products where I need to return the product and before you call me a spoiled blogger, let me explain why.
When I write a review for a $300 loaner product, the brand is getting a review that is up virtually forever. If a lifetime post on my blog is not worth the $300 product, then why are they asking me to review the product in the first place?
photo from Microsoft Images
My reviews are more than just a post detailing what the product can do and all it’s stats. My posts are stories of how your product made my life better and why.
A company will take out an ad in a magazines for thousands of dollars and the life of that ad is a few months. But…they won’t spend $300 on a review (which is better than an ad) from a blogger? That just doesn’t make sense.
I read this post today on Social Media Today about women being the best brand ambassadors because we believe that the best recommendations are from those in our circle of trust.
Value The Blogger’s Time
If you do not value the time we put into writing an honest and thorough review of your product, you should.
If you are going to only loan the product to the blogger, then I think we need to keep the review post up for the length of the loan period. #JustSayin!
Let’s Talk About Reviews In Exchange For Loaners!
What are you thoughts? Do you review a product if you have to return it?
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I do not actually see why companies are so greedy when it comes to blog reviews. It`s like they don`t even see how important is a blogger`s opinion when it comes to advertisement and popularity across the virtual domain. If I were a successful blogger like yourself, I would require one thing out of two in exchange for an objective review: the product itself or financial remuneration.
I do reviews of products I purchase and then tax deduct them.. ask your tax professional before you do this =) I’ll only review them on my blog is if it’s part of the theme for that blog and I can make money from the product as an aff link.
That’s a fair call. There is no need to review a product if we had to return it back. In most of the case, product maker is generous enough to give product for review. I have had no problem so far
Hm..that’s a fair statement, really. Reviewing a product takes hours if not days (using it, testing, taking photos, editing the photos, jotting down the pros & cons, trying something again, read the product specs and details to make sure you don’t miss an important feature, writing, proof-reading, marketing, ….. on and on
I don’t take loan reviews because of the hassle of arranging the couriers/post-office but in a way, your point makes sense too. I guess if you are a new blog/site, you need the loan reviews to keep your site going, to say the least
But yeah, lots of buyers came to my post from search engines and some of them bought through Amazon. I think it’s an even better advertising medium than magazines
You make a good point. I think this is definitely for bloggers that have been around for a while and have a good following. Some of my post popular posts are reviews that I wrote months (and sometimes years) ago.
When I was a newer blogger, I did things very differently because I needed the experience in reviewing and I was creating relationships with PR and with my readers.
Yeah, that’s true. I guess once your blog ranks well and has good readership, some of them (PR, Brands) know that there will be a price to pay for all of your hard work 🙂