How to Get Free Products to Review
I have received a number of emails and comments from my followers asking how I get to review products and apps. Below are my tried and tested (and works!) methods on how I get products to review:
Just Ask!
Browse around the Internet – look out for websites of the genre you are comfortable with – family friendly, fashion, IT etc. If you see any products you would like to try, look out for a way to contact the company. Find their ‘Contact Us’ link and drop them an email. If there’s no way to email (quite rare), see whether the company have other social medias such as Facebook page or Twitter accounts and try to contact them from there. Just make sure you have a professionally written pitch email when requesting for products to review!
Snoop Around!
Browse around the Internet – look out for other bloggers websites, preferably those that does lots of reviews and see what products they are reviewing. A quick way is to check out their ‘REVIEWS’ tab or archive posts to get more information.
Make Use of Your Twitter and Facebook!
Make sure you have a Twitter and Facebook accounts (well, you can still see Tweets or Facebook updates if you don’t have a Twitter and Facebook accounts but it is better if you have an account so that potential sponsors can contact you back!
For Twitter, look out for keywords like ‘product for reviews’ or ‘looking for bloggers’ etc. If you see any Tweets of review pitches, reply the Tweet and let them know you are interested! I have personally received a lot of products to review just by searching via Twitter!
For Facebook, watch out for reviews posted or pictures tagged etc on other bloggers’ fan pages! You’ll be surprised I actually get products to review from Facebook too!
Make Sure You Are Contactable!
It is very important to provide a way for people / PR reps / companies to contact you. In this case, if it is difficult to locate your ‘Contact Me’ link, then chances are high you won’t get any opportunities to review anything. I have a lot of review opportunities where the company actually wrote in to ask whether I am interested in reviewing their products. One rule of thumb I believed in is your contact button should be easily visible in your main page and can be located within 10 seconds.
Join Some Blogging Community!
There are so many blogging groups and networks around, so look out for those and join them. There are some network community which you can share and send out your pitches for opportunities to review products.
Try these methods of mine and see if it works for you! Good luck!
** Jenny aka I’m a full-time mummy blogs about matters related to natural birth, breastfeeding (exclusive, during pregnancy, beyond 3 years, tandem), co-sleeping, homemade baby foods, cloth diapering (occasionally), homeschooling (just started), blogging, book, iPad app and product reviews and giveaways etc. Connect via Facebook as well to receive frequent updates on posts and inspirational and funny articles.
