Katrina who blogs at A Mother’s Heart wondered, “(H)ow do get to offer things to your readers and how to you get places to send you things to try out?”
This is a great question and one that I wondered about for a while.
THIS IS IMPORTANT: Companies want you to talk about their products or offer their giveaway on your blog. You are providing a valuable service when you blog about their product. Blogs are a means of direct, word-of-mouth advertising on a large scale and are a good investment for advertising dollars. Your time blogging time is valuable and your blog space is valuable. Be selective. Choose only things that you want to talk about or that your readers may be interested in and don’t hesitate to turn down an offer if it doesn’t bring sufficient value to the table.
So how do you get product reviews and giveaways? I’m not an expert on this and it isn’t something that I have focused on for Raising Olives, so, I’m just going to share what my limited experience has been.
- Many individuals/companies contact me directly with offers. If your wish your blog to be open to this type of thing it’s important to communicate that. First, be sure to have a way for people to contact you, other than leaving a commen. Second, post a disclosure policy stating what you are willing to consider in that area and be sure that it is easy to find.
- I’m part of The Old Schoolhouse Homeschool Crew, a group of about 100 bloggers who use and review homeschool products. They selected the Crew back in July and will probably be looking for a new Crew next year around that time. If you’re interested in this you should keep up with the TOS Homeschool Crew Blog. Being part of the Homeschool Crew is a serious commitment. Most of the products should be researched and used in your homeschool for at least a month so that you and your children can get a good feel for it and understand how it works in your homeschool setting, then you write the review. Since August I’ve been given more than 30 products to review, including 4 math programs, 3 spelling programs and 2 complete writing programs. It has been a blessing for our family, but it does take a commitment from the whole family to research, work with and review these products. I also don’t have the option to opt out of products that I’m not interested in.
- I recently joined My BlogSpark and have gotten some fun giveaways from them. To join you simple submit your blog information. My BlogSpark sends me emails periodically to see if I’m interested in a specific offer and I have the option to participate or not. If you are interested in hosting reviews/giveaways on your blog, I highly recommend registering wit MyBlogSpark. It’s an easy stress-free way to offer giveaways to your readers.
I haven’t pursued anything further in the way of giveaways/reviews. I do know that there are a lot of other options, but these are the only ones that I personally know about.
What works for you when it comes to getting product reviews and giveaways for your blog?
Want to read more of my “expert blogging advice“? 
I’m a little more experienced with homeschooling and I’ve posted a lot of homeschool curriculum reviews.
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Thanks for sharing these tips!
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Thanks Kimberly. I did not know about My Blog Spark. I’m going to look into it.
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Raising Olives Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:15 pm
My BlogSpark has been great to work with. I appreciate that they email me with offers and I have the choice to choose whether I’m interested or not. They have been the sponsors of the Crayola, the Elefun games and the Nature’s Valley outdoors gift set giveaways, among others.
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Thanks for the giveaway tips! I have recently started doing giveaways on my blog, and I love it!!! I actually have one for all natural products going on right now if you are interested.
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Raising Olives Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:18 pm
Thanks, those look great!
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I recently joined My Blog Spark as well and have (in a short 3 weeks) already received 2 items to review. I asked them to include extras for me to giveaway and both have obliged willingly. It’s been great for traffic and I like being able to give away free stuff as much as I like getting it myself!
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Raising Olives Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:19 pm
That’s terrific, my offers from them have not been so prolific as yours, but I’m very happy with what they have done for my readers!
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Interesting! Thank you.
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I’m going to check out myblogspark. Thanks for the tip!
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I created a Workbox Directory and added you to it. http://bit.ly/30ySEC
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I always wondered how blogs gave away prizes thanks for the information.
vickie
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I’ve also used Etsy forums in the past to find sponsors for giveaways.
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Raising Olives Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Could you give me more info on Etsy forums? Do you post a request or are Esty sellers looking for bloggers to host giveaways? I’d love more info on this. Thanks Rachel.
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Kimberly,
Great post! Thanks for the link and info! You are becoming quite a blog expert, ya know!
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Raising Olives Reply:
October 29th, 2009 at 2:21 pm
Funny, Mandy!
I know just enough to be dangerous.
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I joined MyBlogSpark over a month ago and have not received any offers from them. Is this because my blog only gets 15-30 hits a day?
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Raising Olives Reply:
October 30th, 2009 at 4:46 pm
This is possible Jessica, but don’t give up. For the first few months all I got was a few surveys. I do know that they look at your traffic to help determine offers.
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Thank you for the ideas!
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Kimberly, thank you for this information! I have been wondering about it myself and just happened to run across the post here. Thank you:)
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