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Different Companies, Similar Products: Is there a conflict?

So, I'd like to do a Spring/Gardening/Outdoor week of giveaways. As always I contact a number of companies to see if they would like to be part of it. Let's think positive and believe that all the companies want to be part of the giveaway week. What do I do?

Do I choose a different product to highlight from each company?
Do I only pick one company to work with
Will there be a conflict of some sort if I go with all of the companies?
Do I owe each company an explanation that I'm working with these other companies?

Any suggestions would be helpful. This could cover any product we review be it vacuums, t-shirts, kids toys, what have you.

Thanks ahead of time!!

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Permalink Reply by MorethanMommy on March 4, 2010 at 10:11pm

If you are representing the company (i.e. getting paid, or have some agreement with them), you should definitely be concerned with conflicts. If you are writing as an independent journalist-type, you have no obligation to them to disclose anything. If you are actually reviewing the products (not just spitting out their product description or pitch, but using the products and sharing your experiences), you should be impartial and it shouldn't matter. It's unclear from your post which camp you fall into. Are you "working with" the companies? Or are they providing review items? Or are they providing giveaway items with no review? Honestly, I think you might want to make a personal decision about who you're really working for and stick with that.

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Permalink Reply by Mimi on March 4, 2010 at 11:16pm

MorethanMommy, I do product reviews on my blog. I don't work for any of these companies and I don't do paid reviews/giveaways. I wanted to set up a weeks worth of reviews/giveaways on a specific topic, such as gardening. Since we're coming into Spring, I thought it would be a fun idea. I thought with one site I'd do gardening tools, another site gardening gloves, and yet another pest control, etc. I figured with each site, I could highlight a different product. The "problem" that I wasn't sure about was going to ALL different gardening sites and highlighting each one based on my experience with them, their overall site, and the product I were to review. So, I pitched about 5 gardening sites this week and am waiting to hear back. They would each have the option of providing an item to review/giveaway, or not. It would be up to them after they check out my PR Contact page.

Thanks so much for your feedback!!