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Permalink Reply by Tara L Hill on February 14, 2010 at 5:31pm

Nobody ever wants to share their secrets...but they forget they were a beginner once before.

I looked around my house and said...hmmm...what could I use around here? Then I looked on Amazon to figure out what companies produce, and sent them emails!

Start small...dvds, etc. so you can build traffic. Always go to the media contact. Start with Tropical Traditions, they love blogs!

Any more questions, just ask me...I'm not worried you are going to steal all my giveaway opportunities...it's a big arse world!

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Permalink Reply by Stephanie Jamison on February 14, 2010 at 10:09pm

I did a few giveaways on my own and then a few people contacted me about giveaways and then I just started emailing companies. I say it doesn't hurt to email a company and ask about review or giveaway opportunities.

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Permalink Reply by This Mama Works It! on February 15, 2010 at 6:39am

This is a great question that I to would love to learn more about. But I have found the information to be almost top secret. I have been doing some google searches and just reading forums. I found that it is important to have a somewhat of a "larger"following before good companies will take you seriously.

Not sure if this was helpful at all.

www.thismamaworksit.com

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Permalink Reply by Jermaine Mintuck on March 30, 2010 at 11:23am

hey, I have "unwound" this top secret myself. I can't even remember which blog it was or, which set of blogs I had unwound the secret with. But , with some light "picking at" that yarn ball, I untangled it and have been getting free games, books, and so on since! Heck, I don't have a huge following and I still get free stuff ALL THE **** TIME!

WHY?!

There really doesn't seem to be a monstrous following at my blog. I now find this to be highly unusual, if I don't have a large following, but get stormed with free stuff, several times a week. And! In this recession, to boot!!

To add fuel to the fire, I HAVE NEVER READ THAT GUY'S RAMPED REVIEWS EBOOK! HONEST! Now, how is that fire burning, hmm? Pretty hot, I should say!

Odd.... I just followed my instincts after thinking for an hour or two. Results of all that thinking? Email the contact us at smaller websites and see what happened. Then somebody else dropped another small hint for me to work with. Contact PR on sites and search for them. Followed that advice that I found, however small and got results!

Heck, I thought this was a "fabled free stuff" joke, or some other nonsense. Well, now, after picking apart the aforementioned "yarn ball" I am now a FIRM believer. And I COULD NEVER DREAM that the companies would even bother to listen to a tiny upstart like me!

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Permalink Reply by Jermaine Mintuck on March 30, 2010 at 11:11am

Simple! What I did was have a Wordpress blog right from Day One. Then what I did was, went to some websites and tried them out, or looked at the INTERESTING items on them. Remember that I had looked for UNUSUAL, something that few people would yet have.Could be a quirky items shopping site. The first shopping site that I had reviewed had a Blackboard Apron. I never asked to get this apron, not thinking they would send a free one. So as of the time, I had never bothered.

Mixed in with that shopping site was some reviews of game sites. I just instinctively KNEW that there had to be a "seeding" of the site before I could reap any fruit that I had intended to "sow" beforehand. So, I seeded reviews without ANY compensation whatsoever to get a feel for reviewing and found that I had enjoyed it. Seeding a site could be hard to do. Like in farming, seeding may take several days or a few weeks at most.

Someone said that in the recession, there had been a decrease of samples and free product. I think that is somewhat odd. Why? I had STARTED my blog IN the recession and saw an INCREASING amount of free product comin IN!

Back on topic,now. I spent several days just seeding the blog with reviews.

Then, I had found out, somehow through some blog that you would email companies about a product to review on the blog of mine. Usually, to my amazement, they actually sent the item!

CAVEAT EMPTOR!! Sometimes, the company won't reply back with an email SAYING that they would, or wouldn't send the product in question. Occasionally , when this happens, you had already forgotten, quite firmly, that you had even emailed the company. Then, a package appears at the doorstep. It turns out to be the product that you had wanted to review, but had totally forgotten that you had spoken to that company. That is a big surprise, especially if it was a wished-for item!

What I do when I just get a review done, is to email the company that sent item reviewed in question and IMMEDIATELY email them with the link to the review. I just think that is the polite thing to do.So I just do that.

Funny that I know the polite things to do by instinct......

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Permalink Reply by Portia Shepherd on January 26, 2013 at 11:26am

This is what I do also, I have gotten great results! Many companies surprisingly have bloggers outreach programs and have forms that you can complete on their website to review their products. If you have any questions, I am willing help anyone. Email me at shepherdp@mommatude478.com 

Here's my blog info:

I am Portia Shepherd,creator of MommAtude. Please visit my sites at www.mommatude478.blogspot.com and www.mommatude.webs.com. Also let's connect at www.twitter.com/mommatude478, www.pinterest.com/mommatude478, and at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Momma-Secret-Savings/250771448384431.

Thank you and nice to meet you all!

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Permalink Reply by Alexia on December 27, 2012 at 9:27pm

Join Mamma Reviewers to get more exposure for your blog: eepurl.com/trskH

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Permalink Reply by Shauna Quintero on January 31, 2013 at 12:03am

I started my new blog about a month ago. I read this same question on another blog and someone answered that companies would start contacting you after about a month. Sure enough, at around the 3 week mark, I started getting product review requests. There are also sites you can sign up with to be considered. I forgot what they are because at the time I saw these sites, I didn't think I was "big" enough to be considered. Gotta go back and sign up anyway!

One piece of advice...make sure your contact info is LOUD AND CLEAR! As soon as I put up my contact info, I immediately got a product review solicitation.

www.mommacandy.com

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Permalink Reply by Theresa Rezler on February 4, 2013 at 12:31am

It's hard starting out and getting products to review, and like the others said some bloggers won't give up their resorces. I have joined a few groups on facebook that use to share information but anymore its all about following each other, post your giveaways and sign up to guest blog other bloggers giveaways, which is what I do in between trying to get my own products to gain followers.I put up a list of websites to go to on my blog  http://restlesmamainmi.blogspot.com/. I also have sent out a bunch of emails to compaines and still haven;t heard back from some of them. I joined US Family Guide, They're great. You sign up with them and they post your blog and get companies to contact you .You will also get get discounts on events. They pair you up with the closest city near you. I also use Drive in Google and make a document  of a list I sent out  to companies with all my info like dates, email , company name and contact person. I just send out emails to companies I want to review products for. Some will respond back to say they'll send your info off to a marketing person or they will tell you not at this time but they will keep you in mind. 

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