I got thinking recently, as I was setting up my Product Review info page, that there are a lot of blogs out there that do an awful lot of reviews. Some are exclusively that, in fact. I don't read reviews unless I'm interested in the product, and sometimes I'll read them even if I already own it, but I began to wonder just how many people are honest about it.
How it usually goes is that someone will send something - for free - from their shop or business, and the reviewer gets to use said item, and more often than not, keep it. Now, I have no problem with this. If I were to send something out for free, I would be a fool to expect it back anyway, but I do begin to wonder how many bloggers or business owners see the freebie as a sort of payment.
Let's face it, no one would want to give out a free product only to have a bad review. Even if the product were returned, they still wouldn't want that bad review. But wouldn't it be worse to have a review filled with lies, and when the product is purchased have both yourself and the blog who reviewed you bad mouthed everywhere?
I am sure that some bloggers out there will receive a product and review it honestly, or perhaps even return the product and refuse to do a review if they only have bad things to say, but I am also quite sure that more bloggers would keep the product and lie to avoid hurt feelings. I'm not directing these thoughts at anyone in particular, they are just things that began dancing through my head as I considered it. It also makes me wonder if bloggers who ask to review products don't have some sort of alterior motive, and only ask to review products that they want so that they can get them for "free". I know that even some big bloggers have sent out things to be reviewed and never heard from them again, and no review was ever written.
As such, I will never approach someone and ask to review a product. Instead, I leave it entirely up to other people to contact me, and I even let them decide if I keep the product or not. I will (and have) review honestly, and will only accept products to review if I believe that my readers are interested, or that I can adequately review it with my own knowledge of the product type.
So if anyone out there fancies having their product reviewed, I'm open for contact, but much more importantly, I ask all of you bloggers out there to please only review products honestly. Your readers are the ones that will lose out if they buy a product under false expectations.
I let all companies know that when I do a review I am totally honest with the product I review. For the most part I've been super lucky because I've almost always loved the item(s) I've received.
ReplyDeleteI did do a review for eShakti a few years ago that I gave a negative review for. The dress I got was sent for free but the material was so cheap feeling... especially for a $70 dress. And I let my readers know that. I felt bad because I did get a dress for free but to this day I've never worn it because the cheap feeling of the dress. That's kind of lame, you know?
Despite my negative review I've done a few more with eShakti. Luckily, I've made sure to get items that didn't use the same material and I've been happy with them. But I definitely wouldn't lie if I felt differently.
Well then I tip my hat to you! I know I would feel pressured to do positive reviews, but I also know that it wouldn't be fair to anyone involved for me to do so. Fortunately so far I've only done one review, and it was honest. But I think the problem is mostly that shops might expect positive reviews, because as far as they may be concerned, the item they've given you for free is payment. This isn't the case, of course, that item should never be considered as payment or even incentive, it's just the item that you're reviewing that they've very generously allowed you to keep.
DeleteAnd I know not all shops feel this way, of course. I don't, and my seller friends don't, but there are some out there who do.
Despite my review info page stating this, though, I will take a page from your book and inform them myself when I get enquiries ^^
I also give my honest opinion. I feel that if they wanted someone to lie they should had gotten someone else to do it. I don't think anyone should waste their money on a product that isn't right if I'm able to help them. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings naturally, but I'm doing the job that they asked me to, which is to write my subscribers a honest review.
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