These brands get free advertising from me as I post about the products I love more than once. I become a brand ambassador, so to speak, unpaid. When I find a brand I believe in, I like to tell others so it's a win-win situation. With blogging, comes opportunities such as the ones that SocialMoms (formerly known as TwitterMoms) provides. I just went to Target yesterday and racked up a $154 bill and paid only $32 for it thanks to the use of three gift cards I won from participating in various blogger programs. Today, I just received a $50 Sears card and I'm still holding a $50 Staples card (a giveaway ongoing right now here) and a $50 Hasbro card. I forgot that I also have a $100 Tiny Prints card to use as well. Many times, I pass the prize on to my readers in an effort to pay it forward and hopefully it lands in the hands of someone who needs it more than I.
If you thought about blogging, give it a try, it doesn't take much and great mom places like SocialMoms is a wonderful way to engage other moms and learn a lot about different topics and products.
*Update: I just used my $50 Sears card and purchased four pairs of Levis for my seven year old and a nightgown for me and only paid 83 cents out of pocket.
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/i have taken the blog plunge and was wondering how bloggers get review opportunities? I have a lot of twitter followers so hopefully I will start getting blog followers too. I have signed up for socialmoms as well.
Most businesses want you to have a good number of followers and a good page rank. It's hard to get those to be honest and took me a year and a half to get to 2000. I also take part in other things like Gina's campaign "How Sweet it Is" to add followers and Simply Stacie has events that help add to your followers. Follow Friday type days and so forth all are good for building your readership.
I was lucky to have Cellceuticals be my first company to give me a product to review and giveaway. I even bought items to give away to boost my followers. Gift certificates work out well for things like Starbucks, Kroger, Amazon and Wallmart. I've seen people get good hits with as low as $10 gift cards. I recycle prizes I win from things like SocialMoms to give away to help as well.
Once you have a giveaway, make sure you maximize your exposure by posting on all the links that other prominent bloggers have up. Two of a Kind, Working on a Full House has a nice link of others that host giveaway links: http://www.twoofakindworkingonafullhouse.com/. Also, use the forums at SocialMoms, Mom Bloggers Club, the Product Review Place, MamaBzz and more to post your giveaways. There are many sites to do this and the added exposure helps.
You should create a template letter to send to businesses which you can find online. Look for the PR link first and if there isn't one, send an e-mail to the contact listed. Keep it brief, list who you are, what you blog about, your stats and what you will do in exchange for a product review (i.e. post on your site, post on SocialMoms, etc).
Hope that helps!
Thank you so much for the info Great ideas and advice :). I will check the links/blogs etc out right away.
I love blogging, though mine is mainly education and child geared, i am loving the reviewing and most of all giving away free stuff to my readers.
I too am a How Sweet It Is member. Sprinkle Of Fun is a new follower/subscriber.
That is the fun part! I love receiving an e-mail of making someone's day :)
Thanks for the follow and I'm heading over to follow you!
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