I mentioned in my CyberMummy recap that a significant portion of my day revolved around the topic of working with brands and so I am writing a clear explanation here of my stance. For the purposes of clarity I am assuming that anyone reading this is a complete newbie to my blog.
When I started this blog three years ago it was to catalogue my attempts at sewing, knitting and cooking with a dash of parenting. As time has moved on and I’ve found a comfort zone with my writing, I’ve expanded the parenting element somewhat and in the process I have attracted many offers from companies wishing me to review their products, some of which I’ve accepted. My criteria for accepting products for review has been simple: Would I use it? I have rejected probably 75% of these offers as being irrelevant to my readership or simply unattractive to me but for the products that I do elect to keep & review I will be using a more defined method so that you – my readership – know what drives the review you’re reading.
1. I will always be honest if I am reviewing a product I have been sent for free.
I do talk about products that I love with fair frequency and I realise that could be confusing in establishing my motives. From this point forward, any product reviews will have a note telling you at the start of the article that I have been sent this product for free.
2. I will not accept payment for reviews.
I will not put myself in the position where I could be accused of putting financial gain before my integrity. I have built this blog up through investing my time and energy, it’s not worth throwing that away.
3. I will tell the truth about the products I’m reviewing
I recently did a product review for a company that ticks all of my boxes – environmentally conscious, morally agreeable, affordable product – but didn’t write up the review because the product didn’t work for my family. I fed back to the PR company but have felt distinctly at ease since then. From now on, I will tell you if I haven’t liked something I’ve tested but I will also offer my support and feedback to the companies sending me review products.
4. I will not review any product which is manufactured by any of the Nestlé brands.
As a family we actively boycott Nestlé and all subsidiary companies as a result of their appalling marketing practices and continued use of child slave labour. I could not in good conscience ever accept a product of any kind from Nestlé.
5. I will only review products which are true to the ethos of the blog.
If it relates to cooking, crafting, family life etc then I’ll review it. If it’s not something I’ve talked about here then chances are I won’t be interested.
Additionally, at present I have no advertising on my blog. That’s not to say it’ll always be like this but as of this date I receive no payment for anything posted here. Everything I write is my own opinion and words – I will not simply rehash press releases, nor will I change what I’ve written. I do have an Amazon associates link but in the three years of writing this blog I have made £0.10p so I don’t think we have much to worry about there!
If you have read this and would like to send me something to review, please do email me.
As the people I write for, your opinion on this is extremely important to me and so I would welcome your comments on this post.
Thanks for reading
Posted under site stuff
This post was written by Vonnie on July 10, 2010
Good on you for sticking with your principles and being honest. I look forward to reading your reviews as I know they will be based on honesty and products reviewed with integrity. Keep up the great blogging xxxx
I agree with everything you have said.. I was jsut asked to review something from a company, kitchen things, soI would need to blog about it and they will send a voucher for £30 and if I do a giveaway with my review they will send another £30 voucher to the winner… I havne’t blogged about it yet, I’m still mulling it over but as its some kitcheny things that would actually be used by me than i will probably say yes, do the teaser post saying I have been asked to review something from such and such. I think that as long as the items to be reviewed are in keeping with the nature of the blog.. ie craft and family than its a great way to play with new things.
That all sounds very sensible – really good that you are so clear about it all. And good on you with the Nestle Boycott – with you all the way.
Good stance. Not sure it describes my line in the sand, but not far off.
British Mummy Bloggers have this Blog with Integrity thing, which if you click the link on my blog tells you what it involves.
I do reviews and accept advertising (not that I get much and google and amazon – ziltch), as it is all that keeps me at home with the boys at the moment, but I always an open, honest and never accept payment for reviews, but do keep the product. I ould rather post a bad review than not review the product.
Interestingly I had only heard about the nestle boycott stuff at cybermummy, thanks for that link going to do some more reading now
x
Excellent to be transparent – I have seen some really questionable posts on mummy blogs in the past fortnight that do not state whether they received free goods or were paid.
I have done some posts in collaboration with food brands on my blog – my tip would be to work the review into something you would have written about anyway so that the post remains at least 85% your usual style of content.
I want to review products!
( But I don’t think anyone actually reads my poor little blog….hint….please read….and comment!! lol