Hey everyone. So I've gotten asked more and more often how to get started doing what I do. I have to admit it is a pretty interesting path to get here. Myself I kind of stumbled upon this whole review thing by accident. Maybe fate who knows. Really one day the two things I've always been really good at just fell together in the most awesome way.
People will try to tell you that nothing is free when really there is a lot of things that are in fact free. I truely believe that free samples are the most efficient form of marketing there is. Think about it. I want you to buy my product. I can spend billions in advertising trying to create a buzz or a following get you excited and you might pick it up on a whim, or you might not. This product could be absolutely wonderful and you may be a loyal customer for the rest of your life because it is simply that amazing. But only if you take that step and try it. Instead you could give some of your product away and trust that it is awesome pay far less because instead of advertisement its just production costs and you can be sure the customer is trying the product.
I used to spend a lot of time surfing the web finding free stuff. Its exciting really and there are quite a few sites that put it all together for you. But those are few and far between though I had scored some doozies like 40lbs of free meat delivered to my door for example. My first job in fact was giving away free samples. I have always loved marketing so when I got a chance at making a 10$ credit to a vape shop I just ordered from to shoot a video provided I liked what I got it just clicked and for awhile I stuck to reviewing vape stuff. Marketing wise this was the smart thing to do. To have a niche. Something you focus on but that just isn't me. I come from a long line of "jacks of all trades" its just in my blood, so I decided to put my finding free stuff skills to work so I could share my opinions with all of you. It makes sense, I live off of reviews anyway I may as well contribute.
So back in the day I would simply google free ____ whatever I was feeling like at the moment. Search through pages of scams to find the golden egg. The actual freebie. In retrospect I should have started a blog then, but that seemed kind of dorky. This was like 16 years ago, man everyone would be reading me by now. Not to mention the awesome list of real freebies I would have accumulated by now. Some are still around but they aren't the same as they were like teenfreeway.com there used to be all kinds of samples there. And then there are the make money websites like inbox dollars which is real and does pay just be careful to either spend nothing or make it worth it. Like there was one time I signed up for a trial of a discount shopping program it was like 5 bucks they sent me a 100$ visa gift card and hooked me up with another program with a free trial that sent me an 85$ check. I canceled them and made 180$ for really doing nothing. More often than not people forget to cancel and they make a killing. And yeah inbox dollars is tedious but that random 20$ check saved us more times then I can count.
But why waste so much time when I could be helping others too. So I found two sites that I'm on almost exclusively now. Tomoson.com and influenster.com. they are quite a bit different but have the same core principal. Social media is king. Give people a product and get them to talk about it, reward them for being more visible to the public, make money!
Now on influenster they are the ones who actually chose both who and what you get. You fill out your profile and earn badges in your areas of interest and do some reviews of stuff you have already tried while having a large reach via all the social media sites and they will send you a package. Then it's like a game. There are many tasks you can perform that earn you points towards badges and chances at various prizes. Then there is a survey at the end and you are done. Tomoson on the other hand you chose what you would like to review and apply. They chose who they would like and send out either their product or a coupon code to you and then you do whatever tasks they say (you can do bonus tasks too if you choose) usually including a review on your blog, sometimes Amazon too, and posts on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram. You'll need all of those accounts plus a blog page and either a pay pal account or amazon prime (or both PayPal can be used for returning your shipping fees or paying you) once you get the items you have about a month (unless otherwise specified) to complete your review and any other tasks the company decided on. Sometimes there are preresiquites to applying in the first place which usually includes having a certain amount of friends or followers on specific social media sites (Facebook and Twitter are the big ones) I've been surprised a lot of the time by finding products that I've considered buying before and getting to test them out with my only commitment being an honest review. Yes honest. There is no point to falsifying reviews. You will lose readers and as for the company they may send you more stuff but really what's the point of getting more crap you don't like?
I usually include a ton of photos with mine and honestly the easy stuff is the hardest to review. Electronics are probably the easiest. You can list the specs and say how it worked or compare it to something similar. Supplements and skin stuff are probably the hardest because of the quick turnover needed, sometimes they don't work that fast. If you don't complete your tasks your ranking goes down too so make sure its something you can do. Now you can also always just review stuff you have tried before. You can do so at your own pace and get a following built up. You can do blog reviews or YouTube reviews or even amazon reviews if you like and companies will start to contact you. You can also directly contact companies if you would like to try their product and may have some luck (though that is by far the farthest route). You pretty much just need a computer and your opinion and the ability to get people to listen to you. Some companies will even pay you for your opinion but that comes later and is a personal choice. If you have any questions you can always comment below or look me up everywhere on the internet. :-)
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