Nobody’s saying that you *shouldn’t* get free stuff. I just think that spelling it out like that is, as I said before, tacky. But that’s just my opinion. Carry on.

I’m sorry – did companies and pr people really think that blog reviewers were just reviewing things for fun to fill up their spare time or for the sheer joy of promoting poptarts?

Writing a review requires time and energy. The ‘free stuff’ that a reviewer receives is both necessary for them to do their job properly and compensation for their time and service to the company.

i don’t call pr people and ask them to promote MY business for free. why should pr people expect me to do that for them? i PAY for my advertising. and when i ask a fellow blogger to do a promotion for me, i send them my product information AND a product to review and/or giveaway.

promoting your product takes up MY time and effort to prepare a post, takes up space on MY site and sends a message to MY readership that i’ve built up over several years of blogging. if it ‘insults’ you that i won’t promote your product for free, you clearly do not respect me or my blog. and you are probably not the type of pr person i’m interested in building a relationship with anyway.

that said, i’ve had terrific experiences working with pr people who i’ve really enjoyed and who i would eagerly work with again. like jo-lynne said, respect and communication is key!

this was a GREAT post, jo-lynne!!

It isn’t the fact that we want something for our home or our kids. In order to give an honest open review, we need to try the product. If a PR person or company simply tells us what to say, that isn’t a review. That is simply doing that person’s job for them.

I don’t mind not getting a product it if is something that I have used before, or have knowledge of. However, a giveaway or some other incentive is very much needed, for my time and opinion. I can easily say no, and move on.

I think all these points are spot on, as many bloggers I am sure agree.

What I’ve learned in lo these many years blogging is that sometimes you have to ask. For example, I was recently sent a screener copy of something to review, and I did it, but I also asked for a “real” final copy (since this one was incomplete) in exchange for my time in writing up the giveaway.

The PR rep accommodated my request, especially when I put it that way.

We always made sure we knew who we were talking to; who we were targeting. We would never insult anyone by blanket mass-marketing as if we were, for example, a carpet cleaner or lawn service. We would never expect assistance or promotion of our work for free, and would always expect to make some kind of payment in kind.

As a blogger (although not on the receiving end of “pitches”) and as a former professional, I find it insulting to think that a company wants to get free airspace, as it were, to promote their product, service or stories. If it were my cousin or neighbor who wanted a plug? Sure. But Pop-tarts or Wal-mart?? or any other established company/stranger?

Like I said above, companies must think moms are chumps; that we’d be so flattered to give them free airtime. Is it because many of us are stay-at-homes, that companies think we are uneducated and naive, sitting by our computers eating bon-bons?

Not to put words in her mouth, but for Jo-Lynne to put it out there and say, hey folks, it’s only fair to get something to give something? That seems totally fair. Being a free market society and all.