Dear Blog Product Review Requesters:
Flattered, but…
For many years, I’ve received contact forms from various places basically asking me to blog about their product. I like to blog about a lot of stuff, but some of the applications, means I will need to sign up and download. Usually that is no problem, but it takes time. I am not necessarily saying that I will not write about those tools. From browsing, the desktop tools and phone tools look great, but I try to stick more to internet websites.
And for reviewing premium WordPress plugins, why don’t you have a free version I can try first. Most of you insult me by giving me a 30-day free trial. How is that a bonus for me? I’m not wasting my time, if you can’t understand when you reach out to some bloggers, that you might want to be careful what you say and offer, rather than sending a lazy canned email.
It is far easier for me to blog about things that happen online as they are there.
On top of this, new desktop tools leave me a bit squeamish to sign up and download as they are new, and I am not sure if they might my computer funky. I have had it happen before, and it was not exactly fun to fix the issue. In fact, I was more than happy to complain and just about send a bill for the time it took to fix what their application screwed up. As of current, the one desktop application even tells customers they can buy storage on their site to access the different things. Sorry, but it is either fully on my desktop or strictly online. That is NOT a desktop, at least in my opinion.
On top of that, several emailed back and wondered why I did not have the article up. Well, for one… there is me, me, and then there is me. Oh wait, that means one person runs this blog: me. Again, just because you sent in your seemingly interesting tidbit does not always mean in makes my blog schedule.
And two… if you have to reach out to me about it, more than likely I never agreed. You assumed.
I want to apologize if this sounds like a rant, but then again, I’m not sorry. I hope this gets out there to those wanting to spam me or harass me to write about their products. It is my time, and as much as I would like to hold my hand out, point at it with the other hand, and at the same time, ask ‘how much are you going to pay me’, I am not.
However, I do ask that those that do press a product across my email to be courteous, and be honest about what the product is exactly. Remember, if I write a negative review on an article, it may be seen by more than 37,000 people on Twitter, and my reach on Facebook is just as large. If I feel the product might be spam, I may reply and ask to be paid as I am doing a favor and giving a valuable link.
Just sayin’!
Kind Regards,
Nile Flores
Hi Nile,
I completely agree, I have had some brush with these people as well, and I can understand where you are coming from. I really appreciate you putting an honest letter out there. I think it will help these people understand a little. I am also avoiding downloading desktop applications and writing a blog about it. I almost lost all of my data due to this mistake. It was a great step, and I really commend you for this!