Guest Post - Reviewing/Giveaways for Beginners Part II

This is Part II from Emmi @ Mommy's "Free" Time's Guest Post about Reviewing/Giveaways for Beginnners!  Enjoy!




Now that you know what you want to review the next question I hear is, “Where do you find products to review?” This is actually easier than you would think. At first I wondered how all these bloggers got people to ask them to review products. Trust me, if you’re a new blogger, don’t expect anyone to contact you to do a review. I’ve been blogging for over 3 months and I still have only had a few companies (small companies) contact me for reviews.
So what do I do?

Step One: Start writing and researching! Use that outline I told you to create in Part I. When I first started reviewing products, I reviewed items around my house. This was simply to get experience writing about products and to have something to show to the companies I pitched. Yes, pitched. I didn’t want to wait around any longer for someone to ask me to review their product. So I started researching the internet to find products that I would be interested in trying. Go to actual company websites and look for these key words: press, pr, media, or contact us. Usually, if a company will work with advertisers, which you now are, they will have contact information. Sometimes this is simply an email address or sometimes it is an online form to fill out. Personally, I like to use the email address. I don’t know why. I’ve had luck with either method.

Step Two: Write your pitch letter. I had no idea what to write in a pitch letter. Hey, I like your product, can I try it out for free and then tell my readers about it. Essentially, yes. Just not in those words. You are now a professional and you need to sound professional and serious about your job. I also like my pitches to sound down to earth and personal. Now there are two ways to go about this. You can create your own pitch letter or you can use a template. I’m terrible at writing off the top of my head so I chose the second choice. IF you want to write your own pitch letter keep this outline in mind:

• Intro: Introduce yourself and tell what you would like to review and why
  
• Review: State that what you would like- a review, giveaway, review/giveaway and outline your polices on each. It is VERY IMPORTANT to state your polices on reviews and giveaways (will discuss in more detail next post)
  
• Blog: Talk about your blog, include URL/link, stats, any other personal information
  
• Conclude: Offer to supply more info. if needed, thank person for their time, signature (can be simply your name or more detailed..you can use a wisestamp signature if you really want to wow them!)

Now if you want a pre-made template you have to do a little research. There are lots out there. I’ll even help you out with a starter one that I use. It’s from an awesome blogging chic named Jessica. She is great for helping with any blogging questions and she loves to share. Here is a link to her blog Riding with Jessica, and to the template pitch letter. Check her out and be sure to show some comment love if you like her stuff. Jessica and I both suggest you tweak this letter to make it fit you personally, adding specifics and deleting language that doesn’t sound like you.

Step Three: I’ve sent the letter now what? You wait. Sometimes a company will get back to you that day. Sometimes it takes a few days. Some companies you will never hear back from. In the beginning, I sent out tons of emails, got “no” for a lot, “yes” for a few and there are still some that I never heard back from. Don’t get discouraged if you get a no or never hear back from a company. A blogger friend told me that it is okay to re-pitch a company in a few months. Give it time for your stats to increase. Remember, these companies get pitches all the time! They have to have some way to pick who to work with. You may not meet that criteria now but you may two months later, so try again.

I hope this information helps you get started with finding companies to pitch and actually starting a pitch letter. If you have any questions I didn’t answer feel free to email me at mommyfreetime (at) gmail (dot) com. Next week, I’ll give you some info on stating your review/giveaway policy (creating a media kit) and how to write your review. Until then, get out there and start pitching!