Photo by Retail Packaging
Advertising & Reviews:
I love to try new things! I am currently accepting products for review. If you wish to have your product considered for review, or if you wish to inquire about advertising, please contact me at beautifulcalling@gmail.com.
Disclosure:
All the reviews featured here at Beautiful Calling are products that have been sent to us at no cost for review, received as gifts or purchased by us for our family. I will disclose if it has been supplied free of charge. All opinions you read in the review are mine (or DH’s) and are honestly based on my experience with the product. I enjoy doing reviews and believe it or not, I depend on others’ reviews when I go to make a purchase myself.
I hope that my product reviews can introduce you to new products and help you determine if certain products will work for your family. I love it when the review sponsor also provides a giveaway product because that makes it even more fun!
If you, my dear reader, ever have any questions about a review I’ve done or about my policy in general, I do hope that you will contact me!
Thoughts As a Blog Reader:
- I read blogs long before I became a writer of one.
- I like giveaways but not ones that require you to subscribe or a million other requirements. I like them simple and if the content of the blog is good, I may subscribe but I don’t subscribe to enter giveaways. I try to make the giveaways I host easy to enter.
- I have found many great online stores and websites through blog promotion.
- I have found out about some really great products because of reading a blog that the item was reviewed in.
- I (generally) trust a review on a mommy blog much more than any commercial on TV and it influences me much more.
- When I am looking to make a purchase, I look to some blogs that I read and trust for suggestions. A big one for me was cloth diapers. Depending on what you go with, it’s a sizeable investment. I wanted to know what worked for others before making my own purchase.
- I do not always trust reviews of products from sites whose sole purpose is promoting products and is simply reiterating manufacturer information. You can tell when a site reviews every single thing that comes their way. I’m not saying that is wrong, simply that I personally do not want to do that.
Thoughts As a Blog Writer:
- I only review products that are relevant to my life and what I perceive to be relevant to my readers. I have declined offers.
- I only accept products which I am interested in and are something that I would quite possibly buy anyway.
- I review products that I have bought myself – they aren’t always free.
- I always have a “suitable test period” (about a month). I want to give as accurate an idea of how things work as I can. I want my readers to know that I am not simply promoting this to get a free product but that I am really putting it to the test.
- I do an honest review of them. If I have suggestions for the product, I would (and have) included them in my review.
- Though I generally receive a product to review and usually keep said product, I am not in any other way compensated for the reviews. I am not saying it is wrong for bloggers to be compensated, simply that I am not.
- I am not just looking for free stuff. I love trying new things but don’t want to accumulate more ‘stuff’. I am trying to de-clutter my life. If I don’t believe it to be useful or worthwhile, you won’t see it here.
- I do try to include a giveaway with the reviews.
- In Set for a Sizzling Summer, there were many products and giveaways. I didn’t write the series for the products but rather the products and giveaways enhanced the series and make it fun for readers who followed it. I hope it helped them find new products that would work for them or a retailer that they may not otherwise have found.
A sponsor asked me the other day how readers know that they can trust my reviews. That answer is what prompted this post.
