I come across a lot of information, and one of the things that I do here is share valuable stuff with you. When it’s a product worth buying, I’ll either review it or recommend it – the difference is that recommendations point to good stuff that I haven’t taken the time to review yet. (For ease of discussion, “reviews” will cover recommendations for the rest of this page.)
Here’s what you need to know about my reviews…
- I Always Use What I Review
- I Try To Make My Reviews Valuable
- I Support Fair Pricing
- I Support Good People
- Some of My Reviews Have Affiliate Links
My reviews come from firsthand experience with the product or service. I’ll normally wait until well after the honeymoon with a product to write about it, so sometimes there’s a three-month lag between when I start using something and when I review it. If I’m seeing immediate, meaningful benefits, though, I’ll recommend it sooner rather than later – if I’m seeing those benefits, I want you to, as well.
My main goal is to write a review that adds value to you. There are a lot of products out there, and sometimes it’s hard to tell which are worth the time and money and which aren’t. When I come across good stuff, I want to tell you about it and help you make an informed decision about whether it’s for you.
Internet pricing is a funny thing that has somewhat different norms and baselines than other goods – I won’t go into this here. One of the things I try to do is assess the product by comparing it to comparable products, those pricing norms, and the actual benefits you’ll get out of the product. If I feel a product is seriously overpriced, I might review it but comment on the price. If it’s priced high but still worth it, I’ll try to show you why it’s worth the purchase price.
Some of the products that I review are made by my friends and clients, and I’ll make my relationship to that person clear when I write the review. I’m fortunate to be surrounded by a lot of good people making cool stuff, though, and I won’t recommend their stuff if I don’t think it’s worth your time.
I try to take into consideration the character of the people or businesses whose products I review. When it’s clear to me that they’re honest and trying to make a positive difference in the world, they get a green light. If they’re scummy, sleazy, or questionable, then I’ll usually opt not to support them. There’s only so much you can find out about people by doing research online, though, so I try to be charitable and not assume too much about people’s motivations.
Many online products come with affiliate programs, which is basically a commission sales technique. It works like this: when I use my links in reviews and recommendations, I get a portion of the revenue from the sale. Using my link does not alter your purchase price, and I don’t recommend and review stuff just because I might get a cut of the revenue – I recommend and review stuff because I think the product will benefit you.
At the end of the day, I want to share good stuff with you that supports good people creating valuable stuff at fair prices. Online business has opened incredible opportunities for us to make an honest living helping other people, but for it to be sustainable for all of us, we need to participate in it.
Please purchase the product using my affiliate link (if I have one) if one of my reviews help you decide to buy a product; this helps me put food on my table and pay my mortgage. If it helps you decide not to buy a product, please share it with your friends so that they don’t buy something they might not need, too.
If you got here from a review, just hit the back button to go back to that review. Thanks!
Want Me To Review or Recommend One Of Your Products?
I love seeing what products you’re creating, so please feel free to send me review copies if you think your product is a good fit for me and my audience. But if you’d like me to review or recommend one of your products, here are some things to keep in mind:
- I won’t review or recommend a product or service if I don’t get to experience it.
- I’m always on a review backlog
- I’m more prone to support affordably-priced products than higher priced ones.
- For me to support it, it has to be clear what my readers will get out of it.
This means that if you have a prelaunch thing going and I don’t have time to review it, I won’t be able to support your launch.
If you want me to look at something at the last minute, it probably won’t happen. Some of my friends, clients, and supporters contact me months ahead of time and give me ample opportunity to check their stuff out, and, obviously, they get priority.
See “I support fair pricing” above. If your pitch is mostly about how much money I’ll make, I probably won’t be that interested in it since that doesn’t really motivate me.
If your product doesn’t sit well with my audience, I’ll decline supporting it on this website. I might support it in other venues, but that’s unlikely, too. If you’re not sure who my audience is, read my about page and hang out for a while.
If you’d still like me to review or recommend your product after reading this, jump on over to my contact page and give me a shout. Thanks!