How to Get Your Product Reviewed on Popular Blogs

Getting your product reviewed by popular bloggers is a sure way to get free advertising. Who wouldn’t want that? There's an art to capturing the attention of popular bloggers, though. You need to do more than just toss a freebie their way. These bloggers have put time and energy into building their credibility and they want to keep it.

Providing incentives to review sites isn’t wrong, but when handed out to just any blogger, it can sway the opinion of the reviewer. Incentives can hinder an objective review of your product if the blogger isn’t dedicated to impartial reviews.

Also, when a blogger only reviews products in order to get freebies, those reviews are often sugarcoated in a way that makes the product sound good but doesn’t help the consumer.

Reviews from an honest, credible blogger convert at a higher rate than brief mentions from people who just wanted something for free.

Here are some tips to get your product reviewed by popular bloggers who won’t waste your time:

1. Redesign your product to provide maximum value.

Popular bloggers reject opportunities to review products all the time. For a product to make the cut, it needs to be original, useful and have the potential for adding value to the consumer’s life.

It’s not enough to have a good product, especially if it’s just another version of someone else’s product. It’s got to do something amazing (and useful) to capture people’s attention. For instance, the reviewers at Sleepopolis review nearly every mattress on the market and dive into the details of what makes each one unique.

They also review sleep accessories like pillows, sheets and other products like the BedJet. Sleepopolis’ BedJet review is the perfect example of a unique product. It’s a device that blows temperature-controlled air underneath your sheets while you sleep. It’s probably reviewed on every mattress review site because of its uniqueness.

Before approaching any blogger to get your product reviewed, do a self-assessment of your product. If you can improve it in any way, do it before you approach your selected bloggers. Give people as little reason as possible to reject your initial request.

2. Be selective with the blogs you request reviews from.

Blogs are a dime a dozen, and so are review blogs. The bloggers who review your product should be people with a large and growing audience. Their blog also needs to be high quality. Getting reviewed on a blog that doesn’t get viewed by your target market isn’t going to help you.

Unfortunately, many bloggers review products for the purpose of receiving free samples. This isn’t the kind of blog you want to be featured on. These bloggers are committed to getting freebies, not helping people make purchase decisions. Always aim for review sites that are committed to helping people make purchase decisions as a priority.

3. Offer to write a guest post — and be helpful in other ways

Some bloggers who review products accept guests posts. These are bloggers who usually have more content than just reviews. Take advantage of the opportunity to leverage a blogger's hard-earned traffic to generate brand and product awareness for your business.

4. Thoroughly test your website before publication.

When a blogger reviews your product, expect to see an increase in traffic. Hopefully, you’ll get a stream of purchases, but your website needs to be ready for this surge in traffic. You probably don’t have to worry about running out of bandwidth; however, you do need to worry about how easy it is to buy your product.

Have a complete stranger navigate your website to make a purchase and then ask for their honest feedback. Was any part difficult or confusing? Where did they get stuck or encounter difficulty? Use this feedback to streamline the purchase process.

Make sure all confirmation emails are sent, and any download links are functional. Your buyers will subconsciously associate their experience on your website as an extension of their experience with the blogger’s website. A smooth visitor experience ensures a smooth relationship with the blogger.

Larry Alton is a freelance writer whose work regularly appears in Huffington Post, Entrepreneur, Inc. and Adweek.