When I started this blog in January, 2006, I was inspired by a couple local food related blogs...there was Lisa's Kitchenchick, that was started in April 2004, and Kate's 4obsessions that started in November, 2005. I was kind of intimidated - would my photography ever be as good as Lisa's or my knitting as good as Kate's? The answer is "nope" on both counts, but that's okay. I found I really liked writing about food. Then, my creative pursuits expanded to all things homekeeping - it's about cooking, canning, crafting, sewing, camping, gardening and thrifty environmentalism. In short, it's about what they used to call "home economics" when I was a student at Hartsig Junior High School in 1978. This blog has always been a creative outlet for me - I don't make any money from it, I haven't bought a vanity URL for it, I don't do Amazon click throughs, and I don't do Google ads. It's just for fun, and every recipe I write about on it, I've cooked. My opinions and thoughts are my own...both positive and negative.
Every so often, I am flattered to get an email from a company asking me to review their products on my blog. I am always surprised and delighted to realize that people I don't even know actually read my blog, and I have wondered if I should write reviews of these products. The FTC enacted a new rule that goes after bloggers that write about stuff they get for free. After giving in much thought and reading the 83 page tome about what's required, I'm considering to write about these items if they inspire me to do so. I will certainly write if I got something for free to evaluate and I will write both the positive and the negative about the product. Your thoughts?
Because I assume people are ethical, I would assume that your review will truly represent your opinion, whether you got it free or not. Not everyone thinks my way. I wouldn't want to do it, but I don't like deadlines and feeling that I have to get something completed.
ReplyDeleteGillian
I would read your product reviews - you always tell it like it is, so I would trust that you were not sugar-coating things. Furthermore, I would not be annoyed that you were doing it.
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested in your product reviews. I always feel like reviews by real people (aka bloggers) are non-biased and trustworthy. after all, if you mislead people, they won't like you anymore :)
ReplyDeleteThey are going after blogs for reviews? Does that mean that blogs that provide political opinion need to identify their bias too? I feel that providing a product review category on your blog will be useful. I provide restaurant reviews, but never thought about book, and products reviews.
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