Advertising & Reviews
Since I started writing Five of My Own last December readership has grown pretty steadily. At this point Five of My Own averages 75,000 page views per month and growing. According to Alexa (if I’m understanding this) it’s rated in the top 2% of the most trafficked sites on the web.
Five of My Own has hit the #1 Top Mommy Blog position in both 2011 and 2012. We were voted one of the 2011 Most Inspirational Families by Circle or Moms.
Blog posts are shared on Facebook on both a fan page and my personal page with a reach of nearly 1,500 FB walls. Additionally Five of My Own is listed in Networked Blogs and Twitter.
According to Klout , "(Five of My Own) broadcasts great content that spreads like wildfire. (Five of My Own) is an essential information source in (its) industry. (Five of My Own has) a large and diverse audience that values (its) content." My current Klout score is 63.
With the increased traffic I’ve been getting requests to do product reviews and giveaways. To be perfectly honest I wasn’t sure at first if I was interested. There are sites out there that do lots of giveaways and basically the whole blog is about reviewing products but that’s just not me. I'm not making a living doing this (as if) I'm just sharing my experience with adoption and these crazy people I live with....and much to my surprise people are reading about it.
I will never be comfortable with "selling" something I don't really believe in or doesn't fit with my mission to support orphans in need. (Example: one of the first requests was for me to review a cord blood storage service. Seriously, cord blood? On an adoption blog??) But I think I've figured out how to maintain some integrity in the process... in fact I think there might be a way to have some fun and do some good at the same time.
So, if you would like me to review a product or service on this blog here are my basic guidelines...
- The product or service has to be of interest to Five of My Own readers; think moms, mostly adoptive moms. (You know the kind of moms with kids...adopted kids.) If you are selling something like cord blood storage or say breast pumps or stretch mark cream, you’re barking up the wrong tree. Now if you have cute clothes, toys, children's books, parenting books, therapeutic services, baby/toddler/kid gear, cool websites or something else you think we should know about then by all means tell us!
- If we agree you have something that makes sense to talk about here, I will share your product or service with my readers in a blog post with along my honest review and opinions. (If it’s negative, I’ll leave it to you to decide if I should publish). My review will include pictures (both yours and mine) and links to you site.
We can discuss details on a individual basis but generally here’s what I would like in return;
- Of course I need something to work with so send me samples and information on your product or service so I can be as informative as possible in my review.
- I don't want to be paid BUT I will ask that you make a donation to an adoption/orphan charity or project of my choice. This might be in the form of cash or merchandise or even a percentage of sales generated. (And great news your donation will most often be tax deductible!)
- Finally I ask that you sponsor a give away for Five of My Own readers. I love my readers and I want them to get a little something too! Generally I will ask you to host and conduct the giveaway on your site or a separate facebook page specifically for my giveawy.
If you would like to schedule a product review please email Lori at FiveOfMyOwn@gmail.com.
Updated: April, 2012
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