Well, enter "gadgets for free"! Woohoo!
That sounds pretty bizarre but after working on my Amazon reviews for several years, getting them up to par with other mainstream reviewers, I am finally getting offers to review products for free. It's rather fun and has begun to be a source of gadgets for me! So far I've received 1 camera at half-price, 1 camera at a full discount, a 53 piece GoPro accessory kit, some fishing lures (which were not so good), a speaker bar, and some other various things.
Let me say that this was one of my goals for this year. In fact, it was kind of a New Year's resolution! Yes, I made a goal this year of becoming a full reviewer on Amazon and it wasn't easy to get here. I spent the equivalent of an hour a day working on finessing my reviews. I went through all my reviews since 2011 and everything that made sense, I posted an in-depth review. Even on the stuff I hated. The whole point is that you need "Helpful" votes. Without those you are nothing!
When I started out this year, I was in 8 millionth place. Yep, I was pretty much at the bottom of the pile. I think it can start out a whole lot worse than that, but let me tell you, I was feeling pretty anonymous there at the bottom. So, I started writing. I wrote and expanded, took pictures, got a few votes, wrote some more and... I made it to 300-400k. Yeah. That's it. Talk about frustrating!
So I made it a daily habit. I said that if I was going to reach my goal I was going to have to make a habit of doing excellent reviews and building up my level. After several months of doing this, I made under 100k. This was a milestone because I knew I was getting close. But it was the last stretch that was most annoying. I sat on 93k for nearly 3 months.
I wracked my brain for ideas on how I could take this to the next level. It finally occurred to me that we were using Amazon at my work place and that many of the things I supported every day were on Amazon! So I start reviewing items I hadn't purchased with the caveat that I used or supported it at work. I also started commenting on other people's reviews and basically putting my nose into other people's business. I also started commenting and posting on the reviewer board.
By this point I had dropped into the 60-65k range with still no action. But there was a defining moment that actually started the cascading effect of free offers: One of my reviews received a comment from the manufacturer thanking me for the good review. I responded to them that I had an idea about another product to be made and to contact me and then put in my email address spelled out like "mike at hillcountryfishingrods dot com" so Amazon wouldn't flag the comment.
I got an email the next day from SOME OTHER company! Yes, that particular company never responded to my comment. But I started receiving offers from other places.
Now that I have been reviewing for a couple months, I get about 2 offers a week. This doesn't seem like a lot, but it's something and due to all the other things I'm doing, I haven't got much time these days. But having these reviews to do is truly starting to feel like something is happening and the exciting part is that I get to pass on those benefits to you!
Also, you are going to start seeing my reviews being posted here on the site. I will post only a simple description with a link to the video or any Amazon review. Additionally I will be posting Amazon links here to products I endorse as good products. (Like: Gookit Black 2.0 1080p Action Camera) Hope to make a little money off y'all too! <<grin>>
So things are moving along here at GeeksFishToo. We hope to be a place where geeks can settle back, learn how to still be a geek and fish too!
Tight Lines Y'all!
Mike
GeekFishToo
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