Info About Giveaways & Product Reviews

In the past week or so, I have received several emails from various merchants asking me to host giveaways of their products, or offering me a giftcard to their store if I will talk about what I bought on my website. I think most of you know from my previous concern about this, that I don't take this lightly. I started this blog as a fun and productive outlet for my own fashion, weightloss, and exercise goals. I am not doing this to get free swag or to be paid to hype up products.

However, if it is a store that I already shop at (seriously, have you seen how much of my clothing comes from Target, Old Navy, Lane Bryant, Ross, and Goodwill??) then I don't feel like it is misleading to accept a giftcard and continue with my normal posting. And I would hate to turn down a great giveaway opportunity for y'all just because a product is new to me. So I've created some guidelines for myself. Want to hear them? Well I'm posting them anyway, so look away if you don't care. There should be a post with lots of pictures coming soon, or you can always go drool over my closet video.

Still here? Okay here we go.

Giftcards

If it is a store that I shop at already, then I will accept the giftcard as long as there aren't unreasonable strings attached. What's unreasonable? I don't know. Maybe declaring that I will never shop anywhere else again and neither should you? LOL. That's not going to happen.

If it's a store that I have not yet shopped at, I will go to their website and look at what they are selling. If they have things that I would buy even without the giftcard, then I will accept the giftcard. If their clothing or products aren't "me" then I will not accept the giftcard, even if the products might be great for other people.

Giveaways

This is going to be pretty similar to my guidelines for giftcards. If it's something I like and use, I'll be happy to host a giveaway for y'all. If it's a store that I shop at already, ditto.

If it's a product or store that I have not used, but think it looks like something my readers might enjoy, something I would buy for myself, or something I would be happy to receive as a gift, then I will host the giveaway.

Again, if there are unreasonable strings attached then I will decline to host a giveaway.

General Info

So, if I am wearing clothing from a store, or talking about a workout DVD, or even touting some new peanut butter that I am eating, it's very important to me that my readers know I am talking about it b/c it is something I support on my own, not something that I am being bribed to talk about.

I'll put at the bottom of a post if I've received any freebies, or if a giveaway is being hosted my a merchant, or if in any way any content on that post might be influenced by an outside source. That way you'll know all the details, b/c I have done plenty of reviews and one giveaway (so far) that were just on my own.

Feel free to leave comments if you have any questions or concerns.

Tina