Product reviews and giveaways have been an interest of mine for awhile; however, I never really did anything about it.  I just kept thinking how nice it would be to do them.  Recently, I started getting busy around this blog again and made up my mind to get serious about it.

I figure, I’m obsessed with giveaways already, I should be hosting my own! I want to review cool stuff! (Well, I have cool stuff that I bought that I can and will review too, but you know what I mean.)  I talk too much to those around me about anything and everything baby related… I even have my sister-in-law thinking about trying cloth diapers! Wooo hoo! Oh and a former coworker who’s trying to conceive asked me to help with CDing when she gets that far.

I wasn’t even trying to convert these people.

But I digress.

What I want to talk about today is about breaking into the PR&G scene.  Or, at least, how I’m breaking into it (ok, attempting to break into it.  Stop nitpicking me already! :P)

At this point, I’m too much of a small fish to get much of anywhere by cold contacting companies and asking for review products.  I definitely can’t sit here and wait for them to come to me.  So where can I find a happy medium?

Networks.

Communities.

I have to start somewhere, even if I am low mommy on the blogger totem pole.  I mean, you don’t build a house by starting with the roof, right?

Join up with places that help bring bloggers and businesses together.  I’m sure it’s more efficient for many businesses this way – they let a few networks know what they are looking for and those networks can connect them with the appropriate bloggers.  Voila!

I have been keeping an eye on what networks other bloggers belong to, especially if I frequent their site.  I’ve bookmarked several networks and recently started to join a few.  Some I’m not sure I feel comfortable joining yet because they seem to be expecting bigger numbers (followers, fans, visitors).

The first place I joined up with was the Blogger Outreach Directory managed by Little Yayas and Simply Stacie.  I saw a post about it and signed up.  I’m glad I did! I’ve gotten a few newsletters with opportunities and this connected me with my upcoming review and giveaway.

Over the past couple days I joined:

1 – Gig Coin (I completed a short survey sponsored by Gig Coin, earned $5, and was able to cash it out to PayPal right away)

2 – Tomoson (I applied for 2 review opportunities, waiting to here back)

3 – Mom Bloggers Club (I didn’t sign up for the programs part yet)

4 – My Blog Spark (Signed up and confirmed my email)

5 – Business 2 Blogger (Signed up and confirmed my email)

I don’t have much else to share about these yet, since I haven’t been with them long enough to formulate an opinion beyond initial impressions.

Have any of you worked with these networks? Do you work with different ones? What have you experienced – helpful or waste of time?

About Darcy Zalewski

Darcy Zalewski is a work at home mom with a daughter born in 2010 and a son born in December of 2012. Thankfully she never fully grew up and still loves to play with toys. She shares her experiences and passions about birth and parenting on her blog, Tales From the Nursery. Never try to stand between her and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup though...

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