Getting a product reviewed on ImprovePhotography.com is AMAZING for businesses. This website attracts over half a million page views a MONTH! That's a lot of photographers learning about your products.
THE GOOD PART! I have a prominently displayed a section on our site where I recommend my favorite gear, and I keep that page updated with the best gear I find. In the last year, we referred our readers through affiliate links to buy over a million dollars worth of photography gear. When I and the team at Improve Photography find a company we like to work with, we do everything we can to help them out. With more than a few companies, we have a standing invitation for them to email us when they have a new product come out and we spread the word for free to our readers. How do you get there? Make a really great product that we enjoy and can recommend, and then show what a great company you are to work with by making us comfortable with how you treat us.
THE WARNING! Because ImprovePhotography.com is trusted by over 400,000 social media subscribers, I am quite selective in the products I choose to review, and I will never ever under any circumstances make any type of guarantee of whether the review will be positive or negative. While we usually just write about the gear we like, we have definitely given a few bad reviews in the past. We can't be bought. We review the products honestly and that's all there is to it.
I love working with others in the photography industry. I have established friendships and partnerships with some companies that have been fantastic, but I've also dealt with a few that leave a bad taste in my mouth. We used to get multiple emails per day asking for product reviews, so we have established these guidelines to make things reasonable on our end. So, I have established a few guidelines for product reviews:
- We don't do non-disclosure agreements except for rare occasions (I.E. when it's something we really really want to test out early, which is rare).
- We don't respond to press releases or any canned email message. If you want to contact us, we need a message intended for us and not the masses. I really don't like getting on corporate email lists and then wading through them each morning.
- Except for rare occasions, we don't accept review units that must be returned to the manufacturer. While I understand the need of manufacturers to keep the costs down, I just can't spend the time to re-package or ship things 3 times a week. Sometimes we take the products and give them away to our Facebook group (which is good advertising), and other times it goes into the abyss of the equipment room.
- Sending a product for review is no guarantee that we will review the product, or when the product review will be posted. Last year a company that sells clips for photography backgrounds sent me a product for review and then hounded me for weeks to get the review up! Can you believe it?!?!? The readers of this site really don't need a full review of a background clip. Products that would be interesting to many members of the community get reviewed, others get recommended in the “Recommended Gear” section, others get mentioned on social media, and some I don't see fit for mentioning.
- We will never accept payment in exchange for a review. Ever. Yes, companies have tried. The last thing I want is for ImprovePhotography.com to turn into an infomercial. We do have advertising spots available, but not advertorials.
I hope all these guidelines don't make me look like a curmudgeon. I promise I'm a friendly guy! But I do have a lot of work to do on the site and I just ask that reviewers please be considerate of these guidelines so I can be fair to everyone.
If you meet these guidelines and accept the guidelines and warnings on this page, you can send your product for review to:
Improve Photography LLC
16357 Copperridge Way
Caldwell, Idaho 83607
If you'd like to discuss the product review with me before sending the product, please contact me through email: info AT improvephotography.com