How to get your green product reviewed

Here at Growing a Green Family I do not accept payment for writing green product reviews. However, I will review products sent to me.

Benefits of a product review:

Reviews are an excellent way to help spread the word about your green product.
Reviews are a good way to encourage green consumers to buy and try your product.
My reviews are in-depth and trusted by my readers.
I always include information about your company in my reviews. For example, Facebook, Twitter and website links for your company.

Types of reviews I write:

I write whole company reviews and specific product reviews. I’ve reviewed books, food, cosmetics, toys, cleaning products and much more.

THINGS I WILL NOT REVIEW:

Non-family minded products. Products meant for a business, such as bulk organic bags with company logos or products such as a green book for business owners, won’t fit in well here. I do write for a number of other green clients though, so if you have an oddball product I may be able to review it elsewhere.

Meat. I’m noting this, because yes, I’ve been asked to write meat reviews. I live in a vegan and vegetarian household, so we’re not going to test meat or other animal products and review it.

Body care products and cosmetics that use organic wording, but aren’t certified organic. I do review some natural, non-certified products, but only if that product is honest about not being organic. If the product/company wants to use organic claims, yet aren’t certified, I’m not interested. If you’re interested in becoming certified read: Why Certify Organic Personal Care Products if You Don’t Have To?

Green products from a questionable company. For example, Clorox Green Works may be an eco-friendly cleaner, but an insane amount of other products made by Clorox are not green. If you’ve got one awesome green product, that’s great, but if the rest of your products suck on an eco-scale, I’m not interested.

Secret ingredient products. If you aren’t willing to FULLY disclose what’s in your shampoo, paint, snack mix or other product I won’t review it.

One-time use biodegradable products. Disposable corn-based dishes or potato starch or bags made from biodegradable plastic encourage a throw-away mentality vs. a non-wasteful mentality. While I get that these products may use less energy to make it’s very hard to recycle “biodegradable” stuff and it’s just not something I want to deal with reviewing.

Disposable baby diapers and organic formula. There are no babies in my house right now and all my pals breastfeed, so trying out either of these products is tough. I’ll review other baby products because I can donate them to charity after, and heck, we’ve even taste-tested baby food, but throw-away baby products don’t work out well here review-wise.

How to get your product reviewed:

First read over my green review criteria – if you don’t meet a lot of the criteria, you likely won’t get a good review from me. You can also check out my green rating scale, which will give you a general idea of how my rating scale works.

IF your company or product is in line with what I look for in an eco-company or product, contact me to set up a product review.

What happens next:

Once you send me a product to review, I’ll try it out and see what I think. Most of the time I also run the product by rest of my family as well.
I’ll write a review and send you a link to said review.
Sometimes, if I really like the product I’ll write another review about it for one of my other clients.

BE AWARE:

I work with a lot of companies and it can take a while to get a review done. It will eventually get done (barring the issue below). It helps me out time-wise if you send me images and any PR or history on the product/company. I spend a lot of time hunting stuff down.

IF I don’t feel that the product is a good fit after trying it out, or if it’s clear you didn’t read my green review criteria, I sometimes just won’t review a product, rather than write a bad review.

If you send me a product that’s not green because you found my address somehow, I’m not going to write a review about it. I’ll ignore it until I get a chance to donate the product to charity. YES this happens a lot. If I haven’t worked with you before, it’s really best if you don’t send me random products. I don’t like extra stuff and finding an organization to give a product to is a total pain.

Sending me your product or asking me to write a review of your company, does not guarantee a positive review. If I decide to review your product or company, I mention pros, cons and everything in-between. If you’re not down with me being honest, please don’t send me your product.

See examples of reviews I’ve written or contact me to set up a product review.