Sure, I could have called this post "Getting Products for Reviews and Giveaways," but let's call it what it is.  Everyone knows that one of the perks of being a healthy lifestyle blogger is all the great free stuff you can get if you play your cards right.

Reviews and giveaways are great for a lot of reasons.  First, the obvious — you get to try out a product that you might not otherwise have shelled out the money to try.  Not only that, but the fact that a company is willing to provide samples for review or giveaway on your blog adds a lot of credibility, in some readers' eyes.  Finally, reviews and giveaways make for some pretty good blog content.  I'm always surprised by the number of appreciative comments from readers saying, among other things, "Thanks for the honest review."  And does anything need to be said for how much readers love giveaways?

So how do you go about getting free stuff to review and giveaway?  It starts with asking.  After a little more than eight months of blogging, I'm finally getting to the point where companies approach me with products (other than the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program), but it took some legwork on my part to get there.  Here are six steps I took, and I see no reason why they shouldn't work for you.

How to get free samples to review

1. Identify some products you'd like to review. If your blog is new, start small.  (I think Oikos and Chobani Greek yogurt were my first reviews.)  Products you see on other blogs are especially good — if a company sent samples to another blogger, you know they're at least open to the idea of blog promotions.  There's something to be said for being the first to review a product, but seeing it elsewhere gives you a place to start.
2. Email the companies. Just something polite and simple, like "Hi, I write the blog No Meat Athlete at www.NoMeatAthlete.com [an instance where having your own domain name looks good], all about marathon training on a vegetarian diet.  I'd love to try (the product name) and review it on my blog, because (the specific reason).  Do you have samples or coupons that you send for this sort of thing?"  I'd say about 75% of the emails I sent were successful.  If you have stats you're particularly proud of, by all means include them. (Hint: good search engine optimization results in lots of unique visitors, something a lot of companies like to see.)
3. Dedicate a whole post to the review, and let the product rep know about it.  They sent you the product, the least you can do is give them a whole post and link to company in the post.  Be honest in your review; if there's something you don't like, say so.  But hopefully you'll find something nice to say as well.
4. Make it clear that the product was free. You can just say something like "Company XYZ sent me a sample to review."  Not only does it look good, it eliminates conflict-of-interest questions and is good, honest blogging.
5. Promote your reviews and giveaways. Link to them on Twitter, Facebook, maybe even in some comments on other blogs, if it's relevant.  The more people that see your review, the more likely it is that companies will notice you as someone to approach to review their product.
6. Repeat! Thank your product rep and let them know that you'd love to do more reviews or even giveaways in the future.  Then repeat the process with some other companies.  But now, you can mention some of your previous product reviews with links to them, providing some social proof and increasing your chances of success.

That's it!  Not so hard, is it?  After you've done a few, think bigger.  Try more expensive products, products you haven't seen reviewed anywhere yet, and even broach the subject of reader giveaways, not just reviews.  As your readership increases and you have more reviews and giveaways under your belt and more relationships established, you'll find that companies start approaching you with products to review and giveaway.  And whose ego doesn't like a little stroking like that once in a while?