Chris Cordes
Expedition Leader
Hey yall Id like to copy something over from another thread that I think is important to acknowledge. Everyone in this industry works this way but few people ask the writers and fewer writers answer, so here ya go.
- Question posed to me - Are any of the products or services that you've shown on the Excursion traded in return for semi-advertisement?
- Answer -
Ill start and end this response with WE DO NOT WRITE ADVERTORIAL.
Some of the items going onto the truck I will pay full price for, some will be discounted, it just depends. The reality is that journalism companies can't afford to buy a bunch of products just to review them. Heck many can barely afford to pay writers these days lol. This is why outdoor gear companies have massive inventories of test products to send out. When a marketing rep reaches out and asks if we can review their product, they must agree to an unbiased review, ie if we review it and there are problems we still have to be honest. Some companies dont agree to that and walk away, others will stop doing business with us if we write poorly on their product, but that's just part of it. I won't say who, but we've lost significant advertisers over bad reviews. Its hard to shoot yourself in the foot like that but we hope that it benefits the reader in the long run. For the most part when someone gives us a product to test we will send back, but sometimes the cost of them shipping it and paying for photography and promotional images would be far more so we work out a trade. Other times, like my teardrop article written here- http://expeditionportal.com/home-on-...-cal-teardrop/ we pay for everything.
SO long story short yes and no; but it will never impact the result of the review, and we never produce advertorial. EVER.
If there are ever any questions or doubts on it please feel free to post them and call any one of us out. I've written some dumb articles before and really put my foot in my mouth, but Ive never lied about a products performance.
Thanks for asking
- Question posed to me - Are any of the products or services that you've shown on the Excursion traded in return for semi-advertisement?
- Answer -
Ill start and end this response with WE DO NOT WRITE ADVERTORIAL.
Some of the items going onto the truck I will pay full price for, some will be discounted, it just depends. The reality is that journalism companies can't afford to buy a bunch of products just to review them. Heck many can barely afford to pay writers these days lol. This is why outdoor gear companies have massive inventories of test products to send out. When a marketing rep reaches out and asks if we can review their product, they must agree to an unbiased review, ie if we review it and there are problems we still have to be honest. Some companies dont agree to that and walk away, others will stop doing business with us if we write poorly on their product, but that's just part of it. I won't say who, but we've lost significant advertisers over bad reviews. Its hard to shoot yourself in the foot like that but we hope that it benefits the reader in the long run. For the most part when someone gives us a product to test we will send back, but sometimes the cost of them shipping it and paying for photography and promotional images would be far more so we work out a trade. Other times, like my teardrop article written here- http://expeditionportal.com/home-on-...-cal-teardrop/ we pay for everything.
SO long story short yes and no; but it will never impact the result of the review, and we never produce advertorial. EVER.
If there are ever any questions or doubts on it please feel free to post them and call any one of us out. I've written some dumb articles before and really put my foot in my mouth, but Ive never lied about a products performance.
Thanks for asking
