So, what’s involved in producing reviews for that merchant website, and how do you get the gig in the first place?
Chewy.com asked me via email a while back, out of the blue, if I’d like to get pet goods and write reviews for them. I guess I order enough items from them to get spotted by some algorithm for finding reviewers. Did I do reviews for some items before being asked? Can’t recall. Anyway, there’s no pay involved other than the free stuff you get to try out.
When you say okay, sure, they give you some choices to make, like what kind of pet, what category of pet stuff to be sent. You get an email notice to sign in and pick one of four items in your chosen category. They send it, you use it, and after a bit they prompt you to do a review.
When you sign up to be a reviewer they give you a list of what they need and discussion of how to write a review, what they want and don’t want included. When you click in online to do your review there’s a set of steps to follow (not all of them required) and when everything’s filled in you can check it one last time, then submit it for approval before it gets posted. They prefer you to provide a photo of the reviewed item being used by your pet but that step can be skipped.
Chewy tells you don’t bother to say you got free stuff to review; they add that automatically to your review when they post it.
So far I’ve done two reviews, a couple/three months apart. The second one I just sent off this evening. Yes, you do a star rating, one to five, as well as writing about the item. I’ve done a four-star rating both times, with praise for what I (and the cats) liked, and an explanation of the one thing that I did not. Since I was asked to do a second review after giving only four stars on the first, I guess they don’t demand five stars to stay with the program.
So far, so good, and I can affirm that at least this reviewer of free stuff is honest.