Yeah i might go online and buy some stuff. I suppose you have to
build up a portfolio before company's trust you to review their products.
I usually draw upon my employers established name to get products to review. I have never paid to review a product, or been paid for that matter. When I have reviewed products in the past it has been for mutual
gain of both myself and the manufacturer -- they want my review to sell in their marketing, and I want their product to see if it will fill a hole in my production needs. They
send me their product for a set amount of time, with a set goal in mind for use of application which we negotiate beforehand.
Sometimes it's as simple as I want Product X for my
load in and tech period to try parallel to my other gear, and I report back if it worked to my liking, if it did I make a press
release and forward it on to them, and corporate lawyers from both sides fight over what will be published in the trade publication.
Other times I get Product Y for months on end to cycle through a few different shows, and see how I can break it over the course of the run, with the manufacturer expecting to get a product back that has been pushed to its limits so they can figure out how to revise it to make it better. At the end of the process, I say how I used it (I love figuring out how to use products for something that is not an advertised use) along with actual data for their engineers and we figure out how a press
release would sound. If it's negative, often times I end the relationship with the manufacturer and nothing bad is said, if it was good and they agree with my usage, we draft a
release together. Sometimes if it's middle of the
road, they take the data that they like, and take it to trade shows so myself or my organization doesn't have to be listed in a review that goes to press, and they can use the data because I used their product.