A Sorta Kinda Photo Editing Contest!
I’ve decided it’s time to play a game! This is close as I can get to The Price is Right or one of those huge jars of candy that you have to guess how many pieces it holds! So I’m going to host a photo editing contest – sort of. The easy thing is that I’m not asking you to edit any photos, that’s on me. You just have to guess how good I am at setting up a shot in the first place! Dominic and I are back from a weekend full of photos in Humboldt County celebrating his 35th birthday, so I have a lot of editing to do!
Read MorePoshly Custom-Tailored Freebies
Recently, I discovered an interesting site to enter to win different beauty products, Poshly.com. In order to enter, you answer a few questions that, I know now, are market research questions. These questions range from things like “How often do you wear foundation?”, “Do you watch what you eat?”, “How would you describe your skin?”, and “How old are you?”. In hopes of winning items from brands like Clinique, Makeup Forever, and Urban Decay, I’ve answered a lot of questions trying to win!
Last week, I got an email saying that some free samples were on my way from Poshly, but no specification as to what would be coming. Great, I thought, whatever it is will be cool. I expected a little sample size lotion or something that I may or may not care to use. Instead, today I received a MASSIVE box full of full-sized products that seem to be hand-picked based on responses I gave on those little quiz questions while trying to win stuff. All of the products in the box seem to address issues I identified in my quiz responses. Turns out, this is Poshly’s goal. From their site:
Our mission at Poshly is to build personalization technologies that connect beauty brands with beauty consumers in innovative, data-driven ways. On Poshly, members discover beauty products that are best suited for their characteristics while brands better understand the preferences and personas of consumers in real-time.
So my beauty exploration and marketing worlds are overlapping! Many of these items are organic, botanical, cruelty-free, and even vegan! All the Sia Botanics products are free of Gluten, Parabens, Sulfates, and Synthetic colorants or fragrances. The Sia Botanics and L’Oreal Paris products are 100% vegan, and they plus the Infinity Sun lip balm are all cruelty-free. I tallied up the prices and the value of what I was sent is easily over $150! So thanks, Poshly! I’m going to try to post reviews of all of them over time since they’re all new products to me. Here’s the list of what I got, and where you can get them for yourself!
- Sia Botanics Desert Aloe & Jojoba Cream Cleanser
- Buy from Amazon for $16
- Sia Botanics Super C Glowing Skin Tonic
- Sia Botanics Prickly Pear Rescue Cream
- Buy from Amazon for $22
- Sia Botanics Prickly Pear Daily Moisturizer
- Buy from Walmart for $14.99
- Femme Couture Prime Wear Long Wearing Lip Creme in Glowing Grapefruit
- Buy from Sally Beauty Supply for $7.99
- Femme Couture Shiny Color Crayon moisturizing lip color in Very Berry
- Buy from Sally Beauty Supply for $5.99
- Maybelline ColorSensational lip color in Red Revival
- Buy from Walgreens for $7.99
- Infinity Sun Avance Balme in Vanilla Bean, SPF 15
- benefit They’re Real Beyond Mascara
- Buy from Amazon for $20.51
- benefit the POREfessional pore minimizer
- Buy from Amazon for $8.89
- Haus MetaDerm 100% Organic lotion for Psoriasis
- Buy from Amazon for $14.50
- L’Oreal Paris EverCreme Sulfate-Free Moisture System Cleansing Conditioner
- Mystic Divine Argon & Monoi Oils Nourishing Hair Masque
- Buy from Sally Beauty Supply for $7.49
First Foray into Striping Tape
An extensive search of my area and trips to 5 different beauty supply stores ended with my having to order nail striping tape on Amazon. Hence, it took awhile to get here, and then, since the instant motivation was gone, it’s taken me awhile to get around to using it. But now, I’m SO glad I have!
Read MoreThe Feeling of Authorship
It feels great to say that I have finally started self-publishing using Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing. I have been encouraged for more than a year at least by Deborah Carney’s work with BookGoodies and her Kindle coffee table photography books to start putting my photography to work and publishing a series of my own.
Read MoreTips for a Great Product Review
What’s the most important way that most people find out about which new products to buy, and which to avoid? Whether it’s groceries, clothes, or beauty products, the opinion of respected friends and colleagues is a big factor. It’s how sites Amazon have increased conversions, turning browsers into buyers. Beyond asking your friends for their advice, the second best source sometimes is an impartial product review.
Product review is an ability to express or share one’s opinion about the product, whether it is good or bad. The essential questions that need to be answered to have a good product review are:
- What does the product promise?
- How well does it live up to this promise?
- Is it a good value? for whom?
To answer these questions first you have to read the documentation to understand everything the product can do or at least what it promises to do. Of course, it always helps to have actually used the product yourself. While you’re exploring the features, look also what the product doesn’t do – sometimes it’s easy to get sucked in with all the promises it makes, but remember that people looking to buy want honest opinions on the cons of the products as well. Revealing the downside of a particular product won’t necessarily make someone decide not to purchase it – it just depends what their personal goals for the product are in their own life.
To avoid common mistakes when writing your review, first you have to avoid irrelevant introduction and do not recite the feature list. Most of the time the merchant site will list the features, so you should only highlight the features (or lack of features) you feel are important towards the decision making process of whether or not to purchase the specific item you’re reviewing. The type of online shoppers who do a lot of product research before making a purchase are the type to read your review, so respect their time. There are usually many reviews for popular products, so keep your review succinct and include only what information might be relevant to the purchasing decision.
Keep in mind that you should also remain impartial, especially if the product was provided to you for free for the purposes of reviewing it. Just because you got the product free it doesn’t mean that it’s a gift and you should thank the vendor by providing thumbs up review. You have to consider the matters most is the reader, who is a user group like you, and not the vendors “gift” because you’re telling someone how to spend their money. In order to avoid any compliance issues with the FTC, you need to also be sure to disclose when a product is provided to you for free. Remember to consider, if not in the text of your review but just to yourself, you have to answer the question: would you spend your own hard earned money on this product?
Read MoreThanks for Nothing, Jerry Brown
Gov. Jerry Brown signed the budget today, which included affiliate nexus language. So, there goes a substantial part of the income of 25,000 small business in California. The Performance Marketing Association reported it earlier today. Executive Director Rebecca Madigan is in Sacramento today attempting to do what she can to benefit Affiliates.
Unfortunately one of the bills that was included also included very vague language about even doing business with California based vendors, hosting companies, etc, so effectively this affects not just the affiliate marketing industry in California, but all small businesses.
Way to go, Jerry, shoot California in the foot.
Luckily for me, I do not make the bulk of my income from being an affiliate. My ventures into acting as an affiliate have been mostly for the learning experience and to try to offset the costs of domains and hosting for my various web-based hobbies.
This does impact my husband’s site, RailroadRedux.com, as he has a large Amazon widget recommending different model railroading books, and impacts my site GirlScoutGuide.com as Fabric.com exclusively carries Girl Scout licensed fabric.
Affiliate Programs Dropping CA Affiliates (Updated As Of 12:45 PM PDT 7/26/11)
- 6pm.com
- 1-800-PetMeds
- Adorama
- Amazon.com
- Amerimark
- Backcountry
- Bag.com
- BagsBuy.com
- Bargain Catalog Outlet
- Barware.com
- BedBathStore
- B&H Photo
- Boden
- BookCloseouts.com
- BrickHouse Electronics
- Brylane Home
- BuildDirect.com
- Cabela’s
- Calvin Klein Jeans
- Camp Saver
- Candelabras.com
- CD Universe
- ChristmasCardsDirect.com
- CKU
- Collections Etc.
- Compact Appliance
- Costume Craze
- CreateForLess.com
- CSN Stores
- Cymax
- Dermadoctor
- Dr. Leonard’s
- Endless.com
- Eurosport
- Fabric.com
- Fingerhut
- FootSmart
- GAIAM
- Garden.com
- Gardeners Supply
- Gettington
- HalloweenCostumes.com
- Hayneedle Stores
- Herroom
- Jessica London
- KingSize Direct
- K. Jordan
- Luggage Online
- Maryland Square
- MetroKitchen
- Movies Unlimited
- MyFavorite Shoe Store
- OneStopPlus
- Overstock.com
- Overstock International
- PC Connection
- PhotoCardsDirect.com
- Potpourri Group
- Powells.com
- Roaman’s
- Shindigz
- Shoe.com
- ShoeBacca
- ShoeBuy.com
- ShopBop.com
- ShoppersChoice.com
- Silkpalms.com
- SmartBargains.com
- Spiritline
- StumpParty
- TABcom
- theWineEnthusiast
- ThinkGeek
- TimeForMeCatalog
- Total Gym
- Woman Within
- Woot.com
- Zappos.com
I’ll keep this list up to date, so if you are a CA affiliate and get dropped by a merchant not on this list, please let me know.
Edited to add: when my husband came home and I told him to remove his Amazon widget, he decided to not just remove it, but to replace it with a message to his site’s visitors telling them why his book recommendations were removed and urging people not to shop with Amazon.com in support.
Read MoreDue to recent changes in California law which negatively affect affiliates, and the fact that Amazon dropped all affiliates who reside in California, I will no longer be featuring deals from Amazon.com. I strongly recommend that you no longer use Amazon.com or any of their services due to the poor way they treat the people that advertise for them.
