Bloggers Unite – Reviews and Plugs

For no good reason at all, I will illustrate today’s talk with pictures from today’s walk up Teesdale wot me and the Dawg did for the bagging of a “Four” known as Millstone Grits in which I broke the bagging duck of 2014 (although its not a proper tick, really…)
Since about Christmas, you may have noticed that I’ve adopted a new policy with regards the gentle but constant stream of emails I get from SEO’s and marketing companies and, occasionally, shops or manufacturers, to plug their bit of kit or their on-line shop or whatever. Most of these have nothing at all to do with hillwalking or the consumption of delicious pork-based products encased in fine pastry (often served with peas and gravy) (you catch my drift) (there it is with the brackets again) But some do….

This new strategy was intended to raise money for charity and basically it is this: Simply, I ask for a fee – usually fifty quid. If they plead poverty of budget and it’s a review, I ask for as much stuff as I can cheekily get away with and then sell the surplus – I’ve used www.walkingforum.com which has an auction facility to effect some of this.
People who pay a fee, pay it direct into Mind (by ringing them up) or by using my page on the virgin giving site. This, I hope, will avoid any issues with income tax. People who buy stuff also pay direct into the virgin giving site, the advantages of which are that virgin moneygiving send me an email whenever anybody pays in, they add it up for me, payers can increase their donation by clicking the gift aid box  and payers can’t get their money back once they’ve paid. And once they have paid, I send the stuff. My contribution is the postage, of course (too complicated to work a way around this…)

Sooo, my plea to Outdoor bloggers who also get gear for review or get asked to plug stuff is – ask for more. These peeps are getting us on the cheap. Don’t be satisfied with just the baselayer top – ask for the long-johns as well, in fact, ask for two full sets. Or ask for a fee. I mean what’s fifty quid to yer average gear manufacturer.
What you do with the money is between yourself and your conscience.
And if you think whatever it is you’re reviewing is rubbish, then say so.

I meanter say, are we doing outdoor blogging to get free kit? I don’t think so. (I’m not sure exactly why I do it, but whatever it is, its not for the kit) (I probably just like to show off and see how many page views I can get) (specially if I get more than Mr Sloman) (which doesn’t happen very often) (they should take brackets off these keyboards)
It does need outdoor bloggers to form some kind of critical mass on this approach, though – otherwise, cheapskate SEO’s will soon get the drift and go off to find bloggers who will roll over for a pair of thermal undies.
Just to remind folks, though, that you don’t have to give me a pair of socks in order to qualify for the honour of donating on my virgin money giving page . Oh no… you can sooth your conscience for eating all that hidden chocolate supply, unreasonably insulting the postman, frightening a lollipop lady or whatever it is by clicking here and then clicking “donate now”  Insulting remarks, banter, personal messages or  excuses etc can all be left in a comments box as well, so even an insult might be worth a couple of quid.  And don’t forget gift aid!
Bloggers Unite! Ask for more and raise cash for your favourite charity. Don’t just do it for nowt! And lets raise the price of a gear review and do something useful with the proceeds. Even if you don;t really want to review the workpants or the fabby new hikers knife from New England – ask for the money. If you don’t want to do it, ask for a lot of money (I asked for £250 one and they quickly went away)  They’ll soon get the message that this advertising/marketing stream is no longer free.
Since November, I’ve raised just over £200 for Mind using this approach. OK, it might not be a stunning sum, but its money they wouldn’t otherwise have had. And I feel just a little bit smug about it anyway (it doesn’t take much…)