Ask Your Affiliates for Products to Review

I have a camping/survival website (http://thetexascampinggirl.com) and I have reviewed many products throughout the years. Most of them were products I already owned. But I decided to take a chance and reach out to some of my affiliates and ask them for products or samples that they could send for me to review.

My thought process was simply, they can't say yes or no unless I ask, right? So I wrote up an email and sent it out to several of my affiliates... Blender Bottle, Keen Footwear, Patriot Pantry, Wise Company Food, Kelty, REI, etc. I included a link to my website and expressed my desire to promote their products. To my surprise, I actually received several responses. They were super excited about what I was doing and were more than happy to help. The first month, I received 3 packages from 3 different emergency food suppliers, which I promptly scheduled a camping trip in order to "review" the products. After sending another round of email requests to a few other affiliate companies, I received products from Blender Bottle and Keen.

There were a few companies that simply never responded (which I expected) and there were a few that responded that they didn't have samples or products that they could send however they were willing to help in other areas like providing me with exclusive banners and marketing material.

The point is, if you don't ask... the answer is always "no". It doesn't hurt to ask, and as a bonus, I've developed a great relationship with many of my affiliates in the process.