* How it all Works - - for Reviewers *

We (Mel and Melissa J) get a heads up from a book publisher or toy company that a product or book is up for review. We then email you the information from the Mama Buzz Yahoo Group.

That email will contain: the date of the tour, the product to be reviewed, the age category, and the contact's email.

You are responsible to get in touch with the contact person, giving them:
1. The product name in the subject line
2. Your name, blog URL, and mailing address in the body
with your stated interest in doing the tour. (Please do not forget to thank them for allowing you the chance to review the product in your email!)

The contact will then email you the product within 1 - 4 weeks.

You and your child test it out.

As soon as you feel you have tested in sufficiently, write your review! Even if the tour is not due for another month, write the review while it's still fresh in your mind. Save your review as a draft until the tour date.


Continue to check you email as the tour date approaches. We will be sending you a second message from the Mama Buzz yahoo group with any pertinent information that you need to add to your review, such as an image, product links, and a press release. If we send you this information, it must be included in your review!



We recommend that you print out the calendar we provide for you on the Mama Buzz Yahoo Group, which will have all of the upcoming tours listed. Keep it where you can see it often. Highlight the days you owe a review on, to make sure your attention is drawn to it! We're busy Mama's and it can be too easy to miss a tour or two, if we don't have the info in front of us reminding us periodically. (Melissa J speaks from experience as a book reviewer *blush* )




Grounds for Dismissal from Mama Buzz

~ Any Mama who misses three consecutive reviews, that she has signed up for, will be suspended until we can contact her and see what is going on. No further products or books may be requested at that point.

We are mindful that illnesses, internet and computer crashes, and (God-forbid) emergencies happen. We will work with you and will re-instate you to the best of our ability.

At the same time, we owe our companies respect and need to make sure that our reviewers are returning reviews in exchange for the products and books they receive and we will keep that in mind as we examine why reviews have been missed.


~ Reviews that are weak and nasty. While we want you to be honest and even welcome, constructive criticism, we ask that you be respectful in each of your reviews.

We also want our reviewers to give extensive reviews. A review of, "My child liked the colorful pages" simply will not suffice.

We have written up a post on "Creating a Comprehensive Review". Please read it and refer to it when writing your reviews.



~ Not posting personal posts in between review posts. Part of what will make reviews credible, is if they are posted on regularly kept blogs by Mama's who also write about life with their children. If your blog becomes reviews only, and the personal posts end, your membership will be suspended until it is filled out with personal-life posts once again.


~ Consistently leaving out pertinent information that we give you to include in your reviews, such as images, product links, and press releases.


~ Please keep in mind, that while we are not a "Christian" company, the women behind Mama Buzz do practice the Christian faith. Because of this, many of the companies and book publishers we will be working with are Christian based. We have no problems with you reviewing products that are Christian in nature, even if you do not practice the Christian faith. However, requesting and reviewing a product for the express purpose of speaking out against a Christian based product or book is grounds for immediate dismissal from Mama Buzz.


Happy Reviewing!

* Creating a Comprehensive Review *

Until writing reviews becomes second nature, please print this page out and use it as a guide.

Write in a conversational tone, from one Mama to another. Write a review that you would want to read!

(You can view reviews on this site for examples of what we are looking for)



In your review include the following

• An image (We will be providing this for you in an email, if it comes with the product/book.)

• The name of what you are reviewing, what ages it is geared for, and the price. Also include in this section, the name of the publisher or company. We will provide these details for you as well.
  

• What comes in the product package? (This is only needed for toys and games. Not for obvious items, such as books)

• If the product does not come with everything that is needed, list here what will need to be purchased in order to use it (i.e. batteries)

• How did you and your child use this product? How many times? Over what period of time?
  

• What was your overall impression? What does it look like? What kind of quality is it made of?
  

• What are it's strengths?
  

• What are it's weaknesses?

• How did your child respond to the product? First response? Repeated responses to it? (i.e. they grew bored within two days of getting it. They kept returning to it, even a week later)

• Would you recommend it? Why, or why not?

• Misc. opinions here: Would you pay the price this book or product is? What could improve the product? Was it better than you expected? What would you like to see as a possible follow-up product? Was it for the appropriate age range? Include any additional thoughts here in this section!

Some additional thoughts when writing reviews:

• We want honest reviews. Honest does not mean rude however! Even if you, or your child, did not care for the product, we ask that you attempt to still give one or two positive statements about it and then, state the negative in a kind and truthful matter.
  

• Our goal is to have tours scheduled several weeks after you have received the product. This gives you and your child a chance to test it and review it before you have to post about it. We suggest you write your review as soon you are ready to write it and then save it as a draft, to be published the day of the tour. It's best to write when the information is still fresh in your mind, not weeks after testing the product/book out.
  

• We will be checking all blog sites 24 hours after the product tour to make sure you posted!

• If the product did not arrive in time for the tour, please at least post the image and press release info on your blog and then, put up a review at a later time after you have had a chance to try it out.
  

• Please do not post your review until the scheduled tour day! Our goal is to have everyone's posts hit search engines on the same day.
  

• Take the extra step to write a thank you somewhere on your review to the author/publisher/creator/company of the product, for allowing you to review the product.  *** As of October of 2009, it is now a legal requirement to state on your review that you received a review product in exchange for the review!*** 
  

• Once your post is up, have it pinged on Pingomatic.com. 
  

• Go the extra mile and post your review on sites like Walmart.com, Target.com, ToysRUs, or Amazon.com. Mention you did this in your review, at the bottom, and link to it, so the provider of the book/product can go see it!