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As a review I know what it is like to receive review samples and then spend the time reviewing them. I'm going to write about what giving samples is like for the flashcart makers, the reviewer and the audience.

The Flashcart Makers

If a new flashcart is released then sooner or later reviews sites are going to ask for a sample to review. The team has two choices: To give or not to give. The latter is often the most simple initially but often leads to the product not being as successful as the competitors who do give out review samples. This is because a lot of people won't get to know how good the card is until some people do buy the card and pass on the message. To give flashcarts could be quite expensive at first but it shows a lot of things about the card and it's Team:

  • The Team isn't afraid to put investment into their project
  • The Team is confident that their product is good enough to stand up against the competitors
  • The Team will provide support for their product

In short, I believe the companies that give out review samples are often more successful than their counterparts, however there does become a point (let's take the M3 Team for example) when they are so famous that people just take it for granted that their products will be good and the Team won't benefit as much from giving away samples.

The Reviewer

A lot of my friends are jealous of me getting free carts, and that I should have to pay for them. I obviously wouldn't agree with this, but I do have reasons!

  • I spend a lot of time and effort on my reviews (more so now than when I first started reviewing)
  • I have a desire to write a good review because the Team has been generous enough to give me a free sample
  • It's basically free advertising for the flashcart

The Audience

I conducted a small survey about whether people look at reviews before buying things, here are the results:

  • Yes, and I wouldn't consider buying one without a review [52.50%]
  • Yes, but if there wasn't a review I would still consider it [45.00%]
  • No, I think reviews aren't useful [0.00%]
  • No, I forget to look [2.50%]

From this evidence you can see that people definatly use reviews to determine whether or not they buy a product, therefore review samples are extremely beneficial to the flashcart makers.