Sunday, August 26, 2007

New Review Copies Policy

After discussion with the other bloggers, we have decided to implement a "no review copies" policy on Fashion Victim.

There are several reasons for this. With so many new fashion blogs appearing on the scene, those of you who follow the feed on Fashion World of SL may have noticed that MANY blogs are featuring the same content. This doesn't make for interesting reading, and I personally don't believe that saturation level promotion of new items actually benefits designers. Sure, you want people to see your stuff, but is it really beneficial to your business to have your new design featured so heavily on every single fashion blog that people get sick of the sight of it? I know I am not alone in thinking that the fashion blogging scene has become a little boring lately - and in saying that I do not mean to disparage any of the bloggers who work so hard to keep their readers updated on new fashions.

There are some well established blogs that are dedicated to providing updates on new releases, and these blogs combined with the New Products section of the official forums do a more than adequate job of keeping shoppers informed about most new products. Fashion Victim was never intended to be solely a new release blog, and our aim was never to compete with the blogs who already do this job so well.

Review copies place an enormous amount of pressure on bloggers to feature items. We haven't been blogging items if they are already featured on other blogs, and due to busy real life schedules there is a lot of other stuff we just haven't had time to review. This then leads to a feeling of guilt because the designer has taken the time to send their items, but we never feature them here. I worry that feelings may be hurt, or that designers may think we are taking advantage of our role as bloggers just to get free items. Swirly Cyclone in particular has received MANY review copies, but with her preference for "special feature" type posts, she finds it difficult to review a lot of what she receives. That, and she is notoriously lazy....... Other bloggers here post so infrequently that I have almost forgotten their names.

So, thank you to all of you who have shown such an interest in our blog that you have sent us items to review. We do apologise if you feel we have let you down by not featuring your stuff here. No doubt Swirly will continue to feature review copies she already has in her inventory in future posts here. We will continue the occasional practice of requesting review copies, but only if we have a commitment to blog them in a prompt manner, and cannot afford to purchase the items at the time. But generally speaking, if we love your stuff and want to wear it, there is no reason why we shouldn't buy it.