If you have your own sex blog or are thinking about starting one, doing sex toy reviews is a great way to generate traffic and create posts containing affiliate links to generate income. Many sex toy manufacturers and retailers will send bloggers free sex toys in exchange for their unbiased review (Yes, unbiased– you can give a negative review and providers are aware this is always a possibility).
Most sex toy review programs require you to already have your own blog and have a little bit of a social media following to be considered. If you’re just starting a blog and don’t feel you have enough traffic yet for a company to send you free sex toys for review, write reviews on items you already own. You can also publish reviews driectly on some retailers websites, like xinghaoya.com . This will give you a little practice, get some of your writing online, and possibly help you gather some like-minded social media followers.
Once you have the green light for a review make sure you both agree on the parameters– you’ll both need to be clear on how long it will take you to publish your review (usually within 1 month is acceptable), if you can use your own affiliate links in your review, if the sponsoring company wants you to include specific links of theirs, etc.
It’s also important to remember, reviewing sex toys takes a good deal of time. Between the actual toy testing (I test multiple times over a period of days or weeks), contacting companies, taking photos, writing my review, recording my video review, promotion/social media, and follow up I average 8-10 hours MINIMUM on each review. If it’s complex, requires more research, or there’s a problem, it may take twice as long. Make sure you have the time to devote to doing a thorough job and that you aren’t promising a finished review sooner than you can deliver.
This article is simply a quick sex toy review primer and resource list. If you’re just getting started sex blogging there are lots of other things to consider– should you use a pseudonym, what’s the best platform to host a sex blog on, how much personal information should you divulge in your reviews, how do you deal with companies that are hard to work with or asking you to do something unethical, what are sex toy review best practices, etc, etc, etc. If you haven’t considered these things, you have a bit of studying up to do!
For more in that area Ephipora and JoEllen Notte have some great articles on the nitty-gritty of sex blogging so give them a visit and absorb all you can. Ephipora and JoEllen Ephipora and JoEllen Notte (The Redhead Bedhead) also offer an online sex blogging class (that I contributed a little bit to!) that is very helpful.
Confession– this blog post didn’t start out as a blog post at all! It was intended to be included with my list of affiliates and webmaster resources for sex bloggers. However, when I started writing I realized sex toy reviewing needed a bit more explanation and needed to be its own post. Besides, this way is better for SEO (you’ll learn about that later ;) )
Also, if you have any additional sex toy reviewer resources or tips, please share in the comments below :)
