Why am I doing sponsored reviews?

The first reason I already stated above; I am an enthusiast. I like shiny, I like neat features, and I like when a product has a feature that makes sense for the product but it's never been done before or has been improved in this particular product.

The second reason is you. You're reading this. You're interested in what I'm reviewing, so I'm doing it for you. To non-enthusiasts, a product (such as a flashlight for example) is something you pick up at the box store and use, or maybe your life or work depends on it but you could not care less what it looks like or what features it has as long as it gets the job done. An enthusiast however wants to know every feature, design element, quirk, issue, etc and in many cases may purchase a product not because they need it but rather because it's interesting. How do you know it's interesting? Reviews. I'm writing what I'd like to read when I'm researching a range of products or a specific product to determine what I'm going to buy or perhaps just stumble across something and impulse buy it because it looks neat.

The third reason is to encourage companies to keep making neat stuff! Yes you can get a lot of products I may review at any box store and they'll do the same job. But they don't have the same look, feel, functionality, ability to be customized, etc. I would like to do what I can to personally encourage companies to make interesting products so that you and I have cool toys. This also gives me a voice, both from my reviews as well as correspondence with a company, to provide input into future products. In an enthusiast market, feedback is exceptionally important as a company is not filling a basic role or niche as much as they are providing a product that excites their customers. What if this year's product is great but has a quirk or the user interface could be improved or a new feature added, or even a feature that doesn't seem useful removed? Reviewers are a great way to provide feedback to a company so that they may take that feedback and incorporate it into future designs.

The products I review will primarily be aimed at the budget-minded enthusiast. Again using the example of flashlights, I would rather review ten $50 flashlights than one $500 flashlight as I think this sort of segment would cover the bulk of the market. Many people would think $50 for a flashlight would be outrageous no matter what features it has, but I don't think my reviews will be particularly useful for that person. However, they may get a better understanding of the differences between a $15 light and a $50 light and the right review may make them an enthusiast. On the other side of the market, the folks who have collections of $1000 titanium flashlights will not likely be served by my reviews but even those folks may want an EDC flashlight that they can use every day and not be worried about losing value.

Each sponsored product I review will be tagged with the Sponsored Review tag and they will always include information about how the product was sponsored, whether was it free, discounted, loaned, etc. At my discretion, I may accept some level of feedback and update my review if a company insists, especially in the case that I've misunderstood, misrepresented, or otherwise had some complication that unfairly misjudged a product. My reviews will not, however, be filler for talking points or be heavily edited. What I review will be my personal opinion about the product in the ways that I have used the product.

I do not currently do video reviews, I do not have specialized equipment for evaluation or testing, and I do not have examples of every other similar product across a market. When I can and when it is appropriate I will make comparisons to another product. Anything I review will be something that I use and I will likely explain how much and for what purposes I use each product in its review.

I also will not likely do any destructive testing unless I'm provided multiple copies of the same item for the explicit purpose of doing destructive testing on one of them. The primary reason for this is so that I can re-evaluate products later if I need to, allows me to do side-by-side comparisons to a similar product that I may receive at a later time, and I also generally feel like destructive testing is destroying a good product and contributes to waste.