The Associated Press Can Kiss My Ass

Opinions are like (well you know) and everyone has them. When I make a purchase or decide to buy something, I will look around and see what other people are saying about it but ultimately, I have to be the judge.


When I do a review, I try to give people my overall honest opinion about something and if it is a product that I don’t like then you won’t find it here, on my personal blog. First of all, I like to present products that I like and that I think other moms may like, and secondly, I refrain from posting negative reviews because my time is limited and it is easier to contact a company and just say hey, I don’t think that this is a good fit because of this or that.


Many people think that because you receive a free product that you have just been bought and sold. Although free products are nice, a lot of work goes into my reviews, and that 2 hours I spend posting and sometimes more is so worth that $3.00 box of ice cream I got to try! After all, I sit in my mansion with my free butler service, my free appliances, my free groceries, and eat bon bons in front of my computer glorifying my free stuff just for everyone here.


The truth of it is, I am a stay at home mom, with two children to run after, 10 plus loads of laundry to do each week, a house to maintain, meals to cook, butts to change, cat puke to pick up, dog hair to vacuum, grocery shopping to do, and then I come on here and spend 8 plus hours posting reviews that sometimes take me 3 hours to post with photos, just so I can blow smoke up someone’s *** about my free ice cream!
I enjoy review blogging and having fun with giveaways because it is so cool to hear that someone benefited from something they won here or from an opinion that I gave about a product I liked. If you get home and don’t like something that I said I liked then I can’t help you. You were a little too naive in your thinking. It’s just as bad as saying “hey she said it was turquoise and I say its aquamarine” lets sue her because her opinion lied to us. Ultimately product reviews are my opinion and I am not out stating that if you eat this peanut you will grow your hair back. The problem is that it seems the FTC is always wanting to regulate and people can never think for themselves.


So what’s the point? I was recently sited in an article from the Associated Press about the whole FTC’s involvement in regulating blogs like mine that review products. They mentioned a review I had done on Skinny Cow Ice Cream, stating there’s no clue that Nestle SA’s Skinny Cow division was giving bloggers coupons for free products. Well Nestle didn’t give those to me and Mom Central did which I acknowledged in my post. And to make matters worse they didn’t even have the nerve to link to my site, only mention it in hopes that I wouldn’t find out? or they are a bunch of pansies.


I sent them a reply

Dear Sir or Madam,
I’m writing with regard to the article posted by Deborah Yao on June 21st entitled “FTC plans to monitor blogs for claims, payments”. While I agree with the general thrust of the article, I feel the article incorrectly and unfairly singles out DoubleBugs.Com as having conflicts of interests or somehow acting in an unethical way.

I don’t get paid by companies to do reviews, though they do provide me with the products so I can personally evaluate and use the product and develop an opinion of the product or service. If I don’t particularly like a product, I will not recommend it on my blog, and I’ll often work with the company to identify areas of potential improvement. My blog reflects my honest opinions and observations, there is no input at all from companies or anyone else.

Further, at no point did anyone from the AP contact me to get any information for the story. They based their comments on a single 15 minute review of a small number of pages on the DoubleBugs website. That’s just plain shoddy journalism.

There are many sites out there that are essentially shills for companies, sites where bloggers get paid to push products regardless of merit. DoubleBugs.Com is not one of them. I hope the AP will take steps to set the record straight.

Sincerely,

Laurie
DoubleBugs
laurie@doublebugs.com
www.doublebugs.com

And what I would like to know, where is my free trip to Europe? And for people who leave anonymous comments this is for you! At least get yourself some balls, maybe you can find them in a review!