One of the perks of this blog is that publishers send me free books to review (which I then give away). While that may be nice, I still wish I was a successful gadget-blogger. They get free electronics to review! Anyways, the whole point of this is that companies are perfectly willing to send out free stuff in order to generate “buzz” or word-of-mouth. It’s a powerful idea and potentially way cheaper than conventional means like television advertising.
Enter BzzAgent, which brings this concept to the public. Based on your profile and little surveys that you fill out, they will send you products that companies are interesting in giving out. You basically get a reviewer’s kit consisting of a free item, some coupons for your friends to buy that item, and some pamphlets about the item. You have no obligation to say anything nice or sell anything. You just openly admit that you got the item for free and give your honest opinion.
Things I’ve gotten from BzzAgent for free: (signed up in April 2005)
- Free hotel night at Springhill Suites (pretty nice)
- Free bottle of Island Breeze by Bacardi (not that good)
- Free bag of Purina ONE dog food (gave my dog gas)
- Free box of 20 Take5 candy bars (tasty)
- 3 Free Music CDs from YourMusic.com (not worth the money)
Coming soon:
- Free Sonicare toothbrush
(See, I just mentioned a whole bunch of brands.) Finally, after you do your bzz’ing, you can report back what you and others thought of it in return for points, which can be redeemed for other knicknacks. Frankly, the free samples themselves are much better.
I still classify this as Bored Money because it can take a decent amount of time, and I only bother to sign up for things that interest me.
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Thus far, I’ve enjoyed BzzAgent, though many of the campaigns have been a real bore. For example, is anyone truly interested in Mobileplay or Zinio? There weren’t any tangible freebies attached, and neither is all that compelling to talk about. My latest freebie is a $25 Sony Style gift card, but I’m finding it difficult to use without spending a heck of a lot more money in the process.
Hence the term Bored Money 😉
I didn’t even bother to do the Zinio thing. And I’m probably not going to do the SonyStyle card things since the nearest store is pretty far away.
So YOU were one of the people who got into the Sonicare campaign withiin the first 5 minutes! As soon as I read the e-mail (which was about 15 mins after it was sent) I went to join and it said that they had all the people they needed for it. I was not a happy camper as I’ve wanted to try one of those Sonicare toothbrushed but the $$ have stopped me every time. Just curious, which model are they sending you? I’ve personally enjoyed the “Take5” campaign, those are some awesome candy bars and the Nivea for Men products which I liked but would probably not buy.
i’ve become a huge fan of your site, and you’ve just helped me pass the morning away with filling out & signing up for BzzAgent 🙂
Thanks!
somehow i got into the sonicare campaign and received it a few days ago. all kidding aside, the brush is top notch. i think the bzzagent site is good, but i agree a lot of the campaigns are average at best. ive received the take 5 bars (great candy bar), sweet simplicity sweeteners, power of nice book (interesting read), and most recently the sonicare brush. i never got the sony style card, springhill suites, or a smart bargains promotion that i heard of. i guess we all get different things. i do recommend the site for others though.
I signed up, but it looks like no one wants me. I even gave them all my personal info by way of surveys. I’m bummin’. :’-(
I like getting free stuff. Thanks for the link! Will check it out.
Tim – be patient, I’ve been with the site for over a year and a half. Not everyone gets everything. Interesting campaigns only come by about once a month or so.
It also helps to fill out their little surveys that pop up randomly.
Sorry to hear about your dog’s gas. We gave my lactose-intolerant cousin a milkshake before his flight last night. Must have been fun.
I’m a member of Bzz Agent, and I only get really stupid campaigns. I haven’t received anything worthwhile. I also can’t redeem my points because there aren’t any rewards. I would recommend that people waste time trying to get into pinecone because that actually pays (and gives you something to do).
Depends on what you like. I just did the Tabasco one and the Atkins Bars one within the last month or two. Turned down about 4-5 others that didn’t interest me.
I have posted in the last 4 days 104 reviews for the new aveeno lotion and got 49 of them reviewed i plan to keep bzzing maybe someday in the next 5 days i will be up to over 500 plus dollars in mypoints giftcards. I moved from a level one to a level to the other day to a level2 and then to level three today and soon they say i will reach a level 4 in like a few days.
Well, I think I hit the motherload of Bzzz’ing… last month I got the new Logitec Harmony One Remote… it goes for $250… and it is awesome… I’d never pay that for a universal remote, but this thing is great… a TRUE universal remote. and Smart. I click on an activity that I set up and bam it goes to work… EG: I click “Watch a DVD” and it turn on the TV and sets it to the DVD input AND turns on the tuner and sets it to DVD 5.1 sound AND turns on the DVD player – ready to go… then when I use the play, ff, rew it knows to routh these commands to the DVD player, but if I use the VOL it know to send these commands to the tuner… it can control anything that uses IR. So, it will operate the fan, the TV, DVD, tuner, 2nd DVD, HP Computer and even set my car alarm to on.
In the past few months I also received 12 bags of Back to Nature Nuts and Trail Mixes, a bottle of Canadian Club, Claritin® RediTabs, 3 coupons for Chili’s Smokehouse Bacon Burgers, LISTERINE WHITENING (R) Quick Dissolving Strips, TV Guide subscription, a case of Atkins Advantage(R) Bars, and some free Atkins Advantage(R) Bars…
All in all… not to shabby…
BTW, I am waiting on my Philips Norelco Speed-XL – a $80 value…