If you're a blogger, you can request products for reviews and giveaways on your site via a ProfNet query.

Please note that if you'd like to request products for events, you can do so by posting your request in our Promo Opps forum on ProfNet Connect.

To qualify for product requests:

• 1) Your blog must have been up and running for at least six months. This requirement guarantees to ProfNet users that the request is legitimate.
• 2) Your blog must also comply with the FTC blogger guidelines regarding disclosure. For more information about these rules, please visit: www.ftc.gov/opa/2009/10/endortest.shtm
• 3) Additionally, ProfNet never distributes product requests that are associated with fees, so bloggers are not permitted to charge ProfNet users for any reason, including advertising.

To submit a query, log in to your ProfNet account. If you have not registered for ProfNet yet, you can do so for free by visiting ProfNet.PRNewswire.com and entering the site as an "Other Professional Seeking Experts."

Once you've logged into your account, click on "Create Opportunity" in the upper left-hand corner to open a new query

The first time you submit a request for products, a ProfNet editor will contact you via your ProfNet inbox to ask if your blog complies with FTC guidelines and if you can guarantee that you will never charge ProfNet users for any reason. If you meet the requirements, we will distribute your request with the following sentence included at the end of the text: "This blog complies with FTC guidelines; there are no fees associated with this request."

After we've distributed your query, we cannot distribute the same query again until after at least two weeks have passed since its original distribution date. We do this to prevent our users from seeing the same requests repeatedly, and it gives everyone a fair chance for visibility.

Suggestions

We recommend distributing your queries to authors, speakers and consultants; corporations; PR agencies and small businesses to maximize exposure. You can find these industry limitations under "Institution Types" in the query form.

Include your blog's statistics, like your number of Facebook fans, Twitter and Google Friend Connect followers, unique monthly visitors, etc. This information helps company officials understand the potential for publicity.

Provide a timeline. Let ProfNet users know how long they can expect to wait to see your review of their product. If they know ahead of time, they may help you promote the review once it has been published. And if you're requesting a giveaway, and expect the company to send the product to the winner(s), then this information is particularly important to ensure a timely delivery.

Name your audience. Who are your fans? Are they mainly parents, teenagers, professionals, video gamers -- or some other demographic? ProfNet users will appreciate that they did not waste their time sending men's clothing to a women's blog, for example, and your readers will appreciate hearing about products that they care about too.

Also, specify what types of products you're interested in receiving. Even if you run a blog for women, perhaps you're still not interested in receiving makeup products, for instance. Details like this are good to include in your query, because it helps companies determine which product(s) is appropriate for your blog specifically.

Keep your query as concise as possible. Although there's a lot of information to include, do your best to keep it concise. No one wants to read a book, and users might end up skimming through it or not reading it at all if it seems too daunting. Queries are meant to be informative, not entertaining, so there's no need to write catchy headlines or include quirky comments.

Tips From PR Reps

We asked PR reps via Twitter what they'd like to suggest to bloggers requesting products:

• @MEPRagency suggests always reviewing products received: "Review products; good or bad."
• @JennaSnacks: "Tell us exactly what you want, how you'll use it and where it will be promoted," "URLs are helpful," and "a concise and organized request is the most helpful."
• @Narciso17 suggests being considerate of the other person's time. "Ask them if *now* is an OK time to talk/reach them." "Just taking into account that they have a workload as well as you helps. A little bit of sugar goes a long way."