Bzzzzzz....

A couple of years ago I joined a website called BzzAgent. It allows me to try a variety of products for free. The concept behind it is that I will try the product, then talk about it. Word of mouth advertising can be very powerful, so the companies that make the products are hoping this grassroots word-of-mouth campaigning will push their sales.

My very first campaign was Take Five candy bars by Hershey's. I had never picked one up before, and man, let me tell you, their pretzely-peanut buttery-chocolately goodness is YUMMY.

Campaigns along the way have been for cleaning products, like Pledge dusting products and Scrubbing Blubbles shower cleaners, beauty products, like the Alveeno Positively Ageless line, foods, like Hillshire Farms salads and Grey Poupon, and summer products like Off and Coppertone. I've even gotten a couple top dollar products for free, like the Sonicare FlexCare (retails for about $150) and the Harmony One universal remote (retails for about $250).

Not only do I get to try the products for free, but I get points for turning in reports about the conversations I have had with people about the products. Those points accumulate on another site called MyPoints.com. I can then redeem these points for gift cards to a variety of really popular sites. My points are up to about $175 now.

My current campaign is for Smucker's Uncrustables. These frozen sandwiches are filled with the down-home goodness of Smucker's jelly. There are sandwiches with grape or strawberry jelly and peanut butter, just PB, PB and honey, and grilled cheese. The sandwiches are in the frozen food section, and you just take one out about a half hour before you want to eat it -- which makes them prefect for lunch boxes. And it's amazing how fresh they taste, you'd never guess they'd been frozen.

So now I'm off to write a Bzz report on my post! :-) Watch for another post for my next campaign!