Do you have a product that you would like a Gear Diary Team Member to review? If so, then this is the process:

First, contact us via email.

Once your email has been received, we will consider whether your product is one that will fit within Gear Diary’s scope. Your email will then be forwarded to the team or to a specific reviewer if your product is their forté. The team loves to review all types of gear, and as you’ve probably noticed – we cover all sorts of items on Gear Diary – so don’t worry if your product seems a little “different” or totally offbeat. Chances are that the more original your product is, the more we will enjoy doing its review!

Once your product has been approved, you will be supplied with a shipping address; we will assign the appropriate reviewer who may contact you for additional information.

If your product is software, then you can either ship a retail package to the address supplied or you can provide download and registration details.

If you just happen to have one of our physical addresses (perhaps because we have previously done a review for you), and you send a product without prior approval, then please understand that there will be no guarantees your product will be reviewed, but we may add it to a future gift guide.

REVIEW TERMS:

When you send a review item, you are acknowledging that Gear Diary will be writing an unbiased review of your product for publication on the Gear Diary site. We do not “sell reviews”; you can not “buy” a positive review by sending a non-returnable product or by purchasing advertising on Gear Diary. We do not cross-post reviews to seller sites such as Walmart, Best Buy, or Amazon; please don’t ask.
We publish both positive and negative reviews; we will not generally “neglect to mention” a product just because we didn’t like it; the only exception is when a serious fault has been found or acknowledged by the manufacturer and the product has been pulled while the glitch is worked out. We are writing from a consumer’s perspective, so if your available product is good, we want to let people know about it. If your available product does not perform as claimed, we want to let people know about that as well.
Manufacturer, Developer, and Supplier comments are welcome and encouraged in the comments section. However, the actual review text is always going to be the reviewer’s own.
You will not be given the chance to “approve” the review prior to publication, nor will you be given any editorial authority of any kind.
Once an article is published on Gear Diary, we will issue updates as appropriate, adding “: UPDATED” to the title then changing any factual errors that have been brought to our attention and verified by us. We will not, however, remove published posts. Upon the vendor or manufacturer’s request, we will review updated products or applications when supplied to us. When the second review is posted, we will add a link to it at the beginning of the original post.
You will be contacted if the item appears to be defective; as it is only fair that a working item is reviewed.
Gear Diary will not review vaporware or non-released hardware and software. While we will be happy to talk about your future product in a Gear Bits post or with the item specifically tagged as a preview, it is not fair to Gear Diary’s readers to publish an “official” review for an unavailable item.
Items sent will be used during the review process. For this reason, we generally do not return the review items provided.
- We do not return wearables such as headphones or fitness trackers; we will also not review headphones or other wearables that someone else has already used.
- We do not return any personal care products.
- We do not return items such as mattresses or bedding materials.
- We do not return products such as memory devices or hard drives. Because we actually use them during testing, for security reasons we will not send back a product that has held any of our personal data.
The following may occur with items that do not require a return.
- The item may be kept by the reviewer for further use and long-term testing
- The item may be given away in a contest on Gear Diary
- The item may be given away at the reviewer’s discretion to family, friends, other reviewers, etc.
- The item may be traded (i.e. – gadget-swap situation with another reviewer on Gear Diary or elsewhere)
- The item may be sold to help support the costs of running the site.
If a product’s return is necessary, then it is the vendor’s responsibility to discuss this with the reviewer before an item is sent and to include a postage-paid return label with tracking in the original shipping package.
- It is also the vendor’s responsibility to immediately let the reviewer know a postage-paid return label should have been included but was forgotten, and then follow-up with the label if they will need the review item returned (when not initially specified). Otherwise, the review item will be considered non-returnable.
You may be given a tentative date upon which the review will appear, we strive for 4 – 8 weeks after receipt of the item, but that is not always possible. We need time to actually discover all of the ins and outs of your product; our reviews do not regurgitate press releases, and these reviews may involve multiple installments and/or video. Actual publish dates will depend on the complexity of the review item and the existing size of the Gear Diary team member’s review queue.
A link to the manufacturer’s site and a link to the product supplier’s site will be included in the review, along with MSRP and wrap-up comments. If there is a particular retailer that you would like the product linked to, we are happy to accommodate your wishes.

Please click here to see examples of our reviews.

We know that there are lots of review sites on the web and we appreciate you considering sending your products to ours!

Logo and Quote Requests

Would you like to use our logo, quotes, photos, or content somewhere in your media materials?

Licensing, permission, re-use of content: For all content licensing, permissions, reprints, or any other re-use, including the use of quotes (with or without the Gear Diary logo), please contact Judie and Dan at [email protected]. Please note that Gear Diary, LLC is the only authorized company to license our materials.

What People Are Saying About Gear Diary Reviews:

Um. WOW! Probably the best product review I have ever read from our product line. I wish more were like this. Well worth the wait. I actually learned some new things about our product from you. Bravo! – Sloane (L’ange Thinning Therapy System)

This is a very well-written review and provides a lot of good notes for our marketing efforts and for consumers to make an informed choice. – Cody (Swagtron EB11 Electric Cruiser Bicycle)

This article is outstanding and so thorough!! Thank you for such a kind, thoughtful endorsement and I am so genuinely glad to hear you’re enjoying the Luno mattress! – Allie (Luno Air Mattress)

Thanks so much for your positive review. It is extremely comprehensive, well-written, and it’s our best review yet! – Jessica (Oreck Air Response Air Purifier)

Just wanted to reach-out to let you know that I’ve been searching for reviews [on the Vertu Constellation Quest], and yours is unprecedented; professional, playful and real. – Paul (reader)

Thanks again, you guys! This is the best review!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! – Megan (Blazy Susan)

Thanks again for another amazing review, the team was thrilled. – Cody (Rockport)

I just finished reading [the Blu-ray Sonar Advanced Violet Laser review]. This is probably one of the most informative ones we’ve ever received. It was definitely worth the wait. Thank you so much, it’s awesome! – John (Wicked Lasers)

Thank you very much for your in-depth review. (The Maserati of Fans is going to become our new catchphrase.) – Josh (Big Ass Fans)

WOW, amazing review! We absolutely love it! Unexpected femininity, pointers on how easy resizing is, quality and comfort, we couldn’t have asked for more; thank you so much, Judie! (Monowear)

Saw the review – This is great! You are the first to actually touch on the XLR portion of the mic, which is great! I’ll definitely be using this in our social outlets. Also, really like that you point out the specifics about using it on a board, can’t use simultaneously and the sound clips. Our first FULL Yeti Pro review, love it! – Hilary (BlueMic)

Thanks so much for your detailed review, Judie! HTC really values all of your feedback when you review our devices. Glad you enjoyed the Sprint HTC Touch Diamond – and can’t wait to send more good stuff your way! – Jessika (Waggener Edstrom)

Dan – your article “Rediscovering The Music of My Youth With Slacker Radio” is probably Slacker’s all-time favorite piece ever … it still comes up every once in a while.

I love your site. A perfect mix (and balanced perspective) of the important mobile devices, their accessories, and the fun (dinosaurs, etc.). Keep it up. 🙂 It’s always cheery to read. – David (Reader)

Hi Judie, You and your colleagues have done a few product reviews for my clients and I’m always impressed by them. In fact, I love how you incorporate video into your reviews as well and was inspired to post about the future of product reviews on my company’s small blog. I added the awesome video you guys did of a robot wearing carpet skates (another client of mine). Thanks and great job!! – Katie Wagner (BLASToutdoors)

This is really fantastic and we very much appreciate how detailed this review was and the thoroughness — really impressive. – Tanya (Kensington)

Daniel, Thanks man…Awesome!! My client loves your site, and he will be pumped about this. Love the picture with the Pepto bottle, fantastic. I appreciate the time you put it in to a product that is so simple, really made a great review. Thanks, great work as usual. – Brad Hobbs (MaxBorges Agency)

What an excellent article! Besides the fact that I’m elated that it was about my invention, it is so well written-informative and funny. The product photo is beautiful. It’s a true sign of professionalism being able to write like that despite the nausea. – Scott (Flexisnake)

Visiting Gear Diary to see if there are any new product reviews and unboxings is one of the things I enjoy doing daily because the Gear Diary team has made it a pleasure to do so. – Randius (reader)

Joel, I saw this and have to say your review was above and beyond what I expected – thank you! Since you are the camping guru and I just started representing Coghlan’s, I would love to keep you in mind for future products. I look forward to working with you in the future. -Katie (Coghlan’s)

We are the makers of the iMainGo and we want to thank you so much for the incredible and honest review of the iMainGo. – Ryan (iMainGo)

Awesome. We really appreciate your reviews because you are so thorough and honest. At the moment we are designing new small laptop cases and Doug’s comments about the pockets and weatherproofing on the Skivvy and are very helpful. – Bianca (Crumpler)

Hey, thanks for your thorough review, Judie! Actually I can hardly remember any other so thoroughly made review. And the fun part with cold war spies kicks right. I want to be grateful enough as to offer you another opportunity to review some other of our software later. Thanks for your work! – Konstantin (VITO Technology)

Thanks for the great review, I’m glad you like the G5 reader! – George (Atech)

Thank you for the wonderful review of the Aluminum Desktop Stand. As you can imagine, we love it. The tablet application may be one worth pursuing. And by the way, the 20+ photos definitely enhance your overall review. It would be difficult for anyone not to understand what the Stand is all about. – Bill (PR for LapWorks, Inc.)

Judie, Wow, it’s a great review and as always very thorough. Thank you! – Brad (BeNetSafe)

Thank you VERY much once again for your splendid and generous review. Sometimes I feel your explanations are much clearer than ours and we’re the ones who produce it! For a small start-up company like ours, you have been a great supporter of our products and we appreciate your time. – Phil (Lumaray)

Thank you for your time and effort into reviewing our products, I like the pictures. Some people don’t include many pictures in reviews and it is nice to see you show the products in use. – Pat (Gomadic)

Just a quick note to thank you for such an excellent review of Art Dealer! You are the first to provide a completely independent review of the game so all of us at Minds Refined were really pleased that you liked it. And I think your sense of how the game helps improve memory–by encouraging one to focus on the details of events–is bang on! – Jeff (Minds Refined)

Wow, you’re really thorough. I love it! – Leah (Presto)

Thanks so much Judie. It looks great and the team is stoked! – Valorie (Skullcandy)

Thank you again. It is apparent that you spent some time with the Attaché Laptop Stand. We are very appreciative of the favorable review and glad you like it. I didn’t know you were such a shutterbug. Images definitely enhance any coverage of a product as they have done here. Bill (PR for LapWorks, Inc.)

I read it and enjoyed, I appreciate also your feedbacks, and we will take a look a them. – Oren (Golan Tech / VKB)

Some Gear Diary Policies of which you should be aware:

• Please read our full Terms of Use here.

• By sending an email to Judie, Dan, Admin, or any other Gear Diary writer, you are giving your explicit permission for it to be reposted in part or in full — along with your name, company, and website — unless Judie and/or Dan agree to keep your name private in writing.

Sweepstakes (AKA Giveaways) Official Rules:

• No purchase or payment of any kind is necessary to enter or win.

• We will list the sponsors who have provided the prizes for our sweepstakes.

• The value of the sweepstakes prizes will be listed.

• Our sweepstakes are only open to anyone in the United States who is age 18 and up.

• Unless otherwise explicitly stated, sweepstakes are open only to people with a continental USA mailing address; if your address shows as out of the country, we will pick a new winner.

• When there are multiple prizes listed, unless otherwise explicitly stated, we will give one prize to each winner; prizes and winners will be chosen randomly through Rafflecopter.

• Odds of winning depend on the number of eligible entries received during the sweepstakes entry period.

• The starting and ending dates for entry in our sweepstakes will be explicitly stated.

• Winners will receive an email from [email protected], generally on the day after a sweepstake ends. Please be sure that you have that email address whitelisted in your email settings.

• If you are chosen as the winner, you will have two weeks to respond to the winning announcement email. If you do not respond, on the 15th day, we will pick a new winner. It is not our responsibility to notify you more than once that your entry has been chosen, so be sure to check your spam folder.

• All sweepstakes winners will be posted on Gear Diary in the Rafflecopter box where entries were accepted. We will leave this list in place for three months after the sweepstakes has closed.

• Each sweepstakes winner is responsible for all federal, state, local sales taxes, and income taxes related to their particular prize. Any other incidental expenses on the prize not specified herein are the sole responsibility of the winner.

• By entering any sweepstakes on Gear Diary, you agree to receive exclusive offers from Gear Diary. You can unsubscribe at any time.

• We retain the right to revoke prizes for contest winners whose profiles appear to use multiple usernames, email addresses, or other potentially fraudulent credentials.

• By participating in this sweepstakes, you (i) agree to be bound by these Official Rules, including all eligibility requirements, and (ii) agree to be bound by the decisions of Gear Diary, LLC., which are final and binding in all matters relating to the sweepstakes. Failure to comply with these Official Rules may result in disqualification from the sweepstakes.

Disclosure Policy:

This policy is valid from 19 August 2011

Gear Diary is a collaborative blog written by a group of individuals managed by Judie Stanford and Dan Cohen. For questions about this site, please contact us.

Gear Diary accepts forms of advertising, affiliate sales, sponsorship, or other forms of compensation.

Gear Diary abides by word-of-mouth marketing standards. We believe in honesty of relationship, opinion, and identity. The compensation received may influence the advertising content or the inclusion of any sponsored topics or sponsored posts made on this blog. That content, advertising space, or post will be clearly identified as paid or sponsored content.

We have a strict policy that prohibits any of our writers — whether editors, team members, or contributors — from accepting payment of any kind in exchange for coverage unless the post is clearly marked as Sponsored.

Using Gear Diary contributors to self-publish paid content violates our terms of use. Anyone we discover to be engaging in such abuse will have their post/s removed from the site, and they will be banned from future publication.

We do not accept any pre-written posts from PR companies or brands.

The owners, editors, and team members of Gear Diary are compensated to provide opinions on products, services, websites, and various other topics; most often this compensation takes the form of the item reviewed — whether it is software or a physical product.

Even though the owner, editors, and team members of this blog may receive product compensation for our posts, we will always give our honest opinions, findings, beliefs, or experiences on those topics or products.

The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely the bloggers’ own. While we strive for accuracy in our reporting, any product claim, statistic, quote or other representation about a product or service should be verified with the manufacturer, provider, or party in question.

We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.

Gear Diary does not contain any content which might present a conflict of interest.

Privacy Policy Regarding Third Party Ad Servers

We may use third-party advertising companies to serve ads when you visit our Web Site. If so, a list of these ad-serving companies will be available here. These companies may use information (generally, not including your name, address, e-mail address, or telephone number) about your visits to this Web Site and to other websites in order to provide advertisements about goods and services of interest to you. These companies may employ cookies and clear GIFs to measure advertising effectiveness. Any information that these third parties collect via cookies and clear GIFs is generally not personally identifiable (unless, for example, you provide personally identifiable information to them through an ad or e-mail message). We encourage you to read these businesses’ privacy policies if you should have any concerns about how they will care for your personal information. If you would like more information about this practice and to know your choices about not having this information used by these companies, see the Network Advertising Initiative’s consumer website at http://www.networkadvertising.org/managing/opt_out.asp.