When blogging on CG I often get asked how do I find new products to write about, I won’t provide exact sources but I will share how I found the sources that I use.
In the gadget niche there are a hundreds (if not thousands) of sites reporting on all the latest and greatest gizmos. I subscribe to about 200 feeds and monitor them though out the day, especially the less popular ones which often pick-up on new stories that the big boys haven’t seen yet. If I see something that’s new and hasn’t be covered on a load of other sites yet I’ll write about and link to the source I first saw it on.
Trade shows are a great excuse to get out and about and meet the people behind the products that you’re writing about. They also give you the opportunity to get your camera out and create 100% unique content. I went to CES in Vegas this year and will be doing so every year for the foreseeable future which is a great way of enjoying a bit of the revenue I make before the tax man sees it.
I also buy a load of newspaper and tech related magazines, again if the cover anything I’ve not seen much of else where I’ll write about. I find the Sunday papers are often a good source of material (through you do have to wade through a load of crud and celebrity gossip).
Next off are the many gadget shops on the Internet, some have RSS feeds so it’s easy to see when they have new products whilst with others you’ll need to check the “What’s New” page or if that don’t have one of those then they may show new products on the homepage.
Contacts, having contacts at relevant shops is great for getting press releases and early notification of new products. Once your blog is established you’ll find company reps contacting you about their products (a nice source of freebies and competition prizes).
Encourage readers to send links to new things they’ve found interesting, if it’s reader submitted there is a good chance other readers will also like it.
When I’m really stuck for inspiration, I’ll visit any one gadget blog follow a link from there to site with an interesting product and then browse that site for anything else that I think my readers would enjoy. Products don’t have to new to be cool they just have to be new to your readers.
This is how a find things to write about on a product based blog, an information based blog like this one is totally different and maybe a subject for another post.
I’m flying off on holiday this afternoon so comments as always are more than welcome but I may be a bit slow responding.
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