Agree totally with Workshopshed, additionally sometimes road tests have an additional twist where you have to provide a minimal number of blog posts as well, it is expected that the reviewer will not be simply regurgitating the vendor guides and info, it is supposed to represent real world examples of use and your impressions of the product and significant effort is often required to do this properly (Video, Pictures, charts etc). Personally I spend 10's of hours working with the products I review between the actual playing with the product and the editing and prep of the content to be posted.
now that needs to be weighed with the product your reviewing, some times there only valued at $50 or so, sometimes there many thousands of $$ or even over 10K$ or more, so you have to understand the vendor and Element 14 is making an investment in you by providing this equipment and is expecting a decent review etc.
On the plus side, you get to keep the equipment afterwards so there's a sweet reward for you effort and sometimes there is a prize for the best review / blog too... bonus!
There are other twists like making the review a challenge but that a whole other game that you will learn as you go ?
Agree totally with Workshopshed, additionally sometimes road tests have an additional twist where you have to provide a minimal number of blog posts as well, it is expected that the reviewer will not be simply regurgitating the vendor guides and info, it is supposed to represent real world examples of use and your impressions of the product and significant effort is often required to do this properly (Video, Pictures, charts etc). Personally I spend 10's of hours working with the products I review between the actual playing with the product and the editing and prep of the content to be posted.
now that needs to be weighed with the product your reviewing, some times there only valued at $50 or so, sometimes there many thousands of $$ or even over 10K$ or more, so you have to understand the vendor and Element 14 is making an investment in you by providing this equipment and is expecting a decent review etc.
On the plus side, you get to keep the equipment afterwards so there's a sweet reward for you effort and sometimes there is a prize for the best review / blog too... bonus!
There are other twists like making the review a challenge but that a whole other game that you will learn as you go ?
