Pixel Posybytes of life

The YouTube beauty bloggers have been showing off a bunch of free full size product samples they received from the June beauty themed VoxBox that was sent out from a company called Influenster.com.  From what I gathered about the company, they are essentially promoting viral marketing through their users by mailing out themed product sample boxes and encouraging users to do reviews of the products they like.  The site is free to join, but you must fill out a bunch of surveys for a chance to be sent one of their themed product sample boxes.

The VoxBoxes won’t always be beauty stuff, as they also have badges for pet lovers, mommies, foodies, organic or green products and many more. Not a bad deal if you enjoy reviewing products already. It will be interesting to see if companies are eager to get their products into a VoxBox and how many of those VoxBoxes turn into positive product reviews.

I will say for years now I use Amazon user reviews to do product research before deciding on a purchase. And more recently I have found myself watching personal video reviews from YouTubers at sites like Folica.com where users can embed their own personal videos about the products they sell. I have found it a great way to see a product in action before purchasing.

It’s an interesting concept to encourage people with free samples, but will that skew the review? It does make me question how many reviews are truly honest and not just touting something because they were paid to do so. Of course that is the heart of advertising, being paid to make something look good. Think of all the celeb endorsed stuff for sale. Influenster.com feels you have that same power.