How to get your product reviewed: blogs, newsletters and paid reviews
Get your product reviewed by pitching writers who cover your category, booking newsletter review slots, or commissioning a labelled review page.
LLaunchScaler·Published ·7 min read
To get your product reviewed, pitch writers and newsletters that already cover your category with a short, specific email and free access, ask customers to review you on the software review sites your buyers read, and, when you need a review on a date you control, commission one that is clearly labelled as paid. Any review you paid for or got in exchange for a free product must be disclosed to readers, and its links should carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
Each route trades control for credibility differently. Earned reviews tend to carry the most weight with readers and arrive on the writer's schedule; paid ones arrive when you need them and must say so.
What are the ways to get a product reviewed?
There are five routes, from free to paid: pitching independent writers, getting customer reviews on software review sites, sending access to creators, buying a review slot in a newsletter, and commissioning a review page. They differ in cost, in whether you control the timing, and in what disclosure and link attribute each one needs.
Route
Cost
You control timing?
Disclosure needed
Link to you
Pitch writers who cover your category
Your time, free access
No
Yes, if they got free access or anything of value
Editorial if unpaid; sponsored or if given in exchange for a product
Questions, answered
What people ask about this
01
How do I get bloggers to review my software?
Find writers who have covered your category recently, then send each a short, specific email: what the product does, why their readers would care, what is new, and free access with no conditions. Follow up once, and never ask for a positive verdict or a particular link.
Usually in a video or post description; check the attribute
Newsletter review or sponsorship slot
Paid
Yes
Yes, labelled as sponsored
Should be sponsored
Commissioned review page
Paid
Yes
Yes, labelled as commissioned
Should be sponsored
The customer-review route has its own playbook; SaaS review sites covers where buyers read reviews and how to ask for them.
How do you pitch a writer to review your product?
Pitch only people who already write about your category, keep the email to five or six sentences, and offer free access with no conditions attached. A writer who covered three competitors this year has readers who want to know about you; a general tech blogger does not. Personal, specific pitches to a short list beat a mass mailing.
Build a list of 10 to 20 writers. Search for recent "best [category] tools" and "[competitor] review" articles, newsletters that cover the space, and people who post comparisons in your category.
Read two or three pieces by each and note how they review: hands-on tests, screenshots, pricing breakdowns, comparisons.
Write one email per writer. Say what the product does in one sentence, why their readers in particular would care, what is new or different, and what you are offering: a free account, a walkthrough, data or screenshots.
Give free access with no strings. Do not ask for a positive verdict, a specific link or a publication date.
Follow up once, a week later, with something new, such as a feature shipped or a customer result. Then stop.
If they review you, thank them and share it. If the verdict includes criticism, answer it with a fix.
A pitch that works reads like this:
Subject: A new invoice tool for your freelancer readers
Hi Sam, your comparison of invoicing apps for freelancers last month was the clearest I've read. We built [Product], which does [one-sentence job], and unlike the tools you covered it [specific difference]. If it's useful for a future piece, here's a free account with everything unlocked, no strings attached: [link]. Happy to share usage data or answer questions.
Remember the disclosure rules apply even to a free account. The FTC says that if you "receive free products or other perks with the expectation that you'll promote or discuss the advertiser's products in your blog, the FTC Act applies to you," so the writer should say they got access for free.
How do newsletter review slots work?
Many newsletters sell sponsorship, and some sell a review-style slot where the writer tries the product and writes about it in their own voice. You pay for placement and timing; the writer keeps their tone. The slot must be labelled as sponsored for readers, and any link to you in the web version should carry sponsored.
Find them through the newsletter's "Sponsor" or "Advertise" page, which usually lists formats and prices. Judge a newsletter by audience fit first: a smaller list of your exact buyers beats a large general one. Ask for the audience size, open rate and past sponsor click-throughs, and get the format in writing, including whether the writer will test the product and whether they can include drawbacks. Also ask whether each issue is published on the web and indexed. The email itself reaches readers once; a public archive page is the only part of a newsletter that search engines and AI answers can ever find. The cost-per-click math for sponsorships is in newsletter sponsorships for startups.
What disclosure does a paid or free review need?
Any review where the writer received money, a free product or another benefit from you must disclose it clearly, where readers will see it before they rely on the review. Separately, links you paid for, or got in exchange for a product, should be marked for search engines with rel="sponsored" or nofollow. The two rules come from different places and both apply.
For readers, the FTC's Endorsement Guides say a connection that "a significant minority of consumers wouldn't expect" and that would affect how they judge the endorsement "should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously." A disclosure at the top of the review in plain words ("[Brand] paid for this review" or "I received free access to write this") meets that; a line in the footer does not.
For honesty of the review itself, the FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, which "went into effect on October 21, 2024," prohibits compensation or incentives "conditioned on the writing or creation of consumer reviews expressing a particular sentiment." Paying for a review is allowed; paying for a positive one is not.
For search engines, Google's spam policy lists "sending someone a product in exchange for them writing about it and including a link" and "exchanging money for links" as link spam, unless the link is qualified with nofollow or sponsored. The full rules, with examples, are in paid review disclosure rules.
What does a review page give your product?
A review page on another site gives you two things your own site cannot: a result for people searching "[your product] review" before they buy, and an independent source that AI answer engines can quote when someone asks about you. Your own pages describe what you say about yourself; a review is someone else's account.
People search a product's name plus "review" while they are deciding whether to buy, and for a young product that search can return little. Getting an accurate, indexed review into those results is covered step by step in how to rank for "[your product] review".
For AI answers, the same page is a source. When ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI features answer a question about your product or category, they build the answer from pages they can retrieve, and a specific third-party review is the kind of page that explains who a product is for and how it compares. Why engines lean on other people's pages is explained in why AI cites third-party sites.
How do you help a reviewer write a review worth reading?
Give the reviewer what a strong review needs and let them judge. Google's guidance on reviews lists what makes one useful, and every item is something you can make easier: real access, numbers, comparisons and honest limits. A thin review helps nobody, including you.
Google's recommendations include to "provide evidence such as visuals, audio, or other links of your own experience," "share quantitative measurements about how something measures up in various categories," "explain what sets something apart from its competitors," and "discuss the benefits and drawbacks of something, based on your own original research." So offer:
A full-feature account for long enough to use the product properly, not a trial that expires mid-review.
Real numbers you can stand behind: setup time, speed, limits, pricing tiers.
An honest list of what the product does not do and who it is not for.
A short comparison with the two or three tools buyers weigh you against.
A contact who can answer questions within a day.
Get a labelled review on a date you choose
If you need a review page now rather than whenever a writer gets to you, LaunchScaler's Review article is a flat $59, one time. An editor writes a hands-on review of your product, the good and the rough edges, published as a permanent indexed page on LaunchScaler's blog with 3 links back to you, a slot in the weekly newsletter, a share to the community feed and a Featured badge on your listing for the launch week. Every commissioned piece is labelled as such, and the money does not buy a kinder verdict; on a live review page checked in September 2026, the links to the reviewed product carry rel="sponsored". You order it against a product you have claimed. Order your review.
Yes. The FTC's Endorsement Guides say a connection readers would not expect, such as payment or a free product, should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously. Google also treats a link given in exchange for payment or a product as a paid link, which should carry rel="sponsored" or rel="nofollow".
03
Can I pay for reviews?
You can pay for a review as long as the payment is disclosed and is not conditioned on a positive verdict. The FTC's Consumer Reviews and Testimonials Rule, in effect since October 21, 2024, prohibits incentives conditioned on reviews expressing a particular sentiment.
04
Where can I get my SaaS product reviewed for free?
Pitch independent bloggers and newsletter writers who cover your category, ask existing customers to review you on software review sites, and offer free access to writers comparing tools like yours. Each costs time rather than money but gives you no control over timing or verdict.
05
Why does a third-party review matter for AI search?
When someone asks ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google's AI features about a product, the answer draws on pages about that product, and a review on another site is one of the few sources you do not write yourself. An indexed, specific review gives those engines something independent to cite.
A launch badge is a link from your site to the directory, so it helps the directory. When a badge-for-link trade is fine and when it becomes a link scheme.
A startup link building service should name every site, state each link's type and report what shipped. Options ranked, red flags, and doing it yourself.
Turn a newsletter sponsorship rate into cost per click: price divided by subscribers times open rate times click rate. Worked example and published rates.
