I am hijacking JR's thread for just a moment to repost this. I wrote it last week under another thread but it may help folks understand about assignments and how this fits in with them. This is a manufacturer sponsored assignment.

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I thought I'd take a bit of time and "over-answer" ; your question.

First of all - unless you're in a review program where a mentor is requesting assignments for you - you can not request items to review unless you are an advanced reviewer.

The two ways to become an advanced reviewer are to go through the mentor program where you become an advanced reviewer once your mentor graduates you (usually takes two reviews - may take longer if you both feel you could use more help) OR to have two reviews on the site and request an upgrade to advanced reviewer. Personally (this is just my problem - so please don't take it personally) - I rarely vote for anyone to upgrade unless they've really done great reviews with the longer format because I feel like going through the mentor program makes folks better reviewers and they get higher ratings quicker.

Once you are an advanced reviewer - you can then request free assignments. To do this (its under the account feature) you will search for products you're interested in for your price range and request an assignment. The shipping is free and if you want to add other stuff to your account once the assignment is offered and you accept - you are free to do so then! For many items, there is a 30 day waiting period to get the item - other things may be items they need reviewed fairly quickly and you can get them sooner.

You can also do "buy-out" assignments where you can choose up to 6 items for 30% off, These become assigned to you just like an assignment and you can not request more buy-out assignments for 30 days and the earlier reviews must all be done.

To make things even a bit more confusing for you - there are some other types of reviews. I'll briefly cover them here.

Sometimes there is stuff that they need reviewed here very quickly and JR will do a post on the forum about it - you then go to the product search page and find the item and request it. Its a first come first serve process.

Once you've done a number of reviews (no set number) and you're doing well for ratings, etc. - you can inquire about becoming a "descriptive reviewer". These are the reviews that you see on the product pages which describe the product's functions, design, etc. These aren't as much about opinion as stating the obvious information people need to know about items. These products can/will be offered as they're available - basically you are in a waiting line with everyone else and as an item comes up that might fit your preferences, etc you will be asked if you wish to do the review. My first item(s) were two floggers and once the reviews were done I was asked to do some bath salts. These are sort of a feast/famine thing - if there are a number of products to be reviewed - you will get more offerings sooner.

You can also ask about doing video reviews on products that you are doing reviews on. You contact Carrie Ann and ask for permission to do it ahead of time (the product must have no video reviews on it so far). Then you do your review based upon the guidelines. Once you turn it in, you then let another person know you've done it - and you will receive a $25 gift card in email within 1-3 days.

Finally, once you reach a rating of 6.0 or higher, you can request to be part of the video review program where you will be sent one additional item per month to be reviewed. Once again - these items will get you a gift card for reviewing them. less