I have a small blog which doesn't earn much income but is popular enough that I get requests to review this or that fairly often. For the first time recently, I decided to offer to review a new product that I found and thought would be particularly interesting to my readers. To my surprise, their marketer did not seem particularly eager to send me a sample for review and, in fact, led me to believe that they wouldn't be interested unless I could sell their product myself.

Although I participate in affiliate advertising and sell my own products at a different site, I've never been asked to serve as a middle man in this way. Usually, when I review a product, my review plus several links to the product are considered a fair exchange for the free sample. I've never been asked to actually sell and distribute the product, and I can't help thinking that it seems above and beyond the call of duty in exchange for one free copy unless I would be making a significant profit, which I would not.

For those of you who have more heavily monetized blogs, what do you think about this? Have you ever been asked to sell a product in exchange for a sample copy? Am I right in thinking that they're expecting a lot, or does their proposal sound reasonable to you? Also, I was thinking about maybe offering them free ad space for a time instead, but again, does that really seem like a fair exchange for just one free copy valued at about $20.00?

As further background on this, the product in question in an independent documentary film by two first-time directors, and I am asking for an advance copy to review on my blog. Most of their press so far has been on some local TV network affiliates, radio shows, and small web sites, very few mediums I have actually heard of. So it's not like Roger Ebert and A.O. Scott are lining up to review it.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated, and if I'm in the wrong, please tell me so.

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