Our Experience & Analysis of Tomoson’s Product Review Service


36 Comments
  1. Tomoson is a HORRID company that will ban companies just because someone from support is an obnoxious b#$ch.
    Not just that they’ll suspend your account as a company just because they feel like it, but they’ll STEAL ALL THE MONEY YOU PLACED into escrow… that’s how this shi#$%y company still exists, out of theft.

    And it’s just full of scammers on Tomoson. So many will put FAKE amazon order numbers hoping you won’t verify them.

    You’ll get nothing in return. NOTHING!

    Over 90% OF TOMOSON USERS HAVE FAKE FOLLOWERS ON INSTAGRAM, ON FACEBOOK, IT’S ALL A SCAM!

    • Hi John,

      I haven’t had as bad of an experience as you have, but I would agree with a lot of what you said. Customer support is terrible, and yes, a lot of the users have fake followers. I have had some good experiences with Tomoson, but it’s a lot of work to filter through everything. I’m honestly surprised that someone hasn’t come out with a superior service already. It wouldn’t take much.

  2. They are getting good products because Tomoson.com has people searching for companies that have sent things out to bloggers who are not on their site. I am the contact for one of those companies and I just got the email this morning. I always search for reviews on things like this and that is how I found your website. The email I received is very personal and it did catch my attention enough to respond. The email reads: Hi Lisa 🙂

    I’m Erin and I heard a blogger talking about you.

    Do you send products to bloggers, Instagrammers, and Youtubers to post reviews about?

    I responded to her briefly and she then responded back with a form-response that went like this:

    Thank you for getting back to me.

    I represent 77,000 influencers at Tomoson.com, who’d love to review and create social buzz about your products and I’d love to connect you with our social media influencers! We promote your business to them and our influencers have social media accounts. They write and reviwew it in their facebook, instagram, twitter and youtube, they also have they own blogs and websites. Here are a few influencers I think would work well for you:

    Home & Garden

    Karrie Truman influences 797,617 people
    Site traffic: 696,873 || Facebook: 96,587 || Twitter: 3,735 || Instagram 422 || YouTube: 0

    Marie LeBaron influences 766,898 people
    Site traffic: 474,042 || Facebook: 269,923 || Twitter: 17,226 || Instagram 5,707 || YouTube: 0

    Kristina Manscill influences 453,079 people
    Site traffic: 444,788 || Facebook: 6,853 || Twitter: 0 || Instagram 1,438 || YouTube: 0
    Gifts

    Jessica Rae influences 214,963people
    Site traffic: 212,758 || Facebook: 2,205 || Twitter: 0 || Instagram 0 || YouTube: 0

    Jessica Turley influences 162,082people
    Site traffic: 142,916 || Facebook: 9,751 || Twitter: 6,579 || Instagram 2,836 || YouTube: 283

    Kimberly Delatorre influences 53,644 people
    Site traffic: 26,808 || Facebook: 11,705 || Twitter: 17,573 || Instagram 1,823 || YouTube: 735
    It’s free to try our system for 21 days and test the quality of influencers in our database.

    Video: See how Tomoson “Increased Sales to 27K a Month” for this brand.

    Feel free to email with any questions.

    Thanks!

    In my opinion, this says the company is actively taking great care to get good products into the hands of their bloggers. The only complaint I have, as I am researching, is that I don’t see, anywhere, where there is an answer to the question, “How much do you charge”. Our company has sent plenty of products to bloggers who come to us with a request for product samples. We have yet to pay for a review. I know there are paid reviews, and now that I see the second email that says “free for 21 days” I know there’s a charge for the service. However, the only thing the website shows me is a picture of the blogger and a dollar range, not monthly charges. I can only assume the dollar range below the blogger is the dollar amount they charge to review?? Some of the amounts are really high though. Well beyond a price we would consider paying for advertising that could actually turn out badly. After reading some of the posts here, I’ve decided it’s probably a better idea to wait until some of the kinks are ironed out before considering using the service at all.

    • Hi Lisa, thanks for your comment. I have used Tomoson both as a client and as a reviewer for several years now, so I know both sides. It’s free for reviewers, but is a paid monthly service for businesses, starting at $49 per month. Reviewers can also set their own rates, some of which are insane. Tomoson is a good place to get a product review marketing campaign jump-started and running quickly with small bloggers, but if you have a marketing team who has the time to build relationships with large influencers, you’ll probably have more success by skipping Tomoson and continuing to do what you’re doing.

  3. Excellent article. I just started using Tomoson, and reading through you own experience, especially the part about ratings, was very useful.

  4. Anyone have the phone # for Tomoson?? They don’t return calls.

    Thanks!

  5. I’ve been reviewing on Tomoson, and see a lot of the same glitches. They don’t respond to e-mail. They imported my social media “influence” score as zero. When I tried to correct it I couldn’t get help.

    There is a product I review a month ago that still shows as outstanding. Both the seller and I have asked Tomoson to fix it, but no luck.

    I have a high Amazon review ranking yet I rarely get selected on their site because I probably have a poor reviewer rank due to these 2 glitches.

    IMHO two sites that seem well run are AmazonReviewTrader (very active), and ilovetoreview (less active, but well managed).

    Here are some things to consider from a reviewer standpoint:

    Some sellers have crazy requirements like post on Facebook, Twitter, a video review on You Tube, a blog post and an Amazon review, seriously. Sometimes it’s for a $10 discount on a $12 product. My time is worth more than that. Saying do one or two of them ok, but I’m not sure who would be willing to do all that for $10.

    Unreasonable time limits. Some products I can review the day they arrive, iPhone screen protector, no problem. A lot of products take longer. My favorite example is a product that says it takes 30 days to see results, but the company wants it reviewed within the week. They’re basically telling you to lie. I end up writing lukewarm wait and see reviews, but at least they’re honest.

    Oddly specific requests: Like must review within 3 days, or exact wording for your Amazon disclaimer, picture of you using the product at noon on a Tuesday. Just kidding but I often skip product that are too specific because it’s a pain to go back and make sure you’ve done everything to the letter. I also assume they’ll be really picky if you’ve done a tiny thing that isn’t as expected.

    I know there are crappy reviewers out there, but a lot of us take it seriously. Consider what you’re offering for what you’re asking. A could test could be asking yourself “would I do this for $10 (or whatever)”, and adjust accordingly. I have seen some sellers break up tasks so one promotion is for an Amazon review, another for a blog post. I think that’s more realistic. You get what you pay for.

  6. Thank you, Alex, for your very informative article! I am researching Tomoson on behalf of a client, and their services peaked my curiosity. In this case, bloggers are typically coming to this client already. This client happens to be in a niche market. I’m not convinced Tomoson has bloggers that would fit this niche, plus it’s nice to have control in-house. Thank you for writing such an informative article!

  7. Here lies the problem with tomoson:

    Email messaging system: No filter for it, aside from a scroll down menu to find a promotion and see emails for that one. No mass delete button, mark all read. Additionally, there is not a way to block a company from spamming your email.

    Interface: While it is easy to apply for a promotion, even companies are having trouble figuring out what they are supposed to do, and mistakenly adding requirements they did not intend on.

    Approvals: There is no automatic approval or denial system in place, you can go months on end waiting for an answer that may never come, This is especially true if a company only uses tomoson 30 day trial.

    Verifying Reviews: This has gotten increasingly frustrating. You used to be able to click and go, now you have to copy and paste a link to your facebook/twitter post to review, which wouldn’t be a problem expect you get error messages from tomoson not allowing it to go through, thus decreasing our verification percentage.

    Support: lack luster to non existent. Not only do emails to them go unanswered, they get nasty when they do respond to you. Never had I have someone be that rude in an email none the less. Future more, their facebook page, has now had every post to page removed, and deletes any posts made to its page right away.

    Overall: Bloggers are being hounded by companies who do not like their reviews, want amazon reviews (Yet, they don’t even know amazon TOS, and get mean when you kindly point out that what they are asking you to do is against amazon TOS) Yet, tomoson does not even ask nor allow the requirement for amazon! Further more, they don’t even check that you have reviews posted on your blog, I have seen a number of bloggers just put in the verification links, and then nothing else… Shady

    • Hi Lyn,

      Thanks for stopping by! I’m surprised that Tomoson hasn’t fixed these issues a long time ago. I set up a campaign for a client a few months ago, after not having used it in more than a year, and I felt like the whole system felt a bit neglected. Maybe they just don’t have the funds to develop it further but it could be so much better.

  8. I currently am a member of Tomoson and I really enjoy reading peoples thoughts because right now it seems like Tomoson may be going down hill after talking with other fellow Tomoson members that have been with them from the start. I just started blogging and have been doing product testing for almost 5 years now. I am in my mid 20s, also known as the failing generation. A few of us bloggers put this to the test. We wrote blog posts that had excellent punctuation and structure, as if we were writing an essay for the SAT. We noticed a decline in our readers. I can only speak for my generation of bloggers. Most of us want to relate to the article or blog post. We want to read something that catches our eye. So I write, not to appease the companies, but to engage my readers. The whole point is for us to tell the world about your product hoping that more people would gain interest and buy the product. So, if we are writing to engage our readers, who obviously are interested in our posts, what is the issue. There are tons of bloggers who are excellent in grammar but maybe only receive 50 page views a month. Then you have those whose writing is horrible, according to companies, but they have a few thousand people coming to their page on a monthly basis because they love their content. They love the way they write and draw them in. Also, as a blogger I can say it is a little offensive to me that you would mention not having your own domain may seem like you are not that serious. I work with many other sites and companies besides Tomoson. I know bloggers who have purchased a domain, have excellent grammar/punctuation and great content. Their layout is way better than mine but they do not receive near as many products as I do, nor do they receive super-nice products on a regular basis. I use weebly and so far it seems like companies have taken me serious enough to the point they are willing to provide me with products worth over a grand to review. In my opinion every company has their own definition of what they are looking for in a blogger and what they consider to be quality. One may look for punctuation. One may look for how many people actually are visiting your site on a daily basis. Some may look for how much you dedicate your time to social media. There are so many factors that come into play. I know this because there are a few companies I have personally worked with in the past that have had this same discussion. One CEO mentioned selecting influencers based on their writing skills is not what pays for those lavish meals the company gives every Friday or those bonuses people look forward to. They are looking for sales, not English majors. So again. The comment you make should be stated as your own opinion. Companies are all looking for different types of bloggers but they all are after one thing. Sales.

    • Hey Dom,

      Thanks for stopping by. I don’t disagree with you on many points.

      I think it’s a great idea to write for your audience. There’s also nothing wrong with poor grammar and punctuation if your readers don’t care, but it’s definitely something that needs to be looked at when evaluating a website for quality. It’s just one of many factors, not the only one.

      Regarding your comment about how not having your own domain might make it seem like you’re not serious – the keyword in that sentence is “might.” I never said anyone who doesn’t own their own domain isn’t serious about what they do, but when a business reviews your website before deciding to work with you, they are going to look at that.

      I agree with you that there are many factors that come into play and I definitely look at all of those factors for every one of my clients. It depends entirely on the goals of the campaign.

  9. Hi “the color palette”,

    As I mentioned in an earlier comment, I’m not saying that all Blogspot blogs are throwaway blogs. I’ve updated my post to explain this better.

    Thanks,
    Alex

  10. i recently discover tomoson and i signed up a week ago so i don’t know how it exactly works so i was looking in google for more information and i ended up here, i read all your review and i think some of the things you said make sense but some of them bother me.

    I have one of those throwaway blogspot blogs, I started it five months ago and even when it’s very new it has grow rapidly because i work a lot on it and i love what I do, and i think brands and readers notice it. And to be honest i’ve read many great and successful blogspot blogs.

    I had the opportunity to work with brands and trust me I don’t do it because of the freebies, I think every opportunity is a chance to grow and learn, and every review i write I try to do it as good as i can and I’m honest and so far every brand has been happy with what i gave.

    But talking about that, how honest is enough? sometimes maybe i found something i don’t like about the product but i try to be as sweet as i can to tell to my readers, but what about if the brand doesn’t like that type of criticism, what about if they don’t want a bad or honest review? I think this is something the brands should tell us before.

    I completely understand what you said about punctuation and grammar, I probably made a lots of mistakes here since my first language isn´t Spanish, and you probably are thinking what is she talking about, she can’t even write property but this is something I don’t let happen in my blog either I know the importance of the good grammar on the blog.

    At the end of the day i think you shouldn’t complain that much about a service is providing you CHEAP advertising, because that’s exactly what brands think we are, if you want great advertising services without have to deal with bloggers and throwaway blogs and invest in advertising from a marketing company or something

  11. I had a horrible experience with them. As a publisher of a web design website, i had been contacter by one of their commercial.

    Their first message did not mention the website Tomoson, it was just someone who wanted to buy a blog post.

    We explained that our price was fixed (500$), and that this guy should write the post himself, and that we may refuse it if the content does not fit our audiances (but he only pays if we accept it , and publish it, of course)

    We had a deal with this guy, but later on we realize he did not work with company but was just asking us to register to their website..

    Now we receive emails from electronic companies asking us to write content for them at lower prices..

    Looks like we have been fooled

  12. I was searching for ownership information on Tomoson and Google produced a link to this page. I was simply curious since I review products via Tomoson and wanted to learn more about them. I’m one of those “throw away blogspot bloggers” (A title I resent but it is your choice to give categories and titles to bloggers in your own article.). In my ownership search I came across your article here on inflow.com and found it interesting and informative.

    As a blogger I would really like to know about businesses’ ratings of my own blog performance in reviewing a product; but I have not been able to find that choice tidbit. I found a rating but just a total rating – not individual.

    I, too, have seen sad examples of writing and blogging quality in a plethora of blogger’s reviews. And these bloggers are receiving some super-nice products to review. When this occurs, I question the business that provides the product in their own ability to select reviewers (for quality writing). Also, some businesses that engage Tomoson.com seem clueless about how the system works and so the review opportunity with them is flawed from the very beginning.

    I’m not a “reviewer only” blogger nor am I am traditional “mommy blogger.” I’m simply a retiree that blogs for the enjoyment of it. If you peruse my blog you will find some simple musings, book reviews, product reviews, and pictures of flowers from my own garden. I’m simple. I’m enjoying my blogging. I give the books I review to a school library. I share the products I review with others.

    My blog is https://chatwithvera.blogspot.com (yes, I’m one of those throw-away bloggers and I began my blog in 2008).

    Vera

    • Hi Vera,

      I’m not saying that all blogspot blogs are throwaways, I’m saying that there are a lot of throwaway blogspot blogs in Tomoson. I looked at your site and definitely wouldn’t call it that, but you’re one of the outliers. When I review a blog to see if I want to offer a product, there are several quality signals I look for:

      • quality design
      • blog updated regularly
      • in-depth posts
      • engaged readers (comments on posts)
      • good grammar and punctuation
      • minimal ads
      • relevancy to the product I’m pitching
      • Moz page authority score of at least 30 (yours is 48, which is very good)

      Just because you’re on blogspot doesn’t mean your blog is a throwaway, but it does mean that if I was looking for a place to do product reviews and you applied, your blog would be looked at with extra scrutiny.

      The thing about blogspot, wordpress, tumblr, etc. blogs is that the majority of them never last longer than a year. When it’s a free website, people tend to care less about keeping it updated and they usually don’t care if all of their posts are low quality either. And that’s the case with a lot of the reviewers in Tomoson. They just want free products.

      If a blogger purchases a domain though, for example if you owned chatwithvera.com, you would look much more serious about what you’re doing. You’ve been operating your blog for a long time though, and it’s clear that you’re serious and plan to keep doing it.

      I have no idea how some of the bloggers in Tomoson’s system get those super-nice products you mentioned. I’ve seen what you’re talking about it, and it baffles me. It could be that the business doesn’t understand what a quality website is, or perhaps they don’t care and just want to get a link to their site.

      Thanks,
      Alex

  13. Hi, Thanks for clearing up some of the questions I had. I sell a watch with a built in magnifying lens and flashlight at ibeamwatches.com and I’d like to get some reviews but it’s expensive to send out samples. How do I determine who is legit and knows about these type of products, and has a relevant audience and who doesn’t?
    Thank you,
    Chris

    • Hi Chris,

      You can review the sites of the bloggers before sending them any products. You definitely want to check their website for quality (relevancy, age of the website, quality of writing, audience engagement, etc.) and also check out their social profiles to see how active they are.

      Thanks for the question!

  14. Tomoson has quite a compelling concept which I’m sure will be refined over time. In your research, did you identify any competitors? I’d be interested to hear your take. Seems like a nascent field. I looked but couldn’t find any.

  15. Generally I liked Tomoson and most of the bloggers we worked with were nice even when they did not leave us top rating. However look out for newbies. They have no clue what they are doing and cannot communicate in civilized manner. I had one cranky blogger who posted 3 star rating on Amazon mentioning something that our product doesn’t even do. When we emailed her asking to clarify, she had a hissy fit and changed her rating from 3 to 1 stating that she was bullied to change her rating, which was a total and complete lie. What are you going to do here? Some bloggers don’t even test provided peoducts, but sell them on ebay. I suppose it’s a profitable gig.

    • Thanks for the comment Coco. I liked Tomoson too, but the whole star rating thing scared me. I’m sorry you had to deal with that.

  16. I’ve been having issues with Businesses on Tomoson. I do product reviews on my flagship blog and on a product review blog, and I’m very honest and detailed. If I give a bad review, some businesses will harass you and say REALLY inappropriate things about you. Corresponding with a business (if applicable) is also a part of my reviewing process. I feel like bloggers are forced to give 5 star reviews. Tomoson does nothing about this. On the bright side, I have made some long term business relationships through Tomoson. I wish we had a longer time to review products (especially skincare). Thanks for the info!

    • This is not only on Tomoson. I personally have realized on Amazon itself that the only bad ratings I have gotten as a reviewer was on companies that their products were not very good. They want honesty but at the same time all 5 stars and great reports so their sales go up. If it meens I get a bad strike against I get one but my blog and ratings will be honest. I don’t have any problem writing a company to talk to them about an issue before I rate them. But all of the companies ratings are public and what they say about us is private, how are we suppost to better ourselves if we don’t know and are just guessing in the dark why they were not happy.

    • I never thought about the issues that the reviewers might have. Tomoson definitely needs to figure something out with the rating system. It’s terrible for both the reviewers and the businesses. When everyone is forced to leave 5-star reviews out of fear of retaliation, the rating system becomes pointless.

  17. Alex, I don’t get why you say you would “probably limit promotions to only 5-10 bloggers at a time”. Is that to do with the cost of sending a physical product to reviewers and because you don’t want to waste time and money with bloggers that aren’t likely to give you a worthwhile return? My product is virtual and while weighing up the value of Tomoson I see nothing to lose by having a large number of bloggers review it. With thanks, Jim

    • You could let them review your product for free and they will write an amazon review. A lot of the bloggers also take fees, so for a fee, they can do blog posts and write a post about your product physical or not.

        • Yes, I had been using Tomoson for a while for my company and I see a lot of people using it to support their digital products. While as for my company, our products are physical and there a lot of bloggers there, but it seems to be a lot of mommy bloggers. You can invite and scout the bloggers of your liking.

    • Good question Jim. I honestly can’t remember why I recommended that. I haven’t used Tomoson in quite a while, but one reason that comes to mind is that since you’re likely to get a whole bunch of product review links at once, it might make your link profile look unnatural.

    • I tried Tomoson for a month and felt very disappointed with its service. At the end of my trial period, I put my account on hold and ‘my next bill date’ changed to the next month. However, I was still charged that month. I contacted Tomoson to refund me and close my account, but they always find different excuses to blame me instead of solving my actual problem. I won’t recommend anyone to use Tomoson’s service.

      • I totally agree with your comment. I have found that they turn blame back on me constantly and don’t really solve my issue. When I bring up a concern, I am criticized instead of assisted. I have felt they are very unfair to the reviewers, and feel their tactics are unfair. I am close to quitting out of this service, as I am not getting satisfaction when I try to resolve issues with product codes not working, products not being sent out, and removal of items from my account that are negatively effecting my rating.

        As an example, we are supposed to give honest reviews after using products, yet when I don’t receive a product until the very last day of my agreed 14 day review period, how can I objectively “USE” the product before I have to review it? When I mentioned this in an email to Tomoson, I was criticized for waiting to the last minute before contacting Tomoson! Well, I was waiting for the product! Just remove it from my “account” so it doesn’t negatively effect my rating and let’s move on!!!

    • you are the CEO of tomoson.com? as in Tomoson LLC? if so i am Ladydarksky® you and I sir need to have a talk about your staff and how they are going about running your company while you are away, because this review only touched the surface of Tomoson. I’d be happy to discuss my findings with you as to what i have seen and experienced in the last year or two on the site and how you would perhaps benefit from a better perspective from a bloggers point of view

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About The Author

A photograph of Alex Juel at a lake beach.

Alex Juel (Alumni)

Alex’s specialty at Inflow is to link it up, wrap it up, get it out there and get results. He has experience with clients large and small in a wide variety of industries.

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