Influenster got a reboot!

"What's Influenster?"  

Oh, just a really cool website where you sign up and review products.  It's heavily social-media based, and will require personal information and an invite if you want to sign up, but you can check it out!  They'll send products for review (aka free stuff) if you qualify, too.  Curious?  Read more below!

Alright.  I signed up for Influenster quite a few months ago after a recommendation from a friend.  She had gotten her VoxBox (more information on VoxBoxes coming up in the next blog post) , and it had some really nice stuff in it!  So, I signed up.  It was a little bare-bones and still a newer site, but fun.

Now, they re-launched it!  I'm pleasantly surprised with the over-haul.  It's invite-only now, but you can request an invite or find someone who is already a member to send you one.  Before you ask--I am not sure if I will have any invites left over by time you read this--I only have 5 to begin with, and two have been used already.  (Feel free to ask, though!)

The new site itself is user-friendly and pleasant to look at.  It loads well, too.  As far as content goes, the badge options have expanded, and the product database is growing.  

"What's a badge?"

Well, it's kind of like how you show what you're interested in, and what you review for.  In terms of business  this allows the Influenster admins to divvy out the appropriate products to the appropriate people~~  

You start with 5 "expert" badges, which are specific lifestyles you are particularly interested in.  (Allegedly, you can have more than 5 at a later date?)  

My five are;

• Fashionista - clothing and fashion-based, though it tends to be mostly western mainstream fashion, it does allow an 'other' option and 'diy' option on its surveys
• Chowhoud - foodie because foodie
• Beauty Queen - all about beauty products such as hair care, skin, nails, make-up, etc
• Sweet Tooth - chocolates and desserts
• Six Pack - all about working out and sports, gives many options

"Ok...so what do, then?"

Well, if you choose to sign up, expect to connect to twitter/pintrest/facebook/google+/youtube/your blog/etc.  It is not required to do so, but to complete tasks for badges it can be necessary.  I do not have the where-with-all to deal with a gazillion social media outlets, so I connected to Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and my blog only.  

Once you've done that, expect to do surveys--lots of surveys--and reviewing for products!

It's time-consuming, but if you're online quite a bit and like free stuff and giving your opinion, give it a try.