I am excited for this to get rolling!    For me personally, I am willing to try any product that is provided for me for free - cosmetics, baby products, house cleaning products. 

I have to say that the blog I started to review products have gone by the wayside, but I still get visitors for it. :)

I love writing product reviews. Many of my assignments were to choose different Children's toys and write an unbiased essay about how they benefit children for particular age ranges. Maybe I could stick a couple of those up as parenting advice...

Free samples would be a great incentive (little bits and pieces go a long way through the economic crisis) especially in this family anyway. What annoys me though are the ones asking for credit card details and asking to pay for the fees. I think if a company is willing to send out a free sample, postage should be paid for.

And this view is probably biased but as a mum who has a work from home business that works for me I would love to see a connector happening. Although I would have to say it would have to be well monitored to watch for scams and new members signing up just to use it. I would make rules such as "you must be a member for at least a month, have x amount of articles written and contribute to x amount of Q&A" that way whoever wants to gain something has to work for it and give back to the community first.

Just my thoughts

xox

I assume these samples would be for Australian members?

I know, there are a lot fewer of us elsewhere, so the advertisers probably wont want to reach us....!

I like he idea of a special group or section that you can go to and check it out first I do not want these going to my emails as I have had this problem before and did not agree with it make a heading of sponser surveys and recieve a sample for your appraisel some thing like that could catch the eye of a person straped for cash and the company would get feedback on there product in return for the sample a tag on screen like you have now 

But please not in the emails again not without approvel thanks  

 I have been looking a lot into work from home oppertunitys recently ant it has taken a long time just to find anything that isnt a scam!!!

Having a place where members (I would suggest members who have been around for say a month or have written X amount of advice or commented on X amount so you dont get sammers joining to add scams) can add there business ventures, ideas and existing ways mums (and dads) are making some cash one the side, and maybe even living off.

Maybe having a link where companys can pay to advertise but members have the choise to see them or not. :)

 That sounds like an idea I like. Trialling products in return for a review. I think the company though would have to be prepared to deliver the trial free of charge though. Or have  the trial product be collected from a local point by the member.  It makes me a little worried when I'm asked for my credit card details to pay small delivery amounts for example $3.50 and $1. I just don't trust that.

I also think it would be good if some of the big companies offered minti members discounts on products we use on regular basis. Perhaps you could send an email with a unique printout to obtain the discount? I know you already do this with some companies but to be honest that is not very useful to me because it's not stuff that I would normally buy anyway.

I personally like it when other  members  recomend different sites they use like survey or rewards  sites as these can be viable for stay at home mums. I clicked onto one of your google ads recently with links to some good survey sites.

As a mum, I don't want to buy a product that I can trial first, particularly when I have allergies. This how I came to use Brauers, Derma Veen and Curash, thru trials.

It would be great to have a section on this site to rank products..........it would make it easier on parents to find out what other parents think of a particular product, how often they use it and also gives the company feed back as to how they can improve their product. It woulds also free up the Q&A section of Minti.

I've noticed that snugglers have been advertising trial packs free to Minti members, which in it self is good idea, present your username and  2 articles you've wriiten and 2 minti friends (just to prove you are the minti member) and get a free trial of a product. (or have a special codeword made available only to Minti members)

I feel the only way to get parents to buy a product is to have them try it and see if it fits into their family or works for them. But definately not advertising to emails unless the member wants updates on that product. For me, I'd be happy to have updates currently, on allergy friendly items. But thats just me and I would want to subscribe to each product individually, so I don't get products like herbal essences which I would never use again on my emails. (It ruined my hair and I had to have it cut super short to save it, I looked awful for months!)

Cheers Raven