Dan's Data Review Policy
Last modified 10-Aug-2012.
Overview
Are you a manufacturer or distributor of computer hardware, gadgets, high-tech toys or any of the other sorts of things you see reviewed on Dan's Data or written about on my oddly-named sister site, How To Spot A Psychopath? Do you want an independent, honest, professional, FREE review of your product accessible on the Web (on a site that serves more than a million pages a month) and available for use in promotional material? Then a Dan's Data review is for you.
E-mail me with the details of your product and I'll tell you if I think it's suitable.
My qualifications
I, Daniel Rutter, spent four years as the Assistant Editor of three computer magazines, Australian PC Review, Australian Amiga Review and Australian Multimedia and Desktop Video. For three years I wrote a regular column for Australia's premiere IT publication, Australian Personal Computer, and I now write two columns and occasional features for Atomic magazine. I've also contributed to the Sydney Morning Herald's Icon computer section, to the late lamented Electronics Australia magazine, and also to PC Powerplay magazine. I've written a few Pocketbooks for Australian Personal Computer, and I was the principal staff reviewer for the AustralianIT Web site for a while. I've been running Dan's Data since 1998 and How To Spot A Psychopath since 2006.
Dan's Data first served a million pages per month in 2006; How To Spot A Psychopath serves around 35,000 pages per month, as of 2012.
I have several million published words to my name in the information technology genre.
What will Dan's Data review?
This site was originally built on reviews of almost anything intended for the home or small office, Windows market, plus various gadgets and techno-toys. I have reviewed printers, scanners, monitors, mice, joysticks, entertainment software, reference software, office software, graphics software, music software, Web sites, removable storage devices, CPUs, graphics cards, modems, Internet Service Providers, desktop computers, laptop computers, network appliances, video projectors, game consoles, hand-held computers, soldering irons, screwdrivers, speakers, model tanks, model siege engines, magnetic liquid and LED flashlights. Among other things.
Most of my reviews now, on Dan's Data and How To Spot A Psychopath (which, if you've read this far, you might like to know is named after this old page) are of oddball items that take my fancy. A novel multi-purpose plastic material, an unusual hunting knife, cult cinema, Lego sets, an unusual meat tenderiser, peculiar baby laptops, an cylindrical adding machine, fiction and non-fiction books, some unusual chalk... I could go on like this for a while.
If you've got some product about which you find yourself saying "if only more people knew about this!", e-mail me and I'll see what I can do.
Can anyone apply?
Anyone at all. Bear in mind, however, that I'm in New South Wales, Australia. The Web is international, and I do not mind at all reviewing products which are not yet available in my home market. But if you're located in, say, Sweden, and want me to review your brand new 75-kilogram server case, bear in mind that the shipping costs may be rather alarming. Multinational organisations may do better to arrange the supply of review product via their Australian branch. The source of review product will always be attributed, and I will include your phone numbers and/or a link to your Web site, if you have one.
Is it really free?
Yes. I ask for no fee from anybody providing product for review. Generally, I keep the product sent for review. In fact, at the moment my policy is not to accept loaner product for review unless it's extremely interesting, simply because I've got so much free stuff on my to-review pile. If you require review product to be returned, make sure you make this clear before you provide the product, not after the review has been completed.
Note also that since the hardware review process often includes opening the device up to see how it's built and similar non-recommended activities, I can give no guarantee that returned product will be in as-new condition. Likewise, software boxes are commonly dented in the post and may be further depreciated by me in my raging desire to get at the contents. I take care to keep review product in good condition, but accept no responsibility for any damage caused.
You, and anyone else, may freely use the text of my review in promotional literature, provided you include prominent acknowledgment of the text's source and the URL of the review. You may NOT reprint my review in a for-profit publication without my express permission, which I will give you after you agree to pay me for the article, rates available on application.
What if Dan doesn't like my product?
Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you send me something for review that is, in my opinion, not so good.
Well, tough.
Provided your product is not so ghastly that I can't even bear to review it, the review will still go up on the site. You are, as usual, welcome to use this review, in whole or in part, in promotional campaigns for the product, provided you include attribution and the URL of the full review, as detailed above. You are welcome to pick out the parts where I say something nice about your product, and leave the rest to be discovered by those intrepid readers who check the URL.
Can we, ah, change Dan's mind, know what we mean, nudge nudge?
The Dan's Data Review Program is NOT a promotional service. I do NOT write complimentary reviews for money. I might write promotional material, if you pay me to, but I will NOT call this material a "review" or put it up on Dan's Data, and you may NOT represent it as anything other than what it is - a paid advertisement, unassociated with Dan's Data.
If you include money with the product you send me for review, I will take it to be a gift provided out of your gratitude to me for the marvellous job I am doing. Yes, it will make me like you more. No, it will not make me like your product more.
Apply now!
E-mail me with the details of your product!
