Blogger Love

Has anyone been noticing the blogger love that is starting to happen? I've been wanting to do a post on this for a while. (not THAT kind of love, Marcy :P) Bloggers have been important for a while. Tech companies check out the bloggers to see what they say about their products. Political blogs have long had the attention of the media, analysts and candidates. Are running blogs finally getting discovered?

I mean Vanilla was practically adopted by the Clif people when he mentioned their new recovery drink. I've also heard he is test driving some fancy schmancy bad-boy Pearl Izumi shoes. I'm guessing that the Clif people (doesn't that remind you of some long ago civilization of really handly folks?) are under the assumption that some people actually read Half Fast. Hmm. (More about what the Clif folks are up to here.)

Then Pokey had a wardrobe dilemma that caught the eye of the lovely Meredith at Brooks Running. Soon Poke had some cool Brooks pants that were the right weight and made her look and feel the right weight too. :D

Viv also had a Brooks-type emergency. She had a hard time getting her favorite Brooks shirt washed because she wore it all the time! I think the lovely Meredith came through again, and sent Viv another one for rotational purposes.

Bev used a Lara Bar in a race and posted about how great it worked for her. Someone lovely at Lara caught this and sent her a big box full of Lara heaven. They even have a blog and a great statement on their website about supporting blogging as a means for people to express themselves and communicate with the entire world. How cool.

Now this isn't universal. Afterall, I posted about how much I am totally digging G2 and even had Jeter pace me in a virtual race which gets thousands (or something like that) of readers. I've also posted shots of me (or maybe it was some other hottie who looks like me) guzzling gatorade on a tough run. No calls from Gatorade, no special day with Jeter. :D YET. (but I might be testing some Propel soon) No calls from Bondi people either, although I've long professed my love of the Bondi-Band and I know all the sweaters agree with me. That's okay. Love 'em anyway. The mother load? Someday, I'm convinced I will be the official spokesperson of Enell bras. These bras literally saved my exercising life. The bounce stops here. When you're big like me that is a big big deal (get it? two bigs?)..... oooh, but I digress.

But, I have to admit, I wasn't posting those things in hopes of freebies, just cuz I like the product. And maybe it will save some other "big big" girl's exercising life? And isn't that the cool thing about the bloggers? We give each other a lot of advice and talk about what works for us. We also ask questions when we can't figure out what to do. Occasionaly, we find some gems for ourselves. And now the marketing people are starting to see that we share advice, purchase based on advice, generate traffic, etc. Pretty cool.

I'm already a Brooks shoe die hard and a Clif fan. They work for me. I rarely stray. So in fact, these posts and these generous acts didn't sway me to purchase more. (well, I am inclined to find some Clif recovery cabern-ade) But, I am really excited to see what they mean. And so I am returning the favor. And isn't this better than paying someone to blog about your product? It's been about helping someone or saying thank you for mentioning us, we're glad you like us. I actually like these companies more, because they are reaching out to the bloggers in this way. I'm willing to bet others feel the same way. Thanks for showing the bloggers some love. Y

All pics pretty much stolen from other bloggers sites without permission. Let me know if you have a problem with it. :D