Editing The Pen Addict 28/transcript (section)

== Product Focus ==


'''Brad Dowdy:''' The. I don't want to feel like I'm pimping products. And which I've never I've never taken that tag. You know, I've never felt that way, honestly. But. The repetitiveness and seeing it in the same post over and over.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I don't know. I was just I was starting to get more uncomfortable with those type of things just because. You know, I'm always I've strived to be transparent the whole time in this blog. And I have been, you know, and, you know, I tell people that want me to review their pens like you're you know, you're welcome to send me your pen. Number one, I may or may not review it. And number two, if I do review it, it may not be a good review. And if you accept those facts, then, yeah, please send me your products and, you know, I'll see what I can do. And I've always you know, I've always been extremely open and honest about my reviews. But I think looking around the whole state of the pen blogosphere, it's just it feels like just a huge product push.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Well, that's very similar to gadget blogging. You'll have a few companies that are maybe the bigger gadget blogs and they, you know, they just get sent stuff sent to them and they'll say whatever they want. But a fledgling blog may be more inclined to try and build relationships with these companies by giving them the reviews that they want. So it's probably quite similar to that.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Right. And I am by no means my above reproach here. You know, I've absolutely accepted plenty of goods, plenty of sponsorship dollars, you know, in all kinds of products. So, you know, it's just it came to the point. It's like, do I want to keep being beholden to this? Right. And I just felt like I was churning out posts as opposed to, say, and like really doing heartfelt posts.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' So that so that becomes a chore at that point. Right. At that point, I'm at that point, I'm making widgets.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Somebody from the pen blogging industry. Yeah. I apologize.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I'm not at my house and I don't know how to shut this off. This is not R2. No. I don't even see the phone.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Could be anywhere.

'''Myke Hurley:''' Oh, no, it's still going. We still got it. Phone's still happening.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' I think I got it. I think I got it.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You got it?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' You're not going to believe this. Do you know what was ringing?

'''Myke Hurley:''' What?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' A fax machine.

'''Myke Hurley:''' What?

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Mm-hmm. My in-law's house.

'''Myke Hurley:''' That's definitely the pen blogging industry then.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. They kick it old school.

'''Myke Hurley:''' You can only write to each other in the industry.

'''Brad Dowdy:''' Yeah. You know, it wouldn't be a pen addict podcast with some kind of diversion in the middle of a phone ringing or something going on. Still got to work on those bingo cards. So where was I?