Become a Patron!

WANTED: Vaping Blog Contributors

Browncoat

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Vape Media
I am starting a new vaping-related blog that will officially launch on Jan, 1 2015. I am looking for vaping enthusiasts who are willing to regularly contribute original, high quality content to be part of my editorial staff.

The site itself is a no-frills eMagazine format with the goal of providing readers with an honest and unbiased source of information. Other similar sites claim to provide unbiased reviews and commentary, meanwhile they sell advertising space and cater to sponsors. Eventually we will accept advertising dollars, but all advertisers will be critically vetted before being allowed to take up space on my site. As of launch, these editorial positions are unpaid, but that may change as time moves on.

Article Topics
    • Editorial (factual, sourced)
    • Opinion
    • Reviews (e-liquid, mods, batteries, RDAs, etc)
    • DIY/How-tos
    • Tutorials
    • Vaping news and advocacy
About Me

I studied Internet Marketing and specialize in web design, SEO/SEM, and social media marketing. I also have a degree in photography and have my own studio where I do photography, web design, and graphic design work. I have designed dozens of websites, 5 blogs, and have consulted on numerous SEO/SEM projects.​

I will answer any relevant questions in this thread, and please, feel free to contact me via PM.

Also, I have cleared the content of this thread with the moderator staff here @ Vaping Underground. In addition, this blogging project will in no way be a conflict of interest to the VU forums or the Vapor Joe's family of websites.
 

UncleRJ

Will write reviews for Beer!
Staff member
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Platinum Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Reviewer
Moderator
"Other similar sites claim to provide unbiased reviews and commentary, meanwhile they sell advertising space and cater to sponsors"

Spiteful (AKA Spinfuel? by chance?
 

Browncoat

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Vape Media
Spiteful (AKA Spinfuel? by chance?

Yes, like Spinfuel. They were the tipping point. There is very little ethics left in journalism, and this is coming from someone who spent years working in the print news business. It's all about the almighty advertising dollar. Advertising should support the content's message...not the other way around.

When every e-liquid that is reviewed gets a 4-5 star rating, and every vendor gets some kind of "award", there is a serious problem. I actually addressed this issue on Google+, and here is the editor's response:

Me: Strikes me as odd that most of the reviews on Spinfuel are so high. Not every juice deserves a 4-5 star rating.

Spinfuel eMagazine: I always thought the team needed to explain more about this, perhaps I will add to the Protocols page. Here's why you find it odd.

Most of the eliquid reviews the team does are brands that have already been somewhat vetted. They take recommendations from readers, and their own explorations, and choose companies to review. These companies must all have certain things in order to fit the requirement for being reviewed at all. Among them are dedicated mixing facilities, contamination preventions, shrink-wrap or some other method for sealing the bottles, labeling requirements, and ingredient restrictions. Now, yea, a lot of it is the "honor system", and sometimes a brand will stretch the truth in order to be reviewed, but its not often.

Once these requirements were put into place, 20 months ago now, the team had to decide that if the brand met the requirements then the "score", or "rating" would begin a 3. Three being the "average score" for an eliquid brand meeting all the requirements. That doesn't mean that an eliquid can score 3 stars and above only, they can go down to zero stars if its just a terrible eliquid. As it turns out, the brands chosen by the team have been very good brands. An "average" premium eliquid, say a custard flavor, would score an average score of 3 stars. If, after meeting the requirements, the flavor and vapor are better or worse than expected for a premium juice, the score is adjusted up or down.

I think the problem comes in because readers think that all eliquids start at zero stars and work up from there. But that's not how it goes. They start at 3, and only because they no longer review just any brand. All the email for the entire crew goes through my servers, and I can tell you that we get at least 5 emails a day from eliquid brands, and in a typical week that's 35+ emails asking to be reviewed by the team. Of those 35+ requests the team picks at the most, 2, and the 2 that they think would be the best of that 35+. Chances are they are going to score higher than 3 stars because they have been selected carefully. They turn down brands every day, after learning more about the brand, or that brand not meeting the requirements. The one's they don't turn down are put in a 'que'. Some brands wait 3 or 4 months to get reviewed.

If we had 4 or 5 teams doing reviews, or if the team spent 10 minutes with a brand instead of 72 hours, then we could review all of them and you would undoubtedly see many eliquids scoring much much lower. But, the team would rather search for the better brands and provide an in-depth review of those better brands.
On occasion the team has been burned, the brand appears to be a premium label, they say all the right things, and it turns out that the actually mix the juice in back room of a shop, using no standards and providing no protection against contamination... when they are discovered the team tosses out the juice and strikes them from the que. That happened twice in the last month alone. The emails, the phone calls, they are all excited about being reviewed by the team, but when the juice arrives they are not shrink wrapped, the labels are hand written or have no real information on them, and the juice smells totally artificial and a sampling of one flavor shows the juice is crap. The team just tosses the juice, and because they feel like they were taken advantage of, most of the time they don't even bother telling the brand, until enough time goes by that they email the team. Julia or Tom will simply write back that the juice that arrived did not meet the requirements as promised, and therefore will not be reviewed (they even have that stated in their submissions guidelines PDF they send to them all)

The bottom line as to why you see a lot of 4's and 4.25, 4.5., 4.75, and even 5 star ratings is because they have been preselected, prequalified, and the brand knows a thing or two about making good juice. And let's be honest, most good brands make good juice these days. The team could hate the flavor, but because the juice is clear of contaminants, bottled safely, labels have all the information you could want, and photos of the facility show excellent equipment maintained well, the score is going to be above a 4.

The team's unwillingness to spend their time with juice made in the basement or spare bedroom, or in storage unit, prevents poorly made juice from reaching them (most of the time), so these scores are natural.

One more thing; the team did tell me some months back that they want to "reset" the whole scoring method, and when the time comes for regulation and bedroom/basement/garage juice can't be made and sold online, then they will reset the whole thing and all eliquids will start at zero, and have to earn their way up the ladder. All juice will premium, safe, well made, but until that time they cannot reset the scoring system without putting all those eliquids that have already earned high scores up against juice that as just as good, but now score 1.2 or 1.5. It wouldn't be fair. Regulations will bring a new set of rules and a Spinfuel eLiquid Review score will referred to as "PR and AR", 4 stars PR (pre regulations) 2 stars AR (after regulations).

Oh, and "flavor" alone doesn't make a juice. Even I have learned that a first impression of an eliquid tells you nothing. A juice that tastes like crap first thing in the morning could be great in the evening, or vice versa. They way the team have worked all this out has been nothing short of brilliant. The only thing they didn't anticipate almost 3 years ago, is that they would need to restrict their reviews to premium labels only. Once they did that the scores sometimes look inflated. But that won't last forever.

Thanks for the comment, and I hope you can understand better why its done like it done. - Dave Foster - Spinfuel
 

Browncoat

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Vape Media
Yeah, pretty much. What struck me the most was that all e-liquids start out with a base score of 3 out of 5 stars.

Just like their ridiculous stance against reviewing clones, they feel as though a product is above the fold just because they choose to do a review on it. That doesn't even make sense.
 

UncleRJ

Will write reviews for Beer!
Staff member
Senior Moderator
VU Donator
Platinum Contributor
Member For 4 Years
ECF Refugee
Reviewer
Moderator
If you had paid attention to some of their reviews (especially some of the early ones) you would have noticed that their crack staff (or on crack?) tested these wonderful mixes for an entire week (which consist of 7 days in my book). Each of them had their own 15ml bottle to use exclusively during that time.

I wish my own E-Liquids lasted me that long.
 

MKPM

AMG
Diamond Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
ECF Refugee
My opinions are almost always suspect.
 

Browncoat

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Vape Media
Suspect is good. I respect someone who draws a hard line in the sand much more than someone who is wishy-washy, even if I disagree with them.
 

MKPM

AMG
Diamond Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
ECF Refugee
Suspect is good. I respect someone who draws a hard line in the sand much more than someone who is wishy-washy, even if I disagree with them.
Sadly, I am too deficient in the kilt to draw ANY kind of line in the sand............wait..........that is not what you meant.......ehmm......n/m
 

VH fan

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Member For 5 Years
Well i wish Browncoat success and i would love to see unbiased reviews i really would but i have heard the " no bias " comments way too many times before to expect it to really turn out that way.

I very very rarely come across reviewers that are truly unbiased which is unfortunate but there is hope . Nikkita is a very good reviewer and imo as unbiased as you will find.

A good reviewer tells it like it is regardless of his feelings about an item , if a manufacturer sends a mod to you for a review and said the item is yours to keep afterwards, a good reviewer will not allow that to influence anything in your review , period . Much easier said than done for a lot of people who do reviews on a regular basis though.
 

Browncoat

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Vape Media
Well i wish Browncoat success and i would love to see unbiased reviews i really would but i have heard the " no bias " comments way too many times before to expect it to really turn out that way.

For now this blog is a one-man show: me. I will release it to the public when I have generated enough content.

Anyone who knows me personally will tell you that I always speak my mind and tell it like it is. Frankly, it has gotten me fired from many a job, which is why I ultimately went into business for myself. Ever wanted to tell your boss he's an idiot, and that he should be sterilized so that he doesn't contaminate the gene pool? I do that. You'll either love or loath my style, there's no middle ground.

At the end of each review is a disclaimer. I tell the reader if there are any affiliate (paid) links in the article, and clearly disclose them if there are. I also say whether items reviewed were purchased with my own money or donated.
 

VH fan

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Member For 1 Year
Member For 5 Years
For now this blog is a one-man show: me. I will release it to the public when I have generated enough content.

Anyone who knows me personally will tell you that I always speak my mind and tell it like it is. Frankly, it has gotten me fired from many a job, which is why I ultimately went into business for myself. Ever wanted to tell your boss he's an idiot, and that he should be sterilized so that he doesn't contaminate the gene pool? I do that. You'll either love or loath my style, there's no middle ground.

At the end of each review is a disclaimer. I tell the reader if there are any affiliate (paid) links in the article, and clearly disclose them if there are. I also say whether items reviewed were purchased with my own money or donated.


Bravo Sir , and yes , i have been fired from many jobs but it wasn't for calling the Boss an idiot or saying anything about the gene pool per say, it's usually for challenging the Boss in a brawl to the death in the parking lot , no joke lol.

And i'm a non violent guy so you know the Boss had to be out of line . I have numerous times called them wrong though and in fact they were indeed wrong and proven so in the end . Not a recommended thing to do and i would recommend agreeing with the boss if at all possible.

Imo, most bosses suck , just my $0.02
 

lirruping

Gold Contributor
Member For 5 Years
@Browncoat
I read some of your blog. I like the stylin logo and you seem literate. Not to be a snob (even tho I totally am), but we need more of that in vape-related writing.
 

VU Sponsors

Top