Stuff Guys Dig

OUR REVIEW PROCESS

We’re all about being full transparent here at Brostrick.  If you were wondering exactly what goes into our product reviews, buying guides, and overall round-ups we put together the things we do, and even the things we don’t do.  We hope this gives you a clear understanding of our process, our mindset, and why should you be able to trust what we’re writing about.

WHAT WE DO

  • We Use Real Editors to Create Content

Each article you read on Brostrick is written by a human editor (not AI), so you can trust that what you’re reading has been personally written and reviewed.
  • We Review Every Product Ourselves

Each editor chooses products that they either actually love, own, have purchased, know someone who purchased, or have endlessly researched by reading dozens of reviews (both good and bad), monitored on social media sites (like TikTok), and more.

  • We Follow Our Own Specific Research Process

Our editors follow our strict research process when recommending a product or reviewing one as an in-depth review.  Now, now every product would need to go through each step depending on the product recommendation in question, but below are the steps our editors follow:

1.   Product Understanding: 

  • Editors start by thoroughly reading the product specifications provided by the manufacturer.
  • Identify key features, functionalities, and technical specifications.
  • Analyze and understand the intended purpose and target audience for the product. Does the product in question make sense for our audience?

2.  Market Analysis:

  • Editors will research the market segment to which the product belongs.
  • Identify similar products from competitors and understand their features, pricing, reviews, pros, cons, etc.
  • Determine trends and innovations within the product category.

3.  User Feedback:

  • Editors look for existing user reviews and feedback on the product from reputable sources like consumer review websites, forums, social media, and from our own readers as well.
  • Analyze common pros and cons to anticipate potential strengths and weaknesses.  Do the pros truly outweigh the cons?

4.  Manufacturer Information:

  • Visit the manufacturer’s website to gather additional information about the product.
  • Look for press releases, product demonstrations, and promotional materials that provide insights into the product’s development and marketing strategy.

5.  Historical Context:

  • Explore the product’s history if it’s an updated version or a successor to a previous model.
  • Compare it with its predecessors to understand the evolution of features and improvements.  Is the newest version really better and/or worth the price?

6.  Industry News and Trends:

  • Monitor industry news sources, blogs, and trade publications for updates on relevant developments, like product launches, mergers, acquisitions, or regulatory changes.
  • Understand how broader industry trends might influence the product’s performance or market positioning.

7.  Legal and Ethical Considerations:

  • Editors familiarize themselves, where applicable, with any legal or ethical considerations related to the product, like privacy concerns, safety issues, environmental impact, etc.
  • Investigate any past controversies or recalls associated with the product or its manufacturer.

As you can see, the research and review process is pretty extensive and that’s why, for example, you may not see endless options in a product round-up.  Our editors would rather research and review the heck out of the best products and compile a smaller list than just randomly pick their favorite 50 products in a given category.  Do you really need to read through 50 pairs of sunglasses or trust our list of 7?  How many gifts in a gift guide do you really need to scroll through?  We’d rather give you our favorites even if that means less options in some cases.

  • We Test Products When We Can

In the spirit of full disclosure, our editors test out products they’re recommending when they can.  Please note this is certainly not always the case, but when you see an individual product reviewed as a stand-alone article it has likely been tested, used, and reviewed.  If you see a product round-up (a gift guide for example), most likely each product listed has not been tested, but it has still gone through our normal research and review process listed above.
  • We provide additional places to purchase products

While everyone loves shopping on Amazon, we know this isn’t for everyone so when we can, we list an additional one to two retailers that also offer the product we’re recommending.  Our goal is that this can help you make a more informed buying decision based on retailer, price, and potential sale price.

  • We focus on "stuff guys dig" but anyone can buy

Sure we’re in the “everyday dude” space, but that doesn’t mean our site is just for guys.  While a lot of our content typically appeals more-so to the male audience there are plenty of women who visit Brostrick and make purchases based on our recommendations as well. Currently our traffic demo breakdown is:
  • 76% male
  • 24% female
  • We have fun

That might sound weird, but we actually have fun around Brostrick because, let’s face it, we’re not curing cancer around here.  We want to talk to you like you’re one of our buddies and give you the real-deal when it comes to what we like about something, what we don’t like, and why we think something is the perfect deal right now.

WHAT WE DON'T DO

  • We don't take money in exchange for a favorable review

And trust us, we’ve been offered large sums of money over the years to just add a product into a review or roundup and say nice things about it.  That 100% goes against the way we work and, in the long run, we know we would lose trust with our readers.  Without that trust, we don’t have a site.
  • We don't just add products because every other site has

Honestly, how annoying is it when you see the same 10 products on every other review website?  Just because some of the “big wigs” may have certain products listed as “the best” doesn’t mean you’ll find them here at Brostrick just because.  In fact, a lot of times those same products you see everywhere may be sponsored on each site; meaning that a brand may be paying them to list them.  We see this all the time with colognes and perfumes.  Again, we only add something to Brostrick if it fits all of our editorial criteria listed above.
  • We don't run ads on Brostrick

Not that there’s anything wrong with ads at all, but you won’t find ads when you’re consuming content on our site (outside of affiliate links).
  • We don't collect and sell your data

Privacy matter and, more importantly, your privacy matters.  We do not collect any of your information to share or sell.  Read more about our privacy policy here.
  • We don't choose products only when we make money

We’ve talked about our extensive affiliate disclosure here, but we want to reiterate that we don’t only choose products based on us making a small commission on them.  There are plenty of products recommended on Brostrick where we don’t make any money at all, but because our editors really do love that particular product.
  • We don't use automated systems to create content

Unlike some other sites, we are not using any automated systems to pick products and write the content (you know the ones).   Everything we’re recommended has been chosen and hand-picked by one of our editors.

THAT'S A WRAP

So there you have it.  As you can hopefully tell by now our review and research process is pretty extensive.  We pride ourselves on being fully transparent to our readers so you can see what goes into so many of the product recommendations here at Brostrick.  

Got Questions:  contactus@brostrick.com
Got Feedback:  feedback@brostrick.com
Got a Pitch:  pitch@brostrick.com

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