NOTE: This post has been updated as of 3/10/2010, please read here.

Thanks to Elaine of The Miss Elaine-ous Life for directing me to the Blog with Integrity site via her Twitter, where I immediately signed the pledge.

There has been some discussion on BlogHer and in the blogsphere about the integrity we have as bloggers when reviewing products, doing marketing, and accepting gifts which we would later review or recommend. Prompting as much as a suggested PR Blackout in August.

First of all, I want to be clear to all 15 of my regular readers – I am too small to receive any marketing or PR offers. Like you didn’t know that already. But obviously, even with my recent efforts to get to know my fellow bloggers, and how much I do enjoy that, and how much I wish I was going to the BlogHer 2009 conference, I’m such a small fish in a big pond that I don’t have marketers or sponsors contacting me to review stuff, or paying for anything.

There are 2 times I have received something for free and mentioned it on this blog:

1. After giving the Recycline Preserve razors a bad review, Recycline contacted me to try a more recent product of theirs so that they could redeem themselves. The new blades were indeed better than the ones I tried, and I blogged about that.
2. I won a contest on another blog where I received free Reebok EasyTone sneakers. I do love these sneakers. They even sent them to me in green! However, I won these in a contest fair-and-square, I was not sent the product for free so that I would review them. i blogged about winning because I was so excited, I needed shoes at the time, and I never win anything!

In the past and as of right now, whenever you see a product review on this blog, it is because I am always actively looking for ways to do things A) greener and B) cheaper. When I encounter an area in my life where I believe I can do better, I search out a solution on my own. I spend my own time and money on various products or solutions and I let my readers know what I find, whether it is good or bad, whether it works or it doesn’t. I do this because I want to save everyone else the time and effort, and I always enjoy reading comments that give me more ideas and other methods or products to try.

As you can see, a PR Blackout is not a problem for me – now or hopefully ever. I will gladly participate, because I am already participating! If I do get big enough to receive freebies, I will disclose where I got the freebie and I will be honest in my opinion. If you have a blog, I do encourage you to take the pledge to Blog With Integrity!