Prerequisites

Please familiarize yourself with the following, before proceeding with this document:

1. How to Write a Backpackinglight.com Gear Review
2. Gear Review Ratings at Backpackinglight.com

Gear Guides vs. State of the Market Reports

The fundamental differences between a Gear Guide and a State of the Market Report is this:

• A Gear Guide summarizes a wide variety of competitive products in a particular category.
  • Length: 2,000+ words.
• A State of the Market Report does the same but adds a performance comparison based on actual field use.
  • Length: 5,000+ words.

What to Include

Include the following sections (detailed descriptions – below the table):

	Gear Guide	State of the Market Report
Review, Commentary, and Recommendations Based Primarily On	Features, Specifications, and Preliminary Experience with Product	Extensive Field Experience with Products
Introduction	YES	YES
Category Description	YES	YES
Feature Summary	YES	YES
Specifications Summary	YES	YES
Product Performance Considerations	YES	no
Performance Evaluation	no	YES
Performance Ratings	no	YES
Commentary	YES	YES
Recommendations	YES	YES
Review Ratings	no	YES
Disclosure	YES	YES
Word Count	2,000+	5,000+
Honoraria	$100 - $200+	$250 - $500+

Sections are described in more detail below:

• Introduction
• Category Description – provide an overview of the product category, what types of products you are including and why, what types products you are excluding and why.
  • List of Products Featured in this Gear Guide / State of the Market Report
    • Product 1
    • Product 2
    • etc.
• Feature Summary – introduce this section with a description of important features worth noting in this product category, then end with a comparison table showing how the products compare to one another.
  • Feature 1
  • Feature 2
  • Feature 3
  • etc.
  • Feature Comparison Table(s)
• Specifications Summary – introduce this section with a description of important specifications worth noting in this product category, then end with a comparison table showing how the products compare to one another.
  • Specifications Comparison Table(s)
• Product Performance Considerations (Gear Guides Only) – the purpose of this section is to educate the reader by encouraging them to pay attention to certain criterion that may affect the performance of the product they are investigating, and to make some educated guesses about which product(s) have particular strengths / weaknesses in each criteria category.
  • Criterion 1
    • Highlight products that have a potential strength or weakness in this criterion
  • Criterion 2
    • Highlight products that have a potential strength or weakness in this criterion
  • Criterion 3
    • Highlight products that have a potential strength or weakness in this criterion
  • etc.
• Performance Evaluation (State of the Market Reports Only) – the purpose of this section is to identify the performance criteria you used in your field testing for evaluating these products, and then to make performance claims about which products in particular over or underperformed in each category.
  • How Product Performance Was Evaluated
  • Criterion 1
    • Best Product(s)
    • Worst Product(s)
  • Criterion 2
    • Best Product(s)
    • Worst Product(s)
  • Criterion 3
    • Best Product(s)
    • Worst Product(s)
  • etc.
• Performance Ratings (State of the Market Reports Only) – a comparison matrix of individual products vs. each performance criterion, with numerical / letter grades assigned to each cell, and an overall grade assigned to each product; be sure to describe your grading scale in detail so there is no confusion on the reader’s part about how you arrived at your final grades.
  • Performance Rating Table(s)
• Commentary – this is the creative portion of your article, which you can use to provide further rationale for evaluating the products and/or helping the reader choose a product that’s best for their needs.
• Recommendations – an easy to read bullet section to quickly help identify which products are best in specific contexts.
  • Best Product(s) for _____
  • Best Product(s) for _____
  • Best Product(s) for _____
• Review Ratings (State of the Market Reports Only) – Assign review ratings according to the criteria outlined in our Gear Review Ratings guide; make sure they are consistent with your performance summary!
  • Product 1
  • Product 2
  • Product 3
  • etc.
• Disclosure

Honoraria

We generally pay $100+ honoraria to authors for unsolicited Gear Guides and $250+ for unsolicited State of the Market Reports, to reflect the substantial differences in the effort required to research, test, and analyze gear performance for each type of article. Solicited reports may (or may not) result in higher negotiated honoraria.

Honoraria bonuses of $25-$250+ are paid for gear guides and state of the market reports that involve one or more of the following:

• Quantitative test results obtained by the reviewer that compares the reviewed product to one or more competing products;
• A video summary of the review;
• Comprehensive background discussions of innovative technologies or materials relevant to the product being reviewed.

Solicited gear guides and state of the market reports typically result in higher negotiated honoraria.