Someone from Packt Publishing contacted me to review a book on ownCloud. I agreed, thinking it a learning experience. They replied they would add it to my Packt account, and would be sending me my credentials. They also asked where I would be reviewing it: “Website / Blog / Amazon / Goodreads”
I turned down the offer. If they were familiar with the topic of the book, and actually thought that I had “vast knowledge in this technology”, they would know that I am not going to create accounts on third party sites without great incentive. Writing reviews to drive traffic to corporate sites is not an incentive for me.
But of course they are just cold-calling people that hit their Google Alerts with keywords. I guess it was a learning experience for both of us.