With product review sites making up a large portion of my online income, I thought it would be helpful to post a few tips that I’ve learned over the years that has allowed me to create some effective review sites.
First, you’ll need to choose a profitable niche but I won’t cover that in this article. Once you have identified the niche you’ll be using, picked out the products you’ll review, it’s time to get busy with your review site and your product reviews.
It’s important to know from the beginning that when people land on your review site, they are either expecting you to tell them the reasons they should or should not buy this product. If they learn that they should not buy the product, they will likely expect you to tell them an alternative product that you feel is better. The most effective reviews are those that come from people who are happily using the product they are reviewing. If you are reviewing something that you have never used before, you will need to be a bit more creative in your approach.
Of course, you can have the worst review site ever and still make some affiliate commissions but if you want to increase your earnings, pay close attention to the following list of tips.
1. Pick products you are interested in
It’s along the same line as following your passion in that if you choose something you are truly interested in, you will have an easier time writing about it. I have a huge interest in health and fitness so I always look for products to promote in this industry. On the other hand, if I tried to promote hair dryers, I’d fall asleep trying to write a review on them. If I ever did get it done, it would be boring and offer no real advice. People would see right through this and move on to the next site.
However, this doesn’t mean that you can’t work with products that you are not interested in. It’s easy enough to outsource this work but you’ll need to make sure it is quality content and provides a helpful review.
2. Don’t just copy the product description
How many review sites have you seen where people simply re-word the description from Amazon or other online retailers? They’re a dime a dozen. If you are going to write a product description, at least take a little time to do some research in order to form your own opinion and to write it using your own words. People read your review in order to learn more and to determine whether the product is right for them. If you are not providing anything original, they will leave your site and never come back. After all, they can find the basic product information on the retailers’ website.
3. Be honest
Being completely honest in your review is what will set you apart from the competition. People don’t read reviews only to find out all the perfect things about a product. They also read them in order to uncover the bad. Display pros and cons of the product you are reviewing and be totally honest. Don’t build a product up just because it is the most expensive and will earn you the most commission.
4. Use videos and images
People love to click on images and of course, videos make it easy for people to see the actual product in action. Videos are extremely effective and are even better if they are your own unique videos providing the review. However, if you are unable to shoot a video yourself, pick a high quality one from YouTube or other video sites that gives an honest look at whatever it is you are reviewing. Adding both, images and videos to your product review will set you apart from most other reviews that people will find on the internet.
5. Add plenty of links within your posts
People love to click on links and in my experience, a high amount of clickthroughs come from links placed throughout your post. It’s only natural to click on a highlighted link as you are reading a blog post. Be sure and add these randomly throughout your post and you’ll see your clickthroughs increase.
Writing a product review is very easy to do so don’t make it more difficult than it should be. The key is to provide lots of useful content for the reader broken down into easy-to-understand segments. Consider having a segment for each of the following: description, pros, cons, pricing, videos, images, user reviews and comparisons with other products. The more information you can provide, the better.
With that being said, don’t overwhelm your visitors with long boring content and be sure to break up the content often with images and other elements. Highlight the important points that you want visitors to see and make your review fun.