Is Doing Product Reviews In Your Future?
Have you ever wondered if you should do product reviews of internet marketing products on your website or blog. I would say the answer should be a resounding yes.
If you are doing affiliate marketing, product reviews are an excellent way to offer more information about a product than what a sales page can deliver. You can share some of the knowledge you have acquired because you have purchased and used the product, loved it or are being asked to review the product by the creator. Either of these puts you in a position of product expert, so take the job seriously.
There are a number of ways to do a review; you could follow a set format or just write out some pros and cons about the product. The main thing to remember is that you are not selling the product here. You just want to tap into their interest and send them on to the sales page through your affiliate link. This is called the pre-sale.
If you are writing a great sales review page you are telling them more about the product, some inside scoop, your honest opinions, telling the reader about the benefits and the negatives. You want to explain precisely how you benefited and allow your enthusiasm to come through. You are not trying to educate the reader, you are trying to make them click through to the product’s sales page.
I think the most captivating thing you can do in a product review is offer personal proof. As an example, if I bought product xyz and found it to be:
easy to install and use (and I’m not techy at all),
cut my research time in half,
allowed me to write double the number of articles,
which then got me double the traffic and double the sales…
I have personal proof as well as a list of benefits. Do you think my enthusiasm for the product would shine through? You bet.
People want to know more about a product before they spend their money. Will it save them time, make them money, allow them to make money while they are sleeping, is it easy to use and is it a good value. If there is something wrong with it, you need to be honest and tell them.
Maybe it is not for beginners, might be grey hat or maybe it is for beginners and not more experienced marketers. Your readers will appreciate that. There should be at least some small negative or two that you can share because you want them to continue to trust you and your reviews. No one product is good for every person.
Product reviews are just right for blogs. You might have a product review blog set up that is just for product reviews or maybe you have an internet marketing blog where product reviews are shared with your readers. Just be sure to make those reviews honest and believeable and tell your own opinion. If you have been given a copy to review by the product creator be sure to disclose it. If done properly you can have readers clicking through your affiliate link and one step closer to purchasing.
Yes product reviews can be a good content item. Honest reviews and disclosures are the key.
If your reviews are honest and show the good and bad people will develop the trust to click through on your links.
Product reviews are definitely a great idea.
And I like how you have laid out the process of doing one and what people are interested to know about the product.
I also agree that you need to buy the product yourself first and use it and give a true review of the product. You will have a much better understanding and be able to do a much more accurate review.
BTW: Don’t be afraid to be honest if you don’t like a product as you can still make sales even for a review of a product you didn’t like.
I often do a google search for reviews before buying products or services. I like to see what others are saying and what their experiences with the product was. I’d loke to add that when doing a product review you should also include the negatives. The more real the review is the more your readers will appreciate it
I always like to get the inside scoop on a product before actually investing my money into it. I want to know what it does for me or what it would do for my customers and honest product reviews are and excellent way of doing your research before deciding to purchase the product.
Thank, Andre, for getting this info out to us. Very informative.
This is a great review, Andre, easy for newbies to understand and implement yet still a great refresher for experienced marketers…
One caveat though – recently in the US the FTC has been cracking down on reviews written just for affiliate sales, because they are misleading when a consumer reads one and assumes it’s a unbiased, unsolicited opinion. An easy fix is to include a line like: “Here’s a product I recently found and liked so much I’m now promoting it as an affiliate! When I first downloaded the product I expected…” and on into your review. Or simply add a disclaimer at the bottom of all your posts reading “Links found in posts on this blog include affiliate links designed to help me earn money to cover my time here – Please click the links that interest you and help support this helpful resource!”
There – does that follow your review formula closely enough?
It sure does Doug and I thank you for clearing up this issue. I am sure there will be other changes so better keep an eye ope for them. Thanks again.
This is a great idea. One other good benefit of this is that you will probably be using the product name in the title of your blog post, which is an excellent way to rank higher in the search engines for that product name.
A lot of people forget out product name keywords, but doing this will help you get more traffic too.
I’m going to have to add this to my portfolio of tactics. It just makes too much sense.
It should be. This is one area I should branch out into more. Thanks for providing such a comprehensive explanation. I know that product reviews are very useful and beneficial in affiliate marketing. They also provide a way for you to provide an honest view of the program that you are an affiliate for.