Writing product reviews is not always easy. It does involve actually having used the product, being able to describe the item or service, and a lot of times, you may have to make sure you have a disclosure just in case you get compensation for your review.
Here is a guide to writing product reviews on your blog.
Set up a Site Disclosure Policy
You should have a site wide disclosure and also disclose on the posts you are receiving compensation for. In the United States you are required to disclose paid endorsements. Some of the paid to blog services like Pay Per Post (an Izea property) requires that you have a site wide and a post disclosure.
The policy should state that your blog will from time to time publish paid reviews on products.
Blog with Integrity
If you did not try out a product or service and just threw a post together, while some people might not notice, those who did use the product might call your bluff. Making money is always nice, but if you are sacrificing your integrity, you are basically lying to your readers… for chump change.
Your honesty is important. There are companies out there that really want to know your honest opinion. In not writing a truthful product review, you really risk your reputation with brands wanting to approach you to review their product or service.
There are sites out there, like Fiverr for example, that have opportunities for you to make money by posting fake reviews. Do not get caught up in this as it does nothing but shoot your reputation down. Only take review opportunities that encourage your honest feedback.
Choose Products or Services to Review that are Relevant to Your Site
If you have a review about diapers and your blog is about tech gear, this is not an ideal post to publish. Choose opportunities that match your site’s focus. In choosing every opportunity under the sun, you risk confusing your readers. Products that are relevant to your site will help build the authority you need to grow your blog.
Be Thorough When Writing A Product Review
You want to be as informative as possible so being thorough is extremely important with product reviews. If you do not write enough information, your review could be seen as you did not like the product or there really was not much to say about it.
Other than your own opinion, you can even do some research on the product and maybe share some of the reactions out on the social network sites. Twitter can be a great example of a site you can pull reactions Just do a search on the product or service and all the people who have mentioned it on Twitter will show up in the results.
Think of every angle you can cover to make your review better than other sites in your niche that may also be talking about the same thing.
Of course, there are other tips, but I would love to know what are some of your suggestions to people writing product reviews on their blogs?
Hi Nile,
Thank you for this post. As someone who is really swayed by product reviews, thank you for highlighting the importance of a thorough process. Sometimes, after reading reviews, I really wonder how much the person writing the review really went over the product. With your process though, you really nail down the importance of REALLY knowing the thing that you are reviewing. That way, others can be really confident that your opinion matters and is helpful.
Thank you,
John
I learned from my grandfather and my father that doing things halfway just does not cut it. I think this can apply to product reviewing too. H
Hmm… this reminds of an interesting situation a friend of mine went through at go beyond mls. When writing a review, make sure you spell out in the agreement that your opinion will be your own and you can’t be held liable for your own opinion.
Thanks for the list but I think the most important thing here is that bloggers should always have their integrity intact. Otherwise, they are just marketers of kitty litter!
Definitely integrity is a huge part in reviewing. 😀
You just need to type in “big-paying-click-bank-product” + reviews – to find 1/4 of the entire web filled with blogs I wish would listen to you!
It’s hard when you’re actually trying to review reviews and all you get are aforementioned kitty-litter.
Consumer generated reviews are a little better – the model we’re trying to go with.
Problem is you don’t always have access to products you’d like to review. You can find a lot of “blond reviews” online from that haven’t used the product they’re reviewing
It’s amazing to me that there is such an art form involved in writing product reviews… I used to think it was so simple. I started by checking out sites like Amazon and eBay, to get a basic idea of what type of tone to take with writing reviews. Thanks for the article!
Writing product reviews will become quite easy because of this tips you have discussed in here. I am also very curious on what should be the format of this review articles.
Thank u for the tutorial you’ve shared in this posting for it provides the useful info about writing product reviews and I will do this tutorial in my blogs! Thank u and GBU always!
I agree that product review must always be done with integrity. All the works and words will just be air biscuit if they are too shallow and obviously done due to financial consideration.
In my line, internet marketing, honesty and integrity often go right out the window. Maybe most people don’t notice it, but I promise you SOMEONE will notice if you are hawking something you haven’t even tried.
Just a couple of weeks ago I’d “beta tested” a WordPress plugin. It was skeletal, and violated Amazon terms of service. The creator launched it anyway, but within 2 days the sale was shut down for fraud.
Over the course of the next TWO WEEKS I received affilaite emails for the product in my box. This showed me two things : A shocking number of marketers don’t bother to try what they sell and 2: They don’t even bother to RESEARCH it.
I was very disappointed- there were a couple of marketers I’d had a LOT of respect for.. now I must take them with a grain of salt. Big BooBoo!
Though my starting funds are limited, I don’t promote or review things I haven’t tried. having seen the effect first hand.. I wouldn’t want to risk my butt. Or my business.
The list are great but I agree in one comment that integrity is more greater for a blogger than any other things.
I used to work for a company who do product review. Everyone thought that its easy to write product review but the truth is it isn’t. You have a lot of things to consider. Thanks for sharing this guidelines.
Frank @ solar power for the home
Writing an honest product review can be really tricky, especially if you don’t have many positive things to say about the product. I always tried to ‘soften the blow’, because I don’t like writing entirely negative reviews, but that means that I wasn’t completely honest. How do you negotiate something like this?
Nile, Thanks for the clarification on product review. I heard that there are a lot of opportunities in doing so. I have a friend of did this for almost 3 years and he said there are mines in it. This really interests me. Once again, great info and great style. -Cris
As someone who is really swayed by product reviews, thank you for highlighting the importance of a thorough process.
Thanks for sharing such a valuable tips with us and valuable post please do keep posting.
There’s nothing worse than reading a blatantly fake review! I tend to want to read reviews about everything I buy on the Internet before I buy it to make sure it’s worth the hassle and it really puts me off buying a product if I think the review is a fake.
Thank you for this great tutorial.. Not just this but also the other WP tutorials that you have here in your site! This site is really helping me a lot in my blogging career!
Honesty is more important to me than make money. I also believe that when you are honast about jour products or services it will come back to you. If you tell people about a product, tell them all, as much as you know about. It will always work out right!
I guess honesty in your reviews is very important, just as writing relevant posts to your blog. But the main key is to stay close at you self…. in live and also in your blogs.
For writing product review, I hope it is necessary to understand the nature and features of a product that helps in writing the relevant information with the creative ideas.
thanks for the info,i’ve always wanted to earn money by writing reviews, but unfortunately my traffic doesn’t allow me still, so i’ll save this info for next time.
Diaper Genie
I feel lucky that i find your article. Thank you for sharing a guide to writing product reviews. It’s mean a lot to a new blogger like me 🙂 please keep updated posting
Have a great day…
Thanks for pointing it out. It is a very big lesson to me, because I am very easy to convince by simple product reviews, most especially when it is reviewed through video. I easily believed on the product itself without trying the said product.
I agree that merchandise evaluation ought to constantly be completed through reliability.Thank you for pointing out the valuable lesson here on your article.
yes i totally agree with you writing blog is not at all. being a blogger i know how much it takes to write a good blog.
Definitely writing a product review is not an easy task. It requires excellency and consistency because you are going to give a reputation to something. By the way everyone has different perspective for the review but profit remains unique.
When writing reviews honesty matters a lot. Fake testimonials or reviews involves risks since the users will ultimately get to know the truth. By being honest the blogger wins the trust of the readers so its important to write about products they’ve used, products they highly recommend.
bu writing Product Reviews you can also earn by using affiliate links.
Greate article Nile on how to write a review for your selected niche product 🙂