If you are busy promoting products as an affiliate, you’re absolutely going to love this post!
I am going to spill all my secrets on how to write a product review that will make you sales.
Product reviews are the main source of all my affiliate sales, and not just on the day that I publish a new product review. The reviews get ranked in all of the major search engines and continue to make sales form many years to come!
The main goal of most people when they write a review is to share their own opinion with their readers about the product. But how can you differentiate writing a review that will only be seen by a handful of eyes, from ones that will attract thousands of readers every day—and in some cases will rans even better than the creators own product pages?
Here are some delicious consumer survey statistics to whet your appetite:
- 83% of buyers state that product reviews do influence their online purchasing behavior
- 70% of online shoppers actively look for product reviews before they buy
- More than half of all US online shoppers surveyed, read user reviews as a part of their product
research - Nearly 9 out of 10 US buyers read reviews at least “some of the time” before the are making a new purchase
We you ready to learn how to write a affiliate product review that actually puts your readers directly into the right buying state of mind? Great! Read on…
Before you write any review, you should keep in mind that it is the merchants job to sell the product(s). Your job as an affiliate/reviewer is to solely pre-sell the product. A good affiliate product review will guide the reader in their buying decision so that they are convinced that they buy the right product, and that they will feel good about doing it.
You might choose to frame your product review around the visitors needs or wants, or you will choose to frame it specifically around the affiliate product that you are reviewing. Either way, here is a description of all the 7 elements that you should always include in your affiliate product review.
Know your product like nobody else
The biggest difference between writing a product review that is just so-so, and writing one that kicks ass is demonstrating to the reader that you posses in-depth knowledge of the product. A product review that is created by someone who understands the product from the inside-out will organically attract a lot more attention than a review that is written by someone who is just stumbling around.
If you understand your affiliated product from the inside and out, always show off that knowledge. If you don’t, then you should learn it really quick! When people are searching on the Internet for a review of specific products, they are looking for specific details and coverage of the product. What they are not looking for is some short blurb with just a few “Four out of Five Stars!” icons tossed in. If they were looking for that, they would just check the standard ratings on some random retailer’s site instead.
No, when they are looking for a product review, they are looking for unbiased feedback from knowledgeable experts in that field.
The most popular (affiliate) product review sites for just any niche are created by people that took the time understand the product and every little detail about it. While short “I just opened up the box” kind of reviews have their own place, one has to realistically understand that place will never be at the top of search results.
Comprehensive Product Description
Describe the affiliate product in much detail: size, number of pages, all features, how does the ordering process work, delivery/package/download details, benefits, expected results, your own specific results.
People are very wary of scams, and of the actual value of a product that they heard about. Potential buyers want to know exactly what they will get if they purchase this product today.
Include your own thoughts and especially your personal experience about the product or the decision to order the product. This helps your reader to relate throughout the entire review, as they are now in the position that you were when you purchased that same product.
Writing From The Perspective Of Someone Who Is New To The Product
If you review products on a weekly base, you can easily make the mistake of thinking “my readers already know what I am writing about.” And while this may actually be true in most cases, you always have to step back and look at what your end-state target audience is.
In many cases, it is not only your regular readers, but also other everyday people that are searching the wild blue yonder trying to find valid information about that specific product. And in many of these cases, they know absolutely nothing about that product or its genre. If I stepped out and buy a new digital camcorder today, I would likely be starting from scratch to find out what is a normal feature, and what is a totally cool unique feature for camcorders.
In approaching about it from that angle, you should always introduce the functionality within the product as if the reader never knew it existed. The bonus with doing this is that you are not just explaining that part of functionality, but you are also teaching them something new. This is really critical in the process. People who find blogs/sites educational will almost always stick around for much more. If they do not learn anything new, or the site does not add value for them, they will simply wander elsewhere and not come back.
Providing Proof
There are two different types of proof that you can include in your product review. Valid proof that you really reviewed the entire product, and proof that the product really works as it is advertised.
People are initially pretty skeptical of product reviews and believe that all the product review sites are biased, and that reviews are based on affiliate payments or compensation. Your job as a reviewer is to prove to your reader that you purchased the product, and have provided an unbiased product review.
Proof can be achieved by showing photos (screenshots) or video, by describing and showing the product in more detail than can be found on the merchant’s website, mentioning any unadvertised bonuses, and by addressing the negative points of the product.
People these days are also skeptical of results, so you should always include proof on how the product works if it is possible. This can include screenshots, video material or details about your personal results with the product. As long as you have something to show!
Pointing Out The Negatives
In your reviews, you should be pointing out any negative points with the product itself, or with the ordering process. Doing this will make your review objective – and will dramatically increase the ‘believability’ of yourself and your product review. If you do not mention an obvious negative, it will increase the skepticism and will cost you conversions.
Never be afraid to tell you readers the negative points! They are probably already thinking and considering it, so this is your opportunity to address those thoughts and to help them make an informed decision about making the purchase.
When you are addressing the negatives, immediately follow that up with a good solution – or with the reason why the negative did not deter YOU from still making the purchase.
Implementing Call-to-Action
Never forget this crucial element! Your call-to-action tells your reader exactly what their next step should be, and it needs to be very specific directions. Some examples are:
- Click here for the ordering information
- Get Free Shipping through Amazon.com
- Click here to download Product-XYZ
- Click here to read more consumer reviews on Amazon.com
Take a look at the page where you will be sending your readers to from your product review, and frame your call-to-action in a way that will encourage them to click through – and let your readers know exactly what to expect when they do.
Wrapping up
Last but not least, with any affiliate product review it is very important to write a summary or wrap-up at the end of the page.
That is what readers will skim for. While I sometimes can write 60-80 pages of stuff on most of my in-depth reviews, I do understand that at the end of the day people just skim to the end of the post. Be sure that you outline the pro’s and con’s there.
Summaries will also help to conclude the longer reviews into concise opinions – after all, that is why the reader came to your site in the first place.
Bonus Tip:Â Search out forums with questions
As you have already read countless times on TheMillionairesLife, the easiest way to build up good support for your site is to actively invest in your niche’s community.
But “investing” does not necessarily mean that you partake in seagull-style forum link dropping. Investing means that you will look for questions on forums that you spend time in and answer the question there. Once you have fully answered the question there, then place a link to relevant off-site content if and only if it is relevant to the topic.
People will easily see through link-dropping, but by answering the question(s) fully and then mentioning that additional information is just a click away, you truly contribute to the niche community, instead of just bettering your own blog.
Do you write product reviews on your site? What tips can you add to this list?.
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