The Internet is filled with product reviews. Everybody is always looking for them to help guide their consumer decisions. Writing a review, therefore is very important. You must first understand that a review is not a sales pitch. If the product is very clearly glorified, if it is full of links, or if it doesn't really talk about how to use the product, you will generally have come across a dishonest review. Therefore, you must avoid this type of language if you are writing one yourself.

Why Write Reviews at All

A good review is more than just about creating an affiliate sale. It is certainly a good tool for that, but if the focus is on the sale, then the opinion expressed for the product won't be interesting. Hence, to write a review, you must be completely honest. People do not look for a review to encourage them to buy. Rather, they want to learn about the advantages and disadvantages, whether the product suits their needs, whether it is easy to use, whether it is of high quality, what another option would be, how other people feel about it, and whether they should buy the product. This is what you need to cover in your review.

Ask for the Product

Firstly, never write a review on a product that you have never actually used yourself. If you haven't, then your review will very obviously be an affiliate sales pitch. Feel free to ask for a free copy of the product as the owner will be more than likely to provide if you are reviewing it. If this is not possible, remember that your affiliate link will give you a significant discount (up to 90%), so you might want to simply invest in the product. Finally, if you aren't an affiliate, consider signing up.

Be Honest

You must be completely honest in your review. Certainly, not all products are good products. If you recommend a product that you know is not of good quality, you are potentially hurting other people. Don't try to omit negative information either, no matter how much you might want to do this. If you are honest and tell the world that you don't like a product, people will be far more likely to trust your other reviews as well. On the other hand, if you are not honest and people find out, they will no longer be interested in your other information either. Honesty is absolutely the best policy.

Craft Your Content

You now have to start looking at the actual content of your review. First of all, focus on the features and what group of people it is targeted at. List its main and greatest benefit and then highlight some practical details.

If you want to, you can now list some of the alternatives that are available. This is something you can decide to leave out, but if you are an affiliate with different producers, then this is a great tool to show your honesty without pushing people away. Do make sure, however, that listing alternatives is relevant.

You should then go into the pros and cons of the product itself. It is generally very easy to find the advantages, but finding disadvantages is much harder. Now, no product is perfect and your goal, once again, is to be honest about that. Make sure that your cons are actually real. There is a tendency to name disadvantages such as long download times for digital products. These don't count as they don't actually refer to the product itself. What you should look for is a disadvantage that makes actual usage harder.

You should then list what other people have said. Take a look at various sites such as eBay and Amazon, and you will see that reviews are numerous. This is because it is a known fact that people want to be able to read a lot of opinions before making their final decision. Only include what other people said if you are able to find any and if you have permission to use them. You should include positive and negative opinions, again in the spirit of honesty.

Finally, you should tell your audience what your final opinion is. Provide them with a summary of your experiences with the product and whether you would therefore recommend the product or not. Speak your mind about the product if that is how you feel, but do make sure that your overall opinion is in line with the information you have provided throughout the review.

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Mark Walker

Founder at Awcode

Mark Walker is a web developer, system administrator and entrepreneur, born in England but calling Thailand home for over a decade.

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