
You're an entrepreneur, and you're probably wondering how a rave review is relevant to you and your business. Think about how you purchase a new product for a moment… You may ask your friends, you may read a review or you can search for a review in the search engines.
The word “review” is a buying search term. When someone is looking for a review on a topic they're looking to buy. Not only do rave reviews get your website found by buyers, but they also make your site attractive to dream clients.
There's a secret though to making the most of your rave review content:
You write honest, caring reviews about the products and books that your target market love. Of course, there are financial aspects for you – your readers buy the product through your blog, earning you an affiliate commission. But this type of content isn't just about the payment; it's about the connection to the audience and helping them make the right decision for their business. It's about sharing your wisdom and understanding of their needs.
Your reviews are not sales pitches or promos, but in-depth guides to products that your reader wants to know about before they buy. It's not about choosing a product and then slapping up some screenshots, and your thoughts – you need to be remarkable to earn more from your reviews. Adding a little creativity to spice up your product reviews can go a long way in increasing your income from your blog.
Rave Video Reviews
Personally, I hate video reviews with a passion but two things spring to mind… They are hard to fake. People can spot a fake video review a mile off, and secondly… They take a little time to get right and people appreciate the effort.
For a rave video review, you need to take a little time to create a script and get your lighting right, and then rehearse what you are going to say. Next, get in front of the camera and tell your viewers about this exciting new product you've experienced or are trying out.
One great advantage of video reviews is that they add a personal touch and viewers can visibly see your enthusiasm. It's also a different way for your fans to consume your content, in two locations – your blog and YouTube. Some people would rather watch videos than reading, so you may get a better connection with your audience.
Video reviews are relatively easy to produce and social media sites offer wide-scale distribution. Remember to add your affiliate link into the video description and add the word review to the title. Remember people search for reviews
Rave Video Demonstrations
Even better than just telling people about the product, give them a look at what it can do. Demonstration videos are better than a simple “talking head” because a demo shows viewers the benefits they can get from using the product. Tutorials are very useful to your reader, showing them how to achieve a specific goal using a tool you are affiliated with converts very well.
You can use a tool like Snagit to record a simple “look over your shoulder” video and then upload it to YouTube. Snagit has a free 30-day trial so you can get a good few recordings under your belt before you have to pay anything. Remember you can also show your reader the product’s value by demonstrating other ways it can be used.
Interview the Product Creator
An easy and effective way to create reviews is to interview the creator of the product. This is often overlooked by entrepreneurs, but its something that magazines do all the time, and authors are used to doing. Ask them the questions your readers would want to know before buying their product. One nice thing about interviews is that you don't have to create the content yourself; you only need to come up with some key questions and let the creator do the talking. For the interviewee, it's free publicity, so it's a win-win.
Add Your Own Bonuses
Along with your product review, make your readers a valuable bonus offer. Tell them to send you a copy of the receipt and you'll give them a bonus. If you don't want that hassle, look to promoting a product through Thrivecart where adding bonuses is easy to do – all you have to do is market the product.
The bonus can be a digital product that's easy for you to produce or you can repurpose older yet still valuable content from your blog into something new. The best bonus is one that helps the buyer use the product, like a cheat sheet, resource guide, or better still a tutorial video.
Check out the Competition
Read reviews on other sites of the same or similar products to the ones you are promoting. Write your reviews so that they mention different aspects of the product and how they benefit your audience. Another way to make your reviews stand out is to give the reader more detailed information about the product than what your competitors discuss – you can tell a rave review from one that's in place for search traffic and so can your readers.
Honesty in Reviews
- Make your reviews open and honest – declare if you have a free or advance copy of the item
- Mention the weak points of the product as well as the features you like – add a wish list of how you would like the product to develop if you can't find any real faults.
- Give people a fair and balanced picture of the product’s real pros and cons to help them make an informed decision.
These 3 points will help you better establish trust with your readers, and your reviews will have a much more remarkable quality than those on other sites. Too many entrepreneurs are frightened to review honestly for fear of offending the product creator. If you want to attract dream clients then writing rave reviews is a fantastic way to reach your audience, but you have to get over the fear of offending. If you review from the heart, then if you don't you'll look like a company puppet and your readers will know that you have their very best interests at heart.
When you have the best product reviews, people will buy through your link first. This means you need to make sure your rave review posts are ones that focus on your reader and their needs beyond anything else.
Excellent points. I agree with you about videos, but I hadn’t considered the double bonus of having your content be doubly available, on your blog and on YouTube. Unless it’s a How To, I prefer to read blogs, but you’re right, there are those who strongly prefer videos.
Thanks Carolyn,
I was recently hacked on one of my other sites, and and I didn’t grouse to much about it because a lot of my video stuff was sitting nicely on You Tube waiting for me 🙂
Sarah,
Its great to see you around again. I love the post. There are very few people teaching how to actually write a good quality review of a product or service. Sure there are millions of examples around, but if your clever you can find those that are created way before a product was ever released. These are the people that I tend to avoid. The problem is that they are so good at writing them its really hard to outrank them. So one needs to watch products that are launching and see how the super affiliates are creating and promoting their reviews so that you model them.
Hi Clint, I wonder if those reviews were ever written by the site owner? It’s possible they were written by a copywriter on retainer to the “gurus”. Thanks for stopping by and leaving a thought provoking comment 🙂
Hi Sarah, I really appreciate all the advice you have offered on writing product reviews. I have only done some before but I have not tried to incorporate videos as a part of the review. Thanks for the great info!
Hi Shelley
Thanks for stopping by – good luck with your videos. Let us know how well they convert for you.
Hi Sarah
Glad you talked about “Honesty in Reviews” never easy but essential if your reviews are to be credible.
I like to add a little something about the product developer in my reviews.
How the developer reacts to your questions / problems is almost as important as the product.
I’ve dropped at least one affiliate because I didn’t like the developers attitude.
I’m enjoying the series – many thanks.
I guess it’s a given, but we also need to be consumers of the product ourselves. I’ve not always followed this guideline when promoting affiliate offers, but Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income refuses to promote anything he does not use himself. It’s the best way to get to know the product. For example, I would promote Vitamix any day, any time, to any person. Because I’ve used it every day for almost one year and I’m getting great nutrition. Hmmm, sounds like I need to write a review now!
Lol Steve, go write that review. I’ve recently started upping my vitamin quota so I’d read it and probably buy if you said they were good 🙂
Sarah,
always nice to read your detailed blog post and learn so much from them…
I agree 100% with you about videos, and I agree about making double use of your contents, on your blog and on YouTube.
The post can be very interesting but I noticed that many times I rather watch a video and not read the post.
Thanks so much again for doing such a great job to educate people like me and many others better then me.
nickc
I have been working on doing more book reviews for my website. One of the things that does make me sad is how my niche is so limited in the UK. As most of the publishers are in America, I have to mostly review eBooks. I get really excited when offered an actual printed book 🙂
I am hoping to broaden out and find more opportunities to review. Now if only I could review a camcorder lol 😉
Hi Sarah,
I am glad I found you. I have done only a couple product reviews so far. I have a few rules. I must use it or have used it and be happy with it. It must benefit my readers. I review affiliates of mine but also non-affiliates if again they help my readers. Nothing is fudged or faked. Oh I am very honest about the any products I talk about. If you do not want me to trash it just do not sell crap. I will only give my personal opinion and say what lead me to that conclusion. An example of that is on my site With a post about hostings. I know you are talking about paid reviews and mine so far have been unpaid but I still must follow my rules.
Oh, by the way Sara I will be reading your other 6 in this series as I like your style.
Thanks Lady,
Lance
Hey Lance, good to meet you.
Here in the UK we have the Advertising Standards Agency and they are like the FTC; they frown heavily on the promotion of products via review when the person doesn’t have the item. Like you I review only what I use or have sampled. I think it makes a better quality review.
Hope you like the other articles 🙂
I run a product review site, but never used any video demonstration. I saw in this post that this is a very important aspect of a good review, may be I should hire someone to do this for my reviews.
Hi Noor, I think you’ll find that video reviews are relatively easy to do yourself. You can record your screen using a tool such as Snagit. good luck with your reviews 🙂
I was happy to write a review of the 30 day blogging challenge. Best thing I could have done for my blog. So happy I completed it.
This is one tip I can use…though the book reviews don’t seem to be the most popular feature of my site.
Forgot this bit. Am writing the review to post.
This is something that has concerned me; I’m not in the habit of writing what I don’t know about. I think this blog challenge has taught me to focus on subjects that I really know and enjoy writing blogs about. There was an energy and pleasure writing the blogs and also, a wonderful freedom of being able to write from yourself and not having to write from a business or another person’s point of view. It was certainly easier writing through the blocks because I could search familiarity and research is easier when you like the subject matter.
Yep, totally agree!
Above all honesty is main key for me. If the product is no good you either have a choice of not writing about it, or if you do, don’t lie about your true perceptions on it!
myunsettlinglife.co.uk
Just sorting out a post to review a restaurant Sarah so this came in just right! Thank you. I so agree with the honesty. I liked our experience but have a comment to make about how
I found one of the dishes. Following your advice on commenting I feel confident that I can do it honestly but tactfully. Thanks again!
Actually, I’ve seen some probloggers that recommend not writing bad reviews – never write a review for a product you wouldn’t recommend positively. It would be interesting to get your opinion on that.
It depends on the product you’re reviewing and your readers. If you’re a parent blogger and you’re asked to review a product that’s dangerous, who are you serving if you don’t write that review? You’re serving the company, and not your audience.
Hello Sarah,
Thanks much for this opportunity. 30-day blogging challenge is one of the best things that have happened to me and my blog, it gave my blog new valid direction!
Great article on reviews! I have never done a video review before, and I am definitely willing to consider it at this point. I love that it takes honesty to yet another level. I also like demonstration reviews, I have seen tons of those.
Thanks again Sarah and have a blessed day!
I am Steve of Aligned Transformations.com and I have had bricks and mortar businesses for over 30 years.
I found the 30 Day Blogging Challenge run by Kevin and Sarah Arrow really great for a lot of reasons!
Although I have been doing what I do for a long time now, I have never considered turning it into a business.
Traffic
I started with no bits and traffic at all, with a new domain name (not great!) and a real desire to make it work.
30 days later after blogging and some great tips to make it work like a business, 214 visits! This is zero traction and zero paid leads and no other lead generation at all.
Clarity
For me a lot of this also was about ‘finding my feet’ with a subject that can be seen as a bit esoteric. My goal is to make this more mainstream, rather than ‘out there’ because I don’t see this as ‘out there’. For this, it was incredible! There were so many different angles i was writing about and the more posts I wrote, the more clarity came through. Gold dust!
The Future
I now have a much better idea of the direction I want to take things which is going to help enormously with creating great products people will actually buy!
In Conclusion
The 30 Day Blogging Challenge is an incredible way to drive real non-spammy traffic long term, creates huge clarity and is a short medium and long term strategy that will yield long term results for years to come.
I feel really grateful to Kevin and Sarah Arrow for hosting this incredible challenge and the kind support they offered me and everyone else in the group.
Reviews are another area for me to make happen.
I hadn’t thought of doing video reviews but due to many preferring to watch video vs reading I think it’s a win win!
I personally read and watch video reviews of products many times before I purchase a product. It definitely influences my decision to purchase and believe many others are doing the same.
Thanks for talking about reviews, Sarah. It’s in my future plans!