Tips to Run a Good Review Site
Of course, there are lots of review sites out there covering just about every niche, and so to make yours a success, you need your content to be good. You need to also come across as a trustworthy source who does not give insincere reviews, even when a brand has requested you to review their product in return for payment or rewards. Here are some tips for writing good reviews and running a good review site. Remember also to check out well-regarded review sites like toprateten.com to get some inspiration.
Always Be Honest
The first rule is to always tell the truth. Spammy, promotional copy that masquerades as a review is not really of interest to anyone, and even if you are doing a review for something you have been given for free or paid to endorse, it actually hurts the reputation of the brand you are working with if you lie or come across as salesy, rather than as a genuine consumer. The first point here is to never review something you haven’t actually used. It may sound strange that anybody would do that, but some less reliable review site owners write reviews for expensive products they don’t actually own just to promote them and try and earn money through affiliate schemes. If you want to talk about or promote a product you haven’t used, there are ways of doing this. For example, comparing the specs of different tech products, or giving a preview of a product that you would perhaps like to own but don’t. You can, therefore, talk honestly about things you don’t have the first-hand experience of while retaining your integrity. Just don’t say you have used or tested something you haven’t or elaborate on things you don’t know about for sure. As an example, you can talk about a new smartphone and say you love its design and think its camera features are a big asset, but you shouldn’t say that you found the photo editing software it has easy to use. Secondly, feel free to mention negatives, even if you actually want people to buy the product. Most products have the odd drawback, and unless you genuinely are super enthusiastic about the product you are reviewing, pretending it is perfect will just come over as insincere.
Consider How You Can Test the Products
When people look for reviews, they often want to know things they can’t find out just by looking at the product themselves in a shop. Tell your users what the product is like to live with, and also think about ways you could test it to give your readers a better idea of how well it meets the claims the manufacturers made about it. Some things, like tech gadgets, are quite easy to design tests for, whereas for others, you may have to get creative. Perhaps you could design a test to see how well the new lipstick you bought lasts through a meal and a kiss, or a test to see how long a new toy keeps your kids occupied. Whether you are scientific or quirky with the way you put products through their paces, it all makes for an interesting read for your visitors and can help your reviews stand out.
Make Comparisons
Often, when people are trying to make a consumer decision, it is between a few fairly similar products. If you can, putting products head to head or comparing a range of products can be a really useful way of providing the information your readers need. In this case, you may want to compare a number of inexpensive products, for instance, different brands of soup, or compare a new product to an old one that you already have. If you want to compare more expensive products, obviously you aren’t going to be able to buy them all just for your test, so see where you can borrow things from friends or get trial use from the manufacturers. You can also compare things purely on their features and specs without doing any testing, as long as (as discussed) you don’t lie about having used all of the products you talk about on your review site.
Pictures and Video
To add more weight to your reviews, take some unique pictures or screenshots, or even make videos of you using the items. This will show your readers that you really have tested the things you review, and will also support what you say better than official product pictures. As with any blog, be careful not to infringe copyright when using any images. Some reviewers actually find a lot of success by doing full video reviews rather than written ones. This can be good for certain things like beauty products where the visual effects of the item are important, and you don’t need to include a lot of technical specs and other hard data. As you can see, there is a bit more to writing a good review and publishing it on a good review site than just talking about whether or not you like something, and while that is a big part of it, the more you can really back up your opinions with tests and pictures, the more your readers will trust you and keep coming back for more.
