How to Write Effective Product Review Posts on Your Blog

A lot of what you will be doing if you have gone down the road of being an affiliate with a website is writing product reviews. That’s why in this article we’re going to be be talking about how to write effective product review posts on your blog.

A review post can be a tedious thing to write and if you have to do them regularly, well, that’s going to be part of the challenge of running your online business.

But if you know the product well, it is possible to enjoy sharing the details, facts and your opinion etc. on it. Once the information is there in your head and in your notes, you’ll be able to write away without much hassle.

So let’s take a little dive here and talk about how to write those review posts efficiently and in a way that is best calculated to maximise your conversions.

Table of Contents

Buyer Intent and Combining Review Posts with Informational Posts

The big reason why you want to write product review posts is because of buyer intent. From a business perspective, you want to have content out there for people who are already looking to buy something.

If you are simply giving information and dropping links in here and there, you are still a lot less likely to make sales than if you are doing product reviews.

People looking for information aren’t necessarily ready to whip out their credit card and buy something just because it’s suddenly suggested within a blog post on something related to what they’re reading. But occasionally, this can work for you, but most likely not on the regular.

Now, a legitimate blog will need some informational posts in order to help you rank. More rather than fewer is also recommended. These informational posts can be linked to from your review posts and vis versa.

Google rewards blogs with good information which aren’t always trying to sell something. So you do want to provide plenty of free, VALUABLE information.

This is ultimately going to lead to you getting better visibility for the review posts.

Often, people will look online for the product that interests them, but before they buy it they want to know details. Does it really work? How has it helped others and what do they say about it? What exactly are all the features. What will I really be getting for my money and so on.

When they come across a well written review post, they may go through all the information and then see a link which they can click on to go ahead and make the purchase.

Or they may be persuaded by the reviewer that what they are thinking of buying isn’t worth it and there is a better option.

Either way, as a reviewer, you can always promote something. Even if your reader is being told not to trust a certain product, he/she is likely still there with buyer intent and so you can offer an alternative product which you believe will better suit their need and give them their money’s worth.

Build Trust Before you Start Reviewing

You want to capture your reader’s attention and gain their trust ASAP. If you can achieve this, they are far more likely to turn into a paying customer.

A professional site helps with this. Make sure there is one or two clear pictures of you on the site. I have seen some pretty cool and large sites which lack any picture of the owner!

So you want to be transparent to your visitors and not come across as being ‘in the shade’ or just someone with a name and information but no photo.

You can start the first part of your review by telling them what they are going to get from your review. Such as the correct details, your experience with it and/or the extensive research you’ve done on it.

Then on the next paragraph you can say something small about yourself and highlight anything that helps build you up as someone who has authority in their niche and someone who is ethical and trustworthy.

Starting the Review Itself

Once that’s out of the way, you’ll want to get straight into the review.

Start with a brief summary or overview and rating of the product you are reviewing. Then say whether or not you recommend it and why that’s the case. Next, you can leave the first link to the product if you are promoting it or link to another product or product review.

There are people who say it’s not good to go writing reviews on products you haven’t actually purchased and tested. And that’s definitely a fair point.

However, it’s not always possible for an affiliate to buy every single product just to review it, even though most stuff can be refunded. So what can you do about that?

Well, if you are familiar enough with your niche you should be able to give your readers a short disclaimer that while you haven’t used the particular product you are reviewing, you nevertheless have accurate information from careful research and experience with similar, if not better products than one you are reviewing.

Reviewing a low quality DFY system that’s supposed to help people make money? Well maybe you’ve learned a more legit way to go about an online business and you can say that you are familiar with how that DFY system works because you have tried the same kind of thing for yourself and you know how it works and what the problems are.

Plus, with a lot of products you can also reference Trustpilot. However, if a product or service does have good reviews on Trustpilot, that doesn’t always mean it’s worth buying. There are good reviews for a scam dating site called dating.com for example.

And I recently reviewed Worldprofit. It’s not bad and does have a good number of positive reviews, but they have a focus on making money fast and using sketchy traffic packages that usually don’t deliver, much like solo ads, neither of which I’m a fan of because I think they are usually just very expensive and more or less ineffective.

Once you have given the reader an overview, they can take action right there and then or keep reading. But sometimes you’ll be able to achieve your objective before they read the rest of the review. Perhaps you persuaded them right off the bat to go for something better, or to purchase the product you are currently reviewing.

Following a Similar Structure for all your Reviews

Consistency and following a regular structure or blueprint can facilitate the writing of your review posts and gives your site an well ordered and organised look to it.

So for example, you could follow a structure like this for your reviews:

Brief intro: tell people what you’ll be providing/going through in the post and connect with your audience.
Product Overview: here is where you give the basic details like the product name, the owner(s), the type of program/what it’s for, cost, rating and whether you recommend it.
Redirect: after some comments which you can leave just under the product overview, you can redirect them either to another offer, another product review or leave an affiliate link to the one you are reviewing.
Main body and conclusion of review: you can break this down in to some standard headings that you always use, such as ‘what is it?’ ‘How does it work?’ ‘Who are the creators?’ ‘Who is it for?’ ‘Cost (and Upsells)’ ‘Can it help with…’ ‘Is it a scam/does it really work?’ Pros and Cons (or ‘what I like, what I dislike.)’ ‘Concluding thoughts (and better alternative)’ if applicable.

You will be making it easier for yourself if you can follow a set pattern like this and your site will look good.

If your site is confusing and untidy, you could run into a lot of issues. Search engines will also get confused and so will your visitors.

You need to keep your content relevant to each keyword/blog post title. And if you are ever tempted to go off on a tangent, consider using a link to another piece of content, especially if it’s your content because internal linking within a site is always a good thing to do.

Use Affiliate Links – and a Disclosure

Throughout the main body of your review, don’t be afraid to use affiliate links! You don’t want to be missing out on opportunities for your readers to purchase through you. After all, you are the one providing them with the information they are looking for; you are putting in the work so it’s only fiar.

Of course, you won’t want to overdo it either, but there should be a link somewhere near the top of your article, such as after the brief overview, somewhere in the middle, perhaps a few and one at the end.

Or you can send them to a review of the thing you want them to buy which can be more effective than an affiliate link. But generally, you will want affiliate links within review posts. Remember, the reader is usually there with buyer intent.

You are focusing on providing value by means of accurate information, and you are building trust. All you need to go with that now is your affiliate links. Money is made when you do a good job with your content. But if your affiliate link is only at the very bottom of your article, you’ll lose many potential customers. They may like your content, but they may not go right to the end and see your link.

Disclaimers – Where do you need to place them?

You will need a disclaimer page on your website in a visible place. But you’re also supposed to have a disclosure within your articles.

To avoid any issues, you’ll probably want to get a plugin which allows you to leave an affiliate disclosure at the top of every page of your blog. The one I use is called Affylite.

With Amazon it gets even more tricky. You need to put a disclaimer just before or after any Amazon affiliate link. So in that case, the plugin idea might not be the best.

Be Genuine and Encourage Feedback

You want to be able to just be yourself and say what you really think. If you do this, it will come across within your content.

If you approve of or recommend a product of service, give clear reasons and back yourself up as much as possible.

And if you do not recommend it, be clear about that as well and always try to SHOW people what you mean rather than TELL them stuff.

And that’s what people like. That’s what we all want. No one wants something that’s vague, false, exaggerated or just all about selling a product.

You want to really communicate to your audience, not ‘write’ for them as if you are doing an English essay.

You also don’t need to have some elaborate way or style of writing. A blogger communicates well if they write like how they talk.

They way to talk in a friendly, casual email to someone should be about right. Of course you don’t want to write quite like how to do to Facebook or WhatsApp friends with all these abbreviations and emojis!!

But you can still come across as if you are talking rather than writing something dense and serious or complicated.

You’ll also want to avoid using big lumps of text and that would apply to any type of content you’re writing, not just review posts.

Finally, it’s always a good idea to ask your audience what they think and whether your article has helped them with their search for accurate information.

I hope this has given you some ideas going forward. Wishing you the best!