How to Write a Great Product Review

Writing a product review is, by far, the best way to make affiliate sales and lots of them. You're helping your readers make decisions about what to spend their money on based on your experiences and thoughts.

It's really an important part of how successful you will be as an affiliate marketer.

Your words and promotions can't be salesy or pushy. Your job isn't to repeat what's in a sales letter either. The sales letter's job is to sell, your job is to reinforce and you do that by providing your reader with personal, friendly, candid information.

Let me give you an example. Last year I bought John Reese's Traffic Secrets 2 which I was super impressed with, however would just telling you that I bought it, loved it and recommend it, get you to buy it? Probably not. What you would appreciate more is the experience I had with it and how it actually benefited me.

A good product review should include the following 6 things, so let's discuss them:

- Use Photos/Graphics
- Include a product description
- Include a description of the buyer
- Demonstrate Proof of benefit
- Include Product Negatives
- Include a Call to Action

Use Photos/Graphics

People love graphics and pictures so I encourage using them as much as you can. They help draw readers in and break up long text. If you have a camera you can easily take your own pictures, I actually like them better than using graphics provided by the affiliate manager. You can certainly use the graphics provided but I like to add a personal element by using graphics that I have or pictures that I take.

Describe the Product

People look for reassurance that a product is going to meet their needs, they are also skeptical so it's important to go into detail about what the product does and includes.

Mention what led you to purchase the product. More often than not your reader is considering the product for the same reasons you have and this will help your reader relate better. 

If you received a physical product include things like the number of boxes, pages, CD's, whatever it is you received. You might also mention your order/delivery experience, how long did it take to arrive, etc. Follow that with a detailed description of how you used the product, how it benefited you, what your expectations were and if it met your expected results.

Describe the buyer

Describe the ideal buyer for the product. Who is the product for and likewise, who is it not for. Not every product fits everyone's needs, so you want to help your reader determine if the product is actually for them -- or not.

Here's an example, "If you need to find out how to set up and structure your Google Adwords account this course is for you. If you already have a Google account then this course is not likely to hep you."

Proof of Benefit

Show your readers how you used the product and how it specifically benefited you. Provide examples, show your work, as my teacher use to say ;-) Provide examples of how you did something before your purchase and demonstrate how the product made a difference after using it.

A few years ago I purchased Jason Potash's Article Announcer. The software has an article submitter but it did not submit articles automatically. The real meat of the product was to show you how to write and promote articles. So for anyone that simply needed an article submitter and already had knowledge on writing and promoting articles, this would not be a product for them.

Product Negatives

No product is perfect and if you make it sound as though it is you'll receive some skepticism. It's ok to highlight the problems as long as you build up the benefits. You don't want to diminish the quality of the product as a whole or diminished your overall satisfaction but you want to be candid about the things that you didn't like.

A good example was an ebook I just recently bought that has over 300 pages. The book was only available online and since it was over 300 pages long I would have appreciated it in hardcopy form, but it wasn't available in print. This was a negative for me but it didn't detract from the overall quality of the book, obviously I purchased it anyway and loved it.

Call to Action

Finally, use a clear "call to action". You've taken the time to build trust and a professional image so now it's time to tell your reader what you want them to do. No one wants to be left hanging. People appreciate a clear direction, this is especially important after you have given them some pretty good information and gotten their attention.

Whether you want them to sign up for your newsletter, click on a link or respond to a question, whatever it is, simply tell your visitor exactly what you want them to do.

A few final tips to remember...

When writing a product review think of your reader as someone you know. Write conversationally or as if you are speaking to a friend. Use a friendly, relaxed writing style. Keep it simple, to the point and in your own words.

Remember your product review is not a sales pitch, you're giving your reader advice on a product that you use and why you recommend it. Be candid, honest and clear about why you like it.

...and finally remember that it's not your job to sell the product, it's your job to create an open-to-buy mindset. This important step is what will encourage your reader to click on your link, once they click on the link it's the job of the product sales page to actually make the sale, but it's your pre-selling efforts that will ultimately influence your readers.