How To Write Good Product Reviews

There are many opportunities out there for writing product review pages and getting paid.

This simple article explores the need to believe in your product in order to make that sale.

There are a huge number of product reviews where the reviewer or copywriter doesn’t actually own the product nor have much real interest in it.

Their method is to create a catchy title, put a few pictures in, and tell the reader how great it was.

Sometimes this may be enough. If I am looking for something, and someone has a page on that particular product with an explanation of what it does and why it’s worth buying – that might do it for me.

If I am less sure about the purchase then I might want a comparison with other possible products.

If really undecided then a genuine owner’s experience would be helpful.

A page with a picture of the product just saying “buy this” will more than likely just turn me off. Certainly from buying from that particular page.

Simply scanning the Amazon catalogue and using Google keywords to determine likely hits to your product review is not good enough – unless you are a really convincing writer.

You need to have at least some interest in the subject matter.

Maybe it’s something you have owned, or might buy for yourself one day.

It would be great to have one, but they are currently out of your credit range.

Although not too expensive for the potential customer!

This product needs to genuinely stand above the others.

You need to want or cherish this item – in order that you can sell the thought, the idea, to other prospective purchasers.

If your belief is limited then your text will consist of the technical info from Amazon and maybe a customer review or two. But as a visitor to your page, I would like to know that you actually get the product – you are the one selling to me.

I don’t want second hand recycled views – I want to know what you think of it.

If you don’t believe in it – why should I?

If you own the product you are selling that’s a great start. You already know what it does, how it does it – this makes the review much easier. Plus you can add in personal information which connects much more to the prospective buyer.

Most important of all - you know why you bought it.

If your potential customer in turn buys your attitude and writing style then you are sailing along.

This guy is selling me this thing because it’s a good product. He owns it, he likes it.

Good message.

You see this all the time. Cooks for example. They don’t just heat some beans and place them on a bit of toast. Oh no.

The whole living deal is created, from the plate the beans are on, to the kitchen they are prepared in, the house beyond and the garden outside.

We buy their program, their products – because we want to be like them. Look, they even have nice friends who come round and compliment them on their beans.

So when they write a review about beans you just know that there’s a whole message about becoming more like them if you buy their product.

The type of review you write will depend on what you are selling and your intended market.

Take these two wrong examples...

Selling a drill.

The colors of this beatiful piece add an ambience to any workshop. Summer, but with a hint of autumn, the gentle whirr adds a background note to your day.



Selling scented candles.

Straight, tough and easy to light - these practical candles will get the job done.



Do you see what I did there?

Chose the wrong way to describe my product, the wrong aspect for the wrong reader. It may be that I should stick to either drill sales, or scented candles - but not try to mix them both.

Your review will depend on your product and your likely audience. If we take a 'neutral' item such as an iPhone, fairly equally owned between men and women - it is likely that the key points to flag up will be different for the sexes.

Touch and feel for women, hard stats for men. That's without trying to be too sexist of course. Now that's easy for a magazine reviewer, they are likely to know their target audience. Less so on the internet.

I am actually not a product reviewer.

That’s because I am not really consumer minded, and I don’t buy products. My wife does.

This makes it harder for me to sell because I am missing a number, if not all, of the points above.

However. I do own an item that is precious to me, it is still manufactured even though I have had it for many years and it is a good example (I think) of the benefits of belief and ownership of a product.

So let me try selling it to you.

A fabulous name, embossed on the whistle so you can feel the lettering - it brings memories of all those cartoons where the Road Runner and Wily Coyote did their thing.

The quality of the item is evident from the moment you view it and hold it.

It feels slightly heavier than it should – unlike the ever cheaper, ever flimsier products we are so used to.

It’s made of real metal!

Not plastic, this baby wont fall apart. Ever.

The pea. That’s the bit in the whistle that does whatever it does to make the sound. It’s made of wood.

Yup.

Real wood. I don’t know, and I don’t care how many trees they use – can’t be many I should think. Maybe one or two. It’s not plastic. It’s real.

Organic even.

The sound of this whistle is something to behold.

Loud doesn’t touch it.

Ear piercing, neighbour bothering – listen to this people – it’s the loudest noise in the hood.

Of course, its purpose is for emergencies up mountains – but who goes near a mountain?

I chose this whistle because I liked the look of it.

It looked like a whistle, like it would do the job.

And it does.

I have owned this item for many years, and it is still as perfectly functional and perfectly formed as ever.

When I die, they can bury that whistle with me.

Was that a bit over the top? Well, maybe but perhaps you get the idea.

Love the product and just maybe the sales will love you back.

Oh, and I wasn’t really trying to sell you a whistle. See, I’m rubbish at this.

Happy writing – Mark.

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