I love reading reviews, case studies, and success stories. I love to see how people are utilizing products they need, what they think of them and how they use it for success.
The Internet is a great place for anyone to get information on just about anything. Students use the Internet to get information that they need to do their schoolwork. Hobbyists go online to find patterns and compare notes with others who share in their craft. And smart shoppers go online to research products before buying.
Product reviews are highly sought after online. Whether a shopper is looking for information to use in buying offline or wants to make a purchase online, a product review can tell her what she needs to know. Sites that exclusively feature product reviews get lots and lots of traffic. But can product reviews benefit an online marketer?
Reviews of Your Products
Having other people review your product can be scary. What if they don’t like it? Won’t that doom you to a future of no sales ever again? That’s highly unlikely, and if they do like it, you could experience a huge boost in sales.
There is certainly no shortage of negative product reviews online. But by being proactive, we can have some measure of control over how our products are portrayed.
There’s always a chance that the reviewer will be unimpressed once she uses the product. But that good impression we made will usually lead to at least a neutral review. And we can use any constructive criticism received to improve our products, making them better for the next review.
Reviewing Products on Your Site
If you run a blog or informational website, product reviews make for great content. They tend to attract lots of traffic, and that traffic can lead to profits. One such review, (which is slowly turning into a book) that’s keeping me very busy is my Blog Mastermind Review.
In order to get the most out of product reviews, it’s important to stick with it. This will ensure that the traffic that comes to your site is targeted. Once they’re there, you could make money by presenting other affiliate products that are likely to be of interest to them.
If you can become an affiliate for the product you’re reviewing, that’s great. But be sure to give an honest opinion even if you do stand to gain from a sale. This will help you gain the trust of your audience, and trust is essential in getting sales, even if they are through affiliate links.
I get books sent to me on a regular basis now (no more buying from Amazon) too and love reading them, the only problem is having to review too much and I want to create in-depth reviews of everything I do. So that somewhat sucks.
Whether someone else is reviewing your product or vice versa, product reviews are great for marketing. They provide useful information to the reader, bring targeted traffic to the website, and give the product and business exposure.
It’s a winning situation for everyone involved.
Good post Vera. I like your advice about being honest in your review. I read reviews, “especially” from people I respect. If I feel you’re being less than honest, I’m not likely to return. There’s just too much other good honest content out there. Don’t risk it for the buck.
Nice points.
Product reviews are indeed one of the best ways to animate visitors to visit your site often. Usually everyone search for reviews on products, before they buy them.
Even better tactic would be to allow visitors to leave their own reviews about the product.
Ed – Same here, if I’m looking to purchase something I’ll always go to someone I know first that I trust to see what they think of it. I agree, there’s lots of honest content out there, great to focus on that.
Jessica – People love reviews, I know I do. It helps me with my purchasing decisions. At the same time having others leaving reviews is a great idea, let me know if you know of a good program for that, it would work well on my other site.
Reviews really help alot. They are the breeding ground for your products and if that review creates a buzz with positive effect on your product, it might help you gain more customers.
I agree that product review is very important, consumers often often look at possible reviews before purchasing an item
Product Reviews play a vital roole in marketing. When I plan to buy something I always collect information about the product from people who have already tried it. The same applies for online products as well, and this is where well-written product reviews come into play!
To be very true, Products reviews are very vital and important in new era of internet. These reviews urge people to purchase entirely new product or can refrain them to purchase renown products. We have a lot of electronic products and we can’t sell them without reviews so we give them even free of cost just for reviews. No doubt, that is backbone of all internet business.
hi Vera,
Nice post. I agree that getting ones product (which could be a website or blog as well) reviewed can be scary because one might get a negative review, but I look at it this way. If your product or service isn’t any good, the sooner you realize it and move on, the better. Thus, get product reviews. If they’re good reviews, it will help ones business. If they’re consistently bad, it’s a message that one should pay attention to. 😉
~ Steve, Pinnacle Trade Show Displays
PS. congrats on now getting free books from Amazon, if I understand what you said. That rocks.
this is great! promote honesty, is a difficult thing, especially if the lean on the final result of sales.