The power of product reviews
One of the most powerful ways to drive traffic to a blog is to write a product review. This is done frequently by technology based blog’s however it can be used by any type of blog. A music blog could review the latest guitar pedal, a parenting blog could review the latest baby toys, a sports blog could review the latest DVD and just about any blog could do a review about a book which covers their topic.
Why are product reviews so good at driving traffic?
The reason for this is simple :
- A lot of people want to research a product before they purchase it.
- Others may not be sure which product to buy so need to compare different products to see which one they prefer
I look at product reviews on a regular basis. When I bought my new phone 2 weeks ago I spent a week or so looking at reviews and changed my opinion on which one I wanted after 2 reviews told me the battery life was awful on the N95 (I went for the Nokia 8800SE). Before I got my new laptop delivered on Saturday I had spent about 3-4 weeks looking at my options.
One thing that continues to surprise me about product reviews is that there is so few of them. When I look into buying something I rarely find more than 3 or 4 good reviews. This is why I believe product reviews to be such a good source of traffic, there are a lot of people looking for reviews on products that just aren’t being reviewed.
I encourage you all to give this a try.
- Look into products related to your blog and see which products have few reviews or have not been reviewed at all.
- Review the product and include plenty of pictures in the article.
- Promote your review
How do you promote your review?
Your review will get a lot of traffic in the mid to long term through the search engines however If you want to strike while the iron is hot you should promote your review directly.
Here is what I suggest you do (and best of all it’s free!) :
- Search for every reference of your product on the web (Tech based product references will be easier to find because most discussions will refer to the product by the model number).
- Find blogs and forum discussions which mention the product and leave a message/comment telling everyone where they can find your review.Make sure you are polite in your comment and make sure you adhere to the rules of the blog/forum where you post.
- Contact websites who have review similar products and bring your review to their attention. You’ll be surprised how much fellow reviewers will link to your reviews. When I have reviewed procuts in the past for websites I have always included a few links at the end of the article to other reviews so that the reader can see another persons opinion on the subject.
The above technique is very common amongst tech blogs, I frequently see a message in the comment area of a review displaying the url of another related review. Most blog owner’s don’t mind you doing this, particuarly if you contribute to the discussion (ie. you don’t just post your url and then leave!).
Product reviews can be timeconsuming but they bring in a lot of traffic and can really take your blog to the next level. 
Good Luck,
Kevin
cmanlong | July 17th, 2007 at 8:32 am #
I have found this to be true for websites as well. I did a review of a program called Hits4Pay and I get google traffic from it every day.
Ram | July 17th, 2007 at 10:11 am #
Rightly said john. I have reviewed some products in my blogspot blog and it has got me good results even without any promotion. And once we rank well for a product review, then a you said, we’ll be getting a good number of visitors.
Ram | July 17th, 2007 at 10:13 am #
Oh I mean Rightly said kevin. I just responded to your post on Google ranking John terribly. As I used the name John there 3-4 times, I used it mistakenly here also. Sorry Kevin.
eve | July 17th, 2007 at 10:43 am #
great tips! I am adding you to my feedreader! Thanks!
Erik Karey | July 17th, 2007 at 10:52 am #
Very true and product reviews can be a good way to build passive income on your blog.
BeachBum | July 17th, 2007 at 11:00 am #
Since we can only do product reviews of products we own this will be a limited supply of content.
When I got a new car stereo for my car with MP3 and Aux input I wrote a review. Then back to my normal content the following day.
BeachBum
Kevin | July 17th, 2007 at 11:21 am #
BeachBum - If you do product reviews frequently you will find that most companies will send you products for free in exchange for a review. Ive had hundreds of dollars of products sent to me in exchange for a review in my forums.
If you are blogging about a certain subject then you would be more inclined to buy related products anyways
The Old Vic | July 17th, 2007 at 12:16 pm #
Thanks for the tip Kevin - very useful for beginners like myself - how about book reviews would those be as useful ? A book would be a lot cheaper than most other stuff to buy - any thoughts ?
Celebrienne | July 17th, 2007 at 12:26 pm #
Kevin, never heard of the product review platform Ciao? I used to be active there a few years ago and found it to be quite useful.
Here’s their product review page for the Nokia N95 for example:
http://www.ciao.co.uk/Reviews/Nokia_N95__6575063
You might want to check it out next time you buy something big.
Kevin | July 17th, 2007 at 12:35 pm #
The Old Vic - Book reviews are applicable to almost every blog topic (I mentioned this in my post). If you have read a book related to your blog topic then I’d encourage you to post about it
Sly | July 17th, 2007 at 3:44 pm #
I agree. Buying a review is one step to exposing a product other than just buying text ads. Exposing it to hundreds (even thousands) of people from a blog post is better than exposing it to one person with one text link.
GoddessCarlie | July 17th, 2007 at 8:18 pm #
A big part of my site is reviews. I love reading and writing reviews so that’s why I’ve done this. I am waiting for the day my blog gets popular enough so that I can have free stuff sent to me for reviews!
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