5 Steps To A Successful Product Review Blog!

This post is provided by Clarissa Caouette.

A product review blog can be a great place to pursue your passions and get hands on experience with the kinds of products you love. There are dozens of product review sites out there. How do you get started in this lucrative field and make your product review blog successful? 

The first step, of course, it to start a website. You will need to choose a relevant and catchy domain name, find a web host and decide between shared and dedicated hosting, and design your website using a template or by hiring someone to design it for you.

Once you have your site set up, follow these five steps to build a successful product review blog.

Pick Your Niche

General product review sites are fine, but you will find it much easier to find an audience and build a following if you specialize. Even large review sites like CNET focus on software and computers. Consumer Reports may get away with generalization, but you probably would not reach that level at least when you are just starting out. 

Choose something that you are passionate about, but that there are enough new products released regularly that you can continue to blog about them for some time. Things like cell phones, Virtual Reality, apps, software, consumer electronics of all kinds, cars, and kitchen gadgets are all great examples.

Build An Audience

No one is going to give you or offer you discounted products to review unless you have an audience who is reading those reviews. This means you need to build an audience. How do you do that in the area of reviews? Here are some tips:

Write Reviews On Amazon And Other Sites: Review products like the ones you want to review on your blog on other sites and become a trusted reviewer. People who value your opinion will follow you.

Be Active On Social Media: Post your reviews on social media, and make it clear you are a reviewer. Companies will often come to you for reviews of products once they see what you do, and audiences will trust your opinions.

Do Not Forget Reddit And Tumblr: There are many product discussion forums on Tumblr and Reddit and being active there can get you a good reputation as a reviewer and someone whose opinion is unbiased and can be trusted. Facebook groups are another good place to get involved in a particular community. 

Hashtag It: Use the right hashtags to get your product reviews noticed when you share them. This will increase your following in various niche areas. 

The bigger following you have, the more successful your product review blog will be, especially if you have that audience before you even get started. 

Review The Things You Use

At first, it may take you a while to get companies to send you sample products to review, so review the ones you already use and intend to buy anyway. Be honest, but positive. No company wants a poor review, and if you are simply product bashing your blog probably would not go far. 

However, brands also like honest feedback about what they can improve and may even follow up with you if you have a great idea for a way their product could be better. 

Post these reviews on your blog and on other sites. Exposure will help with growth, and starting with what you have or need will provide a good foundation for reviews. 

Create Ad Revenue

One you have a certain amount of traffic, you can make good money from ad revenue. This usually means a couple of things. First, you must add code to your site that allows for native ads like Google and Amazon ads, along with others like Outbrain and more. These ads pay you whenever someone clicks on them. 

Affiliate links pay you whenever someone makes a purchase through them. These pay a higher percentage overall, but usually there are fewer conversions so less money overall than PPC ads. 

You can also sell ad space on your site to the manufacturers of the products you review or similar ones. Their products will be displayed where people who want to purchase them are browsing anyway. These can be a great way to make your blog successful. Just do not use too many and clutter your blog space. 

You can also look for a site sponsor. This is a brand that wants to be featured on your site regularly and in ads in various places on the site. A good site sponsor can provide consistent revenue for your site and increase traffic.

Add Sponsored Posts

Lastly, the brands and types of products you review will want to be seen on your site. One of the easiest ways to do this is for them to create blog posts that talk about their product, and then pay you to place them on your site. 

There is a word of caution here. You have built up trust with your readers, and you do not want them to feel like you sold out or are trying to sell them something deliberately. There are also legal obligations about revealing what posts on your site are sponsored, so be sure you are forthright about what you are doing. 

Still, sponsored posts can provide a steady stream of income to your product review site, making it both profitable and successful in helping people make the right choices about products they are investing in. 

A successful product review blog is not hard to create, but it will be work and take time before it becomes successful. Choose a niche, find an engaged audience, and then review away. Done properly, you will end up with a successful product review blog.