Guide to Writing Informative and Conversion-Driving Reviews

If writing is your bread and butter, you’ll likely have had the chance to write reviews. The need might come from personal experiences, such as sharing your feedback on a product or provider.
However, if you’re running a blog, one of the article types you post might involve reviews or comparisons. You might publish them for informational, promotional, or entertainment purposes. Yet, a review or comparison that hooks readers in should combine all three goals.
Let’s learn how to write reviews that provide honest opinions, drive conversions, and are amusing to read.

Why write reviews?

Engaging and educational reviews have an audience of millions. For example, I can no longer buy anything without checking reviews on different sites. It’s a rule that stuck, but finding convenient, fair, and easily scannable resources can take time. Sometimes, it’s the doubt whether the writer genuinely enjoys and recommends a product, or whether they produce sponsored content.
As writers, we can combine the objectives of educating and entertaining our audiences while also making money. Here’s how:

• You can earn money by submitting reviews to different sites that pay writers for their contributions. For example, book lovers can explore Kirkus Media or Publishers Weekly to start producing reviews for them. If you enjoy a particular website, check whether they pay for contributions (including reviews).
• Many freelancing opportunities involve clients asking for reviews of their products.
• Even if you focus on fair and ethical reviews, you should accept affiliate marketing or sponsorship options. The key is partnering with brands and companies that you can genuinely promote. Furthermore, more brands might agree with uncurated feedback, meaning sponsored doesn’t mean producing overly optimistic pieces.
• If you’re running a personal blog, keywords involving product or service reviews frequently have high potential. So, you could produce reviews to attract viewers and, in turn, make more money from ads integrated into your website.
• You can get paid to write reviews without having a platform. Reward services give you different assignments, such as writing reviews, answering surveys, or testing products. The latter also likely involves providing reviews based on your experience.

Writing reviews that resonate and influence

Here’s how any writer can excel at writing reviews and comparisons that make your readers happy campers. In most cases, it’s about addressing and fulfilling these points:

• Provide accurate descriptions and research the product or service (preferably testing it yourself).
• Be clear about your recommendations and avoid vague statements. For example, suggest one product as a budget-friendly option, but prepare readers for what it might lack.
• Formatting reviews takes some clever consideration since you want to please those craving detailed descriptions and those who simply want a clear-cut answer to whether they should buy something. Summaries of each product and overall comparisons work well here.

Also, consider which type of review you want to focus on (or all of them for different articles):

• Reviews focusing on a single product.
• Comparing different products (and using the versus format).
• Overview reviews discuss the best options for a particular goal (like the top 10 most silent keyboards).
• Rating alternatives to a specific product.
• More general buyer guides, such as what they should pay attention to when looking for suitable products.

• Should you be an expert?

First of all, many reviews might require you to prove your credibility—in other words, show that you have the necessary background to offer a professional opinion. That can involve highly technical products, and it requires knowing the jargon and understanding the effect different components have.
For example, my review of computers might be less sufficient if I can’t tell the difference between the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4080 and the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050.
Of course, not all reviews require extensive knowledge in a particular field. Sometimes, it’s about your experience with the product that can be relevant to the general public. Lastly, reading multiple resources or checking specific facts with ChatGPT can also be enough.

1. Be open about partnerships or sponsored posts

If your blog or article includes affiliate links or is sponsored, leave a note about it for your readers. For example, I visited an article from PCMag, which has the following disclaimer:

1. Include pros and cons

All products have good and less satisfactory parts; thus, try to include a fair estimation of their services. A table is also an easily scannable formatting choice for your articles, as readers can immediately notice it. If needed, some table-styling guides cover many of the basics to get them ready for publication.

1. Add visuals when possible

Sometimes, your review is based on your personal experience, which can include different screenshots or photos. To add credibility to your review, provide this visual element. Even before testing a product, consider what helpful pictures you could add.

1. Talk to readers and address common problems

A product or a service likely solves a particular problem, and you should know how to address readers’ concerns and pain points better:

• Read forums or online communities with people raising questions about products in your niche.
• Use different SEO tools to determine what people search for about specific products. Even the search query suggestions can indicate people’s most popular questions about products. Let’s see the most popular phrases related to Apple AirPods, which you should address if writing their review:

• On Reddit or Discord, you might find questions regarding the best products for a particular use. Take these as inspiration for your content.

• Compare with alternatives

Readers need some context when picking products; commonly, this comes from comparing a product with its competitors. So, review how a certain item matches with its competitors and why choosing it is a good idea or not.

Write reviews that you would find useful

In general, you should be your harshest critic when producing reviews. Consider the points you look for when reading comparisons, and attempt to fulfill them to the best of your ability. Additionally, don’t write without testing products yourself; if you don’t have that option, you can focus on reporting on opinions from other users. Lastly, there’s no reason why your reviews cannot make you money (even via affiliate links or sponsored posts). Since more and more brands value transparency, they might be genuinely interested in hearing your honest feedback.

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