7 Step Guide to Write an Exquisite Product Review

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One of the easiest ways to make money from your blog is by writing great product reviews. When you write a review of the product, you have ample opportunities to make money.

Such as: Affiliate marketing, paid reviews to offer, and so on. The only thing which really matters here is how great and useful your reviews are.

It has become an embodiment of the modern and technically savvy customer to scrabble through reviews from people all over the internet before making purchases.

Purchases that come hard on the wallet need to be testified before splashing the cash on a useless vanity.

Reviews have been a boon for prospective customers to get a different perspective on the product and see if it really fits their needs and expectation.

While this is definitely a plus for the consumer, it is also a blessing in disguise for the writer.

Product reviews also make up a part of the vast abyss of writing forms. Delving into this different form of writing could open up new avenues in your writing career. While I haven’t vouched for writing reviews during the beginning of my writing journey, I sure did have my beginnings by writing reviews of software for a few bucks, and the product itself, can’t be a bad deal!

Be open to experimenting with different forms of writing and you never know where it might lead you to next! Writing product reviews is a noble deed in the understanding that those reviews will aide for someone to choose a good product and be satisfied.

Reviews on the internet are of all sorts of forms: Written in anger, apathy, haste, biased, and so forth.

But a good product review is the one that takes the right stance and holds firm to it by explicitly mentioning the reasons and logic behind achieving the stance.

Product reviews are all about personal experiences and the differences in the perspectives of humans are what that should make it more interesting, not biased. There is nothing wrong with taking a stance against a product that you truly don’t or do like, but justifying it with logic is what that is more desired from a writer.

The 7 Step Guide to write Exquisite Product Reviews

While writing a product review isn’t much of a great deal, writing the one which is persuasive and yet is tangible and holds a sense of balance makes a ‘Great’ product review.

Here are the 7 step guide for you to start writing unique and great product reviews to which the current consumers can relate to and the prospective consumers to look up to.

Step 1: Find the right outlet

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The significance of this task cannot be merely undermined. Although the product review offer came knocking my door initially due to my work online, it isn’t always the case. Finding the right outlet for writing product reviews sure does matter and this is from where your product writing will find its ground.

There are tons of product review websites online and you will need to do your part by finding the right outlet that perfectly fits your writing style.

There are personal blogs, professional review outlets, and other such outlets that cater to the needs of the consumer market. All the product review outlets have a unique trade-off point on which all the reviews are based upon.

Never submit your extravagantly biased product review to an outlet that doesn’t publish reviews that are outrightly biased, you will have bleak chances of getting published at such a place.

Step 2: Read the fine print

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Once you’ve found the outlet for publishing your product review, now is the time for some attention to details. If you are writing product reviews for outlets that clearly mention the specific details of the product to be reviewed, pay close attention to what they are expecting from the review.

In such cases, they usually mention the format and nature of the article that is to be submitted. If you are reviewing a few products on your personal blog or submitting them to an outlet that doesn’t specify anything explicitly, pay close attention to the fine print.

Products usually tend to have an official website and most of the time comes with an instruction manual or a guide, even for software. Make sure to thoroughly scan the entire website and the manual for making sure you perfectly understand how the thing works.

Never let your personal misunderstandings come in the way of delivering an erroneous product review. Get to know more about the product you are about to review.

Step 3: Get your hands dirty with the product

Get your hands dirty
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Now here comes the most important part, getting down to the nuts and bolts of the product (no pun intended!). Being pretentious doesn’t work here; never accept product reviews without actually using them. How ridiculous does it sound to read a product review from the one who hasn’t actually got his hands on!

Buy, rent, or ask for a product beforehand while writing a review and assign an ample amount of time to carefully scan the product and make you comfortable in using it.

In the process, make sure you take screenshots at different intervals (for software products) and decent photographs of the product while being accessed. The more you explore the product the better it will be in helping you find your stance on the product. Having clearly experienced its advantages and shortcomings, you will have a basic understanding of the product and what you’ll say about it later when coming to the writing part.

Step 4: Organize pros and cons with proper reasoning

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Did the vacuum cleaner perfectly imbibed the dog’s fur or did it come hard on the wooden floors? Having a proper and strong explanatory circumstance for you settling on a stance is the most necessary part worthy of mentioning on your end.

If you haven’t skimmed through the previous step, this part will come to you easily. Noting down the things that amused you and the ones that disappointed you would be far easy if you have worked your way on the product.

While examining the product make sure you note down your observations, how the product behaves under different circumstances in the form of a pros and cons table.

Having this would make the construction of the review easy, now that you know where it delivers and where it disappoints. Make sure you reach your conclusions with proper justification and make sure you mention them in the review.

Step 5: Write in your natural tone

Neil Gaiman Quotes
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The thing that really frustrates me the most is how sales-y the product reviews usually turn out to be. There’s a difference between a sales pitch and a product review, the sooner you realize it, the better your writing career!

There is nothing wrong with making a product review persuasive for the reader, but please don’t sugarcoat it to an extent that it ceases to be a product review.

There are hardly any products with no drawbacks (We are humans, remember?), and never be hard bent on making them so.

Apart from that, no fancy wordings and extraneous jargon will make the review look and feel written by someone of an authoritative figure and not of a writer who is just pretentious.

Write in active voice and let the words flow just in the way you would normally interact with someone personally seeking your advice on something.

Step 6: Don’t forget the other side of the story

Other side of the story
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Life and almost everything on the planet exists on the Yin-and-Yang principle. Everything comprises the entire positive and the negative aspects of it.

Never overlook the negative to a product in favor of all the great things it does, and vice-versa. Care to look at the other side of the story and be fearless in mentioning the same.

Instead of just babbling about how great the product works, look on the darker side of the story and address it with your personal experiences that unfolded the uneventful.

Showing a little understanding while presenting a horrendous experience or bad service could go a long way in establishing your authority as a writer.

Step 7: Experience and Authority matters here

Authority quotes by Dalai Lama
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Your experience in the field of work related to the product you are reviewing will add some credence to your opinion. You wouldn’t want to hear opinions from untrustworthy sources, do you?

The same goes with your readers. Try and establish authority within your niche and show your readers why your opinions will be of worth to their time.

As they say, every professional right now was once a beginner, you need to start off somewhere to try and build up authority on that.

Being a trustworthy source for product reviews is easier said than done, it demands serious efforts on your end.

Here are some of the reviews by Harsh Agrawal, which will give you an idea of writing product reviews on your blog:

How do you write product reviews for your readers?

Shout out your valuable thoughts and comments in this regard below.

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Authored By
A Shouter whose articles got mentions from the likes of The New York Times, Kissmetrics and AllTopStories. He writes articles, novels and poems; spends most of his time reading everything he could get his hands on. Srikanth is currently pursuing his Masters from The University of Illinois and holds a Bachelors in Electronics Engineering from the University of Mumbai. He is a programmer, a motivational writer and speaker.

5 thoughts on “7 Step Guide to Write an Exquisite Product Review”

  1. Jhony_Isaacs

    It’s really helpful content for me, I want to create some product review, but don’t know how to start and which topic more useful and necessary. But now reading this guide I acquire lot of things. Thank you.

  2. Ryan Biddulph

    Getting your hands dirty is the only way to go Srikanth. I read or use all I review because I couldn’t review products or services otherwise. Reviews are honest, clear and unbiased assessments of products you’ve used.

    Most reviews are positive but some negative ones pop up from time to time too.

    Your word is your bond. Be honest. Use a product or read an eBook before sharing your take because you’re relaying YOUR experience through reviews. Don’t review what you don’t know. Keep your online reputation entact.

    I’ve written few reviews in my day because I use few products. If I take time to review something it’ll be good, since I won’t share reviews otherwise. Why waste my audience’s time, right?

    Me and my fiancee Kelli check reviews before renting any spot on our world tour. No brainer time. Tap into other people’s experiences to make your own informed decision.

    Ryan

    1. Srikanth AN

      Thank you for your comment Ryan. Love the way you tackle reviews for your blog.

  3. James

    Writing a product review is the most daunting process that writers have to deal with. Thanks to you, you made everything easy for us. With a little help I think I can now create great product reviews.

    1. Srikanth AN

      Hello James,

      Very glad that you find this handy little guide useful for your product reviewing endeavours. Thanks for your comment.

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