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How to create a product review website for affiliate marketing
With 86% of people trusting online reviews like personal recommendations, it is reasonable to create a review website of your own. If you don’t know where to start from, this post will provide you with the basic guidelines on the concept of product review affiliate marketing.
What is a review website
A product review website is a web resource that contains reviews of products, businesses and service providers as well as their rating and customers’ feedback.
There are multiple types of review websites: from general platforms like TripAdvisor to niche-specific blogs, such as PickMyShaver, for instance. Some review websites collect customer feedback and allow users to rate the quality of the service they’ve used, as is the case of TripAdvisor. Alternatively, there are platforms whose creators independently evaluate products and services, conduct research and publish their opinions, just like Wirecutter does.
Benefits of creating a review website
Just imagine, 86% of potential customers take a look at product reviews before doing the shopping. Depending on the available information, they decide to buy or leave the desired item. Therefore, by making a review website, you’ll be likely to drive significant traffic.
Let’s see what revenue streams you can leverage to monetize such a platform.
- Affiliate marketing. Naturally, when writing reviews, you’ll be referring to brands and service providers. Why not monetize this opportunity? Just add affiliate links to brand mentions and get paid for each sale made by customers who were directed to the advertiser by your link.
- Ads. Where there’s traffic, there are advertisers. You can place banners, host sponsored articles or any other kind of promotional material.
- Subscriptions. It is applicable to both readers and businesses. The former can subscribe to access exclusive content with detailed reviews, just like with a membership website, while the latter can purchase a subscription to control their page on your blog.
Moreover, once you have a decent clientele, you can ask famous brands for review copies of their recent products. Most of them will be glad to cooperate with you and even promote your web content. This is a smart promotion without spending a cent!
How to build a review website
Regardless of the products you want to promote and the target audience to focus on, there are some standard steps to building a review website.
Pick a niche
As many review websites relate to a specific industry, you will need to focus on a particular category of products or services. While making a choice, think of your personal interests or popular trends in society. It will be easier to start if you already know the product, target audience, etc. To make sure your choice is potentially profitable, check affiliate programs in the niche.
Research the market
When seeking ideas for your affiliate review website, remember to analyze the niche and check how many competitors have already established their authority.
Naturally, the less reviewed your topic is, the greater your potential success. The popularity of the niche makes it difficult to rank a web resource on the search engine. Thus, it does make sense to go for a less competitive sector.
Alternatively, you can compile a list of competitors’ weaknesses and make your review platform more efficient in this regard.
Purchase a domain name
Every website starts with a domain name. You can buy one on dedicated domain registrars and marketplaces: Bluehost offers free domain names for the first year if buying their hosting solutions, while GoDaddy provides brandable options at extra cost.
To make the website successful, try to choose a short and catchy domain name that your future readers will find easy to memorize. If you’re confused about which name to pick, it might help to do keyword research in order to identify the most wanted words in the search engines.
Select hosting and a blogging platform
Aside from a domain, you also need to find a proper host for running your future website. Bluehost remains one of the most popular options in the web-hosting community, mainly due to affordable cost and good customer support.
Then, it’s time to choose a blogging platform. For instance, many online resources are powered by WordPress, demonstrating high loading speeds, progressive security policies and reliability. Thanks to WordPress features, there is full freedom to establish whatever web resource you want: blogs, business websites, e-commerce websites, Q&A websites, online communities and niche affiliate resources.
Choose a theme
Once you have WordPress installed, choose an eye-catching theme. You will most likely want something complementing your blog content and niche specifics. Also, it should provide easy reading and clear visuals since your reviews might contain both a written text and a photo.
To find a solution, consider checking a few compilations of the best review website WordPress themes.
Install a plugin
A plugin is a piece of software that can be added to a website in order to enhance its functionality. For instance, WP-Review happens to be a great WordPress survey plugin enabling a better layout for reviews. Each product review won’t have to be posted separately, as options from previous reviews can be imported into new content. And, these are only some of the benefits you will notice.
Optimize your website
It is very important to optimize your product review website to be able to rank higher on search engines.
- Start with keywords. Find the trendy ones in your niche with the help of such programs like SEM Rush or SpyFu and add them to your blog posts, titles, photo descriptions, etc.
- Write meta-descriptions for your pages that will appear with the title on search engines.
- Leave links from one post to another inside your blog to make it easier for users to get familiar with your blog.
How to write a review
Your task is to appeal to readers by demonstrating how the reviewed product can solve their problems. A well-developed and detailed review should convince them to buy a particular product, bringing you a financial reward.
At the same time, stay objective in your description. The average customer is smart enough to see the difference between honest and sugar-coated feedback.
Whatever the target audience and the product is you focus on, there are basic steps to writing a quality product review for money regardless of the niche:
- Identify your target audience and a range of problems they might face.
- Focus on offering a solution.
- Highlight benefits, but stay objective at the same time.
- Use social proof by collecting positive opinions on the reviewed product.
- Provide alternative options to give customers a choice.
- Add a summary box to specify the major characteristics of the product (pluses and minuses, price range, etc.).
Examples of great review websites
Before you make a review website of your own, check affiliate marketing reviews available on the internet. These examples won’t just show how to create this type of content, but will also provide you with plenty of inspiration.
Which
Which? is a well-known consumer review company that creates informative product overviews. The website features an independent group of experts that test different categories of goods and services and then report the final results. With their help, any consumer can check the products for legitimacy, quality and price. The authors mainly use lab tests and investigations, plus customer surveys. This web resource demonstrates high performance as new reviews appear on a daily basis.
For travel products, you can find reviews on suitcases, sun creams and outdoor clothing to name a few categories. Also, you can check reviews on hotels and various kinds of transportation.
While some reviews are free, you can get unlimited access to the platform’s content for £9.75 per month, and the first month only costs £1.
WireCutter
WireCutter is a review website with an extensive range of products from electric appliances to gardening tools. All the products are tested by a team of experts who share their conclusions with customers. Mostly, these are mass consumption goods.
WireCutter features lists of the best products for each category, for example, “The best bath towel” or “The best travel backpack.” Thus, readers will be able to compare various options and choose the one that suits them best. In the travel niche, the website offers reviews on backpacks, bags, gear and luggage.
Digital Photography School
Digital Photography School is a good example of a niche-oriented web resource aiming to help photographers find inspiration. The blog provides a free learning environment for aspiring photographers and also features reviews on niche equipment such as cameras, lenses and so on, so it is not entirely a review website. All the reviews on the website are longreads, with numerous photos and a detailed description of each product feature.
There is a large community of over two million readers and a Facebook group with over 120,000 followers.
eReaderTech
eReaderTech is another example of a niche-specific website, providing daily news and reviews on tech and gadgets, such as Kindle books, accessories, dictionaries and other related tools. There are various types of articles: a brief comparison of different appliances of the same product category, lists of best products, a detailed review of a product with a description of its capabilities as well as pros and cons.
PickMyShaver
PickMyShaver is, clearly, a website presenting reviews on a wide range of shavers, including such well-known brands as Remington, Braun, Philips and Panasonic. For each product, there is a description of the benefits and possible disadvantages and the author’s personal verdict on the product. Also, there are links to Amazon where you can make a purchase right away. Readers can rate each review and leave a comment.
How to build a site for affiliate marketing reviews
Now it’s up to you to make a review website and encourage readers to try the products you recommend. First, choose a relevant niche and build a website. Then, start adding reviews on products from your niche.
Remember to be objective and focus on bringing value to your readers rather than just promoting goods. And, don’t forget to optimize your website along the way to improve its discoverability for search engines and the reading experience for users.
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