Reviewing Products Without Buying Them, Plus the Criteria I Use for Deciding What to Review
I've just been watching Jay's training webinar about product reviews, and it's nice to hear him confirm that it's fine to review products without buying them. This is especially true of products that are on Amazon because there are often loads of customer reviews on there already that you can use.
If you buy every product that you review, that's likely to mean one of two things:
- You're not going to write many product reviews, OR:
- You're going to get in to debt pretty quickly.
Maybe one day, when you are Mr/Mrs Bigshot in your niche, you will have enough inflluence to get manufacturers to send you free products to review. But until then, suck it up and bash out a bunch of reviews based on the VAST amount of information already out there on many great products.
The Criteria I Use When Deciding What to Review
- Is there a low competition "Product Name Review" keyword with monthly searches?
- Are there plenty of customer reviews on Amazon?
- Is there a good video review on YouTube?
- Is this a product that I am genuinely interested in?
That last one may seem like a strange one to consider. Surely if the product is in your niche you will be interested in it, right? Not necessarily. Recently I wrote a multi-product review of the best USB audio interfaces. Related to my niche (creating electronic music), yes, by I found it excrutiatingly dull to write. I would much rather write about a really cool synthesizer that can make amazing sounds, or some music software that can do some fun things with sounds.
Still, maybe we have to write some reviews like that, so that we cover all related products. But I want to mainly write about things that get me excited and enthusiastic.
Recent Comments
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Good idea, some products I have bought, some read reviews from various places and some I have tried out, if you buy any that counts as a business expense
You don't have to be Mr/Mrs Bigshot to get stuff for free.
Now, I'm not an accountant and I can certainly not give you Tax advice, but if you have a business you can write off business related expenses, whether your business is profitable or not. The more money my website makes the more expenses I plan to have.
I personally write off everything I can possibly think of and I can think of a lot, including products I use or purchased for review and my yearly WA membership. Save your receipts and be creative.
It's all to do with timely cash flow. In Australia we can only claim business related expenses once per year, in July. So the expense of purchasing everything you review could end up being a cash flow issue.
Christine.
In the US we can file quarterly. However, you don't want to overdo it with purchasing stuff you don't need just to write it off. But, if you were going to buy it anyway, and if it can be written off as a business expense you should.
Yes, but here in the UK, you file your tax returns once a year. A beginner could run out of money within that year if they were to buy every product. The products in my niche are typically about $200. Even if I was to only write one product review a week, that would be $10,400.
That's fine once you're up and running and have that kind of spare cash flow.
Yes, I think that's a good point, Phil. If I was going to buy something anyway, then I definitely should write it off.
Yes, purchase the one you would like to own, use reviews of other products by others. Buy the best for yourself and write a first-hand review on that. If that product has an affiliate program (other than just Amazon) then you may want to promote it with more than just one review.
Did you buy it in 2015? Do you have a receipt? Would you like to write it off?
I use everything on my website.
I guess you're doing a lot of product reviews then that might be fine. I review themes and I've bought all mine (I did a deal and got a very low price) because I feel it's the only way to do a thorough review - but that's me!
You're right on with this. I did have one company that had sent me 5 products to write reviews. Keep hoping and waiting for some more.
Hi, Marcus! My niche is photography and travel. At first I wanted to go the high road and only review products that I have had first hand experience with. Even though these will make up the core of my reviews, unfortunately they payback on expensive lenses would take years, and I can not afford that at this point. So I really appreciate it to know that other people also think this is OK. It will take more convincing to do on the content/writing side, but this is life :-)
I think it's totally legitimate to serve as a site that gathers together information from other sources, then you can give you own spin on it too. As long as the words are yours and you don't actually copy and paste chunks of text, it's all good.
Hi Marcus, your criteria are exactly what I do at my side. One remark, customers reviews may be from earlier times when the product was far more popular. It is possible sometimes to check Google trends for specific items.
I do agree with what you say. However, my niche is internet marketing "whistles and bells" plugins, courses, and software and everything that I endorse I have bought and can also attest to. On the other hand, I have bought many products that I have not liked, returned them, and got my money back (Viva papal) Having a review section on my site is forthcoming and I will be able to write first hand and honest reviews base on my own experience. I know the internet is vast but I would like to carve out a small piece of that honest review niche.
Hi Marcus, thank you for this post, which I find interesting because I tend to want to buy everything I comment on so far because they are awesome! Doing so will bankrupt me and goes against the principles of my niche.
I like your suggestions which are quite practical and realistic.
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The one addition I would make for reviewing physical goods is to go to the nearest store that has the item and check them out. I have two golf sites and I badger sales folks at golf shops and big box stores to get insights. I have also gone to a golf convention recently to further expand my knowledge and touch, feel and explore even more goods.
Yes, that's a good additional option. Thank you.