Consumer product comparison review sites can be found all over the web.  They tantalise the cash strapped writer with the easy prospect of earning an income through producing short reviews of products or services promising an easy way of earning some good money … and the truth is … you CAN make it happen!

Before you can join the, (please note: small), happy band who has managed to reap reasonable returns for their reviewing efforts you need to understand the nature of the game so …

What Are Consumer Comparison Reviews?

Simply put, they are websites which depend upon Joe Public to write honest opinion pieces or reviews of everything and anything!  We’re talking of that fridge you bought last month, the new camera your son got for his birthday, the painting holiday your mum went on.

Depending on how the individual site is set up, you receive a fixed sum of money, points or credits for each review you write.  When you reach a certain threshold, the points or credits are converted to cash and the money is paid into your bank account either directly or through Paypal.

One of the big attractions that make these sites so popular is the simplicity of the system, (anyone can join) and you don’t need great writing skills.

Too Good To Be True? 

Well yes it is!  The fact is the vast majority of writers who sign up to these consumer rating sites will never earn more than pennies.  Not only that, they will waste a great deal of writing time which could have been spent more profitably elsewhere. 

To know why this is, you need to understand how product comparison review sites work.  In the main, they generate their income from advertising and company surveys.  A portion of this income is passed on to you the writer and herein lies the rub.

How much you get usually depends upon any or all of the following:

·        How many views your review gets

·        If they pay a flat rate per review or read

·        Any share out of special fund for quality reviews or site activity

·        Other rewards or bonuses

Whatever the format, it is unlikely to be enough to buy you much more than a monthly tuck-in at the chippy!

Just a minute though, my leader paragraph said you could make some money through product reviews so what’s the secret?

The Big Secret to Successful Product Reviewing

WRITE ABOUT THE THINGS PEOPLE

WANT TO READ!!!!

If your review depends on the number of views to generate an income then what is the point in writing a review about hair ribbons for dogs if the only people interested in it are you and your aunty May’s poodle?

To be successful at any kind of reviewing you must write about popular topics that LOTS of people want to read.  The web is first and foremost an information hub.

PEOPLE MAINLY USE THE INTERNET TO

BROWSE AND FIND INFORMATION!

A successful reviewer will provide the information they are looking for and earn themselves a decent return on their efforts as a result.

How Do You Find What People Are Looking For?

There are several ways you can do this and a variety of tools available to do the job for you, some of which are free others need to be purchased. 

A very quick way is the Google keyword tool.  This is free and easy to use.   Let us say you have just purchased a Nikon D70 camera.

1.     Go to https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

2.     Type Nikon D70 in the search box

3.     You should get a whole list of variations on this search term.  According to results at time of writing, there were 135,000 searches during the preceding month for this camera.  More interestingly though, there were 3,600 searches specifically for a review.  Much better than just Aunty May and her poodle! 

It isn’t quite as simple as that though.  There are other factors you need to take into account, none of which are difficult, but outside the scope of this article.

If you like the idea of making some money from writing consumer comparison reviews then the subject is covered in much greater depth in

FEE-lance Writing, The Complete Guide To A Profitable Writing Business

This module not only includes detailed instructions on how to find popular items to write about, but includes reviews of some of the best consumer reviewing sites, how to get the most from them plus tips on how to write a good review.

LEARN MORE ABOUT

Consumer Comparison Reviews