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Product Reviews 101

By Nicole Feliciano
Momtrends

Free stuff for sharing my opinion! Sign me up. That’s the way many mommy bloggers view product reviews. Not so fast. Before you sit down to blog about a new stroller or a trendy line of onesies think about the opportunity: A well-written and well-executed review can boost the traffic on your site and increase your credibility.

Whether you are writing your first review or post number 5000, it never hurts to take a step back and talk about the art of a great product review. The Three E’s--Experience, Educate, Edit—are the cornerstone of great blogging.

Experience: Testing is the most important phase of the process. A reviewer must have hands on experience. Don’t try to write a review on something you’ve read about or glimpsed at a friend's house. Readers want to know details.

For example, I recently did a review of a device designed to heat and puree baby food. I’d seen the device demonstrated at a few trade shows and knew the basic idea. But I certainly wasn’t qualified to write about the unit. When I got the sample, I set aside an evening for testing. I took copious notes on every phase of the process. How hard was it to assemble? Were all the parts included? Were the instructions clear? Only after I set the model up and tested a few recipes was I ready to sit down and write. And you know what? On close examination, I found the recipes vague and hard to follow. Without my testing, I wouldn’t have been able to share this knowledge with readers.

TIP: Keep a notepad and camera nearby when doing your reviews.

Educate: Be as clear as possible in your writing. Bullet points, lists and pros and cons are extremely helpful. Your readers are considering spending their hard-earned cash on the gadgets and gear you review. It is up to you to honestly educate them. When I write a review I always consider these three things:

1.) Pro: what are the pluses of this device, piece of clothing, toy etc? When I review new clothing lines like the one from Marie Chantal, I talk about the fabric, finish and styling. Her clothes have exquisite details and rich trims.
2.) Con: Identify the problems. A gorgeous velvet dress from Marie Chantal comes with a lofty price tags and a “dry clean only” label.
3.) Best for: Match the product up with the likely consumer. For Marie Chantal clothing, that would be a mom who isn’t on a budget and can afford to put style before practicality.

TIP: I like to use pictures whenever possible to give a visual reference for my reviews.

Edit: One of my biggest beefs with many blogging reviews is the rambling sentence structure. If you do a good job experiencing and educating, you can’t stop there. Our readers are busy moms; they need to get the information we can share fast. Sometimes they are reading during a baby’s nap or late at night, so make good use of each word. Read your post at least twice to see where you can trim sentences and better organize you thoughts.

If you keep the three E’s in mind for your next review, you’ll be doing you blog and your readers a big favor.

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Comment by Kim Steele on August 18, 2009 at 11:42pm: Great tips. Now if I could just figure out how review opportunities! Got any tips for that?

Comment by Pamela M. Kramer on August 3, 2009 at 4:07pm: I have found some review sites cut and pasted our own words from our store site. On the flip side I want a real opinion in your own words. :)

Comment by Jennifer Reed on July 7, 2009 at 5:49pm: Thank you for this information. I have been thinking of doing product review on my site. This is a good guideline to start with. Thanks.

Comment by anastassia on July 2, 2009 at 8:39pm: great tips I am new to blogging and am really looking forward to posting reviews. thanks again

Comment by Heather on June 30, 2009 at 1:55pm: Thank you for this. I think I do a lot of it, but it's nice to have more input where I can firm it up. I tend to write like I talk, and make people feel welcome. I have more tools in my box now to make it stronger!

Comment by Amy Seckinger on June 30, 2009 at 12:14pm: Love this article - I've been blessed to have my product, the Bath Luve, reviewed by several other mom bloggers & I've been impressed with most, especially with the ones who have obviously tried the product & have photos of it in use. I'm a momtreprenuer and need all the help I can get publicizing my invention. I'm always open to new product review requests!

Comment by Nikki @ Mommy Factor on June 29, 2009 at 9:28am: I'm now just getting into reviewing products so your tips came in very handy. Big thank you for pointing out how to keep reviews simple and easy to read. Like you said as moms our time is limited sometimes and we need to get to the into we want before the kids wake up!

Comment by Denise Mestanza-Taylor on June 28, 2009 at 2:40pm: Good tips! Thanks!

Comment by Kathleen on June 28, 2009 at 12:07pm: Thanks for all the great tips!

Comment by Kim Lloyd on June 26, 2009 at 8:08am: I think this article is great, thanks for sharing.

But a word of caution for all of you blogging product reviews. The FTC is really cracking down on people like Mommy Bloggers getting free items to "review" the product. You should disclose at the top of your review whether or not you received anything in exchange for writing the review. You should be in compliance at that point. The FTC doesn't want readers to be "duped" by a biased review because something behind the scenes was exchanged for writing the review. It sucks, but that's where we are at today.

In the next release of our website (brighthub.com), we have to add this functionality to allow writers to indicate whether or not anything was received in exchange for it. Sometimes they make it hard to make a living!

Comment by Debbie Marsden on June 26, 2009 at 1:57am: Thank you for the helpful info. I have made it practice to include video of the product being used. Photos as well.

Comment by Sue on June 25, 2009 at 8:56pm: These are great tips. Moms are busy. So, it is good to make it trimmed and to the point. Super.

Comment by Karen MEG on June 25, 2009 at 8:27pm: Great advice, thanks...

Comment by Joanie Standridge on June 25, 2009 at 7:45pm: Thanks for the advice.

Comment by Maopa Lutui on June 25, 2009 at 5:27pm: Thank you for posting this. I've recieved so many requests to review items that I've not tried or aren't sent to me..in exchange for money. So what do I do about those requests? I've ignored a couple of them, maybe because I was just confused about what they wanted.

Comment by Michaela on June 25, 2009 at 5:23pm: Great tips! Thank you

Comment by Momtrends on June 25, 2009 at 4:32pm: I'm so glad you all found this helpful. I am working on a four-part series for MBC all about getting the most out of reviews and the art of networking.

Comment by Christina Baita on June 25, 2009 at 4:06pm: Thanks for the post. I wanted to post about some GF brownies that I tried but I didn't have my camera. I found a post that one of my friends did earlier that morning and asked if I could use some of her blog and trackback to her. With her permission, I used my experiences and told about hers with links back to her blog.

Comment by Angie Knutson on June 25, 2009 at 3:47pm: Thanks for the tips!

Comment by Cecelia on June 25, 2009 at 2:34pm: Good tips. I didn't set out to have a review site but that's what Cool Baby Kid has become. And quick (no more than 2-3 paragraphs MAX) reviews with a cool pick at the end for easy reference is my signature so busy moms (like myself) have very little to sift through.) Love it.