Here's a common scenario...
You pick a niche.
Good supply. Good demand.
Too bad it's one you know nothing about!
Oh well - you are going to roll with it anyway.
You set up your site.
Do a little research. Write a few articles.
SEO and backlinks.
Rinse and repeat.
The money starts to roll in.
Do this right, and eventually you will come to a point where you not only are making a healthy income, but you are also regarded as an "expert" by the audience in your particular niche. As the expert, they are going to want - no, demand - your opinions. Unbiased, honest opinions.
Sure, you have faked it up to this point. However, now that you have engaged (that's right, all you eBay affiliates - I said ENGAGED) your visitors, they are going to want more from you. They are going to want the truth.
Is item A better than item B? What do you think about the competition's version? Am I going to be happy with this item? C'mon, you're the expert, you should know.
Write a Product Review
It's a little harder to B.S. your way through a product review, but it can be done.
Faking (ummm - I mean writing) a product review is really not all that hard. You just have to put a little more effort into it than your typical article.
First, take a look around at all the venues where someone may leave an opinion about that particular widget. Amazon. Yahoo Answers. Epinions. Message boards and forums. The corporate website for the item. I could go on, but hopefully you get the idea.
Take notes. What do people like about the product? What problems do they have with it? Hopefully, you will start to see some recurring elements. These recurring elements are where you will need to focus your review.
At this point, you probably would have enough information to write a credible review. So, that's the end of my post here, right? Nope. You need to take it one step further, but this extra step will make all the difference...
E-mail the company that makes the item you are reviewing, or telephone their support desk. Introduce yourself as a customer potentially interested in their product(s). Have a list of questions ready:
- What can you tell me about this item? How does it compare to the competition?
- I have heard others complaint of a specific design defect. Have you corrected it? If not yet, then when, or why not?
- What kind of guarantee do you offer?
- What's your most popular model of this item?
These are just a few ideas of questions you can ask. Put yourself in the shoes of your audience, and approach it from that perspective. Do the homework for them.
Armed with the answers to these questions, now write your product review. Answer every possible question your audience could have in mind. Why? If you don't, then they will simply look elsewhere. Another site is only a mouse click away, after all.
However, if you provide them with the answers, they can end their search with you, once and for all. With any luck, their search will end with a purchase, or conversion, or whatever...
As you can see, it takes just a little more time to go that extra step, but once you do, once you stop settling for average and move on to higher grounds, it pays off, and in more ways than one!
Keep Your Eye Out For More...
Want to learn more about how to engage your audience. Preselling and overdelivering are essential, and will be discussed here in the coming weeks and months. Make sure you bookmark this site or subscribe to my feed, so you don't miss out!
