Product reviews are a staple of websites that are monetized with affiliate links.
And it's natural to want to give everything a good review — after all, you want people to buy it.
But too many perfect reviews could actually make your audience less likely to convert.
Think about it — how many products, or movies, or anything else, has nothing but perfect 5-star reviews?
At least in theory, five star reviews should be reserved for the best of the best.
Surprisingly, people will still buy something with a four-star review, or even a three-star review.
It can also work to your advantage if you have one or two bad reviews on your site. Every critic has given something a bad review. If you give out nothing but 5-star reviews and glowing praise, it doesn't feel as natural.
In a recent post, Niche Hacks explains further how 5-star reviews can actually have a negative effect on affiliate sales.
The 5 Star Mistake Most Niche Marketers Make
When you sit down to write your review you feel drawn to give the product a five star rating. Why?
Because you want to make money and you feel that anything less than five stars is going to turn customers away. It’s a natural and understandable thought process.
But this is also dangerous territory.
If you rate everything five stars – especially products you haven’t used – your site is going to look a lot less trustworthy.
Not every product in your niche can be that good, can it?
And as eConsultancy found, bad reviews can increase your conversions by up to 67%. Which makes perfect sense when you think about it.
The problems of one product can be the feature or benefit someone else is looking for.
For example Benny Lewis is a language learning blogger who often reviews products and tools.
In this review he gave Rosetta Stone, one of the best known products in this niche, a two star review.
Because for his method of language learning it’s completely incompatible.
He wants to get out on the streets, talk to people and learn the language in that style.
But someone who feels more comfortable sat at home and wants to a simple program to learn a language through their computer could read that review and go, “Man, that’s exactly the product I’m looking for!”.
In fact if you take a minute to go through your latest purchases on Amazon you’ll find products that you’ve bought despite the fact they had one and two star reviews.
One of my favourite books, A Walk In The Woods, is a masterpiece in travel writing for me. But there are those people out there who hate it:
But the reasons they hate it are probably the reasons I love it.
So don’t worry about writing three or four star reviews of products. When your reviews are:
- Honest
- Easy to read
- Informative
- Relatable
People will convert to the products no matter whether they’re five star, one star or anywhere in between.
To learn more about how to write awesome product reviews that convert, check out the full post over at Niche Hacks.
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