Hi, I’m a newbie writer. I have just started my blog where I review books, sites and other stuff. And there are a few questions that are bugging me and can’t find an answer to it. To get attention to your article you have to have an attention grabbing headline, but do you need it to for a review. Another thing is…should I add a personal tough to it (how I feel about it, what I have learned, experience…) or should I stay professional and just tells what it is about? How would you do it to write a review? Can you plz give me some tips and/or guide me to write an good review?
If you only tell what it's about, it's not a "review." So I'd suggest adding that personal touch - it will also give your blog it's voice. If you don't know how to write reviews, why are you starting a review blog? If I were you, I'd start by reading reviews similar in goals to your blog. For example, if you're just doing it for fun and not to make money, look at user-generated reviews (like at Amazon) to see how people do it when they're not looking to get anything out of it. If you're looking to make affiliate sales through your reviews, look at blogs doing the same thing who seem to do very well. In the latter case especially I've found that no matter how much you love or hate something, it should never be a one-sided review. People don't generally trust them as much. For example, if you liked a website and wanted to write a good review, do it, but also include suggestions on how it could be even better.
jhmattern gave you great advice. i'd only add the following... -- when we read movie, car, software and book reviews, we want to know if it's a thumbs up or down -- and why. this is exactly what "professional" reviewers do; they give the public their honest but informed/expert opinion. we want you, the reviewer, to please tell us whether we should spend our time/money or not. -- conversely, i suppose there are sites that just go for a "here's what's new in books" angle and feature anything on Amazon or wherever. blogs like this may simply summarize what the book is about without giving an opinion. but you can believe that people who're considering purchasing that book will look elsewhere for an opinion, whether you give them one or not. -- on whether you should go for attention-grabbing headlines or not... i'd say absolutely. you're competing with EVERYthing else on the Internet, so if your headline is dull, people won't click to your site too much. -- however, we all have to balance those attention-grabbing headlines with SEO savvy. people searching Google for a review of the book War & Peace won't ever find your blog if you get too creative and neglect to put the title War & Peace in your headline. best of luck and give us your link once you get it all set up!
Put the first thing first. People who will read a particular review should always be in your focus.Mind it !you are not writing for yourself. You may have any specified objective (sales, affiliates, or other) but if people do not find information of any use it is shear waste of energy.For rest of all aspects follow what Jenn says.
Here's a review I wrote on my travel blog http://www.travelsnippetsandmore.com/2008/06/book-review-1000-places-to-see-before.html I tried to tell something about the book AND make it personal Maybe it will give you some ideas
Tnx for all the reply it really have open up my mind. My site is: kcreview.wordpress.com I have put up a few post, plz feel free to critize my work in any way. @Jenn: This is actuale the first blog i've ever created and this is to get me started in the blogging world. So, i'm not really to confident about all of this. And the primairy thing is not making money, but to get experience from it.
Live links is http://kcreview.wordpress.com Beyond writing, I will start by fixing the layout and/or find an appealing theme to catch my visitors' eye. Many people don't bother to read anything if they see a poorly designed website because it damages your credibility.
Definitely learn what a review is and isn't. Even a half-ass review talks what (specifically) in the book or on the site and gives personal opinion about it. In other words, if you haven't used the site or read the book, you're not writing a review--it's just content crap. Also, if the site is to be reviews, you need to build credibility. Why do we care as readers? One way to build credibility is to have very thorough reviews. One way to damage it is to basically rewrite a description of the book/site/etc and add 1-2 little items. Another way to hurt credibility to "review" everything under the sun. Take a look at magazines for a second. How many "we talk about everything" magazines do you see? They all focus on a specific issue (getting as specific as they can). You won't see "Guns, Weddings, Coywriting and Mac Monthly" on the shelf anytime soon. And if it does come out, it will die a fast death. BTW, this applies for all Web sites, not just review sites. People prefer sites based around their exact interests and extend instant credibility "points" to those sites.
I'm new to marketing,but by no means i'm new to writing.So this is what i have to tell you: 1.Write about something you like and you will surely get ideas,just go with the flow. 2.The way you write is very important maybe more important than WHAT you write so you must add your personal touch. Hope that helps.
Many people here hit the nail. You need a personal touch to it. I once reviewed an software, and I also added that it had some problems while installing it and so on, the conversion rates were terrific ! I mean, you can only do a very good review if you have only used this software, car, cell phone etc. If you haven't used it, then it's gonna be a heard time for you.
This is one of the most important aspects to a review website... You MUST have tried the product first, otherwise you aren't going to give a review that is worth your reader's time. If you give a good review on a product you haven't tried, and it turns out the product is terrible, you are going to lose prospects that could be loyal customers down the road...