How To Write Paid Reviews Worth Reading
Filed in Blog Better (Blogging 401), Building Traffic (Blogging 201), Make Money Blogging, Writing reviews
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Whether you’ve just started a blog in the hope of making money, or have been blogging for a while and now want to do paid reviews, you’re going to encounter one indisputable fact: a lot of readers hate paid reviews. There’s a reason for that: most paid reviews are awful because they read like they are paid reviews.
I’ve been called by the folks at LinkWorth (a company for whom I regularly do sponsored blogging at my other sites) the Poster Child For Writing Great Paid Blog Posts, a distinction which I take not a small amount of pride in.
But the truth is, I don’t write paid reviews. I write blog entries which happen to make me money.
What’s the difference? My reviews haven’t led to any loss of traffic. They’re regularly commented upon by readers and are quite often linked by other bloggers even though they know I’m making money writing them. Also, they’re paying my bills every month.
So, what’s the secret? It all comes down to what you believe your purpose is when writing a paid entry.
When bloggers read the word “review” they often think it’s their task to list the pros and cons of a site or service, as if by doing so they’ll motivate their readers into are purchase they otherwise wouldn’t make. But when an advertiser is paying $15 for a blogger to use 3 links on a blog that gets all of 30 hits per day — and most of those are the blogger’s family and friends — it’s not for the potential sales.
Yes, they’d like some traffic from your review. Yes, it would be nice if someone purchased their product or service. But what they really want is exposure. It’s the bloggers job to help them get that. The more readers a blog attracts, the better for the blogger and the advertiser. Higher traffic doesn’t just mean exposure to more people. It also improves chances that the entry will come up high in search engine results.
How do you make that happen? Write a good blog entry that contains information to the advertiser’s product or service and write it in a way that people enjoy reading.
Sounds like a tall order, but it’s not. In fact, you can write better paid entries in four simple steps:
1. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. Yes, it’s important to be personal in your blog entries. That does not mean writing a paid review focusing solely on how a product might be helpful in your life. Think about the how the product could solve the problems or meet the needs of other people, too.
Maybe you’ve got a paid assignment to write about “cat hairball remedies”, but you don’t have a cat. You don’t even like cats because you find them aloof, unloving and haughty. But your Aunt Mabel adores her cats, so every time you visit her house you’re subjected to the dang things. All seventeen of them. Last time you were there, as a matter of fact, you found yourself wondering how Aunt Mabel manages care for all of them when she can’t even remember where she put her false teeth.
No doubt Aunt Mabel gets her fair share of cat vomit all over her place. Did you see any? No? Aunt Mabel must have some secret — perhaps she knows about amazing “cat hairball remedies” (insert your paid link there) — that keep her beige carpet beige instead of speckled with orange cat vomit stains.
Know what? You just gave a positive review. You’ve told people the product is “amazing” and that it can keep their cats’ tummies happy and their homes clean. You also did it without coming across as a huckster.
2. Include other relevant information. If the company’s terms of service allow it, as LinkWorth does, include links to pertinent news stories, articles on other blogs or even your own entries. That fulfills your responsibility to your readers by delivering them information while entertaining them.
Got a paid assignment to write about “bankruptcy attorneys”? Sure, you could visit the company’s website and write about where their lawyers went to school, what kind of cases they’ve handled, maybe how professional they seem. Chances are your readers won’t suddenly feel the need to hire that law firm and file for bankruptcy.
Why not write an entry relevant to the attorneys’ area of practice instead? Say, one that discusses how the mortgage meltdown is leading to changes in bankruptcy laws, which means skilled “bankruptcy attorneys” must keep pace with those changes.
See what you just did? You provided your readers value about a timely topic (the mortgage crisis). In this economy, that’s a hot search phrase, so you’ve also given the advertiser value with potential increased exposure. Meanwhile, you included a positive review by referring to them “skilled”, an adjective that will lead future readers to discover if that law firm stands out from its peers. Oh, and by the way, you did it without creating an entry that reads like some Marketing 101 assignment.
3. Choose paid assignments that match your blog’s topic. Some paid blogging companies will not allow you to include additional links. That definitely makes your task of entertaining readers more difficult unless you stick with the topics your readers already expect you to write about.
Is your blog about food and wine? You’ll find it rather easy writing a paid assignment for “non-stick cookware”, say in a posted recipe using carmelized onions in which you note that “non-stick cookware” means avoids the use unhealthy oils and fats.
But if yours is a food blog and you write a paid entry about “radial steel tires” your readers will know you just imposed on their time in pursuit of your income. Keep doing it and before long you’ll see your traffic die, and with it your opportunities to write well-paid blog entries.
4. When all else fails, write your entry first then insert the paid links. Sometimes assignments involve awkwardly worded links grammatically nonsensical keywords like “blue ducky suits Las Vegas”. How on earth do they expect you to do something with that?
Try writing an entry that somehow — however remotely — relates to those awkward keywords without including them in your rough draft. Maybe you could write about the way people tend to get a bit more inebriated in Sin City than in their hometown. Once the entry is done, you might see a way to easily insert the link… say, by pointing out that in your town “blue ducky suits Las Vegas”-style would look out of place. See, you just worked that awkward link in and chances are you wrote an entertaining entry in the process, too.
Like it or not, paid blogging is here to stay. There are just too many people — myself included — looking to earn a living online with their blogs. That doesn’t mean paid entries aren’t worth the time reading them. It doesn’t have to mean that sponsored blogging will destroy the blogosphere. Writing paid reviews worth reading keeps your readers informed and entertained while letting you, the blogger, earn money doing something you love.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Blog Better (Blogging 401), Building Traffic (Blogging 201), Make Money Blogging, Writing reviews. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Tagged in: blog entries | blog entry | blogger | bloggers | making money | search engine results | traffic
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Top Commenters
I tend to try to figure out how it can relate with my site and draw from personal experience– but the fun place for me to do these opps is on my fiction blog (http://fiction.minthegap.com). There I can have the fictional characters doing the plug and I don’t have to try too hard to come up with a good situation.
MInTheGap’s last blog post..For Subscribers - 01-08-2008
Personal experience is always a good place to start since everyone’s an expert on their own life.
Oh, Kate. This is all so good and well done.
How about a post on exactly how to use Linkworth for those of us who are too stupid to figure it out? Do I want to be a preferred partner and give them half of my earnings? (No, but maybe there’s a reason I do.)
They’ve got ninety-eleven different things you can check for how you want to be a Linkworth linker. Where’s a beginner to start? With packages? One or two items (and which ones?)
I’m overwhelmed. Thanks!
Anne’s last blog post..I Fell Off Three Times and How Does the Saddle Stay on with No Girth?
Linkworth just recently revamped their sign-up form so now you can enroll for their various products all on one page.
If you’ve already got an account, go to My Sites > Manage Sites and click on your blog to reach a page where you can opt in to their various product offerings.
I’ll be happy to write an entry at some point soon about the different monetization methods they offer, too!
I wish you would. For as long as I’ve been a member there I haven’t figured it out much either. I DID sign up as preferred partner. Hasn’t been worth it so far.
jae’s last blog post..Dr. Phil’s no-no
Consider it on my To Do list. Man, that thing is getting long.
Kate, on one of your other blogs you recently had a post where the linking phrase was “cheap brochure printing.” But the post itself - while making the point in a really original context - was really very snarky in tone. (I loved it, of course! LOL) I’m curious if the advertisers ever reject your paid posts because they decide after it’s written that they don’t want to be associated with the ‘context’ you’ve used to surround their links? And if so, how do you handle that? ~ Janet
Janet’s last blog post..Political quickies on New Hampshire Primary Day
I haven’t had a post rejected for content or tone yet, Janet.
At Company P (which I’ve stopped working with for other reasons) I have a 5-tack rating, so the advertisers there must have been happy.
The particular post you mentioned was a LinkWorth assignment for a brochure printing company.
The entry I wrote made clear that it wasn’t their fault that the copy was messed up.
That is good news. As a reader, I love the way you write - it SINGS with attitude, which I really enjoy. I’ve always wondered how the advertisers feel about it! LOL As a follow-up, may I ask: what WOULD you do if an advertiser said “nope, that’s just too (whatever) for our tastes”? Would you pull the post, leave it but remove the links, or leave it intact but unpaid?
On another note, I had one paid post over on my “biker chick” blog that I think went over really well, but then when the same company asked for a 2nd post with the same links, I was really having a lot of time-crunch issues at home and at work and had to decline the assignment because I knew I wouldn’t be able to complete the post in a timely manner. I probably ruined the relationship with that advertiser… wish I hadn’t of course, but I really could not take the time to blog at that time. I’d love to do more with LinkWorth, but I have only had two requests for posts - 1 I accepted, the other I declined. Needless to say, I’ll be reading here regularly!! THanks for all -
Janet
Janet’s last blog post..Political quickies on New Hampshire Primary Day
Janet: Don’t let the lack of LinkWorth assignments discourage you. I’m terrible at updating my blog and I got 1 in September, 1 in October (which I declined), 2 in December two weeks apart and I already have 2 for January. It takes time.
How To Write Paid Reviews Worth Reading…
A lot of readers hate paid reviews. There’s a reason for that: most are awful because they read like they are paid reviews.
I don’t write reviews. I write entries which happen to make me money while keeping readers entertained, advertisers happy an…
Janet, how I would react would depend on the advertiser’s complaint and the contract between me and the company that assigned the job to me.
If it’s “too whatever”, I might be able to tone it down while still sounding like me. If, on the other hand, they want me to say more nice things and I don’t have more to add, well, at that point I’d look at the TOS with the company I was doing the opp for to see if I was committed to doing it or whether it was still all right to back out.
Jim, thanks for the encouragement! How long have you been with Linkworth?
Sure appreciate your perspective, Kate - you’re my favorite money-makin’ blogger!
~ Janet
Janet’s last blog post..Political quickies on New Hampshire Primary Day
Thank you, Janet! I’ll add to Jim’s encouragement: I’ve had times when I only got a couple of LinkWorth assignments and times when I’ve had so many I wind up chasing my chocolate-covered espresso beans with triple shot lattes just to get them all done.
Two tips on maximizing your opportunities from them:
(1) When you do decline assignments, explain why the opp doesn’t fit with your page. (For instance, if you had a chance to write on “iron wrenches” but your blog’s about knitting); and
(2) When you accept assignments, write them well and submit them in a timely fashion. That way their account managers can move on to the rest of their inventory and will remember you as having helped them do so.
yeah i always hate it when people just flood their pages with paid reviews and dont even attempt to blend it into their site.
thewild1’s last blog post..Real Estate Readings