If not, you should.

I’m going to try to convince you of some of the reasons why you should do product reviews on your website or blog.

First of all, the Internet is a great place for anyone to get information on just about anything. In particular, women in their 20s- 50s. And if you read this post (and got the free report) about marketing to moms, you know that this demographic is the most powerful, spending wise.

Useful quote:

“Of the nearly 1,000 moms surveyed, 89 percent use the internet at least twice per day, and 90 percent have been using it for more than seven years,” said Stuart Larkins, vice-president of search for DoubleClick Performics. “A whopping 86 percent of respondents said search engines are the most efficient way to find information.”
Source: Moms are super web surfers

And these smart shoppers go online to research products before buying.

Product reviews are highly sought after online. Whether a shopper is looking for information to use in buying offline or wants to make their purchase online, a product review can tell her what she needs to know. Sites that exclusively feature product reviews get lots and lots of traffic (think epinions.com!).

But can product reviews benefit you, an online marketer?

If you run a blog or, product reviews make for great content. They tend to attract lots of traffic, and that traffic can lead to profits. Product reviews get you ranked for some of those very specific, “long tail” keyword phrases.

If someone finds your site after searching for the phrase “Fiskars garden bucket caddy“, you think they will take some action once they get there? It’s pretty likely, yes. Maybe they’ll read the review and click on your affiliate link to purchase it. Maybe they’ll click on a Google AdSense ad. At the very least they’ll be impressed that your site met their needs, and are likely to stick around long enough to sign up for your newsletter, RSS feed or what have you.

In order to get the most out of product reviews, it’s important to have a niche and stick with it. This will ensure that the traffic that comes to your site is targeted. Even if your niche is fairly wide, such as “moms”, that will still make your marketing efforts easier and more effective. You probably don’t have the time or money to market yourself as the be all/end all of product review websites.

Once they’re on your site, you could make money by using affiliate links in the product reviews.

In fact this is one of the easiest, most effective ways to get your feet wet with affiliate marketing. Go around your home and make a list of all the products you use, hate, love, have an opinion about. And make it your aim to start reviewing these products on your blog or website.

If you can become an affiliate for the product you’re reviewing, that’s great. Almost anything in your home you can find on Amazon.com. Their affiliate program doesn’t pay the best commissions in the world, but it does convert well.

Be sure to give an honest opinion – this is especially true if you will gain from a sale.

This will help you gain the trust of your audience, and trust is essential in getting sales, even if they are through affiliate links.

Product reviews can have additional benefits. For instance, consider what happened to me when I posted a review of these all natural stuffed pretzels I purchased recently (and loved!).

The very next day the owners of the company emailed me to thank me for my nice review. They sent me two coupons for free boxes (worth $5 each) and they posted my review on their blog along with a link to my site in the sidebar.

Doing product reviews can make not just customers happy but also the product creator!

Product reviews are great for marketing. They provide useful information to the reader, bring targeted traffic to the website, and give the product and business exposure.

It’s a winning situation for everyone involved.

You can learn more about doing product reviews to earn money as an affiliate here: Affiliate Marketing Sweetie

It’s a Saturday morning.

The kids are watching a rare bit of morning cartoons (I say rare because they’re usually doing schoolwork at this time of day and we are NEVER home on a Saturday morning but I am sick with a cold today).

The potatoes are frying in butter on the stove for breakfast, and I have steaming hot coffee in my hand.

I’ve been contemplating a “year end” post that shares some sage bit of wisdom, and was coming up a bit dry.

Then I saw that Kelly McCausey blogged asking about regrets in 2008 and I felt compelled to share some of my own honest recollections about lessons I’ve learned this year.

Sometimes, when you feel discouraged about goals you’ve reached, it helps to look back at what your goals were one year ago. I accomplished several of those goals, including getting out of unsecured debt, establishing an emergency fund, moving out into a place of my own, and hitting certain income goals.

Looking back on that makes me feel great about what I can accomplish in a year’s time.

When I started my online business several years ago, it was fun extra money. I never would have thought I would be supporting a home with 4 children on my income.

One of the things I did right this year was realize EARLY on when I had overextended myself.

I made a couple of business decisions that turned out not to be right for me, taking on projects or memberships that weren’t really focused enough for my business or that would simply prove to be “too much”.

But instead of getting caught up in “What will they think if I quit? I’m not a flake/quitter/whatever!”, I just cut it out, which was wise.

At the same time, I made some mistakes. You see,

I didn’t notice that my cheese was getting stinky.

Those of you who have read Who Moved My Cheese? will get the reference.

I read this book a couple of years ago and thought it was fantastic, but I forgot to apply the main lesson to myself when circumstances started to change in my business.

You see, as a result of my ongoing efforts in 2008 to focus and make everything better in my business, I sold several websites. That was a good move. It made it far easier to not get overwhelmed.

I also increased focus on blogging – both here and at my Natural Moms Talk Radio blog. I blogged every day (or, wrote a few posts at a time and scheduled them to post daily).

While doing these things I didn’t take action when one of my sites, which was a major earner for me, started to dip in traffic. I could kick myself now for letting it happen. I’m not sure if it was a Google algorithm change or just because I wasn’t marketing it as much anymore, but for whatever reason, the traffic and income started to go down. The site went from earning me around $30 a day to just a couple of bucks, and at the end of the month that is a huge difference!

By November I was seriously feeling the drop in income on this particular site. Even though traffic to my other sites was climbing, and my affiliate income and ebook sales also going up, this site represented a significant part of my overall income.

I’ve been working on this site like mad for the last month and I know my efforts will pay off soon enough, but:

I should have monitored the state of my cheese and taken action immediately when it started to appear moldy.

As soon as I noticed traffic and income going down for this site, I should have ramped up my marketing efforts. Then it wouldn’t have taken so much effort to keep that result going.

So that’s my wisdom and my regret for 2008.

But you can bet I won’t let it happen again!

What about you? Any regrets, lessons or wisdom to share?

photo credit: functoruser

I wrote a guest post for Kelly over at her Wahm2.0 blog. The topic?

“My website is being built. What should I do before my site is launched?“

The thing that sparked this topic were a couple of coaching clients who were outsourcing the building of their site but who were eager to do something productive in the meantime while they waiting for the finishing touches to be put on their site.

Go read the post: What To Do Before Launch

(Because some of that stuff is stuff you should be doing AFTER your site is live on the internet too!)

Oh yeah, and speaking of the Wahm 2.0 blog, there’s this.

I’m one.

You’re probably one.

And most of the people you market to are one.

Who am I talking about?

Moms. And they’re the most powerful spending force in the market.

If you’re looking to market more effectively to this group of savvy online consumers, download this free 9-page report. It was authored by two women who know what they’re talking about – Alice Seba and Wendy Wood:

“Quick & Easy Ways to Market to the Powerful Multi-Billion Dollar Market of Mothers Online”

This report explains:

- Just how big and influential the mom market is – and why you should be targeting them!
- Why moms use the Internet & what they do once they get there
- How to reach moms and gain their confidence – all on a shoestring budget.

Your download is completely free and comes without any type of obligation.

Click here to get your copy.

(Click to open, right click to save to your computer.)