If you're looking to start a successful product review blog and monetize your passion, read this guide for actionable tips. There are many ways to make some extra cash and blogging may be a great way for you.
Blogging about products that interest you can provide an additional income stream in your life. If this sounds like something up your alley, then read on as I show how easy it is to start a product review blog!
How Do I Start Reviewing Products?
When I started my first ever product review blog back in 2015, the firsttimeparentguide.com, I intended to review all baby products. Yes, all. I was so ambitious back then, lol.
Over the years, I learned it the hard way. You cannot cover it all! Really, you just need to focus on one product category in order to start seeing results fast.
This will also allow you to eventually afford to take a vacation, just because you somehow already covered them all.
For example, when I started reviewing cloth diapers that we had, I had to stop after 3 months, because I already “finished” all possible cloth diapers I could review.
Visitors looking for cloth diaper reviews started to come after a few months, and I did benefit from their visits.
Over time, I went to “expand” to strollers, car seats, diaper bags, etc...which not only exhausted me, but also confused Google on where to place me as an “authority.”
So before you start reviewing products, decide your niche. What are you going to blog about? It would really help if you have a target audience in mind - that one person who you will be helping.
Going back to my firsttimeparentguide blog’s target audience, it started with first time parents looking for baby products to include in their baby registry. WOW. HAHAHAHA.
That’s a job for someone who can either afford to pay a team of writers, or who is not really rushing to build his authority.
Nowadays, my baby blog only focuses on convertible car seats. I have yet to remove/redirect/reformat everything else that doesn’t belong to the “convertible car seat niche.”
As for my target audience, I narrowed it down to one person, a first time parent looking for the best convertible car seat to replace their existing infant car seat.
Are Product Review Blogs Profitable?
Yes and no, depending on what you promote.
With Amazon affiliate marketing, the highest income I got was $1,800/month. That’s around 200 blog posts, getting 25,000 visitors from Google per month. Take note that my niche back then was super broad, so I get sales from random items, even from paper towels, lol.
On most months, I get an average of $1k per month, 100% passive. This amount helped me to pay for bills, and put food on the table as I build new blogs I am more passionate about, such as this blog.
The beauty with Amazon affiliate marketing is that I do not necessarily need to sell a product. I can be all out honest. Even if the product sucks, I don’t hold back. The more honest you are, the more trustworthy you become.
As you gain your viewers' trust, they either stay longer, read more posts, or come back to read more. And that also helps signal Google to see you as an authority.
How Do Bloggers Get Products To Review?
I started with what we have - cloth diapers. Eventually, I bought 2nd hand diaper bags and resold them afterward.
With strollers and car seats, it was pure research. If you are worried that you won’t have the “authority” to talk about products that you don’t have, read this lesson. That is the exact process I do to review Amazon products which I do not have access to.
Over time, as you build authority, brands will reach out to you. Graco wanted to send me an infant car seat to review almost 3x. However, upon knowing my delivery address, they decided not to proceed. According to them, they only ship to “nearby” places.
So when Chicco reached out to me to choose a product to review, I gave them my brother’s address in the US. True enough, they sent me a convertible car seat to my “US address.”
Work on building your “authoritativeness” by providing unbiased, thorough and helpful reviews and brands will eventually reach out to you for free products.
And if you are lucky enough to be in a shipping address that they don’t mind shipping to, you can surely benefit from a lot of free products!
How Much Do Review Blogs Make?
As I have mentioned above, my 25,000 visitors per month paid me an average of $1k per month, 100% passive straight for almost two years.
If you want to earn more, choose a more expensive product category. Let’s take a look at a totally different example.
One of my dead blogs, iampitin.com aims to teach newbie Airbnb hosts on how to start short term rental thru Airbnb.
Teaching my readers how to furnish a living room will involve a whole lot of product categories - not only appliances and furniture, but also materials for DIY stuff, like tools for home improvement.
If I focus on smart locks that are above $500/piece, I’d surely get a handsome payout for every sale.
If I point them to Amazon (affiliate marketing), I’d also get paid for any extra purchase they do, even if it's a totally unrelated item.
How To Start A Product Review Blog
Starting a product review blog is one great idea. But you need to be aware that you have to put a long-term plan in place.
If you want to earn fast, focus on long-tail buying keywords. If you want to have a 24/7 salesman, focus on writing content and gaining viewership thru SEO.
As you earn money from your product review blog, consider reinvesting a portion of your income to outsourced content. Here’s a complete guide on how to easily outsource without breaking your budget.
If outsourcing is not your cup of tea, check out the long-form assistant.
Review blogs pay well especially when the products are being sold online by large companies like Amazon or eBay (since they already have a reputation, and people will not hesitate to buy from them).
When it comes to reviews, I’d stick with educating the potential buyers on how the products work, and give them some advice on what works better (if applicable), so they can make important decisions about whether or not something's worth buying.
Advice For Beginners
You want to start a product review blog, but you don't know where to begin. How do you find the time to write high-quality content while also running your business?
My free blogging course is designed for beginners who have never launched a blog before. I'll show you exactly how I built my successful product review blog from scratch using easy step-by-step methods.
We'll go over everything from keyword research to creating an attractive design for your site so that it stands out.
This course will help anyone create their own profitable online business by teaching them how to build niche sites and monetize them with affiliate marketing or other revenue streams.
Hi Pitin,
The world of blogging is an ever-changing, exciting place to be. Anyone who is a new blogger or thinking about starting his or her own blog for the first time must surely find your courses helpful.
With your experience and guidance, I am sure every newbie will be signing up!
Thank you for introducing so many valuable content for new bloggers.
Regards
Robin
Hi Robin,
I am glad to help. 🙂 More free courses to come! 🙂
Cheers,
Pitin
Hello. I`m so happy I came across your post about how to start a product review blog. I`m a pastry cook, and I started my blog a couple of months ago. I choose baking as my niche and planning to promote kitchen appliances. I wrote 13 recipe posts so far, now I have to learn to write product reviews. I would like to ask you a question: There aren`t many visitors to my site yet. Do I have to wait until my traffic increases to apply for some affiliate programs? I would like to become successful in blogging, and the information you provide is really helpful. I subscribed to your site,
Regards,
Debora
Hi Debora,
Happy to have you on my list. 🙂
My first advice is to look at your Google Search Console. Are you getting clicks for an article with products in it?
For example, if you wrote a recipe, like “how to bake a chocolate chip cookie,” it’s evergreen content. People using that search keyword are not in the “buying stage.” Even if you are getting 100 visitors a day on that page, chances are they just want to learn how to make the cookie.
Without product mentions in it, then there’s no place for an affiliate link.
Say for example you are getting clicks on what’s the best oven to buy in 2021. Now, that’s a good opportunity to earn. Make sure to put your affiliate links in there.
Always look at your Google Search Console and see what keywords are bringing in clicks so far. If they are evergreen, try to incorporate some product mentions. That’s how you earn faster.
I hope this helps. 🙂
Cheers,
Pitin