The Great British Blog Festival- Tuesday

Jun 8, 2010 by cafebebemama

It’s Day Two of The Great British Blog Festival and the great tips just keep on coming!  If you want to learn about blogging and share the love (I’m hearing “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” from The Lion King now), you only need visit Cafe Bebe, Littlemummy, Littlemumpreneur, English Mum and Me, The Man and The Baby for the next few days.

Today I bring you some great tips on writing reviews from a blogger who has some very good experience.  She writes at several blogs (New Mummy, New Mummy’s Tips, Make It Bake It, Midlands Mums, Mumstop to name a few) and has reviewed products for The Great Toy Guide and Living with Kids.  Carol Smith managed to share her words of wisdom about reviews amongst all of her responsibilities…

How to write reviews by Carol at New Mummy

Once you’ve been blogging for a while you may be offered products to review from PR firms. Whether you decide to do these reviews are entirely up to you.  Some bloggers like to do them and some don’t.  A polite no thank you will do.

You will find that you may get offered things that are not suitable for you.  You have two choices: email back and say “thank you but it’s not relevant to me” (ideally they would have read your blog but that’s not always the case) or just hit delete.

If you are not interested in doing reviews at all, you may want to think about putting a note on your blog asking them not to contact you.

If you do decide that you want to write reviews either on your own blog or for someone else’s here are some tips on reviews.

• Firstly, don’t feel you have to take everything that is on offer.  I’ve been offered all sorts but have learnt to be selective. Is it a product that potentially you would buy yourself?
• Once you’ve agreed to the review, set a clear timeline with the PR firm. For example, you will test the product for two weeks and write the review within a week of the testing. Set your own time frame.  As long as they know, they will generally be happy with that.
• Check to see if they want the product back.  If it’s a large product such as a pram, most won’t but some do. Make sure they arrange the pickup and pay all costs if necessary
• Test the product well before you write the review.  Depending on what it is I suggest 2 to 4 weeks.
• Write notes as you go along.  I always forget things then I write the review and think I wish I had mentioned ‘x, y, z’. Note the pros and cons of the product.
• When you come to write the review think about its layout. There are a few ways you can write it.  Personally I write the review like any other post.  I talk about what I did with it and if my daughter liked it (most products are for her).  I mention any funny stories. You may decide to set it out more formally with titles such as Initial Reaction, What I liked about the product, What I didn’t like, and Overall review. Or Features, Pros and Cons. Some like to give the product a score for example 4/5. Try writing the review in a few different ways and see what works best for you.
• Think about what you want out of a review, what you want to know about a product. Is it durable? Is it safe? Is it value for money? Is it easy to put together? Is it comfortable? Etc
• Add any relevant links to the review, the website of the product or where it can be purchased.
• Use pictures where possible.  The PR person should be able to send you images and logos. If you have pictures of the product being used by you they post them.
• Always be honest about a product.  If it doesn’t fulfill the brief or if it doesn’t do what it is supposed to do then tell us. However be careful how you say this, don’t just write its ‘crap’.  Tell your readers what was wrong with it, why don’t you like it? Did it fall apart? Was it unsafe? We need to know why we should or shouldn’t buy it.

I hope this has been of some help to you and you know have some insight into writing reviews.

Great information Carol!  I’ve reviewed quite a few items in my time and one of my top tips is that if you DON’T like something you are reviewing, find a way to be CONSTRUCTIVE about your review.  Just because you don’t like it or it doesn’t work for you/your family, doesn’t mean that someone else won’t love it.

I would also advise that if you do write reviews, find a way to create either a separate page or category under which to file them.  It makes it easier to find when people are searching for reviews.

In my humble opinion, the reviews that I have posted on my blog have probably been the posts least commented on.  Unless it is the latest greatest product that everyone wants and needs, you won’t find a great deal of readers taking the time to comment on your post.  They may read it and may even consider buying it thanks to your recommendations but you probably will not find a great deal of discourse going on with regards to a review post.

Come back tomorrow for a post by a very special blogger and vlogger who just so happens to be getting ready for a VERY LARGE and VERY LONG trip and finds ways to entertain us every day on Twitter.  She’s a mega-fan of a certain Starman (don’t ask) and she is brilliant at orchestrating obstacle courses & den building.  Do you know who she is???