In a world full of fake news and review bots, how can you possibly know what is real and what is not? The answer is simple. You cannot, not in a million years. So you’re going to have to rely on others; people who have already done the research and are willing to share their findings with you.
Believe it or not, the golden era of reviews was well before online shopping became a thing. Back in the day, if you wanted to find out about a company or a product, you had no choice but to go through countless reviews, looking for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Fortunately, the ugly parts are usually the stuff that you don’t need to worry about. And for the most part, reviews were fairly honest back then. If something was reviewed poorly, it was usually because it deserved to be, not because it was fake.
How to Make Money Online Through Product Reviews
Today, just like in the “good old days,” the majority of online reviews are done for money. Some review sites will even pay you to review a product or claim that you can earn thousands from a single review. Sound too good to be true? Sadly, it usually is. Believe it or not, review scams are one of the biggest problems that you will encounter if you try and make money online via product reviews. So it’s best to be extra careful and verify everything before you get started.
Luckily, there are still honest, quality review sites out there that you can use to find the information that you need. Here are some of the best places to find reviews, and how you can make money through them:
UserTesting.com
UserTesting.com is a community of people who want to find out more about new products and share their experiences with other users. Through the site, you can take online surveys that pay you for your opinion, get verified to leave reviews on several platforms, and much more.
While the site does offer a few paid review opportunities, the community-based aspect of UserTesting makes it much more legitimate. So much so that Pat Flynn, digital marketing expert and owner of Flynn Digital Marketing, says that he gives UserTesting a 9/10 rating. “I love UserTesting because it’s one of the few legitimate review sites out there that doesn’t just give you a good or bad rating but also explains why they gave you each rating,” Flynn says.
CNET
CNET is one of the biggest and most popular review sites around, owned by American media company Red Ventures. On the site, you can find all kinds of product reviews, from smart home products to cameras, gaming, and much more. If you take a look at the website now, you’ll see that most content is either owned by Red Ventures or used with express permission from the brand owner.
The reason why this kind of content is so valuable is because brands usually have a limited budget for advertising. When a brand or company wants to promote a product but doesn’t have the money to do so directly, they will usually go through intermediaries like PR firms or websites like CNET to do so. So if you’re looking to make money online, reviewing products for CNET is a good place to start.
BestBuyCo.com
BestBuyCo.com is owned by Topshop, a British high-end fashion brand. Like CNET, BestBuyCo.com provides lots of product reviews, covering all kinds of categories like technology, fitness, and much more. While the site does offer several paid review opportunities, the reviews themselves are usually pretty good and don’t seem too professionally done either.
Because Topshop is a well-known fashion brand, products that they promote usually end up being pretty high-quality. Since the company is based in Britain, all the product reviews are written in English, which makes understanding the reviews that bit easier. In fact, if you’ve ever shopped at Topshop, you’ll know exactly what to expect, as the quality of their items is always superb.
JungleScout.com
JungleScout.com is another UK-based review site that mostly covers tech products, mobile phones, and digital cameras. Like the other websites on this list, as well as others like UserTesting, JungleScout.com will give you a good idea of how a product or service works and how it compares to other alternatives.
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JungleScout.com is a great place for people looking to launch a new business or looking to expand an existing one. Whether you’re a startup looking For office space or Looking for equipment to start your business, you can find everything that you need on the site.
Trusted Reviews
Trusted Reviews is a fairly new review site that was founded in February 2015 and is owned by Future Inc, a British media group. Like the other review sites on this list, Trusted Reviews provides lots of product reviews, mostly for mobile phones, tablets, and laptops. If you’re looking for a site to start your review campaign, Trusted Reviews is a good option, as most of the content is either owned by the brand or used with permission.
Since Trusted Reviews is a newer site, most of the content is either owned by the brand or used with permission. As a result, you’ll find lots of high-quality product reviews, usually comparing the latest gadgets and other products to one another.
While lots of review sites pay you to review products or give you small payments for showing up on their site, Trusted Reviews is one of the few review sites that actually pays you, through a referral program, to read and write product reviews, as well as to test products.