Affiliate product reviews are like the bread and butter when it comes to earning a commission.
Reviews work because you to show a product, explain its value, and tell a story how it affects your life.
This gets people interested in the product — if they buy, then you get paid.
Finding the time to write is often the biggest obstacle to creating affiliate product reviews.
However, if you approach it from an alternative angle then you can easily create these in mere minutes.
1. Brainstorm what you’ll review (and why)
What’s something you own (or subscribe to) that is relevant to your niche and generally stays as a hot commodity for others? If it’s something you’ve owned for some time then you already know the ins and outs which will make everything else fall into place.
2. Buy or signup for the product/service
If you don’t have something to show then hop online and buy something (or subscribe).
You may need to wait a few days but in the meantime, you can get everything else ready for the review (I’d recommend spending that time looking at how others do their delivery).
3. Fiddle with the product/service
Once you have this item/service it’s time to play around with it and get first impressions.
The first impressions are generally the talking points that everyone is expecting because there is a layer of hype and mystique.
Any extra time should be spent understanding the features (which generally come secondary in most marketing messages).
4. Take notes of what you like and hate
Open up a word doc and start jabbing down all those things you love and hate about the product or service.
The first impressions will make these two extremes very relatable because this is what we all experience upon the purchase.
Conveying those feels will get them hooked on the video.
5. Figure out what others are saying
Quickly send out a message to your network to see if anyone else has played around with the item or used the service.
Ask them for a one-sentence review and take that to mind when comparing it to yours.
You may also use their small review as part of yours (which helps with the brand association).
6. Write a bullet-point script
Now get another word doc going and bang out a basic script.
It doesn’t need to be long-winded because most of the review will be you casually talking about the thing off the top of your head.
The script will work like a presentation so you have your bullet points to keep the review streamlined.
7. Get on camera and speak your mind
Grab a camera (you can use your phone), hit record, and give yourself a few seconds of dead air and then start going at it.
Don’t worry about if you mess up.
You can always do jump cuts at later times (which keeps a viewer’s attention).
8. Have someone edit the video
If you don’t understand video editing then don’t worry.
You can head on over to sites like Fiverr and find someone to do the editing for you.
Package up the raw video, notes, and script, and have them include a few call-outs such as adding a title and URL for the video.
9. Watch, learn, and upload
You can learn a lot about your affiliate product reviews process by watching the presentation:
- Words you trip on
- How you present yourself
- Who you’re targeting
These are all valuable insights to improve future efforts.
Pull the trigger, and upload the video to YouTube.
There’s a bit of downtime while you’re waiting for it to get back but this is one of those times you may as well start on another review.
10. Take notes to create a system/template
Imagine if you do one of these each and every day versus writing a long blog post?
What if you transcribed the audio and had that along with an embedded version of the file?
What would happen if you created a basic template for your next videos?
There’s a huge money-making opportunity when rolling out these affiliate product reviews.
So:
Keep your mind sharp, brush up on video marketing skills, keep up with this pace, and you could pump out profitable affiliate videos in mere minutes.
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Don’t Believe Me? Here’s What I’d Do
If you have some of the basics skills (such as editing) you can greatly cut down on the total time it takes to make these reviews.
It also helps if you’re the type of person that can easily talk about products or services based on first impressions.
What I would do is look around my room, grab one item of interest (I recently bought), and write down my ideas and notes about it (from having played it).
Next, I would set up my cell phone camera (using a makeshift tripod) and just have at it – telling them what I like about it, why it’s important to me, and why they’d like it.
I’d throw the video in a basic editor, add titles & CTA’s, a bit of light music, and render. This is followed by me going to YouTube to get it published, start sharing it on social channels, and slap it up as a video-embedded blog post. If it picks up traction then that’s great! If it didn’t take off too well then at least it will spark ideas on how to do it better the next time.
