Editor review site vs. User review site vs. Conduit site??

[yogaaffiliate]

Hi all! I'm a newbie struggling to build my first review site and was curious which review sites you have found to be the most successful. These are the options I keep going around and around on:

A) I first planned a review site with me being the editor of all the reviews.

B) Then I decided users should submit the reviews instead b/c it will have more credibility, I didn't want to buy all the products in order to effectively review them, I didn't feel comfortable reviewing them w/o having tested them, bla bla bla.

C) Then, I read about the Conduit method and thought that would be a heck of a lot faster. Even though I don't love the idea of taking snippets from other sites, I realized that it would take forever to build up enough fresh user reviews so that the site didn't look pathetic.

So, I'd love your feedback on any or all three of these options and what approach has worked best for you. Please help me get off this merry-go-round to nowhere!

[yogaaffiliate]

Has anyone tried creating different types of review/conduit sites?

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Having your users rate/write reviews will give you the best overall traffic over time which should provide you with the most revenue.

Starting with existing content from other sites is likely a good place to start, though, since it will get you up and running more quickly.

[Adam Bshero]

Squeeze page. Collect those email addresses!

[yogaaffiliate]

Thanks for the replies!

Kevin, I like your suggestion. I had thought of doing some sort of hybrid site where I started with a conduit site but also allowed users to post reviews, eventually getting rid of the snippets once I had enough new user reviews. I couldn't quite work out how the transition period would work though where I might have a rating for some products based on the user reviews, but still using snippets for the other products. Have you seen an example of this?

Adam, are you suggesting a squeeze page on or instead of the review site? I would definitely like some sort of opt-in form on the site....

[Kevin-VirtualProfitCenter]

Originally Posted by yogaaffiliate

Kevin, I like your suggestion. I had thought of doing some sort of hybrid site where I started with a conduit site but also allowed users to post reviews, eventually getting rid of the snippets once I had enough new user reviews. I couldn't quite work out how the transition period would work though where I might have a rating for some products based on the user reviews, but still using snippets for the other products. Have you seen an example of this?

I haven't seen an example, but I am not sure why you would need to delete the original reviews at any time. Maybe I'm missing something.

[yogaaffiliate]

Good point. I was picturing having a rating per product based on the snippet reviews initially and then changing to a dynamic rating based on the user reviews being posted, but maybe I'm overcomplicating things. Thanks!

[randommouse]

user review sites will always offer the most value to the consumer, but it is hard to get them noticed unless you seed the pages with editorial reviews. so one suggestion would be to use an application that supports both editorial and customer reviews, begin with a selection of a half dozen or so editorial reviews, and then gradually let visitors do more of the work add adding content.

[yogaaffiliate]

Great suggestion. Thanks!