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Review Request for My Product. How Should I Handle It?

by halmo
11 replies
I received an e-mail from a review site, asking me for a self-written review of my product. According to the e-mail, their site is well respected (by Google and Alexa), and it came up on top when I searched for related keywords.

However, there were a couple of things on their site that I found annoying or unprofessional. I am not good (yet) at finding out how good a site's reputation is if it's not obvious yet in the online world (e.g. from an SEO standpoint, etc). The other thing that I am uncertain about is that they are asking for a self-written review.

My product is such that gives buyers access (after purchase) to a multi-module guide on my site. It is not a downloadable product, and is not recurring (one-time payment).

Would someone experienced help me out on how I should proceed? I would be happy to give the URL of the review site (and my own URL) in a PM. I don't think it would be a good idea to post it here.

Would very much appreciate help.
Thank you!
#handle #product #request #review
  • Profile picture of the author Big Money
    I would proceed by sending them a review of your site.

    What's your dilemma. Is it an ethical issue of sending your own review of your product to the site or do you just not know if it's worth your time.

    If you say they are ranking at the top for your keywords I would send them an awesome keyword packed review.
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    • Profile picture of the author halmo
      Originally Posted by Big Money View Post

      I would proceed by sending them a review of your site.

      What's your dilemma. Is it an ethical issue of sending your own review of your product to the site or do you just not know if it's worth your time.

      If you say they are ranking at the top for your keywords I would send them an awesome keyword packed review.
      One of my dilemmas is whether it's ok to send my own self-written review.

      My other dilemma is that I am not sure how reputable their review site is. They ranked on top for specific review site keywords (not for my own keywords - I should have made this more clear).

      The third question is that if it turns out that it's really not a good site to have a review on, then how do I decline it in a way to minimize negative effect (after all, words can spread quickly).

      However, first I would like someone to help me determine the above things about the review site, and find out what I should do.

      (After that, I will see whether I have to deal with the third question or not.)
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      • Profile picture of the author Big Money
        Originally Posted by halmo View Post

        One of my dilemmas is whether it's ok to send my own self-written review.

        My other dilemma is that I am not sure how reputable their review site is. They ranked on top for specific review site keywords (not for my own keywords - I should have made this more clear).

        The third question is that if it turns out that it's really not a good site to have a review on, then how do I decline it in a way to minimize negative effect (after all, words can spread quickly).

        However, first I would like someone to help me determine the above things about the review site, and find out what I should do.

        (After that, I will see whether I have to deal with the third question or not.)
        To answer your questions:

        1. Some people may think that submitting your own review is unethical, but I say it's border line. It's pretty common practice. Honestly I wouldn't worry to much about it.

        2. I wouldn't worry about how reputable their review site is. They could of just put a review of your site up without even asking. The only reason they probably even asked you to write the review is so that they wouldn't have to. It's free content for them.

        3. If you don't want to give them a review I just wouldn't reply back to them. Most likely the email they sent you was automated. I have several Clickbank products and I get these kind of requests all the time. If you just don't respond there will be no negative effect.

        4. You can pm me the site if you want and I'll tell you what I think. I don't know if I have enough posts to pm you back. I'm not sure how many posts you have to have to be able to pm. If you want just post the site in the thread. I don't think there's any harm in that.

        5. If I was you I'd take 5-10 minutes and just whip up an honest review and send it to them. It really can't have any negative effect. At the very least you'll get a backlink out of it.
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      • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
        Originally Posted by halmo View Post

        One of my dilemmas is whether it's ok to send my own self-written review.

        My other dilemma is that I am not sure how reputable their review site is. They ranked on top for specific review site keywords (not for my own keywords - I should have made this more clear).

        The third question is that if it turns out that it's really not a good site to have a review on, then how do I decline it in a way to minimize negative effect (after all, words can spread quickly).

        However, first I would like someone to help me determine the above things about the review site, and find out what I should do.

        (After that, I will see whether I have to deal with the third question or not.)
        I don't see the problem. Do you have a sales page for your product?
        Isn't that a self written review? Replace the word with review with the
        word explanation... or description... that should take care the ethics problem
        for you.

        The whole thing seems straightforward to me. They want to be an
        affiliate for your product. They want you to write a blurb describing
        the features and benefits available to potential buyers of your product.

        Seems like a good marketing opportunity for you.

        Tsnyder
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        • Profile picture of the author halmo
          Originally Posted by Tsnyder View Post

          I don't see the problem. Do you have a sales page for your product?
          Isn't that a self written review? Replace the word with review with the
          word explanation... or description... that should take care the ethics problem
          for you.

          The whole thing seems straightforward to me. They want to be an
          affiliate for your product. They want you to write a blurb describing
          the features and benefits available to potential buyers of your product.

          Seems like a good marketing opportunity for you.

          Tsnyder
          Thank you, Tsnyder. Yes, I do have a sales page. A longer one, but I can reduce it -- or rather, get the most important parts from the sales letter, and write a shorter review.



          Thanks to all of you for the insights.
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  • Profile picture of the author getsmartt
    I imagine, that they are basically taking the easy way out, instead of buying your product (or asking for a review copy) and reviewing it themselves, they are relying on you to hype your product and likely give them some unique content to put on their site to bolster their affiliate sales.

    I would also imagine that they send a ton of these emails out to different product owners.

    It really can't hurt you as long as you wrote an honest "review" of your own product, focus on the features it offers and the value it provides.

    JMHO

    James
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  • Profile picture of the author myob
    Indeed, "review" sites are mostly designed just to sell affiliate products. Beware they may be later asking for a commission on sales to post your review, which may not be a bad thing of itself.
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  • Profile picture of the author x3xsolxdierx3x
    They are an affiliate of your product? If so....they want you to write their content for them? They should do it themselves....

    Originally Posted by halmo View Post

    I received an e-mail from a review site, asking me for a self-written review of my product. According to the e-mail, their site is well respected (by Google and Alexa), and it came up on top when I searched for related keywords.

    However, there were a couple of things on their site that I found annoying or unprofessional. I am not good (yet) at finding out how good a site's reputation is if it's not obvious yet in the online world (e.g. from an SEO standpoint, etc). The other thing that I am uncertain about is that they are asking for a self-written review.

    My product is such that gives buyers access (after purchase) to a multi-module guide on my site. It is not a downloadable product, and is not recurring (one-time payment).

    Would someone experienced help me out on how I should proceed? I would be happy to give the URL of the review site (and my own URL) in a PM. I don't think it would be a good idea to post it here.

    Would very much appreciate help.
    Thank you!
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    • Profile picture of the author Big Money
      Originally Posted by x3xsolxdierx3x View Post

      They are an affiliate of your product? If so....they want you to write their content for them? They should do it themselves....
      Of course they are affiliates, but they're allowing him to write whatever he wants about his own product and put it on their third party review site.
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      • Profile picture of the author Big Money
        I received your pm and I typed up a long response for you, but when I pressed send, a message popped up saying I didn't have enough posts to pm.

        Anyway here are my thoughts...

        I get this same exact email for every new Clickbank product I put out. They just want you to write a review so that they can put it on their site and put there affiliate link in it, that's why they are asking for your cb id. It's just an automated email that probably gets sent to everyone with a new product. They probably have some sort of software that pulls the email addresses of every new Clickbank product daily and then automatically sends them an email. If I was you I'd write up a quick review and send it. I like to have as much exposure as possible for my products and when potential customers see a third party site such as this with a good review of your product it looks good. If you don't want to give them a review I would just forget all about it and don't reply. They will never know the difference. I guarantee it's just an automatic email sent by a program.

        That's my opinion, other Warrior forum members will have differing opinions. I make all my money by doing nothing but selling my own Clickbank products and I've been doing this for years so you can take that however you want. Thanks
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        • Profile picture of the author halmo
          Originally Posted by Big Money View Post

          I received your pm and I typed up a long response for you, but when I pressed send, a message popped up saying I didn't have enough posts to pm.

          Anyway here are my thoughts...

          I get this same exact email for every new Clickbank product I put out. They just want you to write a review so that they can put it on their site and put there affiliate link in it, that's why they are asking for your cb id. It's just an automated email that probably gets sent to everyone with a new product. They probably have some sort of software that pulls the email addresses of every new Clickbank product daily and then automatically sends them an email. If I was you I'd write up a quick review and send it. I like to have as much exposure as possible for my products and when potential customers see a third party site such as this with a good review of your product it looks good. If you don't want to give them a review I would just forget all about it and don't reply. They will never know the difference. I guarantee it's just an automatic email sent by a program.

          That's my opinion, other Warrior forum members will have differing opinions. I make all my money by doing nothing but selling my own Clickbank products and I've been doing this for years so you can take that however you want. Thanks
          Thank you, Big Money, for looking at it. And thanks for your opinion. I think, I will do it.
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