Do review sites still work?

They still work if you know how to make them work. I have been exercising a specific business model for sometime now in this field, and it works for me. You need to do and know what works, and then stick to it.

They do work very well, however the problem as you said is finding the good ones! well established ones usually offer best value for the consumer as they have to keep up with competition, the biggest problem is the sheer amount of people throwing together a quick wordpress review site to try and make a commision without spending the time to hunt for the best affiliate programe to keep the cost as low and competitive for the consumer.

Its business after all, and whoever provides the most value for the consumer is the one who will ultimately survive longer and generate the most sales.

Good ones still work. One of mine is often referred to by other sites. The latest site to reference my review site was Woot. That one reference by itself generated over 300 visits to my site inside of 24 hours. It generated sales too.

You just have to be sure that you focus on quality.

You already know the real answer to your question.

Or are you asking whether you can still make money with a fake or thin review site?

The answer to that is yes but whenever you find that you are not delivering much value and instead are relying on tricks there is a real risk that your revenue stream will dry up. That is a law of the universe.

Yes, just look at T3 magazine and similar magazines. They still provide review articles on their magazine. It means people still look for and read reviews.

If people read reviews on magazine, they will also read reviews online. So, review sites still work.

Based on the results of our many clients who operate product review sites (in this post, I'll just discuss results from promoting physical products on review sites), here are some details, in order of importance:

• Review content should be targeted towards the specific group of people planning to buy particular products. For instance, nobody who intends to find a good toaster would most likely be interested in reading a 1000 to 1500++-word review about one particular toaster. Instead, this group of buyers would most likely be interested in reading a brief, point by point comparison chart of five to ten toasters recommended by the site and many buyers. And, this comparison chart should have product images and visible links pointing to other internal pages of the review site that discuss what to look for in a toaster for the relevant needs of the target buyers (buyers have different needs from a toaster, and these differences should be tackled), why each of those benefits can be provided by the certain features that should be integrated into the toaster, what to avoid and why when looking for a good toaster, how to get the best toaster for them at the most reasonable price, what types of bread are best for each type of toaster, supplemental breakfast recipes for toasted bread and so on. These pages should open in a new browser window, so viewers can refer to it and simultaneously study the comparison chart...

• There are some buyers who prefer video guides and reviews of the products that can nicely supplement the written comparison charts. They want to see the products in action...

• Modern gadgets and other electronic consumer products are best provided content that lists down, in the comparison chart, each feature of the product, the real life benefits that can be provided by each of those features, how to properly activate and use those features to get its real life benefits and causes of possible problems or troubleshooting, care and maintenance advice. Again, product images and links pointing to other internal pages as mentioned above should also be visible to viewers...

• If you can't buy the product to test it out before you recommend it (physical products can be expensive), find others you know who own or have used those products. If you can't find someone you know who owns or has used those products, extensive research is needed to completely understand each integrated feature of a product, the real life benefits each of those features can provide, and how and why each of those features can actually provide those real life benefits. This dictates how those comparison charts would sound to interested buyers, i.e. If it's content from people who have actually experienced using those products, or just content from someone who read a few reviews of others on the Internet and a few buyer comments or testimonials left by others in sites where they ordered the products...

You know the competition of this field? To stay alive in the competition, review sites also need to provide value to its customer. But all sites are not same. You find a lot which are doing nothing good things at all. Your review is right for them, but try with some renowned site. Surely you will change your position.

My Amazon reviews sites still do well and the ones that I have built 0 backlinks to and only add content are the most profitable and have withstood that latest Google updates.

Hi MrElectric, review websites have never stopped to work.
The top of review sites is doing themc orrectly, with good and "personal" reviews, done like a real person.

Keep a friendly tone in your review, and analyze the pros and cons of the product you are promoting. Sales will come.

See you soon,
Alessandro