I guess when you give a real content and target long tail keyword, you still can beat the Panda.

YES! Of course they still work. But when you build the site don't think like a marketer, think about how you can provide as much valuable information as possible to those who would visit your site. And don't make the site look like you just want to make money off of it. Make the site look very professional.

Let me assure you that this isn't the case. The majority of my business is built around review sites, and most of my sites rankings actually increased after the Panda update. My overall traffic is up by about 30% since March which is a pretty big (and very welcome) jump!

The only sites that decreased (of mine) were a few that were around 5 pages that I hadn't updated in about a year. For obvious reasons it wasn't a total shock that they disappeared from the top 10.

If your site (any site) gives good user experience (which includes unique & high quality content or service) then there is no effect of the recent Google update.

Go ahead, it still works.

All the best

Cheers
Ciel!

I don't personally own any review sites (nor have I done any research on how they're specifically doing after Panda), but my company just did a bunch of work for a giant website that is review-based - and I'm assuming the client wouldn't have gone ahead with it if review sites were getting mauled by Panda

That being said, though, no matter what type of site you're looking to start, you have to make sure you have quality content on it. Just put yourself in the mind of your target audience. What would *you* like to see? What information would *you* need to get before you could buy something? As long as you're providing information that's based on legitimate research and information that's easy and interesting to read, I don't see why Panda would hurt you.

Thanks everyone! Your input has been most valuable!

My best performing site contains reviews, but it's not only reviews. The site includes many non-review articles.

Guys - sometimes I'm still shocked how easy it can be to make money with review sites. This goes for Clickbank, Amazon or any other type of product whether it is digital or physical.

I've read people say "make it look professional". I think some level of effort to make it look nice is required but don't overdo it. Just make it CLEAN. That's it for the looks part.

As for the content you need to actually HELP people with real information. The more help you provide, the better you will do. It really is that simple.

I always start my sites using Filipino writers who do the reviews and the basic SEO. These sites do not cost much to put up. Not much at all. I find about half of them easily make money back fast. The other half are either duds or just take a bit longer.

thedog,

I have a simple strategy, which is to only invest in super high quality content when my SEO results show that the investment will pay off.

I use Filipino writers, one in particular, who does this kind of stuff for me full time along with article marketing. Her English is quite good, and she understands how to go collect useful information for readers. After I taught her to do this, I don't bother reading all the reviews. She posts them and we do SEO work. Her and another guy on my team build links.

We track our ranking on product keywords. We then invest more time and money (split testing, maybe hiring a better writer, adding graphics, adding more content, adding "related product" widgets, etc.

If you think $350/month full time and your writer can do several reviews per day then you're in the ballpark. BTW $350/month = $17 per day. I am sure my writer could probably crank out 5 reviews per day but I'd rather she spend a bit more time on them up front and do 3-4 good initial quality reviews, format everything well, do on-page SEO, proof read, etc. So you're talking about building a site with 10 reviews in 3 days. It is dirt cheap.

I NEVER hire freelancers to build these sites. You can absolutely do that, but I prefer to hire someone to do it all - wordpress install, site setup, keyword selection, product selection, review writing, article marketing, etc.

I like to spend my time teaching my guys how to do what they need to do. Then they stay with me, I get to benefit from them long term.

Lots of blog articles talking about this kinda stuff here

They are still working for me, so the answer would be yes. Review sites don't have as much content as one might think. Plus the use of small amount of backlinks from a network of high pr blogs makes a difference in the way Google looks at your site.