I was getting ready to write a review for a particular marketing product and decided to do a search for other reviews first. I was curious to see what other people thought of the product. When I searched Google, I found four full pages of reviews.

Although a little surprised, I still wanted to check them out to see how many were genuine reviews and how many were simply ploys by affiliates to sell the product. In other words, how many affiliates would write glowing reviews for the product just so that they could recommend the product?

'The' Review...

I read the first review by a Ph.D. It seemed to be a pretty thoughtful review until I got to the end and found that he was compensated for his review. Then I remembered that this particular program offered a review of the product to affiliates to help them sell the product.

I checked with the product's affiliate material and sure enough, it was the same review offered to affiliates. Then I tried several other pages that claimed to have a review. They all contained the same review. No one had written their own review of the product.

A Common Affiliate Manager Technique...

It is a common practice for businesses to offer reviews and testimonials for their products to their affiliates to facilitate sales. There's nothing wrong with a business trying to make as much material as possible available to their affiliates. I do it myself for my own affiliates. As an affiliate manager, it's a smart move.

As an affiliate, however, it is not the best way to make a sale. Let me illustrate my point by asking a few questions...

A Few Questions To Ask Yourself...

If you post the same review as every other affiliate posts on their website, what distinguishes your site and review from all the others?

Selling products as an affiliate can be difficult under the best of circumstances, but trying to sell the same product as a bunch of other affiliates by using the exact same tactics can make it nearly impossible. Putting up the same old review on your site will help your sales little, if any.

How is a boiler-plate review building trust between you and your customers/visitors?

Building trust with your visitors is one of the keys to making sales. Many site visitors will simply hit the back button and try a different site when they see that you didn't even take the time to write your own review. They will feel that you are trying to take advantage of them and that all you are interested in is making a sale. Show your visitors that you have integrity and that they can trust you and your sales will improve greatly.

That brings me to my last question...

Does a review by a compensated reviewer really have any value?

As both an online business owner and a customer, I don't think it is worth my time. Anyone who is compensated for their comments, testimonial, or review is obligated by that compensation to provide positive feedback. Personally, prefer to read reviews that show the good and bad side of products so that I can make my own decision based on all the information.

If you've ever been to Amazon (and who hasn't?) and looked at all the reviews for a book, then you probably agree with me whether you know it or not. Most people will read all those reviews, good and bad, weigh the options, the competing products, and all the comments, and then make a decision. I've bought many books from Amazon that had bad reviews -- a bad review won't necessarily kill a product. It really depends on why it was given a poor review.

My point is that you can't really trust a compensated review, so why bother? It isn't going to help you make a sale, and may even hurt the long term growth and revenue of your site and business.

The Best Way To Use Reviews...

The best way to include a review on your website is to purchase the product and write your own review. It doesn't matter if you love or hate it, you will probably make more sales writing your own review than you would slapping up a boiler plate review provided by an affiliate manager.

People are not stupid. They know the difference.

Writing your own reviews shows that you have integrity and that you respect your site visitors and customers. These are some of the qualities that will distinguish your site from your competitors' sites.

For most of us, there is no such thing as a quick buck. But you can build a long term income by forgetting about short-cuts and doing it right.