Book reviews, for the purpose of ClickBank affiliate marketers, are designed to 'pre-sell' or 'qualify' a product and, properly done, they can catapult sales of whatever you are promoting.
That's because prospective buyers are often suspicious when faced with sales pages for products from people they don't know; they wonder if all the verbiage about the product is true, or just marketing hype. Someone whose opinion they trust will remove those doubts and generate early orders.
Writing book reviews is a perfect way to generate that trust. Once that trust is established those previously sceptical individuals can become buyers for life.
Book reviews have additional benefits for the savvy affiliate and depend on whether that person chooses to grow a buyers only database or prefers to list all and sundry enquirers. To grow a buyers only list those reviews can be stand alone promotional pieces, for example, leading directly to ClickBank vendors' sales pages with affiliate links embedded.
Conversely, the affiliate could get potential buyers to join a mailing list before viewing the relevant sales page. Those who join a mailing list can be nurtured and converted to buyers later.
This nurturing is done by developing a relationship with those on your list, by sending free information and advice, even if that free information and advice represents purely more information about the product you'd like them to buy.
Whatever you decide, writing book reviews can be used to grow your ClickBank affiliate profits, and also for promoting your own products.
A review is what the name implies: another person's opinion about various aspects of a specific product and whether the reviewer considers the item represents good or bad information and subsequently whether the reviewer recommends others buy or do not buy the product.
A review aims to reduce whatever doubts might otherwise exist in a potential buyer's mind and get him into a relaxed state for ordering immediately he sees the reviewer's recommended ClickBank sales page.
This is what you need to know about book reviews:
* As an affiliate you don't want to be writing bad reviews for products you invite others to buy. That's not the way to make sales. But nor do you want to write glowing reviews for products you don't personally find useful. The truth generates credibility for the reviewer and can lead to multiple purchases over considerable time. Lying has quite the opposite effect!
* Don't ever promote books you don't recommend. If you find a product distasteful, stop reading it. If you bought the item purposely to review it you can always get a refund. But don't ever recommend another person buys the same item with the specific purpose of making money for you.
* Be honest, say what you like about a book, and if there's something you don't like include that also in your review. By doing so, potential buyers are more likely to trust your judgment, and buy your recommended product.
There's another big benefit to pointing out warts and all in your review, namely that fewer refunds are likely than where your review leaves out flaws which subsequent buyers consider a major problem. You'll encounter plenty of refunds and lose credibility by keeping flaws to yourself and you'll make people unlikely to trust your recommendations again.
Assuming you've done your research and found a ClickBank product you'd like to promote, you can begin writing your review. You do it like this:
* Read the book once without making notes.
* Try a few of the book's recommendations yourself so you really can talk from personal experience in your review.
* Study testimonials included in the sales letter. Make notes of any big names mentioned.
* Read the book again making comprehensive notes this time. Highlight points you find interesting, points you consider the author covered well, points you think he or she did not cover well.
* Go through the sales page again for the product. Note any areas you think were explained properly and others that were not explained properly in the book. Look for areas where the author over delivered, look for areas where the author under delivered.
CREATING YOUR BOOK REVIEW
* You must try to engage your readers' attention right away and encourage that person to keep on reading. A good way to do this is by asking a question at the beginning of the review that won't be answered until the final paragraph.
* You should write as if you were talking to a friend. Imagine a friend sitting facing you, image you are telling him or her about the book you've just finished reading.
* Now open a Word document and key in the title of the product, the author, the price, and where readers can obtain the book, namely via your affiliate link. Then give a brief outline of the book and its purpose. Much of this can be obtained from ClickBank's Marketplace listing for whatever books you recommend.
* Begin writing up those notes you made earlier, making each main point a separate paragraph or group of paragraphs in your overall review.
* Comment on how well the book is laid out, whether the information is easy to understand, if the author understands his or her subject.
* Mention any big name testimonials but only in brief. These testimonials might not be genuine, they might be solicited purely to add credibility to a promotion and my own view is that testimonials can also easily be faked. I don't trust testimonials at all and I rarely use them in my own promotions. But the fact is big names do create credibility, they can speak volumes about truth and honesty for some people, so at least mention them in your review.
* Mention any parts of the book you researched or actually tried, and give your results.
* Include a few quotes from the book, keyed inside ''quote'' marks. Those quote marks show you are repeating the author's words directly from the book. Quotes are important in highlighting information and facts from the book with which you might not personally agree or for which you can not prove authenticity. Last, but not least, those quotes give potential readers a feel for the writer's style and creative abilities.
* Next paragraph write about points on which the author over delivered.
* Next paragraph write about points on which the author under delivered. For selling purposes this paragraph should be shorter than the one dealing with over delivery.
* Do not give away too many secrets about the book especially where the sales letter leaves questions unanswered in order to generate curiosity and increase impulse sales of the book.
* Point out any flaws in the book. Flaws do not have to be major mistakes or omissions. A book review without mentioning some flaw can be less effective at pre-selling than a review mentioning some problem, however slight. If you really can't find a flaw or you feel uncomfortable mentioning problems, then at least say the book might not suit everyone or that readers may have personal circumstances that make the book less effective. For example, if you are reviewing a book about curing acne, you could say the advice works for most cases of acne but may be less effective for really serious conditions. Revealing a flaw or pointing out some problems makes your review more believable.
* Don't be rude about the author or unfairly criticise that person's work. If you have major reservations about the book or its creator it's best not to write the review.
* Close with an overall one or two word assessment of the product, such as 'Great', 'Ten out of Ten', 'This book exceeded my expectations and was well worth my $x investment'.
* Give ordering details again, being either a raw affiliate link, a web site address featuring your affiliate url, your own Squidoo page with affiliate link, and so on.
* Book reviews can be long or short but around 300 to 500 words is usually best.
* The best reviews sound genuine, not like hyped up sales letters.
* Unless disallowed by article directories, for example, you should add your affiliate link several times to your review, once in the resource box, for example, and again after your byline. Like this:
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Avril Harper is a successful ClickBank vendor and affiliate and the author of A COMPLETE NEWBIES' GUIDE TO MAKING MONEY WITH CLICKBANK.
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