So you’ve obtained the product, tested it thoroughly, and made notes of your evaluation. Now it’s crunch time. You need to sit down and write your review.

If that seems a little daunting, don’t worry. It’s easy when you have a process to follow—and that is exactly what we are about to discuss. All you need to do is follow the plan, and you will find that writing reviews is both easier and quicker than you thought. 

1. Understand Your Audience

The first rule of writing any piece of content is to understand your target audience. Who do you expect to read your review? Take a moment to think about their likely:

Once you have identified who you are speaking to, you can tailor your writing style accordingly. 

For example, if you are reviewing a simple game, your readers may be on the younger and less sophisticated end of the scale. In this case, you should write very clearly in simple English, leaving out the long words and complicated phrasing.

But if you are reviewing a literary novel, you can expect your audience to be older and better educated. In this case, you can aim a little higher with your writing style. 

2. Take a Stand

Always remember that a review is an expression of your personal opinion. So don’t worry about upsetting the people behind the product or even the readers of your review. Give your honest opinion and take a stand for what you truly think.

Your review can be:

However, you should support your opinion with details and evidence. Even if readers disagree with you, they need to see how you reached your conclusions.

3. Provide Constructive Feedback

A good review includes enough detail to give others a feel for what happened. Explain which factors contributed to your positive, negative, or just so-so experience. Give your thoughts on what is outstanding and what can be improved. 

There’s nothing wrong with pointing out where the product is weak, but your response should be constructive, well thought out, and helpful. 

4. Be Detailed and Specific

The best reviews are always that dig into the nitty-gritty and provide real details. It’s not enough just to say that you like the product or hate it. Readers of your reviews will want to know why you feel the way you do.

This is where your evaluation notes will come in handy. Refer back to them and remind yourself what struck you while you were testing the product. Ask yourself:

Your review can never be too detailed. There will always be some readers who are looking for feedback on one specific feature or element. Make sure you give them the information they need. 

5. Keep it Friendly

When you publish your review, it will be online for the whole world to read. So the tone and style of your review is important.

You can certainly write a negative review if you don’t like the product. However, there’s no need to go to town and write a nasty report. That will just make you look mean and unhelpful.

Instead, aim to write a balanced review that measures the good against the bad to give an overall opinion. Even if that’s still negative, you can express your thoughts in a friendly way. It always pays to be civil!

In particular, take care not to write any defamatory statements about the product’s creators. They could come back to haunt you later!

6. Illustrate with Examples

The best reviewers know that giving examples of what you mean is an excellent way to level up your write-ups.

Let’s say you are reviewing a movie that you think has wonderful, original dialogue. Rather than simply state this, provide some evidence to back up your claim. Provide a quote from the script that shows quality dialogue in action.

This is an excellent way of engaging your audience with your review. You are giving them a taste of what they can expect, which is sure to pique their interest.

7. Don’t Give Too Much Away!

When you are reviewing movies or novels, you need to strike a careful balance. For sure, readers will want you to give them a good taste of what the film or book is all about. However, they don’t want you to ruin the experience by giving away the ending. 

In this kind of review, you can introduce the characters and the basics of the plot. You can give clues about how the plot unfolds, as long as you don’t reveal too much. It’s a tricky balance to get right, but a well-written review will get a lot of attention. 

If you really must give important plot information away, be sure to signal this with a clear header that says ‘Spoiler Alert.’ Then people who don’t want to know too much can look away.

8. Summarize Your Review

When you’ve covered all the main points, finish your review with a quick summary of what you have discussed. There will always be people who skim through the review and just look at the last paragraph or two.

Make sure the last few sentences bring everything together and summarize your overall view of the product, whether that’s good or bad. If someone can just read the last paragraph or two and get a good understanding of your thinking, you’ve done a good job.

9. Give a Recommendation

Should readers buy the product...or not?

Your reviews should always end with a conclusion one way or the other. Of course, not everyone will agree with your opinion. Another reviewer may reach precisely the opposite conclusion.

That’s fine. Your review is solely about what you think. You should pay no attention to what other reviewers think or what people may be saying on social media. Just focus on sharing your honest, carefully-considered opinion.

If you can do that with every review, you will be well on your way to becoming a popular and successful reviewer. 

Bear in mind that you will be reviewing the free version of products, which may have limitations. With apps and games, for example, the free version may have fewer features than the paid version. So you need to consider the experience users may have with the paid version, and determine whether they will get value for money. 

The good news is that even though you are reviewing free products, you still make money. People search for information on all kinds of products, including free ones. Plus, the Write App Reviews platform is designed to generate income from every review. So whether the product is free, freemium or has a free trial, you still make money!

10. Review & Proofread

You’ve written your review? Great...but hold on a moment. It’s always a good idea to check your write-up carefully. 

The best plan is to put it aside for a day or two, then re-read. On the second reading, you will probably notice things that you missed the first time. There may be omissions that need to be corrected or grammatical and spelling errors to fix.

You will probably find that re-reading your review two or three times and tweaking your words makes a big difference. After a few days, you will have a review that’s polished and ready to go. You will be ready for the big event...publication day!

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