Review blogs are among the most profitable types of blogs you can start.
Some reviewers online are making tens of thousands of dollars every month from their blogs.
The good news is, there’s no secret behind their success. All you need is a solid strategy to follow and you will be able to build your own successful and profitable review blog.
I’ve written this article to provide the simple step-by-step process to build and grow a review blog – even for someone with no technical knowledge.
If you’re ready, let’s get started!
How to Start a Review Blog in 10 Steps:
If you just need someone to walk you through the process of setting up your blog quickly and easily, check out step 5.
There are many reasons why someone might want to start a review blog.
For instance, your goal might be to make money.
Or it could be a way to get free products from brands in your niche.
You may be starting a review blog to become an authority on your subject.
Whatever the reason, you need a proven plan to follow if you’re going to build, grow, and monetize your blog.
So without further ado, here are the 10 steps to follow when starting a review blog.
1. Decide the Focus of Your Review Blog
Your first step is to decide on the focus of your blog.
Ask yourself what direction you want your blog to take.
To help you get your brainstorming process underway, here are some possible ways for how you can position your review blog:
- Round-up reviews: Your blog can be focused on providing round-up reviews of products in your niche, such as “Best X for Y” articles.
- Single product reviews: You can choose products to review in any niche as a way to provide your audience with helpful information so they can make better-informed decisions.
- One product vs another: You can also write comparison reviews, where you showcase one product against another to help buyers make the best decision.
- Product alternatives: Sometimes people are wondering about alternatives to a particular product or software. If you like to let people know about other options, you can focus on these types of posts.
Simply put, with review blogs specifically, it’s usually best to have many of these types of reviews on your blog as that will lead to the most income.
2. Choose Your Review Niche
Once you know the direction your blog will take, it’s time to choose your niche.
With regard to product review blogs, your niche refers to the particular category of products that you will review on your blog.
You can choose to focus on one specific niche or multiple niches. Really, any niche is possible when it comes to a review blog because if products or software exists, they can be reviewed.
Here are some other things to consider:
- Review different products in one niche
- Review products from a variety of different niches
- Review different brands on Amazon, Home Depot, etc.
- Review Affiliate Programs
- Review Software
3. Choose Your Blogging Platform
Once you’ve picked your niche, it’s time to choose your blogging platform.
Although you have a wide range of options, both free and paid, it’s a good idea to choose premium self-hosted blogging platforms over free, hosted ones.
The reason for this is that free platforms like Blogger, Wix, and Squarespace are slow-loading and they limit your ability to monetize your website.
With these platforms, you don’t have full control over your content, and your website can be taken down without any notice if you violate any of their terms of use.
However, with self-hosted options like WordPress.org, you have full control over your website.
Your content belongs to you, and all the search engine optimization (SEO) work you do benefits your own website, rather than that of your host.
Best of all, you can monetize your blog in a variety of methods, such as private ads, selling products on your site, creating a membership website, and so on.
Benefits of Choosing Self-hosted WordPress Over Free Platforms:
- WordPress makes it easy for beginners to get started
- You can install WordPress with one click
- WordPress is free to download and use
- Self-hosted WordPress is extremely fast
- Websites built with WordPress rank high in the search engines
- WordPress provides ample support for any technical issues
- You can easily customize your blog to make it unique
- Choose from over 50,000 plugins to extend website functionality
Furthermore, WordPress is one of the most popular blogging platforms, powering over a third of the websites online right now, so you’ll be in good company.
There is no doubt that it’s the best choice for new bloggers, and it will help you build your review blog on a solid foundation.
Have I convinced you that WordPress is the best option for you?
Great!
Now onto the next step.
4. Decide on Your Domain Name
Your domain name is what you’re going to call your review blog.
It needs to be short, simple, and easy for your audience to remember and type into their browsers when they want to visit your blog.
Below is a list of 10 tips to help you choose a name for your review blog.
Set aside a couple of hours to complete this task. Don’t get stuck here, otherwise, you’ll never get to the fun part.
1. Choose “.com”: There are many different extensions you can choose from for your review blog, but, it’s always a good idea to go with “.com” for your domain name as it is the easiest for your audience to remember.
2. Choose a Broad Name: The name you choose shouldn’t restrict your ability to create content in the future. For instance, a name like “Keyboard Reviews” would not be as effective as “Computer Hardware Reviews” when it comes to expanding into different topics in the future.
3. Choose a Short Name: Your audience will find it easier to remember a short domain name. Keep it to a maximum of three or four words, but if possible, use just one or two words.
4. Use Alliteration: Alliteration refers to two or more words that start with the same letter or sound. For example, “Raving Reviews”. This helps to make the blog name more memorable.
5. Get Creative: If the blog name you want is already taken, find synonyms or words with the same meaning. For example, if you wanted a name like “Radical Reviews”, you might go for “Cutting Edge Reviews”, instead.
6. Add Extra Words: If you still can’t get the name you want, try adding extra words, such as “the“, “home“, “reviews“, etc. So, a name like “Verge Reviews” would become “The Verge Reviews”.
7. Think of a Concept: If you still can’t come up with a name for your new review blog, try thinking of a concept around your blog.
For example, how could your blog be branded? How could it grow in the future? By thinking in terms of where your blog could go, it can help you brainstorm new ideas for a great name.
8. Use Name Generators: There are a lot of tools online you can use to come up with great names for your new review blog. My favorites are Lean Domain Search and Instant Domain Search.
9. Don’t Buy a Domain Name: The name you want may already be taken, and you might find it for sale for hundreds or even thousands of dollars. Don’t be tempted to buy that domain.
Rather get a domain name at a regular price and use that money to create content that will fuel your blog success.
10. Do Not Get Stuck Here: As I said before, a lot of people tend to get stuck at this stage. They agonize over trying to pick the perfect name and never get around to actually starting their blog.
Don’t let this happen to you.
Put aside a couple of hours and go through this list. Once you have a name that you’re happy with, move on to the next step.
