Author:

Aleksandr Kagan

A Guide to a Successful Review Site


Choosing A Design

The first most and basic steps are developing and designing the web site. There are plenty of scripts out there such as php-nuke which seems that everyone is using it. Let’s just say it is being over used, this script doesn’t display any creativeness on the site. For example, we don’t see Tomshardware or Anandtech use these types of scripts. Remember this fact, sites like Tomshardware or Anandtech are Gods, we must look up to them and let the binary digits shine on us.

The fact is that if there is plenty of money around, just hire a programmer and don’t even bother with any lame scripts. Usually programmers are not good designers, so a separate designer would be appropriate. In my experience, I was screwed up about 10 times. These kiddies who design do not care what so ever if they are offered only like $300-400 for a design. These kiddies will prioritize their designs from the highest payers to the lowest. The customer could be waiting 6 months and guess what happens after 6 months? The designer has other customers who are offering $1000. The only suggestion is finding a good friend or decent a company to work with. Furthermore, the best tip of all is going to Indian companies, they will charge very little for the service.

Choosing A Domain Name and Host

So now it is time to choose a name. In true nature, the name will not really matter if it is popular, however in the beginning it might be criticized. Such as my site Hardware Pacers, I mean by the time I finish spelling out my site name, P … A … C … A, no … E …wait uhhh. For example, let us look at two Gods, Tomshardware and Anandtech, they are very simple site names and they came after their personal names. These names are very common and words such as ‘hardware’ and ‘tech’ are also very common. If there is any possibility that your name rhymes with keyboards like ‘tech’ or ‘hardware’, then just do it.

So we have chosen a name now and for some reason you are in the UK. One suggestion, whatever you do, do not pick a domain name that ends with .co.uk, this dot uk dot au dot etc is useless and confuses people, just put the damn .com at the end of it. After choosing, personally I would use Godaddy.com, they are extremely cheap and their tech support actually works. For the host, try to purchase a reseller account, where it allows to make other accounts with other domains. So for example, if your company expands, it would be easy to host. Make sure this host supports common packages such as MySQL and latest PHP version. If there is plenty of money around, one suggestion would be to purchase a dedicated server, meaning that it is not shared with other sites.

Introducing Your Site

Now that the domain and the host are set up, it is ready to be filled up with content. There are two paths for the site, one path is to go out and purchase $1000+ worth of latest computer hardware and review it, and the other path is to email many companies asking for products for review. Let me say one thing, the part where emailing PRs asking for products for review, is not going to happen unless there are internal friends. These PRs, they want good amount of unique visits. The first step they will proceed with is visit Alexa.com and look at the ratings. The rating for the first few days might be in the millions (lower the better). They will see these ratings and will just ignore your emails that. For those people who do not know what is Alexa rating, it is basically a dull toolbar that needs to be installed for the Internet Explorer browser. For every page a user visits with an Alexa toolbar, it will be recorded. So basically people who did not install this senseless toolbar, are not accounted.

The path to asking for products for review in the begging intern of your site is long and tedious, however there are some things that can be done to speed up this process. Creating a large email list would one way, not just one site or two, let them all know that there is a new review. Second, it is wise not to keep the product, the best choice would be to host a contest in the forum and give it away. One suggestion about contests is not to do random giveaways. What happens with random giveaways is that people will sign up and leave. The best way is figuring out how to make the contest so people would stay.

Choosing Products for Review

Hardware Pacers has reviewed dozens of products, let’s just say that we know exactly what will be popular and not. In the beginning, PRs will most likely send simple products for review such as CPU Coolers and Fans. Let me mention this, if you really think people really care for anonymous CPU Cooler, they don’t. Even thought people might not care, there will be always people who will be interested. The interest greatly increases if a brand is very popular and your site was the first one to review their new released product. It has happened to Hardware Pacers many times, where we have reviewed the Logitech MX900 Mouse and received thousands of unique visitors in one day. However, products like CPU Coolers can be also popular in some cases only if there is a roundup on them, where there is a comparison of dozens of them. This actually applies for any roundup, including speakers, hard drives, DVD burners, or any other product roundup. It does not matter if there is a review on a $5000 laptop, no one cares for reasons such as that it is too expensive and there is no comparison to other laptops.

Dealing with PRs

PRs will be the biggest challenge. PRs are taught to deal with, they want speed and perfection. When they send out a product for review, they do not want to wait one month or two for the review to be released. This is the biggest mistake that owners do where if you receive a product, the best solution is to review it in less than a week. The PR who sent the product out, will be really happy. In some cases if possible, review it in the next 24 hours, the PR will even thank you.

The minute the product arrives on the front door, it would be suffice to email that PR and thank him or her. PRs love to be thanked and talked to nicely. By talking to them nicely and thanking them, most likely you will in higher priority for the next product for review. The best way to thank them would be over the phone, talking on the phone is more personal and trashes writing through email 10 fold.

Once the review is complete, it is very crucial that it is at the top most quality, meaning that there are no spelling or grammar mistakes. What will happen if they see grammar mistakes is that when the next product is requested from them, you will be most likely ignored. Aside from speed and quality, PRs love awards, they will put these awards up on their site and quote a passage from the review.

Aside from dealing with PRs from a manufacturer, another way is to contact regular online stores. The only offer that could be made with them is to put up their Ad banner up for them and for return they will send out products for review. Of course it is very hard to receive anything from these stores because either they don’t have any interest in this type of marketing or that the Alexa ratings are horrible.

Dealing With Staff Members

Once the site is more popular and you are becoming overloaded with reviews, it will be time to find some staff members. The best way finding a staff member is asking all of your friends. Most friends live close by and if they want to screw you over, it will be harder for them. My mistake was finding staff members on the other side of the country. These staff members would just disappear with the product without a trace, then I would spend days tracking them down. Avoid this mistake and only hire staff members that are local. If you have no techie friends, hire a lawyer, and let him/her write up a contract that will make any staff member sign.

Now when finding a staff member, the biggest challenge is for that staff member writing reviews in a fast pace and good quality. Most staff members that I found lacked in good grammar skills. Some of these people might be committed and quick, however it is a pain to edit their work. I tried to take steps by incorporating a list of required components in the review, such as here: http://www.hardware-pacers.com/requirements.php. Also aside from quality of the review, eventually staff members will be tired reviewing products, so they will slow down. This cannot happen, the best way to avoid this problem is asking that staff member if he/she will be excited, yes ‘excited’ to review the product. If that staff member is not very excited to review the product, go to another one or just let your self review it.

I Tried Everything and My Site Still Ranks Low

If the Alexa ratings are still horrible and many companies are still avoiding the site, the only option left is to expand. What I mean by expanding is reviewing products in another country. The biggest challenge is finding a reliable staff member in another country. The best method would be asking a friend from another country who you have been in contact for many years. If not, ask your friend if he/she has a friend that is willing. Once the arrangements are made, the next step would be to look for PRs. The best way is to email all the PRs that could be found at the same time. When a PR responds and there is a confirmation that he/she is interested, start making an email list. This email list should point to all known tech review sites from that country. Now if you think that is not satisfying, add a domain such as co.uk. Remember, when adding a domain to point to the host, Alexa will count this domain as a separate site, to avoid this, write a redirect script to point to the .com domain.

My Alexa Ratings Are Better, Now What?

Now with good Alexa ratings, more companies would be willing to work with you. Sometimes that will not work, even if the site has a rating of 1,000. The best way is to go to shows like CES, where you can meet all different kinds of PRs. Lets say our famous PR from Intel US, George. He will most likely not send you the CPU even if you have a great rating. The only way would be probably to meet him. Once these PRs know you very well, they will be more interested and will likely send you products more than ever.

With all these great ratings, something must come out of this? Of course, lots of cash. Let me tell everyone, the best money comes from price searches such as pricegrabber.com. People love to search for lowest prices and people hate and I repeat hate clicking those ridiculous banners. Advertisement pop-ups and banners are overused on the Internet. The only profit comes from the Ads is if the advertisement agency or the company will pay you something like $10 per lead. Even if they pay such great amounts, most likely it will be a huge company where everyone is already signed up or not interested. Lets say Citibank, a huge bank in US, this company pays huge amount for leads and for some reason no one signs up. People might click once or twice, however they will not sign up. The only Ads that might work are dynamic that show the lowest price for the product. To point out the truth I have tried Commission Junction at http://www.cj.com. I did not receive a cent from them, I removed their Ads and said to hell with them.

Anything Else?

After a while people tend to not like the design anymore. It would be appropriate to change the design every year or so. Thought some people might hate this idea, however if the previous design was ‘crap’, this should be considered seriously. Sites like Anandtech does not need a makeover, even thought they improved their design, they did not change much and I like that. Tomshardware has 20 million Ad banners everywhere, thought this is too much, however since Tom is a God, I have no more comments.