How to become a paid reviewer

Becoming a paid reviewer is simple; if you can identify the right opportunities and recognize legit websites from fake ones, you can start your job as a paid reviewer. 

Reliable websites and companies asking for reviews ask for your time and skills as a good writer; they never ask you for money; if they do, you should consider it a red flag. You only need to sign up for those websites by putting in your information and start writing reviews for products they offer and products with experience in using them.

You need to understand that companies look for particular people to test their products. For example, a pet shop wouldn’t need someone to write reviews about cat or dog food with no pet. 

You would only qualify for particular product testing opportunities based on your demographic. Many sites offer paid product review possibilities, and we will discuss those opportunities and how you can take them in this article.

The amount of money you can gain from paid reviewing depends on the number of websites and product reviews you decide to do. The more products or services you review, the more money you can make, depending on the amount the websites offer, which can differ.

Tips for Getting Started as a Paid Reviewer

Pick a Niche

You must decide what products you want to write reviews about. Some reviewers start making reviews on different social media platforms to gather a decent amount of authentic followers. Most companies seek honest and unbiased reviews about their products and services. 

Therefore, the more you are familiar with the industry, the more accurate and relevant reviews you can offer. For example, if you want to review healthy snack options, you must have enough information about healthy nutrition and diet principles, be an athlete, or at least have tried some of these products.

Identify companies that need product reviews

You can find these companies on Fiverr, Upwork, or Guru. Many companies post an ad for hiring candidates to write reviews, and you can send your resume to get the job. You should also send some of your writing samples with your CV. If you don’t have a writing sample or haven’t done this before, you should start by writing reviews for free and improving your portfolio. 

After enhancing your CV, companies will likely contact you for product reviews. You can also identify different websites with a specific amount of money for writing reviews. You can sign up on the websites, start writing a review, and after your review is approved, you can receive your payment.

Try out the product or service before writing the review

To write a review, you need insight into the product or service you want to write about. If you have used the product or service, you can provide your experience more insightfully and honestly and help potential customers decide about purchasing the product. 

Describe the Product

Provide some basic information about the product and describe your first thoughts when you first saw or used the product.

Describe Product Features

Describe your experience when you started using the product and provide some information about the main features of the product. 

Provide Pros and Cons

Talk about the advantages and disadvantages of the product and compare them with similar products in the related industry,

Write about your experience

People usually write reviews when they are satisfied with the product or when they are not happy with the product at all. There are not that many reviews that can stay in the middle of these two circumstances. If you leave a 1-star review for a product, many people might not trust your opinion because everyone knows nothing is perfect. 

So, even if you are unsatisfied with the product, you must point it out but try to point out some positive traits and then leave a three-start rate. This way, you can be much more helpful to people deciding to buy this product and need second thoughts. 

Be specific and honest toward the target audience

Reviews that provide a general idea about a product are not helpful. When someone writes down “nice job” for a product, no one can understand why you liked the product and why they did a great job. So, consider customers’ questions about the products and write your reviews based on that. Put yourself in the customer’s shoes and write a review to help someone decide whether to buy this product. 

Give suggestions and recommendations

You might have gained some experience after using the product, or you were able to find information about the product that you wished you could have sooner. When you write about your suggestions or preferences about the product, you can create a new set of expectations for the next customers. If you have a recommendation or an idea that can improve the product, point it out and write as if you are an instruction notebook for the following potential clients. 

Offer competitive insight

If you are writing a review about a competitive industry or a competing product, explain why you prefer this one against many similar products. You should help readers decide so this information can help them understand which product is the best choice.

Be short but not too brief 

Get to the point and avoid providing too many details. You need to provide the essential information to the readers and write at least 3-4 sentences rather than more. To be more accurate, write your real buying experience. Talk about the critical features that got your attention and the traits customers will care about the most. Your review should be informative, so keep it in the middle and avoid writing too short or too long. 

Provide negative feedback carefully

The primary audience that will read your reviews is potential customers. Suppose you want to write a review about a product you were unsatisfied with and use unnecessary negative language about the product. In that case, readers think an unreasonable person wrote this review, and no one will take your review seriously. If you are not happy with a product or service, you have to write it in an honest, calm, and unbiased language.

Reread your review to ensure it makes sense

Please double-check the writing that will be published. Check your written review before posting or sending it. Double-check grammar and spelling mistakes and ensure your sentences are short and easy to understand. 

Rate the Product

Based on the website regulations, rate the product from 0-5 or 0-10. You can also give your ratings for different features of the product.

What Are the Requirements for Becoming a Paid Reiwer?

The qualifications the paid reviewers need can differ based on the industry they want to write reviews about. For general products, you should be accurate and precise. If you are applying for a job as a paid reviewer, you should have a high school diploma and some experience in the product’s field or industry. A qualified paid reviewer should have the following capabilities:

• Enough knowledge about the industry: Product reviewers need a basic understanding of the industry they review. Understanding industry fundamentals and trends can help them to create more accurate and authentic reviews.
• Being familiar with the product’s type: Reviewers should know the product they want to review or have some experience using. This feature will help them to make reviews faster and help readers understand what to look for in each product.
• Have some marketing experience: Some recruiters seek marketing experience with paid reviewers. Marketing experience decreases the need for training and can help a reviewer fit into their position more quickly.
• Have some customer service experience: Reviewers work directly with customers. Therefore, customer service skills can help them create relationships with clients. The customer service experience also allows reviewers to write negative reviews more positively and affirmatively.
• Have minimal educational background: Reviewers should have a high school diploma. Some recruiters might need marketing, business, or product management degrees.
• Impartiality: A product reviewer should provide an honest and unbiased opinion about a product or service. If satisfied with the product, they should highlight the positive traits and offer suggestions for improvements. If the reviewer is unsatisfied with the product, they should be honest about the weaknesses and provide tips to eliminate the flaws. 
• Good writing skills: A paid reviewer should have good grammar and writing skills to write solid and understanding sentences. You should improve your writing skills before considering this career. Writing reviews differs from writing blog posts or articles; you should learn about the differences and study other reviews to gain insights. 

Different Types of Paid Reviewer Opportunities

There are many ways to get paid for writing reviews, and the most common is using sites and platforms that pay people to write reviews for brands and companies. But you can make money by writing reviews in other ways, and we will discuss those options. 

Start a review blog

A review blog reviews specific products or services. Paid reviewers can review different products on their blogs:

• Physical products like clothes, makeup, home goods, pet care accessories, etc.
• Software and services like email marketing services, anti-virus software, website builders, and more.
• Services such as consulting, content writing, and more.
• Digital products like ebooks, e-courses, memberships, etc.

Product review bloggers can make money through affiliate marketing. They write reviews about different products and services. The reviewer is an affiliate of the reviewed product. After reading the review, the reviewer receives a commission when someone buys that product or service.

Here are a few successful affiliate marketing blogs that make money with product reviews.

• Just a girl, and her blog
• Fit healthy momma
• Own the yard
• Pet blog lady
• Test freaks
• Mouthshut

Freelance reviews

There is a high demand for online reviews in today’s market. Businesses and websites need review writers to communicate with brands that are willing to pay them. Some websites provide general reviews, while others review a specific industry. Some of the most popular websites that will pay you to write reviews are as below:

1. Slicethepie (Pays for Tech, music, and fashion reviews)
2. Get Reviewed (Pays for sponsored Posts & blog Reviews)
3. G2 (Pays for Software & Business Tools)
4. UserTesting (Pays for testing and reviewing websites & apps)
5. Software Judge (Pays for reviewing software)
6. ReviewStream (Pays for reviewing almost anything)
7. Capterra (Pays for proven software reviews)

Use Social Media

Many people use social media daily, and it is the best platform for marketing products and services. Most people depend on social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter to find the products they need and buy them or promote their business. Online buying and selling are trending today and will soon replace traditional marketing methods. You can make money by making reviews on different social media platforms as below:

Private Facebook groups

Private Facebook groups are trendy these days for writing reviews, especially for paid Amazon reviews. If you search ‘Amazon Review Groups’ in your Facebook search bar, you will find many communities of reviewers and posts made in these groups daily. Reviewers can get free products and great discounts for providing positive reviews. This method might not seem that exciting for earning money as a paid reviewer, but it is widespread these days, and many paid reviewers are getting paid through these private Facebook groups.

Start a YouTube channel

If you have expertise in some field, you can share your ideas about it with other people on different social media platforms or, in other words, get paid for giving suggestions. If you can, you should start a YouTube channel and review any products or services you know enough about. Sometimes, you don’t even need to be an expert. You have to pick a product you have some ideas about and talk about.

Start an Instagram review page

You can start reviewing products on your Instagram page. You can choose to review products from a specific niche, or you can review products from different unrelated categories. If you have few followers, you must continue reviewing products for free for a while. If you go through the right path after a while, you can start working with different companies, review their products after receiving the product samples, and start making money. 

The Pros and Cons of Becoming a Paid Reviewer

The Internet provides different passive income opportunities and many ways to make money online. However, knowing how to become a paid reviewer is something you can take advantage of and count on as a side job or even a full-time job to make money. Below are some of the benefits of working as a paid reviewer.

Working from Home

You can work from home efficiently and make money as a paid reviewer. 

Gain some extra Cash

Making money as a paid reviewer can be a part-time job, but it can also be an excellent opportunity to make some extra cash. You can earn between $5 to $100 per review based on your expertise, preferred niche, and time.

Access to new products

One of the main advantages of working as a paid reviewer is access to new products. Many companies send product samples to reviewers before they hit the market. With this opportunity, reviewers can use the product or even keep it for free or with a high discount.  

It is an easy job

Working as a paid reviewer is simple and easy. Writing for a blog usually needs around 2000 words; taking other freelancing jobs can take much of your time. But writing a review is simple, easy, and fast.

You can gain more followers

If you are a product reviewer on Instagram or YouTube or have a blog review, you have followers you are waiting for to offer them information about a specific product. You can gain real followers by reviewing products, which will give you a chance to improve your platform. Companies might identify your influence and offer free products for review or even start a contract with you to review their future products.

You don’t need an investment

You don’t need to invest in starting a job as a paid reviewer. Most sites that pay you for writing reviews don’t ask you for money for the registration or sign-up process. Also, reaching out to companies and asking them to provide you with a review opportunity is free of charge.

Working as a paid reviewer has benefits, but some disadvantages are mainly addressed to the company or website offering payment to customers or bloggers for reviewing. Some of these downsides are as follows:

Paid reviews can be detected

Many companies pay for reviews to increase their brand’s exposure on popular review websites. However these websites are some of the biggest names in the world, and they have AI programs with outstanding capabilities. 

They are equipped with algorithms that can recognize fake reviews. They have many methods for identifying paid reviews. These algorithms will identify users if too many reviews are written from one IP address. This process could lead to a business getting banned or punished by search engines and other directories.

Paid reviews can damage a company’s reputation

The review platform’s primary goal is to promote businesses, but it can also punish the ones that violate the ethical standards of their website. Many websites have created a feature that can identify paid reviews. This feature can alert customers, who might address your brand as a business with unethical behavior.

Paid Reviews are a legal liability

There is a possibility that your business will get sued or even receive fines for publishing fake reviews. This legal liability is why many review websites are cautious about false or fake reviews on their platform.

Final thoughts

Working as a paid reviewer is more than receiving free products from companies. You can work as a paid reviewer full-time, and you can work from home. This job can offer you new opportunities every day on the path. 

If you follow the steps in this article and write your reviews for the correct niche, you and the business can take advantage of the benefits. Companies can offer excellent service, receive great reviews, and promote their business. 

Paid reviews can be a good opportunity for businesses stuck in a rough patch. No business or brand can provide flawless services all the time. However, receiving positive reviews can fade the negative ones after a while. 

When people want to buy a product or service, they read reviews and look for two things in each review: the product rating and the number of written reviews. Most people write reviews because they have something to say, but paid reviews can give people an opportunity to make some money and help people who need guidance about a specific product or brand.