Essay Online

Product reviews are an exceptional tool to drive traffic to your own, or any other website. They are inherently valuable and provide benefit, which is exactly what readers and webmasters are looking for. When content provides a benefit, people will read it, forward it, and link to it. As an online marketer or website owner, product reviews in particular are a great way to drive traffic to your website via linking, reprints, and click-throughs.

Saying that, in order for a product review to be an effective traffic generation tool, it must also be believable. This means that if at all possible, consider actually purchasing or trying out the product. It’s pretty much the only way to be completely knowledgeable about a product or service.

You also need to think creatively when reviewing. For example, a great product review for a hair removal system might actually have a series of reviews based on the ability of the product to remove or reduce hair over time. This type of review will most likely be linked to by many people because it is a real and demonstrative review of the product.

Here are a few things you should consider when you’re writing a review for a product or service.

1. Take the time to be thorough in your review. Every review must answer these questions:

* What does the product promise?

* How well does it achieve those goals?

* Is it a good value?

* What are the drawbacks of the product?

* Is the product easy to use?

* How does the product compare to others on the market?

* Would you buy or recommend the product? If yes, why? If no, why not?

2. Compare multiple products for more effect. Sometimes it’s easier to compare products than to simply evaluate one single product. When comparing products, it is important to remember a few things:

* Compare the same types of products.

* Compare similar attributes and features.

* Be honest about any preferences you have for one or the other.

3. Demonstrate information in a variety of ways. Can you incorporate graphics, pictures, or statistical data in your review? The more comparative information you can provide your reader, the better. Often, statistics are more easily understood when they’re conveyed in a graph, a chart or a simple photo.

Put yourself in your reader’s shoes. What would you want to know about the product or service? While it is important to be diplomatic in your reviews, it is also important to be tactfully honest. If your reviews are all positive all of the time, you’re going to loses a bit of credibility. People want the drawbacks pointed out to them too. They want both sides of the coin.

Write your reviews conversationally. This means using language most people understand. Skip the jargon and tech talk. Use language that is friendly. Break the review up into easily digested sections.

Keep to one point per paragraph and keep the paragraphs short and easy to read. Taking the time to write your review for online reading makes it easier to read, and thus easier to print, publish, and link to.

Food writer, or Foodie, as they are known in the trade, Nora Franke is overfed and overwrought over a recent breakup with her long time boyfriend. “We need a break” he tells her, Nora decides that spending some time away from the bustle of New York is just the tonic she needs. Her solution is to take a temporary job as recipe consultant at a ritzy and very exclusive Spa in Baja. Nora is ecstatic, three months in a beautiful location and able to combine her love of food with the ever pressing need to shed the results of too many gourmet adventures in New York.

Life at a Health Spa is much like life on a Cruise Ship, time becomes compressed, most of the guests are only there for a week. Friendships that would normally develop over weeks or months, develop in minutes, alas also do animosities. Nora finds herself more accepted by the guests than the staff, and is quickly drawn into a group of loosely connected friends that come to the Spa every year for a few days of relaxation and reflection. This group of opulent and seemingly wealthy friends readily accepts Nora as if they have known her since kindergarten.

The setting seems idyllic for something bad to happen, and Helen Barer is just the author to do it! Helen herself is no stranger to the world of writing, she has a number of cook books to her credit, but this is her first foray into the murder mystery genre.

The first cracks in the Louis Vuitton luggage occurs the next morning when the body of Alan is found, in what appears to be a climbing accident on a nearby mountain. What Nora notices is the different reactions from the members of the group, from grief, to indifference, to maybe something more sinister. In the 50 years that the exclusive retreat has been in existence this is the first death the ranch has ever experienced, sprained ankles, and a mild heart attack from over exertion held the previous record.

There is a second death, one that can not be explained away as an accident. Now Nora is pulled into the web of deceit, what is going on, and who is responsible for these two deaths?

Nora is on the scent! She has no investigative training, just a dogged thirst to find the truth. Of course this may not be the best ‘recipe’ for a long life!

I liked this book a lot, I think this is a very fine first time effort, small enough at 200 pages to be a quick read, but long enough to develop the characters well. I suspect that we will be seeing more of Nora Franke in future books by Helen Barer. If you are looking for a fun and fast murder mystery I can recommend that you try Fitness Kills.

Fitness Kills is the first in a series of cozy mysteries by Helen Barer. Helen spent many years as a writer of non-fiction material, ranging from cookbooks to television documentaries. She is presently at work writing her next Nora Franke mystery.