Deja vu? No.

On Day 16 of our yeah write 31 dbbb summer series the exercise was to write an opinion post. Today’s activity is seemingly interchangeable with Day 16, but there’s more to writing a review than having an opinion. 

Whether it’s a book, product, recipe, or another blog, research makes the review. It doesn’t have to be a lot of effort, but knowing what you’re writing about gives your post credibility and balance. Check your facts. Know the intended purpose of the item you’re reviewing so you can decide if it has met its goal.

It’s not enough to enjoy or dislike something when you write about it. It’s important to give examples that show how you came to your opinion. You can do this in your own voice, in keeping with your blog style, so don’t feel like you have to be all newsanchor-y about it. Be you. I like you best.

The benefits of a review

• encourages conversation, debate and advice among your readers
• it’s helpful to your niche to let them know about the advantages or disadvantages of an item
• keeps your blog current with trends and increases your traffic via searches

Flood pro-tip: As part of your editorial calendar, consider adding one review per season.

What to review

What are you passionate about? ProBlogger author Darren Prowse writes:

You might be thinking to yourself right now that your blog isn’t suited to ‘review’ posts. You don’t write about products and can’t think of any books that might relate to your topic? Fear not – all you need to do is think a little creatively to still be able to do today’s challenge. Here are a few ideas:

• Review a book
• Review a movie or TV show relevant to your audience
• Review another website in your niche
• Review a restaurant if you’re a food blogger
• Review an article from a magazine or website
• Review a hotel, tourist destination or airline if you’re a travel blogger
• Review an outfit that a celebrity is wearing if you’re a fashion blogger
• Review a speech given by a politician if you’re a political blogger
• Review a gadget if you’re a tech blogger
• Review a tool or piece of equipment relevant to your niche
• Review an exhibition or gallery if you’re an Art Blogger
• Review a toy if you’re a Mom or Dad Blogger
• Review an instrument if you’re a music blogger
• Really the list could go on an on – there’s so much scope with this type of post.

You get the idea and can probably think of even lots more stuff, based on Day 19’s Solve a Problem. The 31dbbb workbook for Day 30 has many suggestions about writing reviews, including ten tips to get the most out of your efforts. If they inspire you enough to write a review post, feel free to post it to the grid below. It’s coded for the yeah write #120 weekly writing challenge, so you’ll have to grab the challenge grid badge from the sidebar and add it to your review post to avoid any error message from the Inlinkz app.

Personal note from Flood:

I’m away from the Internet this week, so I’m sorry I won’t be able to respond to your comments about today’s post. I also wanted to tell you that this is my last post for yeah write, having handed in my resignation to my managing editor and friend, Erica M, last month. (I’m resigning from yeah write, not the friendship.) I want to thank you for the amazing community here. You are an inspiring group of people and I will cherish this experience as I face new adventures. Thanks for everything, you guys. Keep writing!