Greetings and Salutations!

Those of you who follow my Facebook or Twitter feeds probably saw that I worked hard to post a ton of reviews today. Now is definitely the time to get those reviews live - Cyber Monday is coming, and the entire month of December is high sales time on the web. Right now is when your reviews have the best possible chance of earning you income and a boost in your reputation, whichever you prefer!

Here are a few tips for getting the best possible traction for your reviews.

* Mention benefits and flaws in your review. The more you prove you're a fully unbiased reviewer, the more likely people are to believe what you write and to reward you with a click. There are always both sides to bring up. If it's a movie you love, it might still be inappropriate for 12 year olds. If it's a book you love, it might be too technical for a complete beginner. By giving a full review, you earn your readers trust.

* Include a photo if appropriate. I know normally I'm against random photos in articles. They interfere with your smartphone-using visitors. However, a small, right-aligned photo can be very helpful in the review of a product. Describing what a "green pink widgit" looks like can be hard - a photo makes it clear. Showing a book's cover helps ensure the reader buys the right one. People remember images. Be sure to right align your image, so it doesn't road block the reader's eyes. Have the image come *after* your initial paragraph, so it doesn't interfere with search engine indexing. And finally, always give your image an ALT tag! Google gives amazingly high value to images in articles when they have related ALT tags. Put those images to good use, and get found!

Contact Jeanne / resources@bellaonline.com if you need help with images.

* Include a link at the very bottom of your article to buy the item. Whether you get affiliate income or not, it's always nice to help your readers get to that destination quickly. Of course, it's always nice if you DO get affiliate income. If you can't or don't want to get it for yourself, look into the many charities on the web that you can use the affiliate link of, so they get that earning.

* If it's on Amazon, post a copy of your review there. Customize your name and profile so they promote your various web projects. That way readers who enjoy your review then learn about the other things you do. This is one time the duplicate content rule really doesn't apply. Search engines are fine with reviews being both on Amazon and on your "source site".

Let me know if you have any questions about writing successful reviews!


WEEKLY WRITING REWARDS

You guys are all incredibly patient with me :) Somehow I have fallen way behind in announcing the weekly writing rewards. We award these each month for editors who have written weekly for the previous three months. We are currently due to award the two gift certificates for September 2010, so here we go!

Our first September winner is also - I believe - our eldest member! Letta Meinen runs our golf site and is an inspiration to us all with her energy. She has been with BellaOnline since June 2005.

http://golf.bellaonline.com


Our second winner is Diane Cipollo, for her articles on her Digital Art and Design site. Diane is also our talented designer behind the beautiful quarterly issues of Mused! Diane has been writing for DAaD since at least 2004 - our start date tracking was a bit iffy back in those early years :) Diane, if you do know exactly when you started, I can update that for you!

http://digitalartdesign.bellaonline.com

Congratulations to Letta and Diane! You two - please let me know what email address you would like me to email your $50 Amazon gift certificate to, and I'll get to that promptly! :)

Lisa Shea, owner
BellaOnline.com

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