Disclaimer: I received a free review copy in exchange for this review. The fact that I received the article for free has no bearing on my review.
The good
Word count: The review copy was supposed to be 500 words. It ended up being 896.
TAT: The seller took roughly 3.5 days to deliver the article. Even if this wasn't a free review copy, that's still a good turn around time.
Spelling/Grammar: No noticeable spelling or grammatical mistakes were found.
Article flow: The article flowed well from start to finish. I was engaged the whole time. Since the only people that would read this article are people who Google search for this specific product, I think it does a good job of summarizing the main points of the product, while delivering a strong conclusion.
Things that can use improvement:
The writer mentioned the product's price in the review. Since this is a product sold on Amazon, that's something that should be avoided.
The writer wrote the article as if they had purchased and thoroughly tested the product. They even wrote that they had a mechanical issue with the first product they received and had to contact the manufacturer to replace it. While I don't know the particular legality of saying you actually hands-on tested a product vs being a review aggregator, it's something that I feel is best avoided.
*These two things could have been avoided if I gave the writer my usual product review template/instructions. However, I wanted to include this in the review since the majority of buyers don't give that information to writers.
When writing about the product, the writer did a good job. However, when the writer wrote about the niche, it's evident that there wasn't much research done.
Conclusion:
For $2.5/100 words, this is an okay service. The TAT, spelling, grammar, and flow puts it around the $2.5/100 mark. However, the writer mentioning the Amazon product's price and writing as if they did hands-on testing of the product is very off-putting. Per the seller's BST, he does off unlimited revisions. I'd have to take him up on that offer if this article was to go live on my website.
Final note to buyers: always provide the writer with as much detail as possible regarding how you want the final product to come out. I did not provide the seller with any details for this review copy.
[[UPDATE]] - Erik reached out to me and asked what I would like to have revised in the product review. I gave him some brief feedback about the piece (in addition to the above). The revised copy that was sent to me is great. The piece showed there was research done about the niche, flowed well, was engaging, gave a great overview of the product, and a strong buying conclusion. I can't really ask for much more. Again, the above issues I had could have been avoided if I provided the seller with my usual product review instructions.
No complaints with this service. Worth the $2.5/100 words. Erik, send me buying guide samples.