When she first started doing them, author Cathy Goodwin had no idea that her Amazon book reviews would garner clients for her career consulting service. In fact, she initially felt guilty for writing the reviews, thinking they were a total waste of time. She soon discovered she was wrong to feel that way. Amazon.com review readers actually started calling Cathy. They Googled her name. She knew writing Amazon reviews was a kick-butt marketing technique when one person hired her for a ,500 service. Yes… stemming directly from her Amazon.com reviews.

Needless to say, she hasn’t stopped writing them since. Cathy has been submitting Amazon book reviews for several years now, garnering web site traffic, clients, book sales and newsletter subscribers from this simple technique. She explains her whole process in Boost Business with Online Book Reviews.

If you’d like to start generating traffic from your Amazon reviews, she has three suggestions:

1) Think like a member of the community, not like a salesperson. When you construct reviews, remember that the primary goal is to be of service to the reader. Tell why you liked the book. Why didn’t you like it? Don’t just say, “I hated it!” That’s not offering the reader any assistance. Give the reasons why you liked or didn’t like it. Readers want honesty combined with rationale.

2) Write reviews for titles related to your web site. When Cathy first started out she focused on career related books, because she was a career counselor and she’d written a career related title. She began noticing that when people were ordering her career e-book, they said they had found her through Amazon. That’s not to say that you shouldn’t write reviews for other types of books. Cathy says that writing other types of reviews does add to your credibility. It just means that if you have a freelance writing web site, you should definitely do more reviews on books pertaining to your web site’s topic.

3) Complete more reviews and you’ll boost your credibility. One review isn’t going to send a barrage of traffic to your web site. For maxium success think volume. Volume demonstrates to readers that you’re really there to help. But then again, this volume concept is no different than most other marketing techniques. Readers sometimes have to see your name several times over before they finally begin seeking you out.

Sure it’ll take a little time, but the pay off can be awesome. Cathy says that once you start funneling that traffic from Amazon, you can get those readers to sign for your newsletter or buy products that you’re promoting. They’ve already got their credit card in hand when they’re on Amazon, and they’re accustomed to buying online. That automatically makes them prime customers.