Can I Review Something I've Had For Years?

Yes! It’s a great strategy.

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A: I have a coffee table with a shell pattern inlay. When I was buying it, one of my big questions was how well it would hold up over time. It’s one of those pieces that looks beautiful the day it arrives, but you can easily picture it getting destroyed.

Three years in, it has held up well. It also happens to still be sold on Amazon, so I did a review on it. It turned out to be a great review, because the people looking at it now have the exact same question I had, and I’m the one who can answer it for them.

That’s exactly why review posts that are a few months or a few years old tend to do really well. You’re not just unboxing it in front of someone. You’re telling them this has actually lived in my home and survived.

I think it’s good to show the dings and the scratches. That’s what makes you genuine and actually helpful to the person deciding whether to buy it. They don’t expect it to be perfect after a few years. They want to know it’s still going to hold up and still look good, especially when it’s a larger investment. For me, with that coffee table, I was able to suggest buying a glass top for it to help it last longer.

So here’s the answer. No, a product doesn’t have to be new for you to review it. One thing does matter, though. The exact same item still has to be a live listing on Amazon. If yours was discontinued or swapped for a newer model, you can’t review it. It has to be the exact same product. So before you film, pull up the listing and check it’s the same one people can still buy today.

If you have OINK (code BARB for 10% off) or Viral Vue (code WELCOME10 for 10% off) linked to your affiliate account, they can check your order history and show you if there are any Creator Connections campaigns attached to things you’ve already bought. They can check every item you’ve ever bought on Amazon, going back years, if you want to look.

If you haven’t picked up either of those yet, that’s okay. All you need to do is look around your house. Think about something you questioned before you bought it. Something you wished someone had shown you what it would look like years later. Make a list of those things, then check if they’re sold on Amazon.

Pro tip: you know those high value products you are reviewing that are brand new? Go make a second video 6 months later and post that too!

Action:

• Walk through your house and list a few things you questioned before buying.

• Check if each one is still sold on Amazon.

• If you have OINK or Viral Vue, run your order history to see if any past purchases have a Creator Connections match.

• If it’s live, film it exactly as it looks now. Dings, scratches, and all. But remember we aren’t there to put products down so deliver any negative feedback in a helpful way. Like me saying “one thing I did to help the top stay in great condition was to buy a glass top for it” and if I hadn’t bought that top? I could say “I do really wish I had thought to buy a glass top because it may have helped reduce wear and tear”.