Galleries on a review site?

[RDude]

Are picture and/or video galleries necessary for a review site?

Also, if galleries are a good idea, is it better to have them on a separate page, or perhaps 8-12 enlargeable thumbs under the review itself for surfers to check out?

I will be linking to the review site from blogs and other sites as well of course, but I'm wondering if providing action examples on the review site would be a good idea for extra signup motivation and for those who happen onto the review site through a search engine and not a blog.

Thanks:cool:

[basschick]

there's more than one way to do galleries on a review site - look at gaydemon. but i'd say that since reviews sell better than galleries, it may be a great way to take your review traffic and make it convert worse. thebestporn doesn't have galleries on their reviews and they convert well. gaydemon doesn't keep the galleries on the reviews, and i think that's a good thing.

[gaydemon]

I would never combine different types of traffic, why give away more than you need to. People reading your reviews are there to find out about the site. A gallery will both distract them as well as present them with another chance at changing their mind.

They might stop reading reviews and start surfing your galleries instead.

I would be careful with what you add or link to your reviews.

[RDude]

Thanks very much for your feedback.

I wanted to hear perspectives from others and my thoughts were similar in that galleries might distract the readers. I have seen a few review sites using galleries either right on the review page itself, or on other pages on the site. I have to wonder how well they convert.