You love films, you love learning about them, and you love writing. So it only seems natural you should start a movie review blog, right?

There are lots of great film blogs out there written by everyone from complete novices doing it as a hobby, to professional critics who earn a living by sharing their opinion on the latest movies to hit theaters.

While all that can seem like a great fit for you, writing reviews in a blog format is more challenging than it may initially seem. Yes, it’s largely about your feelings and opinions about a particular film, but there is a certain overall formula most reviewers follow. There are distinct elements that a strong review needs to have, whether it’s written for a nationally syndicated newspaper column, or it’s something you’re sharing on your personal blog.

This formula is particularly important if you want to move your website from being purely a hobby to a blog that will make you money.

Below are some tips you can follow to create film reviews and blog like a professional critic, even if you’re just starting.

Be Prepared

It’s time-consuming to watch movies but to be able to write on them and review them thoroughly, that’s just what you need to do. You don’t want to create an opinion based on just a snippet of a film, watching only part of it, or reading what others have said.

If you want your blog to be a success, it’s important that you not only watch the film once but perhaps again to make sure you get the nuances and subtle details that can make your review stand out from other bloggers’ and writers’ work.

Frame It As A Debate

The internet is undoubtedly full of reviews, and they’re the core of many blogs. People will create blogs to review not only movies but everything from new household products to a designers’ latest runway collection.

Unfortunately, many bloggers fail to reach their audience because they’re either too negative or too positive. When writing a useful review, yes it’s your opinion, but you want to write as if you’re part of a structured, professional debate.

You want to share your opinions but then back them up with facts and references. Otherwise, your review can come off seeming like a baseless rant or a pointlessly positive fluff piece about a film. Try to find a sense of restrained, subjective balance.

Create a Formula

Reviews should be an opportunity for you to let your creativity flow on your blog, but at the same time, it can be a good idea to have a standard structure to these posts that will let your audience know what to expect.

A good rule of thumb for any review you’ll post on your blog is first to provide some background about the film. Of course, you don’t want to be the blogger that’s always giving away the ending, but give some general information to start the review.

Then, you can move on to the positives, even if they are few and far between. Next, you can look at what was bad about the film and explain why you saw it that way. Create some conclusions of your own to wrap it up, and you can even add a score to the end of your film reviews.

Once you’ve honed your particular analysis formula, it will help you be more efficient when you create new blog posts, and it will also let you focus less on the technicalities of writing a great review, and more on developing a connection with your audience.