Anyone with half a brain knows you have to do your research before making any major investment. Whether you’re investing in a house, a car, or your education, you need to do you due dilligence.

I check online reviews before I buy ANYTHING. My fiance and I were in Target last week buying one of those oil-less Infrared Fryers. I pulled out my phone and picked the one with the best reviews.

But how do you know where to research? We all know opinions found on the internet are worth just about as much as you pay for them. But you can find a few useful reviews out there for whatever it is you’re about to buy. You just have to know how to sift through the junk.

Recently, I’ve seen a lot of "review" sites that claim to be unbiased, but are anything but. There are now thousands of fake review sites being set up with a hidden, or if you know what to look for, not so hidden, agenda.

These sites review anywhere from just a few to hundreds of their competitors, and usually try to sound unbiased, but ultimately, at the end of the review, you’ll see something along the lines of, "Of all of the [insert product here] we’ve tested, we’ve found that the only one that stands up to our rigorous requirements is [insert affiliate link here]."

As a marketer, I have to say the model is genius, albeit unethical.

I’ve compiled a list of signs to look for to know whether or not you’re looking at a legitimate review, or if you’re being duped, and if the review is legitimate, how much stock you should put into it. Some of these are directly related to Ron LeGrand Reviews, while most can be used when researching any product.