Write Amazon reviews, lists and guides
Introduction
I originally planned to do separate guides on lists, review and guides but I realized that there was so much overlap between them that it's best to create a combined guide. Whether or not people care about rankings (and most serious reviewers do to some extent, even if they don't think that way when they first start reviewing), every reviewer cares at least a little about votes. If votes are legitimately gained, they provide reviewers with reassurance that people are reading their reviews and assessing them (even if they vote "NO", at least the review has provoked somebody). In some ways, votes on lists and guides are less important as we can also see how many people have viewed those (some viewers may have taken one glance and made a quick exit but even then, at least they thought it might be interesting). However, it seems that votes on lists and guides help Amazon's software to decide on placements within search pages. As to votes that aren't legitimately gained, well, that's cheating and is outside the scope of this particular guide. See Expose cheating on Amazon for a discussion of that topic.
Because votes are often but not always related to the quality of the review, my approach in this guide is first to discuss some reviewing issues that don't directly relate to votes, then to discuss votes and what you can expect, with luck, a given review to achieve. There is, of course, no accounting for luck, but if you write reviews that deserve to be lucky, you will end up being luckier than if you write inferior reviews. That may not console you for the effort you put into an individual review that hardly gets seen before it's buried under an avalanche of other reviews for the same product, especially if the spotlights are occupied by reviews that you consider inferior, but it's true. The reviewers with the inferior spotlighted reviews won't get lucky as often as those who write good reviews.
Reviews - the material
You can review a wide range of stuff on Amazon although most people tend to stick with books, music and movies. Some people sneer at what others choose to review but I've noticed that some of the most commonplace things are sometimes the most difficult to review properly so I won't sneer at what people choose to review, if they do a proper review or if they do a truly funny review.
I review mainly music but I've also reviewed plenty of books and will review more. I haven't reviewed any movies but I've reviewed a few board games. I'm particularly proud of my review of Scrabble although it has never been spotlighted. The main thing is to stick with what you know. If you review something that you don't know much about, other customers will quickly realize it. Even if you know your subject, people will spot your errors.
If you are concerned about your ranking, you should review as diverse a range of material as possible. Some people said that I was limiting myself by reviewing almost exclusively music, but my answer to that is always the same - my musical tastes are eclectic to say the least so that compensates for not including lots of books and movies. And I've proved that I was right although I have diversified a little.
Within your own choice of material, you don't have to limit yourself to stuff you actually own. You may borrow it from a library, a friend, a relative or somebody at work. The important thing is to know what you are reviewing.
To be funny or not?
Unless you have a natural talent for it, writing reviews that are truly funny is very difficult. Sadly, most reviews that try to be funny don't impress me although there are exceptions and I treasure those. Then again, my sense of humor is not always shared by others. I used to find Memphisbowlerpimp's reviews hilarious but others complained and Amazon eventually deleted them all as I feared would happen, not because they were funny but because Memphisbowlerpimp broke the rules about how to write reviews. Of course, if you're going to be truly funny, it can be quite hard to stick to the rules. I occasionally include a touch of humor in my reviews when a suitable opportunity arises but I don't set out to be funny when writing reviews. I occasionally do when writing guides - for example in Assemble furniture from kits.
Do you have to read the whole book?
This question often arouses strong feelings but the reality is that it depends on what type of book it is. I couldn't imagine reviewing a novel without first reading it from cover to cover. Non-fiction is an entirely different matter except where the book tells a story (thus it reads like a novel). To do my review of Overloaded Ark (Gerald Durrell), I read it from beginning to end. Actually, I re-read it from beginning to end because it had originally been part of my school curriculum forty years earlier. The book tells the story of an expedition so, apart from it being true, it is just like a novel. Other non-fiction books are very different. Consider the following:
- Bibles - everybody who is interested in buying a bible such as Boldtext Pew Bible: King James Version (Unabridged) has some idea of what the book actually says. Customers have a wide choice of bibles and want to know why they should buy one particular version rather than another. You could read a bible from start to finish and review the text, but how would that help a customer?
- Practical books - cookery, gardening and other books that teach you how to do things are, with few exceptions, completely unsuitable for start-to-finish reading. If I am looking for a practical book, I want to know that the reviewer has actually learned something from the book. If you're going to review a cookbook, try some of the recipes and see if they work. That's much more important than reading every recipe. As long as you try enough different recipes, it shouldn't matter that you don't read the others. If you wait until you've tried every recipe before reviewing it, the book is likely to be long out of print by the time you're ready to review it. If I review a practical book, it is likely to be one of my books about website construction such as Sams Teach yourself CSS in 24 Hours (2nd Edition). The same basic idea applies here as to cookery and gardening - the proof is how much it helped me to build my website. In this specific case, it helped me a lot although I didn't attempt to download any of the files as suggested in the book. Being a former programmer, I didn't need to but I see that others who felt this need were disappointed.
- Dictionaries - when I was at school, I actually met a boy who liked to read a dictionary but even he didn't start on the first page and read all the way through. He liked to open it at any page and learn new words. What he did with his huge vocabulary, I can't imagine. The point is, nobody reads a dictionary from start to finish. Rather like bibles, people want to know why they should buy one dictionary such as Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 11th Edition rather than another.
- Encyclopedias - you can review these on subjects that you know well or on subjects you know little about, as I explain in the next section (Your specialist subjects). As long as you make clear the extent of your knowledge of the subject at the time, customers can find your review useful. But whatever your level of expertise on the subject, there are some things that people need to know. Is it easy to find what you want using the table of contents at the beginning and the index at the end? Are the pages in between well laid out? If it is titled "illustrated encyclopedia", how well illustrated is it? Is the text easy for the intended readers to understand? It's worth remembering that these books are written by experts, but some experts find it too easy to lapse into jargon. That's fine if they are writing technical books where some jargon (and sometimes plenty of it) is necessary, but encyclopedias written for a wider public require a simpler approach.
- There are, of course, plenty of other examples - poetry books, atlases, picture books, travel guides and puzzle books to name a few.
Your specialist subjects
Where reference books (especially encyclopedias) are concerned, it is sometimes helpful to know what has been omitted. If you're only just getting into something and you buy a reference book to help you, obviously you won't know much about what's been omitted. If, however, you pick up a reference book on a subject with which you are already familiar, you can easily see what the book's limitations are and you should reflect this in your review but allow for the book's intended audience. I bought The Billboard illustrated encyclopedia of country music and I've written a review but can't post it yet. It's a book that I didn't strictly need although even I can learn something. On the other hand, I know very little about castles so my review of Castles: England + Scotland + Wales + Ireland will reflect that. Both reviews are equally valid but in different ways.
Music
The questions about reviewing music are in some ways trickier than the question about reading the whole book. In general, books are re-issued with the same text as the original version though the packaging may be different. Sometimes books are anthologized and in some of these anthologies there may be some original text omitted to squeeze what's left into the required number of pages. Compare that with the problems surrounding music re-issues. Of course, sometimes music re-issues follow the pattern of book re-issues but usually they don't.
"Greatest hits", "Best of", "Ultimate", "Essential" and other euphemisms are not always what they seem and often differ only slightly from one another. It's even possible to find several such compilations with completely different track listings, especially by artists who have recorded for several different record labels. If you've got a compilation that is still in print and available, you just review it as you would any other CD. But supposing your compilation is out of print, having been replaced by a similar but not identical compilation? This is where you have to go where your conscience takes you and everybody will have different views. The easy option is just to review your out of print compilation (assuming it is still listed on Amazon) and leave it at that. Very few people are likely to come across your review but at least it's there. You may decide that if you are sufficiently knowledgeable, you may review the current compilation anyway. If you're going to do that, it's best to do a bit of research beginning with one very important question - is it on a record label that you can trust? If not, leave well alone, especially if it's a budget label. You also need to find out as much as you can about the compilation. If other people have already reviewed it on Amazon, you may get some of the information you need from those reviews, but be careful not to copy their words (everything you write in a review must be your own work). I remember once deciding to review a particular compilation because the reviews already posted weren't anything special. Nobody reading my review would know that I didn't own (and hadn't heard) the compilation. Of course, I was VERY familiar with the music contained in the compilation and (by checking a reference book) was able to confirm that all the important tracks were included and to say a few other things. My conscience is therefore clear, especially as my review was - and remains - one of the most helpful reviews of that particular album. No, I won't say which album because you might vote against it out of sheer spite. But this example makes clear that knowledge of what you are reviewing is more important than ownership. If you're going to choose another compilation to review other than the one you own or have borrowed, you have to be very careful. In particular, make sure that you know whether it's the original recordings or not. I don't object to re-recordings as such. Sometimes, there are legitimate reasons for them, especially in Roy Orbison's case as I explain in my review of The very best of Roy Orbison but some people object strongly and it's best to declare such information in a review. Even with that Roy Orbison CD, you'll see that several reviewers really can't accept the re-recordings. Perhaps they don't appreciate the circumstances as I explained them, but the whole subject of re-recordings needs a separate guide.
Writing reviews - the basics
You must choose your own style of writing based on your own knowledge and personality as well as the type of stuff you review. My style tends to involve quoting a lot of facts but others tend to focus much more on moods and other aspects. Some people tend to write longer reviews than others. Most of my music reviews tend to be about 200 to 300 words but some are much longer, occasionally exceeding 1,000 words. On average, my book reviews are longer than my music reviews. The issue of review length is a whole topic of its own. If you like writing really long reviews, you may be better suited to writing on a specialist reviewing website such as Epinions, where reviewing is regarded as an art form, rather than Amazon, where people mostly read reviews for more practical reasons. As I explain, I once tried reviewing for a website other than Amazon (it wasn't Epinions) and it didn't suit me.
You'll notice that most reviews that appear on Amazon's website have some votes. These show as something like “2 out of 3 people found this review helpful” or whatever. Underneath each review you'll see an option to add your own comment about the review (this option was introduced in September 2006). Alongside it, you'll be asked “Was this review helpful to you?” except if it's your own review, when you'll be told that you can't vote for it.
When people begin to write reviews on Amazon, they tend to assume that votes will be cast based on the merits of the review itself (well, I did, anyway) but we all realize eventually that this isn't always the case and I alluded to that earlier in this guide. Actually, if you aren't a high-profile reviewer (so other Amazon customers aren't familiar with your reviews) and you don't review anything controversial, the votes are probably cast on merit. If you write reviews that are reasonably helpful and you don't review anything controversial, then you won't get many “NO” votes when you first start reviewing.
Unfortunately, you may also find that “YES” votes are not that easy to come by at that stage either, since customers will generally prefer to read reviews by people that they are familiar with if they have a choice.
Your reviews don't have to be scholarly essays to attract "YES" votes (like I said, Epinions is the place for those reviews) but they should contain some helpful information about the product that customers might not otherwise find out. If you just say something like "This is great" or "This is rubbish", you can expect plenty of "NO" votes. What surprises me is that reviews like this also attract "YES" votes (albeit not as many as more informative reviews) but I've already hinted at the fact that voters have their own ideas about what is helpful and what is unhelpful.
Equally, reviews that discuss the merits of the author, singer or actor without discussing the content ("Everything he/she does is brilliant/rubbish") aren't helpful in the true sense of the word. Some people will vote "YES" anyway simply because they agree with the sentiments expressed but a lot of customers will vent their frustrations by voting "NO". Such customers may agree with the sentiments of the reviewer but they want to know more about this particular product and how it compares with previous work by the author, singer or artist. Is it more of the same or something different, and if so, how is it different?
Another thing to remember is that while you may be writing your review at home with nobody watching, some very knowledgeable people from all over the world may read your review after you post it. If you get some of your facts wrong, some people may vote "NO" because of your error. It would be a particular shame if you've put a lot of effort into your review and it is otherwise excellent. If you are unsure about some things, you can choose to leave them out or do some more research. It's amazing what's available on the web these days, but make sure that you use reliable sources and also be sure not to copy verbatim - you may be breaching copyright if you do that. You can also choose to admit to being unsure as long as you don't do this very often.
Similarly, some people may vote "NO" simply because your review has spelling errors or is badly punctuated. You can avoid most such problems by typing up your review first using a word processor with a spell-checker though this is not foolproof. After all, some misspelled words might actually be legitimate words. Still, a spell-checked review will contain far fewer errors than one typed directly into Amazon's "Write a review" page, especially if you re-read it after you've spell-checked it. Another advantage of writing reviews on a word processor is that you can save it on your computer in case something goes wrong. (Reviews sometimes get deleted from Amazon's database.)
Some words are unacceptable in reviews
When you submit a review to Amazon, it will often post immediately (unless Amazon are watching your reviews closely - we'll come to that later). If this doesn't happen, there are three possibilities.
- It could be due to a glitch in the system. If so, the glitch is likely to be widespread and will affect a lot of other reviewers too. Depending on the glitch, it may affect everybody or only some reviewers.
- The product you are reviewing may be subject to close Amazon scrutiny, so every review for that product is checked by a member of staff before posting. At one time, all children's books were treated in this way. At the height of the controversy surrounding the Dixie Chicks, reviews for all their products were similarly screened after complaints flooded into Amazon about some of the reviews that were posted. I think that some products only come under close scrutiny on a temporary basis, but Amazon don't discuss such matters openly.
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But the most common cause of a review not posting immediately is that you have included some words that Amazon regard as sensitive. Variously called "flag words" or "trigger words", they fall into four main categories.
- Smut - words with sexual connotations. At one time the word "sex" was itself a trigger word, but somebody told me that they don't think it is now - at least in America.
- Politically sensitive - this covers a wide range but includes "gay" and "Nazi".
- Legally sensitive - including "fraud" and any derivative of that word such as "fraudulent" and "fraudster". It may be wise to use "cheat" or a derivative of that word instead, unless you have a very good reason to use the "fraud" word.
- Swearing - but anybody who feels the need to swear in a review probably needs to put more thought into their writing.
Of course, the British list of trigger words may be different from the American list, so if you post your reviews in both countries, this may add to your confusion.
Apart from all the above filtering by product or by trigger words, Amazon also sometimes filters by reviewer. In the overall scheme of things, this is a rarity but it's worth knowing about. There are a very small number of reviewers who write such controversial reviews that Amazon decide to look at every review they write. I'm not sure if Amazon still bother doing this; they may simply decide to prevent the reviewer from posting any further reviews, but the opion is there if they want to use it. At the other end of the scale are the trusted reviewers, who bypass all the filters. The whole business of trusted reviewers would have long been forgotten about if it weren't for the fact that Harriet Klausner
Trusted reviewer status
The original idea of the trusted reviewer system was to cut down the amnount of time that Amazon's staff spent checking reviews that contained trigger words. Presumably, Amazon realized that some people used these words appropriaely and that a lot of time was wasted checking reviews by such people. The obvious disadvantage of the system was that it required somebody to spend a fair bit of time initially checking what each reviewer had posted prior to awarding (or not awarding) trusted status. Nevertheless, there was a period of a few months in 2003 and 2004 when somebody did just that, beginning with the top reviewers. All the top 100 reviewers of the time were checked but not all of them were awarded trusted status, though Harriet Klausner
When people expressed disquiet on the customer reviews discussion board that it would be seen as elitist, Amazon pointed out that it was only the start and the system would spread. Unfortunately, the employee moved to another job within Amazon during 2004 and nobody else showed any interest, so the system remained elitist although the original intention was to extend trusted status to a substantial number of Amazon reviewers. Sadly, it never spread very far beyond the then top 100. There is a suspicion (and I say no more than that) in some quarters that then-regular posters on the customer reviews discussion board outside the top 100 had their reviews checked for potential awarding of trusted status.
To avoid adding fuel to the fire, people tried not to mention it. Problems only arose when Harriet Klausner
Political books and other controversial products
You'll have noticed that reviews of controversial items (especially but not exclusively political books) often contain a lot of debate and not necessarily much reasoned opinion about the contents of the product. Thus a political book will generally set Republicans against Democrats, which may provide an amusing insight into American politics but doesn't really say much about whether the book is worth reading. Votes on reviews of such books sometimes split along party lines but not always. Some people will vote according to the merits of the review regardless of whether they agree with the politics, so a well-written review of a political book will generally receive a higher proportion of "YES" votes than less informative reviews.
If you are going to review such material, you can do much to improve the attitude of customers by the way you write your review. I hate the way people vote on political books but I also hate a lot of the reviews of such books. I decided to review a political book to show how it's done. I didn't want to do an obviously party political book, so that ruled out a political biography (but I may review one of those books one day). I was more interested in reviewing a book about a sensitive issue that politicians have to deal with. My choice was a book on a very sensitive subject, The failures of integration: how race and class are undermining the American dream. I knew, even before I opened the book, that the author's political views are very different from mine and that's actually why I chose to review it. I wanted to show that it is possible to provide a constructive and informative review despite clear political differences between myself and the author.
My review focuses very much on the content of the book, making it clear what the author's case is and how she envisages the future in her ideal world. You'll notice that I make very clear my disagreements with the author but I don't rant. Anybody considering whether to buy the book will find plenty of information about the book in my review. Despite my disagreements with the author, I still recommend that everybody should read it. I'm fully aware that although the author hasn't come up with a workable solution to the problems identified, I don't have a solution either. However, at least the book provides a clear idea of the difficulties and anybody wanting to find a solution will have a better understanding of the issues after reading this book. My reward for keeping my own views to a minimum while focusing as far as possible on the content is that at the start of October 2007, I had 27 "YES" votes and 4 "NO" votes. Donald Mitchell's review, also well-written but very different, had 16 "YES" votes and 2 "NO" votes. Judged on his review, I think that Donald's politics may be closer to the author's than mine. Well, there's nothing wrong in that. But do I feel like reviewing a book that reflects my politics? Maybe one day but it could be a long way off.
I've already mentioned the comment option introduced in September 2006. Amazon gave us this option to try to discourage the habit that some people have of using reviews as some kind of debating forum. Until this option becomes well-established, we won't know whether "rants as reviews" have diminished but let's hope so.
Political books are the most obviously controversial products but they aren't the only ones. Many other products fall into this category although closer examination shows that politics often comes into it somewhere. For example, music by the Dixie Chicks and others who have expressed strong political opinions is seen by some as controversial, so reviews of their music including Home always attract a few "NO" votes. Bruce Springsteen visited Britain to promote Born in the U.S.A.. During his visit, Bruce got involved in the year-long miners' strike. I didn't see that it was any of his business (how would Americans react if Brits got involved in American industrial disputes?) but I decided that I wouldn't allow politics to get in the way of music and never have done. A lot of other people do and the evidence is there for all to see on Amazon. The irony is that my reviews of Bruce's music sometimes attracts "NO" votes from people who disagree with Bruce's politics. Such people are unlikely to know that I disagree with his politics too.
Remember the market
While people reading reviews in magazines and newspapers aren't necessarily fans of particular authors, artists and actors, the internet search features make cyberspace different. Amazon's customers are much more likely to be attracted to pages where they can find their heroes and heroines. As such, a substantial proportion of people who read a particular review are fans of the author, artist or actor. If you really don't like a product (and especially if you don't like the author, artist or actor), you can generally expect to receive a lot of "NO" votes from angry fans. There are exceptions (usually movies) but if you're going to write a one-star review, you'd better have good reasons for doing so. A well-argued one-star review of a popular product is very difficult to write and is not usually appreciated by Amazon customers. My only one-star review is of an obscure product Good old country (Barbara Mandrell) and it's very clear why - customers could easily be deceived by the packaging. Of course, if a product is extremely unpopular, then you can expect plenty of "NO" votes if you give it a glowing five-star review.
Pre-release reviews
Amazon sometimes allows reviews to be posted before a product is generally available to the public. This usually results in reviews of the type "I'm really looking forward to this. It's bound to be brilliant". If you want to achieve any sort of credibility as a serious reviewer, don't indulge in this sort of thing even if you know a lot about the product. In such cases, keep your review on your computer until after the official release date, then submit it.
Some people are just spiteful
The more people get to know about your Amazon reviews, the higher profile you become and that also means that some people (hopefully a small number) will dislike you for whatever reason. If you spend a lot of time of the discussion board as I once did, you can expect there to be a much higher number of such people (but also a higher number of supporters). Most of your cyber-enemies have better things to do than spend their time voting "NO" to reviews by people they dislike but some people are so sad that they will expend much time and effort in such activities. The most extreme example I've come across is on my own British reviews. Over a three-month period between February 2005 and May 2005, I acquired many thousands of "NO" votes from unknown sources but some equally unknown supporters noticed what was happening and countered these votes with many thousands of "YES" votes. Of course, when Amazon eventually start using the anti-campaign voting software in Britain, a lot of these bogus votes will be wiped out. The existence of such software in America prevents this scale of abuse happening there. The full story can be found on my website when I re-launch it in 2007. Apart from spite votes against an individual, some spite votes are simply directed against success (though the two sometimes overlap). This is particularly noticeable in the top 100 Listmania and top 100 "So you'd like to …" guides. If a list or guide gets near the top, you can guarantee that it will attract one or more "NO" votes. For reasons that baffle any rational person, some people feel that a list or guide with only "YES" votes needs "NO" votes to keep them company. Knowing that such people exist, you don't have to worry about all the "NO" votes you get if you've done everything you can to minimize them. If you get a lot of "NO" votes on one review or guide, it's worth checking to see if you've made any mistakes but if not, forget those "NO" votes.
Lists and guides
While lists and guides don't count towards reviewer rankings, they do increase awareness among other customers, who are then more likely to read your reviews than they otherwise would. You can therefore use lists and guides to attract customers to your reviews. If they see a list or guide filled mostly with stuff they know about and like, they will sometimes look at the other stuff on the list and think "well. I'll probably like that, too". Thus you can get people to discover the really obscure stuff that you review by including some such items in a list containing plenty of popular items. It wasn't originally the reason I set up lists and guides - I started doing them seriously long before I took reviewing seriously - but these days, I do take such matters into consideration. Knowledge of products is less important in lists and guides than it is in reviews. It depends what you want to achieve.
If I write a guide about a singer or a style of music, I obviously know about the subject but I don't necessarily have to know about each individual product that I include. To be honest, sometimes I include products in these lists and guides that I intend to buy one day. Some of my early lists were nothing more than wish lists. I preferred to set up wish lists that way because we could only have one wish list back then. I stopped that habit long ago but until I have time to revise those lists, they'll remain as they are. In any case, I did actually buy some of the music that I put on those lists. When it comes to writing guides about Amazon issues (like software errors), I tend to fill the guide with a random selection of products to ensure that it gets seen. In most cases, the products chosen are irrelevant to the text of the guide. For best results, each list or guide should have a meaningful theme. People may enjoy reading lists of your favorite books but if the books have nothing in common except being your favorites, it doesn't help them. If you look through my other lists and guides, you'll see one or two like that (the "books I've reviewed" lists, for example) but the vast majority have themes as I recommend.
One other useful tip is that, as you build up your collection of lists and guides, always give Amazon plenty of opportunity to cross-link them by including some items in each list or guide that are in other lists and guides you've already created. This means that when somebody finds one of them, they may be offered the chance to view another.
Keep it fun
Always remember that this is just a fun hobby. If you push yourself too hard or stick too rigidly to rules or targets that you set yourself, you may no longer enjoy it. If you ever feel jaded, take a break for a few weeks and come back refreshed.
Some of my most successful reviews
Here's a list of products that I've reviewed and which customers clearly find helpful, judging by their votes. All of them had at least 20 "YES" votes on Amazon.com prior to the big cull of October 2008, arranged in approximate order of popularity before that cull. They aren't necessarily my favourite reviews (though some are).
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