The importance of negativism in a review

When I first joined WA, Kyle gave me some advice that has stuck with me ever since:
"Give people what they want, as opposed to what you think they want, and you will succeed".

A short while ago, I read someone's review for Wealthy Affiliate which has bugged me for a while now. In the "cons" section, the author had written

"There are none whatsoever. Wealthy Affiliate is all-around perfect".

Now, in my limited experience, this will not make conversions. I am not applying any of the training that I have been given here to work this one out; I am just applying common sense, based on what I want when reading a review of a product that I am considering parting cash with.

What do you do when you are considering a purchase?

How many times have you found yourselves on the brink of making a purchase on Amazon, and you skip down to the reviews, only to scroll past every single 4 and 5-star review, to then stop to read a 1 or 2-star review?

Consumers want to read up on the bad points, commonly more so than the positive.

Once the consumer has realised all of the bad points that a product has to offer, they usually stop looking and make a decision. Ideally, you want this stage of the consumer cycle to be while they are on your website. You will make a lot more conversions that way.

While emphasising the bad points of a product, you also don't want to talk yourself out of a sale, When addressing the cons, I will try to throw the odd good point in, to create a "compliment sandwich."

Failing to address a single bad point of a product will most certainly not make conversions, and while WA offers a vast array of positives, there are a few negatives that one can throw into his or her review. This following list was not easy to make given the excellence of WA's features:

• Can be overwhelming at first
• The training videos make it seem a lot easier than it truly is
• Notifications do not always show
• Without premium membership, you will likely get nowhere
• Live chat can be addictive, and can distract you from your website
• Keyword research tool occasionally can be unreliable

That isn't to say that you should actively look to include cons when they aren't there - be honest! Don't try to hide negative points in fear of losing a sale, and on the flip-side don't try to think of negative points just for the sake of including negative points. The above list is an honest reflection of the negatives that I have had with WA (which is small, compared to the list of positives I could come up with.... that list is endless).

When I was considering the premium membership of WA, I searched for 2 evenings trying to find a negative review. I could not find one. I stopped looking when I found the "honest" review, which stated:

"85% of all members do not make enough to cover their premium membership, and quit as a result".
"Kyle makes it seem easy. It's not. It's really f*cking hard".
"You could, realistically, work your ass off for 6 months before making a single sale".

This author if this article would have gained a conversion, had I not already joined up as a free member because I stopped looking there and then, content that I had done enough research.

So you see the point I am trying to make - highlighting the negative aspects of a product or feature can be just as, if not more important than highlighting the positives.

Without meaning to sound like I am boasting, I have written a review for Grammarly that I am particularly happy with, as I feel as though I have highlighted enough cons of Grammarly, to give the reader an complete, honest reflection of the bad points, without talking myself out of a sale.

We are all familiar with certain sayings, such as "less is more", and "quality over quantity", well my saying that I will leave you with is this:

Negative is positive.

JoshyT

Afterthought: - This blog is a lot longer than I had initially intended it to be; it is 600 words, and I think I may publish this on my website! Of course, I will reword it as to not just duplicate the conent, which shouldn't be too hard to do!

*Update* 11th Sept

My article is now published on my site (reworded of course), and can be found here:

http://tomakemoneyathome.com/the-importance-of-writing-a-negative-review