The importance of negativism in a review

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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

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Recent Comments

29

thanks for sharing ;-))
Al and Tania

Not a problem. My article is now on my site, check the link above!

:-))

Josh...so true nothing is guaranteed...even with great content...lots of great posts...I think we must really like writing and sharing and helping...the WWW is huge and billions are on it...I would recommend one thinking it will take five years...just like my brick and mortar business...five years of not making money...sweating out payroll...estimated taxes...clients...I think the internet is no different in some ways. I think because starting up a website is easy and really cheap (one does not have to plop down $100,000 dollars) people tend to want instant success and it does not register how hard it really is. I would never recommend WA to people who aren't ready to learn...love to write...are passionate about their niche...and ready for the long haul...great article...good luck...Mac

I agree 100%. Whenever I tell people about WA I make it crystal clear that unless you're in it for the long haul, and unless you can write good articles, then affiliate marketing is not for you.

It is definitely a game pf patience and persistence!

Thanks for the great info. Isabel

My pleasure

I think you are completely right. I also look for the negative sides before I buy something.
I just offered a sincere critique for a website of a person who has asked for it. Turns out that he was happy that I told him what I didn't like and he changed things immediately. But it is somehow a tabu to say clearly what you think. Not so much for us Germans as for American, at least that is my experience.

Honesty is always the best way. I had a friend who made (and still makes) music, and back when his music was terrible, everyone told him it was good, apart from me. My opinion mattered the most to him, and when he finally did create something that was good, he felt overwhelmed.

Honesty can be an extremely valuable commodity, and it should always be applied, not just in blogs but also in life in general. If someone doesn't look good in something, tell them they don't look good, they will value your opinion more that way!!

Yes, I agree. But I don't think we should go around and press our "honesty" on everybody, which would be perceived as assault. Only when we are asked for, we can- and should- be completely honest.
The story of your friend is so "normal"
I watched a singing contest (for classical singers like myself) and a jury person said to one of the competitors that she had wasted 15 years of her life....

I had a woman coming to me for improving her German pronunciation as she wanted to do auditions in Germany. I had a hard time to hold back when I heard her singing. At the end, I couldn't but tell her that she wouldn't have any chance at any competition - and I lost her as a student. I could have helped her if she had been willing to accept and work on what was completely missing, but.........

Some great food for thought there, Heidi. Sometimes we need to tiptoe a little bit and give constructive feedback, as opposed to a negative opinion.

I was a manager at my last job, and one of my guys wanted to undertake a task that he was simply not good at, I'd tried him in the past and he spent ages trying to work it out, over several occassions, so I ended up giving the task to someone else (who was a natural at it)

When that other person was off, the first guy I tried wanted to have another go at it, and I simply did not have the time to try to train him up again on something that he had already proven himself to be no good at. He became terribly offended and actually went to HR to make a complaint against me.

Yup, honesty can hurt people at times....

When will the time come when people are chosen because they are good in what they are doing, and not because someone thinks the "merit" it in one way or other?
Good news_ New business structures are arising. Have you ever heard of the "TEAL Movement"?

I have not no.....

So if you mlike I can put you into contact with some of the people involved. Here is a blogpost for an event at the last conference, from there you might find others, but I will ask for other articles. http://integraleuropeanconference.com/going-teal-berlin/

In the meantime you could watch an interview with a woman who has pioneered a new structure for organisations where the whole person is welcome https://www.youtube.com/watch ?v=iAGqoWBNdSE

Hi Joshy, you make great points in you post. Be mindful of duplicate content when you publish on your website. Irv.

Thanks for the tip Irv, you're the third person to point that out lol :)

Careful not to use an exact copy of this on your website, else you'll be dinged with duplicate content.

If necessary, you can Google search "google doesn't like duplicate content" ... I cannot post Google's link here because their URL contains unfriendly (to WA) values.

Trish

Yes, Carson has given me some insightful tips on how to portray exactly what it is that I'm trying to say here better than I have, so I am confident that I can reword this properly; it shouldn't be too difficult.

Thank you for the heads up, though!!

Absolutely great point Joshy. Just be wary of posting on your site as well as Google could view it as duplicate content :)

Yes, onmyownterms has pointed that out aswell, thanks for also alerting me. I have already planned out how to re-word it; I'll remove the whole "WA cons" bit and focus on the Grammarly cons. This article should not be too difficult to re-word, which I'll probably do tomorrow.

Hi Josh,

We've always taught folks at WA to be honest in the content they publish. Do this and you will likely going to have you content very well liked. There are likely going to be positives and negatives to everything out there, and your goal on your website is to EDUCATE your audience so that they can make informed decisions.

If you personally feel there are CONS to something, then be honest and list them, then list why you feel they are cons for you. I you feel there are PROS of something list them too and why they are pros for you. The bottom line is that you want to be honest and thorough.

If a there is a great product out there that you are absolutely in love with, you don't have to throw in CONS just to throw in cons. State how you really feel about it and your audience will likely receive this extremely well.

If you bought the absolute BEST garden spray nozzle that you've ever seen and you can't find a negative about it at all. Don't go throwing in cons just because you think people want them, that wouldn't be your honest opinion.

You can also list cons by saying:

"Here are some things that people find that are issues about XYZ, I personally don't find them issues because ABC..."

Food for thought,

Carson

Hey Carson, you have made some absolutely fantastic points there bud, and I'm going to re-word a small bit of my blog based on what you've highlighted.

While it is a good thing to add negative points, it's critical to be as honest as one can be when reviewing a product, which is the main focus point of my reviews and articles.

As Kyle teaches, when writing an article, making a sale is secondary, engaging your audience and gaining their trust is primary, and honesty is the only way to truly obtain their trust.

Cheers Carson!!

You are right, i always read the reviews when I buy online
AND I LEAVE REVIEWS AFTER I BUY TOO. The negative reviews are the most important to me. But if there are 20 good reviews an 2 bad I just figure those 2 are not familiar with what they bought.

Correct. A bad review is just one person's opinion, and 20 good reviews outweigh 1 bad review, but nevertheless, people still tend to skim the positives and read the negative.

I must admit, I am guilty of not leaving a review after I have bought a product, I may start doing that from now on!

Great blog post, be careful though, this is indexed so it could show up as duplicate content if you post to your site. You'll need to rework it a bit to be safe.

Great advice "onmy", I'm glad you pointed that out to me!!

You're welcome. :)

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