Many bloggers review and recommend products and services they use. For example, books they've read. But these reviews are often positive, why is that?
Is it because it is not worth it to craft the review, if you're not gonna recommend it? Is it because, you don't dare to say bad things about the product? Are you afraid you'll lose the advertisers and/or partners if you publish a bad review?
This is the topic of the day for this discussion. I'd like to hear what you think. Join the discussion on the comments.
Bad review? Good review?
What is a bad review? Not recommending the product? Giving it a bad rating?
- bad review = "do not buy this"
- bad review = "this is not good"
- bad review = "rating: 1 out of 5"
Discussion
This is an open table and the word is free. Speak your mind about pros and cons of different kind of reviews. Below are some questions to get the discussion going...
Should you cover only the "good products" on your blog? Is it better to publish only positive reviews ("recommended"), or should bloggers publish bad reviews as well?
- Have you published a bad review on your blog? How did your readers react to the review?
- Do you only publish positive reviews, e.g. only products you like and recommend? Why?
7 comments.
In general I only take the time to write about things I've enjoyed, so most of my reviews tend to be positive. If something is absolutely terrible I'm usually so fed up with it that I can't even be bothered writing about it! :)
Having said that, I'm going to be writing a games review for another site soon that won't be a very positive one… the editor of the site sends me games, and I tell him what I think. So in this instance I have to write a review no matter what, and it really is a terrible game!
Hi. I rarely write reviews but I enjoy reading them. Most of the time I read CD reviews. To me, a good review talks about both good and bad things about the product. Also, just to share a bit of my thoughts. I really don't like reviews that make reference to other products in order to get their point across. Something like “I'm reviewing product X. product X is similar to product y, but x requires less maintenance. One can't expect that everyone reading his post knows what product Y is.
Yeah, if you are gonna write a review anyway, it's good that it's honest (in an objective manner) and I guess in the gaming world publishing bad reviews is more normal than in some other “niche”. And with that audience, if you make a false positive review of a game that suck, they sure will tell you (and then leave your site)
I think there is a place for comparison posts, pulling similar reviews together and comparing the products, but that's a bit off-topic for reviewing…
I think it's OK to link to similar products if you have reviewed them as well. But one review should be able to stand on its own without knowledge of the other products.
And you are right that great review includes both good and bad aspects of the product before drawing conclusions. Then whether or not you give the product good or bad rating is based on those aspects.
You can attract as much traffic with a bad review as you can with a good review.
Sometimes more traffic can be attracted with a sour review if the subject has proper SEO and is a hot topic.
Then the trick is for the “call to action” to lead your prospect to what you are marketing.
Thanks for your response. The sad thing is that some people who make reviews don't even include links to other products they are comparing the main product with. So oftentimes, we have to look up those other products just to know what the person is talking about.
Thanks for your response. The sad thing is that some people who make reviews don't even include links to other products they are comparing the main product with. So oftentimes, we have to look up those other products just to know what the person is talking about.