Behold a 1 star review of one of my kindle books once got a few years ago:
Disorganized and Frustrating
The content is solid…maybe some of the best expertise available on this topic. The format is absolute garbage though. The entire book is a transcribed conversation between the author and another expert. If someone had bothered to…..oh I don’t know…maybe at least add a table of contents and some topic headers, this book might actually be useful. You might be able to get away with this kind of laziness in your $2.99 books but if I pay $20 for a book I expect much more professionalism in the presentation. Shame on you, Author. I’ll tell you what….if you refund my $20 and apologize for your laziness I will donate the $20 to a dog rescue of your choice.
I remember finding that quite amusing.
Especially since, it was some of the “best expertise available”… yet the reviewer spent 90% of his review droning on about the formatting?
The “shame on you” part was my favorite, though.
It was mush cookie at best.
And just trollish at worst.
(A “troll-house mush cookie”?)
If someone is that fragile as to natter on about how a $19 ebook (that used to sell for $97) that can be read in one sitting and easily make them thousands of $$ in sales (if they have a list and an offer people want) is (gasp!!) just a transcript and (double gasp!!!) has no table of contents, all the power to ’em.
Me?
Couldn’t care less about such things.
Kinda like when I bought Gary Halbert’s “Boron Letters”:
No table of contents.
Hard to read (it was written in his own hand).
No cover (literally).
Damaged binding.
Nothing “professional” about it.
Plus, it cost me $97 at the time I didn’t really have (it *hurt* spending that money at that time in my life).
But you know what?
I can attribute tens of thousands of buckaroos in sales to it.
(Easily…)
Anyway, here’s why I bring this up:
When I wrote the above in an email the next day, the reviewer (one of the few intellectually 1-star reviewers who probably has ever lived) revised his review from 1-star to 4-stars.
But, here’s the problem:
Most review trolls are not intellectually honest.
And, in many cases, will have no problem not only lying about you in their reviews, many will not have even used your product, and will be like the wicked spirits in the Bible and find 7 more reviewers to jump on the pile who are even more trollish than themselves.
I don’t care if it’s a book review, podcast review, or yelp review, either.
And if you get enough of them?
It will negatively impact your sales.
Maybe even put you out of business in extreme cases.
The solution?
The upcoming October “Email Players” issue.
I show you (using real life examples) how to use email (and facebook if that’s your bag) to profit from these yahoos. That way, you not only don’t mind them, you hunt them down, try to rile them up, and laugh at them as you profit from their idiocy.
The deadline to get this issue approaches quick.
To subscribe in time, go here:
Ben Settle
