One-Star Reviews on Amazon
If you ever want to know whether a certain product on Amazon is good or bad, I recommend you read the 1-star reviews.
That’s what I do.
All the positive reviews usually sound alike.
The 1-star reviews, though, quickly reveal a product’s true worth.
That’s because the bad reviews either have merit… or… they don’t.
I’ve read quite a few 1-star reviews that said, “Terrible… don’t waste your money.”
But this tells me nothing helpful. If the reviewer doesn’t tell me why the book/CD/product is terrible, then the review is essentially worthless.
If the majority of the 1-star reviews fall into this “worthless” category, then I dismiss them, which has the effect of putting more weight on the positive reviews.
On the other hand, I often find well-written and detailed criticisms. These are worth the time to read. If you find yourself agreeing with the criticisms… or find them repeated in multiple negative reviews… then you can be fairly confident that the criticisms have merit.
Anyway, this is how I decide whether to buy a product or not. I don’t spend much time at all on the positive reviews. I do spend time on the negative 1-star reviews.
Case in point: I was looking for some new fiction to read, so I checked out Fifty Shades of Grey. It’s been a Top 5 seller on Amazon for a number of weeks now, so I thought perhaps it would be worth reading.
Based on the title and cover art, I thought the book was a crime thriller. Turns out, it’s erotica.
As I read the 1-star reviews, I noticed that many of them were quite thorough, detailed, and even humorous. Needless to say, I will not be buying (or reading) Fifty Shades of Grey.
If there is a lesson here, it is this: Best-selling books are not the same as best-written books. And a corollary: Just because a book is a best-seller does not mean it’s worth reading.
-Ryan M. Healy
