Getting Reviews on Amazon (Part 3)

by Rintu Basu author of “Persuasion Skills Black Book”

Getting Five Star Rave Reviews on Amazon for Your Book

In this third and final blog post on this series I will explain the strategies I have use and am intending to use to get rave reviews on Amazon. Before we get started here are the links to the pages on both USA and UK Amazon sites so you can see how well I have done so far…

www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/190543054x

www.amazon.com/dp/190543054x

Targeting Key People

If you have been following this series of posts you already know I accidently built a large and enthusiastic following. My initial strategy was to take a few people to write reviews for the Amazon sites for both USA and UK.

My criteria for the people that I targeted was that they had to be enthusiastic about the book, they can write coherently and that I had some previous correspondence with them. This last criteria was simple so that I was not talking to complete strangers.

I had a fair number that filled the criteria and I thought I would do them in stages so I could gauge the reaction and tweak my process. The email I sent them basically said that the book was now available on Amazon and that I needed a favour of a review. I explained that the details of the book and said if they agreed I would send them an electronic copy for review.

Getting the Review You Want Without Leading

I got a 100% response with some of them more excited about me becoming a proper author than I was. One of the things I wanted to make sure of was that they got the right idea about what a review really is. So in the email that I sent with the book attached I was explicit in certain aspects of what I was looking for.

I pointed out that I was looking for reviews that reflected their genuine views and that would help other people decide if the book was for them. I was at pains to point out that it should not just be a sales letter nor just a testimonial…but something that gives their opinion on why people might want to read the book.

The reason I was keen to put this across was because I was dealing with enthusiastic people that really want the book to do well. I have had my fingers burnt before where people were so enthusiastic that it becomes unbelievable for others.

The first reviews were up within a couple of days of asking. The only real problem I encountered was the fact that people struggled to put their review on both sites. To date I think there is only one person that has managed to put their review on both he USA and the UK site. In part this is because you have to have bought from the site before you can post reviews.

A particularly unique problem I have is reviewers using hypnotic language patterns in their reviews. Since the book is about hypnotic language patterns and persuasion skills I should be flattered that they are practicing their skills in the reviews. But I am not sure that it is particularly helpful…perhaps you can have a look and let me know what you think.

Approach Two

I repeated the review process several times to get reviews and since then I have been trying and considering several other approaches. I am part of a social network site called LinkedIn. The site has a few NLP Groups.

As an experiment I posted a new thread asking for reviewers for my new book. I deliberately said I will only take five reviewers to create some scarcity and gave them a time limit for reading and writing an Amazon review that they would have to sign up for before I would send them a copy of the book.

I filled the places within a few hours of posting the thread and took two more because they were very insistent. Again I sent them electronic copies of the book and the general outlines of what makes a good review.

Of the five I got two really good reviews onto Amazon within the deadline. Two have been held back because of personal circumstances but I am confident that they will go up relatively soon. I am less confident of the last three in that they have not responded to the chasing emails I sent after the deadline had passed.

Of the two approaches consider the difference and quality of the response. From my list I got a total 100% response from everyone I asked. From the second at best I will get just over 50% For those of you that might have been impatient with me getting to my review strategy this is why I wanted to explain how I got my list before explaining how I generated people to give me reviews.

Current and Untried Strategies

Amazon have lists of reviewers, all of whom are rated in terms of quality. I am currently approaching several of them to see if I can get them interested in reviewing my book.

There are many other social network sites ranging from business related to pure social sites. In each case I am actively looking for people with large lists that might be prepared to review the book.

Amazon run an affiliate scheme. I am currently looking for the best selling affiliates within the same sphere as my target audience. Once I can find them I will be talking to them about review copies of the book with the expectation that they will want to sell it on to their customers.

I currently have a couple of unseen recordings that are going to be part of a future product. I also have a growing list of people that have bought the book. I am going to offer this list an ethical bribe. Just go to Amazon, write a review and then let me know you have done it to receive one of these bonus recordings. I will post this idea to the list once I have edited the recordings properly.

The end of the Beginning

So that’s it. For the moment. I will put out more posts on the subject as soon as anything results come in either by design or accident. If you have any other thoughts and ideas about getting good reviews I and I suspect many others would be grateful if you would share them with us.

In the meantime let me know if this has been useful by commenting below and if there is anything else you would like me to post about. Since the book is about Hypnotic Persuasion Skills I had thought I could write about the patterns and structure that appear in the emails I sent but I am not sure if that would be of general interest here. For those of you that are interested here is a link to the extract from my book that explains more about written hypnotice language patterns. If you would like me to write about the review emails specifically let me know.

Related posts:

1. Getting Reviews on Amazon (1 of 3) Getting Reviews on Amazon (Part 1) by Rintu Basu author...
2. Getting Reviews on Amazon (2 of 3) Getting Reviews on Amazon (Part 2) by Rintu Basu author...