A couple of weeks ago a well known nutrition and fitness expert sent an e-mail to those on his mailing list soliciting feedback for one of his published works. In return for a review on Amazon (presumably favorable) this author would provide an advance chapter of an upcoming book.
Is this a good idea or underhanded marketing?
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Great workout routine, sound nutritional guidelines, terrible marketing / consumer interaction. The guy got all bent out of shape due to one negative comment about his book.
Now he has to deal with all the PR backlash, oh well.
Offering a reward for positive reviews seems to me to be unethical. If he had simply asked people to post reviews, I don't think it would be a problem. Interestingly, the author seems to be aware that he is treading an ethically thin line. Note the difference between two of his correspondences:
From his e-mail:
Quote:
So, make your voice heard - post something positive on the web, send the link to
me, and I'll send you that chapter.
From the t-mag forum:
Quote:
So, make your voice heard - post your opinion on the web, send the link to me, and I'll send you that chapter.
I agree with Axis. It was the "carrot" that made the request smelly. I would have had no issue with him putting out the request otherwise.
So do you think a negative opinion would garner you a free chapter?? I'm guessing NOT.
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"Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you are right." - Henry Ford
"UNLESS someone like you cares a whole awful lot, nothing is going to get better. It's not." - Dr. Seuss
"Life is no brief candle to me. It is sort of a splendid torch which I have got hold of for a moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations." - George Bernard Shaw
Come on! If you didn't like the damn thing what sort of reward would a chapter of the next one be?
More like punishment for not liking it....
Give the guy a break - this is his income and he's sensitive about it (also his first "mainstream" book?).
Besides they recently uncovered a large num,ber of negative reviews were from rival authors!
He'd probably have been better leaving sleeping dogs lie - but I have no problem with his morals or ethics on this one.
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Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. -- Sidney J. Harris
I want to thank those that offer up an opinion when you have a dissenting view. Sometimes people are reluctatant to open up when you know that most people aren't going to like it.
It's that part of the discussion I want to hear.
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Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Originally posted by nbjjku:
BTW, for those of you that do not know, I slammed the practice in the review section. I did not slam the man, but just the practice.
Remind me again what you got called on T-Nation. If I remember correctly it was not exactly flattering.
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Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
If the material is good he shouldn't have to bribe anyone. A friend of my ex writes books on yoga, she passes out early copies to her students for feedback and whatnot. When the book is released they can get a copy if they're interested but she doesn't ask them to post reviews on amazon about it. To me that is cheesy, doesn't matter if it is your career or not. My former boss used to pull that crap, he'd give a computer to a relative then ask them to review it. Of course they RAVED over it since it was free. [img]tongue.gif[/img]
I don't think it is the best(in terms of ethics, not money) marketing pratice. I am assuming that enought people will mention it in their reviews that it will balance out though. It is funny when you see 75% of the reviews within the course of a week, when the book has been out for quite a while. In my opinion, his request is no worse than rival authors writing negative rewiews for spite. He is offering a gift for reviews that otherwise would not be there, evident by the recent volume of reviews for the book. Which I bet it sets off some kind of flag to Amazon. I don't mind asking for or "reminding" buyers to write a review, but offering a gift is pushing it in my book.
It depends on what your motivation is. Having an area for customer reviews such as what Amazon has are done so so future customers can see other purchaser's opinions. The perception is that these are legitimate, unsolicited comments.
If you are an author and view that function as a sales tool only (and really don't care about the negative reviews) then you don't want any negative ones.
I'm not saying that this is the case here, but one has to wonder why there is an effort to bury certain opinions.
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quote:Originally posted by nbjjku:
BTW, for those of you that do not know, I slammed the practice in the review section. I did not slam the man, but just the practice.
Remind me again what you got called on T-Nation. If I remember correctly it was not exactly flattering. [/quote]Actually, I thought that they were slamming the person that said they didnt like any of the exercises and that you would look "out of place" at the gym.
I really didn't read that thread after I posted, so maybe they did call me some nasty things. I have a different screen name for over there, and I think I have posted maybe twice.
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Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. -- Sidney J. Harris
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Regret for the things we did can be tempered by time; it is regret for the things we did not do that is inconsolable. -- Sidney J. Harris
I'd have prefered to keep the link out of it. Somebody can PM it to others. Like it was said I don't want this to be a personal issue or have the name of the author influence anything.
Could someone please move the link or over rule me?
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Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
John Berardi and his emails regardining Scrawny to Brawny have really generated a lot of negative feelings. I also looked at the amazon site and I did not think that the reviews were that bad. I think that a flood of positve reviews on the same day would make a potential customer more skeptical.
Soliciting postive reviews seems like excessive self promotion, but offering something in exchange crosses the line. I was leaning towards doing S2B, but this has made me reconsider. It may be a good program, but I think there are others that are promoted more in line with what I think is acceptable behavior.
I am not interested in vilifying Mr. Berardi, nor am I interested in spending my money on something that is promoted that way. I will exercise the best option I have, which is to vote with my wallet.
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After all, diamonds are a girl's best friend…
It is tough putting your work out there on the internet. I can relate to JB in that. It is almost irresistable to try to stack the deck when you get some jealous asshole who doesn't ever take any risks, who sits on the sidelines and lobs insults. It's really easy for them. I have certainly had to deal with trolls. I have even made big mistakes in trying to deal with trolls, but all you can do is learn from it, learn how to take your lumps, take responsibility for your mistake, and vow to not let them sully you any further.
JB is extremely intelligent, and he's got a great product. That kind of creativity and character stands on its own over time and will be remembered, whereas the troll will be force to live out his pathetic life in obscurity.
I'm going to defend negative reviews. Making the assumption that this person really didn't like the program and we don't have any indication that they didn't doesn't make them a troll.
The supplements and soup comment was off base but doing Frankensteins around the gym still gets a laugh from some of us. Following the dietary guildelines is extremely difficult and many of us with traditional jobs found it hard to stay on task and timeline.
Maybe not the best written opinion but there is some truth in there. Not a troll, just poorly written.
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Past performance is not indicative of future success.
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level and beat you with experience.
I'll give you five bucks if you vote for me for student president!
I'm going to go with the "you probibly shouldn't do that crowd". I'm willing to say that he's doing it with the best of intentions and did not MEAN to come off as bribing people for positive feedback. According to some of his posts he has had thousands of people e-mail him telling him how his product has changed their lives....why not offer them something privately instead of anouncing it to the whole world?
I'm not convinced that JB is in the same literary leauge as Robert Jordan.
I don't know if anyone remembers the hissy fit thrown not too long ago on this very forum when we had a group of guys really struggling to do the program. I mean JP put up a special section for those people BECAUSE they were having a lot of trouble figuring out what to do. Support was promised (even though mabey it shouldn't have been) and not delivered and JB through a fit when people were pissed about the lack of it.
THAT thread pushed me over the edge not to buy that particular product, and it confirms a lot of the negative stuff about the product in question. This latest little push REALLY makes me question my support just on a general level.
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