Is It Ok To Write Negative Product Reviews?

if you truly do think their product is total crap - no there is no problem with that, but don't go bashing someone's product to make you seem more authentic.

List the pros and cons, and what you feel they should've improved on.

I don't think it will benefit you much, your better off choosing good/average products and writing authentically. You wont make any sales on your negative review, I don't think its worth the time for the limited amount of traffic that might perceive you as more genuine.

So long as the review you write is factual and based on your own real experience, you can write whatever you like.

I've had good experience doing this, it lead me to hire conversions.

I read in another thread some time ago that a Warrior managed to sell a few Amazon products even after writing a negative review about them.

This means that sometimes the public doesn’t want to believe in reviews.

Thus, you can write a (sincere) negative review with the intention to show to your readers that you are not merely promoting a certain product, but you are an objective reviewer, and at the same time, sell this product to those who will disagree with you, besides also selling the products you will write a positive review about.

For me, it's been more profitable to offer both pros AND cons for a particular product
and review.

In other words, instead of saying the product is the greatest thing since sliced
bread, or saying it's a piece of crap... i like listing both the benefits AND the drawbacks, and here's why.

When you're listing out both pros and cons, the pros may outweigh the cons... and lead
to a purchase.

So, you can say something like..

"Even though the ebook was not very organized and it was sorta written without
the best spelling, the information on diet and nutrition alone was worth the price."

Or....

Overall, the ebook wasn't very detailed and it was kinda generic and not very specific... but with that said, the one tip on page 48 alone made me $1,000 from Google
Adwords"

Those are just examples, off the top of my head, but for me, I'll do product reviews that list out a lot of benefits and drawbacks.

I'll list out 10 benefits and 10 drawbacks.

and many, many times I make sales as an affiliate off those review pages, even though my review wasn't all positive or negative.

All it takes is one overpowering benefit for someone to outweigh the negatives, and they buy.

You will get more respect if you act with integrity. Respect leads to trust. Trust leads to cash.

Honesty is the best policy. I respect people that give honest reviews a great deal. It wouldn't hurt you in any way as you would become more trusted within your niche.

You should always be honest in your reviews. If the product sucks, you should let people know that it sucks. Don't rip people off.

freedom of speech.. should be fine. plus, your community will trust you more when they know youre not afraid to give your real opinion

Seeding fake bad reviews for link bait?

Scumbaggery. The lowliest form of affiliate suckitude. Potentially actionable.

Finding a product to be crap, then explaining how you arrived at that conclusion?

Good work. Never be afraid to tell the truth.

Also, remember that bullshit comes back to haunt you.

Your review needs to be truthful. If you fabricate negative statements for the purpose of creating a bad review then you could be sued for defamation. One initial question will be whether you bought the product the product.

Writing negative reviews is ok so long as you don't tell a lie. You might want to include in the review an alternative product. Keep in mind, what you might perceive as a negative my be perceived as a positive by the reader.

As long as you truly believe that the product is useless and you are completely honest in your review then I think your subscribers will appreciate it. I'd be careful going to overboard though, make sure you explain fully why you don't like the product and if there are any positives, include them!

i don't think that there will be a problem but don't be too hursh on the review ... there is also the saying "if you have nothing good to say, better say nothing"

I always prefer to buy from sites that list also bad reviews, it's a psychological thing...i trust them much more

Honesty is the best policy, there's absolutely no need in trying to deceive anyone so I say go for it, if you've ever watched Top Gear then you'd see a great example of it there. If they review a car and think it's utter crap they're going to tell their viewers about it.

Same applies to any product and if you can save your subscribers/customers some money they'll love you for it and obviously you'll come across genuine, and we all know about the benefits of that.


As long as your not bashing anyone and do it in a respectful manner then there is nothing wrong with a solid product review, good or bad.

Cheers

S.C

Of course.

If its one of my products, no.

I'm always slightly suspicious of sites who only say positive things about every single product, particularly if those things involve comments like "best ever" and then a week later something very similar is getting the same treatment. It just sounds more honest to lay out who should buy it, who isn't as well suited to it, what it does/doesn't do etc.

Likewise I find it ridiculous to see reviewers on Amazon who give 5 stars to nearly every book they've reviewed. I'm not talking spam accounts either, legitimate authors/reviewers who only have nice things to say about every book they review, but I understand why. They're likely living in fear that if they offer an honest opinion on a crap book, their own material will get a torrent of bad reviews as revenge. A legitimate fear given the state of Amazon reviews.

If you have experienced the product yourself and found it crap, you can write up anything you want.

If it's an honest review... then DO IT. People who are reading your reviews don't want you to bend over backwards and praise everything you see and claim it's near magic powers, especially when you didn't even like it.

Your readers want to know you're like minded and trying to help them out. If you warn them about a product being low quality... you'll build a better relationship with them as someone who's honest and not someone just trying to sell everything they see.

Keep your reviews honest and don't be afraid to not recommend a product if you don't like it.

I guess you should be honest on your review. If you think it sux, it sux. Just say the truth. Otherwise just choose another product to prmote. I guess being honest could be refreshing to your own readers. It can also be your chance to promote another affiliate product that you think is better.

If you haven't used it, you shouldn't be reviewing it - theoretically.

You could probably write about the things you saw in the ads and reviews, and how you compared the pros and cons of yours vs theirs and chose yours, but writing negative reviews as if you've used something would be unethical (amongst other things).

A few months ago I wrote a few negative reviews about certain products that were bad. Then I recommended a totally different product at the end of the article and conversions were decent.

As long as you're not promoting those certain products, sure why not?

If I buy a product and use it and promote it I will say whether it does what its supposed to do, or not. If its not OK then it gets a negative review. But even then, it really has to be bad to get a totally bad review. It might get one star out of 5

The net is FULL with fake and hyped-up lying "reviews", and people surely are getting sick of it, especially in the IM niche but also in weight loss and many more niche. ANY honest review (and I mean really honest) can only add something positive. In reality, any product or service might have one or the other downside. Your reviews should reflect this. Convince you visitors you are legit and in fact competent to review, rather than just joining the zillions of fail-marketers who write fake reviews where any idiot sees that their reviews only serve the purpose to make a quick sale.

I cannot express my anger enough should I on occasion happen to look for a real evaluation of a product, say, in the IM niche...and all you got is *those* websites (we all know those kinds of websites) where you immediately see you cannot take one single word of those "reviews" serious.