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Amazon Made Changes To Review Policy

BlakeIC

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Basically, it's "internet marketers" crying because they've been exposed to have a product that sucks and cannot "pull" without the assistance of fake reviews and manufactured sizzle. This move is great for Fastlaners with real products that legitimately move the needle.
100% Agreed.

This all exciting news for me and should be for anyone else with real products that actually work.
 
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luniac

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same thing STEAM just did with bought video game reviews. huh...
 

Late Start

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Man, a guy I've enjoyed conversing with on Facebook who had a pretty solid brand built is worried. I never realized how much of his empire was built on literally thousands of reviews that are likely to vanish overnight at some point in the near future. The day before the announcement he was encouraging me to use the same strategy with my relaunch, and at the time I was so worried I was considering it...

Thousands and thousands of dollars thrown at giveaways that could have been spent on FB ads, PPC, you name it are going up in smoke. I suspect in some cases this will legitimately lead to bankruptcies, which is crazy. They had to know it was a gamble, though.
 
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devine

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Man, a guy I've enjoyed conversing with on Facebook who had a pretty solid brand built is worried. I never realized how much of his empire was built on literally thousands of reviews that are likely to vanish overnight at some point in the near future. The day before the announcement he was encouraging me to use the same strategy with my relaunch, and at the time I was so worried I was considering it...

Thousands and thousands of dollars thrown at giveaways that could have been spent on FB ads, PPC, you name it are going up in smoke.
Take shortcuts - get cut short.
 
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petkovic

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Excellent! When researching competition in the niche I want to enter, I did not find a single(!) review that was not in some way "bought".

I haven't seen any movement here in Germany yet, but I expect that reviews will disappear here, too.

It's almost like Amazon is calling to me: "petkovic, come to us. It is time..."
 

TKDTyler

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3things

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Seems like Amazon is removing all incented reviews, including retrospectively. The reddit fba and product testing subs are pretty full of it.

As a consumer not a seller on Amazon, good and about time. The tons of incentived review shit were a cancer and made a once powerful, valuable and trustworthy purchase assister an untrustworthy minefield you had to waste time wading through. Good riddance! :)
 
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jesset17

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As a consumer turned seller on Amazon, I am glad they are removing paid reviews and even entire listings. All of the products on the first page of my category have over half of the reviews stating I received this product at discount in exchange for an unbiased review etc etc. I hope to see these listings drop off or disappear soon.

Great time to start selling if you have a product that can gain 5 star reviews based off of quality and customer satisfaction.
 

eliquid

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I've tried to beat it over everyone's head for a couple years now about these "discounts" for reviews when I meet someone starting on FBA.

None of them listened to me.

Being a programmer and marketer has it's perks.

I've had a system developed for months to get around all this $1 or FREE crap to gain a review garbage. Looks like its time to take it full throttle now and grab all the reviews I can in a way Amazon can't track it.
 

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I've tried to beat it over everyone's head for a couple years now about these "discounts" for reviews when I meet someone starting on FBA.

None of them listened to me.

Being a programmer and marketer has it's perks.

I've had a system developed for months to get around all this $1 or FREE crap to gain a review garbage. Looks like its time to take it full throttle now and grab all the reviews I can in a way Amazon can't track it.

Conversely you could just build a company that marketed products that people liked and wanted.
 
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eliquid

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Conversely you could just build a company that marketed products that people liked and wanted.

I agree. but there is no harm in priming the pump either when it's done correctly
 

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I agree. but there is no harm in priming the pump either when it's done correctly

Most people's definition of "correctly" are not consistent with Amazons TOS
 

million$$$smile

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Fake product reviews is no different than brand prostitution.
Paying a reviewer to post an 'honest' review', to me is just a form of bribery.
It is not a principal that I feel creates lasting value for a business
Amazon has realized that its not good for their business either as it cheapens the Amazon brand if the consumer can't trust reviews.
The fastlane of 'paying' for reviews is not Fastlane, there are better ways of gaining popularity; it just takes a bit of creativity, and will go much further.

Now back to the shadows...
 
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Jon L

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As a consumer, I'm very happy that Amazon's done this. I've gotten to the point where I don't trust the positive reviews. The only ones I look at are the negative ones. If all the negative reviews are from people that just don't 'get' the product (they're trying to use a clock radio as a hammer, for example), and the product looks good otherwise, I'll buy it. If the negative reviews describe actual problems with the product, I'll stay away.
 

Late Start

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Amazon made another big announcement today (well, not so much as a big announcement as just a blurb at the bottom of the FBA signup page) - any new (as in brand new, just signed up) seller who didn't have a shipment in by today (the 10th) will have to wait until December 19th to get one shipped in. If you're not an existing FBA seller, Q4 will be strictly an FBM affair.
 

strobe

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Good thing this happend now. I have been researching Amazon and pretty much every "Guru" has been talking about giving out 100 or more units of a product to review groups in exchange for reviews. I heard a podcast today about it where they guy was trying to say you could still send out the products to review groups but you just couldn't "Ask" them for a review which is the exact same thing and good thing it is finished so that products are genuine with real reviews.

Amazon should incentivise customers to leave reviews a bit more though. I leave reviews when I buy a book for example if it provided great value.
 
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Vigilante

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Amazon has started a deeper purge of fake, incentivized or otherwise fraudulent reviews.

People who continue to attempt to game the system do so at great risk as Amazon bans are lifetime bans.

The people at this forum (for the most part) preach starting legitimate businesses, with products that solve needs, creating their own consumer demand and real, organic product reviews. The best way to build a business has NEVER been fraudulently gaming loopholes to try and short circuit providing value to consumers.
 

petkovic

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Apparently, this is not yet active in Germany. In a news article on golem.de (from October 4th) an Amazon spokesperson said they don't want to speculate about the future when asked when the new rules would apply here. I am looking forward to it, though.
 

Jon L

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Saw this while looking for computer programming gigs on CL. Obviously, this violates Amazon's TOS, but how would they prevent this kind of thing?

CL ad.png
 
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LateStarter

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The best way to build a business has NEVER been fraudulently gaming loopholes to try and short circuit providing value to consumers.

I agree with this in terms of fraud. And I'd turn it around to ask how you would approach this then if you were new to the market. Since you are much more established I suspect this new barrier to entry is good news. For the rest of us, it presents more of a challenge.

'Real world' example.
A friend of mine recently published a book an has it on Amazon. She's been trying to establish some kind of a rank on there and has been requesting honest reviews from people in her networks. This includes contacts she's made at publishing companies as well as personal friends. Her issue now is that she believes (based on this blog post) that Amazon is purging these ratings based on her connections on social platforms. Aside from advertising and trying to gain reach/sales via PPC or organic, what else can she do to help build rank?
 

TKDTyler

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Saw this while looking for computer programming gigs on CL. Obviously, this violates Amazon's TOS, but how would they prevent this kind of thing?

View attachment 13403
Those won't be verified reviews at least... It seems like a lot of work for each product launch to drive around to meet 25-50 random people just to give them $10.

As the reviewer, $10 wouldn't even be worth the inconvience of having to meet with somebody, sit down and let them see me post. I could also take the money and just edit my review to reflect what really happened. It's still playing with fire
 

StartupMonkey

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I know! Cause now the brands that blasted their way to the top are going to still have huge amounts of reviews. Even launching a better product would be difficult when comparing against products with 1000+ reviews that are all 4 star or better.

Not exactly. You can still create the edge in no time regardless of this new policy change. Just order your own product under a new name (same address) every time. Keep ordering. If your product costs $100, order 5. The money will obviously return back to you in your bank account. And you can use that same money to order 5 more. Repeat. Money will always return to you while leaving a beautiful mark of reviews. It's no different. You just need a couple weeks of legwork while setting it up and you'll have a running business in no time. Great, so you've got a ton of reviews. Now all you need to do is shell a few hundreds on advertisement and you'll see the ranks of cash quadrupling.

P:S: You can escape Amazon charges by purchasing $40/month subscription. Build off your reviews in that month and cancel subscription at the end of the month. Win-win.

If you've got no product to sell. Just steal. Go to hot trending products. Let's say you picked up a Portable charger or a wireless earphones. Order it. Take it apart once it ships. Hire a 3D modeller to model you a cool headphone design ($100). 3D print it and stuff in the tech inside it or you can have it professionally done (or just order a bulk, seriously. But make sure it's a profitable category). Now advertise it. And voila! watch as money pours in. If you need a boost, hire a videographer and have your 4k product video created. Simple as that.
 
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Insaint

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Not exactly. You can still create the edge in no time regardless of this new policy change. Just order your own product under a new name (same address) every time. Keep ordering. If your product costs $100, order 5. The money will obviously return back to you in your bank account. And you can use that same money to order 5 more. Repeat. Money will always return to you while leaving a beautiful mark of reviews. It's no different. You just need a couple weeks of legwork while setting it up and you'll have a running business in no time. Great, so you've got a ton of reviews. Now all you need to do is shell a few hundreds on advertisement and you'll see the ranks of cash quadrupling.

P:S: You can escape Amazon charges by purchasing $40/month subscription. Build off your reviews in that month and cancel subscription at the end of the month. Win-win.

This is such horrible advice that I'm not even sure you are serious. Anyone who follows this is 100% guaranteed to get banned by Amazon in short order.
 

StartupMonkey

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This is such horrible advice that I'm not even sure you are serious. Anyone who follows this is 100% guaranteed to get banned by Amazon in short order.

You can't get banned by Amazon if you have different IP addresses (with emails and account) every single time you order. I've researched into this to find that Amazon follows a robotic algorithm where it automatically catches and bans members when they repeatedly order the same thing over and over with different accounts BUT with the SAME IP address. So cut off the IP address issue and there won't be more doors to clear. Also, diversifying the delivery address to a friend or two (or family member) wouldn't hurt. I've done this before with 6 straight reviews so far without getting banned at all so I don't know how this is a "horrible advice". You should give this a shot yourself on a test product to see if this will chart. Mine sure did. And I am 100% serious. Try it.
 

StartupMonkey

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And by the way, even if you happen to get banned (which you won't) so what? So what if you get banned? Just create a new account. Your merchant account will not be affected. Even if Amazon decides to ban you, only your buyer account will be banned, not seller. Funds will be reimbursed as well once you're banned (buyer account). Merchant will not be banned because there is ZERO affiliation. So there is ZERO loss.

You just need to be very careful with the slieght of hand and must understand Amazon's auto ban algorithm if you want to go that route.
 
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Longinus

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FLYnsYj.gif
 

Kevin Farney

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It's clearly against TOS to buy your own product...and you must understand that since you have a detailed process to avoid getting caught...
I'm new to FBA, this forum and the Fastlane mindset but these sort of tactics go against everything they teach. Best of luck to you though! I'll not be trying it.
 

E-Sharp

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And by the way, even if you happen to get banned (which you won't) so what? So what if you get banned? Just create a new account. Your merchant account will not be affected. Even if Amazon decides to ban you, only your buyer account will be banned, not seller. Funds will be reimbursed as well once you're banned (buyer account). Merchant will not be banned because there is ZERO affiliation. So there is ZERO loss.

You just need to be very careful with the slieght of hand and must understand Amazon's auto ban algorithm if you want to go that route.

[HASHTAG]#landfill[/HASHTAG] bullshit
Too bad we cant landfill individual posts. You're batting .1000 with the garbage
 
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