Amazon Reviews Milestone: Reviewer Ranking Under 50k
Reviewer Ranking: #36,658
I started doing Amazon Reviews in November of 2016. My ranking at the time was past the 7 million mark (Amazon has a lot of customers). I started tracking my reviewer ranking in March, when I reached a rank of #190,607 and five months later I've reached the rank of #36,658 with 52 reviews and 195 upvotes.
In honor of being in (at least) the top 5% of reviewers on Amazon, I'm going to comb through all 52 of my reviews to see which ones were the most helpful and why.
The Top 20 Reviews
These were the reviews with the most total votes (whether good or bad)
Blond Ombre Wig 36 3 39
Gray Wig 21 2 23
Black Embroidered Floral Dress 16 1 17
Pink Bob Wig 13 1 14
Black Fan Earrings 12 0 12
Black Tassel Earrings 10 0 10
Therapeutic Heat Wraps 10 0 10
Grey Tunic 7 0 9
Bluetooth Earbuds 3 6 9
Red Applique Floral Dress 7 1 8
Metal Coffee Filter 6 0 6
Adjustable Screen 5 1 6
Red Embroidered Dress 6 0 6
Crop Top Hoodie 3 1 4
Bangle that holds hairbands 2 2 4
Yellow Embroidered Dress 3 0 3
Leather Camera Lens Bag 3 0 3
Solar Power Charger 3 0 3
Velvet Red Dress 3 0 3
The Top Review By Total Votes
Honestly, if you'd told me this would be my top review I would have thought you were crazy. The pictures are off kilter, I basically just say "it's comfortable", and there are 63 reviews (so it's a fairly popular product).
Worst Review By Total Votes
This particular product had quite a few reviews that sounded canned (broken english, same phrases over and over again, one of the previous reviewers even called them out on sounding like they had fake reviews). My guess is that they also have people who will go in and downvote negative reviews. Another person's negative review also had 6 down votes on it so I'm definitely calling foul play.
Analyzing the Top 20
What People Rate When They're Buying
People are more likely to look at/rate reviews on things that are bought for a specific purpose – particularly if it's things they don't want a lot of trial and error with when purchasing (you might be buying a wig for a costume party next week, or crazy earrings to match a particular dress).
All of those items also have unique attributes which are easily describable: people generally know what color and style of wig they're looking for and "embroidered" earrings aren't what I'd normally think of when I think of buying earrings. When people buy clothes (like a white shirt), a person may get 500 results but they still have the same amount of time to discern which one is best that they'd have if there were only 10 items that matched their description – this could be the difference between 30 seconds looking at a page or 3 minutes.
What People Look For In Reviews
When writing reviews, pictures are important. They answer questions people might have but can't verbalize (i.e. "How would this outfit look on someone of my size'). The pictures don't have to be professional, but good lighting helps.
Talking about your own experience and expectations helps people frame what they're supposed to think about the product. Pointing out inconsistencies in the official description and the actual product, or referring to complaints that other users have about the project.
Generally speaking, people don't rate "unhelpful" on reviews unless you say something they don't like (like in the above example) or if your review isn't descriptive – like if you just said "This product sucks" and left it at that. It's also possible that if a person has written a review for the same product they'll down vote you so their review can rise higher.
There's no real way to know what products will have a lot of people looking at them and rating reviews, but the more unique the product, the more people will look at it. That's also part of the reason why the number of reviews you do is more important than the number of upvote/downvotes they receive: the shotgun effect of reviewing many different products means that even if every review gets 1-4 upvotes, they'll add up over time.
Don't be afraid to be honest. People often look at reviews because they want to know why they shouldn't buy the product, not because they're already sold on it. Unwavering enthusiasm sounds like an advertisement and not a true opinion.
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