In this edition of Web Enlightenment we'll be talking about product reviews and how negativity is actually a positive thing.

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The Positivity of Negativity

Recently I've been chatting with lots of folks about online product reviews - this topic often comes up when discussing social media because it elucidates the fear entrepreneurs have in that area as well.

Web site owners are afraid to let people comment - on their blogs, as part of product reviews - and the first question they always ask is how they can control the conversation to prevent any "negative" opinions.

There are plenty of folks who will skillfully rant and rave about how the web has changed everything and the days of brand control are long gone - the customers are now in charge. Those folks have a valid point but we're not going to talk about that today.

Today is about profits, profits from negative reviews - and what you need to know about that.

Long ago and far away in web history (ok, like 5 years ago) there was lots of conversation about the ethics of creating fake positive reviews. Lots of folks do this and there has been such an uproar about it the FTC actually got involved and issued a "guideline" last fall that makes it clear bloggers need to fully disclose if they have been in any way compensated by the product they are reviewing.

I think this is a good thing, but I don't agree with the way the FTC has singled out bloggers and ignored the long tradition of greenmail in print publications and other vehicles.

Back in geek land recent conversations have been about the ethics of seeding a site with fake reviews again - bad ones.

Many Internet Entrepreneurs get confused right here, why would someone want people to show a bad review of their product?

What those folks don't know is that lots of analysis of heavily reviewed products has been done in the last few years and all the little number crunching web geeks have learned something you need to know.

Products with a few negative reviews sell better than products that have all positive reviews.

As people become more and more dependant on product reviews for information they know that the information can be inaccurate - it is reasonable to trust Wikipedia but because anyone can edit that online encyclopedia folks know that sometimes information there is not reliable. This is the web's version of the "Trust, but verify" idea.

So think about a major purchase - like a Flat Screen TV. Take a trip on over to the Amazon Electronics store and you'll see that by default it will sort the TV's by "Bestselling". You'll notice something interesting about the top 5 selling products - not a one of them has 5 stars (the most) in terms of reviews.

I'm not saying there aren't products that have an average 5 star rating - go ahead and sort by customer review and they pop right up.

The best selling panel at Amazon right now is a Panasonic Viera - an awesome machine, and here's a bit of disclosure: I own one.

One of the reviews for the product is titled "This Tv Sucks" and in addition to the overall lousy opinion he says: "Another problem is that POWER BUTTON on TV is not working for some reason but the remote works perfectly."

He's right. The power button on my TV is a crappy button - I've pushed lots and lots of buttons over the years and I can speak with authority on crappy ones. Panasonic saved a buck or two on the production cost right there, no doubt.

But I almost never ever use that button, I shut my TV off with my remote control so I don't really care that it has a lousy power button. The thing of it is that this little bit of genuine trouble - along with the moans about viewing angle, delivery problems, difficulties setting up the unit, picture quality concerns - all of these things not only drag the average review down to four and a half stars, they assure me that I am getting a real world genuine picture of this product.

Like most people I am actually much more likely to purchase this TV when I know about its minor known problems than I am to make the leap of faith required to buy one where every review is positive and glowing.

Here's the bottom line - as an Internet Entrepreneur you might be afraid of people providing negative reviews, but some negativity is in fact positive and will boost sales.

MANP Freebies

I recently provided a seminar about Email marketing for the Maine Association of Nonprofit's. They were kind enough to send me two coupons for half day workshops from their 2010 catalog as a thank you to pass on to others.

The first two people that reply to this newsletter and tell me they want the free pass are the winners.