The biggest problem with reviewing today has got to be coupon clubs. Not that all of them are bad, but some are less scrupulous than others. I myself review occasionally for coupon clubs, but I do try to limit the number of reviews I do with them, partly because of the stigma associated with them, and also because Amazon has been suspending accounts of reviewers who are inadvertently (or blatantly) not following Amazons TOS for reviews.
I define a coupon club as a company that is trying to get as many reviews as possible, and has it’s reviewers sign up with their company on Facebook or other social media, or has them go through a website portal to select products. The difference between a “legit” coupon club and one that is not on the up and up, is in how they approach the reviewer, and the review process.
A bad coupon club will:
- Require you to give a 4 or 5 star review, no matter what.
- Give you certain things that you have to say in your review about the product.
- Ask you not to disclose that you got the product for free or a discount.
- Try to offer you payment over and above the amount of the review item, in the form of cash or Amazon gift cards.
- Not care so much about the quality of the individual review, but is going for volume.
- Harass you if you give anything less than 5 stars to get you to alter your review.
- Threaten not to let you review more products unless you give 5 star reviews.
A good coupon club will:
- Ask only for honest reviews, no matter the star rating.
- Never ask you to change a review.
- Request that you disclose you got the item for free or a discount.
- Never say that you are not allowed to review again if you leave a less than 5 star review.
Coupon clubs are very easy to get into, and you don’t have to have an established reviewing track record to do them. That is why I think people get drawn into them. You want to review, and you like the free products, but if you don’t compromise your principles and give it a 5 star review (even if it’s a 2 star item) then you get “cut off”. Of course there are those reviewers out there just doing it to get all the free stuff they can grab. They don’t care about the integrity of the review, they just want another selfie stick, oven mitt, or string of Christmas lights… whatever happens to come up for review. I value my integrity over a $10 selfie stick, and I think the majority of reviewers probably do as well.
For those still thinking they want to go the coupon club route, to find one of these clubs a simple google search for “Amazon coupon clubs” will do the trick. There are dozens of them out there.
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