Amazon. com Customer reviews Guts

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Hunt For Zero Point

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I was drawn to this book recently and am glad that I followed my guts as this book has helped me understand many things, and put others in clearer context. For example it has enabled me to understand a bit better how the black world works, though I am curious how scientists can produce their best work in a climate of extreme fear. Somehow I think that far more could be achieved in a relaxed much less stressed environment. This could be one aspect of the negatives of the virus that Nick talks about in the latter part of this wonderful book.

As a criticism, I did not like how Nick had to almost apologise so often for thinking the unthinkable and going into conspiracy land. Mainstream science may not like it - but as Nick sort of admits and alludes to later on - that is where the real breakthroughs are made, before they get mainstreamed. This reputational risk issue is one of the biggest dampeners on scientific progress in my opinion.

While there were too many f words in there for my personal liking (only a handful in context) I feel that this book is worthy of 5 stars, for me at least, because it has answered so many questions for me, at this point in my life. Others may or may not feel the same impact.

If you are interested in exotic science, Nazi and American secret projects, triangular ufos etc, then this book will be interesting. However as Nick notes himself in relation to a chart on a wall in a military complex, "was that there for me to see?" I do wonder if this book contains any disinformation. But even if it does I found it a cracking read that took me 3 days as I immersed myself in every word.

Parts of it seemed a bit cloak and daggerish at times, but those explain themselves by the end.

So in summary, its a good read, and for me I was able to get a lot of valuable understandings and "ah-ha" moments from it.

Amazon. com: Customer reviews: Guts

I have read a good portion of the Apollo-era Astronaut's Biographies and I would rate this one up there with Michael Collins' "Carrying the Fire"--the best out there and one that will never be topped (in my humble opinion.) This one is close, though, and it was an excellent read.

Al Worden was typical of the Astronauts during the Apollo era: hard working, driven to excellence, motivated and accomplished. He got a mission not by sucking up to management but by being a humble man who did his job and did it well. Unfortunately, he lost his job by getting sucked into a scam by a more experienced Astronaut (David Scott) and his only failure, was trusting the Commander of their Apollo 15 mission.

As a child of the 60's who idolized Astronauts, I always said, "Man--I wish I could have walked on the moon." Well, I would have to say that Worden's descriptions of his 3 days of solitary orbiting the moon while Scott and Irwin walked on it has made me change my mind. I would have loved nothing more to have see what he did--the Earth rising over the moon, the sharp angles of craters only tens of miles below him, the visions of stars on the dark side of the moon where he could see "Tens or hundreds more than on the clearest, darkest night from the Earth." (Paraphrase but close to the quote.) I love his description of his trans-earth EVA where Irwin was standing out of the hatch with the large moon framing him some 50,000 miles behind him. "It could have been the most famous picture from space" if Worden would have been allowed to carry a camera but alas, we can only imagine the view from Worden's poetic description as well as a painting created following his poetic description.

Worden also speaks honestly and directly about his cohorts in the space program. He talks about Al Shepard only working a couple of hours a day and leaving to do his real business stuff--that of becoming a millionaire. He speaks of Deke Slayton's honesty and integrity. He speaks of Dave Scott and how that now he is done writing this book, he will spend the rest of his life never thinking of him again. Wow! Obviously the man hurt him deeply because of the famous stamp scandal that he (Scott) got him (Worden) involved in.

Here is a man who once said in an interview--when asked if he would have flown on the ISS or Skylab--a man who answered, "I would have taken any mission they gave me but I didn't have the choice." It's too bad--plenty of astronauts from his group went on to fly and command successful Shuttle and Skylab missions.

All in all, I know I'm rambling but this book really touched me. It brought me back to the first time I looked at the moon through a cheap Tasco telescope when I was nine. The awe and wonder of a child seeing craters and mountains on moon. Hearing his descriptions of orbiting the moon charge me to want to metaphorically be that kid again--a kid that views our wonderful planet with wonder and the joy of discovery.

Thanks, Al, for writing a wonderful book and for not pulling any punches.

(By the way--on his website[. ], he has a section called "Just Call me Al" so no Col. Worden from me!)

5 Ways to Get 5-Star Amazon Customer Reviews

Why You Need Amazon Customer Reviews

Online reviews are the modern media world-of-mouth; they’re immensely powerful and can have a huge affect on how your business is perceived. A study last year found that:

79% of consumers Trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations 85% of consumers say that they read online reviews for local businesses 73% of consumers say positive customer reviews Make them trust a business more

When you wish upon five stars, it makes no difference who you are – your business dreams come true! OK, in truth you’ll need a lot more than wishing to obtain a great Amazon star count. In this post we’ll talk about why Amazon customer reviews are important and the various ways you can earn them (both legitimately and not-so-legitimately).

What Amazon Customer Reviews Can Do For You

Amazon reviews serve a few different purposes. Reviews can:

Push on-the-fence buyers into a purchase Convince consumers to buy your product over alternatives Assure customers of quality Serve as word of mouth recommendations

Why Product Reviews Matter & the Human Hardwire

Studies have shown that word of mouth is the most powerful marketing tool – even in an online age, when a fellow human being tells us about something great, we listen with open ears. Although our lives are vastly different than our neanderthal ancestors, we aren’t as far removed as we think. We are still programmed to make choices based on the actions of others. There is safety in numbers with the herd mentality, so when we see a lot of people recommending an item and saying they HAVE to have it, we tend to feel likewise.

As someone who frequents Slickdeals, a website that aggregates the daily online deals, I’ve witnessed myself and many others fall victim to the herd mentality. Many silly purchasing decisions have been made all because of a forum swarming with users saying, “in for 3, what a great deal!” or “unbelievable price on these, they’ll sell out quickly.” This results in unnecessary, even down-right useless purchases – an outcome that many on the site dub the SD affect. The truth is that we’re programmed to act quite sheepish.

Bah ram you, sheep aren't so true (p hoto courtesy net_efekt)

When it Comes to Getting Amazon Reviews, the More the Merrier

Social proof is some powerful stuff, and the more proof you have, the more potent it becomes. An item rated as 4.5 stars reviewed by 10 people won’t sell as well as an item rated as 4 stars reviewed by 300 people. More reviews look better, are more convincing, and boost your visibility when someone searches for your product on Amazon.

Want to drive even more traffic to your site? Check out our free guide!

How to Get Reviews on Amazon: 5 Tips

How do you get legitimate, 100% authentic home-grown Amazon consumer reviews? Here’s how.

1. Provide a great consumer experience. The majority of negative reviews involve consumers feeling misled about a product. Be honest about what you’re selling and provide as much accurate, precise information about your product as possible to avoid any confusion or false expectations.

2. Send follow-up emails after an Amazon purchase asking for feedback. Amazon asks for feedback following a purchase, but it’s a generic email with nothing special. Instead, send personalized review requests; ideally you want to send them shortly after they’ve received your product so its awesomeness is still fresh in their minds. You can even use a site like FeedbackFive to automatically send customized feedback request emails. Make it really easy for users to leave a review by including a link.

3. Request Amazon reviews via newsletter and social media. Chances are, the folks subscribed to your newsletter and your fans on Facebook already like you, so why not ask them for reviews? There’s a decent chance they’ve already bought a product from you, so they can provide legitimate, positive Amazon customer reviews. In our article about getting reviews on Yelp, we noted that Yelp discouraged directly soliciting reviews. Amazon, on the other hand, is much more lax.

4. Reach out to users who reviewed similar products. You can find users who have reviewed products similar to yours (even your competitor’s products) by visiting your product page, going to “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” and “Customers Who Viewed This Item Also Viewed.” These are your competitors, and you could do well simply taking note of them and reading their reviews (paying attention to what they do well and what they fail at), and even checking out their website.

For the sake of our Amazon review-centered discussion, simply click for the “customer reviews” link and sort by newest reviews. Click the reviewer’s name for their details. If they provide contact info connected with their profile, you’re in luck! Send an e-mail. If only a name shows up, try contacting them on another social network like Twitter or Facebook.

5. Solicit the top Amazon reviewers. Amazon holds a list of their top reviewers – a compilation of esteemed reviewers who are valued for their insightful and objective critiques. Many of these top Amazon reviewers also hold titles such as “Top Ten Reviewer,” or “Hall of Fame Reviewer,” which are displayed alongside their reviews, making their reviews ultra-valuable.

We’ll discuss how to find these coveted super-star Amazon reviewers in our next section below.

How to Get Reviews from Top Amazon Reviewers

Snagging an assessment from one of these prize reviewers can mean big things for your Amazon seller account. These guys are the big mouth Billy basses of the Amazon world, and we’re going to show you how to reel them in.

Some of these Amazon reviewers make a living doing this – it’s serious business, and some may do as many as 100 reviews a month. Be prepared to offer your product for free in exchange for a review – depending on your product, this could be a pricey expenditure, so you’ll have to decide if this is a strategy you can afford.

1. Find the top reviewers. First we’ll scour the Amazon list of Top Reviewers. You’ll see the page is divided into Top Reviewer Rankings and Hall of Fame Reviewers. Hall of Fame holds the long-time legacy reviewers, while the Top Review Rankings shows the best Amazon contributors at the current moment. Hall of Fame shows the reviewers’ title badges and accolades, although you can get this same info mousing over names in the Top Reviewers section.

2. Search for relevant tags. Mousing over names in either section will bring up the reviewer’s most used tags. Your goal will be to find top reviewers who have used tags related to product or industry in the past, making them a perfect target.

3. Keep track of contacts. Next you’ll want to compile a contact list. Prepare to be excel-ent as you’ll want to keep all this info in a neat and tidy spreadsheet.

4. Fish around for emails. Many popular reviewers will have their email addresses on their profile page. If you don’t see an email address, you’ll have to try reaching out via social media (Twitter, Facebook, etc.)

5. Reach out with a thoughtful e-mail. Time to plead your case, so put on those puppy-dog eyes! Explain to the target that you found their review on Amazon and that you’d like to send them a product you believe they might be interested in. Don’t send out one soulless generic mass email – personalize the message showing that you’ve read up on the reviewer and seen their past reviews. Maybe comment on one review you found especially illuminating or clever. Personalizing your messages Greatly improves your chances of getting a reply, so be sure to implement some considerate correspondence.

Tell them that you’re hoping for an honest review of the product, although no obligation is required. Many won’t respond to your email, and probably only around half will review the product you send, but that’s the name of the game. Yes, it’s risky. But if your product is awesome and you know it can earn great reviews, a few 5 star ratings from these top Amazon reviewers will be HUGE.

6. Say thank you! One of my all time favorite books, How to Win Friends and Influence People (I swear, I’m not a self-help junkie, this is an eccentricity in my library), notes that all people crave sincere appreciation. Be sure to follow-up and thank the top Amazon reviewers for their thoughtful review – with sincerity of course!

Getting Amazon reviews from Amazon’s cream-of-the-crop critics isn’t easy, but it’ll pay off in the end when you’re rolling in gold stars.

Rainbow Brite knows all about star power

A Different Approach: Fake Reviews

Amazon is doing their best to combat fake reviews, but honestly, they aren’t doing a ton. In a way we’re dealing with the same black vs. white hat problem of whether or not you should buy Twitter followers, which is a tremendously controversial topic.

I believe it’s best to give readers the full low down and let you decide for yourself which kind of hat you’d like to wear.

As always, fake reviews can be obtained if you’ve got the gut of a gambler. For falsified Amazon consumer reviews, you can check out…

Fiverr. Fiverr is such a weird melting pot of shady bizarre offerings. The black market of internet advertising, you can find just about anything for cheap on Fiverr, including artificial Amazon reviews.

BuyAmazonReviews. com. Yes, it is real – you can buy Amazon reviews. It is trustworthy? Ehh… user discretion is most certainly advised.

Yes, you will get in trouble if you’re found out – heck, you might get your entire Amazon account suspended. But great risk, great reward, you know the drill, so it’s your call Saul.

How to Handle Bad Amazon Reviews

It’s tough making your living online – the web has a way of bringing out the worst in people as many users hide under the internet’s veil of anonymity to spread slander they’d never dream of voicing IRL. It’s not a matter of if you’ll ever get a bad review – it’s just a matter of when.

Prepare for the worst. You’ll get bad reviews. Maybe even really terrible ones. Criticisms may be indelicate, undeserved, or even downright cruel, and there’s no internet police who will come around and slap those naughty complainers on the wrists. That means it’s up to you to handle the situation. We suggest that you…

Take a cool down. Negative reviews can sting, which is why your first step upon receiving a negative Amazon customer review should be to simply step back. Take a day or even several to cool down and then assess the situation with a clear mind. Is there any merit to the review? Maybe this is a clue to how you can improve your product. Is it a pure emotional tirade? Other uses can sense a baseless rant, so while your star ratings may be affected, users who take the time to read your 1-star reviews may see the senselessness of a bad review. If the review is blatantly emotional, these cool down days may be as beneficial for you as for the reviewer – they may be able to realize their earlier review was unreasonable and be open to editing it.

Approach with extreme caution. The next step is deciding whether or not to respond to a piece of negative feedback. Here’s where things get tricky, because the situation can change depending on whether you are an Amazon reseller dealing with negative seller feedback, or whether the problem is a negative product review.

For Amazon Resellers: First examine the issues the buyer had – can the problem be remedied? Consider offering refund or replacement. Buyers can remove feedback for up to 60 days after a review is posted, so there’s usually a chance of redemption. For Bad Amazon Product Reviews: Responding publically may add further damage, especially if others take the side of the reviewer. Look forward to burying this negative review with new positive ones. Amazon will remove a review in specific cases like those involving privacy violations or obscene language, but these situations aren’t common.

Enjoy Those 5-Star Reviews!

We’ve done our best to provide you with the Amazon aptitude necessary to bring in great Amazon reviews. Do you have additional Amazon advice? Share it in the comment section!

Megan Marrs

Megan Marrs is a veteran content marketer who harbors a love for writing, watercolors, oxford commas, and dogs of all shapes and sizes. When she's not typing out blog posts or crafting killer social media campaigns, you can find her lounging in a hammock with an epic fantasy novel.

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How We Decide

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Don't just Blink! Instead, read a series of well-chosen, beautifully told stories of successful and unsuccessful decision practices, along with some rules of thumb for when to rely on emotions, or rigorous logic, or hold a long-term running debate in your head, or how to best mix emotions and logic when appropriate.

Since I was young, any discussion about how to make better decisions quickly turned into a debate between those who liked to follow the rules of logic and those who liked to wait until they get a good feeling about a choice. The reason that debate continued is that both sides are right, and wrong, part of the time. The good decision maker will know when to access which method. . . or to combine them. . . for the best results.

I found How We Decide to be the best introductory book I've read for helping anyone to improve decision practices, depending on the circumstances. For example:

1. When we have little time to decide, need to act, and are quite experienced, relying on our feelings will guide us to a typically high quality answer that our subconscious mind has already figured out. Try to logic that situation out, and we lose the benefit of the feeling and don't around to applying the logic properly.

2. When there are lots of variables and we have lots of time, but the decision isn't important, we can waste tremendous amounts of time comparing things until we eventually make a worse decision than if we went with our feeling-led intuition earlier on. We are particularly at risk in situations where our minds can be misled (we immediately like expensive items better than less expensive ones. . . even when they are objectively inferior, have a hard time resisting a bargain, and don't feel enough pain when we can pay with plastic).

3. When there's lots of uncertainty. . . even with keen logic applied, it's good to draw on both logic and those feelings. The combination will narrow down the choices into a more informed, higher quality choice.

4. Avoid situations where your brain will keep trying to find a pattern, making you feel good, even as your pocket is picked (such as when you play slot machines).

5. When there are only four variables to compare and it's an important decision, do all the analysis you want. . . if you have enough time.

6. Compare things first without knowing their prices (such as by tasting wine without knowing the brand). You'll make better choices and save a lot of money.

7. Get more people involved where incomplete perceptions and bias can lead to bad decisions (such as the former practice of letting airline pilots have too much authority in the cockpit during an emergency).

Jonah Lehrer also describes the latest research that explains why those conclusions are true. If you read a lot in the field, the research won't be new. If you don't read much on the subject, you'll find these studies to be interesting confirmation of the stories and suggested decision rules.

From what the author says in the acknowledgments, the editor did an excellent job on this book. Congratulations for suggesting many of these great stories!

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How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer, 2009

After being blown away by his previous book, Proust Was A Neuroscientist, on the relationship between brain science and art, I snapped up Lehrer's next one. Its purpose is to demonstrate the relationship between brain science and the way we make decisions in our everyday world.

It points out early that the old dichotomy that we all know and our western tradition has believed for the past three millennia is in fact false. That tradition is that the brain is divided between reason and emotion and that from Plato on forward we have been told we have to pay attention to reason because emotion leads us of the rails and has to be cajoled and bullied back into place by reason.

Wrongo. The brain is a prediction machine and conscious and unconscious factors lead people to made decisions, sometimes favouring the speed and experience of intuition and on other occasions mulling over the facts.

In this context, Lehrer uses compelling real life situations to make his points. How Tom Brady passed into the 'future' to win the Superbowl; how the radar tech felt a returning jet blip was wrong and ordered it downed, less than a half mile from a battle ship he was not on - it was a missile; how the mind is averse to loss and that we invest money in the stock market for bad reasons; that superstar basketball players do not get on streaks of success; and so on.

Early on, Lehrer points out that a brain injury patient who has the connection between the subconscious and conscious centre (behind the right eyebrow) severed cannot make decisions because without emotional preferences consciousness has no way of determining which action to take. Then he gets into the dopamine system that makes us feel pleasure, but at the same time tells us when something is wrong (the blip being an enemy missile rather than one of us good guys in a fighter jet) by stimulating long slender spindle cells that go all over the brain so we get the jolt simultaneously. Interestingly enough these 'emotion' sensors are only found in higher primates, and humans have 40 times more than our closest monkey friends, pretty conclusive proof that our emotions are a highly flexible system for real time predictions with a mistake recognition loop for improving our expectations for the life we move into.

Intelligent intuition is the result of deliberate practice. That is the conclusion of one of the best chess, backgammon and poker players in the world, Bill Robertie. If you want to improve, review your mistakes. Lehrer even tells you how to stop spending so much on so many credit cards, based on brain science of the small 'insula' in the brain that recognizes negative feelings - it's far harder to hand across cash than plastic. Got suckered in the 'sub-prime' mortgage debacle? There's a brain region for that, too. And Herman Palmer, a New York debt counselor (part of the every day use of this book) says, '. read only the fine print," on credit card come-ons.

On mulling the facts, in a crisis, Chapter 4: The Uses of Reason has a stellar section in it about two pilots trying to save their DC-10 (no not because of the faulty baggage door that put the company out of business) from crashing, pages 120 - 132. This tells you how the brain works through a problem when terrified, and coming to a counterintuitive conclusion that has never existed before when 500 lives, most importantly your own, is at stake.

Chapter 5: Choking on Thought, is about how when we think over something we know well, that we inhibit our conscious attention and we choke. This is intended to further develop the intuition, subconscious part of decision making. For my tastes, this was a tad repetitive, and perhaps too many scientific studies to make the same point several times. But, interesting stories, nonetheless, for example, it has been conclusively shown that MRI examinations for lower back pain have resulted in more than 50% more 'invasive' incorrect outcomes from doctors because our conscious centre in the right prefrontal area can only handle, get this, seven different factors before its ability to make decisions goes down the tube and we make worse decisions. And you thought the brain worked like a computer. Wrong.

Chapter 6 is about how we make ethical discriminations. Kant, Descartes and lawyers won't be happy to know it doesn't take a lot of rational thought to make moral decisions. It turns out that we are hardwired to do so. We get the feeling, and then the rational mind makes up reasons to explain the feeling. This is because mammals need the warm feeling of mothers and others from the first moment to turn out okay. Our minds innately sympathize with others, empathize, then make altruistic decisions based on, actually, not wanting to see others suffer. We have active emotional reactions from our amygdyla, mirror cells that key in on others expressions so we experience the feeling, then our fusiform area recognizes particular people, and unlike psychopaths who do not feel, an amygdyla problem, or autists who cannot recognize the facial features that mean certain emotions and we want innately are wired to theorize that others are like us. These areas make us imbue others with emotion. It's not about rational thought at all; that comes later in the justification stage. Interestingly, if we are deprived of others our abilities to empathize and take actions to help others go way down, so think about various types of child abuse that change people when they most need those various centres to be turned on, nurtured and grown. Fascinating chapter. Oh, and all you parents who have been deprived of your child or lost a child feel intense pain because of simple hormones that also regulate water level in the body - vasopressin and oxytocin. Such a loss wipes most people out for the rest of their lives.

The collected wisdom of How We Decide comes on pages 244 - 250, but the book is much more fascinating than the summary. And The Coda puts neatly the mesh between the experience (emotion) and reasoning (conscious thought) components of our thoughts. Both have their specialties and both are required all day long every day.