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- Associations
- Community Hubs
- Starting a Blog
- Dating
- Forums
- Friends/Family
- Local Towns
- Religion
- Social Networks
- Making A Difference
Now that I got that out of the way, let me continue in a calmer, more stately fashion -
Product reviews are wonderful wonderful wonderful for the most part!
Why "for the most part"? Because sometimes in the smaller ecommerce shopping arenas, you'll stumble across negative reviews that put there solely to drive traffic to competitors' products.
Alas, it happens. But for the most part,
Product reviews are wonderful wonderful wonderful!
Let's learn more by starting with:
Before You Begin - Finding Customer Reviews
There are many ways to uncover customer reviews. Let's say you're considering buying an iPod like so:
Apple iPod classic 120 GB Black (6th Generation)
Feature: ... 120 GB capacity for 30,000 songs, 25,000 photos, or 150 hours of video; Up to 36 hours of music playback or 6 hours of video playback when fully charged; 2.5-inch color LCD with LED backlight and 320-by-240-pixel resolution; Supported audio formats: AAC, Protected AAC, MP3, MP3 VBR, Audible, Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV; Supported video formats: H.264, MPEG-4; Supported image file types: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PSD (Mac only), and PNG ...more
Customer Reviews — [1] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-12-04 Summary: This old girl loves her new classic! ... Apple iPod classic 120 GB Black (6th Generation) After I "thought" my sweet little shuffle had bit the dust, I carefully studied the iPod line, and settled on the classic 120 GB as my next new toy. (BTW, if you get the flashing orange and green on your shuffle, just Google the reset instructions -- the little guy is working again!). It arrived very quickly, impressively packaged, all brand new and shiny. I immediately got on-line and ordered a case for this precious thing. Then off to my computer and my iTunes to grab ...more
[2] Rating: 4 Date: 2008-12-03 Summary: Why does the price keep changing ... The price of this ipod has changed every day this week. Why is that? It was actually more expensive on Cyber Monday. Yesterday it was 209.00 today, 219.00! ...more
Editorial Reviews — ... Product Description--Posted September 9, 2008 | Now you can take it with you. All of it. Available in a 120 GB model that holds up to 30,000 songs, 150 hours of video, 25,000 photos, or any combination, the new iPod classic fills your pocket with sight and sound. Available in quintessential silver or striking new black, iPod classic catches your eye with its sleek, all-metal enclosure composed of anodized aluminum and polished stainless steel. The new Genius Playlist feature creates an on-the-fly playlist of...more
Apple iPod nano 4 GB Silver (3rd Generation)
Feature: ... Now the world's most popular music player lets you enjoy up to 5 hours of TV shows, movies, video podcasts, and more; An enhanced interface offers a whole new way to browse and view your music and video; iPod nano sports a larger, 320-by-240-resolution display that's 65 percent brighter than before; In anodized aluminum and polished stainless steel, iPod nano is now 6.5 mm thin and even more beautiful; Measures 2.75 x 2.06 x 0.26 inches (H x W x D), weighs 1.74 ounces ...more
Customer Reviews — [1] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-12-04 Summary: Exceptional ... Exceptional service, quality product, and very fast delivery! Ordered on Monday and received item in 2 days with standard shipping!!! ...more
[2] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-12-02 Summary: Got mine with the Audible Special --[....] for a great ipod! ... I used the amazon.com with audible.com special to get 100 dollars off (when they were still in amazon's stock and going for 125 dollars) and so only paid 25 dollars for this ipod nano. It's a really great little ipod, I've gotta say. I've always been an ipod classic person, but after messing up my classics multiple times from jogging with them, I decided to get a flash-drive based ipod for that and keep my classic (hard-drive based) for storage at home and long trips. The iPod Nano (8gb) has good battery life, even ...more
Editorial Reviews — [1] ... Product Description | It's the small iPod with one very big idea: Video. Now the world's most popular music player lets you enjoy TV shows, movies, video podcasts, and more. The larger, brighter display means amazing picture quality. In five eye-catching colors, iPod nano is stunning all around....more
[2] ... Product Description | .caption { font-family: Verdana, Helvetica neue, Arial, serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: bold; font-style: italic; } ul.indent { list-style: inside disc; text-indent: 20px; } An anodized aluminum top and polished stainless steel back. Five eye-catching colors. A larger, brighter display with the most pixels per inch of any Apple display, ever. iPod nano stirs up visual effects from the outside in. And it'll wow you for hours. Play up to 5 hours of video or up to 24 hours of audio...more
See all those cool reviews?
You can find them by searching for the product at Amazon. Simply search for the product in question, click on the results, and then read the reviews.
You can also find reviews at:
- Shopping.com - scroll down to the bottom and type in the product for which you wat comparisons/reviews.
- ePinions.com - bunches of customer reviews from all over.
- Consumer Reports - neat discussions, reviews and more.
Visiting the well-known sites are only one method of finding reviews. Let's now dive into:
Step 1 - Research!
Let's say you're considering a new car, oh, say, a Dodge Grand Caravan. You can go to a search engine and type in:
and possibly see:
which is all very well and good, but those reviews aren't from actual buyers. So! Let's revisit your search, and instead of just searching on the product, tack on the word "considering" like so:
considering dodge grand caravan
Ah hah! The results are a wee bit better - you might see
- Chrysler Town & Country and Dodge Grand Caravan 2005+ - Forums
- 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan User Reviews
Depending upon the item you're considering, you can slap on quotation marks to make your query more targeted and put your search in first person like so:
"i am considering" buying "dodge grand caravan"
Why does the above search work well? Because when people post to forums, they generally will write as they talk (and include phrases like, I am considering buying a .....).
Nice, huh? That's one great way of finding targeted reviews. Next, let's consider:
Step 2 - Comparison and Discount Shop
I'll cover more of this here. But let me first intrigue you with the following idea....some companies can afford to sell you items cheaper than others.
It's true! Some places might offer an item for $7 less than others, simply because they view getting you to their store/site to be more valuable than the $7 loss (they might gain marketing leads from you). Other places might offer online rebates or similar means of saving money.
Thus, when you have a yearning to buy online, you're not limited to the first site you discover!
Let's take an example of a Canon Powershot - that's a digital camera, btw. You can find it at Amazon like below:
Canon PowerShot A590IS 8MP Digital Camera with 4x Optical Image Stabilized Zoom
Feature: ... 8.0-megapixel CCD captures enough detail for photo-quality 16x 22-inch prints; 4x optical image-stabilized zoom; 2.5-inch LCD screen; Face Detection; New Easy Mode simplifies operation; Captures images to SD memory cards (not included); powered by AA batteries ...more
Customer Reviews — [1] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-11-28 Summary: Excellent camera ... This is my first digital camera and I am not sorry for the purchase. There are SO many features that I'm still using the default selections except that I did select the highest quality for the photos and it takes EXCELLENT photos! I purchased a 4gb 133x card as the included 32mb would have only held about a dozen high quality images and there's no way it could have held the video's I've been taking. The fact it only comes with a 32mb standard card is no by no means any fault of the camera so no points lost there as ...more
[2] Rating: 5 Date: 2008-11-27 Summary: Best As Can Be! ... Because I am a professional photographer, I know people like reading reviews they can understand. I'm going to make this as simple as can be...the Canon Powershot A560, in my opinion, is probably the best digital camera anyone could get. That's if you're a normal person that wants a really good digital camera. Professionals should stick to some of Canon's higher lever cameras that are more sophisticated. I say that the A560 is the best for many reasons. For one, it's price is as reasonable as can get. Another reason ...more
Editorial Reviews — ... Product Description | The PowerShot A590 IS will astound you with its power-packed performance and impressive value. It's got 8.0-megapixels, a 4x optical zoom, an Optical Image Stabilizer and a large 2.5-inch LCD. A range of shooting modes - from manual to automatic including Canon's new Easy Mode - make picture taking carefree. A DIGIC III Image Processor with Enhanced Canon Face Detection assures natural-looking results, while Motion Detection Technology reduces blur. For added creativity, attach wide or...more
As you can see, prices can differ depending upon the place you actually shop.
And don't forget online auctions - while I'll cover it in more detail here, a brief description is in order now - many many many people will offer excellent new products as well as used via that site. For example, consider a Blackberry PDA like so:
Visit the items above. Notice the different prices? That's because of the auction mentality - people will bid up and up depending upon how much they really want the item.
Step 3 - For More Information
As always, it's the educated consumer who is the best (and in this case, safest!) customer. Enjoy the following useful resources.
- Shop Safely Online - from the FTC
- Holiday Shopping Tips - also from the FTC
- Internet Fraud Complaint Center - brought to you by the FBI
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