Review: Intriguing book, but I will never believe Web stats again
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 12 19, 2013
I had reviewed one of Eighs earlier books on making Tofu, and I got an email for this one when it came out for free on Amazon.So what does Tofu have to do with "bots?" In this case, the clarity of instruction and writing. The author stated his goal was "to make you feel like you could do it." He achieved his goal in my case. His careful, clear and detailed instructions were everything a non tech person wants to know.While the book is focused on those doing the marketing, I was intrigued from the point of view of the one being marketed to, particularly as a top reviewer at Amazon. Ah, so THAT is how they scrape my info! Hmmm, could this author be using this tool, or that tool? Wait, you can do that?He remains on the ethical side and never suggests you try these ideas in inappropriate ways. Still, he made me aware of many ways the tools could be misused.IF you are reading his book to get some ideas for promoting yours to Amazon Reviewers, I have a tip concerning those emails. Statistically speaking, the higher up on the rankings an individual is, the more requests they get to review stuff. I personally get about three requests per day to read someone's book. Most are genres I would never read or review.If you use your "good powers" to find readers using his technique, I suggest you do any of the following:Find books similar to yours and scrape information on reviewers of those booksBe as personal as you can (even if it is a macro) in contacting reviewers.NEVER EVER send an email out with multiple addresses. Very bad netiquette. I either blast the sender, or toss it in the trash. So do my friends.Now, let's see if I can figure out a macro to finish my Christmas shopping online!