Book reviewers come to Amazon because it's where the bulk of intelligent, Internet-using bookbuyers come to shop. Actually, it's both more and less than this. It's a marketplace - a marketplace where the currency is some combination of recognition, respect and goodwill. Amazon users vote on whether reviews were helpful. And Amazon mixes those votes together to create its very noticeable reviewer rankings.
New reviews boost a reviewer's ranking.
Some reviewers engage in concerted campaigns to promote their rankings, enlisting friend to vote for them and against rival reviewers or simply manipulating their own online identities. Despite all this, Amazon's voting system keeps reviewers writing, and the overall quality of Amazon's reviews remains admirable. If you plan to join the user-created content boom, you probably need to encourage a race for recognition among your own content creators. The online bookseller has become an Internet commerce giant by doing almost everything right. When in doubt, check what Amazon's doing.