WWTBAM Bored

I hit a milestone today on Amazon when I posted my 1,000th review. I started posting reviews about four years ago as a way to brush up my writing skills when I was looking for possible writing/editing jobs, and after a while, I wound up making a number of good contacts with published authors (including two on this Bored). I also got a good bit of free swag until Amazon put a stop to that practice a year ago. My current ranking is 2,398 (which has actually gone down about 100 or so from one best ranking earlier in the month). Once you hit 10,000 or above, you're listed on the site.

For those interested, here is the 1,000th review:

http://amzn.to/2rSwcYY

Congratulations! I remain somewhat envious as our movie going has been in the number of 2 to 4 movies a year. Although we are upping that a bit now that we are kidless.

For going to so few movies, my method to choose which ones to go to are to watch a trailer and read the SSS review.

Congratulations, indeed! I've always found your reviews well thought out and fair.

silverscreenselect wrote:I hit a milestone today on Amazon when I posted my 1,000th review. I started posting reviews about four years ago as a way to brush up my writing skills when I was looking for possible writing/editing jobs, and after a while, I wound up making a number of good contacts with published authors (including two on this Bored). I also got a good bit of free swag until Amazon put a stop to that practice a year ago. My current ranking is 2,398 (which has actually gone down about 100 or so from one best ranking earlier in the month). Once you hit 10,000 or above, you're listed on the site.

For those interested, here is the 1,000th review:

http://amzn.to/2rSwcYY

Congrats! How do you know it's your 1000th? I was trying to see how many I've written but all I could find was my ranking: #207,548

Agrajag wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:I hit a milestone today on Amazon when I posted my 1,000th review. I started posting reviews about four years ago as a way to brush up my writing skills when I was looking for possible writing/editing jobs, and after a while, I wound up making a number of good contacts with published authors (including two on this Bored). I also got a good bit of free swag until Amazon put a stop to that practice a year ago. My current ranking is 2,398 (which has actually gone down about 100 or so from one best ranking earlier in the month). Once you hit 10,000 or above, you're listed on the site.

For those interested, here is the 1,000th review:

http://amzn.to/2rSwcYY

Congrats! How do you know it's your 1000th? I was trying to see how many I've written but all I could find was my ranking: #207,548

If you go to your Profile page, it will have a list of all the items you've reviewed with the newest one on top. Click on any of those items and it takes you to that review. To the right of the review is information about the reviewer, including the ranking and the total number of reviews filed by that reviewer.

silverscreenselect wrote:I hit a milestone today on Amazon when I posted my 1,000th review. I started posting reviews about four years ago as a way to brush up my writing skills when I was looking for possible writing/editing jobs, and after a while, I wound up making a number of good contacts with published authors (including two on this Bored). I also got a good bit of free swag until Amazon put a stop to that practice a year ago. My current ranking is 2,398 (which has actually gone down about 100 or so from one best ranking earlier in the month). Once you hit 10,000 or above, you're listed on the site.

For those interested, here is the 1,000th review:

http://amzn.to/2rSwcYY

Congratulations! Are all reviews counted alike, whether it's a movie review or a book review, or a review of lip balm or male potency products? Are you compensated for providing valuable content to the site?

TheConfessor wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:I hit a milestone today on Amazon when I posted my 1,000th review. I started posting reviews about four years ago as a way to brush up my writing skills when I was looking for possible writing/editing jobs, and after a while, I wound up making a number of good contacts with published authors (including two on this Bored). I also got a good bit of free swag until Amazon put a stop to that practice a year ago. My current ranking is 2,398 (which has actually gone down about 100 or so from one best ranking earlier in the month). Once you hit 10,000 or above, you're listed on the site.

For those interested, here is the 1,000th review:

http://amzn.to/2rSwcYY

Congratulations! Are all reviews counted alike, whether it's a movie review or a book review, or a review of lip balm or male potency products? Are you compensated for providing valuable content to the site?

All reviews are counted alike, and if a product is no longer offered on Amazon (like a book going out of print), you still get credit for the review, even if no one can find it on a product page any more. I don't get compensated per se, but I used to get free (or virtually free) merchandise from a lot of companies merely for trying their products and reviewing them (as long as you said in the review that you got the product for free). Amazon put a stop to that practice officially about a year ago, but I still get multiple offers a day where businesses offer to deposit money in a Paypal account to offset the cost. I don't do that, but some reviewers do, and some undoubtedly get unofficially paid cash as well.

I do still get a number of offers for free books to review (that is still legal). I don't post reviews of movies I see in the theater, just the ones I watch on DVD or home video.

Their formula for ranking reviewers is rather complex. It's based on the total number of reviews, the percentage of helpful vs. unhelpful votes, and how recently you've posted reviews and gotten helpful votes. A few reviews that get a lot of helpful votes are worth more to Amazon than a lot of reviews that get little or no attention. I'm at 2398, and the people at 2397 and 2399 have 296 and 223 reviews. My reviews have gotten 1580 helpful votes (84% helpful).

silverscreenselect wrote:

Agrajag wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote:I hit a milestone today on Amazon when I posted my 1,000th review. I started posting reviews about four years ago as a way to brush up my writing skills when I was looking for possible writing/editing jobs, and after a while, I wound up making a number of good contacts with published authors (including two on this Bored). I also got a good bit of free swag until Amazon put a stop to that practice a year ago. My current ranking is 2,398 (which has actually gone down about 100 or so from one best ranking earlier in the month). Once you hit 10,000 or above, you're listed on the site.

For those interested, here is the 1,000th review:

http://amzn.to/2rSwcYY

Congrats! How do you know it's your 1000th? I was trying to see how many I've written but all I could find was my ranking: #207,548

If you go to your Profile page, it will have a list of all the items you've reviewed with the newest one on top. Click on any of those items and it takes you to that review. To the right of the review is information about the reviewer, including the ranking and the total number of reviews filed by that reviewer.

Thanks! I think I did a lot of that searching except the final step of looking at one of my reviews and then over in the sidebar.

#207,548 as I said with 156 reviews (115 helpful votes)

Looks like I have a longer way to go than I thought!

silverscreenselect wrote: I don't post reviews of movies I see in the theater, just the ones I watch on DVD or home video.

Just curious but why is that?

Second question: Some of the movies that you review are very current. I have always assumed that you saw these in the theater. Do you get advance DVD's of new releases?

jaybee wrote:

silverscreenselect wrote: I don't post reviews of movies I see in the theater, just the ones I watch on DVD or home video.

Just curious but why is that?

Second question: Some of the movies that you review are very current. I have always assumed that you saw these in the theater. Do you get advance DVD's of new releases?

The movies I review on my website are current and I've seen them in the theater, usually within a week or so before I write the review. The relatively small number of movies I review on Amazon I saw on video or DVD.

I wanted my reviews on Amazon to be distinct from the reviews on the website, so I decided not to post the theatrical reviews on Amazon. If I do see a movie on DVD or streaming video, I'll post a review.

Aaaahhhhh, now I understand.

Thanks for clarifying.