This page features the explanations of my rating-system, also described on the How I Review page.
Fluff-o-Meter:
Needle to the right is good.
The Fluff-o-Meter informs you about how practical and usable a product is. Is it packed with hard-hitting, well-explained advice that works? Does it include step-by-step instructions and concrete, tangible examples? That will make the Fluff-o-Meter’s needle go all the way to the right. Is the product padded with lots of unrelated information (you know how some books will go on and on about how good the book you just bought is? That’s padding.)? Are the same statements repeated again and again? Is the advice largely generalized rather than specific? These things will lead to a high fluff-rating.
In short, the two main factors influencing the Fluff-o-Meter are the amount of actual advice vs. padding and whether the advice is vague or concrete.
Spam-Factor:
Lower is better.
The spam-factor tells you how badly your inbox will be spammed after signing up for a product. This rating is dependant on the number of emails recieved, but only to a limited degree. After all, if daily reminders or updates are part of the program, there’s nothing wrong with that (if this was specified on the sales-page). What matters most for the Spam-Factor is how relevant the emails are and how many of them are a sales-pitch for another product.
Scam-Scale:
Lower is better.
The Scam-Scale rates the scammyness of a product. Now, this is quite difficult to really nail down. The factors I look out for include, but aren’t limited to: fake time-constraints and other measures to put pressure on the buyer, promises on the sales-page that are clearly not kept in the product, promotion and sale of “empty” products and websites (e.g. sites consisting of scraped content, plastered with ads, cheaply cobbled together crap as upsells,…) and actual, downright scams (i.e. attempts to steal money). Note that I do rate “pushy” selling as scammy, but not regular selling. There’s nothing wrong with selling, as long as it’s done reasonably. Also note that there is a difference between a scam and a bad product.
Overall Rating:
Higher is better.
For the overall rating, I take all factors into account, including the time and money spend, profits made, how well the book is written/videos are presented/program is structured and try to create a good, bottom-line rating. This is the least-important rating, in my opinion. What matters is all of the details of the review and how well any given program fits your personal taste. I still want to include an overall rating, so that you can quickly get an impression of a product even if you don’t have the time to read the entire review.
