1-star is the new 3-star

There’s something that’s a big nuisance among bloggers, authors, podcasters, content creators in general.

And that is when someone who’s having a bad day, or who feels entitled to be offended at anything and everything, or whatever the case may be, decides to leave a 1-star review for the show, book, podcast, blog, fill in the blank.

These reviews can be incredibly important for businesses. Just ask someone who owns a small restaurant who’s received a 1-star review on Yelp.

My personal opinion is that if someone builds an audience in a wise way, i.e. not being dependent on the big tech platforms such as Apple, Spotify, SaveFacebook, etc. for building and maintaining rapport with their people, it shouldn’t be that big of a deal.

If anything, a 1-star review can be quite useful.

Imagine you’re a podcast host and you have a following of folks around the world (your world, i.e. your niche) who are die-hard fans, who live and die based off your words, who make major decisions based on something they’ve heard on your show. That’s not wise of them, but it does happen.

Now imagine some schlub who’s having a bad hair day decides to project their misfortune onto the interwebs by leaving you a 1-star review. You’re this, you’re that; all kinds of things that the dwellers of Polite Society should shun if they know what’s good for them.

One would think folks in your camp would be rather amused by such an occurrence, no? Assuming what you’ve said is simply your opinion, and doesn’t harm anyone’s person or character, I’m inclined to say your peeps will have a good laugh over it and carry on with their day.

This thing that was intended to harm you turns out to help you.

As my friend and mentor Tom Woods says: “Monetize your haters.”

You know what’s completely useless when it comes to reviews? 3-star reviews. What can you do with it? You’re not going to put it on your website and use it as social proof; and it’s not going to do a lick of good with stirring up the emotions of your followers.

It’s just there, like an old stale fart in an elevator.

Reason for this is the person who left it is indifferent to you and the success of your show.

I’ve left 3-star reviews for people. They asked me to listen to their show, and I left the rating and also gave feedback on what I thought of it. So it’s not like it’s of zero use.

But that’s the exception, not the rule. The vast majority of reviews on places like Apple are of very little substance, and are good only for making the creator of the show feel a bit better about themselves for about 5 minutes.

I don’t think they even affect the placement of one’s show; it’s certainly not like it was in 2013-15 when the R&R craze was gaining full speed.

So if you really don’t like someone or their podcast and want to get under their skin, maybe a 1-star rating isn’t the way to go. You could try a 3-star, and leave a lukewarm review. I know from personal experience those are the most irritating, dare I say useless ratings.

Indifference is the killer in our world. At least the 1-star shows some passion and emotion. You can use that to your benefit if you know how.