Here are the guidelines I operate under
at CompareGuitarLessons.com:
I am never paid to do a review. I never
accept money to review a product or service. I invest my own time to
review and test products. I pay out of my own pocket the cost to
produce all written or video reviews about products. This includes
the cost of building and promoting the CompareGuitarLessons.com
website.
Some products and services I pay for out
of my own pocket and some are given to me by the manufacturer or
publisher for review. If I think a product may be of value to the
visitors of this site I will often request a review copy. I don't
usually return the products after I review them.
If I create a link to a product in a
review, sometimes I may get paid a commission if a visitor to my
site purchases the product or service.
While it is a good practice for the
visitor of any review site to treat every product recommendation
with a healthy degree of skepticism, it would be a mistake to assume
that every review is invalid just because there may be a commission
paid to the reviewer. Here are some of the reader protections that I
attempt to build into each of my reviews:
1. Many of the reviews I produce contain
lots of factual information that is easily verifiable. I always try
to provide charts that offer a side by side comparison of competing
products. Items like numbers of DVDs offered, price, delivery time,
support program and money back guarantees are typically included in
most of my reviews.
2. I usually include a section of each
review that is a somewhat subjective summary. This is based on my
personal experience over the years and my experience with the
specific product under review. It is important to note that I
actually go through each and every dvd in a lesson set to gain a
thorough insight before writing a review.
3. All of the products I recommend must
offer the buyer a hassle free money back guarantee. Even products
that are digital downloads that technically cannot be returned still
must offer a full refund if the customer is not satisfied.
4. As of this writing, I am working
towards publishing user comments and reviews of the products when
they are available to me. This should offer a perspective that is
broader than just my observations and opinions alone.
5. I always provide links to the
manufacturer’s or publisher’s website to provide additional
information that is not available in my reviews. Some of this
information can include customer testimonials, more specific product
details, sale information, free newsletters and even samples of
video lessons.
These are good rules and practices. It's
important for you as a consumer to understand the relationship
between a person reviewing the product and the manufacturer,
publisher or service provider. If you don't see a disclosure policy
as part of a review of a product, that reviewer may be violating the
law or at the very least the Code of Ethics.
I sincerely hope that you have a useful
and meaningful experience as a direct result of my detailed reviews,
product comparison charts and articles. As always, I welcome any
feedback that may help me to improve the visitor experience from
this website.
Sincerely,
John
Mackinnon
Publisher of CompareGuitarLessons.com
CustomerService@CompareGuitarLessons.com
