Hypnosis Index Review

Name: Hypnosis Index
URL: http://hypnosisindex.com
Year Established: 2008.
Country: Unknown.
Run By: Unknown.
Still Updated: Yes.
Resources Offered: Reviews of hypnosis sites.

Review

I was recently made aware by a friend of mine that The Hypnosis Review is not the only site on the internet that offers reviews of the many hypnosis resources available. Hypnosis Index also does just that, and my friend thought it’d be fun for me to make a review of a review site. Well done if you managed to follow that.

Hypnosis Index is a nice looking website that I believe is run off of Wordpress. As such it is east to navigate and holds some nice features like the ability to subscribe to the latest updates.

But a little flash cannot make up for the complete lack of substance that Hypnosis Index holds. The very first thing that jumped out at me as I navigated around the many reviews on Hypnosis Index was that the reviews had no depth or insight to the site they were reviewing, and that Hypnosis Index only reviews sites that sell products - no free resource sites or anything of that nature. There’s a very slimy reason for this...

Hypnosis Index is nothing more than a money making venture. It’s intent is not to inform but to take a cut of any sales that are made through their site. Every review, and I use that term loosely, contains a link to the site being reviewed. Every one of these links is something called an “affiliate link”. An affiliate link is basically a link that is tracked so if you were to read their review for Instant-Hypnosis and then visit the Instant-Hypnosis site and make a purchase then Hypnosis Index would make a certain percentage of the sale. As you can imagine this does not amount to strong, independent reviews.

This explains why the reviews on Hypnosis Index are so short and weak, they are pumped out so that Hypnosis Index can make more money - with no care for whether their visitors are receiving good advice. If you don’t believe me please compare both our reviews and Hypnosis Index’s for Instant-Hypnosis.

Hypnosis Index Review of Instant-Hypnosis

The Hypnosis Review’s Review of Instant-Hypnosis

As you can see only one of those two reviews had any quality to them, and I’m thankful to say it was ours.

I thought that the one redeeming feature of Hypnosis Index was the star rating system in which visitors could award every site a mark out of five. However on a repeat visit I found this system was very open to corruption. You can actually keep voting for a site every few days, so the owner of Hypnosis Index or owners of any site reviewed can boost their site up the rankings pretty easily.

Plusses and Minuses

+ Long list of hypnosis sites on Hypnosis Index.

- The reviews have no depth.
- No free resources are reviewed.
- No contact information.
- Merely a money making site.

Verdict

Hypnosis Index is a sorry excuse for a review site.

If you want fair, unbiased reviews of hypnosis sites and the products they house then come to The Hypnosis Review.

NOT RECOMMENDED

Instant-Hypnosis Review

Name: Instant-Hypnosis
URL: http://www.instant-hypnosis.com
Year Established: 2006.
Country: USA.
Run By: Bradley Thompson.
Still Updated: Yes.
Resources Offered: Hypnosis MP3s and CDs.

Discounts and Special Offers

1st download - $12.95
2nd download - $10.95
3rd download - $8.95
4th download - $6.95
5th download - $4.95

Review

Instant-Hypnosis was launched in 2006 with a big online PR push behind it. To this day it has remained the hypnosis download site with the best advertising and marketing schemes. Any hypnosis-related search in either Google or Yahoo seems to bring back an advert for the Instant-Hypnosis site. This heavy visibility coupled with a selection of nearly 300 downloads has found Instant-Hypnosis become exceedingly popular.

This polished approach to internet promotion also crosses over to the customer service. After emailing them a few questions I received satisfactory answers only a few hours later.

One of the features of Instant-Hypnosis that makes it stand out from the rest of the pack is the length of the recorded sessions they offer. While I’ve seen other sites promote sessions ranging from ten to thirty minutes long, Instant-Hypnosis sessions are generally an hour in length. Depending on your own preferences this could be seen as either a positive or a negative.

Despite being a seemingly well-polished organization there are some key areas in which Instant-Hypnosis fall down on. As much as I looked I couldn’t find any free samples, in a field as personal as hypnotherapy it would be nice to be able to hear a little of the product before purchase.

I purchased their “Enjoy A Deep Sleep” mp3 to review. During the purchase procedure you are offered the chance to pay extra to “back-up” your purchase. To me this seems a little mean as most hypnotherapy sites will send you a fresh link to a product you have purchased when you email them your purchase details.

The download itself was noticeably slower than most other sites too and when you combine this with the larger file sizes this can make for a very tedious example of “instant”.

“Enjoy A Deep Sleep” enjoys a high sound quality but I don’t know if I can compliment it on much more than that. With quite a long introduction to the session and a seemingly “stretched to length” script I actually felt bored more than ready for a deep sleep…and I consider myself an experienced patient of hypnotherapy.

The main fault with Instant-Hypnosis though is that there is no “resident hypnotherapist”. While most sites have one or two well-known hypnotherapists with complete biographies, Instant-Hypnosis only promise the following,

“The hypnotherapist may be male or female, depending on what is most effective for the nature of the session.”

To me it is very worrying that there is no information given on the hypnotherapists, their background or qualifications. Could it well be that the hypnosis sessions on Instant-Hypnosis are actually recorded by people with no real knowledge of the subject? I don’t know, but it’s a worrying thought.

Plusses and Minuses

+ Great presentation.
+ Long sessions.
+ Quick and helpful customer service.

- No audio samples.
- Long sessions.
- There’s no information on the hypnotherapists.
- After a purchase you are sent promotional emails on a very regular basis.

Verdict

It really depends on what you’re looking for, whether you’ll like the Instant-Hypnosis product or not. If you prefer long hypnosis sessions (nearly an hour long) when this would be a good site for you. However if you either don’t have the time or patience for sessions this long then you’re best off looking elsewhere.

It should also be noted that Instant-Hypnosis offer no information on their hypnotherapists, no qualifications and not even any names. Please take this into consideration before making a purchase.

APPROACH WITH CAUTION

Hypnosis Downloads Review

Name: Hypnosis Downloads
URL: http://www.hypnosisdownloads.com
Year Established: 1997
Country: UK.
Hypnotherapists: Roger Elliott and Mark Tyrrell.
Still Updated: Yes.
Resources Offered: Hypnosis MP3’s, CD’s and scripts, learn hypnosis course and articles.

Discounts and Special Offers

Buy 2 items Save $5.95
Buy 3 Items Save $9.90
Buy 4 Items Save $16.85
Buy 5 Items Save $24.80

Review

Hypnosis Downloads is a well-known website within the online hypnotherapy field, and they’re probably the most used. This is in no small part due to Roger Elliot and Mark Tyrell jumping onto the internet bandwagon earlier than most other hypnotherapists, and for this insight they should be applauded.

The website itself is not very impressive. Hypnosis Downloads opened up shop back in the late 90’s and it doesn’t appear that they have updated the visual end of the website since they very first started. There are no real images or graphics to speak of other than a logo and a navigation bar, just a long list of the hypnosis downloads they offer.

As well as hypnosis downloads they also sell the scripts from which their downloads have been produced, as well as a few hypnosis CDs. Hypnosis Downloads offer a free course titled “Learn Hypnosis”. I signed up for the course and received my five lessons via email in just over a week. I do feel like the purpose of this course is more to put your mind at ease about the use of hypnosis rather than teach you anything too meaningful about practising self-hypnosis. If you sign-up for the course you will also be put on Hypnosis Downloads newsletter mailing list.

Before I ever purchase anything for review I always make sure to have contact with the customer service to make sure I feel comfortable with buying from the site. In this case Hypnosis Downloads failed miserably as I have yet to receive a reply to my email over three weeks since I sent it. So if you’re unsure about buying from Hypnosis Downloads that is something you should definitely take into consideration.

There no free samples I could find of Hypnosis Downloads products other than a script. I would like to be able to hear either a short sample of one of their sessions or a full-length sample before making a purchase.

However I bit the bullet and purchased their “Drift Off To Sleep” hypnosis download. The recording quality was good and the hypnotherapists voice was quite soothing, I believe he had a slight Scottish accent. The session itself was around 20 minutes long and it did aid me in getting to sleep, which is no mean task considering I often have difficulties in this area.

There were another couple of matters that bothered me about Hypnosis Downloads. Just looking through the weight loss hypnosis section alone I noticed that two of the products were more or less the same, except with a slightly different name. Unless I’m being incredibly obtuse I believe that “Comfort Eating” and “Stop Emotional Eating” cover the exact same issue and this just strikes me as an attempt to squeeze an extra purchase out of those people who are looking for help. There are other similar examples to this “doubling up” method too.

I truly enjoy and benefit from online hypnotherapy however there are some subjects that are best left to an “in-person” therapeutic session. While hypnotherapy can certainly help with emotional issues, some emotions are so strong that a generic recording will be of little help - and in fact could prove to be harmful.

Plusses and Minuses

+ Largest selection of hypnosis downloads available.
+ Possibly the longest running site selling hypnotherapy products.
+ Free “Learn Hypnosis” course.

- No information given on the length or file size of individual downloads.
- Site design looks more suited to the 90’s.
- Very poor customer service.
- Many duplicate style sessions.
- Some hypnosis downloads’ subject matter isn’t suitable to online hypnotherapy.

Verdict

Hypnosis Downloads might be the most widely used online hypnosis resource but to me it feels purely like a money-making venture, with very little respect given to the customer. When I see titles such as “Death of a Child” I can’t help but think there’s a level of emotional exploitation here. I can only imagine the emotions that a parent goes through in such a situation and I just don’t believe that an “off the shelf” hypnosis recording is appropriate for such a personal issue.

USE ONLY IF YOU HAVE A VERY SPECIFIC NEED

HypnoThoughts Review

Name: HypnoThoughts.
URL: http://www.hypnothoughts.com
Year Established: 2007.
Country: USA.
Run By: Scott Sandland.
Still Updated: Yes.
Resources Offered: A community for hypnotherapists and those interested in hypnosis to interact with one another.

Review

HypnoThoughts has been in operation for little over a year and it has already become one of the biggest communities in the area of hypnosis. Is it all that it’s cracked up to be, or merely a flash in the pan?

The website itself is well designed and it’s been made as simple as can be to navigate around the mass of information HypnoThoughts offers. There are blogs, groups, discussions, a chat room and hypnotically themed videos to view, and if you sign-up (which is free) then you can join in with these activities.

You really get a sense of just how active HypnoThoughts is when to see, on the main page, that there seems to be at least a few new comments in the forum every hour which is a lot more than you usually find on most hypnosis forums. Even when I visited the chat room at a late hour in the evening there were a handful of people chatting away in friendly and respective manner.

There are some advertisements on HypnoThoughts but they aren’t intrusive or distracting, in fact they blend in well with the site, and there are no annoying pop-ups. This is a welcome change from a lot of free resource sites which have several big blocks of advertisements which take away from the actual content.

The majority of members at HypnoThoughts appears to be professional hypnotherapist or stage hypnotists, although there are people who participate in the community who merely have an interest in the subject. The discussions are informative, thought provoking and the members always respectful of each others opinions. This creates an open and relaxed atmosphere.

Plusses and Minuses

+ Easy to navigate.
+ Well designed.
+ Large, active community.
+ Very interactive.
+ Tonnes of interesting information.

- The HypnoPedia is a work in progress.

Verdict

HypnoThoughts is definitely the most active and informative hypnosis community on the internet. It’s very much the Myspace or Facebook of the hypnosis field, and if this sounds like something which would interest you then there’s nothing I can really think of to warn you about - as illustrated by the lack of minuses.

HypnoThoughts is one of the best hypnosis resources on the internet which is why I give it my…

TOP RECOMMENDATION

Hypnosis Tip Review

Basic Info

Name: Hypnosis Tip
URL: http://www.hypnosistip.com
Year Established: 2008
Country: UK.
Run By: Hank Taylor.
Still Updated: Yes.
Resources Offered: Hypnosis tips and articles.

Review

Hypnosis Tip is a relatively new site, being as it was opened this year. HT promote themselves as being the place to visit to find all the information and answers to hypnosis questions you need. The website itself looks very bland, there’s not much in the way of color and even less in the way of images. This makes Hypnosis Tip look behind the times in terms of site design.

Besides the uninteresting design there are far too many links scattered around the main page. I have no idea where the real “meat and potatoes” of Hypnosis Tip is supposed to be as there are far too many leads to other areas of the site. The people running the site would be better served to choose a handful of the most important links and promote them on the main page. This would make the homepage look less cluttered and aid the navigation of the visitor.

I did notice while trawling Hypnosis Tip that a few of the links were broken which served as an annoyance. It also has to be said that there are far too many pages with little or no content, especially compared to the amount of adverts on each page. Often the adverts are more noticeable that the content itself, with two large blocks and/or a list of google adverts.

For the most part the articles contained on Hypnosis Tip are well-written and informative. However I did notice a few articles that I’d read before on other sites, so I don’t know how much unique content Hypnosis Tip actually includes.

When it comes to interaction with the Hypnosis Tip staff, I wouldn’t hold your breath. I’m writing this review almost a month after sending the site an email and I have still yet to receive a response. In many ways this is indicative of the lack of care put into Hypnosis Tip.

Plusses and Minuses

+ Plenty of useful tips and articles.
+ Free resource.

- Hard to navigate.
- Dull site design.
- Some links are broken.
- An overwhelming amount of links.
- No response to an email query I sent after a month long wait.

Verdict

Hypnosis Tip feels like a site that’s only half finished. There’s some good information to be found but it’s hard to get to and hidden amongst big blocks of adverts. Another problem is that the information it does offer isn’t anything you can’t find on other hypnosis sites, most of which are easier to navigate. As such my verdict on Hypnosis Tip is…

NOT WORTH THE TIME