A very rewarding experience! (dooyoo Rewards System)

Member Name: kingfisher111

Product:	dooyoo Rewards System
Date:	27/12/08 (504 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: generous rewards

Disadvantages: could be even better

Well, it's the aftermath of another lovely Christmas and there are a host of new toys, books and games that I could be writing about, but as this is my 500th review I thought that something with a Dooyoo theme would be a bit more appropriate.

I debated writing this review about 'dooyoo addiction' - well anyone who is on their 500th review should know something about that - but I read a really brilliant review yesterday by jo1976 which summed it up so much better than I could so I decided against that! Therefore I have decided to say what I think about the dooyoo reward system which has caused a certain amount of controversy during the time I have been a member of the site and I definitely have a few thoughts of my own about it too!

The first thing to mention is that it has been just about a year since the big shake up at dooyoo. This promised that members would be better off but a lot of us more established members were pretty much up in arms about it. You see, before the changes we were paid nothing for submitting a review but we were paid 30 dooyoo miles (3 pence) for every read or rate that we received. This meant that if I received 33 reads I would just about be earning £1 for each review I posted. Not a great hourly rate but certainly a nice little extra in my pocket! With the new system we were promised 50 pence just for submitting a review and then 15 miles (1 and a half pence) for every rate and read. This actually meant that for those first thirty three reads we would be just about the same in terms of earnings. If reviews received less than that then the writer would be slightly better off but if you were receivin more reads then we were talking about diminishing returns.

I wasn't really happy about this because I generally was receiving a lot more than 33 reads and rates per review so I was going to be one of the 'few' that dooyoo said were going to be worse off! I debated leaving the site and not bothering to write anymore but unfortunately my addiction had taken hold so I thought I would just bide my time and see what would happen.

I had a little debate with myself as to whether I would choose to become a churner. After all, I only needed to write 150 words with low level thought and I would gain 50 pence - money for old rope some would say! I could keep going from one to the next review and could soon make a decent sum of money! The only problem was that I couldn't do that! I discovered that I was more hooked on the idea of writing good reviews and the sense of community than making the money (although I do have to admit that that is still one of my prime motivations!).

So in the end, I carried on doing what I had always done - writing what I hoped were interesting good quality reviews every day or couple of days. Now the interesting thing is that something rather unexpected started to happen! As predicted, a lot more new members were attracted to the site and started to write. Many, as feared, were what are termed 'churners' but all of a sudden there were a lot moe people writing decent reviews and also realising the importance of reading and rating. I suddenly started to notice that my average rates per review were steadily increasing! I was moving from an average of about 70 up to 80 and then 90. In the last couple of months every single review has received over 100 reads (thanks everyone) which means that my reviews are averaging at least £2 each! I was amazed to discover that a system which I had quietly opposed was now working to my advantage! - Thankyou Dooyoo!

I don't think the reward system is perfect though and I do have some suggestions as to how things could be improved.

Firstly there is the problem of the churners. I have no objection to these people making a fast pound but I do think there should be a limit to how many reviews can be posted in a day. Dooyoo have gone some way to address this by only allowing the five most recent reviews by any writer to appear in the newest reviews list. Maybe there could be a diminishing rate of payment for these reviews. For example the first three reviews in any twenty four hour period could receive 50 pence and then subsequent ones to receive 25 pence and even decreasing down to 10 pence. This would not seriously affect any concientious writer as I know very few who do post more than that number in a day. Some do occasionally, but I think they lose out on the number of reads they receive.

I also think that maybe the payments for reads and rates could be looked at. My suggestion would be that if a review is rated Very Useful it will receive 20 miles, Useful reviews should receive 15 miles and somewhat Useful reviews should receive 10 miles. Reviews that are read but not rated should also receive 10 miles but if a review is deemed Not Useful it should not be worthy of anything. At the moment there is no differentiation in payment for reviews of differing quality and I do think this should be redressed.

Moving on to my next point which is about payment for suggesting new products. Although I am not one to turn my nose up at any payment I do think that the 10 mile reward for suggesting a new product is a bit of a joke. As it's important for the site to keep adding products, it is in dooyoo's interests to encourage us to make suggestions. I understand that dooyoo does not want to be flooded by suggestions that people have no intention of following up, so my idea would be to keep the 10 miles for every successful suggestion but follow this up with something like a 200 mile bonus if that person actually writes the review!

Finally, leaving the best until last there is the coveted crown system. Anyone who has received a crown will know just what a lovely feeling it is to be acknowledged and also the 1500 mile bonus is very welcome. I have to admit that I really don't understand how crowns are awarded. Is there a certain number each week and has this number been looked at since there has been more activity on the site? If it is not the case, then I would suggest that crowns are awarded as a proportion of the total activity on the site. It stands to reason that if there are more reviews being posted it will become harder to receive crowns unless the number is increased and I think it should because this is one of the prime ways of encouraging people to write higher quality reviews!

I have also been very lucky to twice receive the crown of the day! I was so chuffed to receive my message from dooyoo, but if it is the pick of the day I do think that maybe dooyoo could be ultra generous and increase the payment say to 2000 miles - just to make it that little bit more special!

So overall, I think that there is a lot of very good things about the way dooyoo rewards its contributors and it's definitely the most generous site I have come across. However, it's always a good thing to be continully looking at how things might improve especially if that is likely to result in a greater membership that will be good for us all.

I hope you enjoyed reading about what I think and I'd be really interested to know what others think!

Summary: Here's to my next 500!