Miles more rewards! (dooyoo Rewards System)

Member Name: jo1976

Product:	dooyoo Rewards System
Date:	04/05/09 (278 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get rewarded for sharing your views

Disadvantages: Takes up lots of time to do the site justice

There seems to be a tradition on Dooyoo of marking a landmark number of reviews by writing a Dooyoo-related review. Not wanting to part with tradition having written 99 reviews, here is my 100th Dooyoo offering.

I came to Dooyoo from the Moneysavingexpert site, after having a taste of being rewarded for writing reviews on Bview and Trusted Places. I'd also previously written a number of very short reviews on Amazon for no reward so I'm not totally money-orientated when it comes to sharing my opinion with other people. Dooyoo stood apart from the other review sites, not for its reward system in terms of the miles that you accrue, but because of the member rating aspect. On the other sites that I'd written for there was no real interaction between readers and writers and whilst I'd still like to believe that my reviews would be genuinely helpful to consumers, I didn't put the same amount of effort into those reviews as I do on Dooyoo reviews. The reason that I care about readers of my reviews is less to do with the 15 miles (1.5p) earned for each member read and more to do with my own vanity. I love to see the ratings trickle up with each review and enjoy reading the comments made by others on my work. The ratings, as far as miles go, are irrelevant as all member reads earn a flat 1.5p, regardless of the rating given (if any is given at all.) Ratings are very important as far as my own ego goes and it is that alone that prevents me from throwing out tens of minimum word reviews in a go!

I had enough understanding of the rating system and the community nature of the site to appreciate that if I wanted other people to spend time reading and rating my reviews then I needed to recriprocate. I joined Dooyoo back in August 2008 and after a few days of reading round the site, I submitted my first offering with some trepidation. I remember anxiously awaiting the responses and was pleasantly relieved to discover a little flurry of 'Very Usefuls' to emerge. Yeah! The rewards for me have always been about the enjoyment of writing and, thankfully, reading other people's reviews as I spend far more time reading than I do writing on here. In the long run, this is a rewarding strategy in itself as my reviews continue to earn a steady trickle of miles to add to my collection, even on those days when I don't have time to write or even to log on to the site.

Many new members see the 'get paid 50p for writing a review' aspect alone and plough on writing review after review, often of very dubious value to genuine consumers. The 1.5p paid per member read seems to pale into insignificance compared to the number of miles received just for writing the review in the first place. In the long run, however, the earning potential of a single review can go far beyond the initial 50p. Whilst 1.5p per read might not seen that great, I have written reviews that have received over 100 members reads! Those reviews would have earned me an extra £1.50. Increased exposure also increases your chances of receiving a crown (although writing a fantastic quality review is also needed!) which adds another £1.50 to the kitty. Those short-sighted people who 'churn' reviews out at the speed of light and don't bother to read other people's work will still accrue a number of Dooyoo miles but each individual review won't bring in very much more than the basic 50p payment. (The worst of the worst may end up with nothing as Dooyoo lock reviews and don't pay out to those that aren't of sufficient standard, regardless of whether they have passed the pending status or not.)

Dooyoo can be seen as a bit of a cash cow by some members but I'm sure that I'm not the only one who has noticed some signs of cost-cutting and belt-tightening when it comes to the Dooyoo budget. The redemption level for Amazon certificates has been increased from 10000 (£10) to 20000 (£20) miles and the level for cheques has remained at a whopping 50000 miles (£50). Less obviously, Dooyoo have moved several categories over to Speakers Corner, under the auspices of 'tidying' the site up. I'm sure that moving lots of sections (including the topics on parenting issues and recipes) from a section where every review receives 50p for submission to one where they receive nothing has some financial motivation. (This isn't necessarily a criticism of the changes - I've never understood why recipes are on Dooyoo anyway, much less why they received 50p per submission!) The parenting section was one of my favourites though and it does mean than I'll be worse off when I write reviews in that category now.

I've also noticed that Dooyoo have introduced a time limit on the period for which reviews receive miles for each member reading. Reviews only receive miles for readings for the first six months after submission (unless they are updated.) This change seems to have slipped through relatively unnoticed and will mainly affect those members who don't write many reviews but spend many hours reading other people's and, hopefully, building up recripocal reads. Now older reviews will be worthless unless members are vigilant about updating them. There definitely appears to be some streamlining of rewards here, as far as I can see. Crowns also seem to be thin on the ground lately, particularly in comparision with the sheer number of reviews submitted every day (and yes, I can understand that there will be financial implications for Dooyoo because of the number of members and new reviews.)

In total, including this review, I have written 100 reviews and my Dooyoo miles total is just shy of 150000 miles. I've already redeemed two £50 cheques and am looking forward to redeeming my next cheque. As a rate of around £1.50 per review, Dooyoo's rewards system seems incredibly generous. As a reward for the amount of time that I actively spend on the site, it is in reality a mere pittance. The thing that keeps me returning time and time again is not the miles but the feedback from other Dooyoo members and the fact that I do genuinely enjoy reading other people's often excellent writing. I do wonder how long the current system of rewards can be sustained but hope that any changes brought in reward people for producing better quality reviews rather than encouraging mindless and useless churn.

Summary: I doo love Dooyoo