I have been a member of dooyoo for four months now. In that time, I have picked up lots of very valuable hints from reviews on this topic, and I hope that someone out there finds my version useful!

Firstly, I would say before you write ANY reviews, invest some of your time in reading the reviews that have been written by others - compare the differences in short, basic reviews with little opinion, to those that give detailed information together with a personal opinion of whether that product or service does what it needs to do, or could be improved. You will see lots of writing styles, and you can also see what it is that other readers and reviewers like about that review by the comments and rates that are left.

This also applies if you are an established dooyoo writer but are looking to write a review about a product that you have not written about before - I am thinking here specifically about book and dvd reviews, music album reviews, mobile phone and domestic appliance reviews - have a look at others and get an idea about what readers and raters are looking for before you start typing.

Secondly, write about something you know, or have used recently, or use on a regular basis. It is very difficult to write a good review about something that you have a vague recollection of, or of your old dishwasher that you got rid of five years ago and don't have the user manual for any more! If you can refer to your product as you are reviewing it, you can make sure that none of the important information or opinions are left out of your review.

If you feel very passionate about something, this will come through in your review, and although you will make it detailed, you are in danger of waffling on about your love of that product/service to the point that you may lose the interest of your intended audience - by all means be passionate about your review, but keep an eye on the waffle factor!

Don't write your review when you are in a hurry, or when you are tired. You won't write your best review and you may miss out important pieces of information or opinion. You may also make silly grammatical or spelling mistakes which can lower the standard of your review unnecessarily.

If you have an idea for a review, but are in a hurry, or are tired, you could open a word document and jot down some bulletpoint notes with your initial ideas that you can go back to when you have more time, and can convert them into a readable review at a later time.

Bad spellings and poor grammar makes a review difficult to read. We all understand that mistakes creep in, and that dooyoo doesn't help because it doesn't have a spell checker or grammar-checker, and little things will be overlooked, but a review full of mistakes will put readers off, and they may give it a low rate, or not rate it at all as a result. If you know that spelling or grammar is not your strong point, then you could write your review in Word which will highlight any errors, and can then copy and paste it into your dooyoo review when it is finished! There is absolutely no need for a review to have a lack of capital letters and full stops where appropriate, and please, please use I instead of i in the right place!

On similar lines, save your text speak for your mobile - a dooyoo review is not the place for pls n thx cul8rs......type thing.

Take your time - whilst the rate of "pay" is not great, this is not about churning out poor quality reviews to get to payout levels - better quality reviews will get read more, and those people who read will rate and will rate your future reviews too. It is a snowball effect, and while your early efforts may not attract many readers, if you write good quality reviews, those readers will find you, and then you will be able to start accumulating the pennies.

Read your review before you post it, and make sure you are happy with it. Have you included information that people will find useful? Have you included your personal opinion or feelings on the product? Have you got a beginning, a middle and an ending? Remember, dooyoo want "genuine, useful, consumer opinion" and if your review does not include this, it won't get rated, and you won't earn money from it!

Once you have posted your review, take note of comments from others. If you are concerned about comments or low rates, why not send a private message to that particular reviewer to ask why they rated low, or commented as they did, and ask for constructive feedback in order that you can improve future reviews. Remember, not everyone will see this product or service in the same way as you do, and my not like your review as much as you do......so don't be offended by a "useful" rate or even a "somewhat useful" rate, as long as the rater has a reason why they felt it deserves that rate, it is usually fair.

Finally, enjoy what you are doing here - the successful reviewers are those who enjoy spending time here, reading and rating other reviews, and becoming part of the dooyoo community.