EXTRA CASH for would be opinion writers!!! (bigrag.com)

Member Name: Judgee

Product:	bigrag.com
Date:	11/05/02 (90 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Cash, no churners, pictures in reviews

Disadvantages: Poor navigation, Lack of community spirit

That's right ladies and gentlemen, another opinion site to fill your coffers with lots of extra money! I write on three opinion sites, Ciao and Dooyoo are probably familiar to you all. The third one is perhaps not quite so well known and that is BIGRAG!


This site is very student orientated, but don't let that put you off. Anybody can write opinions for Bigrag and get paid in the process. Of all the sites that I write for, I guess I spend the least amount of time on Bigrag. This is mainly due to the fact that the amount of 'reads' that you get has very little meaning and in no way reflects the amount of financial reward you will gain from it. That being said, I like this site and I'll tell you why. Read on if you want to know more!


Layout
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I really like the look of this site, it feels 'cosy' for want of a better word, if perhaps a little basic. Upon signing up you are given your own profile page. Upon which you can put a message of your choice. It displays a list of categories that you have written in, rather than a run down of your opinions. Clicking on the category will give you a more detailed list of your reviews. The one thing I dislike about this system is that the information displayed is very basic ie Title, reads, comments. Nowhere does it show the award that your opinions have been awarded. For that you actually have to click on the opinion itself. (I will come to the awards in a minute!)


Navigation
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Now this is an area in which I think Bigrag members complain about the most. Navigation comes through the use of a quarter circle interface in the top left hand corner of the home page. On it there are several icons which will take you to the various writing categories on the site. There is also a couple of drop down bars in each category, allowing you to see the latest opinions submitted across the site or in each individual category. This sys
tem does take a bit of getting used to, but persevere with it and it will soon get easier.


Submitting opinions
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This is a slightly different process to Ciao or Dooyoo. To submit an opinion you must find the category in which you wish to write in. There you will be asked to type in a title for your work. After this you must click on a link that will open up an email box. You then submit your review in the form of an attachment, or if you prefer, just type it straight on to the email. Send the email and within a few hours your opinion will be viewable on the site. One thing that you should be aware of is that if a new category needs to be created for your work, the process can take a bit longer. Normally submissions for a totally new item, will be viewable on the next working day.


What type of opinions can I submit?
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As mentioned before, this site is very much aimed at students and so it is very rare to see the basic product reviews that Ciao and Dooyoo tend to offer. The categories that you can submit under are:

Sport & Recreation
Careers & Study
Travel
Sound & Vision
Going Out
The Mag
Universities
Mind, Body and Soul

Each main category has a few sub-categories so for instance, Sound and vision includes Film reviews, Album reviews, etc. Don't worry if you are not sure about where to place your opinion, as Dan will put them in the right place if necessary. You can submit reviews that do not look like they really fit in to any of the categories above, but be warned, they may not be used at all. If in doubt, my advice would be to email Dan first and ask him what he thinks. I suppose I should really tell you a little bit more about Dan. Dan runs the site and with his team of helpers, reads all the submitted reviews and gives them a rating.

Members can rate reviews, but this is done anonymous
ly. The rating from members is displayed at the top of your opinion, and shows the average rating only. The members ratings can vary from Poor to Excellent!


Rewards and opinion awards
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Now this is probably the section that a lot of people reading this opinion will look at first. So let me put you out of your misery! There are three main awards given out by Dan and co at the Bigrag site:

Gold - The top award and will net you a hefty £2
Silver - Medium award and will net you a reasonable £1
Bronze - The lowest award that receives recognition and will get you a lowly 50 pence!

The above awards are indicated by an icon on the top of your opinion. Surprisingly enough, the icons are Gold, Silver and Bronze! (Doh!)

Financial reward can also be paid for opinions, even if they fail to receive a Bronze rating, but this will always be below 50 pence. An example might be in the suggestions category, each one published on the site will get you 25 pence. It may sound low, but I have had a couple of suggestions listed and each one was only a couple of lines long (So it's not that bad at all!)

YOU GET NOTHING PAID FOR READS!


As for prestige well I guess this comes in the form of a medals table. A bit like the Olympics, the person with the most medals is placed at the top. The medals table contains the top twenty five medals winners and I am fortunate enough to be one of them!


Cashing out
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After each accepted opinion you will be required to answer a small survey in order to redeem your cash reward. Once redeemed it is added to your total. Once your total reaches a minimum of £5 you can request a cheque. Do not be put off by the idea of answering these surveys in order to get your cash back. They are very easy to fill in and will not take more than a couple of minutes. The surveys can vary from current affairs to "w
hat is your favourite brand of Jeans?"


My thoughts
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Well I have to admit that I am quite fond of this site. As every opinion is read first by Dan and his crew, the quality and standard is kept quite high. Churners (people who submit 20 opinions an hour of general low quality!) are non-existent and this makes a welcome change from other opinion sites. One other feature that I REALLY like about this site is that submissions can be made containing pictures/photographs. In fact it is positively encourage and even crucial to receiving the top awards. The lack of 'reads' may deter some people, in fact you may find that some of your opinions are not read at all by any other members, which can be a bit disappointing. But if this is the case, please bare in mind that Dan has read it thoroughly, you are guaranteed of that. So at least one person has read it! There is a lack of community spirit, possibly down to the low interaction between its members, but I don't mind that. On Bigrag it is refreshing to know that when your opinion is read, it is definitely because someone is interested in reading it, without any ulterior motive. Oh and I must just mention that the site can be quite slow, but that doesn't really matter because you won't need to spend a great deal of time on there, unless of course, you are looking to read up on something!

So overall, low maintenance, high reward, bad community spirit, good low cash out figure, excellent submissions, bad site navigation and a very nice man... called Dan!


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