| Product: |
ciao.co.uk |
| Date: |
26/07/08 (98 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Some nice members
Disadvantages: Poor pay, website rarely works
Ciao is a website on which, like Dooyoo, you write, read and rate opinions for a monetary reward. Reviews are read by fellow members but also people directed there from search engines such as Google. Unfortunately, that's where the similarities end.
I signed up with Ciao a couple of months ago and currently have 31 reviews. Which, here at Dooyoo, would have made me £15.50 before anyone even read them. Well, including a £2 bonus for the premium fund, I'm only around the £10 mark. They randomly deducted some of my review money from my account to put into a new "Ciao Surveys" account, which I have no idea what that is all about, and I have no intention to complete any more as now they seem to think 10p is adequate payment for a 20-minute survey!
The bad thing about Ciao is that you have to get a review rated by a member to gain any money. When you look at your readings number, the majority are from people who have landed there from search engines, and so aren't members and won't rate your reviews. This means that despite writing good reviews, you can gain a few pence a day only if you are willing to try really really hard to read and review a lot of other people's work so they will return the favour. Which all seems a bit like hard work. Yes I like to read other people's reviews, but at Ciao you feel like you must or nobody will rate yours.
There is a premium fund which will pay you a bonus occasionally, but you only receive this if you are active and write consistently good reviews (how exactly it is doled out seems to be a mystery), and so have to put a lot of effort in for this couple of quid.
There are some very nice members at Ciao, the majority of which are also here at the "other side" but I find that they rate a lot more harshly than here. The fact that there is an exceptional category seems to make people rate lower, so a short review, even if it contains everything you possibly need to know, will automatically be helpful rather than very helpful, just because it isn't pushing the 1,000 words mark. I always try to make my reviews useful, but I feel that at Ciao you need to try much harder or receive a lot of comments telling you what you did wrong.
I suppose the good thing about this is that it discourages churners, which is already somewhat annoying me about Dooyoo. Yes, I realise I do write more than one review a day sometimes, but I always include everything I feel is necessary and take care over them, so it bothers me when someone writes a few waffling paragraphs up to 150 words saying "It's great, I like it" and they earn more than me! But hey, I'm turning this into a Dooyoo vs other review now!
The Ciao website is totally useless, to suggest a product you have to go on a wild goose chase double checking it's not already there before you are finally given the privilige. Although, to be fair, they generally get added quicker than they do here. A lot of times I have to refresh pages several times before you can post your review as they time out and don't work. Who can be bothered with that for 2p?!
So in short:
Pros - suggested products get added fairly quickly, nice members
Cons - pitiful amount of money for your work, hard to please a lot of members, website often has glitches.
Summary: I have crossed over to the dark side now at Dooyoo!
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Last comments:
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- 27/07/08 Thanks for your comments Duke, just my opinions and experience although I do take on board the fact that I should write for the general reader not just Dooyoo members. Thanks. |
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- 27/07/08 Interesting. I have a few comments though. Starting with your first paragraph:
"I'm sure most people on here have some idea what Ciao is all about, and a lot of you will even have accounts, so I wont spend too much time dwelling on that. Basically, like Dooyoo, you write, read and rate opinions for a monetary reward. Unfortunately, that's where the similarities end."
Doo yoo is not a closed system, far from it, and in fact, more non-members read reviews than members. You shouldn't be writing solely for the members of the site (in fact it could be argued that you it should be the complete opposite!)
How ever, that's just an aside. Getting on to the core of the review, I think we're going to disagree on a number of things. I don't believe, for example, that Ciao is populated by nice people. I think the community there is rather ersatz with a rotten core. Yes, there are a few decent people there, but you have to dig deep to find them and dot colour isn't the be all and end all of Ciao membership, although some might disagree.
Oh, and I think that over-rating is rife on Ciao. People are afraid to give out the ratings that reviews deserve because there's a (strong) possibility that the member will get offended and stop reading your work or, worse still, report you to the Ciao staff who are worse than incompetent.
A h well. I do have more to say, but I feel that this comment will soon turn out to be longer than your review! |
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- 26/07/08 I far prefer dooyoo these days! Ciao has far too many bugs! Ann |
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