I've seen you and the product is good and makes me have it please beminat Untk now you see me ...... (ciao.co.uk)

Member Name: iamasadlittleboy

Product:	ciao.co.uk
Date:	07/09/09 (43 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The PF is brilliant, lots of products

Disadvantages: overall not enough money

With it being September and with Ciao having a double earning bonus for the end of Summer (I think they did the same a couple of years back as well) I've started being more active with my posts on there. I know it's not good but I use Ciao to post and run and stick to dooyoo for my ratings as we get paid better here to be honest.

So what is ciao.co.uk, well much like dooyoo (and epinions) it's a product review site (primarily for me anyway) where us users can write reviews of products expressing our opinions on them and be paid. Brilliant right? Well it is and it isn't, the concept (much like the one dooyoo enforces) is based around being paid for every rate the review gets (and unlike dooyoo) they don't pay the same as an "upfront" payment for every review. Depending on whether your a writer or a rater this can be a god send as Ciao seem to have less churners and more raters, though the reflection in pay back is massive.

On dooyoo we get 1.5p for every view (I think, it's not rates but views...) our reviews get, over there they use a complex series of maths formula to decide which products are the most valuable and pay accordingly. The rates of 0.5, 1 and 2p a rate (doubled for the first month if you are the first to write about it, and doubled again this month) depending mainly on the product type and the number of previous reviews. Just to show you an example my recent Sonic 2 review will earn nothing on there as their was 7 previous ones, however my Mortal Kombat II review which was to earn a penny a rate on the fact it was a ££ item (£ each denote the payment level) plus an extra penny as it was the first review of the product, and then they we're both to be doubled (so from the 9 rates I earned 36p).
Yes this payment rate is dire when you consider my Sonic 2 review on dooyoo earned 50p for going up (at time of writing it's had 3 reads as well so that is another 4.5p) and my Mortal Kombat 2 review earned 50p for going up and had 11 reads (which surprised me to be honest) so was worth 66.5p on dooyoo.
Though by the same logic those writing about things like TV and fridges where the payment rate is 2p a rate (or currently 4p, and with a bonus 4p if your the first) it could well be possible to be earning 8p a rate. Not things I personally write about though the knowledge that it is possible to be earning 8p a rate is tempting to write things about the TV's in the house.

So why do I keep putting my articles on there? Well as they are already written (their on dooyoo aren't they...and helium...and associated content or bukisa) they might as well earn the additional 10p or so. Additionally the "bonus" scheme (Premium Fund) is better on ciao than the crowns on dooyoo. In over 300 reviews (in over 2 and a half years) on dooyoo I've received 16 crowns which is the same as £24, on Ciao the premium funds I've received £40 since January in far fewer reviews. The premium fund, which makes as much logical sense as the Crowns (no sense at times) seems to pay a much nicer rate and it's worth putting reviews on there just for the PF.

So onto the site it's self rather than ranting about payments (which are sent by BACS folks), the site has more items to review than Ciao (from my perspective anyway) though the Ciao's community writing aspect seems bizarre whilst Dooyoo's seems pointless but fun. Though some of the navigation is more difficult over there than on here, it's not as difficult as people try to make out, it's still a matter of just using a bit of common sense to be honest and you'll find your way around with out many problems. The search results don't always list the ones you're wanting first but using the filters at the side it's not hard to find the one you want, quite similar to the way dooyoo works.

Sadly one of the problems with Ciao is the writing standard some people don't seem to be able to read or write (the title of this piece was genuinely taken from a comment I got on my Mortal Kombat review). This often means people have tried to churn a 150 words to get the first review bonus of the item with a sub standard piece whilst those who put some actual time and effort miss out.
The sites "premier" reviews are awarded "Diamonds" much similar to the crowns we use than the premium fund and seem to find their way into the hands of the same few users every time. They are apparently worth £5 each but as I've never gotten one (nor in fact do I know how they are awarded) I've decided to pretend they don't exists, they don't bother me so what do I care about them?

Overall a good addition for dooyoo users to use, but by no means is it as good as dooyoo on the whole. Yes the premium fund is exceptional and far and away the best reward system (outside of that used by Helium.com) but sadly the no upfront payment per review stops it from being as widely used by myself as here. The people who are in charge over there (I think it's now Microsoft as it's got a Bing banner on it) perhaps need to look at bringing in a standardised pay structure for reviews of quality. For work done for dooyoo first it's a nice bonus, much like the other sites out there that people perhaps can look at using.

Summary: Won't make you instantly rich