Shan't Be Saying Goodbye Anytime Soon (ciao.co.uk)

Member Name: rosebud2001

Product:	ciao.co.uk
Date:	13/10/09 (131 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Strong community feel, good writers, decent payments

Disadvantages: Political rating, overrating average work, slow and clunky site to navigate

I joined dooyoo last year, and quickly became aware of the fact there was another review writing site out there called Ciao, from reviews posted here.

At first I was unaware of the fact there was a dedicated UK site - most of the reviews I read were for the now defunct Ciao.com, a site which was overrun with cheats who posted copied, auto translated or gibberish reviews and received payments from the site due to forming huge clicking catels of like minded members. I found it hard to believe the UK site could be much better, and decided to just stick with dooyoo for the time being, thank you very much.

I changed my mind earlier this year, when I realised I could cross post reviews from dooyoo onto ciao, thus increasing both my audience and my income, and now I have been a member for five months, I feel qualified to write a review on the site.

~~The Basics~~

You have to register an account with Ciao, much the same as dooyoo. The one thing that is different however is they are quite strict about avatars being a photograph of a real person - and they don't take kindly to photographs of famous people who are clearly not you...so that rules out pictures of foxy chicks if you are Dave the truck driver from Oldham - only a picture of Dave the truck driver from Oldham will do I am afraid to say.

You don't have to have an avatar, but I chose to brave it and sent a picture of myself off for approval - Ciao approve all avatars before allowing them to be uploaded - and fortunately I looked enough like rosebud2001 for it to be approved.

You do not get paid for merely writing a review on Ciao - all payments depend upon the rates you receive. Products are priced according to those which generate the most income for the site, so expensive consumer goods invariably have £££ beside them - and this gives you 2p per read. ££ items are 1p per read, and £ items are 0.5p. If there is no £ sign listed beside a product, it means you don't get paid for it. There is a first review bonus if you nab a product first, and you can also earn a little more if you refer a friend to the site.

Every month, there is a Premium Fund "pot" which is distributed amongst the best reviews - and it's the Premium Fund which I find makes Ciao worthwhile financially.

When you join you quickly learn you earn Community Points which increase your status. You start on a white dot, and as you earn points, your dot changes colour accordingly. If you are serious about the site you won't stay white for very long, which is a good thing as most established members tend to view newbies with suspicion - and not without reason. You earn Community Points for writing and rating reviews, writing comments, gaining people on your Circle of Trust and posting photographs.

Payout is permitted once you have £5 in your account. Payment is made by BACS into your bank account and you must have a UK bank account to be paid.

~~The Website~~

Compared to dooyoo, I find Ciao really quite slow and clunky. It's also not particularly easy to navigate.

There is a link to Latest Reviews which I use frequently - this shows the latest 100 reviews on the site. If there are churners in force, there's nothing to stop them hogging the first couple of pages however.

Trying to locate reviews by members isn't as straightforward as dooyoo either. You can't call up everyone on your Circle of Trust on one page for instance - the system can only show 15 at a time. It's sometimes easier to just use the Member Search feature to find a person to see if they have written a new review, although you can, if you desire, set up e-mail alerts so you know someone has posted a new review. This is fine if you can handle large amounts of e-mails in your inbox, but not everyone can.

Even when I am reading and rating from the Latest Reviews list I find it slow to navigate back to the list after I have read and rated a review, particularly if I have written a comment. Unlike dooyoo, their system is particularly sluggish at navigating using the Back button on your browser.

You can review and read reviews on a huge array of products, ranging from top of the range TVs to a bar of chocolate. One feature I do like about Ciao however is you cannot rate until the page has been open a certain length of time, in an attempt to cut back on speed readers.

Members rate using the following buttons:-

Exceptional
Very Helpful
Helpful
Somewhat Helpful
Not Helpful
Off Topic

An "exceptional" rating is you basically nominating a review for payment from the Premium Fund. You can only rate a maximum of five reviews per day as "exceptional" and you must comment as to why you found the review so good.

~~What I Like About Ciao~~

At first I was a bit in awe of the place - and will be honest when I say I really didn't like being a newbie again! However I received a very warm welcome to the site and quickly realised the community aspect seems to be even more important on ciao than it is on dooyoo.

I posted my first review just after the ciao.com site was closed down, so at the time many members from there had joined the site in the mistaken belief they paid using Paypal. I think I was lucky that some members recognised my user name from dooyoo otherwise I suspect few people would have bothered with my reviews simply because the site was overrun with newbies posting rubbish.

I do think members are very good at policing cheats on the site however - members seem to be far more willing on Ciao to rate gibberish, copied or auto translated reviews NH and comment upon them.

Cheats also seem to be removed very quickly from the site - I have seen a review I reported gone a matter of minutes after contacting Ciao, which is very impressive.

Churning isn't appreciated by established members, and nor are members who post and do not read and rate. I find the culture of "returning rates" seems to be far more prevalent on Ciao than it is on dooyoo.

To be honest in light of the way payments are made and the fact you need good rates to benefit from the Premium Fund I don't see any benefits to churning on the site at all, and it does seem fewer people do it there.

Ciao have recently implemented the "Short But Good" award, which takes the best ten reviews that contain less than 1,000 words and awards them a £7 prize. The ten best reviews earn Diamonds each month - these are worth £15, and are always significantly longer than 1,000 words. I have read some excellent reviews that have received Diamonds, but there have also been a handful which I personally would struggle to rate as Useful due to the lack of any real consumer opinion.

I also really like how Suggestions are dealt with - they are usually added to the database within a day or two. I say "usually" as lately I have had to wait a little longer than this, but overall they are far quicker at adding suggestions than dooyoo are.

I really like how you can format on your review - a little bold and italics go a long way - but note I said "little". Some people cannot help over-egging the pudding. I also love how you can add photos, which is particularly good for travel or photography reviews, although once again in light of the fact Community Points are earned for each picture uploaded, some people go overboard just a little bit.

~~Things I am not so keen on~~

The Community Points thing is a good idea at the beginning, but as you work your way up the slippery slope, you realise there are disadvantages too.

Because you earn two points for leaving a comment, you get people who leave inane comments just for the sake of it. You can check members' statistics and see the comments they have left - and some members seem to have a repertoire of one or two statements they leave on each and every review.

I love to receive genuine comments on my reviews and it irks when I get the bog standard "great review", "well written" or "excellent" - leaving me to wonder if they have even read my review from the same people over and over again. These comments are not written for your benefit - they are written purely to help the member get more community points.

There also seems to be a belief that writing a lengthy review which could double up as a user manual makes for an exceptional review. Forgive me, dear reader, but it was my belief that a review should be an opinion piece, not a user guide or an extension of the product's Wikipedia entry.

This is usually most obvious on the Product of the Week, when you can learn the entire history of the company which manufactures the said product, the product itself, what it looks like, the most minute detail about the packaging down to the barcode and no end of useless information, as people chase prizes worth £7, £5 and £3. I know it's a bit of fun and don't get me wrong - there have been some super reviews in the competition which deserved the prizes they got - but others have been turgid user guides or comparison pieces which are of little use to the passing consumer who longs to get to the bottom line.

People tend to chase rates to win these prizes and some of the schmoozing that goes on is quite transparent as people up the ante with the "good review" comments, leaving very high rates for mediocre reviews in the hope they will receive the required "E" rate for their own review.

And that's the problem I have with these prizes - they are not decided by who has written the best review, they are decided upon who has got the most "E" rates. Now sometimes that will ensure the best written piece wins the prizes, but other times it's decided purely on some not very subtle political rating where friends are called in to rate accordingly. I have not had this happen to me but I have been told of members receiving messages "asking" for "E" rates on a piece of work, which I think takes impudence to a new level.

Of course I may well be accused of being frustrated and bitter as I decided to give the Ciao Café Current Issue a go this month due to being genuinely interested in the topic at hand and learned the hard way how determined some people can be as they chase for rates to win the prize. So yes, I will openly admit to an element of sour grapes there!

Lastly, reporting abuse on the site is tricky and and really needs to be done in a new window or tab as they require unique member and review IDs which you will not have to hand on the user abuse report page.

~~Overall~~

In spite of some of my cutting remarks above, I do genuinely like Ciao. When I receive a genuine comment, I really appreciate it and there are many members who post reviews which are quite simply a pleasure to read.

Payments are straightforward and I have received my first payment from the site without any problems. You are advised to claim your payment right at the end of the month as payments are only processed once a month and you will minimise your wait if you leave it to the end of the month - down to about 21 days.

The community aspect is really friendly, and you will find guestbook comments thanking you for your rates from some members. You don't have to reciprocate or leave similar comments yourself - I do not - but I always appreciate any pleasant comments.

If you write on dooyoo regularly I think you should try to cross post on Ciao too if you can - I always used to say "I don't have time for both" but as someone who tends to only write a couple of reviews a week I find I can easily cope with both sites.

So go on - give it a go - you might find yourself as sucked in there as you are here!

Summary: The "other side" is worth a visit!