If You've Got Aview You Can Earn at Bview (bview.co.uk)

Member Name: kitschkitty

Product:	bview.co.uk
Date:	12/04/09 (179 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Reasonable renumeration for writing short reviews

Disadvantages: Lacks a sense of community, not the most useful of resources yet

There seems to have been an influx of websites of late all promising rewards for writing reviews on local businesses. In case you haven't noticed, I am a whore to the review writing scene and have worked my way through most of these sites in an attempt to sort the wheat from the chaff. As I check through my reviews on Bview.co.uk, it would appear I first stumbled upon the site back in August 2008. Unfortunately, back then, similar sites such as Helphound and Qype were offering far more lucrative incentives for my reviews and so Bview fell by the wayside until they emailed me a couple of months ago offering 30p for each review I wrote. After a pitiful attempt at earning some extra funds for my rainy day account, an email last week promising 45p per review if you write 20 or more reviews this month has finally given me the incentive I needed to share my wit and wisdom regarding every pub, kebab house, clothes shop or bank I have ever frequented in a desperate bid to earn enough to cover the extortionate costs of renewing my passport.

But as Julie Andrews famously sang, let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start. Bview is a website which enables you to read and write reviews on local businesses. As a writer, it means you can earn a few extra pennies for writing relatively short reviews on any business you're familiar with, from your hairdresser to your dog's hairdresser, your dentist to the local DIY store he or she buys their drills from. There are thousands of businesses listed but you also have the option of adding a business that isn't already registered on the site so there really is no end to the businesses you can review. As a new reviewer, you will earn £5 for your first 15 reviews which is paid by cheque or Amazon gift voucher at the end of the month. Your reviews need to be at least 150 words in length. Once you've written your first 15 reviews, if they are of 'exceptional quality' (Bview's words not mine), you'll be invited to become an Local Expert which enables you to earn up to £100 per month through writing reviews.

As far as writing on Bview is concerned, it's quite an easy process, especially considering the low word count. I tend to write a minimum of 200 words as I struggle to give an accurate picture of a business in less but if you can be informative and concise then the payments here are quite reasonable. Whilst other users can rate your reviews, there is no incentive for you or them to do so as it is only writing reviews that attracts incentives. This can make it seem like a somewhat thankless task and Bview certainly lacks the community spirit that you find here on Dooyoo. It also means writing reviews can become quite tiresome quite quickly but the increased incentive of 45p per review this month will definitely spur me on to write some more reviews. The review writing process has changed in the last day or two and has definitely improved in my opinion. Until recently, your review had to be split into a pros section and a cons section which I found a tad cumbersome and disruptive in terms of my writing. Fortunately, this has now been changed to a simple box where you can write your review in one go, just as you would here on Dooyoo.

I've only received one payment from Bview (although there may have been an Amazon voucher in the past that I've forgotten about). I chose to be paid by cheque and my earnings for last month arrived last week which was a quick service. As a review, although it feels a bit more like work than here at Dooyoo, Bview has provided my savings account with a small trickle of additional income and is worth a visit as an extra platform for earning money from reviews.

But it's important not to forget the purpose of Bview and the reason the site pays members to write reviews. Ultimately, it is a resource for users who are looking for impartial reviews on businesses throughout the country. Unfortunately, I find the reviews on here to be a bit hit and miss. Many businesses only have one review which can make it difficult to get an overall picture. One restaurant I reviewed as being awful has recently been reviewed by another user who raved about how fantastic it was. Perhaps it was the owners of the restaurant in question or this person was unfortunate enough to not know what a curry should taste like but for an inquisitive reader searching for a review on the given restaurant, neither my review or that of the other user would appear particularly helpful since they offer such opposing opinions. I've just looked up the Early Learning Centre in my home town and it has 3 reviews but not one of them suggests to me that the reviewer is familiar with the Burnley branch as they are all quite general opinions on ELC and not specific to the branch in question.

That said, Bview is reliant upon its reviewers to create a database of useful and informative reviews and whilst it continues to pay me to write, I'll continue to add my two penneth about various establishments across the country. If more people contribute helpful and informative reviews, then it has the potential to grow into an invaluable resource and the extra pennies in my rainy day account are certainly not to be sniffed at.

Summary: If You've Got Aview You Can Earn at Bview