I'll Bview'ing your business.... (bview.co.uk)

Member Name: Vialdana

Product:	bview.co.uk
Date:	02/07/09 (39 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A review site for businesses who pay members to write reviews

Disadvantages: A little too pro/con based

When I first started using Bview, it was (probably like many other people) because it offered me the opportunity to write about places and get paid for doing so - at the time the offer was for an Amazon voucher when you'd written a certain number of reviews. I enjoy writing, and like most people I shop for things, visit pubs and other places of business and so I found it quite easy to find plenty to say about things.. Oh and I'm pretty outspoken too lol.

After a while however, the reason for visiting wasn't just so I could write about places I'd been... I found myself visiting so that I could see what others thought of somewhere I was thinking of going - particularly useful I've found when looking for somewhere out of town to stay, visit or eat for example. Dooyoo and Ciao and similar types of site have been around for a while, but they're product based. Bview is different in that you're reviewing places - businesses - not products. Not only that, but you can review a specific branch of a particular business too which makes it much more easy to be specific about a shop or a restaurant or hotel for example.

I also love the fact that it is a service that is free for it's users to use as well as offering an incentive for people to write here - this means you get really good involved people who participate regularly. They've added a blog (which I also now write for), and a coupons/vouchers section where you can find discounts for online stores, national offline stores and even sometimes local offline shops as well. It's a really nice touch I think because it keeps people coming back to the site regularly even if they haven't got anything new to write about.

The one thing that Bview does which I'm not so keen on is that when you write there, you need to split reviews into pro's and con's, and I find this can be a bit restrictive. Also some people take it to mean list a few things rather than just putting their thoughts down, but I'm sure that's something that Bview will look at somewhere down the line. Perhaps the ability to put a dozen or so words in pro's and a dozen or so in con's AND write a review that's not specifically one or the other would be nice as is done here on Dooyoo and over on Ciao as well.
These days Bview offers members the ability to earn cash rather than vouchers, and it's possible to cash out monthly by cheque. There are two or three levels of payment as well depending on if you're new to reviewing, or have been doing it a while, or are considered very good by Bview and bumped up to their special levels where they ask you to take on an area and look after it - add a few pictures, write a few words on the place that sort of thing, so there's the potential to be a really big part of the community there as well as writing what you think about various places.

Summary: A newish but very good site that's establishing itself well as a review site for businesses.