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MadTheory’s Five Point Program to Developing a Winning Epinions Personality!Mar 12 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line MadTheory knows how to develop a Winning Epinions Personality. Just follow my Five Point Program and send $1.00 to...
Having trouble finding your niche here at Epinions? Count on MadTheory to hit the lab and research the best way to develop and refine a winning Epinions personality. I’ve incorporated my theories, opinions, research, and experiences into an easy to follow Five Point Program that will help you create a flawless Epinions personality. You may want to take notes. 1) Examine Your Writing : Obviously you can’t have an Epinions personality if you don’t write here. The most basic way for a member to notice you is through your Writing Style, the Products you review, and your Editorials. Writing Style - Like any great writer, you must select a writing style that works best for you. For example, I myself am excellent at research papers, so most of my reviews lean toward a loose, thesis-type of format. Others shape their reviews to resemble editorials and even narratives. Decide which you like best and go with it. Products - Everyone has products that they know more about than others. Decide which products you want to specialize in and try to stick to those. I try to focus on music, video games, and electronics, as those are the fields I know the most about. Even though I can write reviews on other topics, I choose not to because there are several authors who can do a much better job than I can. Don’t be too rigid though; feel free to explore other areas and write reviews on other topics occasionally. Editorials - The Editorial sections here at EP offers you a unique opportunity to get more creative with your writing. You can stick to the specified topics, or go on tangents and be creative. As long as your piece is well-written and original, most reviewers will appreciate your efforts and rate accordingly. Use the editorials as an opportunity to display your personality so members can see your skill and creativity. 2) Always Rate: Writers love feedback. How you rate their work will show a little about your personality as well, so you want to make sure you’ve got your stuff together. The best ways to develop a good rating personality is to Be Accurate and Fair when rating, try to Leave Comments on others’ reviews and Respond to Comments on your work, and maintain your Webs of Trust and Distrust. Be Accurate and Fair - Nothing sucks quite so much as to see someone kick dirt all over that review that you slaved over all weekend, then see that same reviewer VH some crap that someone typed in on their coffee break. A few members will actually slap you on their WoD for that, so try to be accurate when rating. A good idea is to sit down, have a “by myself meeting” (I love that term) and decide what criteria make up a good review. Then try to consistently rate by those standards. Also, make sure that you’re fair when you rate. Even if someone writes a review that’s very well written, don’t rate him or her badly because they rated one of your reviews poorly. That’s called Revenge Rating. It’s childish and stupid. Just accept that everyone has different standards and move on. Leave Comments/ Respond to Comments - Nothing makes me feel better than when someone leaves a comment on one of my reviews. It doesn’t matter if they agree or disagree or whatever. All that matters is that something I wrote is important enough for someone else to respond to. Most others here at Epinions generally feel the same way. If you leave courteous, intelligent comments on their reviews, it will help your Epinions personality shine through. Your Web of Trust/Distrust - One of the best ways to learn about someone is by knowing who their friends and enemies are. The same applies here at Epinions. Who you have on your WoT and WoD reflect on your personality as well, so you want to make sure you carefully select who you choose to trust and distrust. 3) Refine Your Profile Page: Once people start to see your ID often, they’ll eventually get curious and decide to click on the link to go back to your profile page. The very purpose of this page is to let Epinions users know more about the specific writers, so it only makes sense to add information to this page that will allow your budding personality to be displayed. The best ways to accomplish this are to Be Interesting, add a Picture or Photo, and Dress Up the Page with HTML. Be Interesting - Boring profile pages do not compel users to visit your other reviews. Be sure to add interesting information about yourself like your favorite books, movies, music, or just little tidbits about yourself. If people like what they see they’ll visit some of your other work and perhaps even add you to their Web of Trust. Enter a Picture or a Photo - It is written somewhere that a picture is worth a thousand words (wait, I just wrote it, so I guess it’s written here). A picture of yourself tends to show at least a fragment of your true self, so you may want to consider putting your likeness on your page. There are two basic ways to do this: Using a Digital Camera a) Take your picture. b) Compress it into JPEG format. c) Get a website account with a company such as Yahoo (if you don’t already have one) and upload your picture to it. d) Type the URL for your photo in the appropriate field on your Profile Editing Page. Using a Regular Camera a) Take your picture. b) Develop your picture. c) Take your picture to someone with a scanner (Kinko’s usually has one if you don’t know anyone). d) Scan your picture. e) Using photo-editing software such as Adobe PhotoShop, compress the image into .JPG or .GIF format. e) Get a website account with a company such as Yahoo (if you don’t already have one) and upload your picture to it. f) Type the URL for your photo in the appropriate field on your Profile Editing Page. Some folks feel uncomfortable putting pictures of themselves on their profile pages. This is fine with me because some of you are ugly as hell and should not be allowed to put yourselves on public display. If this is the case, feel free to find the URL for a picture you’ve found on the web and enter it into your profile page. For a long time, I had a snapshot of Morpheus from The Matrix on my page until I decided to add my picture. Do whichever you feel most comfortable with. Dress it Up with HTML - A great way to display your winning Epinions personality is to use HyperText Markup Language (HTML) to personalize your profile page. HTML can add backgrounds, fonts, colors, links, graphics, and menus to your page. The HTML is inserted into the Long Description section of your Profile Editing Page. If you have questions about HTML code and its usage, one of the best resources here at Epinions is lap0530 otherwise known as the Computer Teacher. Be sure to check out his profile page and website for clear and concise HTML tutorials and tips. 4) Network: Communication to other members and potential members is of paramount importance to developing your winning Epinions personality. The more members get to know you on a personal level, the more likely they are to accept and appreciate you. The easiest way to network with the Epinions community is through Email, Clubs, Chat, and Other Writing Websites. Email - Don’t be afraid to email a writer whose work you find interesting. Most of the people here are courteous and friendly. Just be sure to send intelligent comments or questions and DO NOT SPAM. No one is interested in your so-called “investment opportunities”. Clubs and Chats - There are a few active Yahoo Clubs which you can join to communicate with those who share your love for Epinions. Also, Epinions periodically has online chats to discuss this site. Through these venues other members will discover your winning personality. Other Writing Websites - For many Epinioneers, writing reviews and editorials on Epinions simply is not enough. Many of us are active members of other popular writing websites such as Themestream, Written By Me, Bright Idea, and several others. Consider joining one of these other websites to increase your viewing audience. 5) MadTheory is the Key: What most Epinions writers don’t realize is that I am an integral cog in their possible success at this website. While others like ptiemann, drlolipop, sfoster79, and others may be excellent writers or advisors, I’m more like an entity; an Epinions force of nature if you will. When you rate my reviews (VH of course), people will see your ID in the “As Rated By” section and instantly know you are a reviewer with impeccable taste, and able to appreciate the sublime writing techniques of MadTheory. When they see me added to your Web of Trust, the members will see that you are able to recognize that “spark” that only a few writers really have, and most likely add you to their WoT. You’ll become one of the most popular members of Epinions almost overnight. I know this last one may sound like shameless self-promotion, but it was necessary. I ran out of points and “Four Point Program” doesn’t have that same ring to it. Sorry.  |
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