A Penny A Hit, What Next? SELLING your Personal InfoApr 13 '01 Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line “This is the end, my only friend, the end...” -- The Doors.
Epinions.com reduces reviews revenue to a penny per member visit regardless of the category. They announce this at the same time it announces layoffs at their company, and one day after the closing of Themestream.com. This does not bode too well. Next thing we know, we may even exercise the worse case scenario I envisoned in one of my reviews (note 1). Income share. How that is figured out outside of Epinions.com is anyone’s guess, but there are hints on how it is calculated. First off, you have to know that Epinions.com is not an altruistic website. It is in it to make money, and to survive a marketplace economy using all tricks of the trade. That means partnering, advertising, and business opportunities; and if that doesn’t work, then layoffs, reducing contributor benefits, and perhaps selling our personal information in the future -- It’s not inconceivable. So what brings in the biggest dollars for Epinions.com and contributes to your income share? Epinions.com has one of two things to offer. The biggest is the reviews contributed by us. A second potential source is the statistical info contributed by us. Have you ever noticed the “Rate this product without submitting a review” links? Well, if you think about it, the more we click, the more we contribute to a better statistical model that helps advertisers (note 2) and marketers help formulate better advertising targeted back toward us. Just how valuable is that? Plenty. The reviews contributed by us are a tangible product that can be used by Epinions.com to attract partners. Epinions.com partners like Yahoo can use our content on their website to help its customers buy stuff. This brings in real dollars part of which goes into our income share. So the biggest contributor to your income share is the money other sites pay Epinions.com for our reviews. If you write in categories that are worth the most to advertisers, you have the chance to earn more. So what are the most valuable categories to write in? It was mentioned in various reviews and in chat transcripts that computer hardware and electronics are big ones. Pre-April 18, 2001, these categories paid out 3 cents per member view. Even though now page views are uniformly 1 cent per member view, it does not mean less income share. What other sources of income does Epinion.com have? There are perhaps three. The statistical info we indirectly contribute to (the product rating system), this is valuable to advertisers and marketers. A second source of indirect revenue is direct advertising on Epinions.com; this is obvious, you see ads all over the place. Through the use of statistical information, some ads are tailored for its users. There is potentially a third source of revenue that Epinions.com has not yet tapped. That is our own personal info linked with shopping profiles. If this source is ever used, you can bet there will be mass redemptions and lots of people quitting the site. As it stands now, this source of revenue may not possible because we don’t really give too much personal information to Epinions.com, and the privacy statement deters that somewhat. But this may change if one is really desperate for the money. notes: (1) Learn How to Earn $$$$$ but Never Get to Collect, It Can Happen to You. http://www.epinions.com/content_1161470084 (2) The collection of transactional data is explained away in #7 in the Epinions.com the privacy statement. http://www.epinions.com/help/show_~privacy ----------- Looking for a good inexpensive NYC restaurant? Check out some of my NYC restaurants reviews, or other reviews on my profile page.  |
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