Unbiased Reviews by Real People
|
|
Unbiased Reviews by Real People
Highlights Of Things You Need To Know About Epinions.comAug 11, 2001 (Updated Aug 22, 2001) Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line As member of Epinions.com, what are you doing to ensure its success and survival? I have been a member of Epinions for almost nineteen months. During this time period there have been many changes to the website. I think for the most part these changes have been beneficial to Epinions. I spend quite a bit of my day reading & rating and writing Epinions. I have become aware of some issues that may make understanding this website difficult for new members or those that aren't as active on this site as I may be. For that reason I have decided to write this Epinion. It is my hope that you will learn something new and helpful about this website. Member Profile I try to visit member profile pages of those I read regularly at least one time a month. I often visit a profile page of a new member to meet them. My advice to you is put something on your profile page. If you are shy and do not want or are unable to upload a photo of yourself find some free clipart on the web and place that in the spot. Try to use something that you really like. This is the first thing people see when they look at your article or profile page. Don’t use foul language or R rated material on your profile page. While I think we can all agree Epinions is a website designed for shoppers who are adults many people are offended by swearing and otherwise vulgar and lurid content. Keep that sort of content to your personal webpage which you can link off of your profile page. Tell us something about you. This doesn’t have to be a biography. There are people who are talented and can write quite a bit with few words unfortunately for my readers I am not one of them.. Always remember your profile page tells us about you. A blank page is almost unfriendly. You want to attract people to your page and your articles. Don’t venture down the path of deceit with members. Unfortunately there have been some folks on Opinions (as in every community) that have told terrible lies. Put your best foot forward. You will make friends here if you would like to. Don’t jeopardize that with mistruths. Writing Epinions It is common to tell newsiest to read, read, read and then rate. I have mixed feelings on this. In my opinion the most important thing to do before writing an Epinion is to know what Epinions is all about. You need to understand the rules and guidelines. You will often hear that rules and guidelines here are vague but they really aren’t. Read and you will usually discover an official answer to your question. Visit the Epinions Writing Opinions area for more detail at: http://epinions.com/help/faq/?show=faq_writing#001 Reading this area will help you learn several helpful things to do while writing and article. One point I should point out to you is that while Epinions has a minimum of 100 words to publish and Epinion you will generally find that longer reviews receive higher ratings. Why is that? Detail. If you can write an article in 100 words or less and include good detail on purchasing information or advice that is wonderful. I have rated many short reviews V/H. How much detail after all can you really give on a garden hoe or teething ring? Not much. Don’t forget to detail how well that item may be constructed or suggested care or hints for use though. The more detail the more helpful your review will become. Know What The Topic Really Is Once problem I find over and over again on Epinions is the author does not really know what the topic in question is. Writing a off topic review is harmful to the overall well fair of Epinions.com and won’t help your ratings either. How do you know what the correct topic is? That is really very easy! Look above my review to the top of this page. Do you see where it the links show as... Home ~~ General Comments about Epinions.com~~Momsworkinlate’s opinion? With your mouse right click where it says “General Comments about Epinions.com” (choose open in new window or you’ll loose me). You will see what Epinions wants you to write about in this category. This is what you should see... Home~~Topics General Comments about Epinions.com A forum for other comments about Epinions.com This category is specifically for articles regarding Epinions.com. This morning when I was rating Epinions I came across an article that stated in it’s first paragraph that the member knew they were writing off topic (but wanted to anyway). The topic written about was shopping on the Internet. I rated the article N/H for being off topic per Epinions guidelines. A short while latter I ran into another article which was written about shopping online, then another. I rated them all N/H for being off topic per Epinions guidelines. What was the topic Epinions had asked for articles to be written about? ~The Advantages and Disadvantages of Buying Online What are the advantages and disadvantages of researching and/or buying diamonds on the Web?~ Oppsie. Several members #1 didn’t realize they were writing off topic because they didn’t bother checking into what Epinions was asking for “or” #2 they knew and chose to right off topic anyway. When you write about a product try to have the product in front of you. Write your articles in a word program not on the Epinions website. Why? For two reasons. The first being more than once I lost and article when the Epinions site went down and I had not yet saved the review on the Epinions website. This just happened to two advisors I know the other day. The second reason is that it is a good think to run a spelling and grammar check prior to posting on Epinions. I write in my Microsoft works program and have also begun to use my thesaurus which can be found in Microsoft works under the tool heading. Most of us make mistakes - no one is perfect. You will find some more strict with writing style and grammar. Myself? I’m “only” a high school grad so I figure if I can write well enough to be rated V/H on this site just about anyone can. You don’t need a college degree to be successful here :smile:. Proof read your article once or twice slowly before you publish it. Something that I learned how to do recently is how to view my article as it would appear on the Epinions site before I hit publish and it goes to the “just in” area. Viewing your article before publishing can be done easily. Once you have copied and pasted your article to the epinions site from your word document click the gray box centered on the bottom under your article. This box will say “preview”. The page will change and you will come to a page that says “Preview your opinion”. This is all well and good but if you use italic or bold in your article you will not see it on that page. On the top of the page you will see “YOURNAMEHERE’s Account” (in my case Momsworkinlate’s account”). Click that. Once you are on your account page you will find directly under your photo and member ID your “Unpublished content” click here and you can make any final corrections prior to selecting the “Publish” Button. Finally You Have Published Your Epinion! Yay! You did it. When you click on your article you notice some ratings. Often but not always your first reviews will be rated H or lower. This is common as you are feeling your way around and learning the site. Do not be discouraged. Look for comments on your article. COMMENTS? Yes. Often members leave comments for other members and “newsiest” don’t even know they are there. Once your article is published scroll down to the very bottom of your page. Here you will find COMMENTS. This area used to be higher up on the page and easy to find. For some reason during upgrades this moved down and I am sure over time we’ve lost some promising members because of this. Read you comments. Many of us put a lot of time into doing this - we are really trying to help you and the overall welfare of the Epinions website. I usually leave my email address when I leave comments because I know this site can be confusing. If you’d like to email someone to ask for more help or to see if they’ll read/rate again after you’ve updated an article you can do this easily. Just click on their member id and it will bring you to their member page. Most members have an email address listed. Never be afraid to ask for help Rating Visit Epinions web page help/faq~ Rating Opinions @ http://epinions.com/help/faq/show_~faq_rating Here you will find the guidelines Epinions has asked us to use. Ratings are very important, as this is one way content is shown to shoppers looking for product information and advice. N/H ratings are not popular ratings to give but they are necessary to protect the longevity of the website. Epinions.com is a wonderful community to participate in however, Epinions.com is also a business. Posting off topic reviews i.e. Coffee Pot A under the Coffee Pot C heading because you cannot find your Coffee Pot A listed is not helping Epinons, members or yourself. While Epinions is intended to be a consumer friendly website it will not be able to thrive if members write off topic and rate off topic reviews anything but N/H. That is what the rating is for. Consider this scenario... You are in the market for a new scanner. Your brother has Scanner A, Mom ones Scanner B and your friend had Scanner C. You do some Internet searches and run across Epinions.com. Rather impressive free consumer advice is the first thought you have. You click on Scanner A and find three articles on this scanner. Two are V/H and one H. Not yet being member you should not be able to see s/h n/h overall rated reviews. You’re impressed you’ve learned several things you’re brother who owns Scanner A never told you. You click on Scanner B. Ten articles are listed. Five are V/H and five are H. The first review you read is really great - wow you want to buy this scanner! As you get further down in the article you discover that this review is not on Scanner B - it is on Scanner Z. Scanner Z is something you hadn’t even considered purchasing - it’s way out of your price range. You aren’t very happy that you’ve read this review. Epinions.com isn’t looking so much like the Rather impressive free consumer advice is it? Reading through the next six reviews you discover three more reviews of products that you aren’t interested in purchasing. Your opinion of this website dwindles rapidly. You click on Scanner C. Four articles. The first one is rated V/H but you find it grossly lacking in detail. Who cares if this person liked it? You wanted more detail before you purchased this. The second and third reviews are on topic but no better than the first you have read for Scanner C. The fourth review? Geez, its on Scanner Z. “What a crappy website. What a waste of time....” ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Consider that scenario before you write your epinion and while rating articles. You will earn respect from other members by the detail you try to share and the correct ratings you give out. Never underestimate the overall impact of your writing or ratings. Epinions.com is overall a really great place to participate. Epinions.com is overall a good consumer-shopping site. Epinons.com is attempting to make this the best site on the web. As member of Epinions.com, what are you doing to ensure its success and survival?  |
| Read all comments (37)|Write your own comment |
- Top 1000