The 500 Club
Oct 31 '01
The Bottom Line 680 days after first joining Epinions, I'm still here, so they must be doing something right.
In late December, 1999, I heard about this relatively new web service called Epinions.com.
I was told that it paid money to people for writing reviews of consumer products. It sounded easy enough, so I went ahead and signed up.
Today, approximately 22 months later, I’m still writing for this service. And it is today, October 31, 2001, that I have reached my 500th Epinion review. I decided to dedicate Epinion #500 to providing information on some of the things I have learned about the site in my 22 months. I will share a little personal trivia, common questions/answers, and my own opinions regarding the future of this service.
What Should I Write About Today?:
One thing that other members often ask me about is the exact number of Epinions that I have written, across the various categories. In the past, I would reply back to them with my best estimate. But today, I decided that I would satisfy everyone’s curiousity (and my own, too), by tallying up all of my reviews. Including today’s review, which falls in the General/Misc. category, I have compiled this list showing the number of reviews that I have written, ranked in order of frequency among the categories:
1. Gourmet...................................180
2. Books.........................................92
3. Web Services/On- Line Stores....57
4. Restaurants.................................47
5. Hotels & Travel...........................28
6. Personal Finance.......................25
7. Education....................................21
8. Parks..........................................13
9. General/Miscellaneous...............10
10.Magazines...................................7
11.Games.........................................6
12.Pets.............................................4
13.Automotive..................................3
14.Sports......................................... 2
15.Kids & Family..............................2
16.Computers/Hardware...................1
17.Wellness & Beauty.......................1
18.Local Services.............................1
Total.............................................500
I’ve written across a fairly diverse range of categories, but there are still many that I have yet to touch. For example, I still have not yet written a movie or CD review, even though I own about 200 music CD’s and 150 movies on video!
I joined Epinions.com on December 21, 1999. As of today, October 31, 2001, I have been an active member for 680 days. With 500 total reviews, that gives me an average of 1 review submitted every 1.36 days, or roughly 22 or 23 reviews written each month.
Now that you know some useless trivia about my reviews, let me share with you some of the common questions that I have received, via e-mail, from other members during my tenure with the site, along with my usual replies:
What Reviews Have Earned You the Most and Least Income Share?:
There’s no doubt that certain categories pay much more Income Share than others. Based on my experience, the categories that have earned me the most consistently high IS are Automotive (even though I have written only 3 reviews), Computers (I’ve only submitted 1, need to write more), Web Services, Hotels & Travel, and Personal Finance.
Some of the other categories vary widely in IS. In Gourmet, I have written some beer reviews that have earned as little as 20 cents in IS, while others have earned over $20.00. Part of the reason, it appears, is the popularity of the brand of beer. A review written on a product from an unknown microbrewery in North Dakota has less potential to earn IS than a well- known product like Heineken.
Book reviews show the same disparity in IS. Some of my reviews have earned more than $20.00, while others have been lucky to earn a few pennies. Again, the popularity of the book is the key.
The category that earns the least Income Share is restaurants. Even the reviews that generated a large number of outside hits have earned practically nothing. One of my restaurant reviews, for example, has more than 2,000 outside hits, yet it has received only 2 cents in IS! So, there isn’t much financial incentive to write restaurant reviews. It’s also a category that an individual can quickly exhaust, because unless you are willing to travel, you will find that the more restaurants you rate, the fewer and fewer restaurants there will be for writing future reviews.
Why are so many Beers/Wines (and other products) missing from the Epinion product lists? Will they ever be added?:
This is a good question and, based on past experience, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Epinion’s management seems to be content, in certain categories, with keeping the product content the way it is. Some categories (like books, computers, music, automotive, and a few others) seem to get frequent updates with new products and are full of items that have yet to see their first review submission. But in others, like Gourmet, what you see is what you get. If you can’t find the beer or wine in the product list, you will have to enter your review in the miscellaneous "favorite hard to find beer/wine" category.
How do you find the time to write?:
Lucky for me, I work for an employer that’s very liberal when it comes to internet usage. Most of my reviews are composed and posted during my breaks at work, so I don’t have to give up my free time at home. I just write my reviews while I work, whenever I can squeeze them in.
Who are the best Epinions writers?:
I hate getting questions like this one, because they are impossible to answer. This site is loaded with many great writers, each with his/her own unique style, personality, and area of expertise. There is no way that I could proclaim any one individual as the best writer. Let’s just say that there are probably 500 to 1,000 Epinions members who write very well, and they all deserve to be commended for their contributions. It would be ridiculous to try to say that any one of them is “better” than the rest. They all write well, in their respective areas of expertise.
How much money have you made so far?:
I get this question quite a bit, mainly from newer members who want to know if their invested time with Epinions will payoff one day, if they continue to churn out new reviews. I won’t divulge the exact amount of money that I have made, but I will tell everyone that it’s somewhere between $1,500 and $2,500.
Will you quit the site because of the new changes?:
Epinions has evolved over the past two years from its high, initial payout of 10 to 30 cents per member hit; down to 1 to 3 cents per hit; and soon down to nothing, except for Income Share. I don’t necessarily agree with all the changes, but I knew they were coming. There was no way that the site could survive financially if it continued to pay up to 30 cents per member hit.
For myself, I will continue to write. Even without the pennies per hit, I still make about $55 to $75 per month, with IS (I earned $30 to $40 per month, from the Eroyalty pennies). That’s enough, I think, to keep me satisfied. But money is really only a small part of the picture. I will continue to write, mainly because I like writing and I like the members. If money were my sole motivating factor, I would have left a long time ago, back when they reduced the 30-20-10 cent payout structure down to 3-2-1 cents per hit.
Do you think Epinions will survive?:
This is a question that has been entering all of our minds, since the very beginning. With all of the “dot com” failures in general, reductions in Epinions’ payout, layoffs at Epinions, and other factors, it wouldn’t be surprising if the site does, indeed, find its final resting place in the internet graveyard of defunct businesses. However, I still remain optimistic. Epinions has already survived longer than other dot com’s, and it continues to keep going day in and day out, in spite of the growing river of red ink. Also, with the extensive data that the site has (thanks to all of the member’s reviews), it would be foolish to just throw it all away. That’s why I think that Epinions will sell the business (if it finds itself in danger of bankruptcy), rather than just shut down. There’s too much valuable information contained in the site, to let it go to waste.
Final Thoughts:
Epinions has treated me fairly well during my 22 months with the firm. Things haven’t been perfect, no, but I didn’t expect them to be. In fact, when I first joined the site, I figured it was just another lame, Silicon Valley dot- com venture; an entrepreneurial attempt to make money that would probably flop a few months after I joined. If I could make $50 or so, that would be good enough for me. Surprisingly, the site lasted longer that I first thought and I have made much more cash than I would have ever predicted.
I was a little unsettled last week (as were many other members!) when Epinions decided to remove the edit/delete options when submitting reviews. The management realized the err of its ways, and they returned both of these functions in a very short time. I’m glad they did, because I was hesitant to enter new reviews, knowing that once I clicked the “publish” icon, it would be my final click for that particular review.
Reaching the 500 plateau has taken time and effort, but I’m still nowhere near the top, in terms of the number of reviews submitted. As of right now, Epinions most prolific writer, Sweetcece, is nearing the 1,000 review level!
Beginning tomorrow, November 1, 2001, Epinions will no longer compensate its writers for each member hit. Gone are the days of mounting piles of pennies from the Epinion coffers. We will have to survive on nothing but Income Share now, or leave the site and look for other opportunities elsewhere.
It’s kind of ironic that my 500th review would come on the final day to make Eroyalties. It’s also ironic that I chose to submit an entry in the General Comments section, which doesn’t pay Eroyalties, anyway. But the money is really only secondary to me. The outlet for writing; the friends; the community; and the opportunity to gain knowledge and discover new products will keep me writing and publishing my Epinions for a long as the opportunity exists!
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