One Reviewer's Formula for VH Computer Reviews that might just Click.
Aug 01 '03 (Updated Jul 15 '07)
The Bottom Line A few things I should have known before I wrote my first epinion.
If you click on the About Epinions link at the bottom of every Epinions web page, you’ll learn the following about Epinions.
About Epinions
What we do:
Epinions helps people make informed buying decisions. It is the Web's premier consumer reviews platform and the most reliable source for valuable consumer insight, unbiased advice, in-depth product evaluations and personalized recommendations.
Epinions hopes to help readers make buying decisions by, among other things, offering...
Unbiased Advice Epinions does not decide what content to post and what not to post. Epinions is a platform for people to share their experiences - both good and bad. With millions of consumer reviews, ratings and comments, Epinions' robust content engine presents you with high quality content based on how helpful other users have found it.
Further down the About Epinions page you’ll find that Epinions has encouraged us to provide this unbiased advice with …...
The Right Incentives As with any healthy marketplace, Epinions is demand-driven. This means that through monetary and non-monetary incentives, we encourage our users to create the content that people really need.
So....
What does this mean to us?
1. Epinions is a site that hopes to attract readers by providing information to help make buying decisions.
2. Epinions tries to present reviews to users of the site in order of helpfulness. The more helpful your review is, the more likely it is to be the first one seen by shoppers.
3. Epinions members determine how “helpful” each review is by rating it Very Helpful, Helpful, Somewhat Helpful, Not Helpful, or Off Topic. Reviews rated Not Helpful or Off Topic are not displayed to shoppers.
4. Reviews most often read are usually the ones with the most Very Helpful ratings, since these are the ones presented first to users.
5. Epinions is not the best site for writers to vent frustrations at a particular manufacturer or service provider or to post requests for technical support. If thats all you want to do, you'll likely end up with Somewhat Helpful ratings, and few people reading your reviews. (I have seen effective, Very Helpful reviews that do both, but the reviewer was careful to also provide plenty of other information to help their readers.)
6. The number of times your review is read roughly correlates with how well Epinions rewards your review with income share. The actual formula is unknown, though there are certainly other factors which are used to calculate income share. Even very negative reviews that help readers know what NOT to buy earn income share, although the review doesn't lead to a purchase.
If you want to write a review that will be seen by many visitors to the site, have a record of how many users actually read your review, and be eligible for income share, you’ll want to write a review that is rated Helpful or Very Helpful by other Epinions members. (Reviews rated Show or Somewhat Helpful are available to shoppers also, but do not earn income share.) A few ideas to enhance a review's chances to be read and earn income share are are summarized below.
If you only want to make one or two key points about an item, and want to be sure it is seen by site users, but aren’t concerned about income share or tracking how often your review is read, consider keeping your review under 200 words. Reviews under 200 words are "Express" reviews, and are either rated Show or Don't Show. Pretty much any "on topic" review under 200 words that includes content that primarily helps readers make a buying decision and is reasonably clear will be rated Show, even if its only a couple sentences long. However, Epinions does not keep track of how often these reviews are read, since visitors can see several express reviews on one page, and its not possible to tell which ones were read.
Like many Epinions members, I’m struggling to learn how to best provide the “the content that people really need”. Still, I kind of like the idea of maximizing my opportunities for “monetary and non-monetary incentives” so I’ve developed a few ideas that new members might want to consider as they develop their own formula. These include...
Picking the Right Review Topic
- Should be an item or piece of software that you use and are very familiar with. Unlike reviews in many professional magazines or web sites, Epinions is about the experiences of “real world” users. If you’ve just purchased an item and haven’t put it through its paces, you’re not ready review that item. Ending your review with a statement like, “I’ll report back in a few days on feature X and Y after I’ve tested them doesn’t work too well at Epinions. Your review will get 90% of its ratings in the first week. These ratings determine how often your review will be seen by the outside public. If you don’t make a great impression on Epinions members in those first few days, you’ve lost a lot of potential readers long term. Don’t wait too long to write your review, though, or the item you’re reviewing will be replaced by the next generation/version, and there will no longer be anyone searching out your review, which is the next point.
- Review an item still being marketed. Nothing wrong with writing a review on Quicken 2001 or Windows 98, but there won’t be many people searching out your review.
- At least initially, try to write reviews about an items that you feel strongly about. I find some of the most informative reviews are written by someone who really likes the item they are reviewing. Reviews that are bluntly honest about how poorly an item performs are also very important, and often are fun to read. Frequently though, reviewers who really dislike an item focus on one or two negative aspects of an item, leaving reviewers without the complete picture.
- Should be an item people will be looking for reviews on. Is the item you’re reviewing one that you would search out reviews on before buying? Another way to get a feel for what types of reviews people are looking for is to look over the lists of Epinions'
Most Popular Computer Hardware Reviews and Most Popular Software Reviews. (I'll admit though, that I've written a few reviews on obscure items that I liked a lot, knowing that they might rarely be read.)
- Should be an item not often reviewed. If you’re providing another review of Windows XP you’re really going to have to do something special to get your review noticed. If an item I’m considering reviewing already has more than 3-5 VH reviews, I’ll likely try to find something else to review. Since it takes me 5-20 hours to write a review, I'd like it to be one that doesn't get lost among other reviews. Even if your review is the only review in a category, its still important to write a strong review, if it ends up being rated SH, it will only be seen by a few epinions members and will be "hidden" from non members and search engines. (I also suspect income share is higher for a VH review than a H review, but I don't have any data to support that supposition)
Providing the right Content
- Remember who the review is for, your readers, and not you! If you’re writing a review to vent your frustrations at a particular manufacturer, you’ll likely leave out a lot of information important to readers trying to make a buying decision. I suspect that even though epinions readers range from computer neophytes to hard core enthusiasts, most have some experience and use computers to make life/work easier and more enjoyable, so I target that audience rather than the novice or serious enthusiast.
- Research your item. Determine what features and topics your users will be interested in. The features that led you to buy the item should definitely start this list. Also look at what features the manufacturer highlights on his website and what features other reviewers are focusing on to see if you're missing any important points. Determine what features are other users are bragging or complaining about in message forums. Consider testing features that you might not normally use, if they are likely to be important to a significant portion of your audience. Where possible, try to cover all of the key features of a item. If you’re reviewing HP’s latest multifunction printer, be prepared to summarize printing, scanning, copying and faxing performance, even if you have to run a few scans you might not otherwise.
- Decide how you want to describe your item and its features. A specification or feature list won’t help your readers much. But if you can show in your review how those features are used in your applications, your readers will be in great position to make a buying decision. Saying a Toshiba laptop’s battery life is rated at two hours, without describing how its used, doesn’t help your readers too much. Describing how you used the laptop to watch a 2 hour DVD uninterrupted on battery power does.
- Briefly be prepared to cover “the basics”. Whats “in the box”. How was the purchasing experience, especially if you’re buying directly from the manufacturer (Gateway, for example). Installation problems. What hardware and operating system are you using the reviewed item with. Any experiences you’ve had with the manufacturer’s support options. Is the Warranty worthwhile?
Make your review easy to read and information easy to find
Most reviewers will develop their own style which works for them. What works for me is:
- I'll compose my review as follows, offline over 2-3 days in Microsoft Word or Windows NotePad.
- A opening paragraph or two that describes the product being reviewed, key features, who the item is for, why I bought it and for how much, and what’s in the box. Occasionally I’ll include a sentence or two on the manufacturer, especially if its one that is not well known. Later in the review I try to explain if the item meets or exceeds expectations in terms of how it performs.
- A short paragraph or two, usually at the beginning or end of a review, that highlights the rest of “the basics”, installation, mfr support, warranty, etc. I like to make this separate paragraphs so that readers can skip over it, if not interested.
- A discussion section that covers most of an item’s features in terms of how well they work for you. If you’re writing about a Plextor CD Writer, you might have a section on what types (data, audio, video) of CDR’s you burn, how long it takes, how often you have problems, etc. Another section might cover packet writing to CDRW’s, another section on how well the CD Writer reads cd’s and rips audio from cd’s, a section on the included software, what features you like and dislike, etc. Separate each paragraph with a blank line and give each section a heading in bold or italics to make it easy for readers to find the info they’re looking for. Try not use terms, like fast or slow, that will mean different things to different readers. Instead, include specific examples that make you feel an item is fast, ie you can boot a laptop in 15 seconds or edit and encode 1 hour of video in 3 hours, etc.
- Finish a review with a section summarizing why you recommend (or not) the item. Include links to the mfr’s web page or other relevant sites if it will help your reader, ie, if you are reviewing Plextor CD Writer, Epinions probably lists the link to the Plextor website, but you might want to include links to webpage for cd authoring software included.
Finishing Touches
- Pick a title that conveys your opinions and the name of the item being reviewed. I suspect having the name of the item in the title enhances your readers' chances of finding your review by search engine. I also suspect that when a reader is looking over a list of epinions reviews to read, a title like "Koss KSC35 Portable Headphones: A Great Way to Upgrade a Portable MP3 or CD Player" that conveys some of the points made in your epinion is more likely to catch a readers attention than a title like "I love these headphones".
- After you first enter your review into Epinions webform, and then hit the "Preview Review" button, open a second browser window to your member page. Your review will be listed there as unpublished content. Take a few minutes to click on this link and view your review in its final form. Proof your review, and look for ways to make it easier to read by ensuring paragraphs are separated by a blank lines and you've used bold or italics headings for different sections.
- If you welcome comments, mention that fact at the end of your review.
After posting your review....
- Unfortunately, I usually won't catch a few typo's in my review until after I've posted it. So I always proof a review again the day after posting.
- Check the box that tells epinions to alert you when there are comments. If a reader requests information in a comment, answer the question, and seriously consider updating your review to include that information also.
- Be Patient! My reviews fall into 3 categories. A few are "hot", and will pick up 500 hits or more the first month posted. The first review of a new PDA or new computer system from Dell will likely fall into this category.
Many get under 100 hits from outside members in the first month. But usually the number of hits increases, and then peaks in the 3rd month or later after posting. My guess is that it takes this long to make it up the search engine lists.
A few never "take off", and languish, collecting single or double digit visits each month.
- As long as your review is getting visits from outside members, occasionally update your review if you have new information, perhaps you've had to call tech support, for example. Even better, if you've posted a new related review, go back to the old review and add an html link to your new review.
Summary
These are a few tips that I think would have helped me as I wrote my first few epinions. Don't take these suggestions too seriously, though, on Epinions you'll find exceptions to every rule and theory. And if you've got alternate theories or other comments on how to write effective reviews, please comment, I'd love to see them.
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