Yakko’s Guide for New Members.
Oct 12 '05 (Updated Dec 26 '05)
The Bottom Line Relax, have fun, and don’t take it too seriously.
Authors note: As you read this I do not want you to feel you have to agree with everything I say. What I want you to do is look at this with an open, yet critical, mind. Not everyone will agree with the things I say in here, and that’s ok. My primary goals with this guide are to answer common questions I feel a new user has as well as get new users to start thinking about how you should act, and react on epinions.com If reading this gives you something to think about then I have done my job.
And I apologize ahead of time for being so long winded.
Terms you should know
Advisor- A member that is found to be in good standing and rates consistently in a particular category. At least that is the idea.
CL- Category lead. There is at least one lead for each category except gifts and member center. If you have any questions, these are the people you probably want to e-mail first unless there is an advisor/TR you have gotten to know. They can add products to their category and if they can’t do something they can find out who can.
IS- Income share. This is how much you get every month based on a secret formula.
RR- Revenge rater. Someone that gives you an unjustified lower rating on your review because you gave them a low rating on their review.
TOS- Terms of service.
TR’s- Top reviewers.
TS- Trust slut.
WOT- Web of Trust.
“Write-off” - A task is presented by one member and fellow members are asked to participate by completing the task (asking questions, review a product, paying tribute to a member, etc.)
C&I- Computers and internet, a category.
C&M- Cars and motor sports, a category.
H&G- Home and Garden, a category.
H&T- Hotels and Travel, a category.
H&W-Health and Wellness, a category.
K&F- Kids and Family, a category.
R&G- Restaurants and Gourmet, a category.
MH- Most helpful, a rating that can only be given by an advisor.
VH- Very helpful, a rating.
H- Helpful, a rating.
SH- Somewhat helpful, a rating.
NH- Not helpful, a rating.
OT- Off topic, a rating.
There are a lot more terms but these are the ones you will encounter most often.
What is an advisor? What is a Top Reviewer? What is a Lead?
Advisors are selected because they rate a lot of reviews in a particular category and they are supposedly in good standing with the community. Not only do their rating have greater weight, but they also increase the weight of those on their WOT. It has nothing to do with the quality of their reviews.
Top reviewers- These are members the consistently write VH reviews in a particular category. It has nothing to do with how they rate or how consistently they rate.
Leads- They are specially chosen by the epinions staff to add on new products, suggest TR’s and advisors (with the help of some stats), and perform the roles of both TR’s and advisors. They are there to act as a liaison between the Epinions staff and the community.
If no product exists, is it ok to post it anywhere I want?
It depends. If the listing is a generic listing for Hoover vacuums and you have a Hoover vacuum, then that is ok. If the listing is a Hoover pl-9552 and you have the hf-9551 then the answer is no. It will be rated OT no matter how helpful it is. You will need to have a request made to have it added. Here is a page that can help (http://home.earthlink.net/~hghotlist/epsap.html)
One exception to this would be what I call a superficial model number. This has happened at some stores where they want their own model number and their own extras but it is the same product. Costco is known for doing this with their products by adding extras and then renaming the product id number or calling it by a different name.
Another example I have seen is if the products are exactly the same except for one superficial difference. For example, there is a Phillips DVR player that is exactly the same except one has a 40GB hard drive and the other has an 80GB hard drive. I personally would have no problems with the review placement as long as it is clearly stated.
Lorace also pointed out to me that sometimes if it is in a series than it is ok. Manufacturers sometimes do minor tweaks to their products every year but as long as it is essentially the same product then most of us will be ok with that. Just clarify it to the reader.
How do I get a new product added?
Go here (http://home.earthlink.net/~hghotlist/epsap.html)
You usually contact a lead by form or e-mail, and they can add it in. If they have a form then just fill it in completely. The more information you provide the happier they will be. And a happy lead is a good lead. If they accept e-mail submissions then, at the bare minimum, provide them with this information.
Epinions username:
Product name:
Manufacturer:
Model number:
Manufacturer URL:
Image URL:
Price:
Other useful information:
Is grammar and spelling important? How about paragraphs?
Yes. The most important thing you can do is proof read. I usually proof read 2-3 times before I post it, and I still have minor errors here and there (due to html and my eyes missing something.) The second most important thing you can do is make sure it is easy to read on a computer screen. Don’t bunch a lot of paragraphs together and please use headings. Also, do not write in CAPS.
I will eventually dedicate a guide to this at a later date.
How to update.
If someone asks you to update your review I highly suggest you do the best you can to update. Sometimes if you just attempt to update then many times they will increase your rating just for the effort involved.
The update button is on your review. To find it go to your review, look for a box on the right side that says “Thank You”. Underneath “Thank You” it says “Your review is helping others make informed decisions.” Immediately under that it has two links; “update” and “delete”. Hit the update button and you will look at some familiar screens that allow you to edit your review text and settings.
Use HTML codes
Epinions has a guide on the site that will help you with this like the link below.
http://www.epinions.com/help/faq/show_~faq_writing#011
I highly recommend you learn how to bold, italicize, and use HTML mark-up code. I use the bold for my headings and italicize for quotes, subheading, or author’s notes. I use the HTML mark-up code to put links to other reviews inside my review or links on the bottom of the page to allow for easier navigation. Do not post them just to increase your hits from members, they usually don’t click on them.
Also for links, try to make the links fit the same manufacturer or the same type of product. This way you will get a lot more outside hits then you would otherwise. If you just put random links to unrelated products then you won’t see much of an increase in your hits. At least from my experience that is what I have seen.
My HTML link code does not work!
Two reasons for this. One is that you are using a quotation mark that epinions does not recognize. The quotation mark on word does not work for me, I usually copy and paste my quotation mark. bob_tomato pointed out to me that you can turn off the smart quotes feature in word. This will also solve the problem. This can be found in the tools tab under autocorrect.
The other reason it may not work is the link is outside of epinions.com. Epinions only allows you to link to content on epinions.com, not to an outside site.
Should I put links to my other reviews.
It depends. I did post unrelated reviews when I first became a member. I noticed the member clicked on those links from time to time to get to know me as a new member. Once I became semi-established, and was no longer new, I saw the members did not click on these links. About 1 in 200 I am guessing. The only reason I put links in my reviews now is for visitors to the site so they can find related reviews easily. Visitors will rarely click on an unrelated link. Usually I try to coordinate my reviews so that I can post several related reviews at around the same time (like with my tent stake reviews.) I now make sure my links are related somehow to the review. I have noticed more hits when I relate the reviews on the bottom of my page.
Express review or a regular review.
Express reviews are great for getting a pulse on what people think. The problem is you do not get paid for them and you certainly won’t build up your web of trust with just express reviews.
If all you want to do is express dissatisfaction about a product but you do not want to get into the details of how the product works then I suggest doing an express review. If all you do is complain about a product with no real details then you will generally get a lot of SH/OT ratings in your regular reviews. So try to stick to express reviews if you have a complaint and do not wish to get into a lot of detail.
I wrote an express review and I can’t change it to a regular review.
I’ve seen this too. The only solution I know of is for you to delete your express review and rewrite it using more than 200 words. I do not believe you can change an express review to a regular review (at least you couldn’t at one time.)
All I wanted to write was a brief review on a product but I did not want all of the SH ratings that came with it.
I advise that you delete the review and write a review with less than 200 words in it. Once again, I do not believe you can change a regular review to an express review.
How do I know when new reviews are posted?
You can go to this URL to see the new reviews that have just been submitted.
http://www.epinions.com/show_~recent_content
Are there any research tools that will give me an idea of how to increase income or hit count?
On the member page (http://www.epinions.com/member/) there are a number of tools available at the left side of your screen. This includes frequently asked questions, most popular reviews, etc.
I feel that these links are the most important for IS/hit count research.
Most popular reviews- Ranks reviews by number of hits. You can also look at individual categories and years.
Top Earning reviews- These are the reviews that made the most money in a given category for the previous month.
Most popular authors- shows you many hits members have according to year or category, or both.
These will give you an idea of what gets lots of hits in a given year and what items are making the most money. As a general rule, if you get more hits then you will get more IS. Just keep in mind this is not always true depending on the product or if you are writing a guide.
How do I get those cool stats on my page?
I looked all over my setting for this option so I could turn it on as soon as I saw it on other people’s profile pages. Well I soon discovered that it turns on automatically. I believe it turns on when you get either top 1000 author’s in a category or when your review breaks the 1000 most popular review. From my own experience and looking at other member’s pages, it appears to be that simple.
For the record, some people call this Statistical Graffiti and there is some question as to the accuracy of the numbers, especially with the catalog being worked on.
How do I make money?
I’ll be writing a guide on this but here is some bullet points.
-Write a review for a product that has no other reviews.
-Review name brands.
-Write reviews that are in the news or heavily advertised.
-Get a TR hat.
-Electronics, H&G, and Computer Hardware seem to do the best in IS.
-Expensive items also do very well.
-Brands that do not have many products on epinions also do well.
Set up a folder
I highly recommend setting up a folder in your documents folder for your template, your reviews that are in draft form, and all the epinions data that you want to record.
You should also record some of the data that is on your profile page. Most importantly is your web of trust. Save the WOT page on your computer and that way if someone drops off your WOT you know who it is. There are some users that will trust you with the hope that you trust them back. If you do not trust them back then they will drop you within a week or so. If you do trust them back then they will keep you on their WOT for a few months then drop you when you least suspect it. This has never happened to me but I have heard stories of some users trying this tactic just to increase their WOT.
What is the purpose of the WOT (Web of Trust)?
The main purpose is to create a list of reviewers you enjoy reading. When you put someone on your WOT then their reviews will appear first on the list of reviews for a product they have reviewed, when you are logged on of course. So make sure you add people on your WOT that you enjoy reading.
Supposedly having a higher number on your WOT helps increase your IS. I have not seen this effect personally nor have others I have talked with.
What to know about searching for content on epinions.com
The search engine is currently being reworked so hopefully I will be able to delete this section some day.
As it stands, the search engine requires you to type in the product you are looking for exactly. If you just type in part of the model number then you (in my experience) will not pull up the product you are searching for. So make sure your word(s) are completely accurate or try different versions to see if you get different results. The Epinions search engine is not as sophisticated as Google or the other search engines out there. In fact, there have been times I used Google to find products on Epinions instead of using the Epinions website.
My suggestion on how to act.
How do you act at work? How do you act as a guest in another person’s home? Usually you act very reserved and respectful. You don’t act like a brat or try to anger everyone. Well that is what I would recommend to any new epinionator. Until you figure out how the community operates and the culture of the community, then it is probably safest to think before you act. And don’t do anything too outlandish at first. The main reason is there is a block feature that actually hurts or a major part of the community may ignore you. And if more than one advisor blocks you, then you are pretty much done for and your reviews cannot be seen by nonmembers (at least from my understanding of the system.) And there are a lot of individuals that abuse this power and end up community blocking people that probably shouldn’t be community (but that is very rare.)
But if your only goal is to gain attention then all bets are off. You can pretty much be as outlandish and eccentric as you like as long as you do not violate the TOS. Depending on how well you present yourself, acting outlandish can help your WOT and I can name one person in particular that this type of online personality has worked very well for. But there are several other members that ended up sounding rude, crude, or vulgar and ended up being community blocked (which was needed in most cases.) At the very least the quality of your WOT will suffer if you do not know how to balance yourself.
How am I supposed to handle people’s rude comments on epinions?
Usually they are not meant to be rude they just may appear that way because we cannot show inflection in writing. So try not to take it personally. Even if someone is rude there are ways to handle it. First thing I recommend is just ignore the individual. If you respond then they respond back and it starts to create a long dialogue that you probably cannot win. It also makes you look bad in most circumstances, particular to the people that do not know you.
There are times though that a comment is necessary, just use common sense. If the credibility of your review is questioned then a comment is justified. Just avoid getting into a shouting match. I have seen individuals get into a shouting match in the comments section and they both end up looking stupid. I would just state that facts, your position and move on. Most of the time these individuals are not worth the time.
I got unfairly rated
This is a problem that almost all new users get, including myself. For me one unfair rating doesn’t matter because of the number of people that follow my reviews compensate for one negative rating. But for someone that is new and has not developed a readership, one negative rating out of 10 is very damaging. I do not have a great answer, just a couple of suggestion.
-e-mail the user and politely ask them for advice on how to improve your review.
-If your review is truly well written, rate a lot of other people’s reviews, that way some of them will return the favor and you will increase the number of people that rated your review (just make sure your review is actually well written otherwise they WILL rate your review down.) This will counter the bad rating.
-Ignore it and move on. More people will rate your review over time and it should even itself out. More than likely the person that down rated your review is already looked down by the community so their rating weight is very low (at least from my experience.)
Should I revenge rate even if it is right
No. Unless you liked to be viewed as someone that can’t play nice. I always recommend taking the high road and ignore the user. I wouldn’t even put them on my block list, that is reserved for true abusers in my book.
Rewrite your reviews when appropriate.
If someone stops by and offers a suggestion on how to improve a review then you should do it. If not for yourself, then out of courtesy to the person trying to offer the advice. And do not do updates in your comments section, do them in the body of the review. The comments, pros, cons, bottom line; should all be duplicated in the body of your review, unless you are doing an express review.
The reason I encourage a new user to be courteous is you earn more friends and gain more respect that way. If you walk into epinions and start being rude, being offensive, and stating everything that is wrong with epinions, then you will be looked down on and ignored by the community. It is also possible to be deleted by Epinions itself if you leave a lot of rude comments that violate the TOS (like harassment.) And least of all you certainly will have no chance of earning a hat.
There are a lot of things wrong with epinions, we all know that. Epinions is slowly changing to be a better website and serve the community better. It will change and the best way you can help that change is by being an active community member and offer suggestions after you get to know the system. You will not help the community by ranting and raving.
What is plagiarism?
The simple definition for plagiarism is taking someone else’s intellectual property and pretending that it is your own. Epinions is very active in making sure this does not occur and there are several members that take pride in catching people that plagiarize. If you do it often enough you will get caught and probably get your account deleted. At the very least you will get a community ban.
If you do copy someone else’s work then give them credit. For example, if I get my measurements from the manufacturer then I state that immediately below the measurements.
I have been community blocked! What does that mean? What should I do?
Community blocked means that some members of the community have decided that your reviews are not acceptable for some reason. It could be because some of your comments/reviews are inflammatory, you plagiarized, or you ticked off one or two advisors/members. At least these are the three primary reasons I have seen for someone being community blocked.
It means that anyone that is not a member cannot see your reviews or comments. In addition, you will not earn any IS on your reviews. It is kind of like participating in a NASCAR race without a car. Sure, you can race, but you aren’t going anywhere fast.
If this happens then your options are very limited. You can delete your account and start over, learning from your mistakes. You can rewrite your old reviews and continue to write outstanding reviews until you build up your WOT enough to compensate for the individuals that are blocking you. Or you can give up and leave the community.
How to delete your account.
Go here
http://www.epinions.com/help/faq/show_~faq_changing#006
Just be warned, you will lose everything.
Here is a page on epinions that answers commonly asked questions.
http://www.epinions.com/help/faq
An example of why I feel a more conservative, and servant like, attitude is best on epinions.
First, I did ask for permission to post these quotes. He gave me permission and actually thought it was a good idea.
After I completed my “review a day for a month campaign” I started to go through the outdoor reviews to see if I missed any of them. Since I was concentrating on posting reviews, several other things went by the way side including rating. I just did not have time.
I came across a fishing review by Christian 921 and I noticed I rated it a helpful. It was clearly not a helpful and I wrote this e-mail to him apologizing for the mistake. This is what I said.
I was reviewing reviews and I noticed you got a helpful rating from me. I had to laugh. Apparently epinions got their wires crossed or I accidentally hit helpful. So sorry about any confusion.
He replied to me with this statement. Needless to say I was impressed.
You know what, that day I wrote 3 reviews. The first two I really worked at but by the time I started working on the third my heart wasn't in it. I should have stopped and waited till I was in the mood to write again but I pushed it. I really thought the review was weak. You came along and rated it helpful, which is no big deal but it validated it in my mind that it needed some work to make it stronger. I took your rating as a statement, not in a negative way, that you expected something more from me and you subtly let me know that. It ended up being a mistake so I find the whole thing sort of funny. So, thank you for making a mistake!
Just so you know, if you ever rate something of mine less than VH I won't freak. You're on my WOT for a reason and I expect you to shoot me straight.
I am posting this as an example of how I feel everyone should react on epinions. It is very much like the way you would act in the real world. I have the utmost respect for him because he realized he made a minor mistake and corrected it. He took pride in his review and made it better after I initially rated it.
If you are new then you may not realize that some people react in a defensive manner on Epinions if you even rate their review a helpful. Almost as if they have been attacked. Most of the time it is just constructive criticism and not meant to be mean. But because reputation is a big part of Epinions, some people defend it with a vengeance.
In my opinion, you gain more by doing what you can to clarify/improve your review then you do by arguing with people. Yes, you may feel like you gave in, but it will benefit you in the long run.
What are my rewards?
These are the 4 main reasons I continue to write on Epinions.
Money- This is the least important of the 3 rewards. The amount of time I spend writing reviews and evaluating products is not worth the compensation Epinions.com gives me. I can get more money from doing extra duties at my work. But it is still nice because it allows me to take my wife out to dinner every other weekend without any guilt.
The community- I have met some pretty interesting people here. I enjoy reading other people’s articles and seeing what they have to deal with in their daily lives. I also have some good acquaintances/friends in this community, which is nice. Not the most important reward but still a nice benefit.
The second biggest reward is…having fun- I actually enjoy writing, for the first time in my life. I now have a platform to share my thoughts and ideas.
Getting e-mails and helping others- This is the most important reward for me. I have received several e-mails from people stating their appreciation for my vacuum, juicer, and tent reviews (as well as other individual reviews from time to time.) This has got to be the most rewarding for me because my hard work and perfectionist attitude is helping others. I feel good knowing others appreciate my articles. If I am able to educate just a few people, then I will have considered my time spent here a success. And I believe I am doing that.
The most important piece of advice I have: Have Fun.
I write on epinions because I enjoy it. When I stop enjoying it I am going to find something else to do. If you do not enjoy writing on Epinions then you shouldn’t be doing it. There are a lot more things to do online and offline that are very enjoyable. Go do those things that make you happy. Life is way too short to do things that are not enjoyable. If you really do enjoy writing on epinions then please do stay and don’t let any bad apples spoil it for you.
Final note: The purpose of this guide.
This advice is meant to give guidance to new users to the site. A lot of what I wrote here is what I wish I had known before I joined the site. I do not want you to look at what I wrote and say “I’m going to follow everything he said to the letter”. That is not the purpose of this article. The purpose is to give you my perspective, which is admittedly conservative, and let you come to your own conclusion. If you have a nature that is similar to mine than this, I hope, is some good advice. If you are very out going, do not care about IS, do not care about stepping on people’s toes, and just want to get into this for the social aspect of it, then my advice is not as relevant.
The wonderful thing about epinions is we all have different values, opinions, experiences, and beliefs; and this is ok. In fact, that is what I love about this site.
Also, if you are a new member and I missed something, then please e-mail me and I’ll add it in if I think it is appropriate (or I’ll place it in another guide.)
Other guides I may get to some day.
Coming later this year, or the next if I get too busy.
My guide to writing a review.
My guide to making money.
My guide to building a web of trust.
You can also read about my 1st year here to get an idea of my highlights and negative experiences.
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