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How to build your web of trust.Apr 25 '06 (Updated Apr 28 '06) Write an essay on this topic.
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The Bottom Line My guide to building a web of trust, the key is exposure.
Building your web of trust is an important part of epinions. It gives you credibility on the site. It also helps you with review placement and may affect IS. I wrote this to give epinators some ideas on how to increase your WOT, but ultimately I wouldn’t worry too much about it, ultimately it takes time and exposure no matter what you do. Your user name Your user name very important because it is the first thing people see when they want to know the author, so I highly recommend you give it careful thought. My name is a silly cartoon character and part of me regrets picking it. In fact some people look at the name and automatically assume I’m a kid, which is definitely not true but that doesn’t mean my wife and children don’t think I’m a bit childish. I am sure some people have dismissed me just based on my name, until they dig deeper that is. So if you haven’t joined yet I highly recommend you come up with a mature name that is going to fit your Epinions personality. Toolshed1 reviews a lot of tools in H&G and has that personality trait going for him, puckmugger is a hockey junkie, wvbackpacker did a lot of outdoor reviews, etc,etc. Another option is to use your real name, this is a way of earning a little more credibility on the site. This is a more basic and straightforward approach. It doesn’t support your epinions personality in any one direction. This can be good or bad depending on your overall goal. If you do not care about privacy and you just want to write about everything than this may be the way to go. Writing Although your writing does not have to be top notch, it still should be readable. Do not write in caps, proofread your articles at least 2 times (preferably 5+), use your spell checker, etc. Bad writers rarely get trusted. Another suggestion is to write your review a couple days in advance. The next day read your review over with fresh eyes. You may see something you missed just because you have read the review so many times or during the time in between you may have thought of some new things to write about. This happens to me all the time. Humor in writing This can get you a lot of trusters fast. For this to work the best I suggest you make every article you write as humorous as it is informative. Now this is not easy to do and only a few people have this gift, but if you have the gift you can really pull readers in and get a lot of trusters fast. But keep in mind that you do need to have informative articles to read and have some knowledge of the subject area. Rating The key here is exposure. The more reviews you rate the more you will get noticed. This is probably the best way to get trusters. When I have rated a lot I notice a higher increase in users trusting me versus times that I did not rate much. I knew it was because of exposure. But what I want to point out is that I rated articles according to how useful the review was to me. I did not just rate the reviews VH just to get noticed and I didn’t worry about what other people rated the reviews but kept true to my ideals (at least I believe I do.) If you just rate reviews to get noticed then this will not benefit you very much. Ya you might get a couple of trivial raters here and there but the people with large webs will not trust you. Trust is given not only on the articles you write but also how fairly and consistently you write. Get a hat or two This boosts your worth on epinions. People see a hat and automatically assume you did something right. Some people will trust you on that status alone. While their trust is usually not worth much it is still a small piece of the pie, and I like pie. It’s so much better than cake. But be warned, people are more critical of hat’d members than they are of non-hat’d members. It can be like someone drew a bulls-eye on your back and bull’s-eyes arn’t always that much fun. Commenting This is another way of getting attention. If you use this method then you need to follow a couple of rules to get the most out of it. -Make comments unique and directed toward the review. -Actually read the review before commenting. -Be kind. -If your comment is negative then make sure you start and end with positives about the review. -Proof read. -Communicate clearly. Comments, like rating, gain you more visibility and is worthwhile if you are trying to build up your web of trust. But make sure the comment has some sort of substance to it. Write outside your zone. Sometimes you need to get exposure from a different group. If that’s the case the best way is to read and rate in specific sections of epinions. Once again the key here is exposure. Just make sure that the article you write is top notch and detailed. That is usually the best way to get other people’s attention. Participate in Write-offs As Doc first told me, write-offs give others the opportunity to get to know other members better. I highly recommend them because of exposure and they are also fun. Sadly some of these write-offs were abused in the past (before I got here) and write-offs are looked at negatively by some of these members. My opinion is don’t worry about other people and write for the fun of it. For a list of write-offs you can go to my website for a list. http://webpages.charter.net/lakeville1/writeoffs.html Write with passion If you have passion in a subject then let that show. Write about things you love. Write about things you really want others to know about. Your passion for a product or activity will shine through, all you have to do is let it. And if you get frustrated, bored, or tired with writing then do yourself a favor and take a break. Even if it is for a month or so it is better that you take a break then pump out poorly written reviews one after another. Ways that I do not recommend using. It will come back to bite you. Trust merchant-This is when you trust someone solely because they trust you. You blatantly put this on your web page stating if you trust me I will trust you back. I also do not recommend it in practice even if you do not blatantly state it on your home page. People will notice. Mass Trusting This means that you trust everyone you can. If they don’t trust you then you remove them from your WOT list in a few days. I have seen new members do this where they trust 100 or so reviewers. Some members trust them back of course. In a month or two they remove everyone that has not trusted them. Yes it works but I don’t think this is the reputation you want to start your epinions experience with. Tell false stories of personal tragedy This is a strategy some people have employed, and it worked. Now I am not telling you this so that other people will do it but rather as a warning to epiniators to not trust someone based on a personal tragedy but rather on if you enjoy reading their reviews, as well as trust their ratings. There was one female writer that employed this strategy. She wrote very well, had a nice personality, and she wrote nice comments. The picture she posted was of a stunning beauty and she was from France. She was certainly an exotic personality on our site and gained a lot of people on her trust list very quickly. During the Christmas season she claimed that she got into an automobile accident and suffered some brain damage from it. But she continued to write even though it was hard on her. It finally came out that she had lied about the whole thing including who she was, her nationality, probably all of it. She was then ticketed and deleted her account shortly thereafter. There have been and always will be people like this so consider yourself warned. Only give VH ratings. This one will work but only for relative newbies to epinions. These types of raters only rate reviews VH even if it is an obvious H or sometimes lower. If they feel that they have to rate a review down then they generally won’t rate at all. The downside of this is you gain a reputation of being a softie and your rates won’t mean much. Sometimes members in the community will block you in hopes that your rating power will be diminished. More important than that, established reviewers will not trust you because they cannot trust that you will rate consistently. This is not a method I recommend. In closing Hopefully this article gave you something to think about. Ultimately there is no secret way to increase your list of trusters. It just takes time, patience, and plenty of exposure. If your list is small but you’re a good writer I just have to say relax and the trusters will come. Just keep doing what you’re doing and enjoy the experience. In my opinion that is the most important part. And as always, if you have any questions or want something added, e-mail me and I will do the best I can to answer it. Other reviews you might be interested in. My guide for new members. How to make money on epinions.  |
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