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Become an Epinion's Advisor or Top ReviewerMay 24 '00 (Updated Jan 14 '06) Write an essay on this topic.
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As I reached the goal I had set into my head in February, I decided to skip the customary 100th review that babbles on about nonsense and write something helpful instead. I need to justify the dollar I am going to get from this review, and giving you advice on becoming an expert makes me feel like I deserve the buck. So humor me and read this. I first got introduced to Epinions in December 99, but at that point the site still wasn't that popular. If I had become an active member than, every single number on my account would without a shred of doubt be doubled. Starting from actual earnings to the number of people that trust you, things were a lot less challenging to acquire at the early stages. Unfortunately, I became active in early February, which was possibly the hardest times for a new writer. The new Bonus Eroyalties program kicked off, and people started spamming epinions with fake reviews. I tried to report abuse, at the same time afraid that the whole site would be shut down because of the malicious users. The bad times are behind us, and now the only things that plague the Epinions site are the software and the DB problems that seem to get temporary patches. I am 100% sure that these problems are not permanent. Nevertheless, its still not too easy to become popular for newcomers. One rank that is even more challenging then the rest is becoming respectable enough to become an expert. With the growing popularity of Epinions, it has become quite challenging for people to acquire this rank mainly due to the amount of people that want it. As it took me many months of getting nominations, and then clearing certain issues before acquiring this rank, I believe I can give you a few pointers on this issue. Quality of reviews 1 - I know this is stupid, but you need to write damn good to become an expert now. Sure, you might get annoyed with Experts that you don't think are up to par, and you might also think that your reviews are a lot better then theirs. I know how you feel, I have been there for far too long myself. You need to realize the fact that you are not competing with the people that are already experts. You are dancing to the wrong tune, so direct your comparisons towards other possible expert nominees. Quantity of qualifying reviews 2 - Although the number of trusters you have might be taken into consideration, the most important issue is having a lot of very good reviews in your area of specification. There are so many movies experts, and everybody writes movie reviews. Starting from auto experts going all the way to music reviewers, we all have something to say about movies. And there are a lot of, a lot of good writers at epinions. You need to become one of the better ones, always making sure you have contributed more then the next guy. Give your reviews a professional look 3 - If writing about a product, try to put your thoughts into segmentations. This does not apply to all products, but most categories can be written about in segments. Epinions offers amateur reviews and therein lies its power, but most of its experts are selective people whose reviews come closer to professional reviews. Indirect effect of gaining respect of the community 4 - Ok, as far as I can see, it doesn't matter if 40 people or 100 people trust you. But having a lot of people that you communicate with might mean you have gained nominations. Being nominated by other respectable members, especially by other experts acts like whipped cream on hot chocolate. Keep an eye on other good writers 5 - So these people are possibly your direct competitors. No reason to despise them, as they are probably as good as you are. Best thing to do is adding them to your WOT, and to interact with your competitors. Always see what they say about products, and try to get better at writing yourself. Epinions promotes experts in groups, and if you have gained the trust of everyone in the group of nominees, your chances of making it might increase. Be a fair and constructive rater 6 - Believe it or not, Epinions cares whether if you rate fairly or not. Rating fairly won't just help you become an expert, but it will also gain you trusters. With all these benefits, you should spend a lot of time reading and rating reviews. Yeah, sure, Beavis. You speed read. 1% of the population has the IQ required for speed reading, and you belong to that 1%. Yeah. Sure. Anyway, don't rate without reading. I sure hope this helps you. And don't worry if you don't make it. It is unfortunate that there are experts in epinions whose reviews never get read, and I do wish a person's popularity would be taken into major consideration when getting this promotion. I also think that experts should get 6 month reviews, in order to see if they should keep the rank or not. But these are just some thoughts that would take too much time and money to implement, so it will never be done. Meanwhile, do your best with what I mentioned if you want to become an expert.  |
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