bigrag.com > Reviews (21)

Sorry there was supposed to be a questions mark at the end of that title, but ciao won’t let me. Anyway on with my latest way to earn a few bob on the net, now ciao has gone so downhill.

I first heard about bigrag from another ciao opinion. Basically it is another opinion site, in that you write an op, post it on their site and get paid for it. The site is aimed purely at students, especially University level. I have no problem, in fact some of the things are a bit older for me, but the categories are put to be in tune with the students. Not all the normal ciao categories are here, and I guess some people may have trouble writing on pub-crawls and other aspects of student life.

Signing up is easy, you have all the usual requirements such as address, name and username. I have used the same name as here on ciao, so look me up (Chris_Padden). It is easy and simple, much like the site itself. www.bigrag.com is both easy to use and looks good. In the top left there is a link to the categories, which appears on all the pages which gives an easy surfing. On the left hand side there is a list of links once you get inside the categories, which divide up into sub categories. In the center there is news and top tips, with plenty of pictures to look good. The basic colour scheme is purple, with a cream background. The search is not too easy to use, it searches opinions rather than categories so is not much use.

Payments are one of the best things about bigrag, and it is far better than ciao currently. One main difference is you do not get paid for reads on your opinions. Instead when every one of you opinions is reviewed and posted, if it is good enough it is awarded one of three medals. A top quality op will get you a Gold medal, and £2, a good, but not good enough for a gold will get you a silver and £1.25 while a bronze is still good quality and gets you £1. The main disadvantage for this system is you only get paid up front, and nothing down the line. This system is perfect for me, as a decent ciao writer getting 40-50 reads per op I would be earning around £1 per op under the old ciao, here I can make that and more every op. Some of the better members who get 100+ reads per op on old ciao then bigrag could be a bit of a let down. The system could also clear the way for churners, but as every op is read by a real person before being posted then there is a good chance that they will get caught, and never prosper. (Why cant ciao come up with something like this?)

Like I said above every opinion is read by a person before it is passed and put up on the website. This is another big difference between bigrag and ciao. Instead of posting in real time and being put up instantly, you e-mail them (submit@bigrag.com, subject BIGRAG submission) with your op in the body of the message. To submit an opinion you go onto the category that you are going to write under, click on submit on the left hand side then continue and you default mail will open with the information such as your member name, category, and so on, then you cut and paste your work into the message and send Then this bloke called Dan reads them, formats them, and then puts them up on the site.

You get awarded a medal instantly and see your work on the site.

Of course if the opinion is though to be copied, or not good enough then there is no problem in just not putting it up. In this way all cheats are instantly eliminated, and guarantees the quality of the content is second to none. Incidentally this man Dan Thomas is the big editor guy, he seems to do all the editing, formatting and reading for every new opinion that comes in, as well as writing some stuff of his own. He will also give you feedback via e-mail, offering tips, praise and constructive criticism, but he does seem to run the place single handedly, and does a great job.

When you join you get given a bigrag account, and a page with all your details of all the piles of money you have earn. The money is split into three sections. First off the money from your latest opinion is put into the part that is yet to be redeemed. When you do redeem your money if goes into your current balance. This is how much you have that you could be paid, and right down the bottom is the amount you have cashed in previously.

The basic site is divided into 8 subjects or categories. These are:

Sport and Recreation – Pretty self-explanatory, any thing to do with sports or the world outdoors. This can be for sporting products or clothing, to the teams themselves.

Careers and Study – Not my specialist subject, but can be very useful for a student. There is all sorts of career advice, courses, things abroad, and generally what to do with your life.

Travel – Again pretty self-explanatory, this contains anything to do with travel, in the UK, abroad, destinations, getting there, gap year, etc.

Sound and Vision – My favourite place, anything to do with music, films, DVDs, computers, and equipment.

Going Out – A great guide to all the pubs, clubs, gigs, restaurants and activities in general. There is a search facility here to narrow all the opinions down to your local area, which makes it all much more relevant.

The Mag – An interesting topic, this is a place where people can come to do anything, write about current affairs and debating, more lighthearted side like jokes and give a go at original writing. Also a good run down of anything that students would find useful or entertaining on the net.

Universities – Review where you are studying, or where you previously studied. It can also be a great help on deciding where you want to go, if you are near that stage, like me.

Mind, Body and Soul – This is where you can write reviews on health and beauty products, as well as fashion, cosmetics, faith, sex, and more.

Basically the categories are not unlike ciao or dooyoo’s. I am sure you will be able to find a place to put up your work, but remember this is a student site, and the content should be kept that way. One thing I really like about bigrag, is the way they create categories for you at will. You just e-mail them your opinion, placing it in one of the 8 categories, and then they will create another sub category for you to put your opinion in.

Another great thing about bigrag is the chance you have to put pictures as part of your opinions. If you want to do this, then find some images, jpegs are best and attach them to the e-mail when you are submitting your work. Because all the opinions are posted by a real person, then there are other things they can do that ciao cannot. They can add change the text, put in bold and italics and so on, which can make your work look better, even it is the same poor quality writing beneath. (at least in my case).

There are a few things I don’t like about bigrag, but they are more about the site, rather than the ideas being it. I use my hotmail address to submit the work, and having to cut and paste all the work and links then attach any pictures is a lot of fuss. If you are using outlook then it automatically puts the details in for you, and attaching is easy, just one of my whines. Also I don’t like the search facility, it does not work too well. Other than that none, it is a great site, and is paying out well.

Once your brand new opinion has been awarded a gold medal, you have to redeem your money before you can write any more opinions. To redeem your well earned money is pretty simple. You click on redeem, next to the money total in your account. Then comes up a short questionnaire. This could contain questions of any sort, they are aimed pretty much at students, and are multiple choice on aspects of life. Short, but worth it, as I guess this is how bigrag makes its money to pay its members.

Payments are effective and fast. You can request a payment when you have £5.00 in your account. To collect your money, just click next to the money in your account, and then confirm your address details are correct, then you are done. Bigrag pay you in the form of checks, mine for £20 arrived within a week, so I can say they do pay out.

Overall bigrag is a great site. It has some great ways of stopping cheats, while there are some disadvantages, the way it treats and pays members could give ciao a few lessons. I have seen a few other ciao members there, and I have only just started putting up some of my old ciao ops on here. As far as I can see there are very few problems, and keep up the good work.