ciao.co.uk > Reviews (1008)

Last year I wrote a series of opinions on my encounters with Ciao; it's been 7 months since I wrote what I said would be a series of perspectives of the site from my view point. Now 9 months (almost) on from my original opinion I thought it a pertinent time to write a piece on my views of Ciao and what it can give the user.

Finding Ciao

I first heard of Ciao a few years back, but in honesty I never paid it much attention; you see I was under the impression it was another "Amazon" style website. It was not until last October that in a conversation with someone that frequently uses the internet that I was told about the Ciao surveys. This person told me that they carry out several surveys a month to the tune of about £10 all tolled. I considered this quite a good investment of time for the return so eagerly went home to sign up.

I signed up to Ciao on the basis of the surveys alone, probably like lots of people. But having signed up I looked around the site and noticed lots of films that are of interest to me had no information about them at all. So I rattled off six or seven quick overviews of the movies. Then with little further thought went to bed. I had no understanding that you earned money for writing these things.

The following day I woke to about 30p in my account, I did not get it; neither did I understand how things worked and like a typical man was too lazy to go off and read the help tag. How I learned about Ciao was through the users.

My first "reviews" were pretty poor standard, bare in mind I had completely not got what Ciao is about; stupid I know but I really did not have a clue. I figured out how to read the comments left on my "reviews" they were messages from other users telling me how the system works, alongside that there were messaged in my Guest Book (more on this later). Finally 24 hours after initially landing on Ciao the first proper time, I had actually finally got what Ciao was all about.

The Purpose Of Ciao

Ciao is here to help the consumer; it's not an extension of myspace for you to do as you wish, its here to help and aid the buying community. Several companies sponsor (for want of a better word) Ciao to list products they sell and gain referrals through sales. So for example say I was looking for a DVD player, I might find Ciao; read a review then click one of the links on the Ciao site to cross over to another. So for each click through, Ciao will earn money. I also presume they simply make money by selling space to advertise and promote sellers goods.
The reviews we write are not just limited to the confines of Ciao members, anyone can do a search on Google for example and read in the same way that a member an. Its amazing where you will find your reviews, I have found links through for some of my reviews on fetish sites for example: I once wrote a review on a mobile phone, I commented on the cover of it being reminiscent to a pair of white patent shoes. This review was then transferred in part with a link through to Ciao from another site.

The site in question catered for people with a fetish for Patent Shoes, a sexual fetish.
So its important to take on board that what you write is not limited to the confines of Ciao and that non members can simply access your reviews through search engines. With this in mind it's not always so good to give too much information on yourself in your reviews.

Ciao Surveys

Ciao are asked to ask users there views and opinions when selling/releasing products or services. Sort of similar to those polls you see on the television that say 77% of the people we asked said…. Companies like Nintendo as for views on products they are due to release; whether you think they are eye catching etc. And another popular company specialise in questions about drinking habits. The first few surveys that came through I completed and earned bits and pieces of money on. But I find that as time has gone on, despite initially being asked to take part in a survey the company who have sanctioned the survey have specific requirements that I don't comply with. Sometimes you can get very close to the end of a survey only to be told that you don't fit the third parties requirements. In this case you don't get a bean, even if you have spent 20 minutes looking at things and answering questions.

In May I actually decided that I would not bother with the Surveys anymore, because despite them being a money making resource when you consider the time you spend on some, you ask is it worth it only to be rejected. I'm not advising anyone to stop taking part in the surveys; I just find that for me it's not an effective way to spend my time.

Writing And Earning On Ciao

I would say 95% of my reviews are based on DVD's I watch, I still have links to a previous business I was involved in and get regular free preview DVDs to watch. For those of you thinking oh I'd like to get some free DVDs, I'm afraid it's not that easy. I was involved in a business that spent millions of pounds each year buying products, so although free now they certainly had their money from me. You could argue that they are still earning from me because I make a conscious decision to review everyone I receive, so they may only gain one sale per DVD but I can safely say that they are still benefiting from me. That being said I don't consider myself to be a great review writer, but I give it a fair whack; and if you look at some of my reviews you have seen people comment on sales they made because of my review. One person recently joined Ciao just to get a message to me to say that because of a review I had done on a specific DVD they had bought the DVD; things like this do wonders for your ego.

Now I'm not recommending a course of action, but I consider I do very well out of Ciao, on average I earn between £30-£80 each month, and I talk to other members who tell me they earn nothing like that; so from that basis I'm obviously doing something right. I scope out the items I review, so say for example I was going to review a horror movie.

I type the name in the search box and see what turns up; I also check how many people have written about that product. If I pick a product that more than 5 people have rated I'll leave it; after all if you're reviewing a movie how many reviews will it take to make a viewing decision. I personally would not read too many reviews as there is the strong chance that I'd end up knowing more about the movie if than I might want to; which ultimately could mean I would not buy at all. If less than 5 people have rated it, I'll read the other reviews and decide if my review would add a different viewpoint for a potential buyer. If I feel that another reviewer has done such a good job I can bring nothing new to the table I won't write a review on that product. But more often than not I try to write about things that nobody else has. As a result of this I tend to earn in excess of £2 for each review I write (through writing and the ratings I receive). Where as someone who has reviewed an Ipod that 50 other people have reviewed may just earn 20p for all their hard work; on top of that their review is just likely to buried under a mountain of others and there is no guarantee that anyone will ever read it after the first day that review is published.

In order to really make money you need to get others to rate your reviews and the best way to do this is to rate other peoples reviews. Nothing will encourage someone curiosity than pretty much going up and banging on that persons door to let them know you are here. If you are not prepared to read and rate the reviews of others then you are better off just forgetting the site altogether. I have seen some users despite the quality of their writing getting little or no ratings because they cannot be bothered to rate others. I personally make sure I spend at least one hour each day reading and rating reviews, not only is it good from a money making point of view but it increases your knowledge. For example I now know a variety of pubs to visit the next time I'm in Brighton, although the chances of that happening are slim. I also now know about things like Blogs, which I never knew about before; in fact if you look hard enough you'll gain knowledge and learn advice on any subject under the sun.

The community points you earn increase with each read and rate, if you read the work of others you earn points that way too. Depending on the type of rating you achieve you'll either make or lose money between -1p up to 2p per read. So if you're writing stuff that's getting bad ratings all the time you need to stop and take a good look at your writing style. I know 1 or 2p is not a lot of money, but if you get 50 people read your review it could certainly be worth having.

How you get your money is simple, you can withdraw your money as soon as you accrue £5, however this will only be transferred to your bank once a month, I find it arrives usually between the 20th and the 26th. You can make up to three money withdrawals a month. I normally make my final withdrawal on the 5th as after that the chances are slim that your money will arrive before the following month.

Once a month the reviews that Ciao consider to be the best get a share of a lump sum. £1000 is shared equally between a number of people, this is what is known as a the Premium Fund. Another reward comes in the sum of a Diamond's the value of this seems to be £10. There are other incentives on the site that occur on occasions so look out for them.

Rating & Ranking

There are a variety of grades you can give a review:

Exceptional, Very Helpful, Helpful, Somewhat Helpful, Not Helpful, and Off Topic. How you rate is up to you, and I'm certainly not going to put a reference point as to how you rate. However I feel it worth bearing in mind that you should rate how the review presented the item and if something is missing. If something is missing ask a question or make a statement and then say to the person "well if you include that in your review I'll rate you/rate you higher" rather than instruct someone. More importantly READ CAREFULLY. I have often been rated lower because the reader actually missed a comment. For example I reviewed a mobile phone, and someone left me a somewhat helpful rating because according to them I made no comment on call quality. But in fact I had made the comment but the reader just never noticed it. If you are going to do something that will have a negative impact on that person's craftsmanship, be sure of what you're doing. And let's face it; a review for many on here is a piece of crafted work.

One interesting thing to point out which I myself have found a stumbling block. I write as I said mainly reviews on DVD I have received/purchased. In this section you can select either film only or DVD. Now this is not a knock at any user in particular, because more than one person does this; I just want to make that clear before I go any further. Now my perception of these were that Film Only is used for perhaps something you saw at the cinema or on TV, and that DVD was for something you saw on DVD. However I am informed by several Ciao users that Film Only refers to a DVD that has special features, and DVD is for something with special features. However other than in reviews written by other Ciao users, I can find nothing written by Ciao to say this is the case. And when I wrote to Ciao regarding this after a three week wait I got an e-mail to say "it's about the individual's perception". So I personally have taken it upon myself to perceive this comment as I originally saw it. After all if you watch something on DVD and it has no special features it is still a DVD is it not? If you also take into account that because of new laws governing additional income from special features, from January 2007 a lot less DVD's will have special features because they have to pay cast and crew royalty fees for each individual inclusion on a DVD.

I used the term ranking, I'm not sure if that's such a good term to use; but basically next to your user name you have a little dot, this dot changes colour when you reach goalpost ratings. To give you a better idea of what I mean here is the chart of points you need to achieve to "change colour" I have taken this from the Ciao website:

Level 1: white: 1-1000 points
Level 2: green: 1 000-4 999 points
Level 3: blue: 5 000-9 999 points
Level 4: violet: 10 000-19 999 points
Level 5: red: 20 000-49 999 points
Level 6: orange: 50 000-99 999 points
Level 7: bronze: 100 000-250 000 points
Level 8: silver: 250 000-499 999 points
Level 9: gold: over 500 000 points

Rather like a game, for many people it's nice to chase that next elusive dot.

Some people plod away slowly going through the ranks, I went from White to Violet in three days; no that's not a boast but a clear indication of how boring my life is.

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly - The Ciao Community

There are fantastic people on Ciao and in short there are pigs. You communicate with others via two methods the comments section on a review you have written, and your guestbook.

In your guestbook you have two sections, a public and private section. The private section can only be seen by yourself. So if you have any special messages that you don't want anyone else to read you can leave a message in the private guestbook. I personally find that without the guest books Ciao would be half the community it is, and am often dependant on these guestbook's.
Another little useful option is circle of trust, and an option that informs people when you write a new review; the second option is applied by the reader. If I like a writer and find there work particularly useful I'll ask to be notified of every new review they do. The Circle Of Trust is a section where you can add people who's views you trust and respect, or if you just develop a friendship you can do likewise. When someone adds you to a circle of trust you will get points, and obviously vice versa. The downside is you can only have 100 people in your circle of trust, which I know seems a lot but there are always new people coming in that you grow to trust.

I would not say I have made any friends, as being the internet you never really know what you're getting till you meet someone; however I would say I have made some wonderful acquaintances. And bare in mind when making these acquaintances the things you say can effect the life of some. When I joined Ciao I happened to encounter someone who although not the best writer was an incredibly nice person. This person had achieved Bronze status on Ciao and although few knew it, this person was very disabled. In fact the only link this person now had with the outside world after being involved in a nasty accident was via the computer and in particular Ciao. With the arrival of bronze status some users of Ciao took it upon themselves to attack the persons writing style quoting that at the individuals new rank they should be better at writing. When I left a final message in this person's guestbook I noticed several derogatory comments in this person's guestbook, the following day this user deleted their account. It is incidents like this that create a bad feeling in the Ciao community, and on Ciao just like real life there are bullies.

Some Ciao users develop incredible bonds; some organize events for multiple Ciao users to enjoy. Others form individual bonds, and others actually begin romantic relationships. Recently a small gathering of people met at Manchester, the meeting created some new friendships and some great conversation around the community for days.

Some Ciao users think that Ciao was exclusively meant for them; they will parade around Ciao getting into the faces of others and barking instructions to them.

Some Ciao users operate two tiered systems of approach. Some users refuse to rate others, or specific others. Some Ciao users continuously criticise the performance of others, as the saying goes "Let he who is without fault cast the first stone". I know I have focused on the bad parts of Ciao rather a lot, but if we don't focus and catch these people out they will never stop. In an ideal world I'd name and shame them, but that just lowers me to the same gutter levels as them.

Some examples of bad Ciao user's practises I have encountered:

One user specifically rates me helpful or further down the rating scale, this does not reflect there general rating however; this is a specific treatment exclusively for me. This practise is carried out throughout Ciao as individuals take dislikes to others. Now you may argue that perhaps I'm saying I should get a specific rate with each review I write and that maybe I am superior to others; this is not the case. But when one person rates my reviews as somewhat helpful and states that I made a couple of typing errors, and then rates someone as very helpful that has written next to nothing about the product and had three times the spelling mistakes then I'm sorry but something is wrong.
One established Ciao user having reached a certain colour ranking, just does not bother to rate others at all. They will simply pop up write a review then disappear reaping the rewards of others work.

One user refuses to rate any of my reviews because "I write too much" or as they put it I'm "a churner, using valuable web space to write reviews". I'll admit I'm probably more prolific than most, but its not as if people don't find my reviews useful when 95% of my reviews get very helpful or exceptional ratings. And as I tend to write about things that others do not bother too, who else would write about them and inform the consumer? If I was receiving consistently low rates I would not write so much its no good to me and certainly no good to the community.

And Finally……

If you're a new user reading this, take onboard what I'm saying. Don't treat it as gospel, but take it into account. My advice to you is the following: Read as much as you can, you will increase your standing on Ciao, your funds and ultimately find it more rewarding. Make your presence felt, don't be afraid to ask people to read your reviews, don't be afraid to get involved, talk to people you'll be pleasantly surprised by the warm response you'll receive. Write as often or as much as you want to, if your ratings are good people obviously want to hear more from you. And try not to review an item that 60 other people have, not just for the benefit of the site but for yourself to, you could write the most beautifully written review but if 60 others have written about it your may never get to be a worthwhile resource. Most importantly have FUN!

If you're an established reader, no doubt you'll agree with some of my statements, and you'll know it's far from being all negative and the bad side of Ciao is probably a hundredth of the good side, but I do think its time that we protect each other instead of just sitting back when the bullies attack.

We have lost some valuable input on this site as a result of the few bad eggs, and you know we have. When these people leave they just go, without so much as a word, let's keep them here.

I enjoy the whole experience of Ciao very much, and I'm sure numerous others do to, it's a website I visit each day without fail (unless I'm trapped under something heavy like a mountain), I like to talk with the people here, I like to read, I like to write

* Before someone comments I'm aware 900 odd other people have written a review on Ciao, and this is the one exception as I wanted to be heard on this.