ciao.co.uk

Ciao.co.uk
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Warning This Is A Very Long Review.
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Web address:-http://www.ciao.co.uk

What is Ciao?
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Ciao is a free to join worldwide internet site, which enables use, the public to review products and services we use everyday to help influence others, buying decisions and services they use. You are given the opportunity to write what you feel are good and bad about products you have bought or services you have used, places you have visited and best prices available. In return for your opinion and review, you are rewarded with cash however this can vary dependant on the quality of the review you produce. Ciao is also available in Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands to enable access all over the European community in a Varity of languages as well.

About Ciao.
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There are many different features which are available on Ciao which I am hoping to ensure that I cover all in this review, I will title each section and give a description of its features and uses, finally I will do a section on why I love Ciao so much and enjoy being a member.

Join Ciao.
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To join Ciao is simple and straightforward and most important of all is totally free. You will need to click on the join now link and fill in the relevant boxes with the details requested. Once you have done this, click on the submit link and you will then be sent an email to the email address you provided. This email will contain an account activation link. You cannot continue on Ciao until you activate your account via this link. Once you have activated your account you are ready to go on Ciao but it is recommended that you complete your interest profile and read all the Ciao help sections before proceeding.

Members Centre.
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This webpage is the page that contains all the useful links on Ciao. Here you will find the sections for Announcements, Ciao Charts, Ciao Lists, Ciao Training, Affiliates Programmes, Contact Details and Ciao Cafe. Under these sub-sections are the listings for New Reviews, New Authors, New Products and New Diamonds as well as Most Read Authors, Most Read Review and much, much more.

Circle of Trust.
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We all do it when we first join Ciao and I am no different, we see the C.O.T feature and we go like wild things adding everybody and anybody to our trust list and requesting they do the same, but this is actually wrong. I have since learnt as most of us do that trust needs to be earned, not just asked for and given. It is nothing personal but to earn trust you must not only produce helpful reviews and advice but also you must also find the same in other members. If you feel a member gives you constant good reviews and helpful information this is the just cause for the trust to be earned. Other members will also then trust you based on the quality of reviews you produce as well as helpfulness. Do not take offence if you request trust and it is refused, trust must be earned.

Community Points.
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Community points are awarded to you on Ciao under several main ways first of which is rating other peoples review. For every review you rate, somebody else you will be rewarded with one community point per rating you give writes that. You only get rewarded one point irrespective of what rating you actually give it does not vary for the rating given. Another way to earn community points is by leaving a comment on the reviews you rate, you are rewarded with three community points for every comment left. You must be sure that you always follow the guidelines on any comments you leave on reviews, which can be found in the help centre section of the members centre page.

Another way to earn community points is to actually write reviews, this is rewarded on several different methods for review writing. You will get a set reward of 30 community reward points for every review you write. You will also get different ranges of community points rewarded dependant on the ratings the review you have written receives. If you receive and Exceptional rating you earn six community points for each, if you receive Very Helpful you receive six points, and if you receive a helpful rating you receive three community points. However you can lose community points for lower ratings received on poor reviews such as -6 community points for a somewhat helpful ratings and -12 community points for any not helpful and off topic ratings received. For this reason it is recommend you always give top quality reviews.

You do not earn any community points for any comments that you receive on the reviews you have written and the community points are the points, which influence the coloured dot system on Ciao, please see below in review for further details on coloured dots. You can view your current level of community points as well as your coloured dot from you My Ciao webpage of your account.

Coloured Dots.
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Quite simply the coloured dot system on Ciao is good as it allows you at a glance to see the more experienced the Ciao member. The dots are awarded for the number of community points you have and change colour as your points increase. They are awarded as follows:-
Level 1: white: 1-1000 points
Level 2: green: 1 001-4 999 points
Level 3: blue: 5 001-9 999 points
Level 4: violet: 10 001-19 999 points
Level 5: red: 20 001-49 999 points
Level 6: orange: 50 001-99 999 points
Level 7: bronze: 100 001-250 000 points
Level 8: silver: 250 001-499 999 points
Level 9: gold: over 500 000 points
It is important to know you do not earn money from community points and dots, but your reviews will get more reads and ratings with the more experience you gain, as will your trust increase. You can view your current level of community points as well as your coloured dot from you My Ciao webpage of your account. Please be aware that it may take a short while to register the colour change but when it does happen all your reviews and more from the past will all change colour too.

Interest Profile.
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You interest profile is a section to be completed by you which enables Ciao to determined which surveys you would be suitable to participate in. You can clearly see the percentage of you interest profile you have completed from you My Ciao webpage of your account. To adjust this interest profile you can simply edit it from the Surveys link on your My Ciao webpage. When a particular section of the interest profiles is complete it will show a green tick in the box next to it, if it is partially complete it shows an orange exclamation mark next to it and if non of that section is completed you will see a red cross next to it. Always having a 100% complete interest profile insures that you get the correct surveys sent to your email address.

Surveys on Ciao.
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As I have said in the section above is how Ciao determines which surveys you are eligible for and any you can participate in will be automatically sent to your registered email address. There is no set number of surveys sent to you but it is important to regularly check your email account for these surveys and that you complete them as soon as they become available. If you wait to complete them enough people may have already participated and you may not be able to complete the survey. The amount you are paid for surveys can vary and is usually determined by the length and complexity of the survey.

Suggesting Products.
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If you cannot find the product you are looking for to review on Ciao, you are able to suggest a product, but it is very important that you do an advanced search for the product you wish to review as this prevents duplicate listings. There is a clear link on the end of the category listens, which will take you to advanced search and suggest a product, which is clearly labelled 'Product not found?' Please try to include a listing picture as well as a valid URL link to that product.

Personal Homepage.
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Every member of Ciao has access to there own personal homepage, which they can edit and update from the personal homepage link available on your My Ciao webpage of your account. It can be very helpful and informative to have a personal homepage as it allows you to tell people a little more about yourself and you can add additional pictures to your account personal homepage providing they have been uploaded onto the internet.

Writing Reviews.
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It is important that all members of Ciao read the section about review guidelines before writing a review on Ciao however, a lot of member do not. The reason it is a good idea is that these guidelines will tell you what is expected from a review as well as what is not acceptable. Always try to be as detailed as possible when reviewing a product on Ciao and it is also extremely important to have correct use or capital letters and punctuation. Putting your review through a spell check programme only takes about 5 minutes but helps get the proper lay out and presentation of the review more easy to achieve. The links for writing reviews guidelines and FAQ's is available from the help centre and members centre webpage.

Premium Fund
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What is the premium fund? Ciao, have a premium fund, which is divided amongst the best authors each month. Members who are listed in the most read reviews category due to the high quality of there review are eligible for this premium fund payment. There is a £2000 premium fund every month to be equally divided. Ciao calculates the algorithm used for the premium fund however, we as users do not have any access to the method they use. You can view any earnings you have received from the Premium fund for the previous months from your accounts link found on your My Account webpage of your account.

Community Announcements.
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Community announcements is the section of Ciao dedicated to telling you what is currently happening on Ciao and can easily be accessed from the members centre webpage. Each announcement is briefly listed on the announcements main webpage with the access link to allow you to read the full details of that announcement.

Ciao Cafe.
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Ciao Cafe is a section of Ciao, which allows all Ciao members to write about current topics and read other Ciao members stories, jokes, and member's advice, and much more, it is very important to understand that you do not get any money awarded for reviews written in the Ciao Cafe area. The reason for this is because there can be no objective assessment of the quality of reviews written about ideas, beliefs and jokes.

Most Read Authors.
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This is a list of the top 50 most read reviews on Ciao in the last week however this is an additional link, which allows you to view the most read reviews since the site was launched. The link for the most read reviews in the last seven days is available from the members centre and is listed from 1-50 respectively on numbers of reads. The list clearly shows the name of the review written and is a link to that particular review, the name of the Ciao member who wrote the review and the number of reads/ratings that review has received. This is connected with the premium fund.

Most Read Reviews.
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This again is a list of the top 50 for the last seven days except this list os for the top 50 most read authors on Ciao. The list shows you the name of the member who has been most read, the number of reviews they have written in the last seven days and the amount of reads there reviews for the last seven days have received. The list clearly shows the members name as well as the 'About Me' text of that member, the number of reviews written by that member in the last week and the amount of reads those reviews have received. The link for this section can be found on the Members centre webpage as well as a link for the most read authors since the site launch.

Diamonds.
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Diamonds are awarded to the authors of exceptionally good reviews each month. The winners are selected by the Ciao editorial team and chosen based on reviews, which they have written which are eligible to receive remunerated ratings. Members can nominate particular reviews for diamonds by rating that review exceptional however that does not guarantee a diamond for that review. Diamond reviews can be viewed from the link on the members centre page and are listed by month. Ten diamonds are rewarded on average each month.

Invite Friends / Referrals.
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Do you know of friends you wish to invite to join Ciao, if so you can earn cash for referring them to Ciao. To refer a friend to Ciao simply click on the invite friends link of the members centre webpage of your account, simply fill in your friends email addresses, add a greeting in the relevant section if you wish and click on the link to send invite requests. For every active member you refer you will receive a one off payment for that member as well as a payment equivalent to 50% of there first six months earnings.

Earning money on Ciao.
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Payments on Ciao are very varied but work on the following sort of basis:-

Inviting a friend earns you a one off payment of 50p providing that person joins Ciao and becomes an active member, you will also earn a payment that is equivalent to 50% of there first six months earnings.

Writing a review will earn you varied amounts as set out in the 'Help Centre', 'Earning Money' section. It is a quite complex system but Ciao have taken great detail in trying to explain there system in this section. You are rewarded cash based on ratings received for your reviews of products however certain products do pay more than others due to the way Ciao is funded.

If you are the first person to write a review on a certain product you are rewarded more for the fact that you are the first to review, this is also detailed in the earning section in the 'Help Centre'.

Other ways to earn money such as affiliate links, surveys, premium fund and more are also listed clearly in the 'Earning Money' section of the 'Help Centre'.

Rating Reviews.
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The first thing to do when rating a review is to be totally honest and stick to your own opinion. It is important to give a rating on Ciao depending on what you think of the review and if you have been given enough information about the product. Guidelines for rating reviews in available from the members centre webpage and all members should read these guidelines before rating any reviews. You can rate a review exceptional, very helpful, helpful, somewhat helpful, and not helpful or off topic. It is suggested that when you give a rating that you leave a comment for the member so that they can understand why you have given that rating. Revenge ratings are not acceptable on Ciao and it is very wrong for members to do this to other members, as not only does it affect that members earnings for the review but also there community points. If you think you have been revenge rated, be sure to report this abuse to Ciao under the relevant report abuse section of the help centre. If Ciao then feel you have been revenge rated they will remove the rating and any comments made.

Comments.
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It can be extremely helpful to all members if you leave a comment as to why you rated there product as you did as this will help the member understand any problems that need rectifying. Always be polite and helpful in your comments as abuse is not acceptable and not necessary and please try to only comment on your opinion of the review, not how others have rated the review even if you disagree with there rating.

Guestbook's.
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Guestbook's are great ways to make friends and have a conversation with other members on Ciao. They are also very helpful if you need advice as most members on Ciao especially the higher ranked members are always glad to help if they can. Being rude, aggressive or abusive in guestbook's should not be tolerated and if this happens to you be sure to report the abuse to Ciao via there help centre. Members who break the rules on Ciao will permanently have there account deleted and lose all monies they have earned on that account.

Reporting Abuse. / Quality Assurance.
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If you are having problems with another Ciao member or you are receiving aggressive comments on your reviews or in your guestbook, be sure to report it in correct section in the Help Centre. Other reasons for reporting abuse on Ciao are members copying reviews from other sources, submitting multiple reviews, Nonsense review; Abusive off topic reviews, multiple account members as this is cheating, clicking cartels and more. There is a full section on reporting abuse and what qualifies as abuse in the report abuse section at the bottom of the page on the Help Centre.

Help Centre.
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This is a fantastically detailed section on Ciao that can give you the answers to any questions you may have about Ciao and its terms and conditions. It is very important to read this information as it will help you on Ciao. Should you have any questions, which are not answered in this section by any chance, then the email addresses to contact Ciao direct to ask these questions? The email address can be found in the Members Centre webpage.

My Opinion.
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I actually joined Ciao back in February 2004; however, at that time I was not writing any reviews. I actually started reviewing products on Ciao in July 2006 and like all new members, I did not have a clue about what was expected in a review on Ciao. Thankfully, there were a great deal of members on Ciao who were glad to help me and point out the mistakes I made. It is thanks to those people that I am where I am now on Ciao and 100 reviews later, I think I finally have the hang of it know.

I have made many friends on Ciao and again when I first joined Ciao I was adding everyone and anyone to my Circle of Trust and expecting it in return. Since then I have realised this is not what Trust is all about, and I have now earned the trust of 65 members for the correct reasons. I do appreciate people adding me to there Circle Of Trust but I would like to say know that I do not mean to offend when I Do Not return the Trust, I always add members to review alerts instead and when I have read and rated enough of your reviews, only then will I consider giving my Trust to a Member. I think all new members should read the guidelines for Trust before adding other members or asking for Trust as it can often offend when you do not give your trust in return although it is not meant to.

I have also learnt that a good review on Ciao should be well detailed but on relevant information only as I have also learnt. I realise now that it is important to give an opinion on the product I am reviewing as well know as well as why I have that opinion as this is just as important as the detailed product review. Even now, I am happy to accept help and advice on errors I have made on my reviews and think that all people should realise that comments on reviews are there to help you improve your review and correct any mistakes. In my opinion all Ciao members should understand, that no one is perfect and we all have to start somewhere and most important of all other members are only trying to be honest and helpful when rating and commenting on your reviews.

I love spending time on Ciao as well reading other peoples reviews as well as it is a good way of helping find out what products have to offer before you purchase them and to be able to help members wherever possible so that other members too can succeed on Ciao. Ciao is not just about making money in my opinion it is also a great way to make knew friends and help people.

I must be honest I have been very luck when it comes to matters like abuse on Ciao, I have only had one incident of abusive and aggressive insulting comments in my Guestbook and only about seven revenge ratings, but I think that Ciao have got an excellent system for dealing with these problems and they have always managed to sort out any problems I have had.

As I am sure all members are aware there is another reviewing site that is in direct competition with Ciao and yes I am a member of that as well but I will say each of the two sites do have slight differences that in my opinion are better than the other. Ciao, in my opinion have a lot more help features on this site as well as a more complex rating system. They are also stricter on Ciao when it comes to abuse as well as a great Guestbook feature all of which are missing on the other site. Do not get me wrong I love the other site as well and that has some better features than Ciao. Altogether though it would be hard for me to say which site is better though as though both weigh out equal with there plus and minus features so I have to say I love them both.

Altogether I would like to say that I am glad I am a member of Ciao and glad that I have had the opportunity to make a great many new friends, I know there are probably quite a few things I have not actually mentioned on this review, but I hope I have given enough detail to help members as well as giving a detailed review.

Happy reading and Enjoy Ciao.

♣♣Welshwickedone ©♣♣