While reading reviews here on Ciao, I noticed a review about another consumer review website, Dooyoo, so ever the inquisitive person that I am, I went over to have a look. Then I thought, I may as register, so I did, then I had a look and read around the site. The next thing I knew I posted a review and then I was hooked. So now I'm going to return the favour and maybe persuade someone else to give Dooyoo a try.
~~~What is Dooyoo?~~~
Dooyoo is a website that offers consumers reviews of products and services written by people that have already used them. Now that's a very simplistic view of the site, and it's not just reviews of products that you'll find, in fact there are a vast range of subjects covered including some debate and advice topics. I'm now going to look at Dooyoo from three perspectives :
The Consumer Resource The Moneymaking Site The Community
---The Consumer Resource---
~~~The website~~~
The website has a very simple, clean feel to it, being mainly white in colour with green and black highlighting, and very importantly works equally well when using Internet Explorer, Netscape or Firefox.
When first entering the site, the home page is very clearly set out and features links to the most popular categories, along with a search bar and links to join or log into Dooyoo. You will also find links to the help pages and a chance to take a "quick tour" on the home page.
I do occasionally have problems with the speed of the site, it seems very slow even on a 1MB broadband connection, and when using IE I get lots of pop-up ads, so you might want to use an ad blocker.
Not from the UK? Well never fear, along the bottom of the page are links to various international sites.
~~~Searching for an Item?~~~
The search bar is placed on the left hand side of the screen, and allows you to search for a product, price or user. Now I must say here that it's not the most efficient search engine and I regularly end up with a over the top number of results many of which are irrelevant. Not only this but I often have to go through several pages of results before I find the product I'm looking for, which is a bit of a let down.
~~~The Opinions~~~
Once you've found the product that you are looking for information about, you can click on it and you will be forwarded to page that contains more information about it. Here you may find a picture of the product, an overall rating and links to five of the "most useful" opinions on it.
The usefulness of an opinion has been rated by other members of the Dooyoo community (more about that later) and you will find that they are either Very Useful (VU), Useful (U), Somewhat Useful (SU) or Not Useful (NU). Obviously, you won't find anything all that helpful in those rated NU, but you may find a useful snippet in the SU review, so don't write them off. The VU and U opinions have been deemed to be helpful in making a purchase, and these are the ones that you should look at when making that all important purchasing decision.
Now while I've found some reviews that have been rated VU to be just that, I have found that there seems to be a lot of over rating. There are reviews that I personally have rated as U or below but many others have rated them VU. This may just be my opinion, but I feel there is a lot of over-rating going on at the moment.
~~~The Price Comparison Guide~~~
The price comparison function seems to be linked to Dealtime, which although reasonable isn't in my experience as good as say Kelkoo. But you do get results from using it that are competitive.
~~~The Consumer Side Overall~~~
Dooyoo, provides a useful consumer tool, especially when used in conjunction with other sites such as, Ciao and Kelkoo. I always try to look at reviews of a product before parting with my cold hard cash.
---The Moneymaking Site---
To make money from Dooyoo you will need to register, which is a simple enough process, involving filling in a few personal details such as your name, and email address, and choosing a username and password. Once you've registered I would suggest you spend some time getting acquainted with the site, and reading and rating reviews before embarking on writing one of your own (this will give you a feel for the site, and hopefully an idea of what sort of information makes a review helpful). Once you've done this your ready
~~~Opinions~~~
On Dooyoo, as on Ciao you get paid for writing reviews. Well not exactly for writing, but you do get paid every time another member reads it. Well you don't even get "paid" for each read, but you do earn Dooyoo miles which can then be redeemed for either cash or electronic vouchers. For each member read you will receive 30 miles, which are worth 3p. This may sound like a lot, especially when compared to Ciao, but I find I don't get nearly as many reads (about 20-30). This still means that the earnings are comparable to Ciao though.
This is not the only way to earn on Dooyoo, if you write reviews that are considered especially helpful and well written you may log on and find a little crown (worth £1.50) next to them. This is the Dooyoo version of the Premium Fund, and crowns are awarded once a week by the Dooyoo staff. I actually prefer this system as I like the fact I know which reviews have been rewarded (unlike the Premium Fund here, where unless you get a diamond you never know which review got what).
If the product you want to write about isn't in the database, you can request that it is added, a fairly simple process of filling in an on-line form (once you've found it). I've found that it then takes anything from several weeks to forever for it to be added, and you should then receive an e-mail telling you it's on the site so you can add your review. I say should because I've only ever received one email even though I've had several products added. I must say here, that Dooyoo is very slow at adding products, which can be disappointing.
~~~Boosting your earnings~~~
Every month Dooyoo holds a draw, where the first review in particular categories can win an extra 3500 miles worth £3.50. I've had a couple of these payments and they give a nice boost to my earnings.
~~~Getting Paid~~~
Dooyoo has a slightly different payment method to Ciao, and this is where hits one of it's major disadvantages as well as one of it's major advantages.
There are three methods of payment :
--Electronic Vouchers--
You can request payment by electronic vouchers in multiples of £20, you will however be "charged" a £2.50 surcharge every time you cash in. So to receive £20 of vouchers you will need to cash in 22500 miles, for £40 it will be 42500 miles and so on. You can currently get vouchers for two on-line stores, Amazon and Sendit. I personally save up enough for £40 worth of Amazon vouchers before cashing in and then the £2.50 doesn't seem too bad.
--Cheque--
If you prefer cash you can wait until you've collected 55000 miles and cash them in for a £50 cheque (there's a £5 handling fee), or if you're willing to wait even longer you could save the 100000 miles that would convert to £100 (there's no fee for this amount).
--Charity--
You can also donate your earnings to the charity of your choice (even if you live abroad). You will need to have earned at least 5000 miles to do this, but there is no handling fee involved.
I personally have only ever requested Amazon vouchers and they have taken anything from 1 day to 2 weeks to appear in my in-box, which is a lot quicker than Ciao.
---The Community---
At first sight it would appear that there is no community at Dooyoo, but I can assure you there is, it's just more subdued than it is here. When I wrote my first review, I was almost instantly welcomed to the site via comments on the review. You see there is no on-site guestbooks (but you can get a free Tooyoo guestbook at crossword cheats) so there does seem to be a lot of conversation via comments. There are a few other elements to the community, which are :
--The guides--
For each of the main categories there is a guide, who is another Dooyoo member. These members not only act as a link between the members and the staff, but they will recommend reviews that they believe are crown worthy, report abuse and help any members that need it. I've found they will often leave encouraging comments, or little tips on how to improve my reviews and I believe they do an important job, and deserve praise.
--The members--
The members are on the whole quite friendly and will read and rate around the site. But there does seem to be a few that simply publish reviews and then forget to read and rate. I can't say I've personally experienced any abuse from other members, but there again I just have not noticed.
--Abuse--
As I said I've not personally experienced any abuse, but I know occasional members have and from what I've noticed it's dealt with very quickly. There again, I'm not sure I'd actually be all that bothered to receive NU's seeing as I'll still get paid my 3p a read.
--The Staff--
I've always found that any emails I've sent have been answered very quickly, normally the same day. So I have no problems in this department.
~~~Making friends~~~
As you read around the site, you might find a member whose writing you particularly admire, you might then want to add them to your circle of friends, I know I have. There's no real incentive to being added to someone's CoF, but it's always nice to know that someone appreciates you. Unlike Ciao, there's no limit to how many people you can add, but there are only a few people in mine.
---Dooyoo As A Whole---
Dooyoo is a useful consumer resource (especially when used in conjunction with other sites), with a community feel. A reasonably well designed website, leads to a large database of products, and real consumers opinions on them. Behind the opinions are a great bunch of people, who write about an enormous variety subjects, in just as wide a variety of styles.
Although it can be relatively quiet, I still enjoy the time I spend there and enjoy reading and rating around the site. Just please, please don't post your reviews and then leave the site before doing a bit of reading and rating, remember the more you put in the more you'll get back.
**UPDATE 30/7/05**
Dooyoo has recently undergone something of a facelift. The result is that the site is now faster more stable and features such things as clickable alerts. This has obviously made the site more popular, which has resulted in more reads, but that's not all....
The payout system has somewhat changed, while you can no longer cashout in Sendit vouchers you can now cashout for Amazon vouchers at 10,000 miles and then in increments of 5000 miles without having to pay a fee.
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