epinions.com

Ciao is a cover version of Epinions. As far as I can tell, Epinions was the first web site of its kind—one on which members write reviews of products and are paid for their efforts based on the number of hits. It started during the Internet boom, the summer of 1999, and I joined a few months later (as “beckytcy”), during the glory days of the site when one could actually make money there.

I have always loved to voice my opinion and ...
...so Epinions seemed like a good opportunity to make some easy money and procrastinate when I should have been writing essays for university.

Back then, we got paid $0.10 per hit on music, book, and movie reviews and $0.30 per hit for reviews in all other categories. My first review was about my Gateway laptop, which I have since deleted since it wasn't up to 21st century Epinions standards (i.e. it wasn’t long enough). I clicked around ... more

Ciao is a cover version of Epinions. As far as I can tell, Epinions was the first web site of its kind—one on which members write reviews of products and are paid for their efforts based on the number of hits. It started during the Internet boom, the summer of 1999, and I joined a few months later (as “beckytcy”), during the glory days of the site when one could actually make money there.

I have always loved to voice my opinion and write (I was a professional sports journalist in high school) so Epinions seemed like a good opportunity to make some easy money and procrastinate when I should have been writing essays for university.

Back then, we got paid $0.10 per hit on music, book, and movie reviews and $0.30 per hit for reviews in all other categories. My first review was about my Gateway laptop, which I have since deleted since it wasn't up to 21st century Epinions standards (i.e. it wasn’t long enough). I clicked around and rated other people's reviews and they rated mine. I quickly made a pretty decent amount of money (The accounts used to update instantly, but now money is distributed just once per month in a mysterious process called INCOME SHARE that no one really understands.) and sprinted the hall to tell my friend Marisa to join. We must have each written five or six reviews that night and ran up and down the corridor to tell each other to read our latest published works. The money piled up rather quickly, so I thought of it as a video game. In fact, at that point, they didn't even know how they were going to actually distribute the money.

I was cynical until I got an ACTUAL CHEQUE…

I convinced five or six people to join in the first couple of months, all of whom quit when the payout decreased to $0.01 and $0.03 per hit. Now, with the baffling income share, no one in their right mind would join Epinions for the money! None of the categories have fixed rates per hit anymore.

Since the Internet bubble economy has collapsed, there aren’t too many people out there are making more than a few cents a month from Epinions, but I still stick with it. But WHY??

Well, for one thing, because Epinions is larger than Ciao, there are simply more good writers over there. Yes, despite the fact that the majority of Epinionators are American, I’ve found at least 30 people who can put together a few coherent sentences. ;) Also, having met only one Ciao person (and he was an Epinions person to me when we met), I have more personal connections to Epinions since I’ve hung out with seven people from there. Epinions is not set up as a way to “make new friends,” as Ciao is, partly due to geographical limitations (the United States is HUGE!). The site has held a couple of meet-and-greets, but, reportedly, very few people showed up.

Since Epinions was the first of its kind, it is more diverse than Ciao, which is overwhelmingly dominated by people who live in the UK. I read Epinions by people from England, Canada, Australia, Scotland, Portugal, Chile, and various parts of the U.S. I don't know of many other sites where I could read essays by such an eclectic crowd of people.

I actually prefer many aspects of Epinions’ FORMAT to Ciao’s. Epinions is more colourful, has more products in the database, and is generally easier to navigate. Also, when writing reviews, one can use BOLD, ITALICS, and HYPERLINKS to other Epinions, which is very convenient, makes the reviews easier to read, and allows people to make their reviews stand out. I also like the fact that they send cheques rather than depositing funds into bank accounts, since I don’t like my bank account info to be floating around the Internet.

Of course, Epinions is far from perfect. Here are a few problems with the site.

1) People are encouraged to specialise in one category due to the “Top Reviewer” and “Advisor” program. I have seen certain advisors act as if they have only a limited amount of "Very Helpfuls" to give out. Some of these people seem to consider their Advisor role to be a full-time job and take it WAY TOO SERIOUSLY. Many reviews are too long because people feel that they need to write a 5000 word opus to receive high ratings. I write in several different categories, so I don’t have an Advisor or Top Reviewer hat. Therefore, my Income Share is much lower each month than hatted members who receive the same number of hits. When I had hats in the Education category (not sure how THAT happened!), I used to get almost $10 per month, but now it’s down to about $1. Of course, certain categories pay more than others do. A review of a book might earn you 7 cents in a month, while a computer or car review could yield $1.50 or more. The doling out of “Top Reviewer” hats seems to be based more on quantity than quality, which is unfortunate.

2) There are NO GUEST BOOKS on Epinions, so, f someone leaves a comment on my review, I respond to it in my own comment section. You can sign up for email alerts for each review you have commented on, but it can be very time-consuming to go back to each review when the author has responded to your comment.

3) Although the site does have a “Writer’s Corner” now, Epinions is very much focused on consumerism. If I came across Epinions for the first time today, I would have no idea that behind the corporate mask there are dozens of intelligent, articulate writers.

4) Epinions makes it very difficult for international members to get paid. For American Epinionators, you can request a cheque when your balance reaches $10, which is reasonable. People outside the U.S. need to wait until they accrue $100, which would take YEARS at the current rate. So, if you want to sign up for Epinions, I would advise you to register your address as an American one if you can (i.e. use the address of a cousin or a friend in the States). Otherwise, you’ll probably never see any cash from Epinions.

5) Epinions censors certain words. I can understand not allowing people to write the f-word, but some of the words that are forbidden are ridiculous! An example that comes to mind is “pubescent.”

6) This may or may not bother you, but Epinions is generally more POLITICAL than Ciao is. Many members add political slogans to their profiles, and there are certain Epinionators who write random comments such as, “You are just a silly Liberal” on nearly anything I write. Epinions also has its share of rabid, flag-waving patriots whom I avoid like the plague.

Bottom Line: If you’ve gone through all of yesterday’s Ciao reviews and you STILL have time to kill at the office, why not cross-post a review or two at Epinions. Especially if your review says mean things about Americans. It’ll be fun! Tell ‘em Beckytcy sent you.

 

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