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Join Ciao

Review Websites

You won't get rich writing for any, or even all of these sites, but you can earn a bit of cash that'll help out when you need it.

Name Epinions
Payment type: USD cheques, money earned through the mystic "Income Share" system and various bonuses if you attain "Category Lead", "Top Reviewer", or "Advisor" status - none of which will happen quickly, if at all.
Minimum payment: $10 to US members, $100 to those outside the US.
Link to join: Click Here
Comments: If you live outside the US, getting your ITIN (International Taxpayer Identification Number) so you can get paid (if you reach a hundred bucks in the first place) is a real pain. Mainly recommended for US residents. The real bonus of Epinions over the two UK sites mentioned below is that the earning potential is truly residual, though very small if you don't attain to "Top Reviewer" etc status… which is a real bone of contention for many members.
My ID on this site is CaptainD


Name Ciao
Payment type: GBP to a UK bank account (there are also Ciao sites for various countries across Europe, each pay that country's currency to a bank account in that country.) Since my Spanish and German aren't up to much, I stick with the UK site :-D You get money per rating you receive, though the actual payment can vary between 0.5 pence to 2 pence. Some reviews aren't eligible for receiving earnings. If you do the first review of a product, you get double the earnings for that review for 6 months. You can also earn £10 for being awarded a "Diamond" (chosen by the Ciao staff as an exceptional review), earn money for referrals, and take paid surveys that are emailed to you every so often.
Minimum payment: £5
Link to join: Click Here
Comments: The best things about Ciao are the potential to earn through completing surveys and referring others. There's also quite a strong community spirit, but of course there are also a few idiots who want to make it unpleasant for everyone else. You soon learn who to ignore! Mainly recommended to UK members, or others who wish to increase their exposure without being bothered about the cash.
My ID on this site is CaptainDisaster
Name Dooyoo
Payment type: Cheque for UK, or Amazon vouchers - you get 3p per member view, and can also earn money for one of your reviews being "crowned" (equivalent to a diamond on Ciao, but award more frequently and worth £1.50), and you can earn a bit for being a winner in the "First Review Draw", held each month. (While writing this I learnt the shocking fact that I had won this 4 months running!!) You can also donate the money you earn to charity if you wish.
Minimum payment: £100 for a cheque, £10 for Amazon vouchers
Link to join: Click Here
Comments: In some ways this is the highest money earner of the four sites, at least initially. The fact that you can donate to charity or get Amazon vouchers makes this site a much better proposition for non-UK based members than Ciao.
My ID on this site is CaptainD
Name Shvoong
Payment type: Via Paypal - you earn 10% of whatever they earn through advertising revenue when people read your reviews. You can also earn for doing translations of your own / other people's reviews, or for referring. (To be honest I don't yet know how the referral income works, I'm just testing the water!)
Minimum payment: $10
Link to join: Click Here - then put in Flyer Code 23C2
Comments: The real attraction of this fairly recent addition to review websites community is that you automatically get paid via Paypal whenever you've earned enough money. I've not been using this site for very long and am unsure of the long-term earning potential, but it seems worth persevering with to me - for now at least.
My ID on this site is CaptainD

USD = United States Dollar
GBP = Great Britain Pound


An updated opinion on review websites (15.11.06)

Just so that I'm being completely up front about this, if you join Ciao or Shvoong from this page, I will earn a small commission - potentially, anyway. It depends if you actually earn anything. (You won't earn any less, of course.) If you sign up with Epinions or Dooyoo, I won't get anything. (I would appreciate you stopping by my reviews occasionally, but it's up to you! :-D)

General hints about writing for review websites:

Be friendly but honest - don't rate something higher than it deserves to be just because you think it will make you more popular with the member that wrote the review.

Don't post too many reviews too quickly - about one new review per day is a good rule of thumb as a maximum.

If you post the same review on different sites, it's a good idea to state where the review was first published to people know you're not plagiarising. Once the members on the site get used to you, however, there is no need to do this. (Just state "this review was first published on…" and you should be okay. Use the same ID on every site if possible. Nothing will get you "Not Helpful" ratings or even thrown off a site quicker than if you're thought to have copied someone else's work.)

If other members take the time to give you advise on how to improve your reviews, don't get offended, take notice of what they say. At the end of the day, if you write better reviews, you're likely to get better ratings, more reads, and earn more money.

See also: Golden Rules of writing for review websites.

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