Work from Home Sites in the UK
Ciao.co.uk is a website where you are paid to write reviews much like Helium. It is a website where you can get paid for writing about pretty much anything. Also on Ciao you can take surveys which also pay! The main use for the website however is to offer people non biased reviews on products or services they may need.
The layout of the website is pretty good actually. There are options across the front page offering quick links to areas of the site that may be more benificial to you. Also, for members, there is a link to log-in along with a new members "sign up" section. Also as you come to expect there is a search engine that is usually accurate. To give you an idea of the site there are a few reviews and "top members" displayed on the front page. The layout for the members area is very easy to use. You are given alot of information concerning your reviews and your earnings. It shows how many people have read your reviews and any comments. Also you have a guestbook where people can send you messages. One feature on Ciao is the community points. You are assigned a colour that corresonds to how active you are on Ciao. Basically the more reviews you write and rate the better community colour you become. This lets other members see you are a good reviewer. I find this to be flawed as it is very difficult for new members as people are less likely to read your review if you have a low rating!
The earning power on Ciao depends on your dedication. Unfortunately not all products give money for the reviews. Unlike Dooyoo you do not get a set amount of money per review. You only get money for every rate of your review. Products with many reviews are less likely to be paid. If you do recieve money the product will have a sign next to it. 1 sign next to it means you get 0.05 p per read 2 signs are 1p per read 3 signs (very rare) give 2p per read. This then means you are never going to earn a fortune on Ciao. To give you an idea I have the same reviews on ciao that I have on Dooyoo. I have made 60 on Dooyoo and I have made 3 on Ciao! Big difference there! Thats not to say a good writer couldnt earn alot. Ciao has what is known as a premium fund. This is where 200 is split each month between the members who wrote good reviews. My reviews havn't been great up to now and I still recieved 2 for one of them in the premium fund. You can however get up to 15 per review. Which would be nice! If you are on Dooyoo I would suggest transfering all of your reviews to Ciao as well. You may earn 5, you may earn nothing! There are also competitions on ciao where every week there is a set product to write about and the best 3 reviews get cash prizes. I have not won this yet!
I would avoid the surveys completely. Every day I have a new survey from them and I never seem to earn any money. I have stopped taking part as I found them rather personal and take along time to complete! Each to their own however.
The community on Ciao is OK. I cant say it is better than Dooyoo but there are more people on Ciao so if you get popular then chances are your earnings will start to flourish!
Overall I am not too fond of Ciao. As a money maker your best with Dooyoo. The best thing to do is check it out and see what you think
I am going to share my experience of how I improved my reviews on Ciao to maximise money earned
Length Obviously one of the most important parts of a review is its length. Just because you can get away with writing 120 words that doesn't mean that's all you should write. There is that well known saying that quantity doesn't mean quality and I agree with that. I find reviews shouldn't be hideously long to the point where they bore the reader. You can not however get much content in a short review. As a guideline I would aim for 1000 words. They don't all have to be this long but if you aim for that amount chances are you will write a very helpful review.
Don't repeat yourself either. Keep everything informal and fluid. Write as if you are talking to a friend (that's what we all are here!).
Formatting I have only come across formatting recently but I find its very useful when aiming for an exceptional review. If you look to the right of the screen whilst writing a review there is a link which reads
"Tips for formatting you review"
Click on here and it takes you through some simple ways to make your review stand out. Essentially you surround a word with = signs to make it bold. This can be used to give different heading to parts of your review. As an example I will take you through some heading that can be used for many different products:
Introduction Start things with a short paragraph explaining what the product is or perhaps its history. With a book or a movie you may want to mention past works by the author or director. It just gives people a flavour of what you are talking about.
Plot Here you can talk about the actual story of a DVD or book. Give people a short description of the themes raised in the book along with a short synopsis. I would advise not giving too much away or it least making it evident that you are going to include spoilers. This gives people the chance to skip any sections they don't want to know about.
Characters Give a description of the character and what you thought of them. Be ruthless here , if you didn't like the acting let us know about it. Also it is good to talk about what the actor has previously done to give the reader an idea of there past performances.
Suitability You could replace this with "rating". Just a short paragraph or how suitable you see the product for its target audience. A product may be aimed at small children but you may think it isn't suitable for them.
Music and special effects Important in DVD reviews. Take us through what you thought about the music or the special effects and tell us what could be improved upon.
Cost Any product needs this section. You need to say where you bought the product and how much it cost. Tell us what you think of the price and if it is worth it. Also include information if you know of anywhere you can get it cheaper. Get on sites like Ebay and Play.com and see if its on there.
These are just a few sections and depending on the product more will be needed. Also remember to space your review out. One single block of writing isn't appealing to the eyes and you may find people don't bother reading or rating it.
Chose your review Think about what you are reviewing. Are people going to want to read about it? How much do you know about it? Also, if you are aiming to make money, how much is it worth. Items have pound signs next to their names to illustrate how much a review of that product is worth.
1 is worth 0.5p per rate 2 is worth 1p per rate 3 is worth 2p per rate
Also a product that has not had a review written about it yet will pay double per rate. Aim to write reviews about these products your earnings will go up quicker. Also however dont be afraid to write reviews about anything you feel like, even if it doesn't pay. If you write about interesting things people will value your input into the community more.
Get people to read and rate your reviews
You don't want to spend all that time writing a review for it to never be read. Get yourself reviewing other peoples reviews. Go through all the new reviews and have a read of as many as you can. If you do this you will not only boost your community points but you will put your name out there. Where people see that you have rated their review then most people are good at returning the rate.
Do everything you can to boost your community level. People are more likely to see rate your reviews if you have a high community colour. I have noticed since I have got my lovely purple dot that my rates have increased quite a bit.
You get five exceptional rates a day. You should try and use these but only give them to those reviews you deem to be exceptionally well written and useful. Also if you give someone an exceptional review it may help them to trust you. If you get a lot of people in your circle of trust you will have a group of regulars who will read your reviews but also it shows other members that you are trustworthy. It also boosts your community rating!
That's about it really. Remember to be friendly to people and leave them comments etc. Also make sure your spelling and grammar is spot on. I often annoy people with my bad spelling due to a cheap wireless keyboard that often lets me down. Your best bet is to put you review through a word processor before you publish it.
