amanzi: I think people are way too harsh in this forum. Well done to those that manage to follow through with their ideas and actually launch something.
Ironically though you were the harshest. I prefer to sugercoat things and am more glass half full.The problems are nothing getting a web designer can't fix.
Thank you.
What problems would they be?
Mainly design and usability ones. But it is something you may want to get professional advice on, as web designers will know the best options. But off the top of my head, it isn't responsive for mobiles, the buttons look unprofessional and made in word, and infact they don't look like buttons that you can click. The links on the footer, when you hover over them the font size changes causing all the links to move position. etc. It is all about the image it projects to someone wanting to post a review.
xpd: And only 1 store taking part in it... theres still nothing stopping people from abusing it and leaving fake reviews etc.
And taking the p1ss like this could actually lead to trouble for them.... what if someone took them up on that offer ? ;)
"Does ShopReviews.co.nz take payments from retailers for better reviews? Our kickback packages start at $1,000,000 for a basic review to $10,000,000 for two pages of fantastic reviews and a perfect score. Please contact us for more information on where to deliver the cash."
There are also heaps of fake review websites. Also websites that have their own websites I have seen some that remove any of the negative feedbacks. Also some companies reward people for positive reviews, such as free credit etc. So any reviews have to be taken with a grain of salt. The thing is that normally people won't write a review for receiving good products or service. They are motivated by either a reward or something that goes well beyond the normal level of product or services, either positive or negative.
Thank you for acknowledging that the Internet space is in need of an honest shop review site that can be trusted. As for people not posting positive feedback? Check out Trade me.
amanzi: I think people are way too harsh in this forum. Well done to those that manage to follow through with their ideas and actually launch something.
Ironically though you were the harshest. I prefer to sugercoat things and am more glass half full.The problems are nothing getting a web designer can't fix.
Thank you.
What problems would they be?
Mainly design and usability ones. But it is something you may want to get professional advice on, as web designers will know the best options. But off the top of my head, it isn't responsive for mobiles, the buttons look unprofessional and made in word, and infact they don't look like buttons that you can click. The links on the footer, when you hover over them the font size changes causing all the links to move position. etc. It is all about the image it projects to someone wanting to post a review.
Thank you. You make excellent points. As for professional advice? Who's done this before - properly? I've been in the online marketing and retailing game for many years now and I've wasted thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars on 'professional advice'. I've found that a suck-it-and see approach works best when doing something that's not 'off the peg' or just new. Find out what works, what doesn't, get the system right and iron out the wrinkles before approaching a web professional with a proper and explicit brief for their coding and design skills. Rather than spend $12,000 on something that later has to be changed, I spent just a few hours (I know, it shows) on something I can experiment with and get feedback from. Cheers.
jnimmo: So the business model is looking for retailers to pay you to monitor their reputation? If I were a in the market for a reputation monitoring service, this is what I would be looking for:
Reports/metrics and monitoring of social media pages, twitter mentions
A way to verify that reviewers were actually customers of mine - and a way to show that to people browsing reviews
Even if you couldn't go that far - they need to be guaranteed to be real people, with a reputation themselves. i.e. integrated to other online services
Professional web app design
Not another online directory where I have to maintain my business details (Finda, Zenbu, Yellow, Facebook business, Google Maps, etc etc etc)
As a consumer it would need to be as frictionless as possible. Not interested in creating yet another user account, not interested in waiting for manual review moderation.
I think this would be a pretty hard market to get into... I wonder whether it could make more sense to use something like Google business reviews as a backend and use your site to present lists of shops
Thank you. Great points you've made and I'm sure you're right. However, I've been in the Internet marketing and retailing business for many years doing things I was told wouldn't work for the internet. In fact I've sold two successful businessses that 'shouldn't have worked' and I'm currently running another one that gives me time to play with this sort of thing. This one is unlikely ever to be a viable business proposition on its own but it's something that's needed (as prospective customers keep telling me when they phone ask if they can read my Internet shop reviews somewhere). Trade Me has shown how popular reviews are and educated people to both read and write them. Cheers.
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