Hey, I actually helped someone today.
Jun 27 '00
Ever since discovering the site, I've really bought into what Epinions is trying to accomplish. A large resource of product reviews by owners/users of the product, so ideally this would be the only place you'd need to go whether you're looking for a used car or trying to decide upon this evening's fast food restaurant.
But what happens when you still have questions?
I know when I'm actually using Epinions to research a product, I read the first few reviews, the ones that are HR'd by experts or my trusted members, and I don't worry about the other 37 to 560 other reviews. But what about the guy who combs through ten or fifteen reviews, all because of the one question burning in his mind that no one has answered. What is he to do? Should he leave a comment on that Epinion written in the beginning of April and anticipate a timely response? Of course not. He should EMail the reviewer. That's why I strongly recommend you show your email address in your profile.
I only recently made this decision. I was updating my profile and decided that making myself available for communication to the members of this community was well worth the risk of spam, requests to be read/trusted, and hate mail from disgruntled Saturn owners. I'm very glad I did.
Back when Epinions announced their income share program, and said it was based on whether or not the review helped the reader make a product decision, I had two thoughts: (1) How in the heck are they going to figure out if it helped or not, and more importantly (2) I'm screwed.
I write mostly auto reviews, and although some of them are pretty good, I'd seriously doubt that someone is going to go out and buy a car just because ol' Kauffman told 'em to. What they can do, though, is ask me a question, and that's how I know I made a difference.
It was just today that I allowed my email address to be shown, and for the first time, I actually know that something I did on here was worth more to someone than a good laugh.
A few months ago I wrote a review on my model of cellphone, it got read a few times, and that was that. Then today I get an EMail from a guy that says he just bought one, and after talking for a few minutes it gets really hot, and he wants to know if that's normal. I now get to tell him its not, he got one with something wrong, and told him to take it back to get it looked at. I have now officially helped someone on epinions.
What's the point of my nonsensical rambling?
How about a little messaging system for epinions users, accessible from their private profile, with a form on the bottom of every epinion to send them a message? Make users aware that its intent is for people to ask questions, not just chit-chat, but of course have no enforcement on that.
But what good does that do? I've already got email, dummy.
Well..
1. It provides a more direct, more private method of communications then comments, without intermingling it with business or personal email accounts that may be read by families, teachers, or bosses.
2. Pageviews. Say it with me: Pageviews, Pageviews, Pageviews. Every time you load a message, Epinions shows an ad, they make money. More money for them means more money for us (hopefully).
3. Affiliate/Product Links: Say the message was sent from the bottom of a review on a CD. The email message could have a footer tacked on by epinions, with an affiliate link to CDNow or whatever, incase the answer to the question provided enough motivation for them to purchase the product. Again, more for them, more for us, someone felt helpful, and someone got a new cd. It's a win, win, win, win situation.
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Epinions.com ID:
Kauffman
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Location: Middletown, OH
Reviews written: 22
Trusted by: 34 members
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