Summer Bonus Points

Mine arrived Friday night in the end.

This has been quite lucrative really, double money really helps boost it up!

I wrote two reviews this month (with a pound sign each) but it did not really change my earnings!!! Well, Im not popular in the site with an average read of between 40-50. Maybe this is the reason why I cant really see the difference of having the summer bonus challenge. However, I verified this in my account and it seems that Ciao reflected it and indicated them as summer bonus earnings, aside from my 2 pounds extra from the premium fund for the month of May.

Also, I found out that when I posted my reviews, Ciao changed the remarks from: ''THIS REVIEW ALREADY CONTAINS MORE THAN 120 WORDS. AS A CIAO MEMBER YOU CAN EARN UP TO £5 WITH THIS REVIEW" to this statement:''20-150 words can be stored as a quick review; 120+ words can be stored as a standard review'' with a £ (pound) sign...

I did a review on quick review (a non-pound earner) when Ciao introduced this option last April 19, 2007. I got the previous remark after I posted it and for me it was misleading. So I suspected that it was taken seriously by ciao.

I've actually found that this month I've been struggling for rates, as I've seen a lot churning out reviews and not rating around. I've noticed other members reviews struggling to get the average rates they usually obtain as well. It's a shame as it's a nice bonus, but some are happy to receive it but not help others do well out of it. Lisa x

lisa2062 wrote:

I've actually found that this month I've been struggling for rates, as I've seen a lot churning out reviews and not rating around. I've noticed other members reviews struggling to get the average rates they usually obtain as well. It's a shame as it's a nice bonus, but some are happy to receive it but not help others do well out of it. Lisa x

The trouble is that unless you have lots of people on alerts it's easy to miss their reviews because there are so many new reviews being posted. Personally I prefer not to have alerts because hate having my inbox full all the ime and i get loads of other stuff.

I find that if I don't read and rate for even half a day the number of reviews added in that time is so high that I don't know that I have missed reviews I might have wanted to read.

Also, by reading according to alerts i could miss good reviews by new members so i prefer not to use them at all.

The other option is to read new reviews in each category - travel books, etc individually but I just don't have enough time in the day

fizzywizzy wrote:

I find that if I don't read and rate for even half a day the number of reviews added in that time is so high that I don't know that I have missed reviews I might have wanted to read.

I dont know how this review alert works. I indicated some of my CoTs but I havent receive any alert. Does it directly goes to the email account?

fizzywizzy wrote:

The other option is to read new reviews in each category - travel books, etc individually but I just don't have enough time in the day.

This is how I search for reviews by category on in the new reviews link.

I understand from things other members have said that the alerts thing doesn't work too well but yes, the idea is you get a message to your e-mail when someone you have set up alerts for writes a review.

It does seem as if there is a lot less people reading this month then there usually is, my reviews getting a fair few less reads than normal.
People are certainly posting a lot more as names you normally see on alerts once or twice are popping up more often.

Of course the reads could be less as this month is always quiet nd is why Ciao have offered double money... they know this is the case and are encouraging more people to visit during these lovely summer evenings!

I've got a separate e-mail account for my Ciao alerts....Ciao seemed to have problems with my other e-mail account, and I happened to have an otherwise unused account lying around (came with wanadoo). It works well for me....of course I don't actually know if I'm missing any of my COT's reviews, but no-one's said anything!

I do find though that with certain members I get more than one alert for the same review......

If people's alerts do not always work, and as fizzywizzy said for others who may not have the time they may miss reviews either by older members or new members, then the simple answer is to use the archive! That's what it's there for.
I am always a day behind with my reading (80% of the time) as whatever is posted today, I read tomorrow and I can see all the reviews posted in the entire day.

I will check this. Thanks.