For a long time, there were very few new rating lists added to the main RateItAll section. The vast majority of the new stuff came in from members in the form of Weblists. This dynamic was mostly the function of RateItAll not having any resources, and partly the function of not having efficient tools to add new listings.
Well, now I have some help over here and some new tools, and some folks have been working very hard at expanding our product coverage. I wrote already about all the new baby product review sections that we've added. More recently we've been focusing on pet product reviews (pet beds, pet carriers, dog health products, etc), health and beauty reviews (hair styling tools, bath scales, fitness shakes), and sporting good reviews (archery products, badminton racquets, baseball bats, etc.). We've also added sections for radar detector reviews, luggage reviews, and Christian books.
Weblists continue to be a crucial part of the site - I think they are largely responsible for giving RIA it's unique "rate anything" flavor and personality. But I also think it's time for the RIA team to start pulling OUR weight in making sure we have coverage for popular product rating categories.
If anyone has ideas / requests for product rating categories that they would like to see covered, please let me know and I'll see what I can do.
Showing posts with label weblists. Show all posts
Showing posts with label weblists. Show all posts
8/27/08
7/31/08
Videos and Weblists
I love how folks are starting to embed videos into their lists - some of these are really entertaining.
Check out Wiseguy's recent lists on 2008 Campaign Ads and Awkward Political Moments.
Check out Wiseguy's recent lists on 2008 Campaign Ads and Awkward Political Moments.
7/11/08
Rating Lists vs Yes/No Polls
One of the things that makes RIA so great is the creativity that folks have shown in using our Weblist tool to build fun and engaging content. We've seen the RIA rating engine used for everything from product rating, to travel diaries, to music rating, to video rating, and even reviewer rating.
But every once in a while, I believe our lists can start to stray from RIA's wheelhouse of rating / opinion related content, into things like general self expression tools, or yes/no polls.
And I don't want to go in that direction. RateItAll is an opinion / rating community. That's what we do, and we're not going to overreach.
An example of what I'm talking about are some of Dyna's recent lists like "Do You Remember" and "Have You Ever." It's been fun seeing folks tell stories about different experiences that they've had. However, these are not rating lists. It's very difficult to rate, on a one to five star basis, "Do Your Remember Your Very First Car."
We're not total hardasses about this - occasionally, a self expression list or two will slide on by. However, as a general rule, we're going to stick to rating stuff. That's our world, and that's what we know. So if you see some of these lists go invisible, that's me just trying to reign things in a bit.
But every once in a while, I believe our lists can start to stray from RIA's wheelhouse of rating / opinion related content, into things like general self expression tools, or yes/no polls.
And I don't want to go in that direction. RateItAll is an opinion / rating community. That's what we do, and we're not going to overreach.
An example of what I'm talking about are some of Dyna's recent lists like "Do You Remember" and "Have You Ever." It's been fun seeing folks tell stories about different experiences that they've had. However, these are not rating lists. It's very difficult to rate, on a one to five star basis, "Do Your Remember Your Very First Car."
We're not total hardasses about this - occasionally, a self expression list or two will slide on by. However, as a general rule, we're going to stick to rating stuff. That's our world, and that's what we know. So if you see some of these lists go invisible, that's me just trying to reign things in a bit.
4/28/08
Rating Art
RIA Member Planetary Gear has created some of my all time favorite weblists.
Check out his lists for Dali and Picasso - he's added pictures of each painting. Want an enjoyable and peaceful hour or so? Try speedrating either the Dali or Picasso list and watch the art go by...
Check out his lists for Dali and Picasso - he's added pictures of each painting. Want an enjoyable and peaceful hour or so? Try speedrating either the Dali or Picasso list and watch the art go by...
2/15/08
Best Song from the 1990's?
I don't know what it is, but you can probably find it on Jamie McBain's Music from the 1990's list.
I was speed rating this list, and I couldn't get through it. Nearly 800 song titles, all with descriptions.... incredible. Remember, on these song lists, you can actually embed the track by grabbing song widgets from Imeem.
I was speed rating this list, and I couldn't get through it. Nearly 800 song titles, all with descriptions.... incredible. Remember, on these song lists, you can actually embed the track by grabbing song widgets from Imeem.
2/14/08
2/13/08
Weblist on Phoenix Local News
I've heard from a couple of reliable sources that HistoryFan's weblist "Worst Valentines Day Gifts" was featured on the Channel 10 local news in Phoenix.
Nice work HF.
Nice work HF.
1/15/08
Two Weblist Tweaks Went Live
We rolled in two new changes to how we manage Weblists today.
Change #1 - On RateItAll, we let people leave whenever they want, removing all of their content in the process. We firmly believe that your thoughts are your own, and if you want to leave - for any reason - you can do it, with no questions asked. We're pretty unique on the web that way.
However, one point of contention has been that when disgruntled reviews self purge they not only remove their own reviews, but by deleting weblists that they had published, they remove all of the reviews that others had posted within those lists. At times, this has bordered on the catastrophic. Hundreds if not thousands of other peoples' reviews deleted in one fell swoop.
Well we changed this today. You can still leave whenever you want, deleting all of your reviews, comments, helpful votes, profile, etc - but from now on, all public weblists and their associated reviews will be relocated to this account should the list's creator choose to leave. This will eliminate the scenario in which a disgruntled member has the power to delete the reviews of others.
Change #2 - As some of you may remember, we have a "User Page Only" status that can be manually applied by admins to Weblists that don't adhere to our guidelines. Typically, this status is only used on lists that are exact duplicates of lits that already exist on the site. This User Page Only hides the list from our main index, and prevents reviews posted from showing up on the recent comments page. Today, we've also hidden these lists from our search results. The idea is to avoid confusion for new users who may see numerous identical lists and listings in the search results.
Change #1 - On RateItAll, we let people leave whenever they want, removing all of their content in the process. We firmly believe that your thoughts are your own, and if you want to leave - for any reason - you can do it, with no questions asked. We're pretty unique on the web that way.
However, one point of contention has been that when disgruntled reviews self purge they not only remove their own reviews, but by deleting weblists that they had published, they remove all of the reviews that others had posted within those lists. At times, this has bordered on the catastrophic. Hundreds if not thousands of other peoples' reviews deleted in one fell swoop.
Well we changed this today. You can still leave whenever you want, deleting all of your reviews, comments, helpful votes, profile, etc - but from now on, all public weblists and their associated reviews will be relocated to this account should the list's creator choose to leave. This will eliminate the scenario in which a disgruntled member has the power to delete the reviews of others.
Change #2 - As some of you may remember, we have a "User Page Only" status that can be manually applied by admins to Weblists that don't adhere to our guidelines. Typically, this status is only used on lists that are exact duplicates of lits that already exist on the site. This User Page Only hides the list from our main index, and prevents reviews posted from showing up on the recent comments page. Today, we've also hidden these lists from our search results. The idea is to avoid confusion for new users who may see numerous identical lists and listings in the search results.
1/9/08
New Item Suggestions Cleaned Out
I'm happy to report that due to the efforts of Jose the Super Intern, we are caught up on new item suggestions for the first time...... well, let's just say for the first time in a long time.
Here's a little refresher as to how we handle new item suggestions for lists:
For the RateItAll and Local lists, we respond to them as quickly as we can get to them.
For Weblists, we try and wait seven days to give the list maker a chance to make a go or no go decision on the suggestion. What this means is that if you suggest a new item for a Weblist - even if the Weblist's owner is not active on the site - it will get responded to in about 7-10 days.
And remember - if you suggest a new item for a list (RateItAll, Weblist, or Local) by clicking the link that says "add a new item to this list" one any list page, you get credit for that page in terms of revenue sharing. This is an extremely powerful way to "claim" important pages of the site that also helps us out a lot as well. For example, if there is a hot new cell phone coming out, why not submit a listing? When everybody wants one of these phones next Christmas, you might have some real earning potential.
Here's a little refresher as to how we handle new item suggestions for lists:
For the RateItAll and Local lists, we respond to them as quickly as we can get to them.
For Weblists, we try and wait seven days to give the list maker a chance to make a go or no go decision on the suggestion. What this means is that if you suggest a new item for a Weblist - even if the Weblist's owner is not active on the site - it will get responded to in about 7-10 days.
And remember - if you suggest a new item for a list (RateItAll, Weblist, or Local) by clicking the link that says "add a new item to this list" one any list page, you get credit for that page in terms of revenue sharing. This is an extremely powerful way to "claim" important pages of the site that also helps us out a lot as well. For example, if there is a hot new cell phone coming out, why not submit a listing? When everybody wants one of these phones next Christmas, you might have some real earning potential.
12/29/07
Closing out 2007
I hope that everyone is having a safe and joyful holiday season. I've been more or less unplugged for a few days, eating too much and spending time with family. It's been great.
But now it's time to get back to work.
You may have noticed that we've been featuring some 2007 lists on the home page - I think that we're just scratching the surface on what can be done here. If you have some ideas as to some themes that might make good lists capturing aspects of the year that was 2007, now's the time to push them out into the world. If they're good enough, we'll put them on the home page.
But now it's time to get back to work.
You may have noticed that we've been featuring some 2007 lists on the home page - I think that we're just scratching the surface on what can be done here. If you have some ideas as to some themes that might make good lists capturing aspects of the year that was 2007, now's the time to push them out into the world. If they're good enough, we'll put them on the home page.
12/12/07
More on Making Money with RateItAll
Some of us are starting to make some decent money on RateItAll via the RateItAll Economy Program, just for doing what we were doing anyway - making lists, adding items to other people's lists, and writing reviews. My personal account is now getting a check every couple of months from Google for more than $100.
Yesterday, I posted a series of reviews sharing my tips for how to maximize earnings. These reviews can be found within the Maximizing Revenue list.
From my experience, the two best ways to make money on RateItAll are by 1) Building quality lists; and 2) Adding high profile items to existing lists.
Both in these activities result in a 50% ad rotation share on the pages you contribute.
In terms of lists, it's all about getting Google to notice the list, and send it traffic. Here are the important things in making this happen:
1) Link to your lists from other sites. If you have a blog or MySpace page, make sure to link directly to your lists using the proper keywords in the link itself. For example, if I was promoting the list Dog Food Brands on my blog, I'd want to make sure to link to the list using the appropriate words: in this case: Dog Food Ratings
I wouldn't want to link like this: check out my list about dog food. The words "my list" doesn't describe the page, and make it harder for Google to know when to display your list as a search result.
2) Use the list widgets on your blogs or profile pages. These list widgets send both traffic, and give you links.
3) Write unique content for your list descriptions, and individual item descriptions (with generous use of the list / item's keywords). If you don't write your descriptions, your list will appear to Google to be too similar to every other list page, and not worthy of sending search traffic to.
4) Title your lists and items appropriately. If your list is about country music songs, call it "Best Country Songs of All Time" - don't call it "Stuff You'd Hear at the Farm." If you use colloquial language, Google will have no way to figure out what the page is really about. Try and title your lists and items with words that people are actually searching for.
5) Seed your lists with reviews. This gets to the unique content mentioned in item 3. Also, items with reviews are much more likely to attract more reviews - making it that much more likely that Google will send you traffic.
6) Target niches. The serious web publishers try and target verticals for which there is an ad market.
Remember, lists that duplicate other lists will often be put on "invisible" mode. Be creative, create unique resources, write unique content, and send your pages external links when possible.
Yesterday, I posted a series of reviews sharing my tips for how to maximize earnings. These reviews can be found within the Maximizing Revenue list.
From my experience, the two best ways to make money on RateItAll are by 1) Building quality lists; and 2) Adding high profile items to existing lists.
Both in these activities result in a 50% ad rotation share on the pages you contribute.
In terms of lists, it's all about getting Google to notice the list, and send it traffic. Here are the important things in making this happen:
1) Link to your lists from other sites. If you have a blog or MySpace page, make sure to link directly to your lists using the proper keywords in the link itself. For example, if I was promoting the list Dog Food Brands on my blog, I'd want to make sure to link to the list using the appropriate words: in this case: Dog Food Ratings
I wouldn't want to link like this: check out my list about dog food. The words "my list" doesn't describe the page, and make it harder for Google to know when to display your list as a search result.
2) Use the list widgets on your blogs or profile pages. These list widgets send both traffic, and give you links.
3) Write unique content for your list descriptions, and individual item descriptions (with generous use of the list / item's keywords). If you don't write your descriptions, your list will appear to Google to be too similar to every other list page, and not worthy of sending search traffic to.
4) Title your lists and items appropriately. If your list is about country music songs, call it "Best Country Songs of All Time" - don't call it "Stuff You'd Hear at the Farm." If you use colloquial language, Google will have no way to figure out what the page is really about. Try and title your lists and items with words that people are actually searching for.
5) Seed your lists with reviews. This gets to the unique content mentioned in item 3. Also, items with reviews are much more likely to attract more reviews - making it that much more likely that Google will send you traffic.
6) Target niches. The serious web publishers try and target verticals for which there is an ad market.
Remember, lists that duplicate other lists will often be put on "invisible" mode. Be creative, create unique resources, write unique content, and send your pages external links when possible.
12/11/07
Adding Music to Weblists
I'd been hearing about this music site called Imeem for a while. It's a site that lets you upload your music and share it with others. They have a massive user base, and by association, a massive library of music.
My understanding is that they have almost as much music as iTunes. While you can't download the tracks, you can stream them (play them). Furthermore, the record labels are on board, so it's totally legal.
Even better, they offer widgets for any of the songs in their database. Just like how YouTube lets you post videos onto your sites, Imeem lets you paste songs - on your RateItAll profile and in your Weblists.
So for all of those Weblists about songs, there is now a reliable way to build songs into Weblists. I've set up a list of some of my favorite songs here.
Of course, on RateItAll, you can also add songs to other people's Weblists by clicking the "add description" link on any item that doesn't already have a description. So we can help each other to build out our lists.
To add Imeem tracks to any weblist, item page, or profile page, here's what you do:
1) Join Imeem.com
2) Search for the band or track you want (filter by "music")
3) Copy the embed code
4) Paste it into 1) a field on your profile page; 2) an item page on your weblist, or 3) an item page on somebody else's list.
Awesome.
So now we have people building cool lists with photos (here and here), cool lists with video (here and here), and cool lists with music.
I love the Internet.
Here's a cool old song called Take a Picture from a band called Filter.
My understanding is that they have almost as much music as iTunes. While you can't download the tracks, you can stream them (play them). Furthermore, the record labels are on board, so it's totally legal.
Even better, they offer widgets for any of the songs in their database. Just like how YouTube lets you post videos onto your sites, Imeem lets you paste songs - on your RateItAll profile and in your Weblists.
So for all of those Weblists about songs, there is now a reliable way to build songs into Weblists. I've set up a list of some of my favorite songs here.
Of course, on RateItAll, you can also add songs to other people's Weblists by clicking the "add description" link on any item that doesn't already have a description. So we can help each other to build out our lists.
To add Imeem tracks to any weblist, item page, or profile page, here's what you do:
1) Join Imeem.com
2) Search for the band or track you want (filter by "music")
3) Copy the embed code
4) Paste it into 1) a field on your profile page; 2) an item page on your weblist, or 3) an item page on somebody else's list.
Awesome.
So now we have people building cool lists with photos (here and here), cool lists with video (here and here), and cool lists with music.
I love the Internet.
Here's a cool old song called Take a Picture from a band called Filter.
12/10/07
Planetary Gear's Weblists
If you want to see some fantastic weblists, check out Planetary Gear's recent lists: optical illusions, the Works of Rene Magritte, and his Life Cubed list on the paintings of Pablo Picasso.
PG uses HTML to add full sized photos to his pages - talking about making full use of the tool.
PG uses HTML to add full sized photos to his pages - talking about making full use of the tool.
3/14/07
Home Page Tweak
Guys, you can now start making a new rating list right from the home page - check out the middle panel of the yellow section. No need to dig down through your profile page.
3/4/07
View and Manage Reviews Within Your Weblists
OK, we've turned on a feature that lets you view all recent reviews that have been posted to your Weblists. You can view all, or using the drop down filter, isolate the reviews for specific Weblists.
We've also included the ability for you to delete specific reviews that have been posted to their lists. I encourage you to use this feature only in extreme instances. To delete a review, click the scissors icon next to the review.
To access this feature, click the link under your profile image that says "Create / Edit / Manage Weblists."
Here are some screenshots:
And here's a view of the actual display and delete icon:
We've also included the ability for you to delete specific reviews that have been posted to their lists. I encourage you to use this feature only in extreme instances. To delete a review, click the scissors icon next to the review.
To access this feature, click the link under your profile image that says "Create / Edit / Manage Weblists."
Here are some screenshots:
And here's a view of the actual display and delete icon:
3/1/07
Item Relocation Tool
Good news - we just fixed our tool that lets us relocate items from list to list. For example, we can now start paring back our Current Release Movies list into something a little more current.
So if you see an item that is miscategorized, please feel free to drop me a line.
We're also working on turning the feature back on that allows Weblist publishers to view and manage all the reviews that are coming through their Weblists. Old timers will remember that we used to offer this, but it got lost in last year's redesign.
So if you see an item that is miscategorized, please feel free to drop me a line.
We're also working on turning the feature back on that allows Weblist publishers to view and manage all the reviews that are coming through their Weblists. Old timers will remember that we used to offer this, but it got lost in last year's redesign.
2/5/07
Widget Style
I really like the way these rating list widgets come out with MuseStorm. I'm going to see if there's some easy way to make this tool available for everyone so anybody can export any list in cool formats. To build your own, just click on the "Add To Your Web Site" link at the bottom.
2/1/07
The Ultimate Collection of Hot Sauces
Kamylienne is now covering 800 different kinds of hot sauces on her best hot sauce list. That's EIGHT HUNDRED. Is there a more complete collection on the web - or in the world, for that matter? Shouldn't she win an award of some kind? At a minimum, somebody should be supplying her with a lifetime supply of the hot sauce of her choice.
1/24/07
Video Lists
Man, these video lists are addictive. When somebody takes the time to pull together the best video clips within a particular genre, the result can be pretty impressive. And I think we're only at the tip of the iceberg - I'm getting ready to fire up RateItAll's annual Super Bowl Commercial list... this year we'll have the videos embedded.
If you haven't checked out Planetary Gear's list of Chapelle Show Skits, do so now... it's excellent.
Also, if you make a list with videos, try and remember to tag it with "riavideos" - this way we can keep them all together.
If you haven't checked out Planetary Gear's list of Chapelle Show Skits, do so now... it's excellent.
Also, if you make a list with videos, try and remember to tag it with "riavideos" - this way we can keep them all together.
1/22/07
Daily Show List
Check out Loerke's list of Daily Show Correspondents. He's dropped in videos for a number of the pages... I wasted about 45 minutes this morning watching Daily Show videos. This is a fantastic Weblist that makes use of all of the media tools that RIA has to offer.
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