Review and Giveaway: Ciao.com and $25 Apple Gift Card

As you could probably guess, I love to try out new products and share my opinions.   Even before I started this site, I would write reviews for things I own over at various shopping and opinion sites. Until now though, I’d never been paid for leaving reviews – I’d always done it for fun and to share my opinions.

That is, until I discovered Ciao.com recently.

What it is:

Ciao is a new online shopping community and the perfect destination for all of your online shopping needs. Ciao.com features thousands of accurate and honest reviews from real people on everything from cell phones to laptops to MP3 players – even movies and beauty products. As a fun reward, Ciao also pays its members $1 per qualifying review- what a great way to earn some extra cash on the side!

Ciao is also a great place to connect with other shoppers and get the latest info on hot new products like the Wii Fit and Apple 3G iPhone.

Here’s my take on it:

I signed up with Ciao.com a month or so ago and have completed several reviews. They are easy to write – all you have to do is find your product on a list, and Ciao fills in all of the basic information about it for you.  All you have to provide, is your opinion – and they give you some good guidelines for doing that as well.  It’s easy to track how often your reviews have been viewed, and what other members have rated them (also part of how you earn money on the site). Similarly to a social networking site, you can become ‘friends’ with other Ciao members and create your own ‘Circle of Trust’ with them too. The ‘Circle of Trust’ is your personal network of trusted members – you can invite up to 100 members to join.  Any reviews that your trusted members write will then appear at the top of lists of reviews for items that you’re researching.

The ‘big’ question of course then becomes – can you really earn money doing reviews on Ciao?  I think it’s a matter of getting out of it what you put in.  Obviously, you need to write reviews, build up friendships and trust in members. It also helps to spend a little bit of time researching the popular items where reviews are being sought – and which reviews written by others are the most popular.  The more people who view your reviews, the more money you can earn. Therefore, even though you can write a review of anything the site offers, it makes a lot of sense to put some thought into it first. And to put some time in using the site as well.

The bottom line:

Ciao.com is a great resource – both for those who write reviews, and if you’re looking for new products as well.  I’ve used the site to research purchases and have found it very helpful with multiple reviews already posted for every item I’ve searched for. The site also shows purchase and pricing options from multiple retailers as well, so it’s pretty much like ‘one-stop’ shopping. 

Would you like to try it out?:

Courtesy of the Family Review Network, Ciao.com would like to offer a $25 Apple Gift card for one of you who are willing to give the site a try.  This is a bit different from other giveaways held here, so please read the rules carefully:

To enter this Ciao.com giveaway, first visit this page: http://www.ciao.com/specials/Write_a_review_in_3_simple_steps_GFOL

Then, follow this easy, three-step process:

1. Enter what product you’d like to review (e.g. iPod Touch).
2. Click on “write a review” and share your experience using this product, as well as rating, with the Ciao community of shoppers. Be sure to do a full-length review!
3. Join the Ciao community, start connecting with other shoppers and earn money for your reviews ($1 per qualified review). You can even upload video reviews!

Finally, once you have done at least one full-length product review (at least 120 of your own words), post your Ciao username and a link to your review in the comments section on this blog post.

Note: this contest is also open to current Ciao.com members, just be sure to include a link to a new review to qualify for this giveaway.

This giveaway is open only to US residents, and will end at 11:59 pm EST on November 5th.

THIS CONTEST IS NOW CLOSED – the random number generator has chosen comment #5 as the winner:

Congratulations to Michele Pineda who said “my username on Ciao is micaela6955 and I just did my first review here: http://www.ciao.com/Olympus_FE_240__Review_10054680“! I will be e-mailing you shortly to work out the details.

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