Admin Blog

 

In the last 19 days, we have had 30 reviews in our business review section.  I am happy to see the Business Reviews finally getting some attention. Early on when the reviews were not getting attention, I was dreading it might have been a colossal mistake.  The Press Enterprise story this week helped, but the increase has been happening all month.

Business are listening, at least I hope they are.  They are not all wonderful testimonials either. Ask Zip fusion, Carls Jr. Eeeek!!, I have cringed at some of their reviews.

Here are a few things I would like to see. Maybe I have to be more aggressive to get it done.  Maybe the members can help.

 

• 1. I would love to see business get behind the reviews and actually ask more customers to review them. Yes, I am guilty of not doing this. I own Eastvale Computer Services and I really do not ask for reviews as I should, but I need to.

 

• 2. Tell your local customers about the site. If they do not live here, at least tell them to read your reviews. Make a link directly to your review page so they can read it.

 

• 3. Perhaps offer coupons for reviews. Have them present their review for a discount. Something like that. You can always very membership by doing a member search on the forum. Use your creativity that got you in business in the first place and think of an incentive.

 

• 4. The site is giving you good placement in Google and we are giving you a great opportunity to promote your business. Throw us a bone and help promote the site at your checkout area. I see lots of business cards and flyers. None of which can help your business. WE CAN.

 

• 5. "Good placement in Google"? you say. Try doing a search for Pizza Nova Eastvale, Pura Salon or pita pit Eastvale. This site comes up first. Actually your business reviews might come up first. Gee, I hope they are good :) To do that, to get your local business like Pita Pit location for your local community tops in a search on Google will take quite some time. Lots of time has been put in to get this to happen.  Utilize this resource. It is free with a big red bow on it.

 

I have been told I am undercutting my advertisement sponsorships by doing this for businesses for free. No, advertisements here get the big views. Sara's Sassy K-9's received (as of the 19th of June) 19,653 views of her banner this month. That's 1,034 per day. Couple that with her  telling people about the site and ASKING for reviews from her customers equals one busy dog groomer. So her $65.00 advertisement spot is a small price to pay.

So, I hope you all understand why we absolutely do not permit blatant business promotions in the forums. There are far better ways to get your business noticed than just a cheap plug....aahhem, that will get deleted as soon as we see it. Think about it.

I added a new search tool.  You can find it on the top right corner of the site. Start typing and it displays the results.

Vbulletin Software, who is our forum software is getting a nice upgrade in May. The release is almost final and we will upgrade the forum shortly after. Here are some cool enhancements coming:

Blogs - We will have a blog area on the site. Users can blog, pontificate and express their opinions on whatever they want. Enter at your own risk people!

Photo Albums - Users will have their own photo albums in their profile.

Groups - Are you into collecting old microwaves? Start your own group and allow others to join in. Basically it is a one thread type of topic in that group.

User Profile Enhancements - You will get to be as creative as you want with colors, backgrounds and other cool design elements in your profile.

The problems: Our board is heavily modified, so please bear with us if there are issues.