Archive for July, 2006
Sorry there’s been a delay in the blogs. We’ve been busy, and Jessica in marketing got married, and Thi in Ops got engaged, so there’s been a lot going on.
The videogame voting is opening up next week, so be sure to log in your vote. Big fat HDTVs are involved, so don’t let the weak reviewers win!
In this blog, I get to sneak peek a program we will be launching next week. It’s called “Refer-A-Friend”. Kind of self-explanatory, but I’ll explain anyway. We’ve noticed that some of our rabid contributors are convincing others to create Videopinions for us, and of course, we love that. Because we’re capitalist pigs (and evidence is strong that so are you), we thought we should reward you for saving us from having to run useless banner ads on other sites. So, we’re going to be offering a $5 bounty for every new Videopinion contributor that you land for us. Get grandma on board and – kaching!
Because there are always those few bad eggs trying to game the system all the time, we are launching this in beta. Meaning, we may not keep it up for long. (Rules and details of the program will be posted next week.) We hope that you continue to help us weed out some of the ‘evil-doers,’ so that we can keep programs like this going.
Thanks for your support so far…hope you’re all still having fun. Here’s my favorite from this week – what category do we put this in???!!
- Daphne
July 28th, 2006
I stumbled upon this cool online company this morning while reading DailyCandy on my way to work…
It’s called RadCru and they sell select wines from a different winery each day direct to the public. At 12:01am a new wine is launched on the site and it is up for grab until it sells out or when the clock strikes midnight – pretty neat isn’t it! Anyway, if you are a wine connoisseur or just a wanna-be I suggest you check out this site. (http://radcru.com/)
- Jess
July 25th, 2006
We launched the Gamer competition with GamePro.com last week! After an enormously successful promotion in June, we thought we’d shake it up by offering high-tech prizes this time around. You can win a 32” Sony Flat Screen HDTV. Which one of you reading this blog about a streaming video site doesn’t want one of those?
We think the contest will help get more creativity going in the videogame review area. Gamers, as a group, could be called more, uh… ‘technically savvy’. We even invited 5 of our members who sent in great gamer vpinions before to help with ‘how to’ videos. The entry upload process started already, and ends July 23. Then we go through a voting period to get 15 semifinalists. The finalists will be selected by GamePro.com and Expo TV editors, get that HDTV and also get on TV!
We hope you like the contest, and we’re loving the quality of what we’ve been getting so far! Looking forward to seeing who’s ‘the best’ in August!
- Daphne
July 12th, 2006
We call videopinions authentic, unbiased reviews of products in ‘real world’ testing by consumers. But, yes, videopinions aren’t truly *unpaid* product testimonials. They are paid for by Expo when we run a promotion or contest.
Why do we create incentives? We want to pay for the time and effort you took to create a videopinion. We offer incentives to get you going to help develop this emerging “art form” of good video reviews. And guess what? Our promos were enough to push thousands of you over the edge to figure out how to put a digital video together and to show how much stuff you know.
Can you be that starved for Amazon Gift Cards? Well, definitely, some of you are in it for the money…some of you haven’t even used the product (yes, it’s that obvious). But, the overwhelming majority of you just had some loud, really smart and experienced opinions about your stuff. Based on the enormous scripting you went through to demonstrate your products, and how sincere and personal some of you were, the cash seems like it was an excuse to just *let loose* about your stuff!
Where does the money come from? We do *not* pay you to tell you what to say. We’ll never tie payments to whether it’s positive or negative about a product. Although we’re advertiser supported, we never reject a vpinion because of what you said about a product . We’re actually working hard to get manufacturers to listen to what you have to say about their products. And, by the way, we are a start-up, so we’re still in the red on this whole payment thing…
Now that you know what we’re doing, we’ve been playing around with promo incentives — trying to weed out the scammers, and get more reward to the really helpful reviewers. We’ve reached out to some of you, to help guide us as we build the site. One thing we learned is that many of you prefer cash. So, we’re working to move to a cash-based system. We also hope to launch some other new incentives in the next few months, including a videogame review contest going on right now with our buddies at GamePro . We hope you’ll like our new programs and that they encourage you to continue to talk about your stuff. Feel free to write any comments on this blog about new things you’d like to see, or things you’d like us to improve. We know that if it doesn’t work for you, it doesn’t work at all!
- Daphne
July 10th, 2006
They’re not just decorative– I discovered during a power outage that they’re also a great safety tool when the lamps, no longer receiving a charge from their base, turned on automatically and illuminated my entire kitchen. Cool!
CANDELA RECHARGABLE LAMPS: You will love these artful little rechargeable lanterns that are a great alternative to candles. They feel sort of magical when you remove them from their base, and see that they automatically send out a soft glow.
- Jen
July 10th, 2006
These are not really parts of a backpack, but if you are not ‘on the go’ you might want to stash these in the house. Non-Backpack items that I have learned to keep around:
NON-wireless phone. Now here’s one that was invaluable in the 3-day NYC blackout. Sometimes in a blackout the phone lines will still work since it runs on a different system. There is a little bit of electricity in your phone line that can power touch-tone phones, but not cordless ones. If the slick looking cordless phones are the ones you want to have out in your home, then put the ugly corded one in your closet for safe keeping.
An extra word on Food and Water. So, I learned that you can go a week without food, but only 2-3 days without water. When the power goes out, you’re not supposed to drink the water. And water sells out pretty darn fast if that’s the case. If you don’t have to leave your home right away, you’re supposed to keep 1 gallon, per person, per day in supply. That takes care of both drinking and hygiene needs (yuk!). That’s a lot of space, but blackouts happen a lot, and unless you have a gas range, it’s hard to boil all that water. And on food, next time you’re in Sam’s Club, just buy a case or two of soup and stash it away.
So, I swear this is what I actually keep in 2 duffels under my bed, for the five of us. Cost me about $250, but every once in a while I pull it out to check on it like some secret security blanket. I admit, I’m a freak, but you may wish you lived next door to this freak family come the next blackout…
- Basic 2-3 day Survival Kits $100-160
- Solar radio/light $50
- Maglite $20
- Leatherman $30
- Medication
- Contacts
- Copies N/A
- Walkie Talkies $30
I hope you’ve found my emergency preparedness posts helpful.
- Daphne
July 6th, 2006
These are some things you might completely forget or not have handy unless you pre-pack! Old pair of glasses, or an extra set of contacts.
Finally a use for those old glasses you never threw out. Ever see that Twilight Zone where that guy loses his glasses after he’s the last one left on earth? Well, that ain’t happening to this four-eyes.
Money and other important paper. Money in small bills, I figured enough to pay for some hotel room for a couple nights. Also, a copy of all your passports for ID purposes, or birth certificates.
Medications that you need. I also packed a bunch of Tylenol. Pet supplies, too!
Check back tomorrow for my final emergency preparedness post.
- Daphne
July 5th, 2006
