Judy's Book: Reviews or Deals Site?
What Judy's Book was in 2006 and What it is Now in 2007
The promotion going on when I joined was a monetary promotion where I could earn $1 per review (of 50 words or more), up to 100 reviews before a deadline. When that promotion ended, the Barnes & Noble promotion began a month or so later, again allowing one to earn up to $100 worth of a Barnes & Noble gift card for writing up to 100 reviews. For any writer with free time, this was an easy way to earn.
Although the promotions stopped after the Barnes & Noble promotion, City Editor status then became another big goal for many Judy's Book reviewers who were reviewing for reward. To reach City Editor status one had to get his TrustScoreSM to an 8 or above (10 is the max). Once the City Editor status was reached, a City Editor earned his monthly $25 gift card by writing 5 reviews that month. The gift cards given out included gift cards for Target, AMC Theaters, Starbucks and others.
The reward for amount of work was not too good to be true, but it did not last. Around October of 2006 the City Editor reward qualifications changed quite drastically, from writing 5 reviews per month for a $25 gift card to 15 reviews per month for a smaller amounted $15 gift card.
When Judy's Book made these changes, many City Editors who were reviewing for the sake of reward were very unhappy. Many either wrote to Judy's Book to express extreme disappointment on the change of requirements and the lesser gift or complained to each other on- or off-site. It seemed to so many reviewers that Judy's Book was not grateful for its reviewers, and many Judy's Book reviewers chose to leave Judy's Book at that time, angry with the downgrade. However, some thought a $15 gift card was better than no gift card at all, and stayed to write the 15 reviews per month.
Now in January 2007, when I write this article, we reviewers are told that this is the last month we can earn a gift card as a monthly reward. In the Judy's Book City Editor blog, Judy's Book stated, "As of February 1, 2007 we will no longer be providing rewards for writing reviews. (We will continue to support review writing as we always have)." Most City Editors (who review only for reward) are pretty disappointed to lose that extra monthly bonus, but many saw it coming.
Why the changes? Judy's Book recently has become a new deals site, choosing to take its business in a different direction, no doubt to keep from going under. To some, this change does seem to show that Judy's Book is ignoring the established reviews section.
A few months back Judy's Book offered many City Editors to work at the deals site (but would no longer be eligible for City Editor rewards), and some have gone that route already, while many, many Judy's Book reviewers feel disgusted with the new deals site, saying that other deals sites are much easier to navigate, and Judy's Book's deals are unorganized.
To be fair to Judy's Book, though, it does seem like evolving into a deals site was a decision Judy's Book had to make if it wanted to survive. Having read a little bit of the Judy's Book CEO's, Andy Sack, blog, as well as keeping myself updated with the Judy's Book blog, it is obvious that Judy's Book just needed to go another route to avoid, perhaps, bankruptcy.
The deals site does sound promising, allowing one to be able to earn commission after posting a deal and someone ordering through his own posted deal. But as for the reviews section, it seems that we reviewers are saying goodbye to the life of it. Of course, we'll see what the future holds. Who knows - maybe Judy's Book will pick itself up and be able to reward reviewers again one day for their reviews. Yes there are those who just enjoy reviewing for the sake of reviewing and will continue to review at Judy's Book, but my guess is that many, no most other reviewers will review for the last time this month of January.
Although I love reviewing for the sake of reviewing, I do not plan to review for free. For me and maybe other former Judy's Book reviewers, we will have to find a new outlet to express our opinions about products and services, that is, if we reviewers want to receive small but compensational rewards for our reviews.
Published by Erika
Erika has been married for 8+ years to her college sweetheart and stays at home with their 2 children. She enjoys blogging, reading lots of books, finding good deals, homeschooling, and learning more from th... View profile
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- Judy's Book once gave generous promotions of up to $100 for writing 100 short reviews.
- As of February 2007, Judy's Book will no longer be rewarding reviewers, but will focus on the new deals site.
- Many current and former Judy's Book members are sad to see the review rewards cease.
15 Comments
Post a CommentHmmm... Judy's Book is interesting. I wasn't familiar, but will certainly take a look, thanks to your revealing piece on it. ;-) * * * Erika, I found you while searching AC for fellow CPs who might be interested in reading my new memoir and writing a review (or just a blurb). I'd show my gratitude by linking you to 3 of my online sites, with whatever you seek to promote. * * *
If you're interested/have some time in the coming weeks, you can learn about my book, a "humorous suspense memoir," here: http://squidoo.com/daddysgonnabuy * * *
Thanks, and keep up the good work!
Thanks, David & Christine, for your comments.
The Deals side is not very exciting to me; I liked the fact that I could write reviews. Of course I still can, but I can also write them on other sites, so what's to make Judy's Book unique? I agree that the Deals side is not maintained well. I was recently disappointed over there to see that Sephora had been taken down as one of their preferred deal companies. Other than Drugstore, Buy.com, and Apple, I don't see anything that really interests me. There are a lot of companies listed, but they don't offer any cash back, which is what makes visiting the Deals side worthwhile.
Those guys at Judy's book are so far in over their heads that the best thing they can do for their company is to sell it to someone who can take it to the next level. I suggested MySpace as an option, half joking. J'sB does provide a service that I believe is of great value: It is a place where I can warn people about the shitty things perpetrated by some businesses, things that people usually find out only when it's too late. For example: http://www.judysbook.com/members/CreativeSuggestions/posts/2006/4/362584/ And it's a place where I can point people in the direction of good things that they might otherwise miss! For example: http://www.judysbook.com/members/CreativeSuggestions/posts/2006/3/275230/ For those interested, my "Judy's book" stats: All (411) Reviews (174) Articles (61) Questions (22) Post Views: 14968 (that is: number of times people have read what I have posted)
TD and Yolanda, thank you for reading and for your comments. And TD, thanks for that extra info you supplied there; I certainly didn't know that but you set it straight for us, so thanks!
A thorough and fair article, Erika. I'd only disagree with the "bankruptcy" theory as Judy's Book incurred no debt due to the fact that it was funded by venture capitalists. Every expenditure Judy's Book made was paid for by this funding, including very inflated salaries, likely. It's the venture capitalists that lose their investment if Judy's Book ultimately fails. It was obvious, however, that their sharp left turn in focus was, as Andy Sack himself stated, a last-ditch effort to keep from closing the virtual doors. Judy's Book is now all but starting over in a market that is already saturated with similar sites much farther along than they are.
Thanks, Melissa. I will have to do that!
Insider Pages is offering a promotion in some areas where you receive a $50 Amazon gift card for completing 50 reviews in a two week time period. You can e-mail them (via the contact us link) to see if it is available in your area.
Thanks for reading and commenting, Melissa. I have to agree about the deals site, too. I have browsed the deals several times and I find it very unorganized, too, and just not worth my time trying to sort through it all. Seems like Judy's Book should be able to sort out those deals better, but I guess not right now. Best wishes to Judy's Book, though. No hard feelings here, just disappointment about the review rewards.
I guess you can only place so much in a comment box, so my comment got cut off! Anyway - in addition to having old and expired deals appear on the site, they also have incomplete (meaning there is no code or direct web link to access the deal) or inaccurate deals. I think that duplicate deals will increase when/if they provide incentives for enhancement. I wrote to them with some suggestions, but didn't really receive a response. Management used to value/respond to feedback from members but they don't listen anymore. I understand the reasoning for the deals site, but I think they have a long way to go before it is functional and I don't know that they will ever be able to compete with Slick Deals and Fatwallet.