Hey guys!
I've noticed a lot of video reviews coming in lately – even from folks not in the actual video review program and we love that! We've also had a lot of system updates happen in the past month so I figured it was time to do an update on video reviews in general, as well as invite more of you to participate in the sponsored video review program.
To begin with, video can be uploaded or embedded by anyone who wishes to add video to their reviews. A full text review should still be done as video can be deleted by hosts (youtube, vimeo, etc) and we'd hate to have empty reviews up on the site. Also, not everyone likes to watch videos – or is even able to – so full text is mandatory.
Video on a review, whether embedded or uploaded, needs to be approved so don't stress if it doesn't show up right away. Sometimes it's approved within hours, sometimes it takes a few days – especially on weekends or if you do your reviews late at night or are in a different time zone. We only work so many hours a day and likely aren't around to do the approving, etc after business hours and on weekends. So please be patient. We love video and will get it up as soon as we can, okay?
As for the video review program, we'd love to have more of you participating! It's very easy to join – just shoot me an email and so long as you're a) an advanced reviewer and b) can do a decent quality video including a bit of editing (we require that you, as part of the program, add a cover – I'm sure you've seen it on other videos, the musical bit with the couple and the EF branding – so it's recognizable as an EF sponsored video, which you must add using a video editing program such as Windows Movie Maker) you can pretty much be a part of the program.
We do reserve the right to decline your request, however. Very new reviewers who have not yet built a trusting relationship or solid review skills may be asked to wait a few months, participate more, do more reviews. This goes for those who consistently get less than useful ratings on their reviews, as well, regardless of the time they've been in the community. Other than that, however, the more the merrier!
When you join the video review program it enables you to receive an extra free product each month that does not effect your regular review, manufacturer sponsored reviews or descriptive reviews. You're given three weeks to complete your assignment. Requests for assignments should be made to me via email. Requests should be for good, solid products that do not have a gazillion reviews already. We don't want to do a lot of video on products that already have numerous negative reviews or even excessive positive reviews. Smartballs or the hitachi, for example. Products requests should, in general, be for product under $75 if you're ranked 6.5 or higher, within your normal price range if you're ranked below that.
We also don't need seven videos on one product, for the most part, so try to keep your requests to things without vids, please!
We do require, if accepted into the video review program, that you do some paperwork. First there is a master agreement. This form gives us rights to the videos you produce for the agreed upon price and is your guarantee to us that the videos don't infringe on anyone elses copyright, etc. It's a legal form and is legally binding. This form needs only be filled out once. Second is a work attachment. This form, again, gives us rights to your video, states which product you are reviewing as well as the agreed upon price. This form needs to be filled out with each and every video you do. Both forms need to be either faxed in to EF or emailed to me.
Payment for video reviews is generally made in EF gift cards. Payment amounts vary based upon the cost of the product and our discretion. Your rank or length in the community, for instance, may effect your payment. If you have a blog with a super google rank and are going to post the review on the blog, that may effect your payment. Lots of factors come into play here.
If accepted into the program, assignments are made by me after receiving your emailed request. You need to accept or decline and, as with all assignments, finish up via the shipping screen.
Now, on to videos in general and the uploading and embedding of them.
If you are in the review program, you must upload rather than embed. If not, you can do either; upload to our site and wait for it to be approved and put on our youtube, then embedded and posted or put it on your own youtube, vimeo, vzaar, blip.tv, etc and enter the embed code yourself. Either way, directions are similar.
Including Video in your Reviews:
1.Find your product in the product search if it is a non assigned review (ie. Something you purchased) or in your assignment list if it is an assigned review.
2.Click “write review” and choose the template you wish to use. This can be standard, extended or off-site, depending upon the assignment.
3.Write your review as you normally would. Make sure it is full and complete and stands alone as a good, solid, useful review even without the addition of video.
4.Submit the review
5.You will be given the option on the next screen to get a widget or add video. At this point, you can add your video either by embedding it with your own embed code or uploading it. (if it's a video review program review, you MUST upload, not embed)
6.Click the option of your choice and you will enter the video wizard.
7.Add your embed code or upload the video. Uploading can take a long time for some folks, especially if you have a slow connection. If you've uploaded, be patient. Do not close the screen or click next until it tells you the video was successfully uploaded. If you do not wait the video will not upload properly and you'll have to redo it.
8.Once video is uploaded or the embed code is added, click next
9.This will take you to a preview screen. Occasionally, the video doesn't show up there. If that happens, it's ok. It's there, just not previewing.
10.Click next again
11.This will take you to an info page. Add your video title, a description and some tags. Keep tags simple, ie. “tantus, tantus dildo, silicone, silicone dildo, realistic dildo”
12.Click next again
13.This will take you to a link page. On this page, you enter in the link you want the video associated with, which would be your review. Put the url for your review into the box, then click “associate”
14.Click finish
At this point, you're pretty much done. I will be notified via the system that a video has been added and will approve and publish as soon as possible.
Please remember this is still a fairly new thing for our system and there are occasionally glitches and I may have to ask you to do something to help me fix them. Also, please, please remember to be patient and allow your video to fully upload before clicking next if you're uploading. This is really important.
At any time you can add video to older reviews by going to your review list and clicking the “add video” link next to the review you want to add video to. Directions are basically the same when you do it this way.
Do not add video to your media library area if you want it to attach to a review – do it thru the review list, please.
I think that's all. If I left anything out or the directions are unclear, please let me know.
If you're interested in the video review program, shoot me an email at carrieann@edenfantasys .com.
Feel free to email me questions if you have any or ask me here on the forum!
I've noticed a lot of video reviews coming in lately – even from folks not in the actual video review program and we love that! We've also had a lot of system updates happen in the past month so I figured it was time to do an update on video reviews in general, as well as invite more of you to participate in the sponsored video review program.
To begin with, video can be uploaded or embedded by anyone who wishes to add video to their reviews. A full text review should still be done as video can be deleted by hosts (youtube, vimeo, etc) and we'd hate to have empty reviews up on the site. Also, not everyone likes to watch videos – or is even able to – so full text is mandatory.
Video on a review, whether embedded or uploaded, needs to be approved so don't stress if it doesn't show up right away. Sometimes it's approved within hours, sometimes it takes a few days – especially on weekends or if you do your reviews late at night or are in a different time zone. We only work so many hours a day and likely aren't around to do the approving, etc after business hours and on weekends. So please be patient. We love video and will get it up as soon as we can, okay?
As for the video review program, we'd love to have more of you participating! It's very easy to join – just shoot me an email and so long as you're a) an advanced reviewer and b) can do a decent quality video including a bit of editing (we require that you, as part of the program, add a cover – I'm sure you've seen it on other videos, the musical bit with the couple and the EF branding – so it's recognizable as an EF sponsored video, which you must add using a video editing program such as Windows Movie Maker) you can pretty much be a part of the program.
We do reserve the right to decline your request, however. Very new reviewers who have not yet built a trusting relationship or solid review skills may be asked to wait a few months, participate more, do more reviews. This goes for those who consistently get less than useful ratings on their reviews, as well, regardless of the time they've been in the community. Other than that, however, the more the merrier!
When you join the video review program it enables you to receive an extra free product each month that does not effect your regular review, manufacturer sponsored reviews or descriptive reviews. You're given three weeks to complete your assignment. Requests for assignments should be made to me via email. Requests should be for good, solid products that do not have a gazillion reviews already. We don't want to do a lot of video on products that already have numerous negative reviews or even excessive positive reviews. Smartballs or the hitachi, for example. Products requests should, in general, be for product under $75 if you're ranked 6.5 or higher, within your normal price range if you're ranked below that.
We also don't need seven videos on one product, for the most part, so try to keep your requests to things without vids, please!
We do require, if accepted into the video review program, that you do some paperwork. First there is a master agreement. This form gives us rights to the videos you produce for the agreed upon price and is your guarantee to us that the videos don't infringe on anyone elses copyright, etc. It's a legal form and is legally binding. This form needs only be filled out once. Second is a work attachment. This form, again, gives us rights to your video, states which product you are reviewing as well as the agreed upon price. This form needs to be filled out with each and every video you do. Both forms need to be either faxed in to EF or emailed to me.
Payment for video reviews is generally made in EF gift cards. Payment amounts vary based upon the cost of the product and our discretion. Your rank or length in the community, for instance, may effect your payment. If you have a blog with a super google rank and are going to post the review on the blog, that may effect your payment. Lots of factors come into play here.
If accepted into the program, assignments are made by me after receiving your emailed request. You need to accept or decline and, as with all assignments, finish up via the shipping screen.
Now, on to videos in general and the uploading and embedding of them.
If you are in the review program, you must upload rather than embed. If not, you can do either; upload to our site and wait for it to be approved and put on our youtube, then embedded and posted or put it on your own youtube, vimeo, vzaar, blip.tv, etc and enter the embed code yourself. Either way, directions are similar.
Including Video in your Reviews:
1.Find your product in the product search if it is a non assigned review (ie. Something you purchased) or in your assignment list if it is an assigned review.
2.Click “write review” and choose the template you wish to use. This can be standard, extended or off-site, depending upon the assignment.
3.Write your review as you normally would. Make sure it is full and complete and stands alone as a good, solid, useful review even without the addition of video.
4.Submit the review
5.You will be given the option on the next screen to get a widget or add video. At this point, you can add your video either by embedding it with your own embed code or uploading it. (if it's a video review program review, you MUST upload, not embed)
6.Click the option of your choice and you will enter the video wizard.
7.Add your embed code or upload the video. Uploading can take a long time for some folks, especially if you have a slow connection. If you've uploaded, be patient. Do not close the screen or click next until it tells you the video was successfully uploaded. If you do not wait the video will not upload properly and you'll have to redo it.
8.Once video is uploaded or the embed code is added, click next
9.This will take you to a preview screen. Occasionally, the video doesn't show up there. If that happens, it's ok. It's there, just not previewing.
10.Click next again
11.This will take you to an info page. Add your video title, a description and some tags. Keep tags simple, ie. “tantus, tantus dildo, silicone, silicone dildo, realistic dildo”
12.Click next again
13.This will take you to a link page. On this page, you enter in the link you want the video associated with, which would be your review. Put the url for your review into the box, then click “associate”
14.Click finish
At this point, you're pretty much done. I will be notified via the system that a video has been added and will approve and publish as soon as possible.
Please remember this is still a fairly new thing for our system and there are occasionally glitches and I may have to ask you to do something to help me fix them. Also, please, please remember to be patient and allow your video to fully upload before clicking next if you're uploading. This is really important.
At any time you can add video to older reviews by going to your review list and clicking the “add video” link next to the review you want to add video to. Directions are basically the same when you do it this way.
Do not add video to your media library area if you want it to attach to a review – do it thru the review list, please.
I think that's all. If I left anything out or the directions are unclear, please let me know.
If you're interested in the video review program, shoot me an email at carrieann@edenfantasys .com.
Feel free to email me questions if you have any or ask me here on the forum!
