An idea for generating Yelp reviews

Anybody that's been paying attention to me (ie nobody) remembers that I was doing some research into Yelp in the past week. Well, over the course of this adventure, I stumbled across a method of gaining yelp reviews that seems like it would be effective and I figured I would share.

1. Craigslist - Post a gig on CL that you're looking for people to take a survey about Yelp and that you're willing to compensate them if they qualify. Ask respondents to include the email they use for Yelp and a phone number

2. Check out respondents - Scope out the profiles. Specifically look for people who have a complete profile, friends, and more than 10 reviews. These are the people we want to contact.

3. Contact Selected Users - Call, not email, the people you selected and offer to pay them in exchange for their time for a "free" tour of the business or a "free" meal, whatever it is that the business offers. I would imply but not directly state that this is in exchange for a review....

4. Prep the Business - Encourage the owner/manager of the business to be friendly, to encourage pictures, etc but don't actually attend the meetup at the business.

What do you guys think? Would a method like this manage to evade the filters and get around the whole "buying reviews" limitations of Yelp? Has anybody actually tried anything like this?

The guy that talked about this method was charging his clients per review. Ie, $750 for a 5 star review, $500 for a 4 star review and he was paying $100 to his "survey" takers.

I might be wrong, but I believe all the approaches you stated above is really no different than buying reviews, but an attempt to stay under the radar. IMO, all these approaches require quite a bit of work.

Why not just make the owner understand and ensure he provides good and quality service, and politely ask his/her customers to leave him a review or 'feedback'. You will be surprised how many people will do, if they had a great experience. This will be 100% legit and will help in long run.

Good and quality service is part of the business anyways. They wouldn't be doing anything extra.

well u cant really have all the review to be excellent, i think yelp shouldnt be considered real restaurant review, some people like some personnel and some dont. Ex. my buddy works with cocktails and he pretty good with that many people will appreciate what he does but some old farts or skanks will prefer cocktails made terrible and they will try to teach bartender how to do it, even thou they dont know what the hell they are talkin about, maybe that bartender will have enough of those idiots and tell em to go away, ofcourse they will talk shit about the place, and then u have the next guy saying he loved the place because he or she had b-day party and everything was good, because it was cheap. with most of the yelp reviews i disagree, most of them are just stupid hipsters, they like cheap stuff that taste like shit, but hey its cheap so it must be good. The only real review i acknowledge is from zagat, ny times and real reviews like that...
the only thing im tryin to find out how to block from yelp reviews to be ahead of restaurants domain name in search, or to lower yelp review to 2 or 3 page of google

He was charging too much more than enough for reviews. I'm planning to start a service for yelp 5 starts reviews.

gullsinn said:

He was charging too much more than enough for reviews. I'm planning to start a service for yelp 5 starts reviews.

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Well, i think to anyone who's offering YELP reviews, make sure you test it out yourself first, and ensure it sticks for at least 3 weeks. I believe there were a few similar service back in the days, and it stuck for 2 weeks and it got removed. The entire service turned into a disaster and stuff.

Yelp is actually quite tough in my opinion. I believe even real & legit reviews get removed all the time.

originalposter said:

Well, i think to anyone who's offering YELP reviews, make sure you test it out yourself first, and ensure it sticks for at least 3 weeks. I believe there were a few similar service back in the days, and it stuck for 2 weeks and it got removed. The entire service turned into a disaster and stuff.

Yelp is actually quite tough in my opinion. I believe even real & legit reviews get removed all the time.

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Yelp is super tough. I realize that this is basically buying reviews. The goal is to buy really specific users. The start of all the research was because my own (completely legitimate) reviews were getting filtered. By screening and targeting users that are currently active on Yelp, their reviews are significantly less likely to be filtered as compared to an actual patron who only logs on to write the one review for you.


And DudeMike, SIRI uses Yelp. Plus it's got such a high rep that it's going to be pretty hard to knock it onto the second page. So while it's not always the most reputable source of information, it's pretty necessary for businesses. Especially ones that depend on local search like restaurants or hotels.... and I am in Orlando after all

so many times i got misguided using yelp so that is part of the reason why i dont care about their reviews

Yelp is doing sting operations on CL reviews so don't do it kids.

dobsonFly said:

The guy that talked about this method was charging his clients per review. Ie, $750 for a 5 star review, $500 for a 4 star review and he was paying $100 to his "survey" takers.

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Uh yeah. You had me right up to here, and this is where the Original Post crossed the "this is clearly bullshit" line. After considerable review, I have come to the conclusion that you are an honest, intelligent person that has come under the influence of a pure, 100% ignorant bullshitter. But don't worry, help is here, and very soon you be well on your way to recovery.

As an FYI, the indicators that held me back from a complete, 100% flame is the following:

1) Spelled words correctly, and use proper grammar.
2) Organized the post
3) Asked several questions, which indicates several positive qualities of your character.

FYI #2: "Yelp" is spelled with a capital "Y".

Anyone that knows anything knows that there are numerous services that sell Yelp reviews for as low as $25.00 each, with a guaranteed "stick", meaning that if they are filtered, the seller will post another until it sticks. So the $750 figure has gone WAY past Crazyville, and is firmly established in Retardedville.

Yelp wants the review profile to look natural. So, to a business purchasing Yelp reviews, 5-star isn't "better" than 4-star. The business would want a mix, preferably on the positive side, but the Local Search results are not influenced by the actual rating. If you look, you will find numerous examples of how businesses that have a 3-star rating will outrank businesses that have a 5-star rating. Personally, I think a solid 5-star profile not only demotes rank, but it also triggers the filter, provokes manual reviews, and invites complaints from non-cheating competitors that are annoyed by obviously spam reviews of businesses that outrank them.

A completely uninformed person might assume that 5-stars are so desirable that a Buyer might be willing to pay $250 extra to get one. It takes no more effort to make a 5-star than it does a 4-star. There is no premium for it on the demand or the supply side of the equation. It's a stupid pricing structure that can only have been imagined by someone that didn't know the first thing about it. A teenager, most likely, and a fairly stupid and dishonest one at that.

OP, if you send me your skype, I will give you some basic concepts on Local SEO. I have several newbs that I am helping for free already, so my time is limited, but I can at least give you a couple of (I'll call them) "knowledge points" that, once mentally established have a tendency to grow outward towards more complete awareness and understanding. Which is not to say that I know everything; this is an ongoing activity and I have not yet met anyone that regarded themselves as "complete" in any way.

$750 for a 5 star review!!!!!!! Did I just hallucinate?
Even *$25* is ridiculous.

Glowing reviews got Yelp reviews to stick just fine. $25/month and they covered more directories than just Yelp.
So I would never pay more than $5 for a Yelp review. Anything higher than that and I'll do it myself.

And seriously, all the people acting like Yelp is fort knox, thats just hogwash. I've gotten dozens upon dozens of
reviews on all my Yelp listings, and the only time an account ever got flagged was when I posted a duplicate review
by accident. But even AFTER that happened, all I did was remove the duplicate and a few weeks later the filter was
dropped.

Yelp is not the CIA... they're just Yelp.

-SB

have people post the ads in cl?? pls contact cheapastore#hotmail

originalposter said:

Well, i think to anyone who's offering YELP reviews, make sure you test it out yourself first, and ensure it sticks for at least 3 weeks. I believe there were a few similar service back in the days, and it stuck for 2 weeks and it got removed. The entire service turned into a disaster and stuff.

Yelp is actually quite tough in my opinion. I believe even real & legit reviews get removed all the time.

Click to expand...

You're exactly right. All of good reviews from legitimate customers have been filtered. I guess because the reviews they have written for us is the first and many times their only review. However, the first and only review from a 1-star review stays on the front page front an center. I so want to beat yelp at their own gain. I just keep experimenting. If others have done it eventually I will crack their code.

Can someone please help me? Yelp has been so unfair and ruine dme. They take off all my postiirve reviews and only show negative ones, and the negative ones are fake. Please can someone help? I know they say its wrong to do this but what else am i supposed to do? THey keep taking off all my postive reviews it is not fair. I don't get as much buisness anymore. Can someone help then here please? I can trade if you don't mind? I hope you don't mind me asking.

Instead of using blackhat methods to increase your reviews account, why not treat your customers well / take a whitehat approach and sustain your business?

Why not just trade Yelp reviews with others that have good profiles. I will trade with you and anyone else here. I like your idea though.

Im also looking for some help with rvews my skpe is daniel.levy2