Frequently Asked Questions

1. How do you judge what the best sites are?

After reviewing many websites and products on the web each month, we make judgments on what we consider to be the best sites and products that we think you'd be most interested in. The criteria upon which we base our recommendations vary from category to category, however, generally speaking we look at the following...

usefulness, quality and quantity of content
uniqueness of content;
popularity of the site or product
number and quality of additional extras available, e.g. additional ebooks and guides, etc.,
frequency of updates - is the content kept up to date;
navigation and readability - how easy is it to navigate and read or use;
support and customer care;
other review sites' recommendations
user feedback on the website or product as gleaned from other review sites, blogs or forums

3. Are the reviews provided really independent?

Yes! We offer you only a handful of the best programs and guides to choose from. Our expert review panel is independent and unbiased. We also offer user reviews. If we receive a large number of negative user reviews, then rest assured that this will affect the product's rankings. If it becomes clear that our readers are generally unhappy with one of our recommended products, then we will drop it from our recommended list altogether. We provide these unbiased reviews and user reviews completely free of charge to help you make the best choice possible and spend your money wisely.

4. Should I base my decision more on the editor's review or the user reviews

There are various pros and cons for both the editor's review and the user reviews...

Editor's Review: Our editor for any particular category of products has reviewed all the products in a category, and so has a realistic idea of what should be expected from each one. This allows our editor to compare and contrast various products and review them in the context of the category as a whole. Our editor will also have done background reading on the category, particularly if it's a technical category, before starting his/her reviews, and so will know which features are the most useful and will also know which drawbacks to look out for. Having performed all this research and reviewed every major website or product in a category, we believe that our editor is then an expert on the category (or as close as you're likely to get) and is well qualified to provide a well-balanced review on each of the products in the category. However, at the end of the day, our editor's review represents just one person's opinion.
User Reviews: There is weight in numbers, so take note of a large number of negative user reviews that complain about the same issues. Our average user review star rating gives a great indication of how popular the product or service is. However, users have usually only tried one or possibly two products or services in any one category, so sometimes have unrealistic expectations about what they're buying.

Ideally, you should try to base your decisions on both the editor's review and the user reviews. Carefully read both, which should hopefully help you weigh up the pros and cons for yourself.

5. Why are there always so many negative user reviews?

There are two main reasons why there are so many negative user reviews...

People often have unrealistic expectations. This is particularly true of dating sites, where many users unrealistically expect to find a date almost immediately, with very little or no effort on their part. Attracting a date online (just like in the real world) can be hard work that requires effort and above all perseverance. Online dating sites just give you a larger pool of people to choose from and the tools to help you search for your perfect match. However, these unrealistic expectations on the part of many people are not limited to just dating sites - many users have unrealistic expectations of many products and services.
People who have had an unhappy experience with a website or product are always more motivated to post a negative review than satisfied customers are to post a positive review. This is a big problem for all review sites that publish user reviews. People who feel they have been wronged or misled feel angry and want to vent their anger and rage on a review site such as this one. This is especially true if the customer support for a website or product has been poor or unhelpful. They vent their anger online on review sites and forums, and may post many negative reviews across various review sites. Satisfied customers on the other hand just happily carry on with their daily lives and don't think twice about posting a positive review of the product or service they've purchased. Unfortunately, this is just human nature! However, it does bias all user reviews heavily towards being negative with poor user review star ratings. Please bear this in mind when reading our user reviews. Often, a lack of any sort of user reviews on a product or service will mean that customers are generally very satisfied with it.

To try and redress this balance, we'd like to ask all our readers who have had a positive experience with any of our listed products or services to take 5 minutes out of their day and tell the rest of our readers about your experience by completing a user review on the product you purchased. Good or bad, your feedback is important and will help others make the right choice.

6. Will I get spammed if I leave a user review or comment?

No! We collect minimal personal data from our readers. If writing a comment then we may ask for your email address or for you to connect with your facebook, twitter, Google or OpenID accounts before posting your comment. However, we will never spam you and we will never pass on your details to any other third party.

For more information, please see our Privacy Policy.

7. I'm having problems logging in to the website I just joined

If you are having problems logging in to your chosen website then there are a few options open to you...

Please go to the site that you joined, and click through to the members log-in page. Very often there should be a link on this page to the effect of "Forgotten your password?". If so, click on this link and you will be prompted for your e-mail address. If you fill in your e-mail address then your log-in details should be sent to you by e-mail. Sometimes the "Forgotten your password?" link will not appear on the log-in page until you have made at least one unsuccessful attempt to log in. If you can't see this link, then try and log-in with any random log-in details to see if the "Forgotten your password?" link appears and then follow the instructions above. If this doesn't work and you still can't see the link then proceed to option 2...
Please go to the support or contact section of the site you joined and e-mail the administrator for help, giving him as much information as possible about your problem. He should be able to retrieve your log-in details and will be able to e-mail them to you. Please remember that the administrator of this site may live in a different country and so may be in a completely different time-zone to you. As such, please ensure you wait at least 24 hours for a reply.

8. I'm having technical problems with the website I joined or product I bought!

If you're having any technical problems with any product you purchased or any website you joined that's advertised by us, then please visit the support section of the site you joined. Every website advertised by us has a "support" link or a "contact" link (sometimes this is only available from within the members area). Please follow this link and e-mail the administrator of the site you joined with any technical queries you may have. The administrator of the site you joined is an expert on his/her product(s) and will be able to help you far more than we can. Also bear in mind that technical support is included in the purchase price or membership fee of all our recommended products and sites - so you are entitled to this technical support because you paid for it. Please remember that the administrator of the site you joined may live in a different country and so may be in a completely different time-zone to you. As such, please ensure you wait at least 24 hours for a reply.

Please be aware that we are an independent, 3rd party review site - we only review and recommend other companies' sites/products - we do not own them, and as such we cannot provide technical support.

If having purchased your product or membership fee you are thoroughly dissatisfied for any reason, then remember that many of our recommended sites come with a money-back guarantee you may want to take advantage of.

9. How do I cancel and get a refund from a site?

We only review the sites - we do not own them. As such we are unable to refund your purchase to any site you joined or product you purchased. However, many of the sites we review have a money-back policy. If you are dissatisfied with your chosen product and wish to claim a refund, please contact the site you joined by going to their support section. Please do not e-mail us asking for a refund, as we will be powerless to help you.

If you repeatedly fail to get a reply from the website you bought your product from or the website you joined, then you should complain to your credit card company (or to Paypal if you used Paypal to pay for the product or service). We recommend that all our readers either use their credit cards or Paypal to pay for products or services online, as these will afford you more protection than other payment methods.

Any other questions?

If you have any other questions that are not answered here then please contact us. Our contact details can be found in the Contact Us section. Please note however that if you have any technical or billing queries regarding the site you've joined or product you purchased, then you should e-mail the administrator of the site in question - they are experts on their own websites and products and will be able to provide you with more help than we can! You can find the administrator's contact details by going to the support section of the site you joined.

Thanks for reading, and good luck in making your choice!