Join Our Growing Network of Experts
If you feel you have what it takes, by that we mean strong expertise in a given niche, and you’re interested in writing for e-Ranker.com, feel free to contact us at https://www.e-ranker.com/contact.
Our Philosophy
We choose our experts through a diligent and consumer conscientious process, in which we screen and assign to the various categories the prospects according to the extent of their experience, expertise, and knowledge.
Our qualified experts are tasked with doing extensive research as well as relying on hand-on experience to present our visitors, in a clear and concise manner, with the five best products and services for a given niche.
Our Recommendation Process
- e-Ranker.com forms a network of experts. By recruiting, interviewing, and vetting the qualified prospects; to establish the integrity of their qualifications and expertise in their given niches. The qualified experts, who are on-boarded, are given the approval to submit articles relating to specific categories and/or niches that are consistent with their accumulated knowledge base.
- e-Ranker.com’s experts identify a particular need. They then proceed with conducting extensive research, as well as drawing on valuable personal experience, to evaluate the top five product or service recommendations for the said need. All while adhering to our site’s writing and ethical guidelines.
- The expert(s) submit the written article(s) for review. The drafts proceed onward to a detailed internal review, for assurance of compliance with our quality guidelines and overall philosophy; completed by members of e-Ranker.com’s editorial team.
- The article is prepped for easy digestion, without loss of significant substance. Our strategy-oriented editorial team is aware of how precious your time is, as well as what constitutes “must include info“, thus anything that is redundant or considered of little to no value to our visitors is omitted from the final product.
- Once final approval is received, the article is published on e-Ranker.com. When the editorial team agrees the piece is good to go, one lucky person hits the publish button and the information is available to help alleviate your shopping journey.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Please keep in mind that the below FAQ is for informational purposes and is not intended to substitute or amend the terms of use or our privacy policy; which are the governing forces behind the usage and operation of the site. Please read them should you have any more questions or need further elaboration on any aspect of our site.
- What is e-Ranker.com?
- Who’s the team behind e-Ranker.com?
- Who is in your network of experts?
- Can I join your network of experts?
- But how do I know your picks are unbiased and truthful?
- Do you update your best five lists?
- If I disagree with a best five pick, can I tell you what’s better and why?
- I’m writing about or selling one of your e-Ranker items. Can I reference you guys?
- Who do I contact about an issue I have with a purchased product or service I found on your list?
- I need to report something to you about your site, how do I get in touch?
What is e-Ranker.com?
e-Ranker is your go-to source for the quickest, seamless, and trustworthy way to find the best products in any given category. You’re busy, and sifting through dozens, hundreds, even thousands of products, is very time-consuming to say the very least. At the same time, the market research services charge an arm and a leg for an in-depth report and/or review. But what if there was a FREE portal, where guesswork was eliminated, and the top five products for an item or service you’re looking for have been assembled in a clear and concise, easily digestible manner? Enter e-Ranker.com, where our trusted experts help you find the best products and services.
Who’s the team behind e-Ranker.com?
e-Ranker.com was originally initiated by a skilled developer and propelled further by a team of successful digital marketers, editors, and expert product reviewers. All said, the diverse team has a good amount of not just experience but established websites under their belt. Our experts are well researched before they are brought into our network, ensuring they truly do know their niches through and through. Our developers are native digital marketers as well, giving them a truly unique perspective. We’re different in the sense that we have figured out a harmonious way to take what’s best for the visitor, understand it, ensure it’s supported by data, and seamlessly implement it into our website’s user experience.
Who is in your network of experts?
Simply put, people who have devoted a great deal of time, and passion, to a particular industry. It tends to go even more granular than that, down to a particular product and/or service. They know their niches inside and out, they’ve seen products come and go, they know the popular features, recognize industry innovation, have owned or currently owned a variation of some of the products they write on. Some are leaders in their respective fields, some are more along the lines of avid enthusiasts, but from both extremes and through the middle, their passion for product improvement drives them. When they take a product and/or service and analyze it, they know what they’re looking for, and ultimately the most important, they know what they’re talking about.
Can I join your network of experts?
If you’ve got a niche that you consider yourself a master at, or you’re just extremely passionate and knowledgeable about a product or service, so much so that you stay updated on all the latest releases and industry news, you’re a good contender. You would have to be able to draw on and articulate personal experience; differentiate between product features and specs, brand reputation, have a sense of personal integrity and desire to help others make sound shopping decisions. If this sounds like you, we’d love to hear about it. Please contact us https://www.e-ranker.com/contact.
But how do I know your picks are unbiased and truthful?
Our goal is to stick to an unwavering ethical code when it comes to composing lists and our experts are strongly discouraged from having any conflicts of interest and not disclosing it.
In a nutshell, it’s all about transparency, and it is by being fully transparent that we earn out visitors’ trust. We openly explain to our visitors via our disclosure & disclaimer page that we participate in affiliate programs, which means we get a cut of the ultimate sale, but WE DO NOT get paid by the manufacturers themselves, and therefore we are not under anyone’s payroll and feel no influence to say anything we feel is untruthful.
Our lists are the results of the research, knowledge, and experience our experts bring to the table. Additionally, when we compose lists based on aggregate reviews, we make sure to first select a large enough population, and proceed to do our due diligence and filter out any/all fraudulent and fake reviews and go with only the verified purchases, striving for the results have the smallest margin of error possible.
Do you update your lists?
We strongly encourage our experts to manually go back into their respective categories and update lists to reflect industry changes, such as an item recall, discontinuation, drop in quality, new and better options, etc. Depending on the category, some lists may change in a much shorter time frame than others, and additionally, we know our experts are hard-working people who themselves have a lot on their plates, so we count on our visitors to also notify us of industry changes and upgrades/downgrades.
The mission is to have our published lists truly reflect the market at any given time. Our goal is to continuously update primarily the frequently shifting popular lists and ensure the top choices truly reflect the industry, as well as periodically sift through the rest of our lists and follow the same principle.
If I disagree with your top picks, can I tell you what’s better and why?
We are always glad to hear what our visitors have to say. Though our network of experts is always hard at work researching and selecting only the best, and though we are selective in who we on-board as an expert with respect to a given category, product, or service. The best five reviewed products will not always be everyone’s cup of tea, thus, should you feel disagreement with one or more of the best five picks, have additional info that we need to know, and/or have a better alternative in mind, please contact us at https://www.e-ranker.com/contact and we’d be glad to discuss.
Who do I contact about an issue I have with a purchased product or service I found on your list?
We’re sorry to hear about your issue, we curate our best five lists with superior customer satisfaction in mind; but every now and then, as is natural, an undesirable outcome occurs. A defected product, something during shipping, etc. As we mentioned above, we do not sell any of the items you find on our site, we are strictly product/service reviewers. Therefore, the best way to get your issue resolved is by contacting the manufacturer or service provider of the item in question, or you could even start by reaching out to the vendor you bought it from.
Please keep in mind that we are all in this together, so whatever the outcome of your experience, if you find the time in your schedule, please share it with others by heading to the reviews section and writing your story. This helps accelerate improvements by providing valuable feedback to the service provider or product manufacturer.
I need to report something to you about your site, how do I get in touch?
e-Ranker.com strives to provide a positive user experience, we do this by ensuring that the informative on the site is both applicable as well as authentic. That being said, we’re only humans, and humans make errors. So if you come across something that is out of line, or that’s not covered under our terms of use, please let us know. You can get in touch with us: https://www.e-ranker.com/contact.
Shopping Online
Up until very recently, historically speaking, if you wanted to buy something, you would have to get dressed and drive to a store near you.
Calling the place and having the item delivered was the closest thing to convenience. The way you’d scope out and examine the retailers’ catalog was by receiving it via snail mail and flipping through its pages. Having to manually tear out, or devise some personal method to bookmark favorites.
Combine the advent of electricity, cables, computers, modems, and a little thing called the internet and voila – we have e-commerce! Ever since the internet opened up to commercial use back in 1991, companies flocked to the digital world to make their marks. Since then thousands, if not millions, of businesses have secured their domains and opened up shop online. As a result, the traditional shopping experience has evolved significantly.
Importance of Reviewing Stuff
In fact, one of the most common things people do these days is shop online. Alongside liking pictures of animals and updating our social media pages. How can we not, it has become a leisure time activity that can be done from anywhere at any time. We have more goods and services at our disposal than we could have ever imagined at the mercy of our excited fingertips.
As big as e-commerce is, due to the projected rise in the global internet penetration rate, the future of it promises an even bigger digital marketplace. More buyers, more sellers, more transactions. There may even be another paradigm shift at some point in the future; we don’t know for sure, but we can examine trends and confidently forecast some probable outcomes.
How Online Reviews Benefit You
According to a local consumer review survey conducted by Bright Local, the amount of consumers reading online reviews has gone up from 88% in 2014 to 92% at the end of 2016. More importantly, 84% of the people trusted online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Naturally, positive reviews made people trust the business and it’s goods and/or services more.
Online Reputations Mean Everything to Businesses
In the modern marketplace, businesses are more self-conscious about quality and superior customer service than ever before. A positive online rep has become one of the most powerful marketing assets, thanks in large part to online reviews.
Ways in which constructive online feedback helps a business:
- Promotes the positive message
- Provides insight into services
- Conveys the personality of the business
- Builds trust
- Improves presence in search engines
All of the above factors play a major role in the amount of money the business makes, which is why businesses strive for positive feedback.
Online Reviews Drive Competition
With 94% of consumers saying they would use a business with a four-star rating, and over half saying they would use a business with a three-star rating, we can see just how important it is for business to create a positive customer experience. This means that businesses have to step their game up a notch and produce the absolute best products to the best of their abilities and resources.
More Competition Is a Win for You
What does this mean for you, the buyer? It means more bang for your buck, in the shape of better, higher quality products. Think of companies that are the sole provider of something, meaning they have a monopoly on the product or service. What incentive do they have to continuously better the end product if you have no choice but to buy from them? Very little.
But reviews have changed the game. When enough buyers voice their opinions on the poor quality of the product, a competitor emerges to take advantage of the situation and try to appease the dissatisfied buyers by providing them with a better alternative. Perhaps even at a lower price!
Reviews and Ratings Save Time & Money
The social proof inherent in customer reviews and thoroughly researched rankings helps potential customers in many ways, such as:
- By cutting down the research for a product
- Avoiding negative first-hand experiences
- Addressing concerns before parting with your money
- Making a faster decision with greater confidence
On average, a consumer will look at over 10 sources of information prior to buying. With the growth of online reviews and review sites, consumers are now better equipped than ever to voice their concerns and keep the manufacturers and retailers honest.
Not All Reviews are Created Equal
Because of the justified power they wield over a businesses future success, online reviews have come under siege. Businesses with sound moral standards are examining the constructive criticism their customers provide them and work diligently on fixing flaws and producing better products. But others have decided to take a different, less ethical approach: fake or manufactured reviews.
Fake (Manufactured) Reviews
Ever since enough data was gathered to truly understand the impact of positive reviews in tilting the profit scale of a business in an up or downward direction, owners and sellers started thinking of ways to game the system. Thus a thriving marketplace for fake reviews was born.
Quick facts on fake reviews:
- Fake reviews are serious business, with people from all over the world marketing their service in generating fake reviews for businesses on various freelancing websites and forums.
- Some studies suggest up to 30% of online reviews are faked.
- Some studies suggest a very low correlation between ratings & quality.
- Amazon has started filing lawsuits to combat fake reviews.
- Negative fake reviews can seriously hurt a business.
- It can be hard to spot fake reviews without doing a lot of digging. Even if you think you can spot fake reviews, Cornell researches say their studies conclude you probably can’t.
You can see why it is no surprise that 95% of consumers suspect censorship or faked reviews when they don’t see any criticism at all in the reviews section; and why Amazon is starting to file lawsuits. Manufactured reviews are serious business with serious repercussions.
Figuring Out Which Reviews to Trust
Don’t let the above discourage you, there are still way more legitimate reviews out there than false ones. You just have to keep it all in mind and be a little more skeptical in your approach. Don’t assume everyone has your best interest in their agenda, train your mind to spot the manufactured hype and you’ll become a seasoned web shopper.
Quick ways to conduct a “Trust Test”:
- Only give weight to the verified purchase reviews.
- Use a tool such as Fakespot to check for reliability.
- Check the seller’s own website in addition to the review site you’re on.
- Check the profile of the reviewer, are they biased or do they have a good track record?
- First-time reviewers who have only bought the one product they gave rave reviews too should be looked at with skepticism. (This is not always the case, but deserves a second look).
- Read more than one review and if you can read as many as possible before buying
- Think about the style it’s written in. Normal people don’t write reviews too formally.
- If it’s too over the top positive or way too negative, it might be fake. Most reviews are somewhere in between.
Here’s a list of 30 more ways to spot the fakes from Consumerist.
One other thing to keep in mind is detectable sarcasm, which could mean the review was left by a troll whose sole aim is to get pleasure out of harming the business, or even the consumer. Should you see a bunch of similar-looking reviews, including similar wording, reviewers, etc. Proceed with caution.
Becoming a Smart Web Shopper
If you’ve done nothing other than reading the above, you’re already a step ahead of many other web shoppers. Knowledge is power, as they say, and in the case of online reviews, knowledge is also a money saver. Consider the fact that on Yelp alone, there are around 27,000 reviews posted each minute. The volume alone is overwhelming, not to mention the substance. Knowing how to spot the real from the fake, as we’ve outlined above, is critical for your efficiency and sanity!
Have a Network of Resources
No matter how much of a go-getter, or figure it out all on my own type you may be, when it comes to the immense world of e-commerce, a little help goes a long way. The best part about it is that you can choose your help. By selecting a few trustworthy websites and adding them to a bookmark folder to reference whenever you need something verified.
When it comes to online reviews and rankings, sites such as ours, which dedicate their entire existence to providing consumers value in the format of the best market options available to them, whilst saving them time and money, are a good start. But always do your own research and make up your own mind, even with our website. When scouting for a review site, be sure to check and see if they have any vested interest in the product you’re after. In some cases, you’d be surprised to find that the sole purpose of that site is to promote the product in a concealed and an utterly biased manner.
There are regulations that require the disclosure of such affiliation to the consumer. Scan through the website’s disclosure, privacy, and/or terms & condition pages to verify.
Shop With a Healthy Dose of Skepticism
Too often we go into auto-pilot mode when shopping online and leave our skepticism at the door. Next time you’re browsing around Google Shopping, Amazon, eBay, or whatever marketplace you happen to be on, try to work on training your mind to exit auto-pilot and witch back to manual control.
The golden rule of online shopping and reviews is that if something is too good to be true, it probably is just that. But also, if something is too harshly reviewed and shunned, it’s not always as bad as the internet makes it out to be. Use the tools and knowledge we’ve provided you with above, and though not everyone is out to get you, a little skepticism can ensure that the ones who are failing at their attempt.