Review Site Experts in here?

avatar33

avatar33

e-Hustler
Dec 5, 2009
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Calgary, AB
I've been doing review sites for a long time, but I always do them manually. I'm wondering if I can speed up the development process by using a software or plugin...

I know that a lot of you out there use WordPress review plugins and/or themes. I did a quick Google search and I noticed that there were some pretty neat-looking PHP Review scripts and CMS'es too, but since I have never tried any, I wonder which ones are worth it.

What do you guys use? I found these that look promising but haven't tried them:

WordPress › WordPress Review Site Builder « WordPress Plugins

WordPress - Reviewer WordPress Plugin | CodeCanyon

WordPress Review Plugin for Affiliates - MyReviewPlugin
 


To be honest I havent found a good wordpress review plugin that does everything I want. Out of those the only one I liked was MyReviewPlugin, but alas it doesn't support schema.org markup so it's a dud too.

I custom code all my review stuff. If you're open to exploring other platforms there are some nice Drupal review plugins that include schema markup, but its Drupal so the learning curve is higher than wordpress.
 
^I'm definitely open to hear your Drupal recommendations.

I'm essentially looking for a plugin that can generate nice dynamic comparison tables (like those top-10 tables you see on big review sites). Tables needs to have the "compare" feature and custom search/sorting for all rows.
 
If you're looking for comparison tables there's WP Comparison Charts:

WP Comparison Charts

They aren't sortable though. I really havent found anything in the WP or Drupal world that does it all though.
 
I've been looking like this myself for a year. I'm almost debating just hiring a dev to make a paid plugin/theme at this point. Nothing is fully functional enough for I need.
 
I have developed a custom "content management" system that does all this as well as integrate analytics and ppc tracking but I'm not sure I want to release it to the public. If you're going to go through the trouble of custom code something don't make it for wordpress, do it right.
 
cheshire said:
If you're looking for comparison tables there's WP Comparison Charts:

WP Comparison Charts

They aren't sortable though. I really havent found anything in the WP or Drupal world that does it all though.
Click to expand...

Funny that you mentioned this plugin because I have been in touch with William the plugin developer and he promised all the features I requested will be available in version 1.4. He's launching 1.3 in a week or two, and then 1.4 late January or so...
 
avatar33 said:
Funny that you mentioned this plugin because I have been in touch with William the plugin developer and he promised all the features I requested will be available in version 1.4. He's launching 1.3 in a week or two, and then 1.4 late January or so...
Click to expand...

Nice! I have always wanted a good plugin for wordpress that does sortable comparison tables, reviews, schema.org mark up, average weighted reviews, etc... but I've never found a plugin that does it all. Mixing and mashing plugins and then hacking or custom creating themes always seemed like the crappiest way to do it. All you need is one of the plugins to not work with the new version of wordpress and you're back to square one.

BTW I hate wordpress. :)
 
Small tip I learned for increasing CTR on review type posts.

Use schema tags (or whatever they're called) to force google to display 5 stars in the SERP's for your page.

You'll increase your CTR dramatically, unless all of your competition is doing it already.
 
I use GD Star for Wordpress, and then usually find a decent theme to build it on using the shortcodes.

Doing a quick themeforest search there are tons of nice review themes on there, so I'd look there too.
 
avatar33 said:
I've been doing review sites for a long time, but I always do them manually. I'm wondering if I can speed up the development process by using a software or plugin...

I know that a lot of you out there use WordPress review plugins and/or themes. I did a quick Google search and I noticed that there were some pretty neat-looking PHP Review scripts and CMS'es too, but since I have never tried any, I wonder which ones are worth it.

What do you guys use? I found these that look promising but haven't tried them:

WordPress › WordPress Review Site Builder « WordPress Plugins

WordPress - Reviewer WordPress Plugin | CodeCanyon

WordPress Review Plugin for Affiliates - MyReviewPlugin
Click to expand...

I will suggest to use 3rd one 'myreviewplugin'. I have tried it and it's a quite good review plugin.
 
I tried doing something similar to this using MyReviewPlugin + SuperChartBoy to create dynamic ranking tables that adjusted based on users latest ratings. It only kind of sort of worked to be honest. I am not a coder so someone else would probably be able to make it work more like you wanted. It did not have schema or the ability to compare and change rankings on the click of a button.

While a bit different, the paid version of the ratings widget looks like a decent schema / ratings widget although it does not generate toplists based on those ratings, it does allow users to rate things and displays it cleanly.
 
Forget comparison charts and all that mess. 1 to 2 page written reviews with a CTA at the bottom to a "money review" is where it's at. Don't ask me how I know :)
 
I run a couple review sites with the Swagger & Swagmag themes. There's a lot of customization for them and they've worked pretty good for me. They're on Theme Forest.
 
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