Lou MC Yelps a Lot

I began to notice this magazine called The Weekly Yelp http://www.yelp.com/weekly_yelp . It's pretty neat, I started to follow the topics published every Wednesday.  It's very different from ROTD. There are 5 businesses featured each week. Only one review get picked from each business. I don't know how long this has been in existence. According to the Houston's Weekly, it started on November 4, 2015. I find some reviewers are very talented but they aren't Elites. I hope they become Elites one day. The Weekly Yelp is best viewed on computer. I prefer reading The Weekly Yelp on a computer. I can't handle long review on narrow phone screen, even when my phone is bigger than before.

At the New Year’s Elite badge release, some Yelpers were excited with another year's elite status. But some left out wondering, "Where is mine?" I'm guessing there is a formula to calculate how much you contribute to the Yelp community. By checking in and posting photos do not impact Yelp's business objective, reviews do. I printed out my friends list before and after the badge release, I concluded a reason why few of my Elite Yelper friends couldn't carry the status from last year. They had something in common. I see everyone had a gap of review writing for more than 3 months during 2015. I can't say how long and how much they need in order to catch up. Let's prove me wrong. If you want to give this a try, start writing again - post at least one review a week. It may just do the trick. HQ gives Elite badge almost weekly. Here are some examples - monthly review posts:  Meriem B . from Houston, TX This gap in reviews costed his continuing Eli...

I've got a niche. I chose to be The New Biz Seeker - targeting businesses ready to start. I watch them like a hawk. Constantly asking the staff for info and post tips about its opening day. Then, post a storefront photo. On the opening day, I take lots of photos with my experience and a review. It depended on how I felt, I may go back for more and write a review with accumulated experiences. Or, I may just grab the "FTR" badge (First to Review) on the fly. After the review, this biz page will be placed on the Yelp site as "New Business Openings" and on Yelp app as "Hot and New" (iOS) or "Hot New Business" (Android). This is very effective. These are the businesses I boosted in my Yelp years 2012 to 2014: Frenchy’s Chicken (Sharpstown) Eastern Foot Spa  (Chinatown) Party City (Northwest) Piquin Mexican Style Subs (Northwest) Dollar City (Westwood) King Dollar (Sharpstown) Pho Binh 59 South (Sharpstown) Lu Xiang Village ...

So, what is a Yelp List? List is a feature to group reviews to tell a story. I didn't know about List until early 2014 from a Talk topic. Then, I began to use List to group reviews. However, I don't like the user interface to organize it. I spent a lot of time organizing my " Yelp Challenge 2014 " to look correctly by rating. In 2014, I also created these lists: Sincere Apology  - These are my below-average reviews - 1 or 2 stars. My Firsts List - Only shown the biz with First to Tip from the app version. Events I Yelp About - My love on the OYE, YEE and UYE. Be Kind to Your Mother (Nature) - My love with our environment. Crowd Pleasers - Lots and lots of people. Auto 'n Mobile of Houston - My experiences in car shopping is over. Soups Made from Scratch - Yummy. I love real soups. I plan to create more lists in 2015, including: From Outside Looking in - Being a tourist, I view the businesses differently than the locals. I plan to trave...

From a scale of 1 to 5 stars, not all my reviews are rated equally. Sometimes, you'll find a happy review with 4 stars while other problematic ones still at 4. Here are my rules: Outside of Houston Metro, esp when I travel: 2 to 4 stars - since I don't visit them often, I can only write my review based on my one-and-only experience. Government, Facilities, Events, & Festivals: 4 to 5 stars - minor problems don't bother me. Five is absolutely flawless. Failed to provide basic customer service - automatically 1 star and I won't be embarrassed to tell you about it. Food just absolutely tasteless, awful service and I'll never come back: Not worth of my energy to write a review. Unless I contacted the management for corrective action which turned my experience around. Trying on a new business that I added: 3 to 5 stars - I have to check in at least 3 times to try 50% of items from the menu. Most of time, I start off with 5. Often times, I give the o...