Why do I have to register?
In order to protect the integrity of the data, we force people to register on most surveys. If we did not force people to register, anonymous users could submit and answer to a survey question multiple times in an attempt to favor one product over another. Our goal is to combine the opinions of many consumers into actionable results and we attempt to eliminate the opinion of one company activist influencing the results.
Why do some products link to external sites and some don't?
WhatisAverage.com has a proprietary algorithm that begins linking to the top 10 recommended products in a survey once the survey reaches at least 100 responses. Any product or service must be a top recommended product by the community or industry award winner to be linked.
What is your criteria in selecting affiliates?
WhatisAverage.com carefully selects affiliates based on their reputation as an affiliate store and ability to handle customer demand. While WhatisAverage.com is not liable for the fulfillment of any product it's Subscribers wish to purchase, we want to make sure once you leave the site, you will not have an adverse relationship with a 3rd Party we are affiliated with.
Why doesn't WhatisAverage.com offer information on products such as:
● Working from Home Based Kits
● Services related to activity engaging couples intimately (PG rated response but you know what we mean).
● Male or Female reproductive organ enhancement
There are many recommended sites for these products and WhatisAverage.com has no desire to compete with those sites or in that market.
Not traditionally. WhatisAverage.com was designed to find recommendations based on real time events from specific demographics and not designed to provide updated statistical information on scientific events, such as “What is the average rotation speed of the earth?” We suggest using Wolfram Alfa and Google for such questions. Your local library and librarians are also great sources for research. Some librarians entire job is to help the community with research and it is a free tool.
Some surveys do use statistical information, but we do not cite those references because as soon as they impacted by another user, it is no longer applicable to the original source. For instance, the survey, “What is the average income for a Dentist?” was originally created around the Census.gov information and thus has a large amount of respondents; however, as soon as another Dentist replies to the survey, the information is no longer applicable to the original report from the Census.gov.
WhatisAverage.com was not designed to be a statistical database keeping up with real time stats. It was designed for consumers to compare their below, above, or average statistics with others and then find consumer recommended products/services based on other Subscribers who performed highest in the applicable surveys.
For the protection of the community and to comply with certain Federal Regulations, we have to approve and disapprove filters before they are applied to surveys. Once a filter is approved however, it is available for use for the entire site.
There are a few Filters we will not approve and here's why:
● Filters according to Race: We do not believe any of our subjects should be filtered by race and only leads to discrimination.
● Filters pertaining to illegal activity defined by the law: You cannot create a filter or survey that pertains illegal activity or would constitute a crime.
● Filters that require additional personal information: You cannot create a filter trying to gather personal consumer information such as email addresses, phone numbers, or specific address information.
There are two reasons that we would not link to products after 100 survey responses have been received.
1.Not all Top 10 responses to a survey recommend a product. Some simple surveys may just be informational and not actually looking for a recommendation.
2.Our search cannot find the product in one of our affiliate stores. Unfortunately, not all companies have joined Web 2.0 and realized every product they produce should have an affiliate link to it. Our algorithms are very robust, but if the product cannot be linked too through an affiliate program, we unfortunately cannot provide immediate access to our Subscribers. We still show these products regardless of an affiliate link because they are the products recommended by the community.
I would like to reproduce a survey but change just a few of the filters, how do I do this?
Please see the How To Video for a quick overview of how to create a survey and recommended uses. If you do not have speakers or able to view video, there is script for you to read.
Why did you start WhatisAverage.com?
My wife and I are expecting our first child next June and this event sparked one of the reasons I started WhatisAverage.com. I like to read and be prepared for upcoming situations, so I began searching for “What is the best book for expecting fathers?” Searching Google, I found a few forums and a lot of advertisements. They are not advertisements in the traditional sense, it's the authors of the books tagging it as “best book for expecting fathers” (thus I don't blame Google), but what author is not going to write a book for expecting fathers and think his book is the best? I needed unbiased feedback.
I am not the kind of consumer who wants to spend a few hours reading paragraphs from forum discussions to find reasons behind the answer, nor am I the kind of consumer who will purchase a book based on a response, “I'm not a dad, but this book seems to be pretty popular.” This is a response I received from a current consumer to consumer recommendation site. I wanted to be able to ask my question and select the demographics I wanted to survey based on;
I didn't want to survey just one person, I wanted a large sample but I wanted the results compiled into the top 10 in a chart to let me know how #1 through #10 scored. I'm apart of the generation who uses the Internet for everything and I want it now, so I wanted links to the results in front of me so I didn't have to take the extra step to search for the book in a new window or leave my seat to go purchase it.
I thought to myself, there are probably many consumers who have similar expectations in this world of their product purchases from something as simple as which restaurant should I select while waiting at the food court to something as complex and intimate as which Financial Planner should I select in San Antonio? Thus spawn the creation of “Surveys.”
