Here comes 2011! (and Avvo Rating updates)
As we head into 2011 (yes, 2011), I wanted to thank you for making 2010 such a great year for Avvo. Not only did we launch our doctor rating product, we watched our lawyer-participation numbers grow significantly, with 60,000+ lawyers now actively participating and 2,000+ advertising on Avvo. These are big numbers for a three-year-old company, and we could not have done it without you. Whether you advertise with Avvo, answer questions, post legal guides, endorse your peers, or all of the above, thank you. Thank you for your passion in helping your community, and kudos for being smart about building your online presence. As I have said many times, “You can either be a smart Internet marketer or work for one in five years . . .”
On that note, as always, please make sure that your Avvo Profile is as up-to-date as possible, as we will once again be pushing through our annual updates to the Avvo Rating on December 31st. These updates are due to community feedback and other global refinements to the Avvo Rating that we save until the end of the year. The more up-to-date and robust your profile is, the less chance these changes will have a negative impact on your rating.
Here’s to a prosperous 2011 for all!
Regards,
Mark
January 13th, 2011 at 10:20 am
Hey Mark: I have answered over 3000 questions for you lot and you crapped on my rating – what’s up with that?
January 13th, 2011 at 10:24 pm
I know the feeling. Last week I was a 9.2, now today I am a 7.6. Nothing else has changed. There is something very wrong with that.
January 17th, 2011 at 10:34 am
Agreed. The volatility is absurd. My rating inexplicably dropped from an 8.5 to a 7.2, with no changes. I then added an additional speaking engagement from 2011, and that addition didn’t even impact my rating at all.
Many of the items in my profile are from late 2010, so the clock striking midnight on December 31 especially shouldn’t have such a dramatic (+/ 20%) negative impact on a score. It makes me call into question the entire algorithm and whether these scores are really worth anything if they can drop so simply from one hour to the next simply because it’s a new year.
January 17th, 2011 at 4:20 pm
Folks, I’ve got you all beat. My rating dropped 2.5 points. No info changed. No misconduct, nothing added or deleted.
Avvo just seems a bit silly at this point. I decided to cancel AvvoPro (not paying 600/yr for this nonsense). Also not answering any more questions or doing anything else to perpetuate this scam.
January 18th, 2011 at 3:43 am
[...] Within hours, Conrad Saam at AVVO, had sent me this reply: Cliff – you are absolutely correct. Every year, based on input (from literally thousands) of lawyers and consumers, we adjust the algorithm. We wrote about this on the blog in December:http://avvoblog.com/2010/12/17/9966/ [...]
February 1st, 2011 at 4:00 pm
Curt: I agree 100% with you. I had no idea when I answered a question over the summer that I was signing up for life with Avvo. I tried to cancel participation, but that is not allowed. So, I tried to complete the forms as much as possible.
I also dropped a full point, and nothing has changed for me either.
What a racket
February 14th, 2011 at 4:48 pm
Folks: I am meeting with Conrad in Seattle this Friday morning. Please email any questions you would like me to pose to him. The interview will be videotaped. -Richard Rizk