News from the upside!
Welcome to The Upside, your destination for uplifting stories and positive news from around the country. In a world often filled with challenging headlines, we aim to bring a refreshing perspective by celebrating the inspiring moments, acts of kindness, and achievements that showcase the best of New Zealand. From heartwarming community efforts to breakthrough innovations,The Upside is dedicated to spreading optimism and highlighting the bright side of life. Let’s shine a light on the good happening all around us!
Things to do to spruce up your house this Spring
Sure, it's been snowing where it usually doesn't this time of the year but it's Spring - the time to pay some attention to your home, inside and out. With the weekends hopefully warning up, there will be time to take care of small and large jobs that'll have your...
Want the best painting results? Check the weather
Painting the exterior of your home is a necessary investment that protects and enhances your most valuable asset. Before you even consider commissioning a painting professional to get the project started, do a bit of due diligence and consider the best time of the...
Tough conditions require a little patience
Currently things are really, really tough for a lot of trades around the country and despite a building boom, significant factors and stressors have created a set of extremely difficult conditions. Business owners are under considerable strain and homeowners and...
Turn that downside upside down
Petrol prices, groceries, interest rates, and inflation are all on the rise, practically everywhere in the world, and in New Zealand we have the added frustration of a scarcity of essential building supplies to satisfy what is touted as a 'building boom'. All the...
NoCowboys’ points of difference
To have pioneered online reviews in New Zealand and to have kept in step with an ever changing digital landscape for over 16 years is no mean feat. That we continue to evolve and grow Kiwi businesses online as well as offering the best information to consumers, isn't...
When times are tough – reputation is essential
One need only glance at whichever news platform you prefer to know that we are currently in difficult times. Inflation and interest rates are rising, consumer prices for essentials are increasing and despite the government reducing fuel taxes, the cost of fuel keeps...
Thumbs up, thumbs down? No thanks
There's a few review platforms out there aiming to deliver the benefits of online reviews for businesses but failing as they do not actually focus on the key, as well as tangential benefits, of online consumer reviews. In essence they send out a message to customers...
Lack of real oversight when it come to reviews
I have a friend who runs a business - a financial advisor and accountant, whose services I use. She told me a story recently about a mysterious phone call she received a few months ago from someone she knew was an ex-employer who resented her leaving his business and...
Reviews, the far more powerful endorsement
In my last piece I wrote about branding and reviews and since then I've had the opportunity to talk with colleagues and think further on the subject and realised I had missed another feature of traditional branding that is trumped by authenticated online reviews -...
Reviews are the new brand, only more effective
Brand, the buzzword for advertising for so many decades, has changed substantially from what it once was since the advent and supremacy of online commerce. Years ago brand was the holy grail for businesses and by extension advertising companies. Brand was splashed...
Make your feedback valuable
I was reading an article online recently with guidelines on how to leave great feedback - whether positive or negative - and it reminded me that at its core - feedback is a conversation. What I mean is that the words we choose in the feedback we leave are...
Abusing reviews for personal vendettas
Online reviews are to meant give guidance to our peers based on our experiences and subjective opinions. Unfortunately, if allowed to be, they can also be used to damage the reputations of businesses when absolutely no service was provided or product purchased. When...
My last dalliance with an irritating brand
A month ago my phone decided that its sure and steady trek to oblivion was getting tiresome and decided to quicken the pace. I had the phone for a year. It was a refurb - that's refurbished for those who still take pleasure in avoiding the need to shorten or...
Why is owning your business name online essential?
Many businesses spend a lot of money on AdWords to try to gain an edge over their competitors and fail to do the one thing that is of even greater value – owning their own business name on Google. Sometimes it’s a good idea to step back and realise that the ways...
How to make your reviews even more valuable
Reviews left by consumers are of great value to your business – they build trust, create transparency, and cement the power of your reputation online to maintain and advance your future well-being. When 90 percent of online visitors are driven to find reviews before...
Buying fake reviews is a costly mistake
As the acceptance of the value of online reviews increases for all businesses, opportunities arise for fraudulent vendors to reach out to business owners soliciting fake reviews, promising big returns for little capital outlay. The return is actually untold damage to...
Reviews, reviews, reviews – which ones are worth the most to your business?
The whole point of a solid reputation online is that it is transparent and believable to the consumers reading reviews about your business. If a consumer doubts their validity – then they are worth nothing. Recently the New Zealand Herald published a story about a...
Size isn’t everything – why recent reviews are so important
Recently a high profile Kiwi TV personality went public about a dissatisfying experience with a tradie he had found online. He said he was attracted by the number of positive reviews in making his choice but there was a huge factor that went ignored in the process -...
Why it is never too late to market your business’ reputation online
I get to hear a lot of questions about online reputation marketing and I expect to. It makes sense. While online reviews have been around for over a decade, the power they can have for businesses is only now being seen as essential. So I take it for granted that I’ll...
Cash jobs can be more than you bargained for . . .
It may seem like a good idea – get yourself a deal and do a tradie a favour - but cash jobs are never that smart and the outcomes can be disastrous. "Reputation is the one thing that smart and organised tradies take seriously . . ." There’s a saying about taxes –...
Won’t get fooled – tradie exposes scammers and wins
One of the drawbacks of life online is being open to scammers. There are countless people out there who will try every angle to get us to either fall for a ploy or pay for a product or service that may, at first glance, look genuine. For over a year now businesses...
Keeping the cowboys in the corral
Do you check recent reviews on businesses before you use them? A recent story in the Kiwi press highlights again just how valuable reviews are... These days it's critical to spend a bit of time choosing the right tradie or service provider online before you pick up...
Harnessing the power of challenging reviews
Ratings are the personal stories that convince prospective customers to connect with businesses, or not. Their value can't be emphasised enough. The best thing a prospective customer can see by viewing your ratings is the way you exercise your customer care. It tells...
Consumers decide in the digital world
To understand why online reputation marketing is essential for every business, it’s important to grasp just how much consumer behaviour has changed with the evolution and availability of computer and smart phone technology. Understanding consumers' habits and choices...
Taking care of business with NoCowboys’ help
Paul Toschi has been in the painting industry for years and in 2016 launched his own company – Brushy Bee Ltd. When looking to market his business, he decided that NoCowboys was all he needed, and for the past two years, with NoCowboys’ help, Paul has built up a solid...
Your greatest asset is your biggest opportunity
In today’s business environment marketing your reputation online is essential. Do you know what you look like online? Have you Googled your business name and seen what comes up and where? Do you know what other people are saying about you? Do you want to control how...
How to get the most out of your NoCowboys business profile
Once you’re registered with NoCowboys, the first thing to do is to fill out your profile – this is your marketing tool and it is important to optimise the various features to present your business to your prospective customers. ...
From problem centre to value centre
An article by Jon Hall published by Forbes last year says that business owners need to move from managing their reputations online to actively marketing them. While the article has a distinct US flavour, the points he makes are just as valid in New Zealand. The...
A brave new world
My dad didn’t listen to what other people thought about tradespeople they'd employed. Instead, word of mouth to him was listening to what his friends said about the things we wanted to make our lives easier and telling us they were all death traps. Microwave? Nah....
Keeping the home fires burning
It’s hard to beat a roaring fire in winter but ensuring that your fire delivers the performance it should and is safe as possible means you need to be vigilant in keeping your chimney clean and regularly inspected for any possible repairs. Though the idea of needing a...