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!
Local Celebrity, Rarest Whale, and Bear Necessities
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Positivity is a real booster to well-being When I started putting together this In reviews blog over a year ago I...
All Blacks deliver, Parrot On The Run, and Living Legend
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. All Blacks grind out win against plucky English The All Blacks kicked off the international season and the tenure of...
Big Cheeses, Super Gardener, and Changing Times
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Kiwi icons discontinued I noted the passing of two Kiwi food and beverage items with a note of nostalgia this week....
Runaway Donkey, Sense Prevails, and Mistaken Identity
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Blame it on the cow This is a rather heartwarming tale about an elderly gentleman in Shropshire, UK who lost his...
Special Tree, and Truly Amazing Canine
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. World's tallest dog goes weak at the knees when the vacuum cleaner comes out As the cliche goes, the bigger they...
Miraculous Necklace, Historic Milk Powder, and Balloon Fight
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Historic milk powder not dissimilar to today's This is a rather nice tale with a bit of history involved, as well as...
Treasure Find, Bee Rescue, and Cheesey Adventures
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Cheese and daredevilry - a winning combination It's hard to beat a centuries old tradition that combines a steep...
Chicken Run, Record Haka, and Poignant Discovery
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Chicken gang torments village In a happier sidestep from the usual stories about gang violence in our country, I...
Beevers Return, Football Beerfest, and Heroic Tale
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Hero does the right thing, despite fears of getting in trouble As we know, citizens do not have the power to detain...
Germans Protecting Kebab Price, Phoenix One Game From Glory
Taking a look at recent, positive, uplifting, news stories and yarns, from New Zealand and all around the world, to bring a smile and a bit of cheer. Germans want subsidy to keep kebabs affordable The cost of living crisis in Germany has motivated some to demand that...
In reviews – 5th May ’24
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Man loses best friend and hopes for speedy return A man in the United States formed an unusual connection with an...
In reviews – 28th April ’24
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Late night ice cream revelries cancelled Some cities and towns face noise issues from boy racers, drunks, and...
In reviews – 21st April ’24
Looking back over the past weeks and to the weeks ahead – to rate the noteworthy, the cringeworthy, the good, the bad, the ugly, and the truly amazing. Not a level playing field - Overseas Monopolies in NZ One entity is a state owned broadcaster forced to cancel or...
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...
The power of the apology
In a perfect storm of irony I was all set to write about the power of apology in business this week, and wouldn't you know it, I was served up the ideal how not do it by celebrities in Lalaland. For those of you who missed it, Will Smith decided to let rage and...
The Covid pandemic and online reviews
The past two years have transformed our lives, no matter where we are in the world. In the coming years, behavioural psychologists will have a field day, filling academic journals with papers focused on the many and various ways that the Coronavirus has impacted our...
Retail vs online shopping
I'm old enough to remember those crazy, carefree days before the internet where shopping was a physical pursuit and an adventure. Obviously a lot has changed since then and sometimes I have to check myself about my own consumer behaviours, especially over the past two...
A review is an opinion shared
Something that came up recently got the ol' brain box ticking over and took me to what some may call the bleeding obvious - a question that I imagined should have a universal and obvious answer - what is a review? It may sound simple, as we may think we know what a...
How to find tradies/businesses on NoCowboys
NoCowboys isn't a directory in the traditional sense, it is a platform where Kiwis can contact businesses after reading reviews. Our verified reviews are a point of difference to other sites, such as job boards, and they are the best metric to guiding your choices -...
Facebook marketing? Yeah nah
In our last piece I analysed some of the main takeaway points form BrightLocal's 2022 annual online consumer survey that established the near total reliance consumers have in reading online reviews before contacting businesses. One point in the survey results has...
98% read online reviews for local businesses
For over a decade BrightLocal had conducted and published the results of its annual "Local Consumer review Survey". Last year's survey results were released a few weeks ago, but hey, we are in a global pandemic, so who is going to call them out for tardiness? As is...
NoCowboys online platform is nothing less than marketing gold
One of the greatest things about NoCowboys' online marketing platform is that it requires minimal time and attention and if set up properly, regularly updated, with consistent and recent reviews, it essentially takes care of itself. So well, in fact, that one of the...
FAQs for business owners who know little about NoCowboys or online reviews
Over the years I have heard practically every question about our review platform from business owners with some or small knowledge about us. Some raise objections, that are always countered with brief explanations. I thought it be good idea to offer some of them here...
Dodgy company charges for free Google sites
NoCowboys began in 2006 for two reasons - to give Kiwi consumers access to the best information to make informed decisions on who to hire (and who not to) and to create a platform for New Zealand tradies and businesses to harness the power of their reputations,...
Despite the risks, new business goes from strength to strength
Talking with Tim Masterton, owner and managing director of iElectrics Ltd, I'm reminded that each and every one of us has a story and every business has a history - downs, ups, failures, and successes. Tim has come a long way from his days in Christchurch as a...
Finding the sweet spot
It’s always heartening talking with business owners who are passionate about their craft, their staff, and their customers. I spent some time with Darcy Wills, owner of Hibiscus Tiling to discuss the history of his business, the craft of tiling, trading through Covid,...
NC Web
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Missed opportunity to help Kiwis benefit from authentic reviews
A few weeks ago (September 13), Fair Go presented a segment on fake reviews - interviewing two women that had a dissatisfying experience with a local moving company and a founder of a site than analyses fake reviews, based in New York. Fair Go has been a Kiwi staple...
All for one and one for all
When I was a kid I loved the Three Musketeers - the sword fighting, the adventure, the wit, the overcoming of evil and adversity. More than that though, I was utterly sold on their rallying cry of 'all for one and one for all'. It made beautiful sense and it was so...
Websites for all seasons
At NoCowboys we have been marketing the reputations of Kiwi businesses for over 15 years. We know reviews, we know reviews work and we have witnessed the rise and success of thousands of businesses who use our services and our platform. Over the years, however, we...
Visibility means being transparent
Many business owners spend a formidable amount of money on their 'brand' without really considering what it is that customers look for in a brand and what attracts them to brands in the first place. Brand is not about a fancy logo or a self idealised and professed...
Keeps you on top of your A game . . .
Keeping up with all of the latest research on online reviews and consumer behaviour is all well and good but I still firmly believe that the best indication of the power of what we do at NoCowboys comes from the businesses that use and profit from our platform. After...
“NoCowboys is an invaluable tool”
Like every dynamic business, at NoCowboys we take great pride in the feedback we receive and it is even more heartening for us as we are in the business of marketing the reputations of thousands of New Zealand businesses to help them prosper and grow. Reviews are our...
You may not think you’re online but your reputation is
This week I had another one of those wonderful lightbulb moments where something I read online put something I knew into sharp relief. This one was all about the resistance some business owners have to taking charge of their online reputation and controlling the...
Direct contact from customers puts you in charge
There are various ways for businesses to attract new customers but some are better than others. The best methods of all involve active, motivated customers contacting a business, this is known as direct contact. It is far superior to the alternative - business owners...
Fake reviews are only an issue for the unwary
We are strange creatures and no matter what the enterprise, the unscrupulous amongst us do anything they can to secure an advantage. It's been this way for millennia and it's just the way it is. Even still, that doesn't mean that the rest of us have to fall into the...
Reviews and ratings trump price in consumer survey
Survey results published in the US last month cement the absolute dominance of online reviews and star ratings driving consumer behaviour. 6500 consumers were surveyed by PowerReviews and for the first time the findings indicated a substantial shift in the...
Our health professionals deserve far better
There are some decisions that really should be worked out with a hell of a lot more thought and consideration. Freezing public sector salaries after the budget last month is one of them. Now we face the prospect of nurses striking for better pay and conditions and...