ViaVol - Help

What is ViaVol and what does ViaVol do for me?

ViaVol is a site to let users post their shopping needs, as well as share their shopping interests and deals.

With ViaVol you can find the best of the web. You can also help others find better stuff. Send your pages to others to share your insightful choices.

How does it work?

Simple, when you browse online and find something interesting to buy. Bookmark it then you might receive deal information on the item.

What about my privacy?

Your personal data such as email will NOT be exposed. Your privacy is fully protected.

What is the difference between a user account and a business acount?

Both accounts are free. Business account is designed for product and service providers to provide matching service to meet people's match requests. A user account can login either from site or from ViaVol browser buttons. While a business account has more features, one must login from ViaVol site.

How do I change my password?

Once you login into your account, click on "Profile" at the top of the page.

How many categories and what do they mean?

There are 2 main categories.

Shopping Match: It contains the producat/service catalog that ViaVol users are interested in and request for best offers on the same or similar products/services. If you see anything here you are also interested in, add it to your own Shopping Match list. People will be more eager to response to the products with more interests.

Shopping Deal: Shopping items recommended by ViaVol users. If you see a good deal or have a pick and want to share with others. Don't hesitate to add it here.

How do I add a shopping match into ViaVol?

First you need to login your user account or your business account.

There are 3 simple ways to add an item.

To create a new item, "Create a New Shopping ...".

You can also make an existing favorite page as your own favorite, using the corresponding link of "Make it my..." of that page. For example, if you found a shopping item in ViaVol also interests you, use the "Make it my shopping page" link of the item and add it into your Interested list. The more people subscribe to an item, the more important the item becomes.

You can also install a ViaVol Buttons to add content cross sites. Using a ViaVol Buttons will make the experience a real pleasure. Definitely worth to try.

When adding an item, you can also add an associated image. Add tags, or search keywords. Add a description. Add/change a title. Adding these data will make your favorite much more valuable and with much more fun. It also makes it much easier for yourself to refer, preview, search and manage your pages in future.

How do I add a description to an item?

If it's a new item to be added on site, click on "Create ... Favorite ..." link to bring up the on-site floating window. After you typing the url, click on the "Description" tag, type in your description and click "Save".

If the item has been added, click on "Make it my ..." of that item and click on the "Description" tag, type in your description and click "Save".

If you are using ViaVol Buttons, click on either the "Shopping Match" button or "Web Favorites" button when your I.E. browser completes the loading of the web page of the item, click on the "Description" tag, type in your description and click "Save".

How do I add a comment to an item?

On site, click on "Tell my friends/Comment" of a page and choose "New Note", type in your comments and click "Save".

If you are using ViaVol Buttons, click on "Voice" button when your I.E. browser completes the loading of the web page of the item, choose "New Note", type in your comments and click "Save".

Can I keep my pages private?

Yes, you can. When you add a page/item, you can choose keeping the page/item private by unchecking the "Public" box.

How do I search my own added pages/items?

After you login your account, choose "My ..." and click "Search" button. If you do not specify a search term, or keywords, the search result is displayed by the time you added your items, starting from the most recent one. If you click "Public" and "Search" button, you switch back to the public version.

Does ViaVol Buttons track my browsing history?

No. ViaVol takes your privacy very seriously. The Buttons does not track your browsing history. Only when you submit a web page to ViaVol, it transfers the data of the submission to ViaVol. There is no virus, spyware, or malware in ViaVol Buttons.

How can I install ViaVol Buttons?

You can download ViaVol Buttons from here and follow the instruction.

How can I uninstall ViaVol Buttons?

From Windows "Add or Remove Programs", click Start->Set Progam Access and Defaults->Change or Remove Programs->ViaVol Buttons->Change/Remove.

For Shopping Match, do I have to input a product URL?

In general, the system expects you to input the specific URL of the web page of the product you are interested in. The more accurate, the better. Otherwsie, other people or business users can not refer back to the same/similar page and understand the product details if they need to.

For shopping match, can I input my requirements into the description area?

Adding data into the description area is optional. At the moment it is for a small product description to provide a preview to people without clicking the link to read the original page. We are working on more features to enable more user preferences be addressed by businesses in an effective maner.

How do I send a message to my friends?

You can use either on-site Voice floating window or ViaVol Buttons Voice button to send message and emails to others.

If you want to send a new message, choose "New Note" and type in your message. Choose "Email To" and type in the ViaVol usernames of recipients and/or email addresses of your recipients, separated by space. You can also enclose an image in email by inputing an image URl in the image box.

If you want to save a copy of the message in your own database, check "Keep a copy". If you want to make the message public in ViaVol Voice, check "Public". Then click "Go".

How do I check received messages from others?

If you received new messages from others, a notification "New Notes" will be shown within the greeting panel once you login your accocunt. Another notification "Note" will be shown at the top portion when the Shopping Match or Web Favorites ViaVol Buttons windows are opened.

You can always check all your received messages by clicking the "Note Inbox" within the greeting panel.

How do I add an image to an item?

Two ways to add an image:

When a ViaVol Buttons Window or on-site floating window is opened, if you see blue square dot(s) beside "Image" tag, you can put your mouse cursor over the dots and select an image by clicking on a dot.

You can type in or copy a source URL of an image into the "Image" box.

How do I add a video to an item?

Two ways to add a video:

When a ViaVol Buttons Window or on-site floating window is opened, if you see colored round dot(s) beside "Clip" tag, you can put your mouse cursor over the dots and select a video by clicking on a dot.

You can type in or copy the source code of a video into the "Clip" box.

How do I check my received Response?

If you received new response, a notification "New Response" will be shown within the greeting panel once you login your accocunt. Another notification "Response" will be shown at the top portion when the Shopping Match or Web Favorites ViaVol Buttons windows are opened.

You can always check all your received responses by clicking the "Response Inbox" within the greeting panel.

What if I got a bad response?

You can vote on each of the responses you received. Your votes will determine the credits of the senders and determine the ranks of their subsequent messages and their abilities to send future responses. After reading and voting, you can also delete a response.

How do I report a problem item?

After you login your account, locate the problem item. Click on "Make it my page" link of the item and choose the "Problem Report" category and a reason. Click "Save".

How do I hidden my item?

Locate your item from "My ..." and open the corresponding window and uncheck the "Public" box and click "Save".

How do I open a business account?

From here. You can also access from "Business Users" at the bottom left of ViaVol homepage.

How do I response others' interests?

Step 1: Select related URLs and save as a URL group.

Step 2: Create a response message and bind the message with the URL group. Save the message and send it out.

Optional Step: Analyze your selected URLs or a URL group to understand the optimal segment of your target audience.

How do I select URLs?

After you login your business account, search related URLs with the items associated with your target audience and select them by checking the "Select this item" box. Then click on "Group Links". This will bring you to the Link Groups page for you to save your selected URLs as a group. Give your selected URLs a Category name and a Group name then click "Save" and click "OK".

How do I create and send a response message?

Click "Send Ads" link under the search box to create your response message. Click "Create" link and type in your message and input your image. You can click "Preview" to see what it looks like. Click "Edit" to modify to your satisfaction. Select a related URL group from the dropdown list. (If you don't have a related URL group, you need to create one.) Click "Save" and "OK" to save the message.

After saving your message, if you decide to send out the message. Click "Send".

How do I conduct an analysis?

You can always analyze the segments of your audience associated with your selected URLs. If you already have selected URLs, click "Analysis". Otherwise, select your interested URLs or go to "Group Links" to pick a group then Click "Analysis". Type in the maximum price, minimum price and the cost of your selling product then click "Analyze".

The result shows a computational estimation of theoretical profit and revenue opportunities using the price and date parameters assuming that your offer Exactly matches the interests of your audiences and ALL of them will be buying according to their input preferences. The result is merely a reference to show what optimal price and selling timing might be.

How do I check my account status?

You can find it by clicking on "Profile" or "Send Ads".

How do I attach an image to my response message?

When you create a response message, you can either type in or copy the source URL of your image or click "Upload" then "Browse" to select and upload an image from your computer.

What can I do if I sent out a bad response message?

Sending out a bad response message will create spam for others and may seriously impact your credits. Bad response might eventually cause you no longer be able to send out any more response messages. If you think you send out a bad message, you can select the message from "Marketing" and delete it immediately.

When you decide sending out response to others, you need to be very careful that you are sending useful messages to people. Your recipients can vote your messages and determine your credits which determine the ability of you sending response in future and the ranking your messagse. While good voting result can increase your credits, bad voting result can decrease your credits.

While you will be benefit from reaching out more people, you also need to be responsible for making ViaVol a better place to be for everyone.

Please note that an repetitive offending account might also be removed. Please make sure you read Terms of Use before using ViaVol services.

Why does ViaVol set a limit on each business account?

The purpose for this is to give everyone a fair chance to send out messages, and prevent the system from being abused and ultimately ensure the qualities of messages as high as possible. The rule applies to Beta stage. It is not the best solution but it helps to make the site more useful. ViaVol is working on a better solution to ensure the best uage of the site.