YaDig Launches Brand New Iphone App!

Filed under

Have an Iphone or an Ipad? Download the new YaDig Iphone App and unleash the power of 10,000 local reviewers in the palm of your hand. YaDig's new app will enable people to add a business or find, contact and review over 30,000 already existing businesses on the site. You can browse user reviews from locals living in your city, people's opinions you can really trust. This App has the newest YaDig features like the new Near Me feature which enables users to discover places that are geographically nearest to them based on their GPS location on their device. The best part about the app in our opinion is that it's faster, cleaner and more user friendly...and it has a very cool camera feature that takes your profile picture with 1 of 5 different crazy afros that you can add for good measure. You can use the app as just a passive user, browsing and getting info on the best of every kind of business in the region or you can join the ever growing community of reviewers and give your feedback and opinions. Over 250,000 users utilize YaDig to make their lives easier and save time and money on the web.....how many will sign up to use this amazing mobile app? Get started here.   

Small Business Advertising on YaDig! Reach real people.

Filed under

Do you run a small business in the Middle East? Maybe you have a car repair company in Cairo, or a Salon in Beirut. Maybe you have a Boutique hotel in Muscat or a new restaurant in Dubai? There's lots of ways to promote your business online these days, but not many targeted solutions that reach an audience who is ready to spend at the exact moment they come to know your about business. Well, on YaDig we're pleased to announce that we're launching sponsored listings, sponsored category pages, sponsored neighborhoods and even sponsored business pages (we will explain below) which will enable small business owners to promote their brand, directly to people with intent to spend money at their shops, like never before. Read on if the idea of hitting someone searching for your exact business intrigues you. 

Let's say you own a car cleaning company in your city, who is a more valuable potential customer; a person chatting online with friends and liking photos, or a person online who is searching for a reputable car cleaning company in that city.....that's what we thought too. YaDig users this kind of information thousands of time per day which is why our users return to the site up to 200 times per month to find the best businesses in their city, as rated by their peers and neighbors. So around this idea that people love to find the best rated businesses, YaDig has launched several sponsorship opportunities for new businesses who want both brand exposure and also increase revenue.

Our first targeted sponsorship offering is the Sponsored Search Listings which companies can purchase directly from YaDig. The Sponsored listing will be the only guaranteed listings listings to appear at the very top in the category, sub-category and/or neighborhood of your choice. Meaning you can target anyone who searches for your type of business, whenever they do, they see YOU at the very top highlighted and sitting pretty. his level of targeting has an insane conversion rate as the intent to spend money at that time, in your place is very high, much better than showing an add to someone talking with their mother on Facebook.

Now another cool premium feature we offer on YaDig is the Sponsored Business Pages option to help you maximize your branding and your revenue. Obviously the free features on YaDig are available to all, you can claim your Business Page, manage the content, respond to reviews and even message the reviewers and followers of your business. With our premium business page services you can go a step further to promote your offers, new products, new services, increase your conversion rate and your up-sell to the browsers who are to spend money with you. You can now place banners directly on your business page to advertise your new products, offerings, deals, locations etc right when people are browsing your business page. Most businesses on YaDig see between 500-6000 views per month depending on the category so if you can convert more of those views, this is a very high ROI form of advertising for you! Imagine you are a Pizza place who has just launched salads, and a user comes to the page to find your phone number (YaDig gets killer rankings on Google for your business, check now) the user sees the banners for the new salads and while ordering decides to try the new salad options out. Boom. ROI to the maximum.

As a business owner, how much will you invest to grab the attention of the most targeted, ready and willing purchaser?

Contact YaDig today and we will show you how we can help you make more money!

Contact advertising@yadig.com or call 04-447 7466 anytime, any day.  

What Ramadan Means at YaDig

Filed under YaDig for You

Ramadan is an obviously special time for all Muslims around the world, a time to get back in touch with family and your inner self, but it should also be a pretty special time for everyone living in the region as well right? It is for us. We cringe when we hear people moan about such a special time that can easily be used for positive change, reflection and a catalyst to look inside one's self and get better at being better. At YaDig.com we all fast, and no we're not all Muslim. Maybe not the whole month, maybe just one day but we like to experience the culture around us, which is part of the reason we set this site up in the first place. We look forward to breaking the fast with friends, going out to see family and chat about life, love and lessons. We revel in the opportunity to cut out some of the negative things in life and just take an overall “breather”.

For our YaDiggers Ramadan should be a real experience. There are so many amazing restaurant deals and special events, Iftar promotions, hotel offers and discounts across pretty much all of the 18 categories of businesses that YaDig has on the site. As you probably have already noticed YaDig has reviews on much more than just hotels and restaurants. People can review and engage with businesses in almost all different sectors like movers, cleaners, spas, salons, doctor's offices and even shipping companies and auto repair companies etc.  Starting this Ramadan people can even review and promote ALL the charities in Middle East. If you participate, volunteer or donate to a Charity, please take a second this time to write a review about them so that other people can find out about the cause and hopefully get involved too.  Please just go to www.yadig.com right now and search for, or add your favorite charity in your city, it's a easy good deed to do this Ramadan. 

Also this year for Ramadan, YaDig we will be having a massive Ramadan Reviewing Competition with prizes for the best and most informative reviews coming from Kempinski, and Address Hotels, All kinds of Spas, Gyms, Restaurants in your city too, not just in the UAE. We'll have prizes for every category and every city that YaDig is in! All you have to do to get entered into this YaDig Ramadan Competition is take some pics of the businesses you visit, write a great review, either bad or good (just make it good feedback for the business) and each review will be entered to win, night stays, dinners for you and friends, spa packages, car cleaning vouchers, free Iftars at hotels and restaurants and so much more! We 

So during this Ramadan we encourage you to not be a hermit and stay in to just chill. Go out, see the town and enjoy what Ramadan is all about. We hope you take the time to go experience some serious Arabic culture, learn about the tradition(s) and religion(s) of the places we all call home and do please come home and review the places you've visited on YaDig.com.  Oh one last thing we've launched a little survey to see if you guys love us or hate us and we'd really love to get your feedback if you could spare 2 minutes. Here's the link: http://svy.mk/NgyyG2 Ramadan Kareem! 

Why Write Reviews?

Filed under

YaDig's main goal has always been to develop the largest database of real user reviews, written by local people (not tourists) in the Middle East. In striving for that, our largest time investment seems to go towards education; educating people on what reviews do, how they help and why they should take the time to give their opinions on Middle East Businesses. Over the past year and half since we started YaDig.com we've narrowed it down to two main reasons you should write reviews on restaurants, hotels, spas, car repair companies etc that you visit. 1 - reviews help you and other people, 2- reviews help support local businesses! We'll elaborate below.

Why reviews help you and others

Reviewing businesses is a new concept in the Middle East but once you get used to using them your life becomes much easier. User reviews, and knowing how to use them will eliminate all of those wasted nights (and cash) where you visited a "new" place that your friends recommended you try only to find out it was not anything worth trying in the first place. Has that ever happened to you? It's part of the reason YaDig was founded in the first place, to help people find the right place the 1st time around. Nex time you are in the mood for something specific, or someone mentions a new restaurant, cafe, lounge, bar, club or anything in your city....go to YaDig first and see if there's reviews. If there isn't tell your friend to be the first to write it up! You might find the info you were looking for on whether the place is actually your style or not...without having to spend time and money there to find out! That's the power of user reviews!

Why reviews help businesses

 In this region it can be very costly to set up a business, and it's hard to be an entrepreneur. No one appreciates free advice, and free marketing more than a new business owner. Every review on YaDig not only gives precious feedback to the business on how to improve, but it also gives a lot of promotion on the internet as well. YaDig.com is getting over 300,000 visitors a month now and every review goes to the latest reviews section on the homepage. Also since 40% of all of users sign in with Facebook, the social spread of reviews is staggering as well. So everytime you write a review, either good or bad you are helping business to spread the word about their product, and to make it better. They appreciate it! Next time you dine out, join a gym, party in a nightclub, or try any new business, please take a minute to review them on YaDig.

Follow Businesses, Win and Save $$

Filed under

Hey guys, do you Follow any businesses on YaDig yet? YaDig.com is not just a reviewing site ya know! We pride ourselves on the real community aspects that are here. There ARE other reviewing sites all around....there's international ones and there's local ones too. What makes YaDig so different though, is that it's a portal where users can interact with the businesses they love or have been upset by. On YaDig, you give your feedback, you get advice from other like minded people, you engage with the businesses you visit and you get exclusive offers from places too if you Follow them!

What is Following on YaDig and why is it different? Nope, it's not like Following on Twitter, or being a Fan on Facebook or anything else really. With a YaDig Follow you're signing up to get exclusive messages from the individual businesses you deem worthy enough to get your attention....that's it. It's not spammy daily deal messages that flood your inbox either. A YaDig Follow gets you occasional promotional emails that get sent only to a select few who deem themselves worthy enough of special deals and offers from that business. Simple as pie. You can follow Restaurants, Spas, Hotels, Cafes, Gyms, Salons, Car Repair Centers and much more! Look for the Follow Button on the business page! (See Image).

Say you follow Barasti Bar (over 110 people already do!), you are now signed up to their YaDig mailing list, and what that entitles you to be is part of a VIP list if you will. Barasti will sometimes use that list to increase their business by offering random, crazy deals, giveaway, competitions, offers etc. Say they are slow on a wednesday night in the summer so they email all their Followers a crazy offer like “Come in and say your YaDig name and get a free bucket of beer (first 10 people)”. Boom, customers who love you are at your venue, telling their friends about the deal they got and up-selling for sure too! Let's think of another Dubai example for fun. At MAKE Business Hub, if you Follow their venue you are entitled to a free coffee whenever you come in as long as your say your YaDig username. It's that easy, follow the businesses you love and then reap the rewards of staying in contact with them like never before. If you're a business and want to learn how to increase your YaDig Following then get in contact with us at info@yadig.com and if you're a reviewer who wants to follow their favorite business to start getting cool free or discounted stuff....we suggest only following a maximum of 10 businesses so as not to get too many emails like we all do already! Get started reviewing today at www.yadig.com and help people find the right place, the first time around!

YaDig in Hotelier Middle East Magazine & New Stuff Coming!

Filed under YaDig for You , YaDig in the Press

YaDig was written up this week in the MENA region's largest hospitality related magazine and compared to the global giant in tourism reviews, TripAdvisor. Read the article here to learn more about the recent growth of YaDig and our future plans. 

Now we certainly don't see ourselves as a rival to TripAdvisor but we do think we compliment the site as an integral part of any Hotel or Restaurant's marketing plan. TripAdvisor is for international people, tourists, and for finding places to visit when you're out of town, but do you want to trust traveler opinions in your own city? YaDig is the only real active reviewing community of people who actually live in your place. People who understand what to expect when dining or staying out in Dubai or Beirut. After all who's advice would you trust more, someone from your city or someone from 10,000 miles away who lives in different economic climate and is accustomed to a different level of standards? That's what we thought too. We're striving every day to create the largest database of peer to peer reviews in the region, and reviews that you can trust with clear profile data, and a really badass support team behind them. When you see a review on YaDig we want you to check the person's profile and make sure that they're worth the words they're saying. We're launching a new profile soon that will be chocked full of info like when the person signed up, how many reviews they've written, how many re-edits etc. All of this will let you the reader know whether or not this person knows what their talking about.

If you're not, or don't know a business owner but you do go out around the region and stay at hotels, visit restaurants, get your car fixed at an auto garage etc, please do continue to write amazing reviews on www.yadig.com! We've got a few competitions going on right now, most notably the NKD Pizza competition that will end next week. Write the most reviews by next week and when some exclusive NKD pizza prizes. Click here for more info.

NEW NEIGHBORHOODS FEATURE LAUNCHED in UAE Finally!

Filed under YaDig for You

Today is a big day for YaDig because it marks the first time we made a huge effort based on user feedback. Our Loyal YaDigers talked, and we listened! We thought our old search was perfect but what works for some doesn't always work for everyone so today we have launched the new and improved YaDig search which we think is the best around. The easier search functionality includes the self explanatory Neighborhoods feature...wherein you can limit and refine your search results to a specific neighborhood. Say you wanted to see all the Mexican restaurants in the Marina, you simply click Search Places from our homepage and you'll see the restaurant option and next to it the neighborhood choices....click Marina and boom, you'll see what you want, when you want it and darn easy too!

That's what YaDig is all about. Getting you the info you need, when you need it. So anyways keep doing what you're doing on YaDig but we want to thank our trusted YaDigers for coming through with some amazing feedback over the last month which led to a company wide discussion and redevelopment of the site's main feature...the search. Afterall, what is a reviewing website without a badass search feature? It's equally as important as the listings themselves (which we also have the most comprehensive database of in all of the Middle East, over 30,000 venues and 10,000 reviews!).  We really thrive on your feedback guys, so please never hesitate to email us with suggestions, complaints, comments and general rants. We love it, we do respond and even more importantly we act on it! If you can think of anything you'd like to tell us just email us at info@yadig.com. Also if you haven't already joined in the fun on YaDig.com please do click here to sign up and start reviewing your local businesses today. We want your opinions on restaurants, hotels, bars, clubs, gyms and smaller venues like spas, car repair companies and more too! Thanks for everything. The YaDig Team

YaDig's Hot New Shirts

Filed under YaDig for You

YaDig has stepped into the fashion domain this week...not! No seriously, we do listen to your ideas and suggestions and after a few users had emailed asking about where they could find YaDig merhcandise we thought we'd give it a go. People seem to especially the YaDig Afro Dude so we put the time and effort into designing our favorite look for some new tee-shirts and boom it's started. We'll eventually roll out more stuff like stickers, posters, cups etc to give to our favorite users but this is a start right? So this week the new shirts came in and we decided we'd start giving these limited edition (the design will change every few months) shirts to our top reviewers every week. All you have to do to win one is just spend a few minutes and  review the places you visit anyways.  Eventually, these shirts will represent the best of the best reviewers in the UAE and entitle you to discounts and well deserved appreciation at participating venues and out in the public...seriously!

We've been speaking with bars, hotels, restaurants, clubs, gyms etc and they all love the idea of rewarding our top reviewers with discounts, it's all in the process. Right now, you get to be one of the first people in the world to rock the Afro and to support what is quickly becoming the Middle East's largest reviewing website YaDig.com. If you are interested in getting yourself a new custom YaDig shirt all you have to do is go to the website and sign in or sign up if you haven't done so yet, and get started reviewing the places you've been in the UAE and abroad. Extra points go to reviewers who add photos and to reviews written about places outside the UAE. We love all the support we get from our YaDigers and we'll continue to get lots of freebies and giveaways for our best reviewers. Keep up the amazing work and thanks for enjoying the site! 

Find the Hottest places in the UAE on YaDig!

Filed under

Have you started using YaDig in all it's glory yet? YaDig isn't just a reviewing site where you can review all the places you've been to...it's also a search engine where you can search tens of thousands of venues in the UAE and across the region, but even more importantly we're a discovery engine.

What's a discovery engine you might say; it's a powerful tool that helps you find new hot places before your friends can start gossiping about them. YaDig has a way of ranking businesses much like Google ranks things on their search results, we compile a lot of data to find the places that are getting the most views, reviews, shared links etc all of a sudden...proving that their HOT on the site.

In layman's terms we show you what's going to be popular before it is. Take this weeks hottest places for instance have you tried them yet?  

Some good Dubai examples of hot places on YaDig are Mom's Food in Dubai Marina? Home cooked food the way mom makes it, yes please!  People say it's awesome but we want your opinion. What about Riva a sweet little spot on the Palm that we've been hearing a lot about.  Let's have a look at Abu Dhabi: Have you heard of Lips Cafe? Don't let the name throw you off apparently it's amazing! Check the YaDig.com Homepage regularly to see what's hot in Dubai and 

YaDig’s 2012 Growth Spurt: Whopping Traffic, Facebook Explosion, New Blog & more…

Filed under YaDig for You , YaDig in the Press

Whew! The first quarter of 2012 has probably been the busiest and most exciting time at YaDig headquarters so far: we rolled out YaDig’s new and best ever site version yet; we upped our Love on social networks and are focusing on search engines more precisely. We also launched a new and improved blog under our own domain (you're reading it now :) ) and while we were busy doing all this stuff, we were also aggressively marketing the site to people in the UAE. Just as our staff’s sweat starts to dry a little, we’re already seeing the hard work paying off. Let us take you to a brief tour of our very recent achievements. 

Recent Press

YaDig was featured in a recent article about the The Top Digital Companies in the Middle East and we're flattered to be hovering around such huge names. The truth is however, we have only just begun and 2012 is our year as we roll out products and features that will make for the most fun, competitive and rewarding online experience around.

Whopping Traffic

At the end of January we were still under 150,000 PageViews a month. Now if you're not in digital business that means “hits” more or less. Well as of yesterday we were over 600,000 PVs  and 80% of the entire traffic is now coming from the UAE with heavy numbers from Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Sharjah. The numbers of our registered users have also skyrocketed, growing massively since the launch of our new build only two months ago. As we educate more people on how to use this social tool to engage with businesses, the word is obviously spreading! If you have a really good, or really bad experience out you should go directly to YaDig to tell your friends.

Facebook Explosion

Did you know we’re about to reach a total of 80,000 followers for our Facebook Fan pages? Our most popular  pages include YaDig UAE with 12,000 followers, YaDig ME with 8,000, YaDig India with 23,000, and YaDig Egypt with 20,000 followers. These numbers are as of today and there’s no stopping the ongoing explosion. We keep our followers updated about the hottest businesses in town via Facebook pages and users dig us for who doesn’t love pleasant surprises!

Competition #1 Ending 

Our first ever Review Writing Competition ends this week and will see us picking 20 winners in Dubai and Abu Dhabi and Sharjah both at random and a few prizes for best reviews/opinions. There is still time to get involved and write a review or two at this link: www.yadig.com/Competition.aspx