added yelp, yp, and google reviews to theVaporRater b&m directory

[The Vapor Rater]

hey guys,

just wanted to let you i've added yelp and yp.com ratings to theVaporRater.com. i'm about halfway through my shop list on getting the google ratings added. google ratings should be posted for all the sites by the end of next week.

https://thevaporrater.com/

i've got around 13,000 shops, twice as many as any other directory, but i didn't have many reviews on the site. the idea was that you'd be able to see which shops were worth checking out, but without reviews, that wasn't possible. so i decided to pull in the shops' ratings from yelp, yp.com, and google and link those ratings back to the source page so you can see the details of the reviews on yelp, yp.com, and/or google.

hopefully this makes the site more useful.

it's possible some of these shops are out of business or i've added a business that doesn't sell vape stuff (i used their category listings on the web to get the business list, so if they're a tobacco shop and listed themselves as vape, they probably made it into my listings). if you find a shop i should remove, please go to the shop's page and hit "REPORT BAD LISTING", and i'll remove it.

i've got a list of all the shops in canada (around 1,500 shops), i'll be adding that soon.

and the android and iOS apps are done, i'll be putting them in the app stores in a week or two.

the mobile apps let you type in a location or use your GPS to find the closest shops.

thanks for your time, hope you find the site useful.

josh

 

[Susan~S]

Looking great @The Vapor Rater!

I see you removed a lot of the shops I had noted since your last post. Love that you added the "yelp" reviews. I'll go back through the shops in my area and see if there is anything else that needs to be removed.

 

[The Vapor Rater]

Looking great @The Vapor Rater!

I see you removed a lot of the shops I had noted since your last post. Love that you added the "yelp" reviews. I'll go back through the shops in my area and see if there is anything else that needs to be removed.

thanks. yeah, i spent quite a while weeding out the tobacco places. i pulled around 1,000 shops from the site.

 

[Bad Ninja]

thanks. yeah, i spent quite a while weeding out the tobacco places. i pulled around 1,000 shops from the site.

You do realize not all tobacco shops are the evil empire right ?
I would estimate the majority of smokers who switch to vaping start at the same place they buy tobacco.

 

[The Vapor Rater]

You do realize not all tobacco shops are the evil empire right ?
I would estimate the majority of smokers who switch to vaping start at the same place they buy tobacco.

yeah, i'm not demonizing smoke shops. and i'm not completely deleting them, i'm changing their category and putting them in draft mode. i'll eventually publish the tobacco places too in a new category for people that want both.

the #1 main complaint i've had about the site is that a lot of the places listed were tobacco places with only a tiny vape selection.

the site is supposed to be for vape stuff, so in an effort to make the site more useful, i've been trying to weed out the places that are 99% tobacco with a tiny little case of vape pens in the corner. i don't think the majority of people using the site would be stoked to go to a place and not have any choices as far as hardware and juice selection.

so yeah, tobacco isn't the enemy, it's just not the focus of the site.

 

[Bad Ninja]

Just pointing out:
Tobacco shops mostly carry entry level vape gear because only entry level vapers buy gear there.
That's what the customers buy, it's not the place for high end or advanced gear.
That doesn't mean they aren't a huge resource for beginning vapers.

Remember most of us are ex smokers.

 

[retired1]

Removed .com from title. URLs are not permitted in thread titles.

 

[The Vapor Rater]

Removed .com from title. URLs are not permitted in thread titles.

cool, i won't do it again.

 

[Oregon Linda]

Wow, this is a great resource. I just searched my city and was shocked to see over 30 listings. I was only aware of 2 vape shops here, so I'll have to check some of these out.

 

[The Vapor Rater]

Just pointing out:
Tobacco shops mostly carry entry level vape gear because only entry level vapers buy gear there.
That's what the customers buy, it's not the place for high end or advanced gear.
That doesn't mean they aren't a huge resource for beginning vapers.

Remember most of us are ex smokers.

yeah, i'm not trying to be snobbish or anything about entry level stuff. if they have entry level vape stuff, i want them on the site.

and there are still a lot of places on my site that are primarily smoke shops but also carry a little vape stuff.

the only ones i removed were the ones that didn't mention any vape on their website and facebook pages.

for instance, in the town i live in, there was a shop listed on yelp as tobacco/vape, so it ended up on my site. i've been there and the only thing they had was the stuff you'd see at walgreens, i removed it. it was technically e-cig related, but if i was using a site like mine to find vape shops and i ended up at a place with zero juices and first generation e-cigs from 2005, i'd be disappointed.

if there are any places in your area that aren't on my site, let me know and i'll add them, no problem.

most likely, the places you're talking about (smoke shops that sell a little vape stuff) are already listed on the site.

 

[Bad Ninja]

if there are any places in your area that aren't on my site, let me know and i'll add them, no problem.

most likely, the places you're talking about (smoke shops that sell a little vape stuff) are already listed on the site.

All good. Just pointing out the obvious.
I worked WITH several dedicated vape stores near me repairing mechanicals for a while. As a retired business owner, their business ethics( or lack thereof) turned me off.
I'm sure there are some awesome shops with awesome owners out there and I support you for promoting them, however I cannot, in good faith, recommend any near me.

 

[The Vapor Rater]

All good. Just pointing out the obvious.
I worked WITH several dedicated vape stores near me repairing mechanicals for a while. As a retired business owner, their business ethics( or lack thereof) turned me off.
I'm sure there are some awesome shops with awesome owners out there and I support you for promoting them, however I cannot, in good faith, recommend any near me.

that sucks. if those shops are listed on my site, feel free to flame them. if a shop is run by crappy people, i know that i would avoid the place and it could be useful info for people searching in that area. thanks for the feedback on the site.