#1
/ February 1, 2010 / 1:26 min.
The first step in
finding the best restaurants, the best hairstylists, even the best dentist or mechanic
is signing up for your own
Yelp account. A simple signup and you're ready to start finding your friends' faves and even make recommendations of your own.
#2
/ February 2, 2010 / 1:52 min.
Yelp runs on recommendations from real people. It's different from sites that offer user reviews in that you know exactly who the review is coming from. Trusted Yelp members have a significant influence over which services other Yelp users choose. The first step to becoming a reviewer that cuts through the noise is to fill out your
Yelp profile
to tell people what you're all about.
#3
/ February 3, 2010 / 2:12 min.
While
Yelp lets you search and browse user reviews without requiring sign up, you get more targeted results if you've signed up for an account. You can
search by business category and by highest rated
. You can even filter by specific neighborhood or search for a specific franchise or location.
#4
/ February 4, 2010 / 3:00 min.
You can cut through the noise on
Yelp by
adding specific filters to your searches
. This way, you'll receive only the results you want with none of the irrelevant stuff vying for your attention. Filter by star rating, distance from your current locations, by cuisine type and more.
#5
/ February 5, 2010 / 2:02 min.
Sure, there's a bunch of valuable information on
Yelp already. What the site is missing, though, is your unique voice. Molly McDonald runs through the finer points of
creating your own Yelp reviews to share with the community
.
#6
/ February 8, 2010 / 2:01 min.
Yelp is more than just a user-review aggregator for restaurants and services; it's a community. You can
find and friend people who share similar tastes
and interests as you or go searching for your real-world friends to see what they think.
#7
/ February 9, 2010 / 2:49 min.
Community bulletin boards are so last decade.
Yelp lets you
find the events that interest you in your area
. Music festivals, food festivals, even community BBQs can be found in among Yelp's local events listings. Molly McDonald shows us how to
connect with real life, online via Yelp
.
#8
/ February 10, 2010 / 3:00 min.
Now that you are thoroughly reliant on
Yelp and can't pick a restaurant, hotel or mechanic unless you've read the Yelp review, Molly McDonald demonstrates
how to bend Yelp to your whim in the profile page
.
#9
/ February 11, 2010 / 1:54 min.
Great. We've got a
Yelp profile that's chock full of our favorite establishments in our neighborhood. We've got a queue of new places we're looking to try too. But what to do on lunch at work, when traveling or when exploring a new neighborhood? Molly McDonald shows
how to create new locations in your Yelp profile.
#10
/ February 12, 2010 / 1:52 min.
Log in to your Yelp account settings to manage what email you receive and how often, to add or manage saved locations, check your friend invites and even
.
about The Five Star Guide to Yelp
Yelp is all about community, both the physical and the online varieties. With Yelp, you can
find local events, local restaurants, local mechanics
and much more... wherever "local" may be. You can connect with the online community to in turn connect with your local community. Submit your reviews for the best (or worst) restaurants in your area and make friends with other like-minded Yelpers. Molly McDonald runs through what you need to know in this 10-part Yelp video tutorial series.
Quicktime 
