Upcoming on NewNeek

February 21, 2009 at 12:26 am · Filed under Wants ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Hi all,

Back in it with another update. I’ll try keeping the blog as fresh as possible, as often as possible. It’s not always easy with all the time I spend on marketing, development and sales activities but I gotta keep the people informed.

First off, here’s a small bit of information for those not in the know. Our main developer Jayson, has been having back problems for over a year now and this unfortunate situation has drastically curbed the amount of time he has to spend on NewNeek.com. Since Jayson’s primary role is developing new features, we need him as healthy as possible so that the site can continue to have new content! The reason I mention this is that I am not going to be as involved in development as I have been. I am switching roles to sales and marketing so that I can drive membership up as much as possible.

But I thought it would be nice to inform you on the new features that are coming along. You know, as part of the whole marketing thing! Jayson, even through his back problems, he has been spending some time working on a new alert system. What’s the alert system you ask? I’m glad you did, it’s a lovely new feature that we’re very excited about and it will be part of our next release. Here’s an example.

- When you receive a new comment -> Triggers an alert to your email address
- When you receive a new message -> Triggers an alert to your email address
- When someone links to your want -> Triggers an alert to your email address
- When someone adds media to your want -> Triggers an alert to your email address

Of course, all of this can be turned off should the user wish to not receive any form of alerts. So with the alerts driving members back and the guides helping new ones learn how to use NewNeek, we’ll be pretty much in the driver’s seat towards keeping NewNeek fresh in the minds of people.

Another cool feature will be in your My Wants section. Let me show you a brief screenshot so that you can get the idea of what it does.

My Wants - New Grouping

My Wants - New Grouping

 If you noticed, there will be a new grouping function that will seperate your wants. In the screenshot, it is represented by the “3 days ago” grouping. So instead of the current cluttered look, your wants will be neatly divided by groups, based on the sorting option you chose. Even better, we’ll remember what sorting option you last chose and redisplay your wants the same exact way the next time you reach the page.

Just a little something to help improve usability. With this concept in mind, we’ve also reformatted the want steps so that they are simple and easy to manage. We’ve gotten rid of the “published” field and replaced it with a “is completed” field. This way, you can let visitors know that you’ve completed the step without having to play around with dates as its set up now. Here’s a quick snapshot of that to give you the general feeling of it.

Want Steps - Tab Organization

Want Steps - Tab Organization

You also probably noticed an “Organize” tab? This tab will allow you to change the order in which the want steps appear on NewNeek. Wan step management has never been this simple in all of NewNeek’s existance. I’m anxious to share it with all the members. Speaking of sharing, when will this update be ready you ask? In all honesty, we’re looking at an early March scenario. So you won’t have to wait long before you start using these new features!

Until then, look for more updates to the blog from a marketing perspective.

Joey

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Sales from a beginner

February 16, 2009 at 1:00 am · Filed under 1 ·Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

It’s been quite a while since i’ve updated the blog but i’ve been quite busy with the site and personal life to have much time to write about NewNeek. I’ve even stopped developing new features on NewNeek, leaving Jayson the responsibility of making the site evolve. My goal right now is to successfully market and sell the site. Not sell it for money but selling the idea to people so that they join the site. We’ve been stuck under 100 members for a while but all that will change with the push we’re planning in March.

The push will consist of marketing the site at a Montreal Canadians game. On March 14, 21 and 28, they will be hosting games at the Centre Bell against the Devils, Maple Leafs and Sabres. It will be the perfect time and opportunity to approach people attending the game. Our plan is to give them a NewNeek.com card that will invite them to join the site and win a contest. The contest will be a pair of tickets to see the Canadians in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Granted they have to make the playoffs first! To be eligible to win the contest, people will need to sign up during the month of March. Afterwards, we will pick the winner in April and send them off to a playoff game. It will be very interesting and it will be my first experience with selling something to people I don’t know!

Apart from that, we will also try to build partnerships with local businesses for some other contests and promotions to market the idea. We will start with businesses in Trois-Rivieres and then expand slowly but surely. We constantly need to push hard to get the product out there. It’ll start with word of mouth and it will spread as people start using it constantly. There’s one thing i’ve noticed since going live back in September, the site is really incredible to use when people are putting in new content every day. That can only happen if we have more members. Even if it feels it’s stagnating right now, there’s a lot of people that will be joining soon. It also gives me the time to finish off the help guides before the masses arrive.

The help guides will be videos that help new users learn how to use NewNeek. The videos will have audio and will definitely be faster than reading through paragraphs of text on how to do something. Some of the guides i’m developing are how to use NewNeek, how to create a want and how to add an image to a want.

When all this is done, i’ll make sure to post some images cataloguing it all. It should make for some very intriguing ready. Until next time!

Joey Montambeault

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Long road ahead

December 12, 2008 at 3:08 am · Filed under Wants ·Tagged , , , , , ,

Well, i’m very upbeat about NewNeek. I just wish I had more time to sell the site. What I would really like, is to get out and meet people face to face. The site is so much easier to sell when I can explain to them the reasoning behind the site. The business cards will help with this task. I can’t wait to have them! Probably tomorrow or Saturday. So in the meantime, i’ve been on yahoo answers answering some questions. I make sure that  my website is in my signature. This way, people see www.newneek.com and are possibly tempted into giving the site a visit.

When I look at our site statistics, we are having a steady flow of visitors. It is holding at around 150 people a day. But for whatever reason, we’ve had no sign ups. One of the main problems is that the site is oriented towards people from Quebec. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but when americans arrive on the site, they see french content and are probably turned off. I can’t blame them, I do the same thing when I arrive on a website that has a foreign language. To resolve this, I will start working on targeting content to the type of visitor. If I see it’s an english visitor, I would like to present some english content before showing french content.

What’s cool is I found a javascript library on Google that can basically detect what language a sentence is written in. For example, “Je veux un avion” would be detected as french and “I want an airplane” would be detected as english. This is great as I can save this value in the database and use it to target wants. There’s a lot of work ahead but I am very positive. The technology Google uses is called n-term approximation. It’s pretty cool stuff. It breaks down words into 2 letter combinations and then through mathematics, determines probabilities that these combinations are found in all the different languages.

When i’m not promoting the site, i’ve been working on user awards on www.newneek.com. My goal with this is to show appreciation to the members that are staying involved in the website and essentially keeping it alive. I’m gonna have some cool categories like “Most Viewed Member”, “Most Viewed Want”, “Most Commented Want” etc. These categories will be refreshed on the first of each month with the winners of the previous month. I’ve got a small screenshot I can share to demonstrate what’s coming.

Screenshot for new awards section

Screenshot for new awards section

With christmas coming, I hope to start distributing the business cards and get the number of members over 100. That would be a very cool thing going into 2009. That’s what I would really want for christmas, more than any material thing that could be given to me.

Joey : who will be debt free in less than a month

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Why do we want

December 4, 2008 at 12:28 am · Filed under Wants ·Tagged , , , , ,

Want.

Such a simple word, yet one word that evokes many emotions whenever we think about it. To want is to be human. Whether we’re rich, poor, healthy or sick, we find ourselves wanting something everyday until the day we die. However, wanting is not instinctly human. When we are born, we need. We don’t want a roof over our heads, we need it or we don’t survive. So if we have shelter and food, then we’re pretty much all set. Right?

Not exactly. There exists a 3 need theory that drives human more than anything else in life. You will surely find yourself having needed at least one of these once in your life.

1. Need for Achievement

2. Need for Power

3. Need for Affiliation

The need for achievement is wanting to better ourselves everyday. When we have a goal in mind, this drives us to work hard to try to achieve it. Achievement can be anything in the world. It also has different criteria depending on the person. Achievement can be successfully raising a family, learning a skill, graduating from university, climbing a mountain, etc. Achievement is neither good or bad. Achieving is just the moment between a state of non attainment to a state of attainment. Nothing more, nothing less.

With achievement comes power. The need for power cannot be confused with having an army and wiping out good or evil from the world. Power is influence. When people see you as powerful, they often give you their respect. This allows you to gain influence over these people. With their help, you achieve things, based on your agenda agenda. This doesn’t mean you are mind controlling them. It’s just that humans feel secure when surrounded by powerful people.

Let’s take a second and imagine a sporting event where a close game is being fought and eventually won by one of the teams in the dying seconds. If you were in the stands, watching the game, you would probably be rivetted by the action taking place. If someone were to put a blindfold over your eyes, you would become enraged and tear it off. At this specific moment in time, the game and players have a powerful influence over you. Nothing is more important. If your team achieves victory, you feel by affiliation, that you have also won. That night, over a drink or two, you will recount the action, to other like minded people, about all that took place during the game.

We do this because humans need affiliation. What good is going to the game if you cannot talk to anyone about it afterwards? Humans need friendship and acceptance. If you cheer for the same team as someone else, you have a bond with them. No matter who you are or where you’re from. The need for affiliation brings us to surround ourselves with people with similar wants and needs. Countless associations accross the world exist because of the need for affiliation.

This is where needing and wanting become intertwined. As a human, i will always want something to help me relieve the need for achievement, influence or affiliation. If I buy a new golf club, I will probably be seen at the driving range in the next few days practicing with it. If I have a friend with whom I golf with frequently, he or she will probably know soon enough that I have added a new weapon to my arsenal. I am therefore seen as more powerful because this might help me achieve a hit of 250 yards instead of the usual 200 yards.

So the need for achievement, power and affiliation is one reason why we want. But is it something more than that? What do you want? Personally, I built a site all about wants. I invite you to check it out. I am curious to see what people will enter as wants, what category they fall in and what motivates people to achieve those wants.

Joey Montambeault

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