Relentless Simplicity - The Bonanzle Blog

What's New, Neat, and Next

September 03, 2008

Greetings my fine feathered Bonanzlers! It's been awhile since I posted a blog on my own behalf, so I thought I'd stop in and talk about what's new, neat, and next.

What's Neat: The Usual Parade of User-Requested Features

I'll start with the new additions that are dearest to this impatient programmer's heart: site-wide speedups! About a week ago, we tackled the booth show page, item show page, people page, and user page, which went from about 3-5+ seconds to load to about 1 second. Today, we took on our remaining nemeses, the home page and buy page. These took anywhere from 3-10 seconds previously. So far, they are taking about 1 second to load after revisions. Phew!

Another major new feature to check out if you haven't already is the new "Browse by Booth." This lets you see a list of booths, based on what booths have the most items in a particular category, which booths have been favorited the most, which booths have been favorited recently, which booths are having Bonanzas soon, and a couple other criteria. Very cool and very useful for finding combined item offers to make to sellers.

If you're every curious about what else is new on the site, that little "What's New?" link at the bottom of every page can clue you in. It gets updated almost every day with all the latest and greatest updates. If you've made a request, chances are you'll see it in that list before too long.

What's New: Fees and Leaving Beta

As Mark mentioned a couple days ago, Bonanzle has finally set off for non-beta seas. Seeing as how we never deigned to put the trademark "BETA" mark by our name like most of these newfangled web sites are so fond of, you might not notice much difference, but for new users, there will be a couple differences:

The first is that for non-beta users, we have updated the fee structure, such that any offers that close for less than $10 are charged $0.50 rather than being free. The rationale behind this move is less for Bonanzle's financial well being, and more because we do not want to incentivize a marketplace where most of the items cost less than $10. That isn't good business for us, and it isn't good business for you, if you like traffic coming to your items. :) That said, we will continue our classic locked in prices for registered users, so if you're reading this today and have an account on the site, you can be assured that the fees you see now will be the fees you pay through 2010 (unless we lower them). My gut is that the FVFs will probably stick where they are now for the foreseeable future.

The second implication of our move out of beta is that new users are no longer grandfathered without any FVFs for six months. We have, however, decided that all new users will still get the first 30 days after they register without FVFs, to get a taste of what Bonanzle is all about.

Also, I'd like to be very clear, since I've seen occasional posts on forums that seem confused on these points: 1) Grandfathered or not, you need not pay Bonanzle a dime unless you sell your items and 2) When you do sell your items, our prices beat the competitions' in most cases. So like, don't freak, man.

What's Next: Our First Newsletter!

In the next couple days, we're going to send out our first official Bonanzle newsletter, which will announce our first official Bonanzle contest! Oh, yay. If you haven't already signed up for the newsletter, go to "My Bonanzle" -> "Personal Info" and select the radio button "Yes" where it asks if you want to subscribe to the Bonanzle newlsetter. It'll be more fun than playing with a family of hyper, blindfolded monkeys. Or your monkey back.

P.S. Google promises they will try to have our Google Base feed working again by tomorrow. It has been down for a day or three, for reasons almost as mysterious to me as they are to you.

Posted by Bill | 7 comments

Hurricane Gustav

September 01, 2008

Hello,

My name is Robert and I'm arcanesanctuary on Bonanzle. Jose (circuitpartyjewelers) and I are in the process of having a fundraiser for Hurricane Gustav damage control. We all remember what happened when Hurricane Katrina hi NOLA and destroyed everything in site. From what I can see doing internet searches, there are still over 100,000 people living in FEMA trailers.

I know not everyone can give right now as the economy is slow but for those who can, please sign up on the thread I created to donate some of your sales till Sept. 7th. For those who can't, it would be really terrific if you could spread the word about this.

Thank you very much for your generosity.

Robert and Jose

Posted by Bill | 1 comment

Bonanzle Hails Scurvy Dog

September 01, 2008

Beta is up, and scurvydog has arrived. That's right -- August 31, 2008 will mark the last day of Bonanzle in Beta! What does that mean for you? Probably not too much. Many bugs have been squashed and we would like to thank our community for bringing the majority of them to our attention. Despite the end of our official "beta," we expect heavy development of the site to continue through at least October. In the next week or two, we have our sites set on at least three major additions to the site (browsing by booth, buying without pre-registering, and shipping with USPS). So even though we might not use the "beta" crutch anymore, we'll probably still be changing faster than many sites that are in beta.

What else is new?

August was a good time to be Bonanzling! Our user base increased almost 400% to a total of 1094 users! Not one sour apple out of the bunch. At approximately 10:26pm on August 29th, Bonanzle welcomed our 1000th user. We can assure you that scurvydogg received one of the warmest welcomes possible!

August also marked Bonanzle surpassing the 27,500 item mark! Our user listings are regularly showing up on Google Base, Oodle assuring them a ton of exposure. Combine this to our daily traffic average of over 1500 visits and folks you have an honest to goodness website!

Of course none of these milestones could have been possible without our fantastic community. Because of you we exist. Because of you we are growing faster than any other online marketplace we know of. Because of you Bonanzle is starting to spread far and wide. Bill and I thank you for all of your efforts in August. We really kicked major booty. We are excited to see what September will bring! What do you think guys and gals? How many people do you think we can reach in September? Another 400% user increase? Maybe 50,000 items? Could we surpass those numbers? One thing is for sure. With our amazing community, anything is possible!

Posted by Mark | 1 comment

We're 10,000 Items Old! Now What?

August 18, 2008

Well, August has been quite a month for Bonanzle, and to think it is only half way over!

As you may have heard or seen mentioned, Bonanzle recently had it's 10,000th item posted. At a time where our competitors are paying their users to refer their friends and post their items, we take it as the utmost compliment that so many of you have voted that you'd rather have an enjoyable user experience on a friendly marketplace than a couple bucks or a chance to win a prize on a worse one (but don't worry -- we'll get around to some gimmicky promotions soon). The momentum and positivity building at Bonanzle have been amazing to witness, and I hope you guys are enjoying the ride as much as we are!

With so much growth taking place so rapidly, I wanted to take a minute to cover where we are today and what our vision for Bonanzle is in the weeks and months to come.

During the year we spent programming Bonanzle before launching it, we asked ourselves who we thought a site focused on simplicity and usability would appeal to. The answer, it seemed, was Craigslist refugees.

We were wrong about that. So sue us. (No, not you, eBay. Don't sue Bonanzle, please! I heard Craigslist still had a few million more bucks to be pilfered).

Of course, Craigslist users have been positive about Bonanzle, but we now predict that they are going to adopt Bonanzle en masse in about 6-12 months, when there's more media coverage and such. At this point, it is collectors, small stores, and other folks united by distaste for evil that have become Bonanzle's community.

Why do I mention this? Because in this context, it's easier to understand why sort-of-obvious powerseller features like a USPS shipping calculator or a way to automatically charge sales tax for a given state aren't on Bonanzle yet, while features like defining a custom pickup location have been removed from the site because they weren't getting used.

Given our current situation, these are our top three priorities, in relative order of importance:

1. Make Bonanzle the most buyer-friendly marketplace on the Internet. Anyone who has setup their booth knows we are serious about being the most seller-friendly marketplace, period. But we have designs to make the same quantum leap forward for buyers. We think the inventory here already is great. Our bottom-line focus is to help sellers promote these items so they sell. Features like "no registration buying" fall into this category.


2. Get Bonanzle ready to grow from thousands of visits per day to tens and hundreds of thousands. It's an immense technical feat to build a huge and robust site, and we're working hard to make this transition a smooth one. Features like full text item searching fall under this mantle.


3. From seller-friendly to seller-friendlier. Tripling the number of items on the site in a few weeks is a pretty strong testament that we're on the right path, but we can do better still. That whole "relentless simplicity" mantra means we're never done. Helping sellers to ship their items without stopping at the post office is an example of how we plan to make selling friendlier still.

That's the features focus.

From a marketing standpoint, the end of our beta period, in September, is going to be the beginning of a more aggressive marketing strategy to continue the growth of Bonanzle for buyers and sellers who want a better way to shop than the evil giant and friends. The details of this strategy are still being hatched, so keep your eye on this blog to all the latest.

Posted by Bill | 6 comments

Quick Sale Hints

August 12, 2008

Hello to our many new sellers! This once-tiny site is starting to feel like a real live marketplace with such a variety of merchandise (and increasing sales of said merchandise) fleshing out our category counts over the last couple weeks.

Of course, with an increasing number of great looking booths and items on Bonanzle, the challenge becomes how to get item views and sales for your particular booth?

To help sellers deal with this most vexing of problems, we recently added a collection of pages that describe some ideas on how to drive traffic to your booth. They live here:

http://www.bonanzle.com/site_help/booth_promotion

Not like you could miss them, since they're also prominently featured on the "My Bonanzle" page.

I know that as a seller it's nice to think that you can just sign up, post some items, and let the site take care of driving traffic to your items. To an extent, this is certainly possible -- Bonanzle's traffic has tripled in the last month, and there are more buyers than ever perusing the site in search of booths to love. But we're not yet eBay (thank God), so if you want to maximize exposure for your items, consider trying some of the ideas on the list. It was designed to provide simple ideas for driving traffic your way.

And keep all the great feedback coming! I hope to see some more Bonanzas get scheduled for later in August, I don't want to see Mark go into withdrawal. I think he's become wholly addicted to cheap Bonanza baseball cards.

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

Ever wished you could buy Bonanza on Bonanzle during a Bonanza?

August 04, 2008

How ironic could it be that our 3000th item shares the name of one of our signature features on Bonanzle? Granted I am a ghost and there are not too many things that spook me (except other ghosts) but this sent a chill up my sheet. Without further ado I present to you our 3000th item:

Bonanza - The Last Trophy (2002, DVD) New Sealed $5.00 OBO

Lord and Lady Dunsford arrive at the Ponderosa to visit their old friend Ben. Adam finds himself the object of Lady Dunsford's attentions when she deems him to be a braver man than her husband. Adam then takes the couple on a hunting trip, where Lord Dunsford freezes while attempting to shoot a cougar. The hunting party is then captured by a band of renegades and Lady Dunsford begins to wonder if her husband will ever be the man he used to be."

You can find this item and many other unique items at user dw7004’s booth.

Posted by Mark | 5 comments

Bonanzle's First Online Review

July 30, 2008

Marketplace veteran and ECommerce-Guide reporter Vangie Beal today published the first online review of Bonanzle. Vangie gives a synopsis of where Bonanzle stands within the ecosystem of eBay alternatives, drawing from her many years of experience using and reviewing the hundreds of sites that have come and gone, purporting to offer an improved eBay-like experience.

It's a very well written, refreshing read!

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

Q. Where does a ghost go on Saturday night? A. Anywhere where he can boo-gie.

July 25, 2008

Right now, I am dancing! We now have well over 2000 items on Bonanzle! More importantly we have a wide range of some very unique items. To give you an example of the variety of items available at Bonanzle I wanted to bring attention to our 1000th and 2000th items!

Item # 1000

Nose Cuffs, Genuine Austrian Crystal

What is a Nose Cuff? Well if you have a teenager that wants to pierce their nose, this is a good alternative. A Nose Cuff is a piece of jewelry which clips to your nose and gives the appearance of a true piercing. What is so special about this Nose Cuff is that it is made with Genuine Austrian Crystal. Austrian Crystals are among the principal objects used to clear energy blockages in the ancient Chinese art of placement called Feng-Shui. Retail price for this is $ 69.95 but you can score on this closeout for $8-$15 each!

Item #2000

Twinkling H2O's Shimmering Watercolor Paints

Twinkling H2O's are excellent paints and are extremely versatile. The colors are bright and the shimmer is a proper "Shimmer" and not a glittery finish, making these paints ideal for a range of products. The colors are deep and the paints go a long way. These are non-toxic acid free, lightfast and safe for all ages to use! Unique shades include English Lavender, Wine and Roses, Dreamsicle, Lemongrass, Mediterranean Blue and Blushing Rose. Six different colors for only $10.99!

Check back soon, item #3000 will be here in no time!

Posted by Mark | 1 comment

eBay Alternatives Comparison - Why Bother With Second Best?

July 23, 2008

OK, so if you're here, I'm going to assume that eBay did you wrong. You're in good company. Between the February eBay boycott, the scoop at Henrietta's excellent blog, and eBay's declining traffic and listings, it has become conventional wisdom that eBay is in some dire straits right now.

But it's one thing to hate eBay, and it's another to choose and use an eBay alternative. Usually once people start thinking about whether they can realistically ween themselves of their eBay habit, they learn there are some serious tradeoffs that need to be made. This post will discuss some of those tradeoffs in regard to how each of the current eBay alternatives compare to each other.

Established Sites

• Amazon Marketplace: OK, full disclosure -- I've always had a soft spot for Amazon. Shopping there doesn't make me think, it makes me happy. Strengths: Good user base and great user experience. Amazon inspires Bonanzle's obsession with making things as utterly intuitive as possible. Weaknesses: You can only post items for sale that are in their inventory, so unique collectibles and such are out. Also, since Amazon gives so little information about each item, the only two metrics you can differentiate on are price and feedback. For users that don't want to sell their items at bargain basement prices, or for users that haven't already sold hundreds of items, this is a problem.


• iOffer: iOffer has been working hard over the last few years to try to become the next eBay. In my mind, they have succeeded in doing so from a user experience standpoint. Strengths: Good sized user base, lots of items. Allows users to group together items into offers. User experience that feels extremely similar to where eBay was a year or two ago. Or is that a bad thing? Weaknesses: User experience that feels extremely similar to where eBay was a year or two ago. Prices hover amongst highest site not named eBay site. Excluding multi-item offers, little in the way of positive improvements compared to eBay. For my part, I prefer eBay's user experience to iOffer's as of today.


• Etsy: Who doesn't love Etsy? It's beautiful, its user experience is second to none, and creativity abounds. Strengths: Presentation is superb. You don't need to be a web wizard to realize that many of the ideas for Bonanzle's presentation were adapted from seeds planted by Etsy. Lots of fun Flash widgets to play with. Good user and item base. Weaknesses: If you aren't selling homemade gifts, you're out of luck. Also, their prices aren't that low. But as you'll see in the next group of shopping choices, low prices can be a mixed blessing anyhow.

Up and Comers

Herein lies a scrum of sites with big dreams but not as many items or users. These are not sites for Powersellers looking to liquidate thousands of items by the end of the month. Yet they play an important role in the buying and selling ecosystem, because for these smaller sites need to survive, they've got to have creativity and a certain pluckiness. Remember in 1998 when you thought that Yahoo! had solved the problem of Internet search, and then Google arrived? Even though you the behemoths above have been "good enough" so far, the up and comers are where you'll see the hope that a significant step forward is still possible.

• Bonanzle: OK, who did you think was going to start this list, Einstein? I would subjectively say that, moreso than almost any other entrant on this list, Bonanzle is different than what you're used to. This starts from Bonanzle's founding principle of "Relentless Simplicity," which itself is a pretty big leap from the 90's way of thinking that "the more features the merrier." The implications of this mantra are far reaching for the product that's evolved. Strengths: User experience and focus on gathering user feedback comparable to Etsy and Amazon, respectively. Focus on real time deal making and interaction. High emphasis on sociability and community. Relentlessly simple. eBay/Craigslist item/feedback importers built in. Integration with all IM clients built in. Offers and counteroffers built in. Real time sales (Bonanzas) where buyer and seller interact built in. Can search for local items that are able to be picked up same day. Store-centric approach equals item synergy. No pre-registration to set up a store. Weaknesses: If you like auctions, you won't find them here -- too slow and unsimple. If you like cents, you won't find those either, we think they're so much mental clutter. Tradeoff for community-centric atmosphere means generally less anonymity than eBay.


• eCrater: This is almost what I'd consider an "Established Site," but with only 20% of the inventory of iOffer, I think it still belongs as an Up and Comer for now. They're scrappy. They probably like it. Strengths: No fees of any sort to setup your store. Decent traction with items and users. Reliable and been up for a long time. Weaknesses: I was playing with my eCrater store yesterday to see how they'd setup Google Checkout. After a couple minutes, I was done setting up my store and decided I wanted to see the home page again. I clicked on the "eCrater" logo. Nothing. I look at the top of the left navigation bar. Nothing. I went into deep thought and scoured their interface for a way... any way... to escape from the selling part of the site. No dice. I left the site. Long story short: because they're free, and have nothing to lose, it feels like there is some accountability missing for designing an intuitive experience or good presentation. Also, eCrater has been up for enough years now (5ish I think) that it's hard to imagine it suddenly breaking through and gaining the mass of users to be a leader.


• BluJay, ePier, Wagglepop: Some of the sites on the trail of eBay/iOffer. I bet there are some great features on these sites, and if any of the developers of those sites stop by this blog and can concisely explain how they are different and better than eBay (excluding fees, any site can be cheaper than eBay), I'll include their feedback here.

Auction Goons

Google "eBay alternatives" and you won't have any trouble locating more than 100 sites claiming to be "the next eBay." These are the sites that you visit and you think to yourself, "if this is the next eBay, maybe I could learn to put up with current eBay after all." These sites go up and down regularly, and aside from cheap entertainment value, they provide little of value to the eBay alternative seeker.

I'll refrain from arguing that the goons do a disservice to the serious up and comers, because it's so easy to make a lame auction site that who could blame a bored person for doing it as a fun side project. But they do generally clutter up the space and make users more (rightfully) skeptical of the legitimate eBay alternatives. Oh well.

Maybe if you ask really nice I'll give you a couple links to some of the most amusing of the current crop of goons. But as a rule, you must Beware the Auction Goons.

So, Why Bother With Second Best?

In essence, the choice to try an Up and Comer is the choice to sacrifice a known quantity in hopes of a better buying and selling experience. For many eBay users, this is a no-brainer, they're sick of eBay fees, or they're sick of draconian eBay user policies, or they're bored of auctions, or they're tired of it taking 10 minutes to post an item, or they don't feel like wading through pages upon pages of gaudy HTML to find a quality item. Some people are just curious about what life might be like after eBay. Still other users (the Google generation) feel personally responsible for implementing the "Don't be Evil" mantra, and avoid eBay on principle. Whatever the case, the reality that eBay has lost more than 10% of its listings since last year (after growing every year prior) attests to the fact that more people than ever are willing to go out on a limb to find something better. For the Up and Comers sake, the challenge is to prove to these free agent users that the risk is worth it.

Bonanzle is ready to prove it to you.

Posted by Bill | 3 comments

Seattle Craigslist vs. Microsoft Expo: Don't Ape the Mojo!

July 18, 2008

If there's one constant in this life, it's change. If there's two, they're "change" and "people that think they can beat Craigslist at its own game."

Scientists at NASA recently proved a theory that describes the unshakable power that Craigslist wields. It's called the Theory of Craigslist Mojo, henceforth "TCM." Being mostly "math guys," the scientists have asked me to explain the major tenants of TCM here, in hopes that I might be able to save others from thinking they can ape the mojo. Listen, you can't ape the mojo. It's a violation of TCM. On behalf of NASA, I will now try my best to illuminate the findings of their life's work.

Google "Craigslist alternatives," and at any given time you will find 20 companies, most of which are less than a year old, trying to out-feature or out-gimmick Craigslist. You forgive these entrepreneurs for trying; better that the momentary lapse of judgment led them to believe they could out-feature Craigslist than that they could drive home after twelve beers. After all, the common mantra in software for the last ten years has been that "more features = better." By this standard, a seventh grader could build a "better" Craigslist over the weekend. If it weren't for TCM, a new and better Craigslist would dominate the market every few months. It is thus TCM that ensures the stability of the Internet, and in turn, the universe. Why did you think NASA got involved with this, anyway?

Not understanding TCM, Microsoft Itself recently challenged its tenants. Could they debunk TCM? They brought the resources (both in money and users) to stand a chance, it seemed. In 2005, they launched their "Expo" service (later renamed "Live Expo", because, as you know, the word "Live" makes any web service irresistible) to much fanfare... on the Microsoft campus. While Expo experienced rapid adoption inside of Microsoft, it's launch was greeted by a mixture of curiosity and apathy for everyone else. How could that be, they wondered, when Expo had all the features of Craigslist, plus pictures in the search results?

I remember when I first heard from a friend that Microsoft was in the online classifieds space, and thinking I had somehow missed the existence of a powerful competitor. I rushed home to enter "expo.com" into my browser, and was taken to a home design site. OK, so they can't get their own domain name. That's fine, seattle.craigslist.org isn't exactly the catchiest URL either. So I Googled "Microsoft Expo," and found it... SECOND PLACE on Google for its OWN NAME. I clicked on the link and got my first glimpse of a multi-billion dollar company that did not understand you can not ape the mojo.

How do you spot a company that doesn't understand the tenants of TCM? Scientists have boiled it down the following -- go to site's home page, and count how many of the following elements the page has:

1. Home page is pure text (or very nearly so)


2. Home page has an event calendar, services, classifieds, and message board


3. Home page lets you conduct a local-centric search in a particular city

If the site you're looking at has two of the three, you are at a site that thinks it can beat Craigslist at its own game. By the principles of TCM, this site cannot continue to coexist with Craigslist. "You know, like matter and anti-matter," I was instructed to explain. This site will probably fold within the next year or two.

When I went to Expo, and saw they had gone three for three, it was clear to me they hadn't received word of TCM. They were doomed from day one. And sure enough, after having forgotten about Expo for a few months, I stopped by a month ago and saw a notice on their site that they were throwing in the towel. Expo would be closing at the beginning of July 2008. They got tired of losing money when they realized can't nobody ape the mojo.

TCM is why journalists love to write about Craigslist. Craigslists' very existence defies the known laws of commerce, logic, and many branches of quantum physics. When Craigslist launched 10 years ago, if you would have asked 100 people which they thought was more likely: that Craigslist would dominate local selling for the next ten years, or that the Internet itself would prove to be a fad, you'd probably have gotten an even split. These days, TCM assures that Craigslist occupies a mythical, nearly unassailable status amongst much of its enormous user base.

What does this mean for the Kijijis and Backpages and OLXs of today that have not yet given up the fight to ape the mojo? It is the ultimate field test of TCM, because with eBay pumping as many millions into promoting Kijijjiji as it is suing Craigslist, they are desperate to prove that TCM can be violated by the rival theory of Millions of Bucks Buys Users (MBBU). For my part, I hope they're wrong.

On Bonanzle, you'll notice that though we want to help people sell items locally, and though our #1 priority is simplicity, we have no aspirations to ape the mojo. Craigslist's model works fine for the type of person that likes total anonymity, or for a person that has only an item or two to sell. However, we think there is space in the universe for a marketplace that's easier and more social, and when we do reach the critical mass that Craigslist takes us seriously, I hope that we can collaborate with them to share listings and let people be able to search and use the sites interchangeably.

So long as the laws of TCM are at work, the world shall remain forever safe from the otherwise powerful Theory of Inevitable Fee Increases.

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

Two Items in Two Minutes

July 17, 2008

Here you have it, Bonanzle's first YouTube video! It quickly shows what its like to post two items for sale. The item posting takes less than 90 seconds, but with blabbering and arguing about the best video game ever, it'll take two minutes of your time to witness in total.

Posted by Bill | 1 comment

Welcome to July!

July 07, 2008

Let's cut to the chase, shall we? New in the last two weeks, ready for your Bonanzling enjoyment ready...set...now!

• Chat from MSN, AIM or Gmail to your booth. There's no better or easier way to get your items noticed than to be chat-available: it gets your items featured on the home page, and helps you show up at the top of search results. And now, you don't have to be logged into Bonanzle to be available for chat. Once you have setup your booth, visit "My Bonanzle" -> "Personal Info" and you can setup your booth buyers to send messages to you any time you are logged into your instant messaging program!



• Import items from eBay or from a CSV file (beta). Both of these features are still in beta, but functional. When setting up your booth, visit the "Advanced Options" tab and follow the links. We'll do the heavy lifting, importing your title, description, price, and pictures to Bonanzle from wherever they are now. We've also made some improvements to increase the reliability of our trusty Craigslist item importer.


• Cool booth URLs. No longer are you a mundane http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/1. We now support linking to your booth by your username, so http://www.bonanzle.com/booths/bharding will visit a booth (a very happenin' booth, with many things you should buy, I might add). That'll impress your friends.


• Far improved item batch editing. Our item batch editor has overgone a complete usability overhaul, and should make it much easier to maintain the ever-increasing size of some Bonanzle booths. You can check out our batch editor at "My Bonanzle" -> "Batch Edit" under "Booth Pro Features."


• Zoom out images beyond 100%. The most requested feature on the site so far has finally arrived. There are now a couple different options for adding your tallest item pictures in such a way that they look good in your booth, as well as a help page on how to do it.


• Gmail-style email quoting. Probably my personal favorite feature of the last few weeks. We heart copying Google.


• More forums. More forums have been added -- let's blabber. I'll go first.

What's next? You tell us!

Posted by Bill | 1 comment

"What's awesome," mid-June edition

June 19, 2008

Greetings to the many new Bonanzlers that have signed up lately, continuing to make this party, er website, move alive by the day.

I'm too tired to program (plus my fancy new Dell computer keeps freaking out in 5-10 minute stretches with hard drive problems), so I'm making a quick stop to report on what's awesome this week.

The first point of awesomeness I'd like to mention is the tremendous volume of awesome applicants that we've gotten for our marketing intern position from Craigslist. Great scott, if only we'd gotten a fraction of this quality when we were posting openings for programmers last year, we could have programmed this site to pick up your camera, take some pictures, and set up your booth for you while you sip pina coladas. Unfortunately, we didn't get that quality of programming applicant, and the site won't pick up your camera, nor will it set up your booth for you... but I will offer you a digital pina colada. Drink up, party animal.

As it stands, I'm still reading through a sea of well-written cover letters, encouraging feedback, and email from genuinely humorous (in a good way) candidates. Good stuff and thank you to all -- I only wish that we had the budget to hire a team of interns. But we don't, and we ain't, so if you're still thinking about applying, please send your application soon.

Lucky for you, we've also managed to find time to squeeze in some exciting new features in the last week. Here's a few!

• Invite your contacts. We'd hardly be a Y2k8-worthy web site without allowing you to invite friends fetched from your Gmail/Hotmail/Yahoo contacts list, would we? Try it from the "Invite My Friends" link in the "My Bonanzle" tab.


• Lookup prices or descriptions, from Yahoo or Amazon. One of my personal favorite features, we now allow you to automatically find both a description and a price for the items you're posting by using our item guesser to automatically grab items like yours from Amazon or the Yahoo! Shopping marketplace. Anyone got any ideas about a catchy name for the item description/price guesser? I'm told "Jeeves" is already taken.


• Buyers now buying! You may now touch the merchandise. Add items from any booth into your shopping cart (by dragging them in, or by clicking on the item, and then using the "Add to Cart" button) and buy away. When you go to checkout, you'll be able to make an offer on your terms -- set the price, the payment option, and whether you want it shipped or picked up (depending on what options the seller allows). Wheel and deal, bonanzlers.

Coming soon: better options for finding booths and users nearby you (and for finding users in general), a booth Facebook plugin, and faster picture load times. Woo-wee.

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

This week in "what's awesome"

June 04, 2008

Several things are new and awesome on Bonanzle.

The biggest deal of the week is that we're now hooked up to Google Instant Messenger! I've written a help page about what this means here. In a nutshell, you can now be "online" to answer questions and chat with people who see your booth all day without even logging onto the site. What's more, it's free advertising for your items, because booths that are "live" get top billing in search results and on the home page. I'd highly recommend you see the help page and get signed up today. It's as easy as can be.

In other news,

• We've made a series of performance passes, and from what I can tell, the site is now noticably faster. Though if you happen to find parts of the site that break this rule, I'd like to hear about them.


• A bunch of new options have been added to the "Personal Info" page (under "My Bonanzle"), including the ability to get an IM every time a logged in user visits your booth.


• Yahoo! Shopping has been added to the new item form to allow you to find a pre-written description for your item (in addition to using it to find a good price for your item). For the time being, Yahoo! has replaced Amazon as our price guessing service as well. In the next week or three, I'm going to re-add Amazon so you can choose between the two, but Yahoo results have seemed to be generally better.


• Friends can now be invited via the "My Bonanzle" page. We make it as easy as can be to let some of your pals know about the stuff you've posted on Bonanzle.


• Coming soon: People. While the site has been intentionally left a little bit sparse over the last month while we've ramped up and tested things, that is soon to change as we move into broadcast mode during the month of June. So keep setting up those booths, cuz it won't be long until there are people around to buy from them.

That's it for now, as usual, keep the feedback coming!

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

Seattle Craigslist Sellers Paradise

May 21, 2008

Seattle Craigslist sellers are our favorite people, and to prove it, we're now offering them the chance to import their Craigslist items here with 0 red tape. Simplicity is Bonanzle's obsession, and I don't think it can be made much simpler than clicking here.

That link will take the user on a magical ride straight to the Craigslist item import screen, where sellers who already have items on Craigslist can get their booth started off on the right foot by zipping their Craigslist items straight to Bonanzle. Of course, the items still live on Craigslist, and can still be sold through Craigslist, but this offers double the exposure for 1/2 the effort.

Why try something other than comfy, friendly old Craigslist? If I may paraphrase our Top 10 Features list:

• 5. See one item, see 'em all. Your items are no longer rubber duckies lost in an ocean of items. On Bonanzle, if a buyer sees one of your items, they'll see up to 8 others prominently featured. Sellers sell faster, buyers find what they want more quickly.


• 4. Importers. eBay and Craigslist item importers mean you can start Bonanzling immediately.


• 3. Price guesser, picture cropper, and the miraculous one page, one minute item post. And you thought that posting stuff for sale couldn't get faster than Craigslist? How about an average posting time of 1-2 minutes for as many things as you got??


• 2. Meet people like you. Buying and selling is the destination, but we bet you'll have more fun on the journey than at the destination. Where else can you meet people who live nearby you with similar interests, and still buy and sell items faster than eBay?


• 1. Bonanza! The site is called "Bonanzle" for a reason! A Bonanza proves the universal truth that your stuff + lots of people = $ $$ !


• 0. Is free cheap enough? No site that models itself after Craigslist is going to charge eBay prices, now is it? We just want you here, and we want your friends to join you.

That link again:
http://www.bonanzle.com/users/create_intro_user?import_cl_splash=true&item_1=&key=4v80w50b22A122

P.S. We also like other Craigslisters, and the item importer will work with Craigslist items from any locale. Seattle is specifically targeted here because Bonanzle is in beta, Bonanzle is based in Seattle, and so the first market we intend to test it out on is the Puget Sound-area market. That said, if you found us and don't live in Seattle, you're still most welcome to user the above link and see what the fuss is all about.

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

What's new

May 15, 2008

Greetings Beta Bonanzlers!

Many of you have already been harassed by our newest coolest feature, the quick-text message (I should find a prize for someone who can come up with a snappier name for that feature... where are the spinsters when you need them?). This feature allows you to send one-liners to anybody logged into the site. You use it by getting to a page where the online users are listed (such as the "People" page) and then click "quick-text this user" next to whoever you want to quick-text. You type a message, press enter, and the message recipient receives your message within 30 seconds, no matter what page of the site they're on.

It's very handy for beckoning somebody to your booth to chat with them, or asking quick questions. I really like this feature. It feels like a lot less fuss than creating an email to someone. Though it still needs quite a bit of polishing... firstly I am looking to set it up (by default) to disappear after 30 seconds, so if you don't feel like replying to someone's (i.e., the ever loquacious bharding)quick-text, you have the perfect alibi: you didn't see it, it disappeared before you noticed! I wish that some IM software had this feature so I could ignore the chatty users with less aftertaste. :)

Also wanted to update the status on the contest. So far, nobody has qualified for the game system. I am not sure that anybody has 30 items between themselves and their friends, let alone 100. That said, I maintain that it should be easy to get 100 items posted between you and your referrals, if you make it a goal. First of all, since we started tracking time to post items, the average item posting time has been less than two minutes sitewide, so if you sat down and posted 100 of your own items, you'd probably be talking less than two hours. Secondly, your friends want a way to sell their stuff easily more than they let on. They are just (rightfully) skeptical of something new until you have tried it and you can vouch for what makes the site great. All you have to do is set up your own booth, then email them and tell them you tested the water, it was great, here's why, post stuff!

I've only briefly perused the user signup referrals so far, but I'm pretty sure that nobody has qualified for Office yet, either. I don't think any one person (excluding me, woot!) has more than two referrals. Again, this prize is sitting here, begging to be won by someone proactive. I hope it will be you.

Most of the next week is going to be spent on infrastructure and bug fixing, so you probably won't see any new fancy features for awhile, but you should see some of your least favorite bugs getting ironed out. Keep your feature and bug feedback coming!

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

Features of the Day

May 06, 2008

First of all, I'd like to welcome to the many people that have already signed up in our very first week of our existence! You should introduce yourself in the forums so we can get to know you. And of course, you should, sell, sell, sell! We've already got some cool looking items up on the site. The more people and stuff find their way here, the more happenin' this party becomes.

Anyway, the reason I blog to you today is to report on a couple exciting new features that got added to the site in the last 24 hours: eBay feedback importing and Craigslist item importing. You can import your eBay feedback through the "My Bonanzle" page, then click on "Import Feedback" on the left. Importing Craigslist items is done either when you start setting up your booth (click on the "I've got items to import") or under the "Advanced Options" tab when you are in the main booth setup area.

Both of these features are still experimental, but cool. The Craigslist importer grabs your item's title, description, price, and any pictures you posted with the item. Super easy, and a lot faster than reposting the item here. If you've got any friends that you know are selling things on Craigslist right now, this would be a golden opportunity for them to hop over and give Bonanzle a try.

Many other new features have been added lately as well... there are usually at least a few per day. So keep checking back, and tell us what you think the next great feature should be.

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

Bonanzle Item Buildup

May 02, 2008

Today begins our monthlong intensive effort to get at least 2000 items posted for sale on the site by the beginning of June, when buying on the site will officially begin.

We here at Bonanzle understand you are a busy person who could be doing many things besides putting stuff up for sale. That is precisely the reason we have created the fastest item posting process on the Internet. We also understand that most people have at least 10-20 things cluttering their life that they could sell if they had an easy way to do it. Seems like you people and Bonanzle are the perfect match, hm?

But since we're new and you have a lot of places you could post your stuff for sale, we're going to sweeten the pot even more. From now until May 31st at midnight, all items posted for sale on Bonanzle can be listed and sold completely free of charge.

And in fact, not only are we going to make it free to post, we might actually end up paying you. For the person who has the greatest number of items posted for sale + items posted for sale by people they refer, we are going to award a free next-gen game system of their choice (Playstation 3 OR Xbox 360 OR Wii, basic models, or a $250 check if that isn't your bag). A minimum 100 total items posted between you and your referrals are required to be in the running.

For the person who refers the most users that sign up, we're going to award a free copy of Microsoft Office 2007 (Home). Minimum of 5 users signed up who mention you in the referral for this one.

It's Spring, which means spring cleaning, which means you are likely to find a receptive audience amongst your friends for this free+simple way to do spring cleaning without throwing away a week of their life planning / posting notices for / setting up / sitting around at a garage sale. Why not bypass the trouble, post 20 things on Bonanzle in a few minutes, and move on with life? They will find no faster way to get lots of stuff posted than Bonanzle.

I'll try to post an update or two as we get closer to June to appraise all of what kind of response we've gotten so far.

One final note -- please, no posting this to web sites, message boards, etc. We're going to get around to that. For now, we just want referrals who come from word of mouth, emails, and your blog, if you have one. How do we know who referred them? They tell us, when they register on the new item form.

Thanks and good luck!

Posted by Bill | 0 comments

It's a Baby Blog!

May 02, 2008

Yup, this here be the Bonanzle blog. Like any newly founded blog, it will be founded with great aspirations that it never quite lives up to. Among those aspirations...

• Keep you up to date whenever with anything new and exciting happening at Bonanzle.


• Discuss special events happening at Bonanzle (there's a couple coming up soon that I aspire to mention in the next couple days).


• Introduce you to features you might not have known about.


• Let you get a look at what it takes to make a Bonanzle. (Psst... there's quite a bit of this going on here already).


• Share ideas for and events regarding the improvement of Earth.

What do you reckon? Oh, that's right, you won't reckon anything yet, because I haven't set up this blog to accept comments. Somebody submit a feature request (objective #3: check)!

Posted by Bill | 0 comments