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What's New, Neat, and Next
Sep 3, 2008

What's New, Neat, and Next

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.

Bonanzle's newsletter: more fun than playing with a pack of hyper, blindfolded monkeys, or I'll eat my hat.
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.

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18 responses to What's New, Neat, and Next

twysp2 says: 09/04/08 at 01:21:32

Hi Just discovered this blog and what a wealth of reading I found. I am so impressed with this site, the sellers that you have attracted and the incredible energy that it exudes. I have the feeling that I am in the right place at the right time. You all are a blessing to many. Marla

BargainBasement says: 09/04/08 at 04:02:05

I am also impressed with this site for a variety of reasons. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for continued successful growth….with a word of caution….don’t let things get ahead of you. Keep making sure that the site is working properly before adding new bells and whistles that only make the site too cluttered. I have seen it happen elsewhere, don’t want to see it happen here. Just my two cents that you did not ask for… Sandy :o)

milieu says: 09/04/08 at 09:20:20

I can’t wait to see what contest is coming up, tba in your newsletter, I just love contests!

bharding says: 09/04/08 at 10:02:58

Sandy — Those are some very wise words! It’s a constant balancing act to know when to add whistles and when to fix problems, but since we started growing, I’ve found that probably 75% of our time is used making sure the site is up to snuff as we move from 10k items… to 20k items… and now approaching 40k items. About 25% is used to add features.

Long story short, bug fixing is and will always be our first priority, but the number of bugs to fix does seem to be decreasing with each passing day…

Bill

cleosgreatdeals says: 09/04/08 at 10:21:24

The approach to enhancements shows much thought on Bonanzle’s part, and listening to Bonanzlers. The simplicity of set up, listing items, and response time is important, and we are pleased to see that simplicity continues. We can see that the buyer’s enhanced ability to search, view items, and communicate at this attractive site, is definitely a plus. Each enhancement should invite buying and selling customers at a steady rate!

rubber.duck says: 09/04/08 at 11:19:38

Another vote for simplicity! I like the rather “low tech” feel, even though I know there is a lot of “high tech” thinking that makes it happen!

AuroraGG says: 09/04/08 at 18:45:23

I think the fees here are extremely reasonable, and I have no problem with forking over the paltry amount Bonanzle is asking for (LOL). :) This site is super-great and I am also pleased that I discovered it early on. Excellent. Can’t wait for the contest either!

EvesBooth says: 09/08/08 at 10:29:23

I have to agree with everyone, this site is easy as pie to set up. And also fun to move around on. Just wonder how come we can only transfer our feedback from “feebay” and not from some other sites..like iOffer or such. I’m sure looking forward in getting my feet really wet around here :)

twysp2 says: 09/04/08 at 01:21:32

Hi Just discovered this blog and what a wealth of reading I found. I am so impressed with this site, the sellers that you have attracted and the incredible energy that it exudes. I have the feeling that I am in the right place at the right time. You all are a blessing to many. Marla

BargainBasement says: 09/04/08 at 04:02:05

I am also impressed with this site for a variety of reasons. Will be keeping my fingers crossed for continued successful growth….with a word of caution….don’t let things get ahead of you. Keep making sure that the site is working properly before adding new bells and whistles that only make the site too cluttered. I have seen it happen elsewhere, don’t want to see it happen here. Just my two cents that you did not ask for… Sandy :o)

milieu says: 09/04/08 at 09:20:20

I can’t wait to see what contest is coming up, tba in your newsletter, I just love contests!

bharding says: 09/04/08 at 10:02:58

Sandy — Those are some very wise words! It’s a constant balancing act to know when to add whistles and when to fix problems, but since we started growing, I’ve found that probably 75% of our time is used making sure the site is up to snuff as we move from 10k items… to 20k items… and now approaching 40k items. About 25% is used to add features.

Long story short, bug fixing is and will always be our first priority, but the number of bugs to fix does seem to be decreasing with each passing day…

Bill

cleosgreatdeals says: 09/04/08 at 10:21:24

The approach to enhancements shows much thought on Bonanzle’s part, and listening to Bonanzlers. The simplicity of set up, listing items, and response time is important, and we are pleased to see that simplicity continues. We can see that the buyer’s enhanced ability to search, view items, and communicate at this attractive site, is definitely a plus. Each enhancement should invite buying and selling customers at a steady rate!

rubber.duck says: 09/04/08 at 11:19:38

Another vote for simplicity! I like the rather “low tech” feel, even though I know there is a lot of “high tech” thinking that makes it happen!

AuroraGG says: 09/04/08 at 18:45:23

I think the fees here are extremely reasonable, and I have no problem with forking over the paltry amount Bonanzle is asking for (LOL). :) This site is super-great and I am also pleased that I discovered it early on. Excellent. Can’t wait for the contest either!

EvesBooth says: 09/08/08 at 10:29:23

I have to agree with everyone, this site is easy as pie to set up. And also fun to move around on. Just wonder how come we can only transfer our feedback from “feebay” and not from some other sites..like iOffer or such. I’m sure looking forward in getting my feet really wet around here :)

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