Sunday, May 11, 2008

/products blog

Sorry I haven't written in a long, long time. Too busy improving Personafile. So many things in Personafile have changed its hard to catalog them all. Our biggest addition as of late is the Personafile Products blog, a.k.a, /products.

Check out the new Personafile Products blog at http://www.personafile.com/products. We are now posting interesting stories daily.

Wednesday, January 9, 2008

Welcome to 2008!

Happy New Year to you all. I trust you all had a good holiday.

Personafile served a heck of a lot of customers over the holiday weeks, answering all sorts of product questions. Our servers were pretty busy. The overall page views increased substantially in December and that pretty much seems to be continuing (although not quite as "hot" as Dec 20th - Dec 30th).

More and more customers are learning about or using [i] Gain to shop on the Internet. A few accounts are very active in this regard; two I can think of have > $100 balances. Not bad for found money! If you are not familiar with [i] Gain you can learn more at: http://www.personafile.com/iGain.html

Starting on day one (OK, make that day 2) of 2008 we got busy working on a bunch of new things:

1. With CES and MacWorld in progress/coming, there is work to do to get all these new cool products in Personafile. So that's a work in progress.

2. We added two main buttons to http://www.personafile.com/: Products and [i] Gain. The Products button brings you to four pages that "show off" the Personafile Product Database in a differents ways:

-http://www.personafile.com/products.html: a snapshot of our Product Database. Well almost, it currently show about 30% of the products within that are categorized. We will be working to get more products listed here in the coming weeks.

-http://www.personafile.com/new-products.html: new products that we've recently added to the Personafile Database.

-http://www.personafile.com/topvisits.html: the top products by user visit. These are the "popular" products within Personafile.

-http://www.personafile.com/product-recalls.html: Our product recalls "clearinghouse". Product recall listings with [i] links to Personafile products pages matching those recalls.

3. Also, we've introduced a new product categorization model that will be expanded over time.

Take a look at: http://personafile.com/Apple-iPod-nano-3rd-Generation-8GB-2-000-Songs-(PRODUCT)-RED-MB257LLA-P885909100211.htm

In the Data Panel section, Market Data pane, you will see 3 new links:
compare all iPods
compare all MP3 Players
show all Apple iPod nano products

The first two allow you to navigate through the Personafile product database to compare all iPods and MP3 Players. The third link shows all Apple iPod nano products within the context of all Apple products. Its fun to "visualize" your product in this way in its relationship to other products. All existing product pages currently contain the "show" link, the "compare" links are different for each product (and frankly most products don't have them yet, but the model is in place and we'll be working on more "compares" in the weeks ahead).

Monday, December 3, 2007

[i] Gain Questions

updated: 12/18/2007

Several questions about [i] Gain I would like to respond to:

1. Where do I see my [i] Gain rewards?
[i] Gain rewards are displayed on your profile page (click on My Profile at the top of any page within personafile).

On the top of the page you will see a section called "[i] Gain Cash Reward Program". Several items are summarized there:
Payout Percentage: the percentage you receive in the "commission split" with Personafile. This percentage climbs as your user level climbs (and your user level climbs as you add points).
Reward Pending: The cash reward credited to your account but not yet final. Most transactions start in the "pending" state and then move to "complete".
Pending Updated: The date and time when the Reward Pending was last updated.
Reward Balance: The cash reward balance credited to your account. This is your money. When this reaches $25 or more, you can request payment through the Pay Me button.
Balance Updated: The date and time when the Reward Balance was last updated.
Pay Me: Click this button to request payment when your reward balance reaches $25 or more.

In the event details section you will see all [i] Gain transactions highlighted in pink. For each transaction there is atleast one event posted. Under the points/rewards column, you will see the number of points and cash reward for that transaction. Under the description column, you will see the transaction details:
ID: A unique ID that we maintain.
Status: "pending" or "complete" (or, in certain cases, "revoked", if the item was returned, etc.)
Transaction Time: The date and time the transaction occurred.
Transaction: Sometimes present, a description of the transaction. For example, "winning bid" for Ebay.
Transaction ID: The transaction ID maintained by the merchant.
Transaction Total: The total amount you paid for the item minus tax and shipping.
Merchant: The name of the merchant.

2. I made a purchase but I didn't see my account credited?
We are busy catching up. Purchases made in early Novemeber have not been lost, but not all have been credited. We promise to catch up in December.
12/15: We have caught up, if something you bought was not credited, please contact us.
12/18: If you made purchases through Amazon and have not seen a credit, contact us.

3. I have a $7.56 "reward pending" and I am an "orange" (level 3 of 5) user, what if I become a "yellow" (level 4 or 5) user before pending moves to my final balance... will I get the "yellow" level percentage?
Short answer: YES. Credit normally moves from "pending" to "final" and that process can take up to 2 weeks (or more in certain circumstances i.e., a hotel stay will not be credited as final until you actually stay there). If your user level jumps between "pending" and "final", you will get the benefit of the higher user level.

4. I see a transaction called "Registration" with the merchant "Ebay". What does that mean and why do I only get points (no cash)?
If you shop on EBay you must have (or establish) an EBay account. If you clicked over from Personafile and established an EBay account you will see this "Registration" [i] Gain posting on your profile page. If you buy something (or simply place a bid whether or not you are outbid), the account is considered active and Personafile receives a cash credit. Of course, we share that with you. If the account is active, an additional line will appear in your profile and cash will be credited to your Personafile account. You must activate your EBay account within 30 days of registration by bidding on or buying a product.

5. Do I always have to click over from a Personafile link to guarantee credit?
You should to be certain. Right before you browse and buy on a target site, start on your My Merchants page (or product link within a product page) and click over. Each time you click over the date/time of that click is recorded with the merchant. Each merchant establishes its own period for which that click is valid, it can range from 7 to 45 days. So that click can be invalidated by time gone by. In addition, that click can be invalidated by: 1. clicking over to that merchant from another link on the web; or 2. deleting your browser's cookies. So to be certain, click over right before you shop.

If you have other questions about [i] Gain just contact us.

Friday, November 16, 2007

more stuff

Its been a week plus since my last post. Personafile is busy. We are clocking about 450 new members a day. We are generating thousands of page views per day and have added some server capacity to accomodate the demand. We've added about 1,300 new products across 6 manufacturers since my last post. That number doesn't include the member requested products, which run about 10 a day. We have been able to keep up with that, so if, in fact, you add a product request (the ++ button on a search results page) we should be able to get your product in Personafile within about 48 hours (and you will be notified when you request is completed).

We've also added a new section to our main website (some might call it the "marketing site" at www.personafile.com) called "Product Recalls". This can be found at: http://www.personafile.com/product-recalls.html. This section provides an overall summary of product recalls (most from the Consumer Product Safety Commission) and [i] links to associated products within the Personafile product database. Of course, members of Personafile don't have to proactively check- just add products of interest to your Personafile and Personafile Reports will take care of the rest.

We are just getting started with the product recall information. This section is going to expand dramatically over the next several weeks and hopefully it will be an aid to consumers everywhere.

Speaking of 'everywhere': about 40% of our membership is outside of the US. Obviously you all can read English well enough to get by, but several of you have asked for localized versions. In our case, this is a very hard problem and we don't intend to tackle it soon. The problem isn't just pages in Italian (to pick one), but product database changes for "localized" versions of products (where model numbers, etc. change from country to country). We've had some discussions about this but have not arrived at an approach or course of action. So we apologize for the rather "USA" look and feel to our system and hope you can get by for now.

Sunday, November 4, 2007

questions

With thousands of new accounts a day, its been hard to keep up with the questions that have been coming in. Below I've tried to answer the most common questions received from our members:

1. How do I invite others?
See the blog entry below. It details 4 ways to invite others to join Personafile.

2. How do I add a merchant/online retailer?
If we don't have a relationship with a particular online retailer, let us know by emailing us at support@personafile.com and we may be able to add it. This week we added 12 merchants; one (swanson vitamin) was requested by a member.

3. What are points and why do they matter?
Points are added to your acccount for various activities. Points accumulated determine your account level which determines your share of commissions for the products you buy. See http://www.personafile.com/iGain.html for more info on the [i] Gain Cash Rewards program and make sure you are enrolled in [i] Gain!

4. How do I add points fast? What point values do you award for various activities? What activities award points?
We are not telling... just kidding. There are about 50 different activities that add points to your account. We aren't going to reveal them all as we want to leave something to discovery. But here are some of them:

Invite Another25 points
Accepted Invitation (invited person joins Personafile)500 points
Add a Product 10 points
[i] link Visit10 points
[i] link Visits + Product Add50 points
Community section addition 10 points (-20 for removed postings that are flagged)
Others...various

...and 10% credit for the points your referrals (invitees) earn. In other words, if you invite user X and user X earns 540 points, you earn 54 points. We call these "referred points" and they are totaled about once a day for your account. At the bottom of your My Profile page there is a section that details all referred points from your invited members.

5. How do you create your public page?
See the post below titled "your public page". For an example, see mine: http://personafile.com/pb. When you visit http://personafile.com/user you go to your home page (you must visit http://personafile.com/user/public to see your public page); when others visit http://personafile.com/user they go to your home page. All [i] links shown on your public page work as referral [i] links, so users that click on them and choose 'join now' will end up as a referred user.

--
New Product today:

Apple - Mac OS X v 0.5 Leopard - MB021Z/A
(Apple Mac OS X Leopard)
ilink by personafile | visit personafile.com

Wednesday, October 31, 2007

launch

Hello. I know I haven't posted in some time, my apologies. We've been very busy preparing for a public launch and now we are up and running and open to the public.

Many of you beta users have had access to my private blog. I will be shutting that down and trying to bring important information forward here.

To those of you new to Personafile, first welcome and thank you for joining. This blog serves as an "insiders" set of notes. Its written by me, one of the Personafile founders.


Members want to know how to invite others. Fair enough. There are 4 ways to do this within personafile.

1. Use the invite button (link) on the main button bar on every page within your account. That will give you a dialog where you can add a custom message and set of email addresses to invite. Very simple.

2. Use your invite link: http://www.personafile.com/joinnow.html?invite=pb (replace 'pb' with your username).

3. Use an [i] link. see http://personafile.blogspot.com/ for more info. Or see our [i] link help section at http://www.personafile.com/help_ilinks.html

Here is an example:

Apple - iPod™ nano - 3rd Generation 8GB = 2,000 Songs - (PRODUCT) RED™ - MB257LL/A
(Apple iPod MP3 Player)
ilink by personafile | visit personafile.com


We prefer [i] links for lots of reasons, including the fact that users who place them get 10 points for every visit (regardless if the visitor joins)

4. Use the share feature to share a product. The 'Share' button (link) is found in each product header on your product pages. Shared products act like invites.

Monday, July 16, 2007

extended notes

We've extended the notes area to include the ability to upload files. You can now add your own product images, documentation (e.g., receipt), etc. The notes dialog now includes a 'type' and file upload control. You first set the note type by selecting one of the various radio buttons presented (e.g., product image). For those types requiring file upload, the file upload control is enabled so that you can selected a file. On OK the file is posted along with the note information.

The notes section has also been extended to present various thumbnail formats for uploaded files. Images are naturally small thumbs of the image (128x pixel), other file type (e.g, PDF) present their typical desktop icon.

At present there are no account quotas in terms of total bytes across the set of files one uploads. When (if) quotas are added, they are likely to be based on the user level.

cool green for summer:

Apple - iPod™ Shuffle - 2nd Generation 1GB: 240 Songs - Green
(Apple iPod MP3 Player)


Apple - iPod™ nano - 2nd Generation 4GB MP3 Player - Green
(Apple iPod MP3 Player)

Friday, July 6, 2007

where are you live (aka MSN)?

It will be 1 month tomorrow since we opened the doors to the search engines. Google and Yahoo have been steadily indexing our content, Live (aka MSN) hasn't done a thing. MSN indexes about 3 to 9 URL's a day, mostly repeating what it did before. We let loose 22,000 items (and another 3,000 recently), but Live hasn't discovered this or simply doesn't care.

Not saying we are the most important place on the Internet, but how can you win the search war Microsoft if you don't index content in a timely manner? This seems a sure way to lose.

I wonder how many days from now they will begin indexing our content en masse? I am not holding my breath!

Monday, July 2, 2007

groups

Those of you with Personafile accounts can now experience groups. A new home page (main page) has been added we call the "group view". In the group view, you can group like products, etc. This is the first of a few features that will allow i-links to carry grouped products.

Also the groups view allows you to delete more than one product at a time.

July favorites:

St. Supery 2002 Élu Napa Valley
(Napa Valley Wine)


Toyota - 2007 | FJ Cruiser AT 4X2 | V6 | Voodoo Blue
(Sport Utility Vehicle)

Monday, June 25, 2007

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

and they (google) came a calling...

In my last post I mentioned that we released a subset of our product database to the search engines. When I say "released" I mean provided links to, as well as, a sitemap.

We've been watching the bots crawl all over us.

If you want to know who's winning the search wars, look no further than our daily crawl stats. Google discovered us quickly and began crawling immediately. Yahoo too discovered us quickly, but their crawl rate is run 10% to 20% that of Google per day. Live (aka MSN) still hasn't figured out (or care) that our site links have expanded from about 10 to 22,000...

Interesting and telling.


My favorite iPod:

Apple iPod™ Shuffle - 2nd Generation 1GB: 240 Songs - Orange
(Apple iPod MP3 Player)


and runner-up:

Apple iPod™ nano - 2nd Generation 4GB MP3 Player - Blue
(Apple iPod MP3 Player)

Friday, June 15, 2007

let the games begin

Well my hope was to write more often... But its been a busy two months. A lot has happened:

1. We launched www.personafile.com, a first attempt (which will be improved soon). Its comes with a new Personafile logo, for which we need a name.

2. We released a segment of our product database to the search engines. This segment includes about 22,000 products. The implication should be clear: web users will soon be able to find products in the Personafile product database by organic web search. We are still locking out the member-side of Personafile (which of course is where most of the excitement is).

3. We implemented a series of tools that allows us to measure and improve our product venues. All internal stuff.

If you want to play around with the public side of Personafile (and aren't one of our beta testers, meaning you don't have an account), search for something like 'macbook personafile', that should get you right to a product link.

I will really, really try to post more often!


My favorite pizza accessory:

VillaWare - PizzaGrill™ BBQ Pizza Maker
(Kitchen Accessory)

Thursday, April 19, 2007

your public page

A little late to the party, but better late than never...

Now every account has a public page. A visit to http://personafile.com/user will bring you to a user's public page.

Come see my public page at: http://personafile.com/pb

At present (some cool things may be coming), a public page shows all of user's products marked public (use the Rate/Categorize feature to set a product as 'public').

Each public product is shown as an i-link. Along with the i-link is a Notes/Contribution section that shows public notes, your reviews, and a summary of your contributions to this product.

We don't intend the public page to be some kind of MySpace page, rather a single place that a "MySpace" type of page can point to.

Enjoy!


A cool new way to watch TV:

Apple - Apple TV
(Personal Video Media Recorder)

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

start

The blog starts today...

Friends have been using personafile for a few months; we are getting close to opening it up to a wider community. Stay tuned...


stay awake:

Peet's Coffee & Tea - Signature Blends | Arabian Mocha-Java
(Specialty Coffee)



visit my personafile public page http://personafile.com/pb