Hello, 2012
Well since we haven't blogged since last year (that joke somehow never gets old. Maybe cuz we only get to a little while every year), I figure it's high time that we fix that!
The Bonz team has been spending the holidays on a well balanced diet of features and bug fixes for our selling community. We've also been able to squeeze in a handful of improvements for our buyers.
The CEO trying to do his part to "clean up the ranch" on FIFI day
One of the highlights for us has been some recent "find it, fix it" (FIFI) days. The idea for these days is that the entire programming and design team (plus whatever you call me) just spend the day using our site in the same way an average seller or shopper would. The only rule is that you have to fix any bug (or "poor experience") you find -- on the spot. On FIFI days, we turn off our usual bug tracking system, and just go to work trying to improve the quality of Bonanza in ways both large and (more often) small. A wee smattering of the stuff we got done during our two FIFI December days included:
- Freshen up look of profile page (hadn't beenupdated since 2009, maybe 2008)
- Update the cart icon to show number of items in cart
- Fix user page taking 5-10 seconds to load
- Show richer representation of recent searches & saved searches on My Bonanza page
- Implement back button when paginating through booths
I know that, personally, these small-but-crucial improvements are often what make the difference between a site that I like using and a site I love using. But those little trimmings seem to sometimes get lost in the shuffle when one is working through the everyday list of bigger features and bigger bugs. (you know, assuming we ever had bugs)
What else? Much else!
We had a great holiday season, with new sales records for every month since last August. We brought aboard a dedicated "community programmer" of sorts named Eric. We'll introduce him soon [hey Eric, write a blog post to introduce yourself, would ya? -ed.] His sole mission in life is to keep us sailing smoothly by addressing the issues that get reported by our community asap. And we're very excited about our new launched Managed Merchant program, which allows busy sellers to build better booths.
What about 2012? We've got a full plate of initiatives we're excited about for this year, including...
- Simplify and add to our booth customization so merchants can better express their brand!
- Continue to expand our marketing efforts into new areas!
- Build the mobile version of the Bonz!
- Enhance our API such that our sellers get more third party tools created to manage their Bonanza inventory across channels!
- Empower item discovery in a bunch of exciting new ways!
- Prepare servers for the impending end of times in December 2012!
Plus we have a bonus feature for our sellers lined up to launch during the next month. We're keeping it under wraps for the time being, in order to amuse everyone with speculation about what the new feature might be. Bonanza auctions... anybody? [No. -ed]
Hope everyone has had a great holiday season, we do deeply appreciate your continued referrals and positive actions that keep Bonanza's momentum going. We're looking forward to the encouraging growth we saw in 2011 being thumped by even bigger growth in 2012.
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37 responses to Hello, 2012
cool
Looking forward to a bug free zone LOL Feel free to come shop in my booth
Happy New Year! Can’t wait to see the new stuff you guys have in store.
Happy New Year to you, Bill, and all the staff!
Thanks for the update.
This isn’t about your post as such, but up beside your title, it says 2 comments. Below the post, it says ‘no comments yet’, and just above ‘leave a reply’, it says 0 responses.
Looking forward to a busy 2012 on the Ranch!
Brenda
Yup I accidentally setup the blog commenting wrong. Should be hunky dory now.
OH The Anticipation!
Awwww shucks, Bill, don’t be using the A****** word unless you really mean it!
Sounds like lots of good stuff coming up, can’t wait!
Will the widget be fix soon?
Depends on how you define “soon”
We do have a few Widget tasks on our “to do” list and you can bet that we will address them just as soon as time permits.
Sounds like y’all have been super busy! It’s also good to hear that you plan to go out with a bang when the end of time comes with a lot of nifty new features. Cool Bonz Beanz! (Hey! A new catch phrase! LOL)
Keep up the great work Boyz & Galz! Thank you for all that you do and Happy New Year! Let’s make this the happiest yet because it just might be our last. Ya never know until the time comes, eh?
So let’s party like it’s 2012! Actually…let’s ROCK like it’s 2012! LOL
Always happy to see positive growth here…it’s what we’ve all been working towards!
Happy New Year to all~
“Prepare servers for the impending end of times in December 2012!” You just gotta love it! lol
Always the best here.
thanks for all you do and happiest of New years
how about interfacing us with Google wallet please
If you have Google Checkout then you are already interfaced with Google Wallet. Google has not released updates or upgrades on the marketplace side that we are aware of. As soon as they do, we will be all over it!
Always love the thought put into making this an awesome marketplace!
Will still love to offer people who have fav’d my booth the ability to opt into and receive an email newsletter subscription. I have to do that outside of Bonanza right now. Please consider it for the near future, pretty please???!!!
That is a great idea! It’s on the list. Might be a good FIFI project for me
Can not wait to see what is launched next month! Hope it is auctions
Hmmm “Bonanza auctions… anybody? [No. -ed]” You’ve definitely got my curiosity up. If it is not auctions I do not know what in the world it is. Of course if we have auctions I’m sure it will be Bonanza style lol. Thanks for going through the site as any average person would and fixing bugs/glitches along the way. That is a really good way to find them.
Auctions!!!! Did I hear you right. Please Please Please use me with your pilot run. :=) :=) :=) :=)
Happy New Year to the hardest working guys I know!!!!
I am wishing and a hoping that this year will be the best year ever for all of us here on Bonanza!!
We so deserve it!
I am always looking forward to your new and improved ideas!!
Thank you so much for allowing us to be here Bill & Mark!!!
Happy New Year!
Mariah
It all sounds wonderful! Waiting with anticipppppppppppppppp ation.
On your next FIFI day, might you consider adding a “Report Spam” button to blog posts?
Whatever it is, it will be cool
Judy/blue
CollectibleCorner; SensualPleasures; TipTopMgr; robinscornernest & ME (Oh, hum, wishful thinking)
Another hint on the new bonus feature coming up would be great
Mark, Bill, will we be able to look for a total listing count on Bonanza by clicking on the magnifying glass like we used to be able to? We use the total listing count to update the thead…“This Site Currently Has…” Here is the link to the thread http://www.bonanza.com/forums/9/topics/45227?page=76
As it is right now, when we click on the magnifying glass we get a zero listing count until we click on the box for sellers that ship to the USA. The listing count this way is not 100% right plus for some people, they still get zero results on a listing count when doing it like this.
Maybe Bonanza could check this on a day when you all are doing the FIFI? Thanks
Not sure why that is not working for you. When I click on the magnifying glass with no search term in the field, it returns the entire site count for me. Sounds isolated but I do recall you mentioning this before on the forums. I will be sure to investigate on our side and see if we can spot anything.
I like how you have made it so your responses for our comments are right with the comment instead of using the @ and then having to go back up through the posts to find what the response is for.
I also noticed the improvement to the Quick Text when you click on the QT icon to see your recent QT messages… and when you click on one, the buttons added there is nice. I haven’t checked out the other changes yet, but it sounds good.
Mark, most of us cannot get the listing counts – at least those who post in the forum.
It’s a real PITA for me, because I’m in Canada. I get a zero from the mag. glass. Then, of course, the default to narrow it down is to Canada. I change that to United States, and then I get this.
Narrow your results
3,762,974 items found
The only thing is, that total is not accurate, because not everyone ships everything, to the United States. Anyone outside the US could have items to ship only to their own country, due to type of item; such as cars, land, prohibited items to mail to other countries, etc. I realize that while that number of items may be small, the count is still inaccurate.
You know how much fun we’ve had over the years watching the numbers change.
I am using FF 9.0.1, but it has been happening to me for a long time, so it’s not due to the new version of FF.
I am no longer able to sign in to Bonanza using IE – why, I have no idea. It shows my user name at the top, as if signed in, but also shows the Login link, and I cannot do anything. Weird, and a PITA, but I cannot get the listing counts through IE either.
I cannot get it with Chrome, either.
I think you are just getting preferential treatment, and I cannot figure out why!
It’s a conspiracy
I will see what I can do to suggest this being looked into by the programming team but it may take some bribery as the listing count total is not as high of a priority as some of the other tasks on the list. But I will try
I want to say that I have sold more in the last two months than I had in the year previous so things are looking to going forward and I’m glad. This is a really cool place with great people. Good Luck to everyone in 2012
Thanks for your continued support and hard work, it shows! One request – booth/item views – my numbers are insane and obviously incorrect: Booth views in past week: 14
Item views in past week: 66,289
I’d love to see this feature accurately represent traffic. Happy 2012!!
Booth views are users coming to your main booth landing pages. Item views are actual views of the item detail pages which would include Google and other traffic sources. If you continue to have abnormal statistics, please email us the details at support so we can investigate.
“Thumbs Up” love this place and you guys are the greatest. Easiest to navigate and list! Need more advertising by Bonz though! We do lots of advertising but need some help from the big boys!!!
Curious Minds Want to Know! LOL! Guess We’ll Just Have to Do a ‘’Wait ’n See!’’ in regards to What’s Up and Coming and New! Thanks Boyz/Galz for ALL The Good Things You’ve Done and Do! Happy 2012 to All!
Dee
Mark: “It’s a conspiracy I will see what I can do to suggest this being looked into by the programming team but it may take some bribery as the listing count total is not as high of a priority as some of the other tasks on the list. But I will try”
I’m still learning the ropes, but so far everyone here has been so great! Thank you guys for all of your hard work, I’m excited to see what the future will bring!
I too am excited to see what the future will bring, but how about a report on the Christmas marketing from last season. We were promised some, remember? I notice marketing is on the list for this year. YES! But what were you able to accomplish for the last season?
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