Relentless Simplicity - The Bonanza Blog

Background Burner Available from Listing Form

Today marks the launch of Background Burner: Reloaded. With this second version of the Background Burner, we have increased our burn accuracy from 70% to about 90%. Given its improved (and still improving) quality, we've decided it is ready to step out from the shadows, and we've added it to our item listing form. You'll now see the burn option available beneath any image you've uploaded.

With picture quality of such paramount importance in earning clicks through Google and Bing Product Search, we strongly believe that the Background Burner is an idea whose time has come. Before now, to get an Amazon-style white background, one had to either purchase expensive photo studio equipment, learn to use Photoshop, or pay professionals to remove your background for you. With the Background Burner, small merchants are empowered to get their own studio-quality pictures, minus all the fancy camera & lighting tricks.

Whereas existing picture outsource services charge about $3-5/picture (depending on difficulty), Bonanza's Background Burner prices are

Full details about the whos and whats of the Burner are available here.

The FAQ includes details on how you can frame your pictures to maximize the quality of your Background Burns. Also: apologies if Background Burns take longer than their usual 10-20 seconds today. We have a new supercharged server en route to handle the burns, but in the meantime there may be a bit of a queue that forms during busy times of day. Thanks for your patience as we await the cavalry.

Three things you can do today for your business (Pt 2)

In our first post in this series we briefly touched on how to utilize Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest on Bonanza. In this second part we are going to focus on the payment methods you are offering to your buyers. Did you know that Bonanza now has integration with PayPal, Google Checkout, and Checkout by Amazon? Did you know that by increasing your payment methods to buyers you can increase your sales by (insert % that excites you), well, it has to increase your sales right? It surely cannot hurt to give your buyers more options to pay you. You can access the payment option area via your "Account Settings > Seller Settings" page.

Once you select your preferred payment options, you will need to complete the payment fields for each method with the appropriate codes and secret digits. It is important that you follow the instructions carefully as a mistake could result in a buyer not being able to pay you. One common mistake we see at support happens when a user copy and pastes their codes into the payment fields and inadvertently copy a blank space which is nearly impossible to see (unless you're Superman). You can double check this by placing your cursor in the appropriate field which will identify the extra space. Another mistake we see is a user mistaking a number for a letter character (the number "0" looks a lot like the letter "O") so make sure to double check that as well. You can find additional details in our help pages:

Payment via Checkout by Amazon, how do I enable it?

Payment via Google Checkout, how do I enable it?

Payment via PayPal, how do I enable it?

The more payment options you give a buyer, the better position you will put yourself in to make the sale.

Bonanza "thumping" a couple of enhancements

In case you were wondering, "thumping" around Bonanza headquarters means that we have uploaded changes to the main site so they are live (or something technical like that). Thumping can also be the end result for anyone who plays ping pong against Jordo, but that does not stop us from continuing to try! Anyhow, we (awesome programming team you) just pushed two enhancements live that are going to improve our buyer and seller experience on Bonanza.

The first change will allow buyers to better manage multiple shipping addresses. Buyers can add or remove shipping addresses via their "Account Settings > Account Info" page. Buyers will be able to select these addresses when viewing their cart.

We have also improved sellers being able to manage their credit card settings in one convenient place (also on your "Account Settings > Seller Settings" page). So if you use multiple credit cards (seller fees, membership, verification), you will be able to manage them on one page.

Edit shipping address(Account Settings > Account Info)

Edit Credit Card(s)(Account Settings > Seller Settings)

Sell your clothes faster with the Bonanza Fashion Exchange

Introducing the Bonanza Fashion Exchange

Bonanza has always been and will always be the best marketplace for sellers to connect with buyers online. However, not everyone who has great items has the time (or patience!) to become a successful online merchant. What if there was a faster way to get money for your stuff without taking pictures, determining price/title/description, and the rest of that ball o' wax? Well, now there is.

Choose the clothes you want to sell, ship them to us, and get paid

The Bonanza Fashion Exchange is a way for people to quickly sell the extra clothes in their closets. You can get a pre-paid Bonanza Gift Card or just take the cash. We're currently only taking women's clothing (dresses, tops, pants, jeans, and skirts) in good condition and have a long list of brands that we'll accept. We give you an estimate for how much you'll earn, so you can determine right away if it's worth it to you.

Once we get your clothes, we'll appraise them and make you an offer -- if you don't accept it, we'll return your clothes to you. If you do accept it, we'll reimburse your shipping costs in addition to our payment. Then, we'll take the measurements and pictures, create the listing and do our best to sell your clothes.

An opportunity for us to create a better selling experience for all

What gets us particularly excited about the Fashion Exchange is that we finally get a chance to "eat our own dog food" (delicious, gravy-covered steak dog food) and actively become a seller on our site. We know a lot about the academic side of selling items, but we're always looking for more hands-on experience about what it takes to get noticed in the Google/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest universe. The Fashion Exchange is our chance to walk a mile in our sellers' shoes, and find the opportunities to make our selling process easier, smoother, and more effective.

Of course, this will only be a meaningful learning experience if we play by the same rules as every other Bonanza seller. Thus, all items sold through the Bonanza Fashion Exchange will be listed using the same tools used by our sellers, and will be given no special designation anywhere in our system. We will apply the same techniques we've recommended for adding keywords to listings and taking good photos. Whenever we find a tweak that helps us to increase sales, we will incorporate that knowledge into our existing help documents. When we find really juicy morsels to help drive more sales, we will report them on this blog.

A key goal here is for this project to create a blueprint we can pass on to the rest of our selling community to help all Bonanza sellers make more dollars.

Try it for yourself!

If you've got a closet full of great brands that you don't have the time to list youself, give the Bonanza Fashion Exchange a try and let us know what you think. As with all things Bonanza, we expect to be adapting the program frequently in response to the great ideas generated by our users, so we'll be looking forward to hearing your ideas on how to improve the offering.

Three things you can do today for your business (Pt 1)

It's no secret, Bonanza sellers have one of the largest collections of seller tools online. With so many great tools before you, you may be having a hard time selecting which one to use first. Each post in this series will highlight three of those tools and how you can use them to enhance your business on Bonanza, today!

Today we will call attention to Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest, and one way they can help your Bonanza business. As of today, Facebook is ranked #2 in the world based on traffic. Twitter is ranked #9 followed by newcomer Pinterest which is #53 (source Alexa.com). If your Bonanza business is not regularly using those channels then you are missing out on a huge opportunity for exposure. Bonanza makes it simple for you to take advantage of all three of these social networks with quick buttons on each listing to post your items to each of those sites.

When you click on any of the social site buttons above (#1 - #3) for the first time, you will be prompted to log into your account on that site. Once you do, your Bonanza account will be linked to that account (You can manage these settings; Account Settings > Cancellation tab) from that day forward. The next time you click on the social network button of choice, the item will automatically be brodcast to that platform and your followers. There is a forumla to post items to each of these websites so that you can engage your followers and avoid spamming them. The Bonanza forums are alive with great tips on how to optimize each of these platfoms.

Learn more about posting to Facebook

Learn more about posting to Twitter

Learn more about posting to Pinterest

10 Commandments for Effective Online Social Networking (Practical eCommerce)

Bonanza.com Wins "Favorite Spot to Sell Vintage Collectibles" for the Second Year in a Row!

Towards the end of February, online users were asked to vote in several categories for the 2012 Readers' Choice Awards on About.com. Bonanza was nominated for two categories. The first category was "Your Favorite Spot to Sell Vintage Collectibles," and the second category was "Your Favorite Spot to Shop for Vintage Collectibles." Voting was limited to one vote per person each day and Bonanza was going up against such heavies as eBay and Etsy among other finalists (Tias, Zibbet, and Ruby Lane). The polls closed on March 21st, 2012 and the votes were tallied and we are happy to report that Bonanza was once again voted by About.com readers as the top "Favorite Spot to Sell Vintage Collectibles" receiving 39% of the vote. This is the second year in a row that Bonanza has received this award. Bonanza also captured a respectable 32% of the votes for "Favorite Spot to Shop for Vintage Collectibles," which was enough votes to take second place in this category (there was only a 5% difference in votes between 1st and 2nd place (Congrats Tias). Now in its fifth year, the About.com Readers' Choice Awards honor the best products, features and services across more than a dozen categories, ranging from technology to hobbies to parenting and more, as selected by its readers.

A big "Thank you" to everyone in the Bonanza community for doing your part to make Bonanza awesome. In case you are wondering, we have already requested that About.com add a category for the best use of Cats in eCommerce. Meowww!

Strategic cats drive engagement

I am pleased to announce that today we are launching the culmination of a months-long research project designed to find strategic new ways for us to drive greater user engagement on site. The result is another Bonanza-first innovation that we think may soon become standard amongst top-tier commerce sites. We are calling it "Bonanza... with cats!"

Recently surging sites like Pinterest and Facebook have clearly demonstrated the value in building a product that can get its users engaged. To date, Bonanza has focused almost exclusively on building the best buying experience and selling experience, bar none. While these functions can be quite useful when one decides to go shopping, years of Internet usage have proven that, on a day-to-day basis, people tend to choose cats over commerce 9 times out of 10. We figure it is high time that we stop fighting human nature, when we can instead build an experience that takes the best of "cats" and "commerce" and bundles it into one exciting package. We are calling this new hybrid model "cat commerce," or "CC" for short.

If you are a logged in Bonanza user, you are now only a single click away from an engaging CC experience. For launch, we have created a collection of about 10 CC experiences. In the coming months, we hope to release a new CC feature daily. By 2013, we should have several hundred. Oh, and did I mention that cat commerce will be completely FREE for our subscribing members? After April, non-subscribing members will be able to enjoy cats at just 5 cents per cat, with volume discounts available. And during our launch month of April, we are going to let all registered users enjoy cats at absolutely no cost. Non-logged in buyers will need to sign up for an account to use cats.

We are extremely excited about the potential for "Bonanza... with cats!" to consolidate the most fundamental forces on the Internet. No longer will users need to visit fifteen different sites to fill their daily quota of shopping and cats.

Following the rollout of "Bonanza... with cats!" we look forward to eventually incorporate other popular animals, including dogs and horses. Just click on the "with cats" words in our logo (or below) to get started.

Click "cats," get cats

Spring Cleaning: Updates to the Booth Edit Pages

a.k.a, what's happening to the "Advanced Settings" page?

Cleaning The Old Junk Drawer

If you have a booth on Bonanza, you may remember the headache of finding some obscure setting for it. For the most part, those controls were in the "Advanced Settings" page; a junk drawer of toggles that weren't even all that advanced. What's worse, there were other ways to edit your booth that didn't even make it into that junk drawer. You had the pleasure of scouring the rest of Bonanza to try to find them.

We really wanted to clean that up. We strongly believe that it's our responsibility is to provide a hassle-free experience to anyone who tries to sell their products with us. Any seller that chooses to invest their time with us should find that their investment is worthwhile. There's nothing worthwhile about wasting time trying to find where things are.

Also, we believed that many sellers weren't aware of some of the features we offered because they were too hard to find. What's the point of offering a feature that empower sellers if no one knows where it is or how to use it? What we needed was a clean way to present all of our booth options to every seller.

Introducing: Edit Booth Options

From your "Sell on Bonanza" drop down at the top of the site, there will be a new choice to edit your booth options. The first of the booth options is the "basic settings."

Other tabs near the top of the page link to other ways you can set up your booth. The sections are:

Basic settings: these are really the basics of how your booth is set up, things like your booth's name, overview, and vacation status.
Booth appearance: change the look and feel of your booth, things like your banner, booth panels, and videos.
Payments & purchases: control how you accept payments, how your items sell, and who can make offers for your items.
Discounts & coupons: offer incentives to buy from you, such as item price discounts, shipping discounts, and coupons.
Shipping & returns: clarify your shipping and return policies, say how long it takes you to ship items, and set up shipping profiles.
Categories & sorting: organize your items by creating your own categories and sorting your items just the way you like.

Better Help

We don't expect every seller to know what a "combined shipping discount" is when they're setting up their booth for the first time. There are many terms we use every day that are gobbledygook to most people. So we've tried to make the help easier to access and more relevant to what you're doing.

On each page, there is a Need help? bar that provides contextual help based on where you are, what's going on with your booth, and features you're using. Or might want to use, as is sometimes the case.

Also, with each section, there is a "Learn more" link that reveals more information when you hover your mouse over it. These tooltips offer a bit more help without being overwhelming with details.

It Just Looks New

There really isn't any new functionality here, we just tried to clean up the features we already had. However, we've already heard from some sellers that they're glad we've started offering such-and-such new feature. It isn't surprising, considering how buried some of these old features were.

We've also made it much clearer which options are only available to Bonanza Pro Members. These features allow sellers to make the most of their time spent with Bonanza and now it's clearer what they're getting for their money. And it's no secret that we'd like sellers who aren't Pro Members yet to know what they're missing out on!

Thanks for taking the time to read through this. We hope you're a little happier next time you have to set your booth on vacation or update your returns policy.

Due for arrival Friday morning

We're planning to put this live tomorrow (Friday) morning around 10am. Stay tuned!

Bonanza gets a nice mention in Family Circle Magazine April 2012

Did you get your April 2012 issue of Family Circle yet? If not, rush out to the newsstand and get your copy quick! Bonanza has a really nice mention on page 100.

"Bonanza.com, The tagline "everything but the ordinary" may sound like an overpromise, but when I checked it out, I was impressed. Products are unique and there's plenty of variety. I found vintage jewelry, elegant stationery, and upholstered furniture, to name just a few."

They go on to say, "I was immediately drawn to the striking avatar of a Bonanzamark, who is obvioulsy a male model that must exercise constantly...." Well, they didn't really say that but it would have been a good ending right? Thanks so much to Family Circle for the mention and make sure to welcome all of our new guests.

How do I know if my items are showing on Google?

What a great question! As you may or may not know, Bonanza feeds all of your active items (within Google's guidelines) to Google Product Search on your behalf. Back in the early days of Bonanza, sellers were responsible for managing and submitting their own products to Google Products Search (formerly Google Base). About two years ago, Bonanza started to manage this for you.

Over time we have been able to organize helpful information regarding Google Producs and have created a special page for this on Bonanza. We call this page our Google Product Management page. You can find this page by going to your My Bonanza page where it is linked as "Google."

Once you have clicked on the "Google" link you will be taken to your Google Product Management page:

On this page you will be able to:

View your feed status (shows you the last time your items were uploaded to Google Products).
View your actual items as they appear on Google Products (you can see what a buyer would see).
Initiate a feed status review (good way to find out why an item or items are not on Google Products).
Set up Item Traits (helps Google shoppers better find your items).
Instructions on how to set up Google Checkout.
Learn about Google Attributes and how they can improve your search results. You can also add them from this page.
Download the actual feed that we are sending to Google on your behalf.

Feel free to ask any questions you may have in the comments section below.

Coming Soon: Email Response Rates

Sample display

Good afternoon, fine sellers! I wanted to drop everyone a line about a new bit of info we will be providing to our buyers as of next week: the email response rate and turnaround time for questions asked to sellers. As you can see in the prototype image I've included at right, we will soon begin tabulating the percentage of item questions that a seller has responded to, so a buyer can get a sense for how likely a given seller is to respond to their question about an item. The idea is that active, engaged sellers are recognized for their participation, while absentee sellers become more apparent.

Our ultimate goal is to provide our users as much transparency as possible into a seller's level of engagement on Bonanza. Sellers that consistently respond to buyer inquiries in a timely fashion should be recognized and rewarded for that.

Here are some of the finer points on how the new system will work:

Why is this necessary?

A buyer who asks a question and hears crickets in return is a buyer who has had a bad experience on Bonanza. We want to provide as much transparency as possible to potential buyers about which sellers are likely to respond to them, so those sellers get the credit they deserve.

What is the system measuring, exactly?

We will be measuring the percentage of buyer questions that get answered. This includes only whether the seller responded to the initial question that a buyer asked about an item (not whether the seller responded to follow up bmails, which may or may not be questions).

If a user sends a seller a message from any page other than the item detail page that is not counted, since it is assumed not to be a question about a particular item. We only count the bmail as a "question" if it was generated by clicking on the "ask seller a question" button on the item detail page (next to the "Add to cart" button).

What if the message sent from the item detail page isn't a question?

Again, general-purpose bmails are not counted toward the "email response rate" percentage -- only bmails that are sent from the "Ask seller a question" button. We presume that in the vast majority of cases where the buyer clicks that button, they are indicating that they have a question they would like to have answered.

How long do I have to respond to a buyer inquiry?

If a message has not been responded to within three days, it will be assumed as a "non-response." If the seller subsequently responds to the buyer's question after three days have passed, we will change the "non-response" to a response, and increase the seller's email response rate. Though the "average email turnaround time" will factor in the average time it takes the seller to respond. If the seller averages 7 days to respond to buyer questions, some buyers will be dissuaded from asking questions in the first place.

Will this take account of my past excellent/terrible record of responding to buyer inquiries?

No, our response rate will begin tabulating as of next week. Until you have been asked a question by a buyer, the "email response rate" and "average response time" will be hidden.

What if I'm on vacation or unavailable to answer emails?

That's fine -- you can put your booth on vacation at any time. This will only measure whether you respond to inquiries from buyers about items that are currently online. The assumption is that if a seller has items available for sale in their booth, then the seller should be available to answer questions about those items.

Other questions?

Feel free to ask below, we will attempt to address them!

EcommerceBytes 2012 Sellers Choice Awards

Ina Steiner of EcommerceBytes recently posted their 2012 Sellers Choice Awards. This annual survey, now in its fourth year, has become an increasingly relied-upon tool to help sellers compare the strengths and weaknesses of the top online marketplaces. We would like to thank everyone at Bonanza who took part in the survey -- for the second year in a row, Bonanza was the third most widely used marketplace for the survey respondents -- Bonanza trailed only eBay and Craigslist. I think this speaks to the power of what our community has created by making newcomers feel welcome, while encouraging your friends to dip their toe in and become our next newcomers.

I've always liked this Auction...er...EcommerceBytes survey for a couple reasons. The top reason is that I am a self-avowed "data lover," and any time that someone can put hard numbers behind a squishy subject, my inner scientist does a series of triumphant fist pumps.

The second reason I appreciate the survey is that it gives new marketplaces a chance to get their due (usually for being more customer-centric), while more mature marketplaces can flex their strengths (more traffic, profitability, advertising). Sellers can then weigh the pros and cons relative to their preferences, and make a good decision on which marketplace(s) fit them best. Brand new marketplaces like Addoway and Yardsellr performed very well for their young age. Neither of those a surprise, given the hard work that both teams have poured into their product. eBay and Amazon performed far better than they had in years' past, with Amazon actually scoring an overall first place this year (quite deservedly, given their dominance in commodity categories). Bonanza? Well, that deserves a new paragraph.

The third reason that I appreciate this survey is that it gives us an invaluable yardstick to see what we're doing well and what we need to work on. You can see a full summary of the results by clicking on the link to read them. The key takeaways from our standpoint:

Being voted the Most Usable marketplace tells me that we should continue to aggressively push the envelope in creating the most feature-rich, yet simple, tools possible. This is an opportunity for us to differentiate ourselves as a market leader, and we plan to continue working with our community to guide us toward building "their perfect marketplace." Thus far, we have only scratched the surface of what we could achieve in this vein. Today, we have perhaps more tools than any other marketplace, but the tools are somewhat fragmented, and some aren't well documented for new users. If we're going to expand our lead as the Most Usable, we need to continue to pay attention to the details.
Being voted the Second Most Recommended marketplace, after Amazon, is an enormous compliment to our team, to our community, and to the positive conversation between our team and community. We know that Bonanza will never be perfect for everyone, but having you endorse Bonanza to your friends, your customers on other marketplaces, and to the media -- all of that is what will speed Bonanza toward being the most usable and the most profitable.
Being mentioned alongside names like Craigslist and Etsy in terms of profitability is good, but we need to be great here. We have already seen some results from our first round of Adwords advertising over the holidays, and given the revenue our search ads continue to drive, we are eying many ideas for our subsequent rounds of advertising this year. We know that it is key to our sellers, and as a marketplace that is seeking to be a market leader, it's important to us too.

Of course, these were just three among many lessons for us (and others) to take from the survey. We really appreciate Ina's hard work to create and maintain this survey (no small task with 7000 respondents!), which seems to be growing exponentially in participation each year.

What we're up to

Much! Our next two "major" initiatives are both seller-centric improvements, one a tool to help maximize picture quality, the other a pass at improving the aforementioned fragmentation of our many seller features. We want to make it easier for sellers to discover the wealth of options available to them, in as simple/consistent a way as possible

We are definitely itching to get started on our mobile app, given the explosion in mobile use recently. With any luck we could be mobile by June, while still having time to act on our usual assortment of community requests.

That's the latest and greatest. Though you may not have rated us as the most communicative marketplace, we do hope that you know that you're our real Valentine, loyal reader.

Bonanza White + More Sale this Thursday through Sunday!

What would peanut butter be without Jelly? If you answered "Peanut butter" you are right! What would a White sale be without a Bonanza Rush? If you answered, "boring," you are right again! We agree, so starting this Thursday at 7am PST, Bonanza will host a multiple category, multiple day White sale Rush. Shoppers can save up to 50%!

We will be featuring:

- Inside the home
- Women's shoes and clothing
- Men's clothing, shoes and accessories

Sellers with items in the following categories will be eligible to participate:

Inside the Home
Women's Clothing, Women's Shoes
Men's Clothing, Men's Accessories, Men's Shoes

Sellers who wish to join this sale need to have their items added to the Rush (you can sign via your Rush page) for the above mentioned categories no later than this Wednesday at 7am PST (24 hours prior to the Rush sale). While traditional White sales are exclusively for White linen, our White sale will be open to all items in the above mentioned categories. Sellers can also right click on the above image and save the image to use when promoting the White sale abroad.

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.

Kill SOPA, save America's Internet and American jobs: ACT NOW, bill goes to the House TOMORROW

There is a bill being considered by congress currently that could seriously jeoparidze the functionality of the Internet in general, and the livelihood of this site in particular. It's called SOPA. Here's the scoop from Tiffiniy at American Censorship:

"Tomorrow, the US government will vote to have broad powers to block any site. SOPA would not only hurt free speech, it will choke off the internet workforce and its readers by taking down entire websites. Today is the only day we have left to have our voices heard. It's time to pull all stops - please make a call right now to protest censorship. Your call matters. If you don't call, SOPA will pass. If there is one call per minute into every one of our representatives, we have a chance of stalling SOPA enough so it dies for quite some time. Please call Congress now and tell them you oppose internet censorship and stifling the internet. If you own a site, you're in the best position to spread the word. Please post this call widget. If we're really going to stop SOPA, we need you to get involved. If you write emails or have a blog, or if you post to Facebook, twitter, tumblr, tell everyone by blacking out your text here. It's super easy. SOPA kills jobs that we need right now and blocks sites to Americans for the purpose of serving copyright in vague and overbroad ways, in ways that are not even well-agreed on by academics in the field. Please help us stop SOPA now."

We couldn't agree more. Please take a moment (the average call to your congressman lasts 53 seconds) and tell your friends.