Who's viewing your profile?

Hi Tom, Biznik is constantly changing and evolving, as we look to add more value to all levels of membership, especially for paying members. I'm sure that, as a business owner, you can understand the need to run your business at a profit rather than at a loss, and if Biznik were a totally free service we would not be able to stay in business.

The ability to see who is viewing your profile is potentially quite valuable to many members, and since we are offering a valuable service, it seems only appropriate that we ask members to value the service we provide by asking them to upgrade at the points where value is exchanged. We believe this is one of those points.

Most other business networks handle it the same way: LinkedIn and Xing, for example, show who has viewed your profile only to paying members.

Thanks Dan for clarifying the issue.I too had the same query as Tom...

I have to agree with Dan's decision on this one.

I don't doubt at all that many like myself would consistently examine who was viewing their profile. It makes total sense to me that it should be included as a paid plan feature.

Dito, support for being ok with the payment needed.
Businesspeople can spare a few bucks to get the full value of a product. This is just that. This isn't a normal social network, it's one for people doing business.
If it matters to your business, it's worth the marginal fee.

I did not know this was taken away because I pay a little something each month. I'm really unhappy to hear that.

I'm not sure it's a matter of paying or not paying. It's more a feeling of something being taken away from you if you are a long-standing non-paying community member. These people probably feel like they were paying with their participation rather than dollars. So many times I read in the new member forum people are new business owners... likely unable to afford a contribution at this time.

Even as a paying member, I would rather those non-paying members were able to see I visited their profile. It often gets them to look at mine & who knows if any of them would end up interested in my service/products.

I now feel something is being taken away from me in that these people will find it harder to find me. I loved that Biznik was the only site out there that allowed people to see who is seeing them. If a new member's profile is visited by 3 members in a week they will likely check out those 3 people.

There are lots of other sites I belong to, telling me people are looking at my profile & want me to pay to see who. I won't do it. That is not what will get me to give them money. But when Biznik did it for free I was so curious I had to look. It got me more involved & I ended up being a paying member to reep the benefits of the other features Biznik offers.

I am very disappointed to see this feature taken away from the membership & plead to have it reinstated.

Please don't charge for this, Dan. If you have to charge for it how about breaking down the features & letting members pick & choose from one dollar to $100/month to add all the features with a $5 minimum.

I'm really upset right now....

I just had a company approach me about sending me "leads" for around $325 a month. I consider what I pay Biznik on a monthly basis to see who visited ("leads") my profile is minuscule. It's all about perspective. Free can only last for so long. Why should Biznik deprive itself from making a profit?

My point is not about profitability, it's about function.

I think they should let everyone have the function of seeing who sees them. They can charge however much they want for whatever else they want, but I think Biznik runs better with everyone seeing who is looking at them.

I can't imagine them making that much more money by taking that feature away from the non-paying customers. It seems like they were merely trying to find ways to differentiate the membership tiers & they decided to take some of the usefulness of the site away from the that group in particular.

It doesn't make the site any better or "add value" for someone already paying into it; we're getting what we always had, perhaps a little less. Hopefully for their sake it gets them more paying customers; for my sake & yours it only hurts because it's one less way for members to find their way to our profiles.

Dan's point was that "most other business networks handle it the same way." Well, frankly, those other sites suck. What's Biznik's moto again? Why try and emulate those suckers?

If free can only last for so long I would like to see a one or, even better, three month trial at the highest level extended to new customers after a month or so of being a member. I have no idea what promotions they currently run because it has been so long since I joined.

While wondering how to triangulate here, it occurred to me that certain activities should allow a basic user to temporarily upgrade and receive what paying customers receive.

Activities such as:

• invite a new user (who registers)
• hold a biznik event
• I don't know - other, desired things

This would give users incentives to conduct desirable (from Biznik's point of view) activities. Also, it would give free users a taste of what they're missing out upon - creating the desire to pay for the service.

I think the "bad" here was taking something away that people got used to, as opposed to offering a new service exclusively to paying customers.

$10 a month (active) is $0.33 a day.

Even relatively cash-strapped business owners have $0.33 a day to invest in an awareness-building vehicle like the gift Dan, Lara, and John built here.

Lest someone reply, "Well, I don't have an extra $10," I answer, "Perhaps not. But what other expenditures did you make that leaves you in that position? How do you approach your marketing efforts and how do you measure their efficacy?"

You can spend $10 here or on another marketing opportunity. For my money, I'd be hard-pressed to find a better value anywhere.

I hear all of your points. The challenge we're up against here is that we're trying to move gracefully from running Biznik as a hobby into running it as a real, sustainable business.

Biznik started out three years ago as a way to get a dozen of our friends together for breakfast to talk about our businesses, and all of a sudden here we are trying to meet the demands of "free, perfect and now."

In a perfect world, Biznik would be totally free. (Wait, it is totally free!) And we're totally committed to keeping it that way. The member survey we took last November revealed that most Biznik members are in the first 3 years of running their business - not a time when anyone has a lot of extra disposable income lying around. So free is good. Very good.

Free, however, isn't sustainable. So we're asking this: if Biznik is valuable to you, give us ten bucks a month. Or 24 bucks, if you want even more visibility on the network. A lot of mainstream business networks like BNI ask for $500 a year, non-refundable, BEFORE you know whether it even works for you or not. Not to mention monthly event fees. Is what we're charging too much for us to ask?

Dan, I am in the first year of my business and need to watch what money I spend. I find that the $24 a month that I spend for Biznik's membership fee is money well spent. Thanks Dan and Lara for a great site!

As Dan said: "constantly changing and evolving, as we look to add more value to"

Which to me is just badly done, double speak. I offered to host an event in Paris but because it was overseas all of a sudden I didn't meet the cool and groovy requirements in the PDF. As an overseas user what was once free (search) now needs to be paid for. And yet most of your events are all held in the Seattle region. Search New York or San Francisco and you come up with big blanks. Paying to see who'd seen your profile because 1) biznick ignores overseas locations 2) They want $$$ and even more $$$ is a bit odd to me, because it's networking that claims it " doesn't suck ". If making $60K a year for you is a hobby then that's pretty darn intresting. I'd guess it's better than building model airplanes for you. But then I'm overseas and stupid so what do I know?

$0.79 per day to become a supporting member of the best on-line business networking site I've ever seen is a great value.

Let us not forget, this is a BUSINESS site. How can we not expect biznik to be able to monetize their service while helping entrepreneurs expand their word of mouth marketing efforts?

Tom... If your advertising revenues are lacking and you need some money to invest in your marketing efforts, please contact me. I may be able to help you.

"It doesn't make the site any better or "add value" for someone already paying into it; we're getting what we always had, perhaps a little less. Hopefully for their sake it gets them more paying customers; for my sake & yours it only hurts because it's one less way for members to find their way to our profiles."

Thanks Jeff, for pointing that out. As a newbie just starting out, I need to spend my money on advertising myself and my clients. I just do not have the cashflow to join various networking groups that charge a fee, and I rather like the Biznik folks. But since I am a non-paying member, I cannot check out profiles of those who viewed mine. I have already sent messages to people who I think I can help grow their business, but that may be limited now for me, because I would have to search the member list rather than check out who viewed me.

I agree with you, instead of taking away something that was already there, add more perks to being a paid member. Then I can decide to upgrade if I want those perks.

Hi Regina, I totally understand your position on having virtually no disposable income when you start a business. That's why, unlike most other networking groups, we have decided to make Biznik completely, 100 percent FREE. Only one person decides whether you ever pay for this service or not: YOU.

Speaking of free, we added something new today that we're not charging you (or anyone else) for: status badges. These are designed so that, at a glance, members can tell different things about you, which are geared toward enhancing your reputation online. In your case, Regina, that means you now have an "event host" badge with the number "2" on it. This means you've hosted 2 events. Here's a full description of how they work.

No search for members. No search for invited members. No meaningful response from Dan other than to talk about something like a Boy Scout badge. Bad marketing, very bad marketing.

Don... I notice that you require a deposit up front and payment in full 2 months prior to providing YOUR business services.

Will you provide ME with a FREE "Paris Photo Workshop" with some limits so that I can experience your service prior to deciding if I want to purchase your full workshop?

With all of the FREE services that Biznik provides, how can you possibly be critical of their business model?

Here's a link to the member search Don:

Member search.

As for meaningful response, I think I've explained our thinking pretty well in this thread. I'll be happy to answer any specific question you have.

Hi Howard,

I was invited to biznik by Dan. Invited for free, he was providing services by his own choice for free. I don't for my own services, I never did and that is a bit of a stretch in your logic. One reason I require a deposit is to book your hotel room, and Paris hotels are many times booked easily 2 months in advance. I'm not sure if you'd enjoy sleeping in a park or not, but that's one reason why a deposit is required. Will I provide you with a workshop for "FREE" in Paris? Probably not. Looking at your logic, I'm not even sure if you have a valid passport or have a dSLR. As to your question of how I could "possibly be critical" of biznik, the last time I looked it was a free country. But if you know otherwise, please fill us all in.

Hey Don, I did invite you to Biznik, and when you accepted my invitation, you agreed to abide by Biznik's code of conduct. Which means you agreed to adopt "a constructive tone and practice good etiquette and courtesy." I'll give you an opportunity to do what you agreed to do, but any more comments like your last few will get you disinvited really fast.

Don.. Yes, you can be critical of biznik on biznik, because it is an unmoderated forum, NOT because it is a free country.

Biznik is a positive and beneficial service (Free or Paid membership) for business owners. One of the benefits that I enjoy the most, is the ability for a little insight into the personalities of those whom I am considering associating and/or doing business with.

It is threads like this (and other postings on the internet) that reveal the attitudes and true nature of the biz owners being considered by those reading (participatory or lurking) and help us make decisions on who to refer biz and do biz with.

So, as to keep this chat somewhat courteous and not too far off topic.... may I suggest that we just leave it at: "if you don't like the community and the cost of being a member, go somewhere else". We will all be better off.

...Howard

Hey Dan & All,

I have a paid account, and am fine with the feature being in the paid accounts. However, it'd be great if a small application was added to this feature---could it notate which profiles I've already visited? Put their photo next to their name? A different color on the names or something?

I find myself looking at who's looked at my profile, clicking on their name, only to realize this is someone I've clicked on before. I get the feeling that they're doing the same thing. They see I clicked on them, they go to see my profile, I see they clicked on me...rinse, repeat.

It's either that, or I've got people who REALLY enjoy reading my profile. I doubt it's the later.

Anywho, it'd be a great value-added feature. Thanks!

Hi Dan,

I just reviewed your original email from 2006 and there was no mention of a "code of conduct". I tried to use the link provided and that page is dead or 404.

It might be useful for you, if when you put such things in place or revise them, to make that highly visable in your weekly mailings.

I like the badge thing, Dan. They are cool. Any thought to openning up the 'who's looked at me' thing or is this a lost cause?

How about a little code work from John that allows us to choose wether or not we want everyone to know we looked at them? Some people might like that even better.

As far as money goes, I had mentioned to you last year that I believe some members would probably like to pay even more than they do for higher rankings. I think that tiering memberships at Free & $10, $25, $50 and $100/month could really work well for you & the community if each step was a significant value addition. I know you didn't care for the idea right after having added the $24 spot but perhaps in the future something like this could be a benefit to all.

Hi Jeff, We haven't changed our thinking.

Re: allowing you control over whether you want people to know you've viewed them: You can already turn it off. It's a privacy setting under the Account tab on your profile. Just uncheck the box that reads "record profile views" if you want to browse anonymously.

Re: money, we have no immediate plans to add more membership levels. I'm a big believer in keeping membership simple and affordable to as many people as possible.