Bill's Biz Talk posts

Trade... Or Buy... Or Sell... Here!

I just started a website a few weeks ago that is designed to be to buying and selling what Biznik is to business networking.

My site lives at http://www.bonanzle.com

You can get started posting stuff for sale immediately by visiting http://www.bonanzle.com/users/create_intro_user?import_cl_splash=true&item_1=&key=4v80w50b22A122

We have all sorts of great perks to sellers on our site (chat with people looking to buy your stuff, pre-specify when items can be picked up from you, automatically finding of a price and description for your item), but we really need some help to get started in these early stages.

Much gratitude for anybody that will give us a shot and get back to me with any feedback you have.

Thanks! Bill Harding Bizniking since way back when

Biznik-inspired buying and selling site, free through June 1st!

Hey folks!

After 18 months of top secret development, my website, Bonanzle (http://www.bonanzle.com), has finally launched! I can hardly believe it.

Bonanzle will be your new best friend. It is built to make your life simpler.

Visually, it makes life simpler by having a very minimalistic presentation that is easy to grasp, unlike some of the behemoth selling sites (cough, cough, EBAY!) where there are a bajillion pages, links, and features.

Tangibly, it makes life simpler by being the first site specifically designed for helping people sell lots of stuff, not just one or two items (though you can sell 1 or 2 things if you like). I won't go into details here, but if you register on the site and click the "Sell" button, you will quickly feel the difference in philosophy between Bonanzle and the eBays and iOffers (and even Craigslists) of the world.

Throughout developing the site, Biznik has been a constant source of inspiration for me -- both directly, through the site's arrangement and friendly feel, and indirectly, through the many people I've met on here who have given feedback to steer the site toward being useful. I think the end product reflects this in having a very Biznik-like (that is, friendly/helpful/practical) spirit.

Anyway, promotion! From now until June 1st, post as much stuff for sale as you like, and it will be completely free of charge until you sell it all.

If you post 100 items or more between you and the friends you refer, you can also get a free Playstation3 or Xbox 360 out of the deal (or copy of Microsoft Office). See http://www.bonanzle.com/blogs/2 for full terms and conditions.

Please visit, please tell your friends, and let's start a site that does buying and selling as well as Biznik does networking!

Bill http://www.bonanzle.com

Traveling Buddies

Hey all,

I'm peripherally aware that there exist web sites specifically tailored to helping one find people in to hang out with (or even crash with) in whatever city one happens to visit.

Does anyone know the address of a good site like this? Better still, has anyone used this sort of site? How'd you like it?

I'm headed to New York, Paris, and Switzerland in about a month, but I don't know many people in any of those locales. I'd like to pre-arrange some time with locals there if possible.

Thanks! Bill

It's Hard Work to Find Hard Workers

Howdy All,

I've been to a few events now, and even hosted one, but never actually started my own thread...until now! I've been thinking lately about my approach to seeking a co-founder. Since starting work on Bonanzle in 2006, we've made great progress putting together the many, many (many) pieces that go into a successful web startup. The first step was to find a team, which was surprisingly not-that-tough -- most people who I've talked with seem to "get" the potential of the site quickly. The next step was to get pages prototyped, mocked up, and developed. We're in the midst of this phase and making great progress on it every day. But one element that has eluded me as I've tried to keep the company moving forward is where to find a hard-working, productive co-founder?

Of course, the obvious first place to look was right here, on Biznik. But what I found was that most people who think to visit a business networking site already have a business. I've found a bounty of consulting and part-time help through Biznik, but finding the designer/technologist open to the idea of putting in serious time and effort toward making a big (and yes, tough) idea become reality has been unsuccessful so far through Biznik.

Next I tried a myriad of other places: Jobster, traditional business networking events, LinkedIn, MeetUp, blog searching, etc. What I realized looking through these sites was that (Biznik is going to do great vs. its competition and) smart, hard-working and available technology entrepeneurs are like needles in a haystack on the Internet. It doesn't matter if 90% of people who hear about what we're doing would want to be involved if only 1% of those people will be able to help it move forward.

So I ask you, Bizniks of the World, has anyone had any luck trying to dig up that needle in the haystack? Where did you look? How did you do it? How would you do it if you did it again? Are you that person? Well, then why didn't I post this earlier?

Thanks for any ideas!

--Bill http://www.bonanzle.com