Allvoices Release Update

On Thursday, April 16^th, our development team deployed a minor release to the Allvoices site.  This release contained several minor design updates/fixes.  The main focus of this release was to build the system infrastructure for our exciting new incentive program that will be launched in May 2009.

We are working hard on building the new incentive program from the ground up and are adding new layers for rewarding our users for their contributions.  As always, let us know if you have any questions, issue or feedback.  Email us at support@allvoices.com.

Thank you,
Sanjay Sood
CTO
Allvoices, Inc.

Allvoices Site Updates

The Allvoices development team has been working hard to improve the site, performance and experience for our users.  With great feedback from our community, we are constantly releasing new and improved features.  Over 2 million visitors came to our site in March.
 
We are making sure we can handle all the traffic from across the globe.   We recently moved our data center to a bigger and better facility and have made huge strides in improving performance.  We released a new set of updates yesterday.  There were lots of ‘under the hood’ improvements and some more that you will be see while browsing around the site.  Some of the major changes you will see include:

• 2 new categories for News:  ’Your Story’ (stories about your life) and ‘Odd’ (unusual stories that don’t fit any other category)
• A streamlined registration and login flow
• An updated and re-designed Help/FAQ (http://www.allvoices.com/help)

I will be posting here regularly to keep you all informed of the technical growth of Allvoices.  Feel free to contact me (sanjay@allvoices.com) or our support team (support@allvoices.com) with any questions, comments, or suggestions about Allvoices.

Sanjay Sood
CTO
Allvoices, Inc.

Promote Allvoices Reports, Increase Pageviews and Build Your Community!!!

How will having a great profile help me?

1. Building a complete profile and online personality helps the community get to know you
2. More users will become fans and follow you when they become interested in who you are as well as your contributions
3. Users will engage with you online more if they see they have things in common with you
4. Helps the Allvoices platform match you with like-minded people

How do I build my own community (and gain followers) on Allvoices?

1. Build a complete profile (show your personality and promote yourself)
2. Get your friends, family and colleagues to join Allvoices
3. Encourage people to become your fan and follow you
4. Share your reports (and encourage others to share them)
5. Share your profile page URL/link
6. Encourage people to comment on and contribute to your reports
7. Promote your reports and profile page through viral marketing

Why should I use Allvoices as my home-base for my content?

You can leverage the Allvoices intelligent platform and profile page features and tabs to host, display and share all your content.  The profile page allows you to organize and build a multimedia portfolio.  You can also cross-post and add links to your blog or external website.

How do I share content on Allvoices with friends?

You can share any report on Allvoices by emailing it to friends or posting it on Digg, Reddit, Facebook and StumbleUpon.  On the report page, scroll down below the report text to the Share section then click on the corresponding icon.

How do I promote my reports on other sites to get more pageviews and buzz?

The first step is to register for accounts on other sites to promote/share your Allvoices reports.  The second step is to browse to become familiar with these sites.

Please read the TERMS and CONDITIONS for using these sites.

How do I promote on these sites?

Digg

1. Login to Digg (click Login and enter username and password in lightbox)
2. Click Submit New in the upper right
3. Enter the URL of your report page (or report video or image page)
4. Choose the media type
5. Click Continue
6. Enter a title and short description
7. Choose a thumbnail image (if one is available)
8. Choose a topic
9. Preview
10. Enter the captcha image
11. Click Submit Story

Reddit

1. Under search reddit, login by entering your username and password
2. Click login
3. Click Submit a link in the upper right
4. Enter URL and title
5. Choose a category in the drop-down menu:  reddit.com (main) or subreddit category
6. Click submit

StumbleUpon

1. Sign in to StumbleUpon
2. Click Add this toolbar in the upper right to download the StumbleUpon toolbar  Note:  Promote news you like from other sites so you’re not banned for submitting only content from Allvoices.  Also, only promote 1-2 Allvoices reports per day.
3. When you want to promote one of your Allvoices reports, make sure you’re signed into the StumbleUpon and see the toolbar
4. Go to your report page
5. Click I like it! on the StumbleUpon toolbar
6. A StumbleUpon window will appear within your browser window
7. The title will be automatically filled in
8. Enter your review (i.e. comment on the news)
9. Click a topic
10. Enter tags (it doesn’t allow you to copy and paste tags however)
11. Click No if it’s not adult content
12. Click Submit the Site

NOTE:  The system will check for similar or duplicate submissions.

If you have questions, email community@allvoices.com.  

Happy Birthday To Allvoices CEO Amra Tareen!

Please join the Allvoices team in wishing our CEO Amra Tareen a very HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Today at the Allvoices headquarters in San Francisco, California, we hosted a surprise birthday lunch for Amra. I am pleased to share the original photos from the celebration.

Amra certainly was surprised! We planned a lunch on the lovely rooftop deck of the building across the street from our downtown office. Our team secretly crept over to the rooftop across the street without Amra seeing us. We coordinated the timing with our Chief Marketing Officer Aki Hashmi. As we stood on the roof holding hand-made birthday signs high in the air, Aki led Amra to the window of Allvoices office. Amra immediately spotted us, and we jumped up and down with pride while she waved.

Amra and Aki then joined the rest of our team on the rooftop where we served her a fabulous Pakistani lunch from Pakwan and delicious chocolate cake courtesy of Emporio Rulli (and lovely Jeannie Rulli). We had a great time! Before we returned to work, Amra thanked us and spoke excitedly about the growth of our company, plans going forward and our amazing global community of users from 167 countries.

Again, we wish Amra a wonderful birthday! We have truly enjoyed working hard together as a team and are grateful for the opportunity to be on the cutting edge of innovation in journalism and social media. We are committed to providing the best experience for our community and are thrilled by the comments we’ve received from users all over the world who are excited to have a voice, share their unique and original stories, news and perspectives.

Read our post on Allvoices at  http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/2826954-happy-birthday-to-allvoices-ceo-amra-tareen.

Allvoices Extends Incentive Program

Allvoices is extending the Excellence in Citizen Media Initiative to April 15, 2009.  A new and even better program will be launched after the end date of the current program so there will continue to be opportunities for users to earn cash rewards for contributing!

Below are reminders and a summary of the current incentive program (www.allvoices.com/incentive):

• Allvoices awards $100 for every 10K accumulated pageviews (not per report). There is no report selection process.
• The max you can earn is $10K.
• Follow the “How To Get Paid” instructions when you reach your first 10K milestone (tax form only needs to be submitted once).
• Check out the “How To Guide” is at http://www.allvoices.com/incentive/how-to.
• Once we receive your tax form, we validate your pageviews. We don’t pay for copyright infringement – see our terms). Then we process your payment. We pay via check only, and Int’l participants should allow at least 30 days to receive a check after they’ve sent the tax form and reached a milestone.

Check out the tips for submitting reports on Allvoices at http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/2324258-25-tips-to-report-your-news-on-allvoices.  More pageviews can be achieved by submitting a report on Allvoices and then promoting the link/URL to your report on other sites (e.g. Digg, Reddit, StumbleUpon, Twitter).

25 Tips to Report Your News on Allvoices

These tips will help your reports get noticed and more attention(i.e. more readers and pageviews)!

1. Write original content (your own). The community loves to read news but also wants to see your perspectives/opinions.
2. The community wants your news, your voice. Don’t copy and paste someone else’s words or from other news sources.
3. Share your reports with friends, colleagues, etc. via email or by clicking the Digg, Reddit, Facebook, StumbleUpon icons at the bottom of your or any report.
4. Promote your reports on other social media or networking sites and leverage your network on the sites mentioned as well as Twitter and MySpace.
5. Attach related IMAGES and VIDEOS to your reports that add to your story!
6. Add related news stories or blog posts to your reports or to other user reports.
7. Get the conversation going. Comment on reports from other users to get people involved, and reply to comments on your own reports.
8. Make titles/headlines clear, concise (not long), and eye-catching.
9. Spell-check and properly format your work.
10. Write about things you know and what affects you, and people will get involved in your stories.
11. Add tags your reports.
12. When choosing the location for your reports, choose where the news is, not where you are.
13. When categorizing your news, think about where people are going to look for it.
14. Our community (you) monitors our site. Click the red FLAG button on a report to notify us if it violates our terms (see list of reasons).
15. If you quote someone, give credit and a link. It will make you a more reputable news source.
16. R U a txtr? Don’t be one here. Remember your audience and write so everyone can understand it.
17. Reporting news from the ground? Get quotes from others to give your stories more life.
18. Linking to someone’s blog post? Let them know so they can share the story with others.
19. Like what another user is writing? Become a fan. Send a private message from your profile page or comment on the user’s reports.
20. Attending an event? Report on it via your mobile phone so the world knows about it.
21. Reporting sports news? Don’t just give the score. Tell us what happened and what you think!
22. Entertaining the world with your news? Be sure to indicate if the information is confirmed, rumor, or parody.
23. Read the Allvoices blog at http://allvoices.wordpress.com/.
24. Need additional help? Email us at community@allvoices.com
25. Give us your feedback! We take it seriously so we can produce the highest quality product to give our global community the best possible experience with the platform and content. Email feedback to community@allvoices.com

How To Register on Allvoices

Join our global community!  Register in 3 simple steps!

STEP 1:  Go to http://www.allvoices.com/login and enter your email, username, password twice, the captcha image and check the box to agree to the terms.

STEP 2:  Check for an email from Allvoices titled, “Registration verification at Allvoices”.

STEP 3:  When you receive the verification email and link, click it or paste it into your browser.  Complete the final registration step by entering birth year, country, city, education and checking the box to enroll in the incentive program.

Note regarding VERIFICATION EMAIL:  To request another verification email, go to http://www.allvoices.com/login and click on “Need another activation email?”  Or go to http://www.allvoices.com/resend-activation and enter your email under “Resend my activation email.”  Some Internet service providers have spam filters that block emails without notifying senders or intended recipients.

Contact us if you do not receive a registration verification email from us after completing Step 1. There is no need to repeat Step 1 since your info will already be in the system.  The system will not accept another registration using an identical email address or username which is for your protection.

Note regarding PROFILE IMAGES:  If you have the latest version of Adobe Flash Player, you have the option to upload a profile image on your activation page. Otherwise, you can easily upload an image directly from your profile page by clicking “Upload a Profile Picture” under the image box. This image can be changed. Personal photos are not required. You may choose any image to represent your Allvoices account/personality (i.e. an avatar).