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.

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).

Incentive Plan Gets Better!

Since the incentive program started in August, it been pretty popular. However, we believe we set the initial payment bar much higher than we should have. So… We are lowering it.
 
You now have the choice between getting paid US$100 for every 10,000 page views, US$1,000 for every 100,000 page views or $10,000 for every million page views. If you are not already registered in the incentive program, go sign up now!

Get your friends to register!

If you have friends who aren’t members of the allvoices community, now is the time to get them enrolled. For every 20 people you get to enroll and sign up for the incentive program, you get either a Flip video camera or a check for US$150. How do we know you referred someone? Have them fill in your name or your ID on the “How did you find out about allvoices” question on the registration form. Once you hit 20 referrals, we will contact you for your mailing address and ship your camera or your check off to you.
 
Remember – there is plenty of money in the incentive program, so get as many people involved as you can. The more people out there making themselves heard, the better the site will be!

What if I am already over 10,000 views?

If you have already gone over the 10,000 views limit, we know it. We will be sending you a note next week asking you to complete some paperwork so that we can start processing your check. If you want to get a jump on the process, you can fax completed copies of IRS forms http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw9.pdf and/or http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/fw8ben.pdf. Fax these forms to us at the fax number in our contact information. You can also email the completed and signed forms to incentive@allvoices.com

We know that the extra cash will come in handy right now – so get out there and get reporting!

The official verbiage

1. for every ten thousand (up to one million) Page Views (as defined below) of User Contributions, User Reports, and User Submissions submitted by You, allvoices shall pay you one hundred dollars (US $100.00) (subtracting transaction processing costs); or
2. for every one hundred thousand (up to one million) Page Views (as defined below) of User Contributions, User Reports, and User Submissions submitted by You, allvoices shall pay you one thousand dollars (US $1,000.00) (subtracting transaction processing costs); or
3. for the first one million Page Views of Your User Contributions, User Reports, and User Submissions, allvoices shall pay You ten thousand dollars (US $10,000.00) (subtracting transaction processing costs) (each of (i) and (ii) a “Promotional Payment”).