Thank Yous, Kudos and Star-bellied Sneetches
Scott Bourne paid Dan, I and the Biznik team a nice compliment today in a BizTalk post.
I just wanted to do something simple - say thanks to Dan, Lara and their group of advisors for creating and maintaining Biznik.
In the few months I have been a member, the group has doubled in size and Biznik has continued to offer more services and support for independent business professionals.
Although I am older and less “hip” than almost everyone I’ve met at Biznik, I have felt welcome and part of the group.
It’s rare that a group of people can gather around an idea like this and do it without difficulty. But the Bizniks get it done.
The Biznik way is appealing. I wanted to recognize the people who had the vision to share that way with the rest of us.
Thanks folks. For all your hard work.
I replied to that post and not only included a shameless plug on ways you can participate in supporting Biznik, but added some never-too-ofen-repeated kudos to some of our key contributors. I’d like my post to reach a wider audience - so I’m reposting my reply here:
Thanks, Scott.
Dan and I are definitely putting in some long hours. A few exceptional people have also stepped up in extraordinary ways and not only asked, “How can I help,” but have taken on a lot of work themselves. Most notably Chris Haddad, word smith extraordinaire, author of the Biznik Manifesto who produces our podcasts each month; Nadja Haldimann, designer extraordinaire, who designed our logo and branding and meets each week to map out the redesign of the user interface for version 2 of the web site; Kenn Herman, systems architect extraordinaire, who sat down with Dan one day and hashed out the entire algorithm for the site activity ranking; and our advisory board who meets with us once a month rain, sleet or hail and helps keep us on track: Christopher Braxtan, Jill Braxtan, Danny Bronski, Dominic Canterbury, Chris Haddad, Nadja Haldimann and Kenn Herman.
But above and beyond those listed above, our members are the ones who are making this whole thing fly. I am in awe of the fact that without a single cent ever spent on advertising the membership has jumped from 100 at the start of the year to 1000 by mid-July. You guys rock - you’re obviously talking a lot about Biznik and encouraging others to join. But then why wouldn’t you? Dan and I set out to organize a group of people we’d want to network with and what emerged is a group of people that a lot of folks want to network with - awesome!
So I’m going to take an opportunity to do a little shameless plugging here. Biznik has expenses and the expenses are increasing as we grow and add bigger and better features. If you’re asking how you can help Biznik, you can do it in two ways. First, become a Supporting Member for $10/month or $100/year. Supporting Members receive a gold star icon next to their name and automatically rank higher than non-SMs in the Biznik search engine results and in the Membership Directory. Go to the Membership Directory page now and see how the gold star-bellied sneetches are sorting at the top! (If you’re asking what a ‘gold star-bellied sneetch’ is, go treat yourself to some Dr. Seuss.)
Next, host your blog, personal or business web site with Biznik. Dan has over 6 years of experience in web hosting, hosting the sites for his clients in a secure off-site location. For $12/mo or $132/year not only will you get the basics other hosting providers offer you, but you will receive a full access control panel that will let you set up vacation autoreply, create new email accounts, install databases, view site traffic reports, even set up a free WordPress blog on your homepage. AND again, you’ll be helping Biznik!
