Biznik’s best year ever, new Article feature launched, and what’s ahead for 2008
Happy New Year! 2007 was a year of solid growth for Biznik, and I’d like to share some numbers that we can all be proud of, and announce a fantastic new feature that we’re launching publicly today, and give you a overview of where Biznik’s headed in 2008.
At the close of 2006, Biznik had 2025 members. At the close of last year, Biznik had grown to 6605. That’s 4,580 new members in 2007, and the rate of growth is increasing, too, going from 7 new members/day in 2006, to an average of 12.5 members/day in 2007. More significantly in terms of the future of Biznik, we went from 70 supporting members at the end of 2006, each paying $10 month, to 357 paying members at the close of 2007. Again, the rate of paid memberships is also increasing, going from 3.4 percent in 2006 to 5.4 percent in 2007. We added an additional paid level of paid membership, called Active, in July, which helped Biznik go from collecting $600/month on memberships a year ago to taking in $5094/month in membership revenue at the close of 2007.
Despite that, Biznik has yet to make a profit: We invest in about 100 hours of web development a month, and we also just invested heavily in two new servers, which we’ll be bringing online in the new few days to both make the site run faster and handle big spikes in traffic that we anticipate due to increased promotional efforts we plan in the coming year. We also just added a great new tool that allows you to invite your friends to Biznik from popular online services like G-mail, Yahoo and MSN.
On July 1, we launched a completely new version of the website, and on Nov. 1st we launched a significant upgrade to profiles. Today we’re launching a new feature: a Learn section, which features business how-to articles and tips written by members, for members. More about that in a moment.
What’s ahead for 2008? Two words: growth and profit. For Biznik, and for Biznik members. We surveyed Biznik members for the first time late last year, and discovered that the #1 reason why people join Biznik is because they want to grow their business faster and become more profitable. Making a profit is fundamental to the success of any business, and we plan to become profitable this year by focusing on helping our members be more profitable.
The new Learn section that we’re launching today is part of our strategy to help your business grow faster and be more profitable. Members have already contributed 30 articles, all of which are written by members with the goal of providing you helpful how-to information on a wide variety of business topics. I invite you to read an article, rate an article, and write an article yourself. Authors who contribute enough highly rated articles will receive an “expert” badge that will display prominently on their profile, helping them attract more clients and build their reputation.
Our goal this year is to grow much faster, and to increase the percentage of members who support Biznik, because Biznik helps your business be more profitable and grow faster. We’ve already proven that supporting members get 26 times more traffic than free members do, and there are many more tangible benefits to upgrading your membership. We’ll be adding even more in the coming year. Think of it this way: What’s a new client worth to you? If Biznik helps you get just one new client in 2008, is that worth $10/month? Or for even more exposure, $24? Please consider helping us build this community by upgrading your membership, inviting your friends, and participating both online and at business networking events.
Thanks for a great year, Biznik. We look forward to great things from this amazing community in 2008.