Plug In

This is an exciting time for the WhyGoSolo Community!  If you haven’t read the last few posts, you might be missing out.

On Tuesday, I introduced Tickets with a Twist – a new site with tickets for WhyGoSolo members to win.  The way to win is to connect with someone else on WhyGoSolo through a Handshake. 

On Wednesday, I announced new weekly contests running on Twitter and 12seconds.tv to win a yearly upgrade on WhyGoSolo.  All you have to do is be first with the right answer to the trivia question. 

Today, we’re asking you for your input on what type of tickets you would like us to get.  We want to give our community what you’re looking for!!

Here are some things to think about:

1.  What type of events would you prefer we get tickets to taking into consideration that you might connect with someone new to attend?

2.  What type of events do you prefer for 1 on 1 interaction?

3.  What venue in your town or city do you enjoy going out to the most?  Why?

4.  What pair of ticket could we get that would get you the most excited?

5.  Do you know of someone with tickets you’d like us to talk to about using Tickets with a Twist to promote their event(s)?

Don’t be Shy – Contact Us

We’re excited to give you a lot of awesome reasons to use WhyGoSolo and Tickets with a Twist…helps us figure out what those are!?!?

Leave us a comment or email us a contact@whygosolo.com

Last night, before heading out to go listen to Lowry play live at Dahlak on U and 18^th in DC, I sent out a tweet with  a question that would earn someone a free one year upgrade on WhyGoSolo and Tickets with a Twist.

The question was: What did I just do before going out that I never do during the week?

Some answers that came in where:

1. @krishnan wear sandals?
2. @hi11e1 blow-dry your hair?
3. @cdiaz put on makeup?
4. @edwelker applying lipstick? grabbing earplugs? getting directions? eating at home? get a different bag? get some cash?
5. @jtnt Leave your laptop at home? Put your hair up? Put on deodorant? ;)

The right answer came from @cdiaz!  For participating and having the right answer; we’ll upgrade Cesar’s account for a year. 

I’ll be doing 3-5 similar contests a week.  I’ll mostly use twitter and 12seconds.tv to do it, so if you’re not following me – I recommend that you do!

What’s an Upgrade Worth?!?

The cost of an upgrade on WhyGoSolo is $20 (for a year) so the immediate reward is $20 however, per yesterday’s post…the benefit of being upgraded is the ability to enter to win Premium Tickets valued at and over $45 on Tickets with a Twist.

We’re all about hooking you up to go out for free and we definitely want to make it fun!

The Contest

Like I mentioned, I’ll be mostly using Twitter and 12seconds.tv at random times during the week (up to 5 times).  I’ll post a trivia question with the hash #WGSUP – be the first one to give the right answer and you’ll win.

It's that easy. 

It dawned on me as I’ve been promoting Ticket with a Twist that I haven’t properly introduced Tickets with a Twist to the WhyGoSolo community. (Ironically, that’s who the site was designed for!!)

Tickets with a Twist is a new site where WhyGoSolo members can go browse events and get into the draw to win FREE tickets!!

It’s really easy and simple to win tickets: 

1. Visit Tickets with a Twist at www.gofortix.com
2. Find an event, show, or concert you are interested in going to
3. Login to Tickets with a Twist with your WhyGoSolo credentials
4. Create a Community Listing for the event through WhyGoSolo
5. Complete a Handshake 

That’s it – once you’ve completed a handshake, you’ll be in the draw to win!!

It’s very similar to being the right caller to a radio station. 

Once winners are selected, they’ll receive an email letting them know where and how to pick up their ticket(s).  Tickets will be distributed to both people in the Handshake, so if someone flakes out, your Handshake isn't holding on to your ticket.

Premium Tickets 

To win premium tickets…you have to upgrade your WhyGoSolo account.  It’s $20 a year to upgrade.  Both people in the handshake have to be upgraded members to win.

Premium tickets are tickets valued at $45 dollars or more, as well as VIP tickets or other hard to get tickets.

We hope you really enjoy Tickets with a Twist – it’s a great opportunity to meet new people, connect with old friends, enjoy a variety of activities and do it all for free!!

Craigslist is packed with people looking for activity partners all around the United States but particularly in the DC Area.

Washington, DC is a very transient community…as a matter of fact, a lot of people will be leaving come January and a whole new cadre of people will be coming in.  Is Craigslist really how you want to connect with someone and meet new people? 

Top 8 Reasons to Give WhyGoSolo a try:

1.  Profiles.  On WhyGoSolo you have the opportunity to create a profile to eliminate the going back and forth on emails in order to tell another person about yourself.

I actually had someone on Craigslist email me his Facebook profile…because it’s just easier to look over a person’s profile to get an initial idea of who they are.

2.  Pictures.  You can upload as many pictures of yourself as you’d like…no need to email those to people either.  AND you get to look at other’s people pictures.  If they don’t have any; you can let them know they should upload some to their profiles.

3.  Handshake Process. You can initiate a handshake request with people you’d like to connect with and accept or approve the requests other people send you.  The handshake process isn’t completed until the people involved confirm their commitment to connect with you.

4.  It’s just a Handshake.  A Handshake is agreeing to attend a specific event with someone or participate in a specific event.  There is no commitment past that.  However, you can easily reconnect with that person again through WhyGoSolo.

5.  Flakeout Score.  You can review a person’s flakeout score to find out if they are reliable.  When meeting someone on Craigslist – your odds of being stood up are good.  On WhyGoSolo, you can prevent that AND report it if someone does not show up.

6.  Review the Handshake.  You can let the people you connected with what the interaction with them was like.

7.  In-house Inbox.  You don’t ever have to give away your email address – which means you don’t have to create multiple email addresses to use our service.

8.  FREE Tickets.  You can win free tickets through Tickets with a Twist just by using WhyGoSolo to connect with someone for a specific event!!

Please be advise of the following change to take effect on August 15^th.  Starting August 15^th, the ownership of WhyGoSolo.com will be transferred from WGS, Inc to Yut Media, Inc.  Yut Media, Inc. is a S Corporation, incorporated in the State of Virginia.  

The change is to accommodate an expansion and is NOT part of a merger, sale or acquisition.  There will be NO transfer of any information to include personal information. 

Your login credentials for WhyGoSolo will be extended to provide you access to login to WhyGoSolo’s sister site, Tickets with a Twist.  The extension is possible through the use of  WhyGoSolo’s application programming interface (API).

We will no longer offer the WhyGoSolo membership card.  However, every member who has Upgraded will retain their lifetime Upgraded status.  Upgraded members will have a lifetime access to participate in winning Premium Tickets on Tickets with a Twist.  All new Upgrades will require a yearly renewal.

We look forward to unveiling Tickets with a Twist!!

From yours Truly,

Founder and CEO, Yut Media, Inc.

Ann Bernard 

After all you say, WhyGoSolo…right??  WhyGoSolo has been lonely and is patiently awaiting her sister site.

Authors will tell you that when they write their stories they let their characters take them where they want to go…well it seems in the case of this startup we’ve allowed the features to take us where they wanted to go.  One of the feature took us to launching another site: Tickets With a Twist. Follow us on twitter: http://twitter.com/TicketTwist

Although this feature was originally going to be part of WhyGoSolo, I came to realize it would be better for the feature to stand alone on its own domain with the ability to be expanded.  It turned out that developing it outside of WhyGoSolo made the development easier and faster (thanks to our API).

We’re about two weeks away from releasing Tickets with a Twist.  Along with releasing Tickets with a Twist – we will be launching a new company called Yut Media, Inc.  The changes in the documentation (Terms of Services and Privacy Policy) on WhyGoSolo are forthcoming.  Yut Media, Inc. now owns WhyGoSolo and Tickets with a Twist. More to come on Yut Media, Inc in the next two weeks.

May be this means one of these days we’ll take WhyGoSolo out of Alpha…

It’s been quite a while since I’ve blogged and since I’ve informed people about what’s going on with WhyGoSolo.  It’s been a turbulent and hectic time to say the least.

It started with me underestimating what having a full time job and running WhyGoSolo would be like. Heck, it started with me underestimating what having a “regular” job would be like again. After three years of working for myself – getting back into a structured routine turned out to be morally, physically and emotionally draining. It has nothing to do with the work I do or the people I work with…it has everything to do with wanting to maintain the entrepreneurial lifestyle and not being able to live it the same way anymore.

But after 5 weeks…I’m getting better at balancing the two and understanding how to manage my expectations and time.

Prior to taking on my billet back in the Marine Corps I wrote a blog post about Business is a Team Sport.  In the post, I emphasized how important it was to have a team that takes part of carrying the torch and keeping things moving.  I stand by that statement however, I want add to it.  What happened is that I hadn’t realized who my true shinning stars on the team would turn out to be.  

The CTO for WhyGoSolo resigned shortly after I went back into the Marine Corps and since his resignation one key member of the team has really stepped up and is making big things happen.  His hard work is motivating the heck out of me, truly re-energizing me and kicking me back into action. It happens to be the youngest member of our team: Darcy Laycock.  The kid is brilliant and the hero of the story right now.

So On To The Updates:

We are growing the team:  We are adding a new sales person.  Her name is Nicole and she is joining us to be part of the next step for WhyGoSolo.  I’m really happy to have Nicole join us.  I suspect I’ll be learning a lot from her.

Also, a few old (as in former) faces are going to be making come backs over the next couple of months which is something that means a lot to all of us who are still together, to have old friends join back.

Next Release: We have a new release planned for the beginning of July. The new release is the next step and future of WhyGoSolo.  The new release is actually not an addition to WhyGoSolo but a new application that will tie into WhyGoSolo.

We’re looking for some UI work (anyone interested??) to ensure we make our deadline. I’m excited to finally be moving in this new direction...which I'll talk about in a few weeks.

The new release will have quite a few other releases following it. So although we’ve been real quiet and been through some hard times; we’re back on track and pursuing our goals.

Do keep an eye on what we’re up to!!

It was a year ago today that I became a blogger. What a year it’s been!! Blogging has been a journey of growth, learning, self-discovery, new friends, communities, and horizons!!

I began to blog with the purpose of capturing the entrepreneurial journey I was undertaking with WhyGoSolo however, what blogging turned into, was my introduction to brand new and exciting worlds.

Becoming a blogger and a blog reader, opened my eyes to so many things that were happening on the web that I wasn’t aware of; although, I was starting a web startup and claiming to know a lot about online communities/social networks. Bloggging has been a key to establishing my foundations in the web/social media communities, where I definitely needed to be for my undertakings.

I jumped into blogging the same way I jump into everything – head first. I absorbed everything there was to know about blogging and began learning about all aspects of all things that relate and “touch” the blogoshere.

I say that blogging is a journey because you don’t know who you might meet, connect with and what opportunities your blog might open up to you. Entering the world of blogging is entering a world of new opportunities and potential.

I now have three blogs…why three?? Because my world is a complex one ;-) My interests, my knowledge and what I dabble in expands in quite a few spectrum and although, they all tie back together, it’s best to separate them at the moment to appeal to the right audiences.

My Blogs (It’s rather ambitious of me to have three blogs so we’ll see what happens)

On the Official Plugged-In Blog for WhyGoSolo I write about what’s happening with WhyGoSolo. It’s my least demanding blog at the moment but that will rapidly change in the next two months.

Don’t Spray and Pray is to talk entrepreneurship – one of my most favorite topic of all time.

The Marine Corps, Social Media and Millennials is new and I’m finding it to be a lot of fun because it involves a lot of new research and exploration. I’m taking my knowledge of Social Media and seeing how it applies to the Marine Corps/Military…while discovering what’s going on with MilBlogs.

The Next Year

My goals for the next year is to hone my skills and my knowledge. To apply more of what I know and to learn more about SEO and monetization. By this time next read, I want to have 10x the readership I have now.

I definitely look forward to meeting a lot of new people and opening up new doors. My goal is to make it to Blog World Expo in September!!

Oh…and I’ll work on my typos and bad grammar.

Thank you!!

A big thank you to all who read my blogs!! You’re awesome. A big thank you to all who support my many endeavors and who have become a big part of my world.

We’ve been rather quiet lately, but in the last three weeks we’ve had two releases; I’m just now finally getting around to blogging about them.  I’m pretty excited to announce that we’ve added Site Notifications and Basic Search to the site.

Site News/Notifications

Here’s where I point the obvious since many of you are reading this blog post via your mail inbox and that’s because we’ve added a Site Notification Feature.

Your best members are the ones you already have – so it’s important to be able to reach out to you, our members, with the latest news and updates to the site.

We don’t want to spam you or be intrusive, therefore, it’s very easy to unsubscribe to the Site News/Notifications. Login and go to Settings and under Notifications unmark the check in Site News. To save the change click Change Notifications.

 

3 Reasons to Keep Receiving Site News

Although it’s very easy to unsubscribe, we would love it if you waited before unsubscribing and here are the top three reasons why: 

1. Handshake Contests: FREE TICKETS!  FREE TICKETS! FREE TICKETS! This is going to be our initial preferred method of letting you know about the free tickets we receive – so if you want to win the tickets…
2. New Features on the Horizon: Don’t miss out on the new cool features you’ve been waiting for us to implement!! This is going to be the best way to track the release of our latest releases and new features.
3. News and Updates: If you are interested in who we are and what we do – this is going to be the most convenient method of getting the major highlights and updates.

We will keep sending out notifications to a minimum…we promise!

Basic Search: Find Other Members

 

This was long overdue!!  You can now search the site for other members by Location, Age, Sex, and Marital Status.  The next step will be adding search by interests and opened community listings.

 

With that being said – if you haven’t entered a location to your profile…please consider doing so since that will help other members in your area find you.

Reminder

Just a quick reminder that we do have the ability to send your listings to Twitter and to your Facebook Profile in order to tap in your already established networks to find people to join you to go out and do the things you want to do.

Final Thought

We have some exciting features and news on the horizon so keep an eye out for us…

Sincerely, 

Your WhyGoSolo Team

On 02 May, I had the opportunity to return to my alma mater - Rose-Hulman - and speak to a class on Software QA.  It was a great opportunity and discussion spurred by (hopefully funny) war stories and major screwups that I was more than happy to share.

During the discussion, I had the opportunity to speak about our development process here for WhyGoSolo.  The most interesting thing that struck me was a comment I received from the student feedback after:

I thought that Keith had a lot of interesting, informative things to say about his company’s development process.  Of all of the presenters, I think that he is one of the few that has even a semblance of formal development process in a small company setting.  I was intrigued to hear how formal and mature his startup’s development process is – it seems to be a trend that most companies don’t develop a mature process until they have been around for quite a while and wish to receive various industry certifications.

Unfortunately, he's correct.  Most companies don't try to clean up their processes until someone needs to audit them... until there's something else on the line.

What they forget is that there's almost always something on the line. 

Having a formal development process seems like a lot of overhead.  It seems like a lot of extra work...

Until the first time the production database gets dropped.

Or the first time users are locked out of the system.

Or the first time you lose that big opportunity.

Then you and your team are going to stop and consider how you can make it better next time.  It could be as simple as requiring every change to production to be reviewed by a second set of eyes.  it could be as simple as requiring one person to write the database update and someone else to execute it.  It could be as simple as making sure your staging environment gets the review required prior to deployment to production.  The consistency that comes along with a process could be the single most valuable part.

I don't care what your process is: Just get one and get it rolling.

It will never require forms signed in triplicate, filed, lost, buried in peat moss, and filed again... well, almost never.