NUFFNANG COMMUNITY UPDATE 5: OCTOBER 15th 2007

Dear Nuffnangers,

It has been more than a month since my last update! Apologies for the delay! I have been super busy scouring for deals for our growing community.

These are the updates:

Growth of Nuffnang.com.sgThe Nuffnanger community in Singapore has flourished, and I am happy to announce we have breached the 4,000 members mark!

With the over 6500 members we have in Malaysia today, Nuffnangers now number 10,500 in both Singapore and Malaysia!

This makes us officially, the largest blog community in South East Asia! Give yourselves a pat on the back for spreading the word!

I am also pleased to announce we are in the preliminary stages of planning the next community event in Singapore. Details are sketchy at this point, but we have started talks with prospective sponsors and partners for something in late December or early January! Building on the last event, we hope to organize a more inclusive and fun filled outing for all Nuffnangers.

A community not only plays together, we also give back to society around us. I am pleased to announce Charity ads will soon be running on your blogs should you so choose. Remember, the decision to run charity ads whilst there are no paid ads is totally up to you. You will soon have 3 options; to minimize default ad unit, show default ad unit or run charity ads when paid ads are not running.

We will also be organising visits to the homes and institutions we support.

MINI COMMUNITY INITIATIVE: As part of the Singapore Sun Fun Festival, a talk entitled “To Blog or Not to Blog, That is the Question” is being organized. This will be held on the 25th of October at 1830.

Part of our vision has always been to educate our bloggers on the merits and methods of writing a good blog. As a result we are sponsoring 5 Nuffnangers to attend this paid event. Reply to this email to stand a chance to win!

Do note that you will have to summarize and share your experience with other Nuffnangers, your blog will be publicized on the Nuffnang blog.

Ads, ads and more ads!

Being only 5 months old, your hardworking Nuffnang team has managed to snag several significant ad campaigns for our bloggers. Amongst their ranks, we can count bluechips such as Citibank, Nike, F&N, Clearasil, Singapore Tourism Board, Twisties, Tunes Hotel and more.

This week alone, there are five concurrent campaigns running on thousands of local blogs. These campaigns, include Clearasil, Nike Just Do It 2, Nike Plus, Singapore Tourism Board E-Postcards and Tunes Hotel (Air Asia’s sister company).

Deals have already been secured for November as well, and our focus is firmly on finding more advertising dollars for you! So keep your eyes tuned, ears pricked, and continue supporting us!

Nuffnang 2.0

The technical Nuffies have also been keeping themselves occupied with Nuffnang 2.0.

Everything is going according to the schedule, and it should be unveiled to a select group of Nuffnangers for “test drives” in end October.

The mass release should come in early November.

Nuffnang 2.0 is an upgrade in many ways. The entire code has been rewritten so it is faster, and more efficient. The aesthetics front sees many improvements, and usability is also significantly improved. Bloggers can look forward to a more intuitive user interface and control panel.

The basic functional upgrades will be seen by November. Subsequently several entirely new features will be progressively released.

Trust me, it’s looking very very cool.

4. Cashouts and Transaction Fee

A significant number of Nuffnangers have been cashing out on a regular basis.

Every week, thousands of dollars worth of cheques are sent out by yours truly.

If you missed the blog entry about cashing out, here are the main points to take note of.

- You can cash out when you reach $50. This is the lowest cashout point of any other advertising network as far as we are aware of.

- Please allow an additional 30 days for processing of payment. Which means, verification, documentation, and paperwork.
- For advertorials, there will be a separate cash out date. This reflects the date in which the advertiser has paid us, since there are credit terms.
- For all cash outs, there will be a transaction fee of $1 imposed from November onwards. This is to cover costs like postage, cheques (which the bank charge us a transaction fee for), materials, and handling.
The ability to cash out at $50 is something we are particularly proud of. As most of you will know, there are payment terms involved when a deal is done. What this means is that the advertiser pays only after 2-3 months after a campaign has ENDED. The fact that a significant number of bloggers cash out immediately after the campaign ends means that we are paying out even before being paid!  Google Adsense as an example has a cashout threshold of $100 US. As much as possible, we will try to keep the cash out as low as possible so the smaller bloggers can cash out sooner rather than later. This is the main motivation for keeping it at $50.

The transaction fee of $1 has seemed a controversial decision to some, however, is necessary considering the growing size of the community, and also rising costs. The main bulk of this transaction fee is used to cover bank charges for the processing of cheques. Up till now it has been absorbed.

As a concession, we have decided to absorb this cost till October 31st (A 1 month delay).

For all affected bloggers for whom the cost of $1 has been deduced (This only affects Cashouts in Octoer), in the next cashout, we will credit $1 into your account. Drop us a message through the helpdesk (WITH TITLE: $1 REFUND) if you are one of these bloggers.

More payment options

Once Nuffnang 2.0 has been launched, the management will also evaluate other methods of cashouts.

This will give you all more options and at the same time hopefully offer lower cost and more efficient payment methods. 

Best regards,
Ming Shen Cheo
Executive Director
Nuffnang Pte Ltd
33 Kinta Road
Singapore 219102
Tel: (65) 6297 5992
Fax: (65) 6392 2092
Blog: nuffnang.blogspot.com