Everybody Helps

CrossLoop Servers are Slow so Tom is Sprinting

As some of you know that its been only a few hours since we launched the new Marketplace. It was a really exciting one and here are some outlets that have already written about it:

• VentureBeat: Desktop sharing startup CrossLoop opens its Help Marketplace
• Mashable: CrossLoop Officially Launches Help Marketplace
• Digital Inspiration: Run Your Own GeekSquad Style Tech-Support Business from Home
• SmallBizTechnology.com: Get Support or Give Support with CrossLoop

and here are a couple of publications that have already picked up our press release:

 

Soooooooooo that means Tom, our CTO, has a whole lot of new users coming right at him and he is working hard to get the servers all running optimally. We have noticed our servers slow down, which might have affected some of our users trying CrossLoop sessions, searches etc.

We apologize for any inconvenience but please bear with us as we work hard on accommodating all the new users.

Thats Tom upfront on the right during the last NYC Marathon.

Good Afternoon and Good Luck!

CrossLoop "Help Marketplace" is Now Live!

It gives us all humongous pleasure to inform you that we are now live with the CrossLoop Marketplace!

Before I dig into what this means and whats now, some notable things since our last big announcement - our Series A funding from El Dorado Ventures are:

•  

• Recognized as One of The 10 Best Downloads for 2007 from CNet's Download.com
• Recognized as a Top Tech Sites for 2008 (See # 34) from InformationWeek
• BusinessWeek mentioned us in Worthwhile Small Business Technologies
• In depth 3 page walk-through of CrossLoop in UK's very popular PC Advisor magazine
• We have now served over 31M desktop sharing minutes over 1.75M help sessions!! [Check out the new live Odometer on our homepage now that always keep you current with these metrics]
• Our CrossLoop Badges have seen very good adoption. Here are some  great examples:

  • The Computer Community Hospital

  • Biden PC

  • Absolute Business Solutions

We all know that our product CrossLoop is an enabling technology for those who can help one who needs it. We are all about people and empowering them with tools - so we are taking our popular software to the next level by providing a robust platform to find and identify trusted, qualified people with whom you can get personalized and efficient service driven by relationships.

Maybe you are a huge Star Wars fan like me, and wanted to get your family photoshoped in (I like playing Vader on Halloween and thats my daughter). If that is too geeky, how about having someone to do all your design work so that you can fold the laundry or take a nice long bath? If none of that, this should tip you over since bloggers have asked a solution for the huge email problem in the lives of a few of us - A Helper who can help you automate Outlook so that all your emails would be answered and taken care of by themselves - just like that!

Now, you can find them ALL on CrossLoop!!

So What's New.....

For Customers who need Help:

1. New Homepage with Search & Discovery:We have created multiple ways in which you can find      potential Helpers, including
   • Search - from the homepage or any other page
   • Popular Topics
   • Filter Helpers by location and language from the search results
2. Enhanced Profiles of Helpers for you:
   • Contact Helper: There is a more prominent "Contact Me" on the Helpers profile. This enables you to add your contact information and select a service you need
   • Choose a Service: Helpers now have a "Rate Card" through which you can see rates for 3 services with an hourly rate across multiple currencies. Also lookout for the free estimates       indicator on the rate card if they provide one
   • Bookmark and Tell a Friend about a Helper: Each profile has these on the bar above       the Helper's picture. This will enable you to come back to a Helper you like for the continued personalized service and recommend them to your friends
3. Consistent 'Free Download' button: As always, we will continue to provide our popular screen sharing software for free through the consistent 'Free Download' button on the top right of every      page
4. It's a completely FREE service for Customers 

For Helpers

1. Enhanced Profiles with Rate Cards and a prominent "Contact Me" on your profile
2. Leads: When a Customer contacts you, you will receive an email from leads@crossloop.com.
3. Fees: For a limited time, all of the customer leads from CrossLoop are FREE. It is our goal to pair those who want help on their computer with those who can help. 

Finally, as usual, we are all about listening and learning from you so if you have any feedback, please email them to us at cutomersupport@crossloop.com

Thank you for coming along with us on this journey and we look forward to achieving more with your help!

Good Morning and Good Luck!

Your CrossLoop URL

As I said before, I plan to spend a significant amount of my time in being the marketing arm for our CrossLoop Helpers, who have expertise in wide range of technical skills. All the posts related to it will now onwards be categorized under "Helper Success" so here is the first set of tips related to a very powerful tool that we provide for free.

Assuming you have created a free Account and then a Profile, you will get a personalized CrossLoop URL - something like this one for me. This is generated with the "screen name" you choose during account creation - it is simple and very easy to remember. Today, you can find it on the 'Profile' tab after logging in. On your profile, you will see it as 'My Public URL' on the top right under 'Ratings'. This can be used in multiple ways to promote your expertise. Here are a few to begin with:

1. Web mail Signatures: You could simply plug in your URL in your signature file. Here are links of how to do that with

• Yahoo
• Hotmail
• GMail

2. Other Sites: CrossLoop provides a very easy way to post your personal Badge on many social networking sites but here are some more that might help you:

• Twitter: Its profile allows you to add one URL
• LinkedIn: Its profile allows you to add upto 3 links [Log in -> Edit Profile (on the left sidebar) -> Websites (in the very beginning section) -> click Edit next to any one
• Craigslist: I have given an example before, but you can use your CrossLoop URL here. They have a special section for computer services like this one for the San Francisco Bay Area (it is free).

To advertise on craigslist, start with:
1) the 'post' feature here            
2) Pick your location of choice
3) Lets pick San Francisco Bay Area
4) Then specify 'What type of posting is this?' by picking the "service offered" category
5) Then select "computer services"
6) Then complete your posting with details like "posting title", "description" etc
7) You can embed the link in the description so anyone who needs your help can come and learn more about your specific expertise

This is a good start and if you have any questions or face difficulties, please leave a comment below.

Also - if you have a creative idea that you would like to share with others, you can leave a comment below and I will blog about it. Make sure you specify your CrossLoop URL so that I can refer to it :)

We are working on something very exciting that we will release soon - this will be a fantastic foundation!

Good Afternoon and Good Luck!