Summer has been peaceful and uneventful so far. It is a nice break after the hectic pace during the April/May exam period. In the meanwhile I have been working with our lead investor, MumboJumbo, on their online game strategy. You can see my post on beautiful casual games at the mumbojumbo blog.
We are experiencing some temporary difficulties with our hosting provider. Please stand by as we work through these issues. Your patience is greatly appreciated!
Robert
Several tutors have asked about getting a sense of the whiteboard tool before they get into a live session. We are working on a demo tool for tutors, but in the meanwhile click here for a demo of the whiteboard. This demo has been provided by the developer that created our whiteboard application. Check it out and don’t hesitate to ask us any questions.
Using the latest web 2.0 technologies, we are creating the first on-demand marketplace for tutoring - for the first time students will have access to help at anytime, from anywhere, at every price point. And we are looking for entrepreneurial students to help us grow ziizoo into the number one destination for online tutoring.
As a “campus rep” you will run your own franchise like a small business. We will give you a territory as large as you can handle - your school, your zip code or even your city - and it is up to you to seize the opportunity and share in the revenues.
You will be responsible for marketing ziizoo to students on high school and/or college campuses in your territory. You are free to market however you want so long as it is in the spirit of democratizing tutoring and helps spread the word to students. Marketing efforts will include distributing marketing materials (which will be provided), organizing events and anything else to generate campus buzz.
Compensation will be structured in two parts: you will be paid 1) a one-time bounty for every student that you sign up and 2) an on-going commission for all revenue generated by those students.
Successful candidates have a wide variety of backgrounds but at a minimum:
Interested? Then contact Robert Einspruch (reinspruch@ziizoo.com) or Egon van der Hoeven (evanderhoeven@ziizoo.com) to learn more.
Robert Einspruch & Egon van der Hoeven
Founders, ziizoo.com
Memorial Day has come and gone, and that means graduation for most high schools and colleges across the country. Now that summer is upon us we will pause our marketing until school starts back up in the fall–until then you can expect limited activity on ziizoo.
But we don’t plan to take the summer off. We will be working diligently on the “beta” site to incorporate many of your requests, including enhanced search, a message center and calendar so that you can arrange sessions in advance, and most important, audio-chat so you can talk to your students. We plan to launch the “beta” site at the beginning of the school year and for that to coincide with heavy marketing campaigns at the high school and college level.
In the meanwhile, you can drive traffic directly to your ziizoo profile by posting your ziizoo URL on sites like Craigslist, Facebook, your own website, etc. This way students in need of tutoring can find you directly on ziizoo without having to sort through search results. To get your ziizoo URL simply substitute your username in the following link: “http://www.ziizoo.com/profile/your_username_here”. For example, the links to our profile pages are “http://www.ziizoo.com/profile/reinspruch” and “http://www.ziizoo.com/profile/evanderhoeven“.
As always, please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions, comments or suggestions. You can expect to hear from us every three to four weeks as we release new features to the community; to get the most current information please visit our blog at http://blog.ziizoo.com.
Thank you for your patience and suggestions during the “alpha” launch. We look forward to bigger and better things over the next few months.
Robert Einspruch & Egon van der Hoeven
Founders, ziizoo.com
We have waited a long time to say this–ziizoo “alpha” is live! A few minutes ago we placed ads on Facebook, Craigslist and Google so the marketplace is officially open for business. We encourage everyone to log-in, particularly during the evenings, so that you can start tutoring! You can also get a head start in the rankings by bringing your own students to the platform and taking advantage of our “free forever” special offer (click here for more details).
Again, we ask for your patience as the marketplace develops. These next few weeks will provide us with useful information that will drive our strategy for the 2007-2008 school year. In the meanwhile, please continue to give us feedback and suggestions–we need to know which tools (such as audio-chat, shared calendars, messaging, etc.) tutors would like to see in the “beta” release at the end of summer.
Thank you for being a part of the ziizoo community.
Robert Einspruch & Egon van der Hoeven
Founders, ziizoo.com
The day has finally arrived - ziizoo “alpha” is live. A lot of work has gone into making this happen, and we are excited and exhausted all at once! Today is the first step towards revolutionizing the tutoring industry.
As a “thank you” for being patient with us during the build-up to ziizoo “alpha”, we are making a special offer to “pioneer” tutors like you. For a limited time we are waiving our marketplace commission and, in certain cases, tutors will be able to use ziizoo FREE OF CHARGE FOREVER. How awesome is that? Visit the special offers page on our blog (blog.ziizoo.com/fees/special-offers) for more details.
As we mentioned last week, we will release ziizoo “alpha” to students around 5/15. Until then, the billing and “ranking and reviews” features on the site will be turned off. However, you can build your profile by adding your photo, a short description about yourself, your academic credentials and keywords that describe what you do. In addition, feel free to play around with any part of the site, including the online whiteboads, text-chat (audio-chat will available this summer), and the keyword generator.
We ask again for your patience when using the site and to please report bugs, odd behavior or anything else that you think we should be aware of by going to the “report bugs” link at the bottom of the site.
Today is the first day of a new era in tutoring. But we can’t do it without you, so please come join us!
Robert Einspruch & Egon van der Hoeven
Founders, ziizoo.com
Dear Tutor,
Once again thank you for your interest in ziizoo.com! We are in overdrive working to finish the “alpha” version of the marketplace. Though we are still ironing out a few kinks and fixing some bugs, we anticipate launching on the evening of Monday, April 30th. We will send you an email on that day to announce the formal launch of ziizoo “alpha”.
As we mentioned in a prior email, the “alpha” site is the first public pre-release of the site. We ask you in advance for your patience when using the site and report any bugs, odd behavior, suggestions or comments to use using the “feedback” link on the site. Even though ziizoo is in a pre-release version we decided to launch it early so you can start playing around and become comfortable with the look and feel.
In addition, we also ask for your patience as we build the student base. Assuming all goes well with our 4/30 “alpha” launch, we anticipate marketing in earnest to students around 5/15 - in time for spring finals. To update an old expression, eBay was not built in a day, and neither will ziizoo. We are taking a patient, long-term approach to building up our student base, and we hope you do, too.
Finally, we immensely appreciate your input on the ziizoo “code of conduct”. A new version has been posted on our blog. Take a look and feel free to comment - we want your feedback.
Next week we will announce via email the launch of the site, the marketplace fees and, most important, the special offers to our “pioneer” tutors like you.
Again, thank you for your interest in ziizoo.com.
Robert Einspruch & Egon van der Hoeven
Founders, ziizoo.com
Dear Tutor,
Once again thank you for your interest in ziizoo.com! We are working overtime to finish the “alpha” version of the marketplace and still anticipate launching on Monday, April 30th. We will send you an email as soon as the site goes live.
The community’s feedback on the logos has been overwhelming and is deeply appreciated. We will seriously consider your comments when we choose the final logo. We would like to get the community’s input on another matter. We have drafted a “tutor code of conduct” and put it on the blog for comment. Please take a a moment and take a look - your feedback will help shape the culture of the marketplace for years to come.
blog.ziizoo.com
Again, thank you for your interest in ziizoo.com.
Robert Einspruch & Egon van der Hoeven
Founders, ziizoo.com
Dear Tutor,
Once again thank you for your interest in ziizoo.com! Excitement is in the air as we approach the launch of ziizoo alpha. We anticipate launching the alpha site on Monday, April 30th - three weeks from today. On that day you will receive an email from us explaining how to formally register with the site and use the various features.
Because ziizoo is first and foremost a community, we welcome and encourage feedback from community members. We are looking to our members to help set the course for the marketplace, starting with helping us select a logo. Below is a link to four potential logos. If you have a moment, please check them out and let us know what you think!
blog.ziizoo.com
Again, thank you for your interest in ziizoo.com.
Robert Einspruch & Egon van der Hoeven
Founders, ziizoo.com