Blog changes …

If you have been following our blog, you’ll notice the new theme that we moved to…
After a lot of trial and error and testing out, we figured that this current layout suits our needs the best …

Also, we created  a page in which we have linked back to all the blogs and companies which have profiled us.
I felt that instead of putting up a post everytime someone profiled us, this was much better.

One list of all the companies and blogs that profiled us – on one page — sorted by chronological order.

- Saurabh

ActiveCiti Feedback …

The reason for being in beta is getting valuable feedback from people and being able to update the site more frequently – even being able to make drastic changes overnight.
Once you go live, doing the same things is a big NO-NO.

Feedback can be anything.
From people asking – “Why can’t I do this on your website?” to people calling it lame to some people thinking the UI is cool to someone wondering whether they could use it to host their LAN parties — everything helps.
It lets us analyse our target audience and the demographic the site appeals to …

We have got decent amount of feedback from visitors contacting us – and quite a bit from bloggers who have reviewed our site.
Quite a few of these blogs have been in non-english languages … but the Google translation tool has been handy in educating us about what has been said …

Another recent review that has been posted about us is here:
http://protocoloycomunicacion.blogspot.com/2007/08/activeciti-herramiento-web-de-eventos.html

It’s in Spanish (I think) and is written by Maria Luz Alvarez.
Thanks Maria for the feedback and the exposure :)

- Saurabh

More reviews :)

We haven’t been marketing ActiveCiti as much as we would have liked (we’re still learning the ropes – this side of the business) – but we’re getting noticed at someplaces nonetheless.
I wouldn’t call it mind-boggling-server-breaking-down hits … But it is pretty decent for the amount of effort we’ve been able to put in (marketing-wise) …

We got reviewed at a couple more places.

Barry’s Best Blog has this to say:

This Internet tool makes me want to plan something. I do not care what. Just for the chance to use it. ActiveCiti is that tight.

We were also reviewed by a Chinese website -  Wangtam which describes ActiveCiti’s basic features in a short and sweet manner.

Thank you people for spreading the word out.
We guys at ActiveCiti really appreciate it :)

- Saurabh

Killerstartups …

Just an update …

We were reviewed by the killerstartups website.
The article (if you are interested) can be found here:

http://www.killerstartups.com/Web-App-Tools/activeciti–Complete-Event-Management/

Wanted to thank the author – akfrankel – for giving us some coverage :)

- Saurabh

More reviews …

I submitted ActiveCiti to a couple of web 2.0 directories yesterday – and we got picked up many places.
This caused a huge surge in traffic the last couple of days and we even got reviewed by 2 popular bloggers.

Trouble is, these blogs are not in English.
We’re assuming one is in Spanish and we’re not too sure of the other language …

We ran the google translation tool over them and could make out the gist of the reviews.
Most it seems good :)

If you are interested, the two reviews are at:

Review 1: (seems pretty comprehensive)
http://www.genbeta.com/2007/08/08-activecity-creacion-y-administracion-de-eventos-y-envios-de-las-invitaciones-a-amigos

and

Review 2:
http://www.geekissimo.com/2007/08/09/activeciti-gestisci-i-tuoi-impegni-e-crea-il-tuo-calendario/

Any help in identifying the languages in which these reviews are would be greatly appreciated.
Please leave a comment and let us know.

If you need to find the google language translation tools, they are at:
http://www.google.co.in/language_tools?hl=en

Another excellent language translation tool is Babble Fish which is managed by AltaVista.
Find it here: http://babelfish.altavista.com/

And oh yeah .. before I forget, if you really like ActiveCiti and think more people should know about it, please head over here and give the “Vote” button a little click: http://www.listio.com/web20/story.php?title=ActiveCiti
(You don’t need to register)

Thank you for your tremendous support :)

- Saurabh

Market research ain’t pretty …

Especially when you are a small startup and have to do things yourself …

If you thought the current version of ActiveCiti was all what we were gonna be doing, you couldn’t be more wrong. There are lots of things in store … and we’re just getting started …

However, before we get on doing those things, a small market research is the need of the day.
So all three of us are at it – for the past couple of days – and let me tell you, I’d take coding in assembly any day over this.

At first, it seems like running around for sponsorship for your annual tech fest – something which we did back in college days – but isn’t quite like it.
Half the people you call up think you’re trying to sell them something over the phone and turn you off … So it is a challenge.
Not very pretty – but fun nevertheless.
Having nothing to lose and everything to gain, makes it fun-ner :)

Anyways, to cut a long story short, we are in the need of event managers – or people who manage large events …
We have a couple of questions in mind which we need to ask and get cleared …
So, if you are an event manager – please drop us a line by using this link or putting up a comment on this post and we’ll get back to you as soon as we can.

If you are not an event manager and know someone who is, please pass on the contact details to us so that we can get in touch with them. Any help will be greatly appreciated :)

- Saurabh