You just received a confirmation that you’re now a Advisor here on Pikaba. Welcome on board.

Here’s in getting started guide for a new registered Advisor, i.e. a highly esteemed member. 

1)     Add a real avatar picture to your profile. You’ll receive more exposure if you upload a picture of yourself. Besides members with profile photos are many times more likely to be contacted by others on Pikaba.  Example:

 2) Have a detailed About Me section. Again, strangeness doesn’t cut it these days. Example:

3)     Create a group. Forward all questions from Pikaba members (or even outsiders) to the group so you’ll build your personal knowledgebase on Pikaba. Example:

4)     Build your network. Go to the Community section and find the people who might be interested in your advisory services. Add them to friends. Offer your servises. Remember, many people registered here to find good deals and make new friends.

5)     Ask questions. Create a poll on Pikaba and send it to all your friends. Example:

Moreover, go to the All Polls page and cast your vote in the users polls you find appropriate.   

6)     Give Advice. Comments on relevant to your advisory category requests, products, user profiles.  

7)     Submit deals or offers you find on Pikaba or other shopping sites, like Craigslist, eBay, coupon & deal sites. Or even something from a local store down the street. You’ll be amazed how many “thank you” you’ll receive. Not to tell about rating points.  

8)     Give individual attention. Send out private messages telling about your services so users will see you do care about them.  

Our community of social shopper is rapidly growing. Just check the Community section to see for yourself.And so your active voice matters. So start participating now. It’ll pay you back in the long run. Good luck!

All you need to do is help them close the deal.  

Our members are our most valued asset. Without them, our powerful social shopping features are just dust in the wind.  

Every day I welcome dozens new members who’re looking to buy or sell something in our social shopping community. They post requests, run a few searches and look at the similar products. However, very often, people need to get an advice from a pro or receive recommendations about what and where to buy. In other words, they need help from a human being not from a matching or search engine.  

Here comes the newly created role in our community marketplace: Pikaba Trusted Advisor. It’s not for everybody. The person who applies to become an advisor should prove that he or she is a real pro and expert in the selected category. So in your dealings, you’re supposed to find and offer a good deal for the users using the various Pikaba tools, maybe your products or even products you find somewhere on the Internet.  

What is in it for me?

Because of your special status in the community, users will be contacting you asking questions. Your rating will grow as well as your friend list. Which means the users can also help you sell, buy, and become a popular person or a maven in your domain. We expect that your Pikaba profile becomes another business card telling the world about your accomplishments.  

Talking benefits, you’ll be featured in our monthly newsletters, members’ dashboards, and the Official Blog. Moreover, sellers in your category can hire you to work in their favour.  

Coming soon on Pikaba to help you work your magic as a Pikaba Advisor: 

• Widgets which you can use to promote your Pikaba profile, groups, polls on other web-sites like MySpace and Facebook.
• The Ask Advisor feature. Every request posted by the user can be directly forwarded to an advisor in the relevant category.
• Subscriptions witch automatically deliver products or requests that fit your criteria and allow you to get email alerts once they’re posted on Pikaba. Currently, the feature is only in the sellers’ arsenal.

A few new members asked me about a very short description of our site, so they can tell friends about Pikaba. Here you go:

Pikaba.com is a social shopping community marketplace for creating wish lists, shopping groups, post requests, find deals. Members get advice from friends, trusted advisors and recommend what and where to buy. Sellers create listings and promote products.

I’ve inserted the links in the text so you can quickly go to the relevant section of the site.

Sorry forgot to tell you... It's fun too.

It’s cool that you meet new people on Pikaba while posting your “wanted” requests or sell stuff. What’s more, we’re planing to make Pikaba an alternative to impersonal classifieds where people come and go.  I’d say, a personal touch and focus on the community. Here’s a great example of that.

andersonstephanie25, my new friend here on Pikaba, 3 day ago posted the NEEDED WEDDING ITEMS A.S.A.P request. We’ve had a nice talk on Pikaba during these few days. Here’s her nice story (posted with permission):

My name is Stephanie and I live in Missouri where as the world knows it is still banned for gay couples to wed. I am 25 years old and after I finally gained the courage to "come out" I got divorced from the MAN I was married to and found the love of my life, Melissa. We have been together for almost 2 years now but our dreams of getting married seemed hopeless until we found all these wonderful stories online about others who have successfully wed.

 I had such a headacke from wedding planning. I posted an ad for wanted to buy items for my wedding on CraigsList and someone sent me a few really hateful e-mails about my add! I almost took down all my ads because the message was so hateful. But, my fiance talked me into just ignoring the messages.

On Pikaba I have received a few messages from people actually wanting to sell me their stuff and that has helped. Now

I am so excited I actually received an e-mail from a woman who has offered to sell me 1/2 the wedding items I need! Well just wanted to share the good news with you.  

We hope to get married very soon.

Smart shopper? Social shopper? Sound like you? Good, because we're running this giveaway to say "thank you" for using Pikaba. With so much to do on this site, you now get a chance to win a shiny new Apple iPhone 3G. We know you love Pikaba but you'll never have had more fun doing it.

Intrigued? Of course you're! Here's the dealio.  

But what would smart retailers and sellers be doing? So happy you asked. A lucky winner will receive a special promotion on Pikaba.com. Check the contest rules.

Torn between too many options?

Use Pikaba Polls and you'll be able to watch as your questions are answered by hundreds of people and then make a sound, well-informed purchase decision.

Polls are extremely useful when you aren't sure what to buy. Or, for example, you just want an answer to a question that's been bothering you, a simple, straight answer without a lot of huffing and puffing.

You just need to create a request and once done, click the Creat Poll option in it. When on the Creat Poll form, come up with a question so people know exactly why you want their opinion. Then, add choices to your poll manually or from products listed on Pikaba.

So if you're sick of standing still, ask the Pikaba members for an honest opinion. Get moving with your new Poll.

A review of Pikaba is published by Mashable.com, the №1 Social Media News Blog.

Mashable is included in the Top 10 global ranking of the world’s most popular blogs. The site is focused on online social media, marketing and technology covering the latest trends in the social networking sphere, including  MySpace, YouTube, Bebo, Facebook, and Xanga. It also publishes the reviews of new web 2.0-style start-ups in its The Startup Review series.

Mashable described Pikaba as a new classifieds site with people’s requests as a key feature of its capabilities. “All you have to do is to submit your request for an item you’d like and then take the wait-and-see approach”.

According to Mashable, ads on the website are similar to a regular classified ad with an item description, images and so forth. However, we’d like to add that Pikaba’s requests are designed in a more personalized way with an opportunity to build active social interaction around each request. Thus, everyone is welcome to post a comment or submit a deal to any request.

 “While most classifieds sites like Craigslist already have sections where users can post their requests, Pikaba is hoping to benefit both buyers and sellers by providing a marketplace that is built around consumer needs for defining an actual point of demand.”- notes Mashable. Read the full story >>>

We offer you to take part in the Pikaba Contest and you get a chance to win an Apple 3G iPhone and iPod Nano. All you need to do is to increase your member, seller or advisory rating on Pikaba.

These are just some of the simple steps you can take to improve your rating: 

- Post new requests;
- Write comments and reviews; 
- Update your profile with information and pictures;
- Add friends to your Pikaba network; 
- Participate in Pikaba forum;
- Create a group;
- Become a seller and upload your items. 

The contest starts in the end of July 2008 and and will last till the beginning of September 2008.

More details are coming soon.

I’m going to tell you about Subscriptions, our new tool for Pikaba Sellers helping you make a quick sale of your items.

Subscriptions are designed to automatically generate qualified leads that fit your criteria and allow you to get email notifications (alerts) about new relevant requests.

To create your first subscription:

Go to your Pikaba Account and click the Subscriptions menu. Using the My Subscriptions page, create a new subscriptions selecting location, category, entering key words:

You can create a number of subscriptions, say, one for auto parts in Dallas. TX, another for iPhone nationwide and dozens more for weird & bizarre stuff and hard-to-find items:

Once you've put your filters into Pikaba, you can fine-tune the settings for your subscriptions, remove and create new ones.

Retailers please note: customers 3.0 are already on Pikaba. These new customers are rewiring the retail world to create their own buying practices that fit their specific needs. So I hope Pikaba Subscriptions helps you in making good deals and rewarding transactions in the social shopping era.

We’ve recently added enhanced group-building tools for Group Buying and Selling where Pikaba members can use group buying power, enjoy discounts and supplier privileges. 

Who can create groups

• Shoppers. As a shopper, you have a unique opportunity to get the best possible deals by joining or creating groups of those who wish to buy the same product. The price drops on the item as more buyers join in.



• Sellers. As a seller, you can create or patronize buyers’ groups to work in your favor, make special offers, set up custom pricing, and sell in bulk. Besides, you’ll benefit from increased exposure and internet traffic which can help you to drive your business’s bottom line.

How it works

• Join or create a group where members want to buy the same items.
• Members start topics and invite other Pikaba members (or their friends) to join the group.
• Sellers provide a special offer for the group, i.e. price, discount, upfront payment, specific locations, shipping costs, etc.
• Once all the conditions are met, the group members enjoy getting the product at the best price or lowest cost.

A quick note: we’re working on implementation of payment framework to meet your buying & selling needs from start to finish.  
 

How to join

Everyone is welcome to join the existing Pikaba groups or create a new group. We hope to see you there!

Any comments, ideas and suggestions are welcome! Your opinion will be much appreciated so let us know what’s on your mind.