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| General FAQ All the basics |
| Selling Topics The skinny on selling |
| Buying Topics How to make an offer and more |
| Assorted Topics Various topics that don't fit into the above categories |
| Videos Quick videos on using Bonanzle |
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Bonanzle Help
Below you'll find answers to some of our favorite general-purpose questions.
If you don't see the answer to your question below, or a question that pertains to a specific area of the site, check out our more comprehensive help resources to your left.
What is Bonanzle?
What is a Bonanza?
What does it cost to use Bonanzle?
How much traffic does this site get? How many people are here?
How do I register?
I didn't get my registration email! What do I do?
Can you add [insert category here] category?
What does it mean when you say "Find Everything but the Ordinary?"
How do I change my registration information?
I've forgotten my user name/password. What should I do?
How do I put up my picture?
What's up with the Discussion Boards?
Is Bonanzle a real word?
Is this site launched? What's the launch plan?
What's different about Bonanzle?
Where are you located?
Who's the baby daddy?
Why another online marketplace?
What are Bonanzle's marketing plans?
How can I contact you?
Is this site haunted?
The Answers Thus Begin
What is Bonanzle?
Bonanzle is an online marketplace for buying and selling items faster while having more fun. Our specialty is helping you buy and sell items that aren't shiny, new, and mass-produced. The principle of relentless simplicity drives our easy-to-use yet powerful user experience.
What does it cost to use Bonanzle?
Don't you hate how it usually takes like five pages of clicking around marketplace sites to get a straight answer on this question? Here's the scoop: Buying on Bonanzle is free. Selling on Bonanzle is almost free. It is completely free to post items for sale. If you set up your booth before the end of August, it will be completely free to sell your items for the next six months. If you set up your booth in September or later, here is what you'll pay when you sell items (Hint: it's not much).
How much traffic does this site get? How many users and items are here?
Through August 2008, daily unique visitors to Bonanzle have increased by 3-5x per month since our beta launch in June. If the current rate of growth holds, Bonanzle is on pace to be one of the top five most visited eBay alternatives by October 2008. Given that all of the other top five alternatives have been around for five years or more, Bonanzle's growth in less than five months speaks to the power of the grassroots movement that Bonanzle users have started.
As of mid-September, there were more than 110,000 items for sale on Bonanzle. You can check the current number if you click on the "find" button at top of the site without any word in the search box. You can see our current user count by registering for an account and going to the "My Bonanzle" page.
How can I contact you?
Send as an email at support@bonanzle.com.How do I register?
Like this. It's four fields. Couldn't be easier.
I registered but didn't get my activation email! What do I do?
9 times out of 10 your activation email can be found in your spam folder, or perhaps accidently was moved to your trash. If you still cannot located the activation email simply submit your email here and we will send you another one.
Can you add [insert some category here] category?
In our pursuit of simplicity our categories are two levels deep. If you have a booth setup, you can create custom categories within your booth by visiting the "Advanced Options" tab in your booth and using the "Custom Booth Categories" section. Read more about custom booth categories here.
That said, we do periodically add to the main category list, so if you have a suggestion for a category that is two levels deep or less, feel free to submit it via our feature request form (to your left). We usually add a few categories en masse, once every month or two.
What does it mean when you say "Find Everything but the Ordinary?"
Glad you asked. You can read all about it here.
How do I change my registration information?
Starting at your own my Bonanzle page, click the link near the top of the page labeled "Personal Information." That takes you to your user account information. You can update your address, change your password, and a bunch of other stuff.
I've forgotten my user name/password. What should I do?
Visit the login page. There are links for you if you've forgotten your login name or password there.
How do I put up my picture?
Are you at your "My Bonanzle" page? Good. Click on "Edit Profile" to get to your user profile page. Click on the ""Edit" button next to "Set Picture". Use the Browse button to locate the photo you'd like to use, attach it, and watch site go!
What's up with the Discussion Boards?
The Discussion Boards are a place to confer with other Bonanzle users, ask questions, give answers. It's also a place to discuss non-Bonanzle topics, make friends, and solve the problems of the world. For example, let's say you're having trouble figuring our how much to charge for that snorkel and mask you bought in Hawaii last vacation, or you can't decide if it's really ethical to ask for money for the Samsung Laser printer that your mom gave you two years ago. Use the Discussion Boards to pose these questions, tapping into the awesome power of the Bonanzle community. It may blow your mind.
Is Bonanzle a real word?
It is now. And it's a verb. Bonanzle combines the wealth and excitement inherent in Bonanza (a large pocket of valuable mineral, or a source of prosperity), and the action implicit in -le (as in babble, burble, bustle). To Bonanzle is to spend quality time at an online space buying and selling goods, and meeting people.
Is this site launched? What's the launch plan?
Bonanzle started getting early traffic around June of 2008, mostly from friends and friends of friends. In July and August, Bonanzle was presented to the eBay powerseller community and began to pick up traffic rapidly. It grew from about 500 items posted for sale at the end of June, to about 1500 items for sale at the end of July, to more than 25,000 items for sale at the end of August. User adoption and traffic has rapidly increased alongside items for sale.
Bonanzle is took the official "beta" label off at the end of August, but site is still under heavy development, so don't be surprised to see a bug here, a bug there, an incomplete help section here, an unfunny joke there... you get the idea. Please report any bugs via the bug report form and we'll aim to get those bugs whacked as soon as possible.
We expect to continue evolving rapidly through at least November of 2008, though we will be continue to grow our user and items base as we add the finishing touches to the site.
Is Bonanzle being marketed to the public? How?
We are serious about continuing to drive more traffic to Bonanzle each day. In our relatively small startup budget, we have earmarked a high percentage of our available capital to marketing and messaging Bonanzle through various online channels. One full time and two part time staff are currently dedicated to getting out the word about Bonanzle on ther Internet.
Of course, your friends are going to trust your evaluation of Bonanzle a lot more than they are going to trust any kind of marketing message that any of us could create, so if you want to see traffic on Bonanzle, one of the best ways to get it here is to let your friends know that there is life after eBay/Craigslist.
We bet they'll be glad you did.
What is a Bonanza?
At Bonanzle, a Bonanza is a short-term super-sale. Once a month (if you're good) we'll let you dominate the entire website with your wonderful presence. For a few hours we will let all visitors know that you are having a sale, that they had better check it out, and that all in all, we think you are pretty great. You choose the time to put your goods up for sale. We direct site traffic to your booth. Magic happens.
What's different about Bonanzle?
Well, shucks. Thought you'd never ask...
- Simplicity. Registering is painless; the site is easy to navigate and quick to learn. No need to wade through overly-busy pages like on eBay; no need to leave the site and check your email for messages like on Craigslist. At Bonanzle you can register, setup your booth with 10 items, and get stuff sold in less time than you spend waiting in line for your morning coffee. It's even easier to start buying. Give it a try!
- Community. The personal connection thing. Bonanzle is designed to encourage real time interaction by removing the barriers between the two human beings involved in each transaction. Meet people directly through chat. See who's online right now. Visit a Bonanza and party arty arty. We hope that this brings the seller and buyer together in an altogether more lifelike experience.
- Speed. Sales happen now, no waiting for a deadline, no interminable periods twiddling your thumbs while that flaky Craigslist guy figures out how to respond to your email. Until Bonanzle, if you needed a sippy cup for your newborn's birthday tomorrow, you were off to Target. With prescheduled pickup times and sellers that are online to answer questions immediately, Bonanzle is the first site you can go to when you need to go from "want it" to "possess it" in 60 minutes or less.
- Users. The Bonanzle demographic skews smart, educated, and lovable. These are your people, the ones that you would choose to be stranded on a desert island with, especially if that desert island had a good coffee shop with Internet access. Bonanzle is different because its users are different. In a good way.
Where are you located?
Wherever cyberspace is. Bonanzle has no retail store. Our administrative headquarters are in Kirkland, WA (near Seattle).
Who's the baby daddy?
Founder Bill Harding has designed games for Amaze Entertainment, Nintendo, and himself. He likes 19th century British Literature, bubble baths, and romantic walks on the beach.
Why another online marketplace?
Is this site haunted?
Yes, well, unfortunately we have had a problem with ghost since having launched in 2008. Our best guess is that some of the site's servers may have been manufactured with metal recovered from an old shipwreck. As a result, we've had a series of booth hauntings since the site's launch. We hope to minimize this problem in the future.