Pre-Launch Celebration with 1 Year of Free Trades!

The launch of SwapSimple.com version 2 is very soon to arrive. As you know, this version will support DVD and video game exchange in addition to textbooks and general literature, and to celebrate and get the word out, we are offering this special promotion.

Send your friends, family, and associates a special invitation to SwapSimple.com, complete with a code that will give them 6 months of free trades. Additionally, if one of them registers and posts books, you receive a whole year of free trades for yourself!

So have fun inviting people, and enjoy your free years worth of trades.

Thank you all so very much for your continued support and encouragement!

Elliot E. Hirsch
President, SwapSimple.com

Notification Emails Added

As we said this Thursday, we were going to add several notification emails. These upgrades have been installed on the www.swapsimple.com site and are now operational.

They include:

• Thank you email sent upon registration, complete with instructions on how to use the site, post books, and get books.
• Confirmation email when posting books.
• Email receipt after ordering a book, listing shipping cost, total cost, and item details.
• Email notification when an ordered book is shipped. This email includes a postal tracking number that can easily be used to track the books progress towards your door.

Textbook Buying Guide Published on SwapSimple.com

Today on the SwapSimple.com website, we published a guide for buying textbooks on the internet, "Textbooks 101: Textbook Buying Options on the Internet" - written by SwapSimple.com President and Co-Founder, Elliot E. Hirsch.

You can find this article under "Resources -> Textbook acquisition Guide" on the SwapSimple.com website - or you can visit the link: http://www.swapsimple.com/resources_101.jsp

We know there are a lot of options out there on the Internet, and after working in the industry now for several years, we thought we would put a summary piece together to give you a general idea as to what one can expect from different types of services.

Please feel free to leave comments on the article here in the Blog.

Also if you have any input as far as additions, omissions, or suggestions, please us know here or at contact@swapsimple.com.

We hope you find the article useful.

Launch of New Version 1.5

Today we deployed a new updated version of the SwapSimple.com website - Version 1.5

Changes in this version include:

---Changes you can see...

• Eliminated top tab navigation.
• Added left-side navigation menu.
• Optimized the width of the site to a screen size of 800x600.
• Added a new banner graphic.
• Added the SwapSimple.com Blog.
• Removed text messaging notification feature until we actually get it working.
• Added "Resources" section.
• Expanded "About Us" section.
• Expanded "SwapSimple In The News" section.
• Added automatic "Thank you" email after registration. (coming Friday)
  
• Added automatic email which sends you a list of the books you just posted. (coming Friday)
  
• Added automatic email that sends you a receipt upon ordering a book. (coming Friday)
  
• Added automatic email that sends you the package tracking number when a book is shipped to you. (coming Friday)
  

Well, that's about it. Keep a lookout for Version 2 to be released soon, with support for DVD and Video Game Exchange.

If you notice any bugs with this new version released today, please let us know either here in the "comments" section, or via email to contact@swapsimple.com.

Thanks everyone. Enjoy!

The SwapSimple Blog - Created Today!

Now we can let you in on all the exciting things that are happening at SwapSimple.com.

"Huh? If the blog was created today, why are there postings dating back for months?"

Good question. The answer is that we did indeed create the blog on July 8th, 2005 at the suggestion of several of our user-friends. In order to flesh it out completely, we back-dated many entries so that you could see what has been happening in the past, in additon to what is occurring in the present.

Please feel free to add your comments to the blog. We value your input.

Welcome!

SwapSimple Gains National Attention - The Utne Reader Writes About SwapSimple.com!

Today, The Utne Reader, a nationally distributed magazine, published a brief article about SwapSimple.com in their July/August edition!

If you are interested, you can pick up a copy at any major newsstand or bookstore (like Barnes & Noble). We are on page 18, in a section called The View.

All of us here at SwapSimple.com would like to say a big "THANK YOU" to the Utnes, and their readership, for their forward thinking and support!

You can order a copy of the magazine at http://www.utne.com