New features: Sort by date listed, and real time message indication

Hi everyone, we have added a few new features lately:

- Real-time message indications
Now, when someone send you a message on SwapSimple, and you are currently on the site, we check to see if you have a new mesage every time you click over to a new page (or reload the page). This makes it easier to have live conversations with other members.

- Browse by date listed
Now you can finally stope searching through the entire inventory all the time, looking for newly listed items. From the browse page, you can now see all the items on the site by order or date posted - so that you can see what was listed today, yesterday, etc.

We hope you enjoy these features, and as always, please give us feedback.

Talk soon - :-)

Wall Street Journal - UPDATE

I spoke with the reporter again. The article will be in Personal Journal next Thursday - written by Jessica E. Vascellaro.

I think it's going to be a comparison / overview of several book trading services, including SwapSimple. I tried hard to make sure she understood how different SwapSimple was from the pack, and I hope she has room enough to get into it.

Either way, it's really great to see mainstream publications like the Wall Street Journal taking notice.

Wall Street Journal interviews SwapSimple

Hi all,

Yay - more national coverage!!

Well, I just got off the phone with a reporter from the Wall Street Journal, and it turns out that they are doing a story about SwapSimple and book swappping in general.

I think it's going to be in this Friday's edition, but I'm not sure.

I'll post here again when I know for sure.

Talk soon...

We updated a few things last night

We made a few changes to the site last night, that I think you may notice. The most obvious is the login at the top-right of the screen.

- Removed login form at the top-right of the page, and moved it to it's own page. Now you can use your browser's auto-complete features, and we will be able to give you a bit more information about things before you login.

Here's some other stuff that we updated last night as well:

- Edited the "How SwapSimple Works" page, and made it look a bit more clean. If you feel we should add something else to the page, just let us know.

- Removed testimonials from the homepage - it was just too much to read (I guess that's a good thing in general, but not on the homepage). We'll put them all on a separate page soon.

- Edited the registration pages to make them look a bit better.

I think that's it. As always, if something is broken, please let us know.

Talk soon...

WB (Warner Bros) WGN-TV Chicago to interview SwapSimple founders this Friday

What great news - SwapSimple's on national TV!

Larry Potash, one of the anchors from WGN news in Chicago, just contacted us and is going to do a story on SwapSimple this Friday.

WGN Website and Broadcast Schedule

The show will air at both 6:25am and 8:40am - and will consist of a live phone interview with me and the host of the show. During that time they will be demonstrating the site.

This is really exciting because this is not only the biggest news station in all of Chicago, but it is syndicated over cable to many different states across the country.

Hopefully this will get word of SwapSimple to many people accross the country who need it.

So, this Friday, look for us on TV and if you see us, please send us a note, or a comment here.

Talk soon...

ABC Radio interviews SwapSimple co-founder, Elliot E. Hirsch

This was a blast!

I had the chance today to talk to a panel of experts about SwapSimple, on a show called "The Internet Adviser" - and all live on WJR Radio, Detroit.

What was really exciting was that they have had some really cool webservices on in the past - like Craig from Craigslist, before they became one of the most trafficked websites on the net.

I tried to tape it but messed up somewhere, so hopefully they will send me a copy. In lieus of that, here is a link to the station's website, and our listing.

ABC Radio, WJR - Detroit

Thanks WJR and ABC for taking an interest in our community - we appreciate it!

Librarything.com integrates with SwapSimple

We are very excited to announce that Librarything has integrated SwapSimple into their service!

So what is Librarything?

"Librarything is an online service to help people catalog their books easily. You can access your catalog from anywhere—even on your mobile phone. Because everyone catalogs together, Librarything also connects people with the same books, comes up with suggestions for what to read next, and so forth." - Librarything

Not only is this going to help share word of SwapSimple with many new people who would truly benefit from our community, but also, we are able to share all of Librarything's wonderful book-related info with the SwapSimple community. This is going to be a great relationship, and we hope you enjoy it!

We have added a link to Librarything in the "Editorial Review" section of every book listing on SwapSimple.

Here is an example listing (look for the Librarything link in the "Editorial Review")

Now, not only will you be able to read the publishers synopsis that we provide, but you will be able to pull up all the user supplied info, reviews, ratings, and reading suggestions on Librarything. So next time you are browsing books on SwapSimple, try clicking the Library thing link and have fun exploring literature!

New Feature: Photos added to profiles

You now can add your own photo to your SwapSimple personal profile.

See my profile on SwapSimple

Please take a moment and add a photo of yourself to your SwapSimple personal trading profile. This is a new feature that we just released late last night, and we're very excited to finally be able to see all the faces of everyone we have been trading with for so long.

By doing so, you will greatly increase the chances that other people will order your items, because a photo of yourself in your profile significantly raises the comfort level of those that may potentially trade with you. Also, adding a photo of yourself simply makes SwapSimple a better, more personal, and enjoyable place to be.

To add a photo: Login to your SwapSimple account, click on the new "my profile" tab at the top of the page, and then click on "(edit profile / add photo)"

Of course, if you have any questions, please feel free to contact me directly at any time.

Talk soon, and have a wonderful day!