Here’s a big one for ya …

You can now earn bonus credits for being the 1st or 2nd user to comment on a review!

If you’re the 1st user to comment on a review, you’ll earn triple credits – 150 instead of the normal 50! And if you’re the 2nd, you’ll earn double credits – 100 instead of 50.

Also, bonus credits (from this, special promotions, etc.) no longer count towards your total when calculating your “25% cashout ratio” so this makes it even easier to cashout.

Many of you who earned bonus credits from our first promotion but were still under the 25% threshold may find that you’re now suddenly able to cashout. Check your profile!

So … how do you find all of these extra comment bonus opportunities?

Easy! On the homepage there is a constantly updated list of 20 random reviews with no comments, and you can also look on the Category pages like this one where any review with less than 2 comments is marked with an asterisk (*).

Now go and comment on something!

Posted July 31st 2009 to IM Report Card Updates • Comments (7)

We’ve cross-linked all products and services with the person or company that created it, if they are reviewed on the site. We’ve also added a new section at the bottom of People reviews listing all of their products and services that are reviewed on the site.

Posted July 30th 2009 to IM Report Card Updates • Comments (1)

We’ve added yet another measure to help make sure that new users understand the purpose of IM Report Card, and to help make sure that they are capable of providing value to our community.

Effective immediately, new users must post a comment that is approved by our moderators before they are able to earn credits from grading products, or submit ratings of reviews or other users’ comments.

There is a lot going on “behind the scenes” to help ensure our grading and rating systems are as accurate as possible, but this is just one more added to the list.

For some strange reason a small number of users think that we are some kind of “paid to click” site where they can earn easy money just for grading and rating things (probably things they’ve never even used) and so this should help deter them even further.

Posted July 29th 2009 to IM Report Card Updates • Comments (3)

We’ve added sorting functionality to both the Products, Services, People & Biz-Opps category pages, and the individual review pages.

On the category pages you can sort reviews in alphabetical order, oldest to newest, newest to oldest, best to worst average grade, and worst to best.

On the individual review pages you can now sort comments by first to last, most recent first, or most helpful first.

We’ve added a new feature where you can “subscribe” to reviews of products or services you’re interested in, and receive email alerts when users post comments about that item.

To subscribe to a review, simply click the little email subscribe icon next to the item name or click the “Subscribe to this Review” link in the sidebar on any review page.

Previously you could only receive email alerts on an item if you actually commented on it yourself, which we realized doesn’t make much sense. So now you can subscribe to any review without having to post a comment on it first.

You can view all of your subscriptions in the sidebar of your Profile page, and remove subscriptions at any time.

We’ve added a new feature where you can “bookmark” things you’re interested in, and then easily view all of your bookmarks on your Profile page at any time.

To bookmark an item, simply click the little bookmark icon next to the item name or click the “Bookmark this Review” link in the sidebar on any review page.

Obviously a community like IM Report Card relies on user participation, and lots of it.

We’re just out of beta and overall we think things are going pretty well. We’ve cleaned up a lot of the early “issues”, and many users are posting great comments and content.

From the moment the idea for this site was conceived, we knew the biggest challenge we would face is getting users to take the time out of their busy lives to post comments and reviews on all of the products, services and people they have experience with …

… but initially we honestly didn’t give it a whole lot of thought because we knew that it’s a  “problem” we can solve. In the early days we just focused on building out the site.

We’ve only just begun, and have lots more to do, but the basic infrastructure of the site is now in place, and we’re starting to think more and more about the “bigger picture”.

And a big part of that is encouraging more and more user participation.

We have lots and lots of ideas that we’re tossing around, but of course we would love to get your input on this issue as well.

…especially if you’re an experienced but busy Internet marketer who has lots of great and helpful comments bottled up in your head simply because you’re just too busy to post as much as you’d like, or post at all for that matter.

Right now, these are the benefits of participating …

• You can earn IM Report Card credits, and a little extra cash over time
• You can promote whatever you want in your “signature” below all your comments
• Your comments have the potential to really help a lot of people

(There’s another benefit in that the more YOU participate, the more it encourages others to participate, which makes the site more useful for YOU – but we won’t count that!)

So, what else would encourage you to post comments about ALL of the products, services, people and/or biz-opps that you have experience with?

More money? More exposure for yourself and your “stuff”? Something else?

We’d love to hear your thoughts – especially if the only thing holding you back is a lack of time and/or you think that it’s simply not worth your time to post more.

Post a comment and let us know your thoughts!

(You don’t have to enter your email address to post a comment)

Posted July 24th 2009 to IM Report Card Discussion • Comments (54)

There was still a glitch that was affecting a tiny percentage of users, causing them to see the “slow down” page unnecessarily. This has been fixed once and for all. Promise!

We’ve made a few big improvements to the search engine and we think you’ll find it returns even more accurate results than before. Give it a whirl and let us know what you think.

If you have a website or blog and want to add an IM Report Card banner to get even more referrals, you’ll now find some in the referral section of your Profile page.

There are just a few now, but within the next few days we’ll be adding a bunch more in all popular sizes. Thanks for your support!

Posted July 22nd 2009 to IM Report Card Updates • Comments (2)