New VendorCity LinkedIn Group Available for Our Users

Posted by JC Cameron on December 4th, 2008

We have created an exclusive and private LinkedIn Group for our VendorCity community.  We are actively building and creating new tools and features within our own site, but in the meantime, it made sense to launch some basic collaboration opportunities for our business owners and decision makers.

You can join the group here:

http://www.linkedin.com/e/gis/1313667

However, you must be a registered VendorCity user before you can join the group and interact with the rest of the community. As an FYI, by joining, you will have immediate access to these resources:

• 2008 Compensation & Entrepreneurship Report in Information Technology
• Best Practices in Speaker Program Management
• Getting a Foothold in Social Media
• 25 Surefire Ways to Capture More Clients and Make More Money - in 90 Days or Less

Thank you to the companies that have shared some of their materials with us for use on our site.

Do you have, or know of, a resource that would be appropriate for our community of small business owners and decision makers?  If so, let us know!

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Upcoming features: Public directory and add your own company

Posted by JC Cameron on November 20th, 2008

In the next couple of weeks, we’ll be adding a public directory of all the vendors in our database.  This will allow site visitors to get an idea of what is in our system before they have to register.  It will also provide us with some search engine optimization opportunities and give our vendors that much more exposure.

Additionally, we’ll also be allowing companies to add themselves so that when users recommend them, they will already be in the database with the correct contact information.  This will make it easier for everyone!

 Do you have some great ideas of how we can make our site better?  If so, let us know!

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All recommendations are now reviewed before being posted

Posted by JC Cameron on October 24th, 2008

What helps make VendorCity unique is our unbiased and honest reviews of business-to-business vendors and service providers. Our goal is not to have the most reviews; instead we strive to have the best and most trusted word-of-mouth B2B referrals on the planet. 

Towards that goal, we have just added new functionality to our site which enables us to review each and every recommendation before it is posted to our community of users.  We check to ensure that there is (or was) a relationship between the two firms and flag any self-recommendations or other reviews that don’t meet our “trustworthy” rules. 

If we are not certain that the review is valid, we will contact the two parties (the client and the vendor) to determine if there is indeed a relationship between them.  If we cannot verify it that they did business together, we will not post that vendor review.  So far, this has only been necessary with approximately 5% of the recommendations posted on VendorCity.

As business owners ourselves, we know the value of having a trusted source to go to when you need to find a quality vendor or service provider.  You can be sure that we are working hard behind the scenes to ensure that the B2B recommendations you read at VendorCity can be trusted. 

Posted in Features, General | 2 Comments »

Our New Recommendation Wizard

Posted by JC Cameron on October 9th, 2008

One of the single biggest complaints we have received since launching our site is that it takes too long to add recommendations.  Our original goal in designing the recommendation process was to make it a simple step-by-step process where you search to see if the vendor exists and if not, add the info for that vendor. Then, once added or selected, you are able to add your rating for that vendor.

However, what has become crystal clear is that the process was simply too long and time-consuming.  Based upon your feedback, we have created a much simpler recommendation wizard that requires less information and allows you to enter recommendations much faster.  In the past, if you had 10 vendors to add, it would require you to go through 50 or so total screens.  It was relatively easy to use but took time loading each of those screens. 

We have some great news! Now, 10 vendors only requires 11 total screens!

So, if you haven’t seen the new recommendation wizard, be sure to log in and check it out. 

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VendorCity is Now Available to the Public!

Posted by JC Cameron on July 1st, 2008

Today is an exciting day.  We are happy to announce that the VendorCity BETA is now officially available to the public!  After 6 months of brainstorming, wireframes, designing, developing, and testing, anyone in the US who runs a business or works with businesses can now use our online word-of-mouth B2B recommendation site to find and review their vendors.

We’ve intentionally kept the site simple and easy to use.  At this time, it is not a destination site but a resource to use when you need to find good, high quality vendors that service your area.  As we move forward, we will add additional features that are likely to include:

• Private and public groups
• Friends
• Vendor statistics and access
• Enhanced scoring (VendorCity score) based upon more than the user rating

Of course, we want to hear from you!  Tell us what you think this site should include and what features would make it a compelling B2B vendor site.

Sign-up to join VendorCity!

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Hold onto Your Hats! VendorCity is going NATIONAL!

Posted by JC Cameron on June 28th, 2008

Our initial plan was to launch the BETA in Boston and New Hampshire as that is where we are located and where we could build some initial momentum.  However, based upon the feedback of users around the country, we internally raised the question of going nationally about two weeks ago.

So, we scrambled, we designed, we programmed, we brainstormed, and, in the end, we said, what the heck, let’s do it.  And we did.  300+ cities and regions later, we managed to pull it all together and will indeed launch our BETA service nationally. 

Now that means, more than ever, we need your help to build up the database to create value both for the users of the site and the vendors in the system.  So, when we launch, I hope you have your list of vendors ready so that we can really get this thing off the ground!

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