This a big day in Bonanza history. Bonanza? Don’t you mean Bonanzle? Actually, no. Today we changed our name! Check out the new URL at www.bonanza.com and keep an eye out tomorrow morning for the press release on the newly designed site!
That is what I awoke to this morning and at 4am, no it was not a welcome sight.
What does this mean for the average Joe? Not much, Little Joe might be able to remember the name better, but Bonanza - Bonanzle - Bonanza ... really folks, is it that much easier? But that is the logic behind this change:
Most of all I want to provide more sales for our fantastic selling community. And a name that customers can remember and spell will help.
Not to meantion it makes it easier on the Sites owners family to remember it. :
I want Bonanzle (wait, Bonanza – this is going to take a while) to be a household name. Two years in and my grandparents still get the name of the company wrong
Now Bill does admit there are sites and products that fared well with strange names:
......sure other companies have done pretty well with less than everyday names (Google anyone?). However, I believe that in a fragmented world, having a real word that is evocative of our brand is a big step toward our company becoming a household name.
But somehow still feels this is good. Actually it seems like an easy way out of working a brand. Even with a 'strange name' of Bonanzle, the site soared past others that started about the same time or have been around longer. And some of them had more 'common' names - Atomic Mall , eCrater , Blujay, iOffer just to name a few. And it is the 'odd' named sites of www.Addoway.com and www.BooCoo.com that seem to be nipping at Bonanzle - Bonanza's heels.
Now, what does it mean for the Sellers? A whole lot. Changing names on cards, window decals, door magnets, etc. Going to and trying to remember every place the Bonanzle url to their booth is posted and changeing it. Sound simple, and yes it is a seemingly minor detail, but it can not only cost alot of time, but in many cases money as well.
Yes the old url of www.bonanzle.com will be redirected for some time to allow the full change. But dont do a knee jerk at what page opens, for the look of the site is changing as well. I must say the header is bland with little style, the flashing pictures take a long time to load on my poor dialup, and if I didnt sell on the site, I would look elsewhere for and item when shopping, not having 10 minutes to waste waiting for the front page to load. (one of the draw backs to Addoway and Atomic Mall too) And yes, many are on dialup, so to ignore them is to ignore a good slice of the market. Even eBay realized that and lightened their load.
Then there is the final announcement - which is really the one that will affect the small sellers the most, and the one they are most vague on:
Lastly, we have one more announcement. We recently acquired 1000 Markets and are happy to welcome their merchants into the Bonanza family. Many of you are likely familiar with their site already and may have items listed there. They share a number of our values and know first-hand how hard it is to start a marketplace. Please join me in welcoming them to the fold. 1000 Markets items will soon be listed on the site and their URL will redirect to our own.
I am still looking into that one. If they have 1000 new markets where some of us already have listings, will this case us to have items double, triple, etc listed on Bonanzle - Bonanza - Now? Who are these 'markets'? Many sellers list on more than one marketplace, just so they can quickly move off a site in the event the changes of a site , traffic flow, sales, etc dont work for them.
Seems like that option is gone for some.
Welcome to the ranch ....
PS as I commented below:
Oh - I am sorry - I failed to post a link to the announcement ... it is :
www.bonanzle.com/blog/main/A_source_of_great_wealth__a_spectacular_windfall
Instead of sending out notices to THEIR customers - ie - SELLERS - they blog it and are planning a press release today ....
Renagade
EDIT:
another great source for information on this is : AuctionBytes News Ida clarifies the 1000 markets ... seems its a Artisian site simular to www.esty.com and www.artfire.com
Posts
16 comments:
It's interesting that as one of the first sellers to register on Bonanzle when it first started, this is the first that I have heard of this. As a seller it is just so nice to be kept in the loop.
I guess the lack of communication business model that ebay used to use is being revived on "Bonanza."
Thanks for the post.
Oh - I am sorry - I failed to post a link to the announcement ... it is :
http://www.bonanzle.com/blog/main/A_source_of_great_wealth__a_spectacular_windfall
Instead of sending out notices to THEIR customers - ie - SELLERS - they blog it and are planning a press release today ....
Thanks for the post, I am not sure how I feel about this I guess as long as the redirects and all the rest work out OK..we should not lose business? I actually do not think it was necessary to do the name change ...time will tell I Liked the Bonanzle Name ...but what do I know?
Hopefully 1000 markets will be bringing a working calculated shipping program and international shipping settings that stick with them when they come.
"1000 Markets" is a website. Google it. I doubt that it is very large in order for Bonanzle/Bonanza to be able to buy it. It could negatively affect the people who sell the same things as the people on 1000 Markets, but it will likely help the site as a whole since it brings more items into the marketplace.
Ahhh .. I see said the blind man ...
Sorry, never heard of www.1000market.com As I dont deal much in Artisian items.
Still wonder about those items once intergrated and just how active their sellers base is.
Guess it's a good thing I'm no longer a Bonanzle Member, because I just find the tone of being a bonanza member foolish.
Though I did have my lenz "Sellers have found a Bonanza in Bonanzle". Even lenses will have to be dumped if the lens url has Bonanzle in it.
Not out of the ordinary now is it?
What a kick in the face. You will all be starting from scratch again. 2 years+ busting tails to promote the Bonanzle brand - Our time, our money, our sacrifices, our charity to get to over 300,000 users.... the articles, the blog comments...omg the man hours we have donated.
Swoosh, and Bill says hey can you do it again?
Sorry to be exact
" At this point you may be thinking "How can I help?" Glad you asked! How about a link to our new name to drive a little Google love? A note to your local news source? We are excited to spread the word far and wide that Bonanza is doubling down to take its place as the best marketplace online to find everything but the ordinary."
I love this closing comment
"Bonanza wouldn't be the same without all of you, thank you for your continued support as we build this once-little website into something to be truly proud of."
I have always, and though not the site for me, I am still proud of "Bonanzle"
bonanza is absolutely dreadful looking. It looks like a craft paper bag, just bland, plain, boring, and nothing special-yet not ordinary either. Unmemorable, completely lacking in visual stimuli, generic, un-branded. Either someone else designed this or Bill has lost all design sense these past few months.
Well, it would be wise, for sellers to acquire their own domain name so they can put their own url anywhere they want to have it forward to your booth/store wherever you are, so you don't have to deal with this again in the future. Plus it helps beef up your url so if you decide to open your own site it will have an internet presence already established.
Also, clearly (and for more reasons than this) purchasing business cards, pens, decals, stickers......anything related to "bonanza" is something to be avoided considering the instability of the platform. This is where your own domain name comes in handy - put it on your cards..... put your brand on your decals, stickers, magnets....never understood why people chose to use Bonanzle rather than their own booths anyway. Oh, it was probably because they had faith in the site that is no more.
The 1000 Markets
What is that? I couldn't tell if it is a marketplace or a market of marketplaces - a directory lol.
Wow can you believe that worthless Brand Bonanzle - that bonanza was using got the site large enough to be making acquisitions?
Can't wait to see how long it takes bonanza's customers to drive in another 300,000 users convincing people that bonanza is an online shopping site, starting new twitter, FB, MS, PD, Buzz, Kaboodle, Blogs...........dropping links, trying to get bonanza ahead of Bonanza in search results....
Absolutely, astonishingly selfish of him to do this. Sellers are just supposed to go back to nothing again a sell here and there while they bust A** trying to recreate what we have spent 2 years+ creating, because of the name recognition in flashcards? OMG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is it just me or does a "test" using a very well known Name to decide which is better recognized is flawed to the nth.
I am so sorry you guys have to go through this - and 3 months until Christmas even - omg
I agree Renagade. Bonanza is not any easier to remember than Bonanzle, and at least Bonanzle was unique. I don't like the change.
I also think people are overlooking the faq portion of this where it states the Google traffic will be reduced in the short term. They allowed people to soak their own money into advertising Bonanzle just a week or two ago. I believe this abrupt change without any notice was very disrespectful to their members.
They are also asking that people change their link backs eventually. from Alex "This change will implemented on our end soon. It would be nice if you did update your links eventually though." I am going to assume that eventually there will be broken links and who knows with Bonanzle/Bonanza eventually could be next week.
And what of the members who do not know about the new wonderful change and have to contact support or go looking for help in the forum when their Google checkout does not work.
And just what in the world did this have to do with advertising? Could it possibly mean that now They are ready to advertise the new Name? I don't blame them. I would not advertise such an unstable mass either.
The people who are so thrilled by this new name simply do not understand the consequences of linking to a domain that lacks internet presence.
Trading GP rank of 5 for a 0 is flat out insane. It took over 2 years to acquire a GP rank of 5. Especially given the very ordinary name bonanza. I haven't done a search but I hang on I'm going to go do one
ok the keyword bonanza in
Google
About 9,190,000 results
Yahoo
15,200,000 results
bing
15,300,000 results
He thinks traffic will be a little lower for a couple weeks?
Alexa Rank for Bonanzle
# Alexa Traffic Rank: 5,673
# United States Flag Traffic Rank in US: 1,337
# Sites Linking In: 977
Alexa for bonanza
* Alexa Traffic Rank: 6,664,718
* No regional data
* Sites Linking In: 4
This is a comparison between the two domains, but what's interesting is the top search terms - be sure to take a look at those
http://siteanalytics.compete.com/bonanzle.com+bonanza.com/
I am just stunned!
What about all the people who have already been introduced to Bonanzle? They'll either not find it {as bonanza} if they do they will look at the new cheap design and "logo" and think they are on the wrong site - yep back click.
What is he thinking? Well he clearly hasn't given it much thought considering he has only had the domain name ~10 days. Who in their right mind makes such hugely impacting decisions in a few days?
Unless the name change is going to better reflect your product you should never ever not EVER change your business name & logo!
So does bonanzle better reflect the product - which is a shopping marketplace?
What I think of when I think of bonanza is
1) A gold rush or similar sudden furtune
2) the Show that I have only heard of and mostly only since learning about Bonanza as it is referred to as the ranch on the bay. I'm 34 I have never seen "Bonanza".
Point is Bonanza does not communicate shopping marketplace to me.
With Bonanzle the task is to introduce people to the term Bonanzle, which of course is associated with the shopping site - anyone that has ever heard of Bonanzle is aware it has at least some ecommerce function.
With Bonanza you have to have a message so powerful that the consumer disassociates the show and common definition from the term while at the same time convince them that bonanza is an online shopping site.
Clearly, teaching is easier than "un"teaching and then reteaching.
Of course there is the 2+ year head start, GP rank of 5, 300,000+ people already introduced to
Bonanzle the shopping site.
What is he thinking??
"ECB"stated:
Unless the name change is going to better reflect your product you should never ever not EVER change your business name & logo!
And
With Bonanza you have to have a message so powerful that the consumer disassociates the show and common definition from the term while at the same time convince them that bonanza is an online shopping site.
That is it in a nutshell. The sad part is many many many sellers worked overtime 'getting the name out there'
Well, roll up your sleeves folks, they want you to do it all over again
And yes, Avacado -
I am not looking for ANY Ads for a long long time
A quirky name like Bonanzle
people think it's strange, funny and are not sure how to pronounce it.. but, it's remembered, even if it's because it's strange, funny and they are not sure how to pronounce it
lets see an entire ad campaign could be built around a site that has a name people are not sure how to pronounce
at least it was different and unique
Now we have a common name that is memorable, but, will it be remembered as a selling site... there are everything from tv show to restaurants with the name
nothing unique there
even Mark said this
"b2) Will Bonanza.com have legal trouble for using this name?
No. Our legal department researched this and deemed the term Bonanza.com to be a common enough term that is not specific to a particular brand. "
and, it will probably stay that way
why not make it at least Bonanza Market as they had to for FB and twitter... now we have different name there because Bonanza was taken .. well, that should speak loud volumes... apparently it didn't
To do this just before the holiday season is completely irresponsible. Even Bill mentioned in his blog that it will have an affect on our generic google search results for awhile. So, why do this at this time of year.
>>>At this point you may be thinking "How can I help?" Glad you asked! How about a link to our new name to drive a little Google love? A note to your local news source? <<<
people have been doing that for 2 years and now have to start over basically
Curious about this 1000 Markets comment Bill made "They share a number of our values and know first-hand how hard it is to start a marketplace."
WTH, if you aquired it what does that matter. That only matters if you are partnering with a company. A company can be totally opposite from you, when you aquire it then you change it. So, what dose it matter if they are like minded or not.
To Think I liked the name Bonanzle. It was not hard to remember and once you did it stuck.
I am no longer with Bonanzle (Bonanza) but I do wish the sellers the best. Those who poured money into cards, Banners, Stickers, Stationary, Envelopes and anything to Promote Bonanzle. I can see the Banner sales skyrocketing there now.
I made many Friends at Bonanzle and a few enemies as well. I do wish all of you the best.
Well... laughing here, sorry Renagade. I erased my comment. I guess I am going to do my own blog on this one. It got to long. The only thing I can add here is, there is really nothing we can do about this. Like it or not, it is what it is. LOVE you GF..
Well, even though Bonanza purchased 1000 Markets with the intention of bringing more artisans on board, it looks like the abrupt change and new 'look' of bonanza is not winning them many friends.
Take a look at the Etsy forums and Google for independent blogs discussing the change... There's a LOT of unhappy people. It looks like a fair number of 1000 Markets sellers are not even bothering with bonanza, feeling their goods will get lost among mass manufactured products, so they're discussing completely different sites instead.
As one person wrote in a forum post, bonanza needed to have acquired 1000 Markets, and kept it 'as is' for a while until they worked out how to include some sugar with the lemons.
So, a bunch of other sites are potentially going to leap on this unrest and provide reasons why these 1k artisans should join THEIR site, not bonanza.
I don't want to post too many links or this comment will look like spam but:
http://www.handmadespark.com/blog/hot-topic-1000-markets-acquired-by-bonanza/
http://www.xconomy.com/seattle/2010/09/21/bonanza-for-bonanzle-startup-changes-name-buys-1000markets-leads-social-commerce-wave/
Google "Etsy bonanza 1000 Markets" for more...
Ouch - and zibbet.com has built an 'importer' for 1k refugees who don't want to go to bonanza.
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/2HDe2X/%3Ca%20href=
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