SocialGO Owners

Hi All,

We are pleased to announce that the small number of networks that were effected by the server problem last night are now fully back in business.  We are very sorry for this inconvenience.

Also, we are just doing some maintenance on the Admin Centre at the moment and while we do this your Admin Centre will be in maintenance mode.  They will be back up very soon.

Stivi

So you've created your SocialGO network, but haven't quite got things the way you want them?  You're struggling to get the design to look just right?  Or maybe you're struggling to get a layout that works best for your members? 

Don't worry! The GO Setup & Design Widget is just for you.  For $349.99 one time fee the design and tech team that developed SocialGO will do it all for you.  They will design a network logo, create a professional network look and configure the layout and settings of your network to suit your needs.  They will also set-up member subscriptions (if you have taken the Member Billing Option) and help you setup Google advertising and Analytics for you on your network so you can make money and track your members.  Included in the price is up to 10 hours of design & layout time which has to be used within 2 months of buying the widget.  Plus you get a widget and/or theme up to the value of $50 included. 

Upon purchase of this widget, an account manager will be in touch with you within one working day to get the ball rolling.  If you have any questions please contact support@socialgo.com.

To buy the Go Setup & Design Widget please go to your Admin Centre http://my.socialgo.com and click on the Widget Tab.

Note: We can not do any custom development work with the API as part of the GO Setup & Design service, but are happy to recommend professionals that will.

Now that a vibrant community of professional suppliers has grown around SocialGO we plan to launch the SocialGO Pro Service Directory in the very near future. 

The purpose is to connect network owners who have a need with professional suppliers who can solve that need.  The listing will be FREE for pprofessional suppliers that want to list and FREE for network owners to access. 

You can expect to see professional suppliers offering services such as custom development, network moderation, network marketing, affiliate programmes, content management, custom design etc.

The SocialGO Pro Services Directory will initially be found in the Admin Centre of every network next to the Theme Store Tab.  Later it will also be features on SocialGO.com.

If you woud like to list your company or service in the Pro Services Directory, we would be happy to hear from you.  Please email niall@socialgo.com.

WIN free your next 12 months of subscriptions!

SocialGO are offering 3 lucky premium network owners free SocialGO subscription for the next 12 months.

All you have to do is simply update your payment details in your Admin Centre at http://my.socialgo.com and you’ll be entered to win. To do this follow these simple steps:

1. Go to your Admin Centre at http://my.socialgo.com
2. Login in using your email and password
3. At the bottom of the “Overview” page click on “Edit Card Details”
4. Type in your most recent credit card details and click enter
5. That's it!

The competition is only open for seven days.

Good Luck!

Competition Terms and Conditions
The following competition terms and conditions (the “Competition Terms”) will apply to all of SocialGO’s competitions including those on the www.socialgo.com website (the “Competition”) unless expressly stated. By entering the Competition you agree to be bound by the Competition Terms and the terms of the Privacy Policy.
SocialGO reserves the right to cancel or amend the Competition and/or the Competition Terms at any time without prior notice.
Any changes to the Competition or the Competition Terms will be made available on the www.socialgo.com website.
SocialGO’s decision is final. No correspondence will be entered into.
Qualifying Entrants
1. All entries into the free subscription competition must be received by midnight BST on 12 August 2009.
2. The winner will receive a 12 month SocialGO subscription. Subscription refers to the monthly fee, any widgets, bandwidth, games or themes are not included and must still be paid for.
3. Any entrants under the age of 18 must obtain parental consent prior to entering the Competition.
4. By entering the Competition you warrant that all the information submitted by you is true, current and complete. SocialGO reserves the right to verify the eligibility of all entrants.
5. The winner of the Competition will be the three entries randomly drawn after the closing date from all the entries received.
6. The winner will be notified by email within 3 days from the Competition closing date from the personal information provided to SocialGO. In the event that the winner cannot be contacted within the period set out above SocialGO reserves the right to choose another winner at random.
7. Prizes are non-transferable and there is no cash alternative.
8. SocialGO reserves the right to disqualify any entrant if it has reasonable grounds to believe the entrant has breached any of the Competition Terms.
9. SocialGO cannot accept responsibility for any entries lost, delayed, misdirected, damaged or undelivered. SocialGO is not responsible for any technical errors in internet access or otherwise preventing entry to the Competition.
10. SocialGO is not responsible for any problems or technical malfunction of any computer online system, software failure and traffic congestion on the network as a result in participation in the Competition.
11. Any personal data relating to entrants will be used solely in accordance with current UK data protection legislation.
12. The Competition and the term and conditions of this agreement will be governed by the laws of England and the courts of England have exclusive jurisdiction in relation to any disputes arising from this dispute.

 

Hi Networkers,

We hope everyone has made great use of the Free Bandwidth and Storage offer for those that joined us in February March and April to help build and grow your networks.  But alas we can no longer keep the accountants at bay and from the start of your May billing cycle we will begin charging for any overages in bandwidth and storage. 

If you have any overages you will be charged at the end of your next billing date for the preceding monthly billing cycle.  For example, you will be charged at the end of your May billing cycle for what you used in May. 

For most of you bandwidth & storage overages wont be a problem as only the very largest networks exceed the limits.  If you are likely to exceed your limit we have sent an email to you so that you are aware.

If you want to keep track of your bandwidth and storage consumption each month, and if necessary take action, please go to your Admin Centre http://my.socialgo.com.  On the “Overview” tab (bottom right) we have displayed your current bandwidth and storage consumption since the start of your billing current billing cycle.  You will continue to accumulate bandwidth and storage until the end of your monthly billing cycle.  At the bottom of the display it tells you how many additional blocks you have already consumed this billing cycle.  This will give you an idea how much you can expect to consume for the full monthly billing cycle.

Please note that at the end of your monthly billing cycle your bandwidth is reset to zero, but your storage continues to accumulate unless you delete content. 

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact our support team on support@socialgo.com.

Okay, so the Easter present we slipped into your admin centre when you weren't watching was the Layout Manager and wow have we had some feedback from everyone playing with their new toy in the last 24 hours.  Thanks for all the compliments, suggestions and odd bug report.  Keep it coming!

There are a few known bugs that we are working on and they will be fixed soon. If their is anything you discover thats needs to be looked at, tell us right away on support@socialgo.com.

Now with great freedom comes great responsibility.  You can now do some super crazy things with your networks , but you can also get yourself into a pickle if you're not careful.  If you do, don't worry as help is not far away. Spence (a.k.a. the Evil Genius) over at Widget Laboratory is particularly expert at getting owners out of these pickles (the Lab worked very closely with us througout the Layout Manager development and knows it back to front).  So drop Spence a message if you need de-pickling on help@widgetlaboratory.com.  

We have also created a new topic in the forum for the Layout Manager, which should build into a great repository of ideas and advice.  Also, there is a Layout Manager section in this blog where you can watch videos and read tutorials.

Enjoy
Stivi

We are now a few weeks out of beta and our growth shows no signs of slowing.  Every day in excess of 250,000 unique visitors are now enjoying the SocialGO and Zocku platforms.  New and vibrant communities are popping up everywhere. 

The followiing chart gives you an insight into how many happy users are joining the bandwagon each day.  A big thankyou to all the new users for choosing to join a SocialGO or Zocku network.  We hope you enjoy.

With our new data center in the US, along with our data centre in Europe, we are serving the ever increasing user body with solid page speeds and absolutely minimal downtime. 

Someone asked me the other day about our Alexa traffic. So there is no confusion, the likes of Alexa and Compete don't count any data from SocialGO or Zocku networks that have their own custom URL.  Since most of our big networks have their own custom URL's you will find the Alexa and Compete data to be a long way from what the real data is.  The data above comes from our own internal data and is accurate to the single unit.

Cheerio
Stivi

5 Days remain before THE BIG SWITCH.  That's right, before 1 March 09 all SocialGO networks must select a pricing plan and options, otherwise your network will revert to the FREE plan and run the risk of having the Premium features and options removed, custom url's disabled, plus SocialGO advertising applied.  Now we don't want that do we?

You have the choice of the following pricing plans:

• SocialGO FREE a great way to trial SocialGO or create a network if you’re happy with SocialGO ads & some feature limitations – Free as the wind

• SocialGO Starter perfect for small groups that don’t want SocialGO advertising appearing on the network and are happy with a few less features – US$4.99 monthly.

• SocialGO Premium when you want to get serious with more storage & bandwidth, plus loads of extra features, developer tools, your own URL & more - US$24.99 monthly.

Supporting these pricing plans are three options that are available to SocialGO Premium users:

• Member Billing allows you to charge your members a monthly fee to access your network using your PayPal account.  Super powerful and easy to setup. You can make payments optional or required, regular or one-off - US$19.99 monthly

• White Labeling to remove all references to SocialGO. This includes removing our logo, name watermark and even URL in images and files - US$19.99 monthly

• Storage and Bandwidth Blocks if your network is big and highly active - US$9.99 monthly per block

If you do nothing, your network will revert to a FREE network with corresponding limited features and no options that you may currently enjoy as part of our Beta programme.  See the following link for details of FREE, Starter and Premium plan features.  http://files.static.socialgo.com/sogopricing.pdf

In order to select a SocialGO pricing plan, please go to your Admin Centre http://my.socialgo.com.  On the bottom of the "Overview" page you will see the "Payment Details" block.  Click on "Change My Plan" then select the plan you want. Follow the instructions to make your payment.

If you have any problems with the payment process, please contact support@socialgo.com.

From 1 March 2009 all adult networks with content of a sexual nature will be suspended.  Please note that we extended this by 2 weeks in order to give everyone extra time to move.  To avoid the risk of your network being suspended please move your network to Zocku.com, the social network platform dedicated to adult content.  Please see the following Zocku pricing and features table for details  http://www.zocku.com/zockupricing.pdf


In order to move to Zocku pricing plan, please go to your Admin Centre http://my.socialgo.com.  On the bottom of the "Overview" page you will see the "Payment Details" block.  Click on "Change My Plan" then select the Zocku pricing plan.  Follow the instructions to make your payment.

If you have any problems with the payment process, please contact support@zocku.com.

Cheerio
Stivi

Hi SocialGO Networkers

Today SocialGO comes out of BETA after 4 months of intensive testing and launches three pricing plans to meet the needs of network owners.

From today all existing and new network owners will have the choice of three great pricing packages.

• SocialGO FREE a great way to trial SocialGO or create a network if you’re happy with SocialGO ads & some feature limitations – Free as the wind
• SocialGO Starter perfect for small groups that don’t want SocialGO advertising appearing on the network and are happy with a few less features – US$4.99 monthly.
• SocialGO Premium when you want to get serious with more storage & bandwidth, plus loads of extra features, developer tools, your own URL & more - US$24.99 monthly.

Supporting these pricing packages are three options that are available to SocialGO Premium users:

• Member Billing allows you to charge your members a monthly fee to access your network using your PayPal account.  Super powerful and easy to setup. You can make payments optional or required, regular or one-off - US$19.99 monthly
• White Labeling to remove all references to SocialGO. This includes removing our logo, name watermark and even our URL in images and files - US$19.99 monthly
• Storage and Bandwidth Blocks if your network is big and highly active - US$9.99 monthly per block

All existing network owners are obliged before the end of February 2009 to select the pricing plan and options you wish to use.  Those networks that do not select a plan by the end of February will be set to the FREE plan and all Premium features and Options will be turned off.  Please see the following Pricing & Features Table that details the features each plan provides http://files.static.socialgo.com/sogopricing.pdf

To select your plan and options please follow these simple steps.

1. Go to your Admin Centre http://my.socialgo.com
2. At the bottom of the "Overview" tab you will see new block "Payment Details", click on "Change My Plan"
3. You can then select either the "Starter Plan" or "Premium Plan"
4. If you selected the "Premium Plan" you can then choose the options you want such as "White Label", "Member Billing" or "Extra Bandwidth & Storage"
5. Once you have made your selection then confirm it and follow the steps through the payment process
6. Upon your payment being successfully processed your plan and options will be activated

If you have any problems with the payment process please do not hestitate to contact us on support@socialgo.com.

Please note that SocialGO no longer accepts networks with mature content of a sexual nature.  Networks with mature content will be obliged to seemlessly move over to Zocku.com, the newly launched social networking platform dedicated to mature content networks.  See  http://owners.zocku.com/magazine/read/zocku-launched-to-exclusively-serve-mature-content-networks_2.html for more details.   Zocku is a sister platform to SocialGO and is identical except dedicated to mature content networks.  Moving a network from SocialGO to Zocku is like flicking a switch and requires virtually zero disruption or effort from the network owner and users.  Members will not notice any change. 

If you would like to move from SocialGO to Zocku please see the following instructions http://owners.zocku.com/magazine/read/upgrade-now-from-your-admin-center!_36.html

If you have any further questions, please feel free to e-mail Tom at support@socialgo.com.  We look forward to getting everyone up and running with SocialGO and thank you for all your support so far!

Best Wishes, 
Stivi

Loads of owners have asked over the last few weeks for network owners to have greater control over who can upload content and and if members can upload content can the owners approve that conetnt before it goes live.

So yesterday we added some new functionality to give owners the ability allow or dissallow members to (see A):

a) send global bulletins,
b) create groups
c) create events
d) create blogs
e) upload video
f) upload music 

Once you have set any of the above permissions to "allow", you then have a further choice to approve any content that members add.  So now you can approve the following before they are displayed (see B):

a) member photos
b) member videos

You will find these new permissions in the Admin Centre > Access Settings, right alongside the original permissions that allow members to invite friends, require approval for sign-ups and require approval to create groups/events/magazine submissions.



We hope this will give owners the extra controls they have been asking for to carefully shape the content that ends up on your networks.

Enjoy.

Stivi