Subscribe-O-Matic goes free

September 29th, 2008 by MSo Lambert

Since we officially launched Subscribe-O-Matic last year, it has spread rapidly through Second Life, the blogosphere, and especially the Second Life fashion community. It's been an exciting year, with a lot of growth related challenges and occasional Second Life grid issues. Today, Subscribe-O-Matic groups have almost half a million members, and send close to three million messages and items across the grid each month.

Despite that, we believe there is still a lot of room for improvement, both in terms of functionality, and affordability. With this in mind, we are making Subscribe-O-Matic completely free for all groups with up to 500 members. Our 14-day trial has been discontinued, so everyone can now create a Subscribe-O-Matic group, either for commercial or personal purposes, without any costs involved. We have also increased the member limit for our paid subscription plan and lowered the price substantially, to make the transition to Unlimited plan much more gradual. So if you have a group with 700 members for example, you will now be paying L$4,000 less per month. Please check the pricing page for more information.

We have also been working on some features (some of which are exclusive to our biggest groups), which will enable you to make the most out of your Subscribe-O-Matic group. One of them is the 3rd-party integration API which will allow you to integrate Subscribe-O-Matic with other Second Life tools and services - stay tuned for the official announcement as the beta version becomes available.

 

Vacation and in-world support

August 1st, 2008 by MSo Lambert

In-world support might be a bit slower between August 2nd and August 9th due to vacation. If you need support or assistance, please use the Contact Us page or send us an email to support at subscribeomatic.com.

 

Tagline idea contest!

June 30th, 2008 by MSo Lambert

Update: Thank you everyone for your valuable submissions, and congratulations to Djai Skjellerup on winning a 12-month Unlimited Subscribe-O-Matic subscription!

As part of our top secret Subscribe-O-Matic facelift project, we have decided to look the truth in the eye and admit our current "Advertise. Distribute. Stay in touch." tagline is...well, not as cool as we thought.

Instead of coming up with another dull tagline, we thought we'd first ask you for ideas - so I present you:

The official Subscribe-O-Matic tagline idea contest

1. What to do: Send up to three tagline ideas to taglines at subscribeomatic.com email address by July 15th, 2008.
2. Grand prize: The best tagline idea will get you a free 12-month Unlimited subscription plan.
3. Who can participate: Everyone and their mother.

Note: we will select a winning tagline, even if we don't end up using it for any reason. So fire up those creative brain cells and help find the most dazzling tagline for Subscribe-O-Matic! :)

 

Subscribe-O-Matics for Relay For Life

March 21st, 2008 by MSo Lambert

I am happy to announce we are providing free Subscribe-O-Matic groups for Relay for Life of Second Life volunteers and teams, that way hopefully providing you with additional ways to get involved in Second Life's biggest community effort against cancer and stay on top of things, even if your group slots are full.

Thanks to Fayandria Foley and David Jacobs (RFL of SL Chair and Co-Chair), you now have a choice of either joining the in-world volunteer group or the Subscribe-O-Matic counterpart. You can also subscribe to the RSS feed and track notices with your feed reader.

Additionaly, we're providing free Subscribe-O-Matic groups to all teams and team captains that might want to use it to better coordinate their efforts without using another group slot - so if you are a Relay team member or a team captain and you think Subscribe-O-Matic might help your team, don't hesitate to contact us, or simply drop me (MSo Lambert) a line in-world. I also prepared a texture template, which you can use as a base for your kiosk texture. You can download it here.

In case you've been living under a virtual rock, Relay for Life of SL is a traditional SL community event, organized every year since 2005 in cooperation with the American Cancer Society and other international volunteers. During the event teams of people gather to celebrate survivorship and help raise money for cancer research and support programs. For more information and ways to participate, check http://www.slrfl.org.

Lower prices, higher subscriber limits

December 31st, 2007 by MSo Lambert

That's right, we got rid of the useless Starter plan, made the other limited ones almost 50% cheaper, and raised the subscriber limits - now you can have almost twice as much subscribers, for half the price! Check out our plans here.

Since our official start in August, there have been over 991,358 messages and items sent to almost 80,000 of subscribers through the Subscribe-O-Matic service. The number of subscribers is still increasing rapidly, and thanks to you, Subscribe-O-Matic has become a trusted service, when it comes to reaching your customers. So I would like to use this opportunity and thank you all for your continued support, and wish you a happy, safe and productive 2008 :)

New server, more updates

September 21st, 2007 by MSo Lambert

We successfully moved to the new hosting provider, as announced here. For you, this means faster and more reliable service, and also a first step to a cheaper service - we are making preparations to raise the subscriber limit for all plans in the upcoming month, amongst other things.

As you probably already noticed, we also updated the website a bit, added the group directory with group information and a way for everyone to easily check the message history for any group, teleport to any of the kiosks, or subscribe to the RSS feed of any (public) group. On the management side of things, we added a few settings in regards to your group details, like business name, group description etc... and we also added the Messages section, where you can manage your sent messages or check the details.

A couple of things around the corner:

• we're planning on raising the maximum subscriber limit for all plans in the next month,
• integration with various 3rd-party products and vendors (like support for group discounts for your Subscribe-O-Matic group members, etc),
• a free HUD for subscribers with the ability to manage all your Subscribe-O-Matic group memberships and check for recent messages from all groups at one place,
• a way to migrate members from in-world groups to Subscribe-O-Matic (highly experimental, still researching possible TOS related issues, and on a case by case basis),
• free versions for non-profits and temporary (events, shows, expos) groups,
• referral program, and
• statistics for group owners.

 

Did someone say message history?

August 24th, 2007 by MSo Lambert

That's right - as promised, we put everything else aside, and made sure your messages will never disappear into oblivion anymore! And of course, that's not the only thing we managed to get done.

Here's a few cool highlights from the new Subscribe-O-Matic v1.7:

• Message and item history! Your subscribers are now able to use the new fancy dialog at any of your kiosks, and easily check your recent messages. If you allow, they can also receive past items that were attached with the messages (if they are still available inside your controllers that is.


• Personalized RSS newsfeeds! Yep, everyone will now be able to subscribe to your Subscribe-O-Matic messages and get notified, even outside SL - with their favorite feed reader. Also cool for embedding and easily displaying notices on your blog sidebar. More on RSS feeds in the next day or two.


• We added two brand new modifiable kiosk designs for your pleasure - and made the textures on the old ones (hopefully) less ugly ;)


• We made sure you will always be able to stay on top of things, even in case of connectivity or network problems - we post notices and updates on a separate website, hosted on a separate webserver! Make sure you check out and bookmark http://www.synthetikstatus.com.


• You can now easily reset your forgotten password from your Controller.


• We added preliminary support for backup servers to the kiosks, so you will still be able to accept new members even if our main server goes offline.

So, check out the upgrade instructions and grab the new version! We promise you won't have to change your kiosks again for the next batch of cool upgrades ;)

 

Subscribe-O-Matic now officially avaliable!

August 11th, 2007 by MSo Lambert

Yay, we're happy to announce we have finally released the Subscribe-O-Matic officially! So before we go on, for all of you that want to know what all that buzz is all about:

• Check out the brochure to find out more about Subscribe-O-Matic
  
  
• Try it for free - grab your Subscribe-O-Matic at Synthetik Headquarters in world, from SLExchange or Shop OnRez.

We already received a lot of positive feedback, created some nice buzz, and - what a pleasant and unexpected surprise - quite a few designers have already announced they are closing their in-world update group and switching to Subscribe-O-Matic! At the time of writing, I spotted these girls announcing the move: Elika from ETD, Saeya from Kyoot, and Rose from Wilted Rose.

In addition, many of you have been really enthusiastic, spreading the word, and passing the Subscribe-O-Matic packages around - thank you so much! :)

I also received some questions in regards to message history, since at the moment there is no way for your subscribers to check past notices, like they can with the built-in groups. So to answer this - yes, the message history is in the works, and if you thought the ability to check past notices in built-in groups is neat - just wait till you see what we are preparing for you! ;)

 

Subscribe-O-Matic revealed at First Friday expo

August 3rd, 2007 by MSo Lambert

Today has been an exciting Friday for us, since we finally presented the Subscribe-O-Matic service to the public at the First Friday expo hosted by Nick Wilson (57 Miles in SL) from Metaversed.com. The expo was the first of Metaversed.com's new monthly technology expos in Second Life. As expected, the event (held on Dr Dobbs island) has instantly maxed out the region, which was also the reason for some smaller technical difficulties at the start.

Since we had some issues with voice, and we didn't manage to answer any of the questions regarding the Subscribe-O-Matic, I thought I'd write up a FAQ for all of you that are interested about the service, or looking to find out more about it.

What is Subscribe-O-Matic and how can it help me?

It lets you send messages and items to a large group of people, just like group notices do, but without actually requiring those people to join a Second Life group. So if you are a clothing designer for example, you can use it to notify your customers that have subscribed to your list, about that new dress you just put out for sale, and send them a picture of it, and a SLurl along with the message.

Or maybe you have monthly magazine, which you would like to send out every month, to whoever subscribes to it. The Subscribe-O-Matic was built exactly for this purpose - to let you reach thousands of readers (or clients or potential customers) easily.

So why would I use the Subscribe-O-Matic? I can send messages and items with group notices.

Of course you can, but that requires everyone that wants to receive them, to join your group. Which can usually be a problem, and here is why:

• Joining a group can be a hassle, especially for someone new to Second Life. You have to explain how to search for your group and join it. With Subscribe-O-Matic, they simply touch one of your personalized kiosks, and they are done.
• We can only join a maximum of 25 groups in Second Life. So will your potential customer leave another group, just to join yours? Subscribing to your Subscribe-O-Matic doesn't leave them with one group slot less.
• Then there are people like me, who would never join an unnecessary group, just to receive an occasional notice from my favorite designer, or a magazine once a month. With Subscribe-O-Matic I could be receiving updates from all my favorite designers, and my 5 favorite monthly magazines, and I wouldn't need to be a member of any group.
• Your group was meant as a way to send notices to your customers, but they think it's another way to get customer support or some more people to their event? Subscribe-O-Matic is only about you reaching your customers easily.

So how does it all work?

In two words, pretty simple. You simply put out your personalized kiosks or ATMs at your locations around Second Life, and they are instantly ready for everyone to subscribe to your list simply by touching them. No complex setup procedures here. Every kiosk is connected to your central database outside Second Life that holds the list of your subscribers. We go great lengths to ensure your subscribers are always safely stored, and backed up every day, and no one but you (and maybe people that you set as operators) has access to it.

Sending a message or an item is equally easy: you rez a Subscribe-O-Matic controller, type your message and off you go.

When it comes to managing your growing group of people and kiosks around Second Life, you can easily do that on our website. You can remove a confused customer that accidentally touched it and can't find your kiosk anymore, for example. You can also manage different aspects of your kiosks around Second Life, without the need to be in-world, or visit every one of them.

Sounds good in theory, but what if I have... a LOT of subscribers?

We have been testing and refining the service for several months with the help of businesses like Indyra Originals, Asri Falcone Originals, Sensual Designs, and others. They have successfully sent over 40,000 messages and items to thousands of their customers in the last few months. We are, and will continue working hard to provide a reliable and fast service, no matter if you need to reach 10, or thousands of people on your list.

How and when can I get it?

We are just about to announce the availability of the service on this website. We expect to start offering it by Friday, August 10th. You will be able to get your free 14 day trial package from SLExchange.com, or Synthetik office, that we are currently setting up in-world. But if you would like to try it now, you can simply drop us a line in-world (Sensual Casanova or MSo Lambert), or use the contact form, and we will send you the free Subscribe-O-Matic package. We are also more than happy to demonstrate it to you, or help you get started.

How much will it cost me?

The Subscribe-O-Matic is a subscription based service. We will offer different subscription plans to accommodate everyone - from a small startup shop, to a large business that needs to distribute thousands of items or messages. Every plan comes with free copyable kiosks that you can of course modify and place around your locations, but of course you can also design and use your custom ones. We don't limit the number of kiosks that you can use, or the number of messages that you can send on any plan, not even on your 14-day free trial. The only difference between plans is the maximum number of users that you can have in your database, starting with 100. We will also offer a plan for (virtually) unlimited number of users. The prices start from as little as L$1,490 per month (yes, for unlimited messages and kiosks).

We are still making final decisions about plans and pricing, and we will publish it as soon as the Subscribe-O-Matic is available.

 

Getting ready for mainstream :)

July 30th, 2007 by MSo Lambert

Finally, after endless sleepless nights and countless Norah Jones tunes, I'm excited to present you new Subscribe-O-Matic web control panel.

We are still working on the finishing touches and adding all the bells and whistles, so you might still see an occasional hickup or two. While it already allows you to manage and search your subscriber database, change various account and ATM settings and add additional users as operators, that is just the start. We are currently working hard to release the new version of Subscribe-O-Matic devices, that will support all the advanced functions available through this new web panel. They are already in testing, so I expect you will all receive the new versions in the next day or two.

After that, we already have some nice new functionalities and surprises in the works, here's a small teaser:

• the ability to automatically give an item (gift, notecard, disclaimer?) to every new subscriber,
• statistical reports (subscribers by region, by month, etc),
• send messages and items to your subscribers directly from the web, without logging in,
• send a message or an item to a random preset number of subscribers (nice for occasional raffles, etc),(
• option to create additional separate subscriber databases (so you can have a list of subscribers for your clothing business, another one for your hair business, and one for your monthly newsletter, for example),
• and of course other gems that we won't give away just yet :)

In the meanwhile, please enjoy your new pimped up Subscribe-O-Matic, and please drop us a line if anything explodes, or if something simply doesn't work as you think it should. And last but not least, a sincere thank you to all our early adopters and supporters :)