What shall I tell the Owner of Benable?

[Windy]

Benable contacted me to set up a video call between me and the guy who started the website. I signed up, thinking it would be me listening to a webinar with 300 people. 

But it's only ME and Tony. I supposedly came to their notice because I had a bunch of people respond to my invite code who then went on to create lists. 

So if you want me to pass on some info, questions, and concerns, maybe I can do it. This happens next week, so please chime in here if you want to suggest something I should bring up.

[Cat]

Wow, I guess you're an insider now! I'm still only at the toe in the water stage with Benable - I've made 2 profiles (one business, one personal) and have made 2 lists for each profile. But the thing that's confusing me is that when you visit the site (logged out) it seems like it's all geared for people to make and share lists. That's fine, but I'm not understanding how it is that other people will find and view these lists. Maybe I'm missing something.

[JStat]

Essentially it's the same concept as Zazzle in that every new listing or on Benable, every new "list" (like a Pinterest board) can and should be SEO optimized. Once Benable says the list is optimized it will then be indexed to Google. You are now picking up all of that search traffic with your boards based on your recommendations as well as your SEO (List titles, list descriptions, sub-list titles, and notes are all SEO opportunities) I hope this helps!

[Windy]

I will do some logged out searching and see how that works for me as a "shopper" and then ask! 

[Cat]

This may also be in the "thank you captain obvious" category, but I'm confused about how it works when you share Amazon links. Does Amazon pay you or does it come through Benable? 

My only suggestion at the moment would be to let us choose which premium brands to activate when we get a credit. I've never heard of a lot of those companies, and would much rather have a choice. 

[DesertSky]

I read somewhere on Benable or saw in one of their videos that Amazon's affiliate program is totally separate, and that Amazon pays you directly. Amazon also has their own tracking page and reports, too. Personally, I'm not too sure how I feel about the Amazon program. I'm still skeptical about it and have been using Amazon links only when I can't find a different place that has the product with a reasonable payout percent. I'm curious if anyone here that's on Benable has any success with the Amazon program. My Amazon stats show 3 ordered, 0 shipped and $0 earned. Maybe the shipped and earning reporting is lagging...I don't know, but I'm not confident at this point. I wish Amazon was part of Benable's payout like the rest of the brands, at least I know that works. Anyway, good luck with it!

[Cat]

Thanks! I have yet to discover the reports on Amazon, so I'll go look for them. I'm with you on wanting to choose something other than Amazon if I have a choice. 

[Cat]

OK, one other thought. I was going to install the Benable Chrome Extension like they suggested, but when I went to do so I got all kinds of warnings saying that installing it would enable Benable to view EVERYTHING I do online - it implied that it could read my passwords and everything, so I didn't do it. Perhaps they should clarify what info they're gathering and offer some assurances that it's safe.

[Windy]

I will look into this extension also. Thanks for the questions.

[DesertSky]

Congrats on the opportunity to speak with the owner, that's fantastic! You clearly must be doing something right! I've only had three people join through my invite code and only one has made a list, so I'm not doing too good in that area. Honestly, I really don't think it's fair that the only way to unlock the top brands is to get people to join and make at least one list. That's totally out of my control; I can invite people (which I have) but I can't make them join or make them create a list. I think there should be other ways to unlock the top brands, like once you get a certain number of optimized lists you could unlock a brand or two, at least I have some control over making a list that is good enough to be optimized. I also agree with Cat, we should be able to pick which brand we want to unlock. 

I also have a suggestion regarding list sections. I would like to see them list all of the section names at the top of the list, not just the first six sections. As it is now, they only show the first six sections and a very tiny down arrow that's easily missed and is supposed to indicate to click it to see the rest of the sections. If they can't show all of the sections at the top of the list, I'd appreciate it if they could at least make the arrow more visible and indicate there are more sections. Having sections makes it easier for people to navigate the list, so all of them should be visible at the top.

Another suggestion is regarding moving items into a section in the same list. Now it can only be done by dragging and dropping which can be extremely frustrating at times. A drop down menu where we can select the section would be really helpful.  

While this isn't a suggestion, I just want to say I really liked the little monthly wrap up video that tells you how you're doing and all that you've accomplished on Benable that month. It's really nicely done and is quite motivating. If you feel you want to pass that on to him, he may appreciate hearing that. 

One last thing: To anyone reading this—a shameless plug—if there's anyone left out there who hasn't joined Benable yet and wants to join and create at least one list, here's my invite code: https://benable.com/i/28877   Thanks in advance if you do, I really appreciate it.  And thanks Windy, for giving us the opportunity to provide feedback, I really appreciate it! 😊

[Windy]

These are good thoughts! I did not know the problem with only six sections showing. I will create a list with more than six sections so I can see for myself.  As for the drag and drop, for me, it's a dream. I am working on iPad when I do that. What is your platform when you experience that issue? 

[MaggieA]

I suggest they add links to their partners!
When I am in the Dashboard and looking at the different brand partners I see a long list but there are no links to the partner's website. That would be a great feature to have.
Example: I'm in Sweden and one brand was "August Berg" so I did a search for the name and it resulted in a lot of matches for a Swedish hockey-player with that name (it's a common person name in Scandinavia). Way down in the links I found a Danish company with that name making watches that I assume is the partner.

Also, since many of these brands I do not recognise so I want to look them up and find out more, like do they ship to my country? Most of they do not have physical shops here that I know of.

Will there be more worldwide partners? Even when I choose to filter that list to my own country there are a low percentage of businesses I recognise. Swedish people like to shop online but many like to shop from stores that send products from Sweden or Europe due to custom tariffs. Is there a way to suggest companies I would like to recommend so they could reach out to them?

Lastly, this must surely be a mistake, up to 1671% !!!

Edited to add: I would like to see an easy to find Benable about-page when I enter the site when logged in. Now I have to log out first.

[Windy]

Wow, I noticed the same. No links!  That's a fantastic suggestion, and I will definitely mention it.

[SaraO]

That's great you have an audience with them .

I would like to know how you can search for lists on Benebale - for example I was looking for suggestions of things to do in a town, but when I went back that list had gone, and there was no way to find it again, or similar.

Plus if possible how to separate into countries, alot of the links lead to shops that aren't in the UK, so I would like to search UK lists.

Anyway, goodluck with the call.

[AirTwin]

Do they have an Ai policy?

I haven't signed up yet, still reading at these threads about them.

[Windy]

My video conference was today and here is what I learned:

ISSUE: Dropdown list for lists with more  than six sections. Hard to see arrow pointing down to what follows the six sections.

RESPONSE: Founder said this is a valid concern, however, as most people will be viewing on mobile, the arrow thing will not be so much of an issue for the vast majority of people he calls "browsers". I am unclear as to whether they plan to make the desktop arrow a little more prominent. But I dummied up a list with 11 sections and tried looking on my phone. On the phone, it's not a problem at all. You see the top three sections, and then there is a prominent button for 8 more sections.

COMMENT: The monthly "wrapped" video is cool. This comes in email at the end of the month. 

RESPONSE: Founder really liked hearing that this is an appreciated feature. I mentioned I had been unaware of the video until DesertSky mentioned it. He said Benable needs to work on making it more obvious that this is a link to a video. 

ISSUE: Partners are listed but not with clickable links. 

RESPONSE: Benable is working on making those links clickable. I pointed out that it's hard to tell from Sweden, if the partners will ship to Sweden, and also the thing about the taxation in Europe. Founder said the partners themselves have opportunity fill in some boxes which gives information along those lines. Benable has 35,000 partners, so it's pretty much up to the partner to take the initiative to give a more complete picture of what they offer.

ISSUE: Chrome extension question pointed out above by @Cat 

RESPONSE: Founder said he would like to know more about how Cat accessed the extension and what kinds of messages she was seeing which stopped her due to privacy concerns. I can let Cat know how to email him if she wants to do that. But he did show me what he can see when someone accesses through the extension........ and said they really can't see anything other than the entire screen from which you are sharing a picture or whatever. I myself will try the Chrome extension at some point and if I see that kind of troubling message I will send the info along to the founder of Benable. 

ISSUE: Cat was also curious how people browsing the site react when they see the info which currently is geared towards encouraging visitors to make and share lists.

REPONSE: This is true at this time, due to the need to grow the site, but will change once more people know about Benable. The goal is to get something like 20 million creators creating the content, and to have something approaching a billion people browsing the site. Right now the focus is on getting more creators to join and therefore the pages that greet someone now are geared to that. Since December, the site now has considerably more reach than it did---counting some 3 to 4 times more reach. So things are going in a very good direction.

ISSUE: Hard to drag and drop an item into a new section. I told Founder that on my iPad, this works like a dream and that I had not yet heard back from the the person who pointed out this problem as to what platform she uses.

RESPONSE: Founder was surprised that things work so well for me on iPad, because they have not really optimized for iPad use very much. He wondered if that user ( @DesertSky  ) was accessing through Firefox. He said he could see drag and drop being an issue there.

ISSUE: Some of us, particularly women, want to not share our full name on the internet. In that case, how can we get verified? 

RESPONSE: This is not going to change. The entire idea of the site is to build trust, so it's important that the lists be generated by a real, verifiable, named person. 

ISSUE: What if we just want to share images, and there is no website? I pointed out that as a member of Postcrossing, I might like to share pictures of some of the cool postcards I receive, but that to put an item on a list, you have to first enter a website. 

RESPONSE: Founder says this is an issue that comes up upon occasion. It's easily solved by entering any website........which allows you to advance to the next panel. Later in the process, you can simply clear the website you had put in.

WHAT ELSE I LEARNED:

Benable will be scraping the site looking for dead links and will advise us of these so we can fix them. This is pure GOLD for Zazzlers because some of the products we promote will end up with what look like dead links after a number of months.  Pinterest seems to be chock full of dead links, for example. Benable has a way to counteract that.

Benable is currently working to have more badges above each list. So rather than just "optimized" there will also be a badge for "not yet optimized" and another for "nearly optimized".

Founder showed me the chrome extension and the app, and though I generally try to operate without those things, I will be trying both at some point.

One feature I thought was very promising is that when we put an item on a list, we will sometimes be notified if another company can make a better percentage deal for us and will have the opportunity to switch our list item to link to that better company. He mentioned Amazon sometimes will pay less than the full four percent if someone in our zip code buys something, because Amazon's algorithm will interpret that as the shopper being one of our friends or family. So in a case where you show an Amazon item, which can be bought somewhere else with a better percentage, we will be notified. 

Some of the intended features will take some time to materialize. Benable is free to use and will remain so. But there will have to be another big round of funding later this year. I asked how are the investors going to make money if the site will remain free. Founder said they envision paid options for the brands which will help the brands get more reach.

I probably will think of more info later, but I was only taking a few notes during our 45 minute video conference. We talked about all kinds of things! Thanks for providing some feedback and questions above. Tony really appreciated all the feedback I was able to pass on.

[Cat]

Hmmm... well, I'm not sure what getting verified means, but if it means that my full name needs to be available to the public then I'm out. 

@Windy If you want to pm me his email address, I'd love to explain to him why that's the case. I don't think he (and most men) realize what they're asking when they require that. If I publish my full real name, I'm essentially leading people directly to my front door. If my full real name was something like "John Smith" or even "Jane Smith" it would be one thing, but my full real name is unique, and all somebody would have to do would be a simple Google search and they'd have my address, phone number, etc. - along with all sorts of information about my life from my lists. Not safe. Not gonna happen.