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#EmpireAvenue

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• Missions are separate from shareholder mail (though you can send a mail alongside/attached to the mission).
• There will be a public mission board to see which players are doing missions (however you must still own shares to participate).
• The iframe will “kind of” go away. If you link to a site known not to work in iframes like YouTube then the iframe will go away.

1. What made you guys decide to add missions to a stock market game?

Empire Avenue is more than a Stock Market Game, in fact it is an engagement platform which happens to have a social stock market powering the economy. We didn’t really ‘decide to add’ them; Shareholder Missions were the natural ‘next-step’ in the development of Empire Avenue as an engagement platform. It is this central economic engine which empowers people to incent their shareholders to complete specific activities and further participate in a global online economy. Empire Avenue Missions Engage and Reward your connections!

2. What made you decide to split up missions and shareholder mail?

In order to expand Missions to everyone (which will be soon, though we really want to make the base system as tight as possible), it became clear during our two-month testing that as more people launched Missions, the Shareholder Mail feature became more cluttered and harder to work with. By exposing Missions to everyone (you still need to be a Shareholder to participate in Missions) we’ll alleviate some of that clutter and restore the prominence of Shareholder Mail. Shareholder Mail is an important tool for you to communicate with your Shareholders and not just related to Missions. In fact this allows you to potentially send a couple Shareholder Mails about the same Mission during the Mission’s lifetime.

3. Besides splitting up missions/mail and adding a public mission area are there any other notable changes or features we should look for?

Workflow streamlining. Though we have a very high average daily time spent of 25 minutes, your time is important on Empire Avenue and, we want youto spend more time doing the things that matter to you. Many of our recent and upcoming changes reflect this vision and a fairly labour-intensive study of how you all use our platform. You can see a great example of where this works well in the Feed / Blog endorsement section of the Connections tab. These changes are small, and sometimes timeconsuming for us, but they make a big impact on your day on the Avenue!

4. Will you be able to comment and like missions still?

Absolutely! We’re going to have the same commenting, liking and subscribing as in Shareholder Mail. There is one difference. If you link a Shareholder Mail to a Mission then any discussion on the Mission happens in the Mission area so we don’t split any valuable discussion. And remember all this social proof of likes and comments adds to your value on both Empire Avenue and the overall online economy!

5. What has been the biggest complaint regarding shareholder missions so far?

We have received great constructive feedback as part of the initial beta of Missions and we are taking these comments and suggestions into account on further iterations of Missions.

6. Will you be getting rid of the iframe?

I assume you are talking about the iframe we place your content in when someone clicks on completing a Mission? We have improved it somewhat and removed it in instances that we know iframes will not work. For example, currently YouTube.com prevents browsing in an iframe, those services will not be placed into an iframe.

7. What’s the most creative use of missions you’ve seen so far?

One member gave away copies of his eBook and solicited reviews via Missions. Another is the EAvCares Charity Water project that’s currently secured drinking water for 31 people in need. Awesome, real-world stuff.

8. Can you tell me numbers about the average number of missions per day, reward amount, and number of rewards?

Heh *lots*. But we’re not going into specifics at this point.

9. Do you have any other major features or changes to missions scheduled for the future?

Filters, targeting, improved tracking and segmentation — some of those are a ways off though.

10. How will the new missions affect earnings? (I know I can’t get the recipe but what sort of actions if any will have any impact on earnings?)

Missions will have no additional impact on earnings, beyond the collateral activity people do when they complete missions (tweet, blog, etc). Do also realize that we are working on how to reward those who create good, well-liked missions. This maybe additions to your Share Price through appropriate changes to your Empire Avenue Network Score!

11. What’s the best way for people to provide feedback on missions?

If you like a Mission, tell the owner! They’ll love to hear your feedback and it’ll encourage them to do more. If you have a challenge or problem with the way missions work (technical, workflow, etc) let us know through the Helpdesk (http://www.empireavenue.com/support )

My post on the changes to Empire Avenues dividend structure produced a lot of questions. I noticed there were a lot of misconceptions on what networks determine your dividend payouts and what else affects those payouts. I present to you the top 5 myths about Empire Avenue dividends:

1. Your top five network scores determine which networks pay dividends.

Your top five social network scores determine your price, not earnings. This may be the biggest misconception people have about Empire Avenue. I repeat: Your top 5 network scores only determine your price, not your earnings.

Don’t confuse earnings and dividends. Earnings are produced by your activity for the day. Your posts and the comments, likes, and RT’s of those post determine your earnings. The amount of earnings an individual network can produce is capped. The cap raises as your shares outstanding increase. This is what helps your dividends scale with your price. Everybody has the potential to produce the same earnings on a given network as anyone with the same earnings cap as them (similar totals of shares available and outstanding).

Network scores are applied after earnings have been calculated. This is what determines your dividend payout. Two people that produced the same earnings on a given network will pay out different amounts in dividends based on their respective network score.

2. The quality of your portfolio affects the value of your stock and/or number of dividends produced.

Many people are under the impression that they must keep a very tight portfolio in order to keep their own scores up and produce higher dividends themselves. Neither the value of your portfolio nor your return on investment have any afffect on your own scores whatsoever. The primary reason to earn more is so you can invest in more people and spread your network. That will organically increase your numbers by creating buy backs and conversation.

3. Making comments produces earnings.

Your activity on others channels is not measured. – Brad(EAv dev)

Commenting may or may not raise your network score. My jury is still out on that one. But it doesn’t produce any earnings whatsoever. All comments give credit to the person that initiated the conversation. The logic is that the person initiating conversations is the “influencer.” This shouldn’t discourage comments.  A lot of people tend to buy people that engage with them and are more likely to comment on what you do.

4. I had a huge day yesterday but my network score went down, my earnings were down, or my daily average went down so things must be broken.

First know that your dividends and price can not go up every single day. That is assuming that every single day in your life is your “best day.” It’s not realistic so don’t worry if anything goes down a bit.

Network score declines and daily average decline after a huge networking day can both be explained the same way. Both the scores and average dividend are determined over a time period. Lets say you had a period of time where your network activity was huge. Then there was a small period of time it was way below your average (may on vacation a few days). Then you return and your earnings go up, but maybe just a little below where they had  been (it takes time to get back into things after a vacation after all). Well when that period of huge activity falls off the time table for scores and dividend averages it leaves you with the lower than average period and the period of good but not as good. When you produce one huge day of earnings things may look worse the next day because it wasn’t enough to offset everything else.

Now lets say you are active on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Instagram, and Foursquare. One day you get 100 comments on a post in Facebook and you usually get 10. But the next day your earnings are down despite the big Facebook day. What probably happened is you were inactive on one of your other 5 networks. Remember earnings are capped so after a certain amount of activity on a given network it doesn’t count as much. A huge day on one network and a bad day on another network may offset each other. If the network you had a slow day on has a higher network score than the one you had big engagement day on it may even offset it and cause you to produce lower dividends than usual.

5. Dividends come from your top five earning networks plus EAv

Empire Avenue is a social network. Therefore when they say “top 5 networks” that includes Empire Avenue. If you are not active on Empire Avenue or just buy a stock or two a day then it is probably not included in your top 5 for dividend payouts. The advantage to being active on Empire Avenue is it can act like a catalyst to other networks since you have so many easily accessible. This means making a good connection with someone on Empire Avenue can have a larger impact across multiple networks than meeting someone on Facebook or Twitter.

I know you just thought up about 50 more questions based on this. Please let me know whatever questions you may have and I’ll continue to follow up and inform. If you have any information that conflicts with anything in this post please share it so I can look into it and update my post if necessary.

Empire Avenue felt their dividend algorithm was to easy for spammers to exploit and recently changed it up. I used to be the #1 earning influencer in the US., now it’s Chris Pirillo. To me it makes sense that he should be there over me (I know you probably disagree but it’s ok, he’s a cool dude). This suggests to me the changes are having the proper effect. Remember: We are all affected by these changes. Even if we don’t like them we are still on the same playing field and all under the same system. If everyones divs go down together has anything really “changed?” 

Here’s what you need to know about Empire Avenue dividends:

Reactions are more important

Across the board comments, likes, shares, and other responses to your activity have increased in earnings potential. Meanwhile posting has activity has remained constant or declined based on the network.

How it affects your dividends: If you send out a massive stream of garbage no one likes your divs are going to go down a lot.

Dividends are more heavily affected by network scores

Lets say an individual with a Twitter score of 25 produces 50 in earnings from Twitter. The same day someone with a Twitter score of 50 produces 50 in earnings from Twitter. Theoretically the second guy will produce twice as much in dividend payouts from Twitter as the first guy.

How it affects your dividends: If you have a low score then you are probably producing a lot less dividends from that network than you used to. Focus on growing the size of your network if you want to increase it’s score and dividends.

Only 5 networks produce dividends

Previously dividends were paid from every network active that day. The more networks you had hooked up the more you could produce. This wasn’t fair as someone that had a huge community on 1 or two networks couldn’t produce as much earnings as those that spammed every single network. Now dividends are based only on the 5 highest earning networks that day (not the networks with the highest network scores).

This reduces stress as well as spam exploitation. You only have to focus on 5 networks rather than trying to keep up with every single one.

How it affects your dividends: Previously I maintained high activity on FB, pages, EAv, Twitter, Flickr, Blogs, 4sq, and Instagram. That means I was creating earnings from 7 networks. These earnings were all used to calculate my dividends. With recent changes 3 of them got cut off. Of course cutting out 3 networks had a huge impact in my dividend payout. If you were active on over 5 networks then you most likely saw a pretty large hit to your dividends.

Blog posts got nerfed (effectiveness reduced)

You used to be able to crank out 100 posts through various ways and really crank up your dividends. Now there is a very minimal flat amount associated with it. If you are active on 5 networks it probably won’t even come into play (LinkedIn pays the same way). It’s really just a backup in case you are active on fewer than 5 other networks.

How it affects your dividends: If your blog posts produced a lot of earnings, or are in your top 5 for activity, then you get a big hit to dividends.

Flickr and YouTube uploads got nerfed

Uploading 200 pics to Flickr and 5 videos a day to YouTube produced a lot of earnings. Now the actual uploads produce much less and comments and favorites produce much more.

How it affects your dividends: If you don’t get any comments on what you upload you are wasting your time. Rather than upload 200 pics try and get comments/faves on a few.

Twitter calculations updated

Previously earnings were more or less based on how many tweets you could broadcast and ignored RT and replies. The new system gives credit to people engaging with you rather than just being based on how loud you are.

How it affects your dividends: If you tweet 100 times per day and get little to no replies or RT you are probably getting hit here. If you tweet 10 times per day but get a ton of replies and RT then you might be seeing an increase in dividends.

There are essentially 2 formulas that calculate your dividends.

1. Earnings calculation – The first formula looks at all your network activity and adds up the “earnings.” Earnings are based on posts as well as responses to those posts (likes/RT/comments/etc.)
2. Dividend Calculation – Only the top 5 earning networks for the day are taken from the earnings. Then the network scores are applied to the 5 top earning networks to determine the weighted dividend.

I’ve determined these items from my experience, discussing things with other influencers, and the blog post from Empire Avenue developers about the dividend changes. After a little more analyzing I will report on efficient ways to produce quality dividends under the new earnings system. In the meantime please let me know if I missed anything or have any incorrect statements. Until then I leave you with a dividend tip: Instagram.

After settling down thinking about the changes I believe most of them are going in the right direction. However, anytime you change an established system it’s going to create backlash. Case in point: Facebook. Every time it changes I hear, “I want the old Facebook,” and I reply, “Which one?”

Empire Avenue’s problem is not the changes to their system, but how they have handled those changes. #EAv has 2 finicky groups:

• Gamers
• Social Media Nuts

Gamers like to win. When a system changes it throws their game off and they are no longer winning. This makes gamers unhappy. However, gamers are used to changes and will accept them, assuming they are handled correctly. Games get updates and patches frequently. But when they do the developers divulge a lot of specific information so the gamers know what to prepare for.

Social media nuts want to grow their networks. In the old system your divs made you a rock star investment. If the changes make you look like a worse investment then fewer people will invest driving your value down. Now you’re in a downard anti-social spiral and everything seems like a waste of time. (This is the category I fell under for a while, but don’t worry I’m out of it now)

Empire Avenue straddles a fine line between game and social network tool. A game needs to be transparent so the players understand what is going on. A social network tool needs to be classified to maintain professional integrity. Changes must address both of these concerns as well as the concerns of gamers and super engagers. A company needs to have open and responsive communication with it’s users.

The developers recently made a step int he right direction. When they posted an article discussing all the recent dividend changes. Hopefully we’ll see more of this type of communication as the game continues to improve. What do you think about everything that has gone on recently on the Avenue?

I’m impressed.

Sharon played Empire Avenue but deleted her account to focus on a major project. When she finished the project she returned. To help her get even more momentum I sent out a shareholder mail telling everyone she was now back and available. I told my shareholders about her numbers before she quit and that I expected them to double their money by the end of the week. She gained 22 new investors in less than 10 minutes. Her price went up almost 2 eaves in about 20 minutes. Fortunately she kept me honest and more than doubled by the end of the week.

The first thing you must have is a goal. There are many things that can be accomplished. Here are some goals I have gone after with my mail:

• Get traffic to a blog post.
• Get comments on a blog post.
• Help a friend promote their ebook or other product.
• Help a friend sell shares.
• Get people to join your #EAv community.
• Get people to tweet out a link to an event or something special.
• Get people to follow/friend/like etc. on other social networks.
• Create new partnerships for guest blogs and affiliate promotions.
• Simply get likes/comments on the mail
• Enhance engagement with your shareholders

The trick to a successful shareholder mail is simple: provide value. A while ago I started the #EAv lottery. I give away up to $50 to Amazon every 2 weeks based on the number of shares they own. Of course people love to win money so they bought me up. When the first Empire Avenue Lottery winner was drawn I actually posted who it was in a blog post so I could get traffic to my blog. Then I wrote a mail that was titled Lottery “Winner and Tips.” I started the mail by telling people a few things I do to increase my dividends and connect on #EAv. People clicked on the link because they wanted to see if they won. I got traffic by A)providing tips and B)giving away money.

Not everyone is doing this for a business though so giving money doesn’t make sense for most players. I continue to conduct the lottery but I have done several other incentives to create a successful mail.

• Ask people to leave a link to a blog post, video, or photo they would like a comment on.
• Commit to buying shares if someone comments, tweets, or does something else you would like them to do.
• Ask people to leave links to a social network sites so you can make sure you are following them.
• Simply provide tips for playing Empire Avenue or links to articles that you find helpful.

1. Go to your portfolio view
2. Decide how you would like to sort your portfolio
3. Paste this funny looking line of code in the navigation bar: javascript: psearch_cursor(‘portfolio’,50, ‘normal‘)

As that is written it will take you to your standard portfolio view and show you numbers 50-100. You can change the number to anything you like. For instance if you need to go to the last page, and you have 175 shareholders, you would put 150 instead of 50. That takes you to numbers 150-200 on the list.

You can also use this for any portfolio view by replacing the word ‘normal’. Here is a list of words that can be placed there and the type of portfolio view it corresponds to:

• last_trade = this sorts from highest price to lowest price
• change_desc = this sorts by the largest shareprice gainers
• change_asc = this sorts by biggest losers of the day
• daily_earnings = this sorts by the highest earnings for that day
• shares_owned = sorts by the amount of shares you own
• dividend = sorts by highest dividend for the previous day
• purchase_time = sorts from last trade you made to the very first

There are several reasons you would need to use this trick. I use it to find the worst earnings shares I own by sorting by earnings and going to the last page. If you know any other portfolio tricks I would love to hear them.

For more ways to make Empire Avenue more efficient check out 5 tips and tricks for Empire Avenue

This week is a special giveaway. Two weeks ago I drew a winner that won $25. I promised to do a bonus drawing last Monday, but my wife surprised me with a vacation. Therefore I’m doing two drawings of up to %50. And guess what, the previous winner never claimed the prize! So there is a third drawing for a set $25!

If you haven’t checked out my other Empire Avenue articles I encourage you to do so. I have tips on how to play, increase divs, and even market your business.

And the winners are:

Naomi Shapiro (e)NAOMI

Eran Bair (e)ERAN

Consolation winner:

Wayne Mah (e)TICKER

The next drawing will be Monday, August 15. Congratulations to this drawings winners.