Hi everyone,

It's been a pretty mad time with the WOMOW website now being live for two weeks.  Fortunately this hasn't un-earthed too many bugs - always a worry when you're going live with something for the first time! 

The take-up of WOMOW
So far we're very happy with the take up of WOMOW - which has been exclusively through our network of friends and family.  We've now reached almost 500 ratings - which I think is a pretty good effort.  I say "pretty good" because I guess the last couple of weeks have really demonstrated how important it is to get people passionate about the potential for word-of-mouth.  Almost everyone we speak to about WOMOW loves the concept, but going from that, to getting them to actually sit down and rate the businesses they've used recently is quite another matter.  I think for some people, the barrier is that they don't quite get it or can't quite imagine how it will work in practise.  Hopefully as the site gets more ratings and starts to become truly useful, these doubts will disappear.  But I think the real crux of the matter is that everyone is so darn busy!  So while the intention to contribute seems to be there, the reality of sitting down and entering a few ratings is something that is easily delayed.  Brad and I had a meeting at the end of last week and brainstormed some ideas for short-term incentives to motivate people to return to the site, and we've got a few ideas that we'll start implementing soon.

Having said that, lots of people have been enormously supportive of WOMOW and I'd like to thank them for both the ratings that they've entered, and for referring WOMOW to their networks of friends and family.  This really is a community website - for the community with content by the community - so we're thrilled that you guys are embracing it with gusto.

We've also received some really good suggestions for improvements to the site.  One of the changes we've already implemented is to reduce the amount of information we request members to add about businesses.  So instead of asking for a telephone number, address, website, etc, we now just have a big box where we ask for any information they know about the business.  This means more work for us (as we need to find the rest of the details and enter them), but hopefully more ratings in the long-term.

If anyone else has feedback (good or bad), we'd love to hear from you.

On a personal front
Personally, I've had a really busy week.  I'm now back at my MBA course 2 days a week.  After having quite a long break away from uni and with plenty of other things to do that I'm more motivated about, I seem to have shifted out of study mode.  Unfortunately I actually need to do some assignments soon so that will have to change! 

Paul and I have also been busy catching up with lots of different friends since coming back from Everest.  In fact I think we've only eaten at home two nights this week.  In a way that's good - means more businesses to rate on WOMOW!  One of these dinners was with the group of trekkers that came into Everest Base Camp with me.  Aside from Mum and Beck, I hadn't seen the others since they headed out of basecamp so it was great to catch up and reminise about our time in the Khumbu Valley together.  We even had Cas on the phone from the UK - so excepting Julia, it was a true reunion.

Although things are incredibly busy, I've just returned from a yoga class (followed by coffee and brekky with a friend) so I'm now feeling refreshed, focussed and ready for another week.  And yes, I'll be rating the coffee shop too!

Rating of the Week
To finish, I thought I'd start including a rating that has struck me as interesting / funny / or for some reason I've decided to share it with you.

This week's rating is by a friend of mine - Luke for Silver Poodle Clipping & Grooming Salon.  Luke writes;

"We have an English Cocker-Spaniel called Molly. We have a lot of trouble grooming her because she's really playful. The Silver Poodle does a good job of bathing, and clipping her. My wife always has lots of very specific instructions about the haircut and they always do exactly what she asks. She always looks good, smells good and seems happy afterwards...same goes for the dog :-)"

All the best,
Fiona