A “wee” chat with the The Tea Lady about……

Credits/Points

Hello there, come into the kitchen and sit down.

I don’t have time to make a cuppa at the moment I’m sorry so here is a quick say so about credits and then I will tell you more next time ok.

Imagine this, an online community with its own Federal Reserve, Inland Revenue Service, US Mint and Fort Knox built into it.

If you are the type that likes to play with numbers and would like to design your very own community financial system, then this is exactly what you need I tell you.

The Social Networking Software the little sods here have built is really quite remarkable as this is exactly what they have built into it.

You can even become the Secretary of the Treasury and the Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

This allows you to set up how much you charge or pay members for almost everything they do, meaning every time they click on something, whether it is sending an email or just answering a question, someone pays someone.

You can also give credits/points to another member as a gift or reward.

You keep these credits/points in your community wallet.

These credits/points can also be used by members to buy and sell things in the community mall, members can also purchase them for real money.

A community currency is the key to creating a successful revenue-generating online community. It essentially allows you to charge for everything a member does!

Lets talk more about this next time though, I have to push on, its tea time.

Kindest regards,
The Tea Lady
Bye bye.

A chat with The Tea Lady about………..

Community Currency

Oh, gosh, there you are.

I didn’t see you waiting here in the kitchen for me, so sorry, let me put the kettle on so we can have a piece of me mums coffee sponge and a cuppa before we get started.

That’s better….. you know there is such a lot of commotion going on here at the moment, seems like the world is calling to know more about social networking services.

While I am in and out of everyone’s offices and cubicles I hear everyone talking on the phone about Facebook this and My Space that, you know those two sites don’t you? And what they do.

Connecting this person with that person and then this one finding someone they didn’t even know, I ask you, it is incredible isn’t it.

And how they have pictures and videos of everyone doing almost everything, it’s amazing.

Well anyway, this is what every day is like here because these social networking things are what they do here.

If you’ve ever been interested in starting your own online community or you already have one and are looking at how to upgrade to a more exciting and rewarding system, then pull up a chair and have a listen to me.

I don’t know about you but I know it is very important that when you are looking to have an online community it should resemble your physical community as closely as possible.

We all communicate online with everyone now through email, message boards, message walls, instant messaging and newsletters etc, and we can have our little groups or clubs of close friends as well, but have you ever thought what it would be like if you could have your own community currency?

You see the community system these little sods here have designed has its own Secretary of the Treasury, Federal Reserve, Inland Revenue Service , US Mint and Fort Knox built into it (it even has its own Police).

And just like in real life, these things are connected to every part of the community right down to everything you click on.

This system is designed with ”for profit” and “not for profit” websites and organizations in mind which I think is pretty clever.

With your own community currency (which are called credits/points), you can charge people for almost everything and even pay them for doing things.

A whole new thing to do online, this can not only be rewarding to you or your organization or club money-wise but it can also be a lot of fun.

You know if you wanted to, you could stretch your imagination and have some real community currency printed to share amongst your friends at real live social gatherings ha ha ha, when you think about it you could have a lot of fun with it.

Just think if you were an elk hunting community and you had a party where members actually attended you could charge two “bucks” for a beer ha ha ha, that is of course if you had a picture of a “buck” printed on this play money.

So when people join your community you can pay them for doing so, you can pay them for whatever information they give you about themselves and you can pay them for inviting friends or family to join.

Just think about it, when were you last rewarded for joining something on the internet, it doesn’t happen very often does it? And what if you got a recipe from the tea lady for joining, think about that one I ask you.

Whenever someone wanted to advertise something for sale they can be made to pay a fee using their community currency, or if they want to download a file or upload a photograph they can be made to pay a fee with it.

You can pay members for commenting on people’s photographs or for reading articles.

If someone runs out of money they can be restricted to everything that requires a payment to use or do.

Members can also give other members some or all of their points, like a gift or reward.

In the community store, people can earn credits when they purchase items, just like a real reward program.

For more ideas of what you could do, here are some chat room examples.

• You can set the number of times someone can talk if they don’t not have enough credits.
• You can set a new members ability to talk at all in the chat room. 
• Make people pay to have private one-to-one chats with other members.
• Have them pay to create private chat rooms.
• Allow only paying members to use Action commands or play chat games.
• Allow only paying members to have special chat room entrance and/or exit messages. 
• Even allow chat room moderators to pay the member’s for joining in the chats.

If you wanted to take it to the extreme you could have them pay with real money so they actually buy points to use within the community.

If you are involved in a charity this could be a great way to raise funds, charge $10 membership per month and members get 1,000 credits/points, but this is a whole cup of tea session on its own.

Now then, please let me know what you can think of to use these community credits on.

Anyway, I’ve got to go now as I’m making a real big pile of my old nanas potato scones tomorrow and I have to go and dig the spuds from the garden.

Kindest regards,
The Tea Lady
Bye bye.