Shout a Ticker!

I am not too sure I like mention notifications. It seems odd to me the mentions I get. People post status updates of all of these tickers to go check out or buy. Well see, these lists are of people who tend to be leaders and loud, and well, how is there any point to that? 


How about we start shouting out some cool people or stocks for companies who have something to offer? People/companies you like, who are interactive and should maybe noticed more. Trust me, I am noticed a lot. And so are all those people I keep getting listed with. 


I don't know if listing me is supposed to be flattering, but you know, instead of grouping me in with a bunch of loudmouths, how about grouping me in with some of these stocks?




Let's start with (e)JUNKIE Cream Junkie is one of the first companies to offer rewards at Empire Avenue they deserve a hi. Why not check out their website?  They started a new twitter today as well. Maybe you should go follow them there.  I have already placed my order, I will get it this week :) All of my dealings with them so far have been fabulous. I can't wait to get my product. 
Cream Junkie Twitter
Website 

Next let's talk (e)BEAMDG another of the first companies to come on board with rewards. There is an article about them in the Edmonton  Journal today. I purchased the reward already, but haven't made a purchase there yet. I am a girl, bath stuff before video games :) 
Beamdog Twitter
Website
Facebook


(e)HAREDU Ben Harris has been an online friend of mine for a very, very long time. He is one of the smartest, nicest people I know. He has worked his ass off to make this company, he has a great following. If you need a dose of nerdiness and want to talk science this is the place to go. They make Reinventing Science Kits that are pretty cool and worth checking out. 
Reinventing Science Twitter
Facebook  


(e)PE Photevoke was one if the first stocks I encountered at Empire Ave. I love this site, I love the idea of it. I retweet them, I share them, I think it something that people should see. I LOVE Photevoke! 
Photevoke Twitter
Website
Facebook 

(e)VMOB Yes, I have already done a whole blog post on them, so you know the scoop. But you know I have this thing about indie pretty much anything. I am always going to support the little guys when I can, especially when their 'customer service' is amazing. If you interact and care and do things right, I think you more than deserve my loyalty. (e)VMOB has mine. :) I wish them the very best and hope that their web series does extremely well. Joe Wilson ROCKS!
Vampire Mob Twitter
Website
Facebook


(e)ELM I have to admit, I have not been to Elm Cafe yet. They tweet their specials every day and make me hungry. I hear all over twitter they have great food, and one of these days I will get off my butt and get there. 
Elm Cafe Twitter


(e)DINO I have been to Jurassic Forest twice already. I LOVE this place. There are pics all over my facebook and my Flickr. I want to go again! We don't get stuff this cool here. Someone spent very good money on this place. The land is pristine, the dinos are cool, it is priced well and I am floored by how awesome this place is. If you are in and around Edmonton, I highly recommend (e)DINO
Jurassic Forest Twitter 
Website 
Facebook

What stock have you encountered that gets overlooked? Maybe think of THESE people when you post your shoutouts. Make Empire Avenue a little more about what it is supposed to be.


-Fray

Rewards!!

We just got a blog post talking about the rewards stage opening for Empire Ave! (e)JUNKIE and (e)BEAMDG are offering discounts in trade for eaves! I am picking up some bath stuff from Junkie right now, looks like awesome stuff! So excited. What this can mean for businesses and players is really awesome. I can't wait to see where it leads!

Vampire Mob On Empire Ave

Somehow while I was talking about the Vampire Mob City Facebook game on Twitter Vampire Mob started following me. I found this funny and went and checked it out. This Vampire Mob is NOT a Facebook game!. I have to admit they are the best random follower I have ever had.


Vampire Mob is a web series about a guy who has become a Vampire and what that does to his family life. You see, his wife decides to bite her mother. The mother in law decides she is moving in. Forever.


It curses as much as I do, it is funny and refreshing, and I am completely addicted. The cast rocks: John Colella (CSI: NY, The West Wing), Reamy Hall (General Hospital, Bowfinger), Marcia Wallace (The Simpsons, The Bob Newhart Show), Kirsten Vangsness (Criminal Minds), Chris Mulkey (Twin Peaks, Boardwalk Empire).  It is created, written & directed by Joe Wilson


We are now on episode 2. In order to unlock each episode the previous one needs a certain number of views. If you are a friend on my Facebook, you have seen me post about this over and over again. I NEED Episode 3. I can't get to episode 3 unless you guys go watch episode 2! You should also watch episode one so you know what is going on. 


For your convenience they are here: They are only 6 minutes long BTW and curse better than my twitter feed on PMS week :)

Episode One





Episode Two





If you go to the website http://www.vampiremob.com/ and become part of the inner circle, there are perks. 


There is a fan page on Facebook and they are @VampireMob on Twitter. 


Why is this on an Empire Avenue blog? Well Vampire Mob is now on EAv. e(VMOB) 


I have been plugging this stock for a couple days, and this is why:

• Their twitter interaction is great! 
• They actually respond to their followers, ask us questions, retweet and get retweeted. 
• They have an active Facebook.
• They have a blog. 
• They already have this social media thing under control. 
• I like them and the series.

It is just a complete win to me. I highly recommend you check out the shows, follow on twitter, pick up some stock and say hi. You really won't regret it. 


  

Sell Pooka

Here is the thing, I love Empire Avenue. I think their team does a fabulous job at what they do. Yes, I get a little irate and ranty, but it is because I care.  I would also like to state, for the record, that my issues with the upgrades and what it was doing to my portfolio were brought to their attention, and not just thrown on a random place on the net. So when I get annoyed I am using my blog :P~~~

The last meetup was around when communities came out. I was whining about searching personal communities.I was told something about since there are secret communities, they couldn't do that. I hadn't heard of secret communities, and my gut reaction was "Why would we have secret communtiites on Empire Avenue? " Secret communities belong somewhere else.

Now that all of this other stuff has come out I will tell you one this. I 100% believe that sentiment.

I have to tell you I was invited to the Cabal when it started. I have no idea why. I took one look at the member list, to be honest, and left. I don't play like the people in there and didn't want to be associated with it. I don't even know who invited me, I don't know if they voted on me, I don't care, but I am going to make this clear, these are not values I believe in.

Not ANY exclusionary, elitist group.

My stand on communities is that they should be a water cooler place that people with the same interests get together and exchange ideas, find people they wouldn't otherwise, with the site growing so big.

What I do not want to see communities do, is create an atmosphere of who is 'in' and who is out. At this fledgling stage that Empire Avenue is in, I do not see how this is beneficial to the site. The focus should really be one of connecting, meeting people, improving your social media skills.

I do not believe it should be a group of people pushing each other up the boards because they are part of some exclusive club, recommending each other to make money, and improve their stock value. The focus of Empire Avenue is content. Maybe people should be focusing on their content and interaction skills.

I think people should keep in mind there are 1000's of people on this site. A lot of people to connect with. Of the people I have connected with and became friends with, I can tell you most would not be allowed in these clubs. I think this is where my issue is. If you want to concentrate on the power players and who is worth the most, you really aren't getting it.

I have no idea why exactly my stock is so high. Yes I tweet a lot. I have a lot of friends on twitter. I blog a little, I have stuff that wants to come out of my head. My Facebook is a crazy gong show. To be honest I love my Facebook sooo much more since I started Empire Avenue. I might drive a couple people crazy with it, but the feedback from my friends about how much fun my wall is blows my mind.

Should any of this put me in the 80 range? I don't think so. I see people who tweet more, have more followers, blog more. I do not understand why I am where I am, but I can tell you this. No one person or group put me there. I put me there, everyone put me there. I came to Empire Avenue, played with what to do on Twitter and Facebook to see how it affected my stock, yes. But this hard core player reputation I have is wrong.

If I recommend a buy, there is a valid reason for it. I am not pushing anyone so I make money. It is really a stock I think you should buy. I am going to read and comment on your blog because I enjoy your content. I am going to follow you on Twitter because you are someone I am interested in knowing more about.

Yeah I might buy and sell your stock. You will get used to it. Gambling on what someone's value is is the game to me. I bet 50 shares at 10 that you are going to rise. I pull out at 25 because that is where I think you will stop. Am I hard core about it? Newp. I was at the beginning when I needed those eaves, but now that I don't, I don't look. The only time I look to see what anyone is doing is when I need to go sell someone to buy another stock.

Quite frankly I am disgusted with the antics of the hard core players, and I would rather fall back to the middle. I would really like to be a 20 stock. I would rather be on Empire Avenue, and connect and enjoy myself. I really don't want anyone to think I am any part of that style of play.

I would really appreciate if you sold my stocks and dropped my value. Hard. If this is really what the Empire Avenue leader board is supposed to be about, I do not want any part of it. I want to enjoy the good things about Empire Avenue instead.

-POOKA

The Upgrade Landslide

So, I have been a little vocal, irate maybe about this luxury tax stuff. So, I thought I would show you this, just so you can see my side. I know a few people seem to think I am a whiner, but you know what happens when you are running at the top of the leader boards? Things happen to you first. I was mocked for the sell me messages when I would beg people to sell me, and now it is common to see them, common for people to ask for their shares back.
Want to see what happens when you spend the time and effort to make your portfolio make money, for people buying you? This:

That large spike at the end there is the refund I got for the price drop in upgrades. Even accounting for that, I would not make it back up to where I started before the upgrade.
So my stock price goes up, my portfolio gets decimated and never recovers. Is there really any point doing these stock upgrades really?
And now, because I am so good at making money, I am further penalized with a tax?
I guess I could run to the shady side and start group buying and smashing stocks for my own gain.. or I can bitch and be vocal.
If there is logic to this, I haven't figured it out. But I know one thing, if I had to do it all over again. I would absolutely not upgrade. No matter what I try to do here, it seems I just get screwed.

How Empire Avenue Improved my Twitter Experience

While writing about Empire Ave and twitter yesterday, I ended up on a huge tangent about what EAv has done for my twitter experience. I have decided it should be its own blog post. 

My cousin (PGNOME) made me join twitter YEARS ago, it was new and all cool, and well he is way geekier than I am. I just follow along and then kick his ass at facebook games. I looked at twitter, thought "this is STUPID" and didn't sign back in until Facebook took notifications away from Facebook games and they decided to move their notifications here. I had been piddling around with twitter for a week or two, following the odd celebrity and still not really getting it. Then I joined Empire Avenue.

What happened was my twitter follows grew. The people I was chatting with on Empire Avenue, started conversing with me on twitter. They introduced to me to other people and businesses I should be following that gave great content to my twitter stream. 

Now I could see the value in twitter. A light bulb went off and I understand twitter now, it is more of a great big pipeline of information you tap into, chat around, it is amazing. But you need that content to make it so. 

With Empire Avenue, I didn't feel stalkerish following people anymore. It wasn't scary to follow someone. It was a normal transition to go from saying hi, to following and tapping into the information they were sending. 

I could find local people to follow easily, I can see what they tweet and blog about on their Empire Ave profiles. I have a better understanding of who they are before I follow. 

Along the way, following those people, you find other people to follow with similar interests. People get retweeted into your stream, and you can go see what they are about. 

Now you aren't out there sending random tweets just to tweet. You are retweeting what you find interesting, talking to people, tapping in. 

I love my follow list. I am defensive of my stream. I love the information I get from it, and the people I talk to. I think this is why I get so upset when it gets all spammed up when people try to game it for points. 

Getting my face out there on Empire Ave made my twitter content a million times better. Now I don't even really care what my favourite celebrities are saying. I am actually caring about what is going on in my real life community. Kinda (hehe)


Edited to add, if you are new to twitter and Empire Ave you should add these to follow first:
@empireave
@bgrier 
@EvolveTom
@dups
@aaronkwhite

After Newbie Row

There have been a few posts out today about how to get jump started on Empire Avenue, getting your profile done and taking advantage of being on the Newbie board. My fave of course being from (DLB) You can catch it here. 

So now what? Well, you more than likely haven't been here for the crazy newbie bump that was happening. People would swarm in and buy lots and lots of shares in the new people, get their stock to rise and then sell them. This gave you lots of eaves to play with, but wasn't great for morale.

I will let you in on a secret. I started Empire Avenue about 2 days after the friends and family reset. No one had any money. I wasn't  even getting 50 share buys. It was 5 and 10 share buys all over. I couldn't really use Twitter yet. I had pretty much no twitter followers, no blogs, just a Facebook. And I climbed the boards. And I did it with very little eaves.

 If you can find the really old posts on (JOSH)'s blog,  in the comments you will find exactly what I was doing. He was one of the first people I began talking to on here. He wasn't talking AT me like a couple people were, telling me what to do, he was conversing WITH me, debating with me on his blog while we figured out portfolio strategy and how dividends worked. We didn't even follow each other's advice. He did his thing and his stock picks and I wandered around doing my own thing. We have just hit it off since day one. 

I started exploring the site, and the people. I read their blogs, said hi, had conversations with them. I bought a few shares in the new people. I stayed away from the leader board. I couldn't afford them. 10 shares in a new person beat 1 share in a leader. Those new people were stuck too. They bought you back, they said hi and they are still the ones I talk to on my twitter, the ones I have connected with the most. 

I didn't have a huge amount of money so I spread myself out to as many circles as I could. We didn't have communities yet. I would suggest joining a couple communities, saying hi and joining conversations. Join too many communities and you don't know what is happening in any of them. 

I would also start checking out people's twitter streams when you are buying them. If a person has very few followers, they probably need some. Follow them, say hi and start a conversation. Show them around twitter and both your stocks rise. Simply following people to get followers won't help you much. Try to say hi and learn a bit about them. 

I also paid attention to what my stocks were doing, I flipped stocks, watched dividends and made my portfolio work for me. A lot of people still don't get it, but selling is part of empire avenue. Holding stocks in people is a luxury. You have to work on your portfolio a bit to make the eaves for the upgrades. 

Holding stocks and buying leaders are best saved for later. Trust me, if you are a good stock, and you are rising and making me money, I am going to buy you whether you buy me back or not. I don't even expect it. I would honestly rather you go buy 8 new people instead, get some buy backs and get your stock up than come and invest with me, go broke and get frustrated. I am making money off your stock, you owe me NOTHING. 

However, you are more than welcome to come say thank you, come check out a blog, comment on it, say hi on twitter, whatever, but don't feel you have to buy me. I am doing just fine. Making those kind of connections is honestly going to get you father up in stock price. You will get more twitter followers conversing with you, more profile views and comments, and you will appear more in the headline feed so other people will come look and see if they should be buying you too. 

I think a lot of the coverage really undervalues the connections you make on Empire Avenue, and it breaks my heart a little. It is really what I have loved the most about the site. I am interacting with so many people I never would have and learning so many things. The things you can do with it if you have a business are mind boggling. But first you have to understand it and not play it just to play it. Once you get past the game step and step into the connecting world, you have already won the game. And your stock price will reflect it.