BiggerPockets Founder's Blog

Notice Anything Different About the Dashboard?

We just launched the first incarnation of the All New BiggerPockets Dashboard!

Some of the most important improvements of the Dash Include:

• The most used functions on the site are now found easily on the left of the Dashboard in an easy to use toolbar.
• Important website news and updates are all easily visible below the important functions
• Logging: Members can now track the activity of their colleagues on the site. See what your colleagues are commenting on, posting to the site, etc!
• Latest forum posts: Members can see the most recent forum activity directly from the DASHBOARD to help you find interesting topics more easily.
• A New Function Bar: The gray dropdown function bar at the top of the DASHBOARD makes finding what you want on BiggerPockets easier then ever!
• Notifications Box: At the top right of the DASHBOARD will appear all NOTIFICATIONS that require your attention, including Reference Requests, Colleague Requests and Private Messages.

These are just some of the many improvements.  Of course, we've got a bunch of great new features that we'll be adding to the dashboard in the next few days.

 Stick around and check back often!

I thought I'd let everyone know that we're currently working on rebuilding the entire DASHBOARD to help members easily find the most commonly used items, and to enhance the user experience on the site.  The new layout should improve usability, big time!

Additionally, we're adding some features to the DASH so you can better keep up with what your colleagues are doing on the site. 

Thanks for all of the suggestions and we hope you're also excited by the changes to come.

 Stay tuned . . . we're close to launch!

Many of you may not know that BiggerPockets has a system to allow members to take private notes on other members and on property listings.

That's right, Your Notes are PRIVATE!

Your notes are viewable ONLY BY YOU!

Taking notes on other members is a great way to stay organized, to remind yourself of conversations or discussions, etc.  Essentially, notes allow members to keep a virtual file on those people that they come into contact with on BiggerPockets!

Here's how BiggerPockets Notes Works:

1 - Find Notes Tab on a member's profile and click on ADD NOTE

 2 - A dialogue box will ope, allowing you to create a note.  Write your note and then save it, or cancel if you don't want to.  Notes can be deleted at any time.

3 - After saving the note, you'll see it every time you open the user's profile and view the NOTES tab.  Additionally, notes can be viewed from within the DASHBOARD by clicking on the NOTES tab on the sidebar.

See View from the DASHBOARD below.

That's it!  As you can see, creating notes is an easy way to remember things about other members on the site.

BTW - You can also take notes on ANY property listing on the site.

Questions?

Over the past 2 days we've rolled out a set of AWARD BADGES for those members who are amongst the top contributors to our forums, blogs, blog comments, bulletins, referrals, etc. 

Here are a few of the badges you could qualify for:

Top Poster

Top Poster this Week

Top Poster This Month

And here's how it would look on your profile:

So, get active and you can end up being one of the top contributors to BiggerPockets and get your profile blinged out with awards!

As many of you know, we recently launched a Stats page that highlights the leaders within the BiggerPockets Community.  Part of that page shines a light on those members who are the Top Referrers to the site.

 We highlight those members who are the top referrers of the week, month, and all time.

 Getting to the top of the charts in this category is currently pretty easy, and a great way to get some increased exposure for you and your profile.  Here's how:

How to Refer New Members for FREE Exposure

There are 3 ways to get referral credits for letting new members know about BiggerPockets.

1. Use the INVITE link found across the site to send an individual invite.  Just enter your friend or colleague's Name and Email address in the form and once they sign up (they will get an email with instructions on joining), you get credit for the referral.

2 - Use the REFERRAL LINK on the INVITE page.   Just copy and paste the REFERRAL LINK from the INVITE page into an email and send it to your friends ad colleagues.  If they sign up using that link, you'll get credit for the referral once they sign up.

You can also use this link on your Blog, Forum Signature on other sites, etc.  These two methods are great ways to bring eyeballs to BiggerPockets and give you all the credit!

3 - IMPORT your contacts from Gmail, Yahoo mail, or Hotmail.  From the INVITE page, you'll see a tab labeled IMPORT CONTACTS, which allows you to import all of the people in your addres book to the site.  This feature allows you to import all of your colleagues in one fast shot.  As in the other methods, once your contacts sign up, you'll get credit.  NOTE: We never store any login or password information entered from your accounts.

FYI - The third tab on the invite page allows you to track those invites that you've imported from #3 above.  You can elect to resend an invite or delete it.  

We'll soon be adding Badges on member profiles and on different areas of the site that highlight those members who are the top referrers and others who appear on the stats page. 

Get started referring people to BiggerPockets.com today and get a head start on your new found exposure!