Empire Building is switching to a new blog site with expanded capabilities.  You can now find us at EmpireBuilding.net    

Look for new features and content in the near future.  In the meantime, please excuse the construction as we get everything switched over.  Tumblr is not really supported for importing all the posts here.

We`ll keep the existing content here for anybody that has linked to it.  However, we are copying everything over and all new content will be on the new site. Tumblr was a great home while we got started, but time to really get building that empire.

Cheers, Bill Pitcher.

I am seeing a number of messages on the Empire Avenue site and on Twitter about people debating the future of Empire Avenue or their future on the site.  Some people wonder if it has enough in it to keep them engaged over a longer-term or if it requires too much effort for what is gained.  Certainly, I think it can be disheartening if you put a lot of work into raising your share price only to watch it slip away because you had to go out of town or you had family obligations.  Plus, there is not that many people using the site.  This limited audience reduces the value of social networking.

Next, the challenge ahead…
While I believe that Empire Avenue is going to get better every week, I think it is going to be some time before it reaches even half of its potential.  The Empire Avenue team have come up with a great concept, and they have been working night and day to realize it.  However, they are creating both a major game site with the stock simulation and a social networking medium.  Two major tasks.  I could develop a long list of features I want to see here, but I know my list would only be a fraction of what the founders have already put on their wish lists.  Building the Empire Avenue platform is going to take time.  As (e)Dups and others like to remind us — ‘That’s why it’s still in beta.’

So, what does all this mean for us?  The short answer is we will have to be patient.  As I said, it will get better.   Most importantly, don’t let it get you down or frustrate you.  It’s not the perfect networking platform yet.  Nor is it the perfect gaming platform.  I have invested time into developing this blog site, but I realize that Empire Avenue may never realize its potential.  It is because of that incredible potential though, that I was prepared to take this chance.  So, find the level of activity that is right for you, and remember despite any challenges you might have with the site, you are miles ahead of the people that will join in the coming months.  Don’t let it get you down.  It’s only fake money.  What’s cool is at some point, there may be real money at stake.  Imagine the place then?

What do you think?  Are you prepared to stick with it while Empire Avenue develops?  Has your opinion changed over time?

Until Empire Avenue converts our new site to a Blog feed listing, we are going to keep posting here too.

If you have been reading these blog entries, you know that we like interesting headlines here at the Empire Building network.  Today’s, however, might have you really scratching your head if you cannot remember this (somewhat) famous stock-related movie line.  The line was used by Charlie Sheen’s character in the movie Wall Street.  Blue Horseshoe was a code used to give others like those in the media a tip that someone was going to be making a move on a particular stock.  When Blue Horseshoe loved something, it was going up.

Next, the hot tips of Empire Avenue…

You may have noticed that there are stocks on Empire Avenue that respond as if someone just shared a hot tip with the world.  Indeed like in the movie, there may be people working together behind the scenes to buy it.  It does not really matter. If a stock starts to look hot, we all pile on.  The bigger the initial play, the bigger we seem to pile on.  So, watch for the movers in the recent arrivals list and check out Nelson Munoz’s great blog, Recent Empire, for tips on new members of Empire Avenue.

If you really want to score a fast win, keep refreshing your Portfolio Headlines page and watch for an investor buying a least a hundred shares of someone.  If you are good and fast, you can also buy the stock before it goes up from the big purchase.  I have done this a couple of times now and have watched a stock price as a big buy was made to see the timing of the rise.  Adriel Hampton has a video discussing follow-on buys at his site, Game Mechanics.

Of course, things ended badly for Charlie Sheen’s character in Wall Street, but he was breaking the law.  There is nothing preventing you from benefiting from a fast moving stock.  Just remember, fast rising stocks can also lead to fast falling stocks.  Do not forget about the importance of also picking stocks with long-term value.

We already have a long tradition of Monday morning not being our favourite time in the week.  For those of us trading in the world of Empire Avenue, most of us now have another reason to grumble.  It’s pretty generally known that Empire Avenue is quieter on the weekends.  Our stock prices and portfolios tend to take a hit.

Next, how to bounce back…
The first thing to remember is that the week will give you lots of opportunity to bounce back.  Many people are in the same boat as you.  So, do not get discouraged.  You just need to get out there and start networking.  Here’s a a quick list of small steps to get you back in the groove:

1. Find a number of new and existing people in your portfolio to buy small amounts of stock from.  Your goal here is not investing, it is networking. Hopefully, a number of them will buy you back providing you with cash for more purchases.  If you are running short, sell a consistently under-performing stock.
2. Follow people and let them know.  Add people on Empire Avenue, but also add them on Twitter.  I add them to an EmpireAve list as well (a nice touch).  Then let them know that you have done all this.  It looks impressive in a single message.  You might also endorse a blog and offer to add them on Facebook.  Of course, if you are buying a few shares, it is even better.
3. Write something — anything.  Whether it is on Twitter, Facebook, your blog or the site itself share something, anything about your thoughts on Empire Avenue.  This could be a comment on your degree of success; what you like about it; an interesting message you got; a funny profile you read. It doesn’t have to be poetry — just make it genuine.
4. Find five people that you are either going to compliment or ask a question of about their work or their interests.  Have discussions because there are lots of interesting people on Empire Avenue.
5. Focus on the interacting not on your stocks.  Judging from all the amber and red stocks in my ticker this morning, including my own, it is natural to take a weekend hit.  So, do not worry about it.  Give your attention instead to interacting with people.  Make that your goal and intend that you are going to have fun doing it.  The cool thing is your numbers will improve along the way.

The bottom-line is that Empire Avenue is intended to be a game and a networking site.  So, make the start of the work week about the networking.  There is always time to be a cut-throat stock trader later.

Up until yesterday, I had been planning on writing about the fact that I was focussed on my shareprice and not on my wealth.  I really had not given much thought to developing a strategy maximize my dividends earnings.  Then, a funny thing happened.  Yesterday, I topped the earnings charts.  Given that I had not focused on this, I was definitely surprised.  My key to my earnings was not nearly as obvious as my dividend payouts.

To create dividends for others, you must be active networking on the site and through your connected social media.  That’s why my dividend payouts to my investors are high.  The fact that the dividends I am receiving are also high means I have invested in people quite active on Empire Avenue.  Again, I had not set out specifically to do this, but another one of my strategies had this happy side effect.

I have written previously about how you want to buy from those that are active and sell those that are not.  I was focussed on their share price in this regard. However, their dividends are even more effected.  So, you will get a double financial benefit in supporting active members.  However, people’s activity levels are not the only thing that will effect how much you receive in dividends.

The system calculates how active someone was and awards them a total dividend value.  You will receive a piece of this pie.  How big your piece is depends on what percentage of the total outstanding shares you own in that person.  This is called Dividend Percentage in the portfolio listing.

These percentages is where things get interesting.  As far as I can tell, someone new can basically make the same activity earnings as someone on the top of the leader board here.  I haven’t seen change in my activity credits in the time I have been here.  However, someone new might have a thousand shares bought by other people (outstanding) while someone atop the leader board might have 12,000 shares sold to others.  If you owned 100 shares in each case, you would get 10% of the dividends of the new person, but only 0.8% of the dividends of the more established person.

So, when it comes to dividends, two strategies are called for.  First, invest in people with proven activity records on the site.  (People like me.)  However, you also need to be looking for new arrivals that seem serious about Empire Avenue.  New arrivals are riskier, but there payouts will be much higher for you when you pick a winner (not to mention the return from a rising share price).  

Dividend payouts are the third way to make money.  First, you collect achievement credits, then you make money when the share prices of your investments rise. Next, you need to make sure you are taking advantage of that third way. By balancing your portfolio with proven veterans and promising rookies, you can join me at the top of the Earnings Leader Board. 

I have already been asked a couple of times what I did to earn my investors so much money this week.  The short answer is that beyond the fact that we are rewarded for almost all of our social interactions, I don’t know. The folks at Empire Avenue wisely don’t want us to know exactly what is in their secret sauce. This way we have to focus on genuine interaction and not some machine like responses designed to juice our results.

Anyway, I haven’t tweeted the most.  I don’t have six RSS feeds hooked up.  I only use Facebook once or twice a day. Many people have me beat on all these fronts.

I do post to this blog a couple of times a day, but others do the same with theirs. I try to do a bit of everything, and that probably gives me a bonus.

My understanding though is that Empire Avenue is not just about how much you say, it’s also about how much gets said back to you and by whom.  The more people that you engage in real two-way conversations the better.  If those people are also very active on the site, I believe you also earn more influence.  It’s better to have Empire Avenue’s equivalent of Oprah write you than the local morning show human-interest story guy.

Two-way conversation is where I think that is where I think I excel here.  I really am a Chatty Cathy.  I also try to leave people comments and the like that elicit a response. I often ask people something about themselves when exchanging shoutouts. (For example, you will notice this blog post ends in a question.)  This quest for real dialog is both something that comes naturally to me and something I cultivate.  After all, real conversation is so much more interesting than the typical online small talk.

So, let’s have a conversation.  I tend to be interested about almost everything. Tap into whatever activity credits you get from my influence score.  What would you like to discuss?

Why did you sign up for Empire Avenue?  You might be one of those people that loves to share everything with your friends and this is just one more place to do it. Alternatively, you have may have seen an opportunity to build your business and expand your work-related social network.  If you have a friend that is addicted to the competitive game aspect of the site, you might have joined just to find out what they were ‘on about’.  Indeed, you may have thought EA sounds like a great game yourself.  I imagine for many of us there was a combination of factors that led our joining with most just thinking EA was worth checking out.

Like a bunch of people, I first learned about Empire Avenue from an article in Mashable.  I am a big fan of Mashable and a regular reader of their Spark of Genius series that profiles interesting new online startups where EA was featured.  I actually have been thinking about a Foursquare type app where users would participate in a competitive game type scenario to make their favourite hangouts more valuable.  I was familiar with the Hollywood Stock Exchange (HSX.com) and even gave thought to a way of buying futures in your favourite places.  So, when I read about it, I had a natural interest in Empire Avenue and was quick to sign-up for a beta invite.  (Little did I know how eager Twitter enthusiasts would have been to let me in right away.)

I immediately got hooked on the game, but that’s often the way I roll.  I try something out for a bit. I get really into it, and then I am on to the next thing. However, there was one important difference with Empire Avenue. One potential business idea brought me to the site, and I immediately other ones.  It took both a compelling game and a bigger picture to get me to invest my time and effort the way I have.  

Prior to joining EA, I had everything that EA rewards you for — Twitter Account, Facebook Page, Flickr account and a blog.  However, I did not use any of them very much.  I understood their potential value, and I did maintain a certain level of dialog.  I didn’t do more because my friends are not big into social media and I have kept quite busy work wise without pursuing an online audience.  That all changed with Empire Avenue.

EA does two big things that turns many of us into online social butterflies — myself included.  These are as follows:

1. The game gives us an excuse to chat and incentives it.  Every time stock is traded or someone is followed, there is an easy opportunity to say hi.  You can even use that moment to ask a person about something interesting in their bio and engage in deeper conversation.  What’s more, you have an opportunity to chat on a ongoing basis.  You get so that you know the online personalities of people.  Of course, the game rewards this interaction. Each of us now has an incentive to strike up a conversation — both on the site and through other social media sites. 
2. For many, Empire Avenue also presents a business opportunity.  EA presents opportunities to develop products or services related to the site.  However, the platform also provides another channel for promoting existing businesses. This is probably why companies such as Motorola and Westjet are checking it out. You may have noticed there are a lot of experts in social media on the site.  As a group, they would see the possibilities as well as anybody.

Please do not get me wrong.  I am not suggesting we would never chat without an excuse and incentive to do so.  I am just saying that Empire Avenue raises the level of interaction thanks to the dynamics of the site.

Again, its the combination of game and social media platform that makes Empire Avenue so interesting.  But when we have had our fill of the game, what’s next?  I suspect the game will evolve to find new ways to keep us hooked as long as possible.  But many of us will eventually face the question, “Why am I here?”  I feel my own gameplay maturing less than two weeks in.  Once I achieve my initial leader board goals, then what?  The answer for me is going to be to build online relationships though the game dynamic.  I can see this affecting both my work and social lives.

For work, I have already had someone who works for a charity ask me about the overseas expeditions I organize as fundraising events for nonprofit clients. For the website I want to develop, I have had someone help me with finding answers to my questions.  For life outside of work, I have had someone mention he will be at an event I am attending, and another person I met at a different function mention he is on Empire Avenue.

Because my answer to the question, “Why I am here?” must involve more than a game going forward, I am looking for opportunities for meaningful engagement with all of you here. (Okay not every single one of you ;-)  In the end, I think that will be much more rewarding than the fact I managed to earn the number one spots on both the Earners and Payouts Leader Boards today (woohoo!).  I have touched on the concept of providing value back to the community in other blog posts.  In my striving for the big picture, look for me to do more of that in the days and weeks ahead.

I have said elsewhere that I believe Empire Avenue has the potential to be something big.  We depend in large measure on the founders of the site making that happen.  But, we also have to contribute if it is to be an exceptional place for us.  I hope you will join me in that journey.

In keeping with greater engagement, please join the conversation.  Why are YOU here?  Do you see that changing over time?

In stockbroker circles, a ‘whale’ is a really big client ready to invest a wad of cash. Needless to say, we want whales to come our way on Empire Avenue.  One way to hook a whale is by impressing them with a blog.  I have been told numerous times already that someone invested in me because of my blog.  However, it does not matter how compelling your content is if you nobody sees it.  You need to promote your writing.  A great way to do that for Empire Avenue is to use Twitter because so many people have their Twitter accounts linked to EA.  But, what do you say to get people interested enough to click on your blog link.  That’s where linkbait comes in.

Linkbait is a way of using a headline to get people to click.  If you want to get someone to visit your blog, you would not say, ‘Linguistic techniques to foster spontaneous transaction’ instead you might say, ‘5 words to make your blog links irresistible’. It’s about using humour, provocative statements, breaking news and other action words to get people to act. 

The following are examples of linkbait Twitter posts:

• 5 steps to doubling your money on Empire Avenue
• Empire Avenue set to surpass Facebook
• I will buy shares of anyone that leaves a comment on my blog
• Why are you Favouring Your Dogs Over Your Cows on Empire Avenue?
• Why Empire Avenue will Fail

Some people see linkbait as gimicky, ineffective and a turn-off.  It can be.  If you said, something like “The Reason Empire Avenue is a Failure” and your blog post said the reason is because you think it will be even bigger in the future, people would feel ripped off.  On the other hand, if you backup whatever your clever heading was, people will be glad they clicked on your link even if they disagree with you.  It all comes back to providing value.  Help people and they will make you wealthy — well pretend wealthy anyway.

What do you think of Linkbait?  Do you use it?  Have you had any feedback?