Part 1: So is that what is meant by “alpha”? 
Hello everyone,
As you know, we just experienced a significant and painful software glitch.
A frustrating experience, for sure:
Frustrating for you, empowr citizens…
… as well as for success coaches and employees all continuing to work to fully resolve the issue.
Why do things like this happen?
The truth is that software glitches and other problems happen with all software platforms.
empowr, in particular, happens to be one of the most (if not, THE most) complicated software platforms in existence, in terms of millions of lines of computer code…
… and in terms of what it’s attempting to accomplish, tightly integrating a social network, marketplace, payment system, educational and political systems, and much more.
As the number of things you’re trying to accomplish with a single software platform go up, the complexity goes up exponentially.
And so do the number of issues and glitches.
But it’s even more complicated than that
To add to the issue, empowr is attempting to build this most complicated platform, using no investor capital.
That means that it must work many, many times harder, with a much smaller employee base.
For example, empowr must attract employees and success coaches that believe wholeheartedly in the empowr mission…
…. so much so, that they are willing to work for little or no pay – only for the benefit of humanity.
Not everyone is willing, or able, to be paid little or nothing, in order to benefit other people.
And so to attempt to make something like empowr successful, the participants need to be very special people:
Employees needs to know that “life balance” is not something they can have while the company is still in its alpha stage. The will need to accept that they are, basically, required to work around the clock.
Citizens need to expect constant changes and issues, many of which will be quite frustrating for them.
And of course success coaches, who act as the communication bridge between employees and citizens, need to be incredibly hard working and flexible in their own thinking.
And ALL of the above (citizens, success coaches and employees) need to understand that, especially in the short-term, resources (money!) will be in short supply.
Indeed, browsing around the community this morning, the following is just a small sample of citizens I bumped into, that have been working hard on empowr, for years:
Again, the above is just a small sample of people that I bumped into this morning. Many more empowr citizens exist that have been on empowr, working hard for this mission, for many, many years. (My apologies to the many citizens, also working here for years, that I missed).
And here are some our longest serving success coaches:
All of these people, have worked very, very hard for the success of the community…
... with one common characteristic:
In ALMOST ALL of the months that they have been on empowr…
… they did not receive one single penny in cash outs.
Did you catch that?
They received not one single penny in cash outs, for almost all of the months they were on empowr, because there was simply NO MONEY to go around.
The good news is that, in the last few months, as empowr has grown, cash outs have been growing too.
But everyone continues to make sacrifices, as it will take time for the cash outs to grow to much larger levels...
... and for software glitches, missing features and issues to all be produced or fixed.
On the other hand, we've attracted a good amount of new people, a few of which cannot help but feel entitled -- and cannot stop complaining, complaining, complaining.
I can totally understand these citizens' frustrations.
They deserve the absolute best platform…
… capable of giving them significant income with little effort on their part…
… and with no bugs, issues or glitches.
Of course empowr needs to hurry and get itself to the place where it can fully satisfy them and everyone.
And I assure you that everyone at empowr understands that time is of the essence.
All empowr employees are frustrated and working as hard as they possible can to improve the platform.
I can assure you of that.
An important question for you
So, for the newer folks – just joining in the last few months:
What do you think?
Is empowr, at its current alpha state, a good fit for you and your expectations?
Or do you think the experience will be too frustrating for you?
Keep in mind that the type of issue we just faced these last few days, hasn’t happened for a while.
But that was the exception.
It’s more accurate for you to expect that things like this will keep happening, on a regular basis.
Also, AMCO cash outs will go up and down, depending on cash flow.
Some months there will surely be no AMCOs whatsoever, when cash doesn't allow.
When that happens - and it will, I can assure you - how will you take it?
Remember, that empowr has no deep pockets. It has raised no capital and works hard to return as much cash to its citizens as possible.
(If you remember, AMCOs from only 2 months ago, August, were only possible because empowr employees chose to not take their (already small) paychecks so that money could go to empowr citizens).
So AMCOs are not a guaranteed thing. No one is "entitled" to what empowr cannot achieve or produce.
I hope you are hearing me (as opposed to what you wish you were hearing).
And if you are hearing me, and believe that it will be too difficult for you to stay on empowr, we can totally respect that.
If so, my strong recommendation is that you put your account on hold…
… and come back in about a year, after we’ve been able to use that time to improve things…
…. and as a result, things are much better.
Staying here, and facing all the changes and issues will surely be difficult for you.
In addition, if this is not a good fit right now, but you choose to stick around…
… but you can’t help but spread negativity around and complain, complain, complain…
… well, it is not fair to the people that choose to be here, and are able to keep their chins up while they continue to work towards the accomplishment of the empowr mission…
… despite the short-term setbacks, issues and lack of resources.
Does this make sense?
For the people that have chosen to work on this project for so many years…
… receiving ZERO in cash outs for most of those months…
… to be forced to see or listen to this sort of "entitled" or nonstop complaining from new folks that willingly joined this alpha project…
… it is simply unfair.
Look - we need to improve massively, so your constructive criticism is helpful, because it helps us understand what we need to focus on.
But the level of entitlement that a few of you newer citizens are showing...
... well, it shows that you don't really understand that this is an alpha stage project.
When all you seem to do it sit around and complain...
... when your cash out is greater than what so many others cashed out in years...
... it just gets to a point where your involvement here, at this stage, is simply not beneficial for the community, that's trying hard to stay positive and focused.
So, if empowr, in its current state, is not for you, please do the right thing and temporarily leave empowr so that the rest of us can do our work.
If you decide to stay, but cannot stop the unconstructive complaining…
… then as the community moderator, I must ask you to leave or I might even suspend your account if you refuse to leave…
… so that you can return to empowr at a later date when many more of the issues are behind us.
And yes, we do have the right to do that, in just the same way that you have every right to decide who can visit your home.
As a private entity, attempting to build this project, we have the right to remove anyone that we find is not a good fit...
... and yes, you agreed to these terms, when you joined this alpha stage project.
Look - I assure you that this is not a fun exercise for me.
But it is my duty to do that, for the benefit of the constructive participants and the ultimate success of the mission.
If you need help suspending your account, please ask.
You will get the most respectful of treatment, I promise you, as you are a gem in our eyes.
Admitting to yourself, and us, that this is not the best fit AT THIS TIME, is a highly honorable thing to do…
… and you get my and everyone’s respect for doing that…
… as well as a warm welcome back when you return after we’ve had a chance to improve everything so that we can more effectively serve you.
----- ----- ----- ----- -----
On the other hand, if you feel like you know what you’ve got yourself into…
… and can and will be happy participants in this struggle – this revolution that we're trying hard to make into a reality -- despite the shortcomings, lack of resources and all the issues…
… then of course the community embraces you with open arms.
In fact, this mission cannot succeed without you.
What is your decision?
Shall we temporarily part as friends... and get back together at a later date...
...or will you stay here and work with us to achieve this mission and revolution...
... with the full understanding and expectations of the difficulties that we will surely face...
... keeping your chin up, with little-to-no whining and complaining, but instead helping others to stay positive?
The choice is yours.
I hope and trust that you will do the right thing -- for the benefit of yourself, all other empowr citizens, and the empowr mission.
UPDATE 4
Hello everyone,
empowr engineering is reporting that the issue has been resolved.
Please check your empowr inbox for a message from empowr, and your balance for your updated AMCO.
Our deepest apologies again for the confusion and inconvenience that this has caused.
If you have any questions, please communicate with our customer service about this issue, by responding to the empowr inbox message.
Thank you again for your patience and support while we continue to work to get through this.
Tips for larger AMCOs
Hi everyone,
Did you hit your Daily Goal on at least one (1) day last month?
If so, the empowr algorithms accelerated the maturation of some of your profits, at the end of last month.
That means that you received an accelerated matured cash out (AMCO) at the end of last month…
… that you can shop with right now…
… or cash out right now…
… or utilize to increase your earnings even further.
AMCOs are another way that the empowr community works to accomplish its mission.
The purpose of AMCOs is to reward people that are working extra hard to grow the empowr economy…
… as measured by the attainment of their Daily Goals.
Growing the empowr economy is critical for it to survive and thrive, as we have discussed at length recently.
Are you new in empowr? Catch up with the conversation here
Do you want a bigger AMCO at the end of this month (October)?
Below are 5 tips to maximize your AMCO….
… followed by the ultimate formula for your success in empowr.
TIP 1 Hit your Daily Goal as many times as you can
Pay close attention to this area (at the top right of any profile page):
That area shows you how many shares, posts, bids and listings you need to hit your Daily Goal.
Click anywhere within that area, to see how many days you hit your Daily Goal, since the 1st of this month (October).
(Since October just started, you can only have 0, 1, 2 or 3 showing at this time – because its only October 3rd today).
The more days you hit your Daily Goal, the larger your AMCO will be, at the end of October.
TIP 2 To hit your Daily Goal, of course you need to list at least one non-rejected product per day
Later, when your product is reviewed by moderators, if it is rejected, it won’t end up counting toward your Daily Goal for the day you listed it.
Therefore:
A. Make sure you only list products that will NOT get rejected. Check out the marketplace guidelines.
B. To be absolutely sure you don’t miss your Daily Goal, I suggest listing more than one item per day, so that if one ends up getting rejected, you still have other listings from that day that were approved, so you don’t end up missing your Daily Goal for that day.
Does this make sense?
You might hit your Daily Goal when you list something, but if it gets reviewed a few days later and is rejected, and if that was the only product you listed on that day, you will end up having missed your daily listing goal, so you will have missed your overall Daily Goal for that day (even if you hit your sharing, posting and bidding goals).
So by listing multiple products on any day, you reduce the risk that you end up missing your Daily Goal for that day.
Of course the best way to reduce the risk that your items are rejected, is by following the marketplace guidelines, and ensuring that the things you list are products (not services or digital content) and are of sufficient value. (No one wants to purchase your old toothbrush or toothpicks).
TIP 3 Pay close attention to your marketplace listing approval rate
A. If 9 or more of the last 10 items you listed were approved, your next listing will be auto-approved.
B. If 6-8 of the last 10 things you listed were approved, your next listing will not be auto-approved. It will need to be reviewed before it is available in the marketplace. If it ends up being approved, it will count toward your Daily Goal on the day it was approved, not necessarily the day you listed it.
C. If only 5 (or less) of the last 10 things you listed were approved, you will be locked out of listing new items for 7 days. That means that you will be unable to hit your Daily Goal for 7 days.
To hit the most Daily Goals during the month, you really want to ensure that your marketplace approval rate stays at 9 or 10 (out of 10).
TIP 4 Is the community finding value in the things you’re selling?
In other words, is the community buying your items?
If YES, you’ll notice that, over time, your AMCOs are growing larger.
If NO, then your listings are not bringing value to the community, and you will not notice your AMCOs growing larger.
Does this make sense?
If no one is buying the things you’re selling, then no one will getting any value out of them.
If your items are not selling, why not?
Did you set the fixed price too high?
If you sold it via auction, did you set the Reserve Price too high?
Did you set the shipping price too high?
The higher the value (price) of the items you sell, you will notice your AMCOs getting larger as time goes by.
TIP 5 But what if the items you listed in September, don’t sell until October or beyond?
No worries. You’ll get “credit” for them (via your AMCOs) in October and beyond.
So just keep selling valuable items, and your AMCOs will catch up with the value you are bringing.
OK. Are you ready for the
Optimal formula for maximizing your earnings & cash outs
The formula to get the most from the empowr economy is simple:
The more you put in, the more you get out
In other words, to maximize the amount of your AMCO, bring as much value as you can to the empowr community.
You do that by:
A. Building your Circle of Trust…
… helping your fellow citizens earn as much as possible…
… so that they, in turn, are motivated to do the same for you…
… helping you earn from your posts…
… buying the things you are selling…
… promoting those things to their Circle of Trust…
… all to help you maximize your earnings.
Remember, the people in your Circle of Trust are real people.
If you treat them with respect, kindness and love…
… and are quick to forgive them when you have the opportunity to…
… your mutual trust will grow.
And they will become highly reliable partners for you…
… people you’ll be able to count on, now and in the future, to help you earn and succeed.
B. Hitting your Daily Goals
Your Daily Goal acts as a personal guide.
It helps you to know when you’ve done enough on empowr, so that you’re not spending your whole day on empowr…
… and therefore have extra time daily, to spend with your loved ones and on the other priorities in your life.
C. Protect and grow the empowr economy
For empowr to become a place where you can reliably earn many thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars per month…
… the empowr economy needs to be robust and full of very good products.
Along with not selling low value items yourself, it is very helpful for you to NOT bid, buy, promote or sponsor garbage products that you find to be of low value.
By doing that, you’ll be encouraging everyone to think more seriously about how to generate more value in empowr.
Along with not buying garbage, be sure to report anything you see that does not meet the marketplace guidelines.
At the end of the day, we all need empowr to become a quality place…
full of quality people (that people can learn to easily trust)…
… and quality products (that people could value and keep as their own after purchasing them)…
… if empowr, and you as a citizen of empowr, wish to find big and long-term success here.
For empowr to grow and succeed, you must grow and succeed.
For you to grow and succeed here, empowr must grow and succeed.
So those of us that are serious about our own success here, should invest a little time daily in pushing up the quality of the empowr economy and community.
If we all do our part – to serve ourselves AND each other -- there’s really nothing that can stop us from achieving any goals we set for ourselves.
Any questions?
We are here for you.
UPDATE 4
Hello everyone,
empowr engineering is reporting that the issue has been resolved.
Please check your empowr inbox for a message from empowr, and your balance for your updated AMCO.
Our deepest apologies again for the confusion and inconvenience that this has caused.
If you have any questions, please communicate with our customer service about this issue, by responding to the empowr inbox message.
Thank you again for your patience and support while we continue to work to get through this.
Hello everyone -
The site will be going into maintenance mode from approximately 10:00AM PST to 11:00AM PST on Monday, October 3rd.
During that time, the site and mobile apps will not be available to be accessed. We will do our best to ensure the upgrade is completed as quickly as possible.
Thank you, and I hope you all have a wonderful day.
Hello everyone,
It has come to our attention that some of you have been blocked from listing new products in the marketplace due the rejection of old listings. This is making it hard for you to hit your Daily Goals.
This last month has been a learning experience for all of us.
A fresh start
As a one-time measure, everyone has now been unblocked and their listings will now be auto-approved, enabling them to hit their Daily Goal immediately, which among other benefits, allows everyone to maximize their AMCOs at the end of the month.
As a reminder, this is how it works:
If 9 or 10 out of the last 10 of your listings were approved, your next listing will be auto-approved and available for purchase immediately.
If 6 to 8 out of the last 10 of your listings were approved, your next listing will need to be manually approved before it is available for purchase.
If 5 or less out of the last 10 of your listings were approved, you will be blocked from listing new items for 7 days.
Again, everyone’s marketplace approval rate has been set to 10 approvals out of 10 listings, to allow for a fresh start.
Thank you everyone who voiced their concerns. Once again, you’ve reminded us that we’re all in this together.
Be sure to follow the empowr marketplace guidelines with every item you list in the marketplace to continue being auto-approved.
Any questions, we’re here for you.
Brian
P.S. On any day from Sept. 1 to 13, if you had hit your daily sharing, posting and bidding goals, but not your listing goal, your overall Daily Goal will be considered hit (for the purposes of your Sept. AMCO)…
… even though your Daily Goal history won’t show that, of course. Fresh start! 
Why is your AMCO so large - or so small?
Hello everyone!
A few hours ago, empowr distributed the largest total dollar amount of accelerated matured cash outs in its history….
… and we are all seeing some very happy empowr citizens…
…and some unhappy empowr citizens too.
Why are some people so happy…. And why are some unhappy?
Some are reporting that their friend, who accomplished the same amount of Daily Goals as they did in this last month…
… received an AMCO that was 5, 10 or even more times larger than theirs.
Is this true?
Did some people get many times what others received… for hitting the same number of Daily Goals?
And if so, how can that be fair?
Yes. It is true.
And I will do my best to explain why there is such a difference between what those people received.
Let’s get started.
As I have been posting about, over and over again, in the last 60 days starting with this post at the beginning of July…
… for us to succeed together at our mission ….
… for even empowr to be around – even a year from now….
… together we must grow the empowr economy.
That means we must grow the amount of legitimate product and services being sold and purchased in the empowr marketplace.
That means that:
1. The empowr engineers must work overtime to improve the marketplace tools and technologies:
Hopefully you’ve noticed that the empowr marketplace is already many times better than it was even a month ago:
· It now includes Search
· You now receive a daily marketplace newsletter
· Everyone can now spend more of their earnings in the marketplace
· Many bugs and issues have already been corrected
· And we’re just getting started.
2. We must ensure that you are no longer waiting for days for your marketplace listings to be available for purchase in the marketplace and in your profile.
· Your items are now instantly approved and made available in the marketplace (unless, of course, too many of them are later getting rejected).
3. We must ensure that the marketplace shows quality items, and that low value items don’t make a joke out of the marketplace
· There’s no question that the quality of items for sale has skyrocketed. Granted, we still have more to do here, but thanks to your efforts, and the hard work by the small group of success coaches tasked with this effort, the quality of items has improved dramatically.
4. And finally, we must ensure that the largest AMCOs are going to the people that are bringing the most economic value to the empowr economy.
I believe that this where there seems to be some confusion, based on some of the comments that I am seeing.
“I hit my goal X times this month. That means I brought lots of economic value”.
Why do you believe that?
Let’s take a look.
By posting and sharing content (photos, status updates, etc.), bidding and closing loops…
… you continued to build your network (your circle of trust) on empowr – which means you are building the POTENTIAL (the possibility) for economic value to be created.
Good job!
Before you can create economic value, you must first plant the seeds – which creates the potential for a strong harvest.
But creating the potential for economic value is a different thing than actually creating economic value in the empowr economy.
Now let’s talk about your Listings.
By listing quality products, did you create economic value?
In other words, does listing products automatically create economic value?
Listing quality products – that someone ends up actually purchasing and valuing – brings economic value.
On the other hand, listing products, that no one actually purchases…
… brings zero economic value.
In fact, all you did was create cost for the empowr economy – as that item needed to be reviewed, moderated, and supported – all of which have costs…
... but since it did not sell, it brought no economic value to the empowr economy.
Let me get right to the point.
If you believe that simply by making some posts, and sharing those of others, that you have created economic value, that you have created economic value, you are just simply wrong. Dead wrong.
By doing those things, you have worked to create a network for yourself, and have worked to build trust in that network…
… which stands as potential for YOU and for the empowr economy.
But so far, all it has done has created cost – not economic output – for the empowr economy.
So, that explains why some people, who hit their Daily Goal, might not be all that excited about their AMCO.
But how do we explain those that ARE very happy with their AMCO?
Here’s the bottom line:
The lion’s share of the AMCOs went to people that:
A. Hit more of their Daily Goals
B. Their Listings were of high quality – as measured by their sales.
If you hit your Daily Goals, but your AMCO was much smaller than others, here are the questions you should be asking:
Are your Listings getting sold, or the most part, no?
If they are not getting purchased, that’s why your AMCO is smaller.
When your items sell, are they actually getting paid for, or no?
If people don’t really want them, that’s why your AMCO is smaller.
If your items are being sponsored, and don’t yet have a final buyer that has chosen to pay for them, then be patient.
You will get credit for those items when they actually do find a final buyer.
Yes, that means that next month you will see the AMCO benefit from those listings.
When people buy your items, are they happy with their purchase? Do they rate you positively as a seller?
If not, that’s why your AMCO is smaller.
Pay very close attention:
The empowr system is very, very intelligent. It is watching over a hundred different factors about your marketplace activity.
If your actions are legitimately bringing economic value to the marketplace and economy, you will be very nicely rewarded… which many of you are now experiencing.
And in case you are wondering – the empowr system is very aware and capable of catching people that do not have the right intentions.
The right intentions are to provide legitimate, quality products (and soon, Services) that others would benefit from.
If you and a few friends try to fool the system, your account will be either marked for future deletion, or marked for permanent small AMCOs, or both.
I cannot stress this point deeply enough. If your intentions are anything less than honorable…
… meaning anything less than providing high quality items to your fellow empowr citizens…
… by attempting to fool empowr citizens or the empowr system…
… you will have made a very, very costly miscalculation that you will regret deeply.
And if your sales, sponsoring, purchases and even communication interactions are with anyone that has been deemed low value and suspicious…
… that will cast a long shadow on your own potential in the system.
Stay legitimate. Stay honest. Focus on hitting your Daily Goals, building your network and circle of trust, and the level of trust between yourself and other truly legitimate, honest and well-intentioned empowr citizens…
… and stay away from (in fact, block) anyone that does not have the right intentions.
This is a must, as you do not want to risk getting quietly bundled into the same categories as the small group of individuals that exist in every community, that do not believe in themselves other than in their ability to cheat and steal from others.
And make sure your listings are quality items, that someone will actually want to purchase.
When they do purchase them, take good care of your customers, so they will want to give you a positive seller’s rating.
If you do those things, you will notice that ALL your empowr metrics, including your AMCOs, will grow very, very nicely – as a good number of people have just experienced – and hopefully you will soon experience too.
It’s time to get very, very serious about rewarding the people that are very, very serious about ensuring the empowr marketplace succeeds.
And yes, at first glance, that will come at the expense of people that will not, or cannot, contribute as much to the economy.
But if you think about it, you will surely see that the biggest winners out of this approach, will be EVERYONE.
Yes, even those not receiving large AMCO cash outs will be much, much better off because they’ll have thousands of quality products to choose from, when looking to shop with their empowr earnings.
Any questions? We are here for you.