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half-time

Posted by Luke at 3:01 pm

Well we’re half way through our thrilling “How Low Can You Go? Help Challenge” and we thought it’d be a good idea to post some rankings, just so you can see how things fair.

We’re not going to give away the specific amounts of help that you’re receiving. That would spoil the big finish down the stretch.

But just for fun, here’s the ranking of our top 5 Help getters, as of today:

1. lynndriette
2. jdhogan
3. cubbiesnexty
4. shadowcat7
5. mathgod

That’s a pretty diverse crop of Zopa-ites, wouldn’t you say?

Great job so far, guys! Now let’s see if you can keep up the good work!

And if you don’t see your name on this list, don’t worry — it’s only half time! There’s still plenty of time to catch up!

Posted in Uncategorized | 3 Comments »

Help 101

Posted by Luke at 4:22 pm

We’re exactly one week into our fantabulous Zopa promotion and already we’ve seen a lot of action. People are getting help left and right. Ya’ll are doing a wonderful job. You should be pleased — pleased as punch.

For all those folks out there scratching their heads and wondering how best to get in on the fun, we’ve prepared some helpful tips that might get your Help campaign jump-started:

1. Make sure your Zopa Profile is “Public”. To do that, go to your account settings and make sure that your profile is set to “show in search results”. This way Zopa investors can find you when they apply for a Zopa CD.

2. Use our handy-dandy Promote Your Profile tool to send an email to the potential Helpers in your life. All you have to do is enter the email addresses you’d like to send a message to here, and we’ll take care of the rest.

3. Use your Zopa profile to tell your story! You don’t need to itemize everything you plan on doing with your loan — just tell the community about yourself! What’s your favorite mid-day snack? Are you left-handed? How many different Springfields have you ever been to?

4. Finally, a well-timed conversation with that special someone in your life never hurts. That special someone who has $500 sitting in a droopy 0.50% APY savings account. You can rescue them from the doldrums of big banks and low interest by steering them towards a shiny new Zopa CD!

Now get out there and get some Help!

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

CONTEST!!!

Posted by Luke at 8:21 am

Zopa is holding a CONTEST! Contest = Mathegrammmatically AWESOME! OMG!!!1!!11! Free Money!!!

(phew. posting two days in a row really gets me going, apparently.)

As promised, Zopa will be holding a contest in the month of August, to see who can get the most new Help.

We call it the “How Low Can You Go? Limbo/Help Challenge,” (or HLCYG?L/HC for short). The more you lower your monthly loan payment with Help, the more money we’ll give you.

To start, we’re gonna give 50 smackers to every Zopa borrower who receives $.50/month of new Help in the month of August. (for all of you lucky devils already receiving that much Help, you’re welcome to play too, but the Help you’re already getting doesn’t count — that would be cheating).

After that, we’ll be giving big ole Zopa CD’s to the 3 borrowers who receive the most new Help (over $.50).

Here’s how it works:

1. You work by hook or by crook to get people to buy Zopa CD’s that help YOU. The Zopa CD is a great deal for anyone with at least $500 to invest, and it’ll actually lower your monthly loan payment and interest rate!

2. If you receive more than $.50/mo of help from Zopa CD’s purchased in the month of August, we’ll put up $50 towards your October Loan Payment. It’s a 50-50 trade, except you get both 50’s.

3. The 3 borrowers who receive the most help (over $.50) from CD’s purchased in August will each receive a Zopa CD of their own. 1st place gets a $1,000 CD, 2nd gets a $750 CD, and 3rd takes home a $500 CD. Your CD gives Help to other people for one year, after which all that moolah is yours!

We’ll be posting updates and tips on how to get Help, so check back here for those tidbits.

In the meantime, how low can you go?

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

A brief update from our Italian friends…

Posted by Luke at 8:35 am

Periodo di vacanze per gli Zopiani, ma chi si immaginava che ad alcuni Zopiani venisse l’idea di un coast to coast con arrivo a San Francisco e visita a Zopa US?

Ebbene, un equipaggio milanese è in partenza il 2 agosto: Marco detto Ciolo - prestatore pioniere che per l’occasione ha chiesto e avuto un piccolo prestito per finanziarsi il viaggio - Stefano, altro prestatore, e i loro amici Francesco e Agata. Il loro diario di viaggio sarà sul blog creato ad hoc, ma useranno anche Flickr e Youtube . Li seguiremo con curiosità (e forse un po’ di invidia) anche da qui, con qualche post di aggiornamento sulla loro avventura.

Naturalmente li abbiamo forniti di cartelli da uomo sandwich, vediamo cosa riescono a inventarsi!

PS: sono naturalmente benvenute tutte le foto degli Zopiani in giro per il mondo muniti di maglietta d’ordinanza.

For all the English speakers in the room, that roughly translates to:

This is holiday time for the Zopians, but who would guess that some Italian Zopians would have the idea of a coast to coast trip ending at Zopa US, San Francisco? Well, a Milanese team is leaving on August 2, heading for the US: it is composed of Marco aka Ciolo – originally a lender who has now got a small loan for financing the trip, Stefano -another lender -and their friends Francesco and Agata.

Their itinerary will be on a dedicated blog, but they will also use Flickr and Youtube. We will follow them with a great deal of curiosity (and maybe a little bit of jealousy) from here, with occasional updates on their adventure.

Naturally we are providing them with Zopa sandwich man signs, let’s see what they can come up with…

P.S. naturally we would welcome any photo of Zopians going around the world wearing our T-shirt.

Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Surprise Surprise

Posted by Luke at 3:46 pm

My, it’s been quiet around here lately. Let me just clean out some of these cobwebs…

Ahem.

Much better.

Ya’ll are in luck, because we’ve been cooking up something special for all you lovely Zopa-ites: a contest! Who doesn’t love contests? (especially ones that are ridiculously easy to win?)

It’s gonna be a chance for you to save a bunch of money on your monthly loan repayments, and earn some money to boot. You might call it, a “save and earn” plan. Ole Ben Franklin would be proud – the more you save the more you earn.

We’ll post more promotion details soon, but in the mean time, I suggest you start thinking about all the people you know who might be in the mood for a Zopa CD – a solid investment with a smiley face.

And check back soon for details because you could find yourself about $1,000 richer in no time.

Posted in News, Fun | 4 Comments »

And the Webby goes to…

Posted by Luke at 4:37 pm

Zopa has just been awarded the Webby for Best Financial Services website!

This is the second year in a row that we’ve won a Webby, and all I can say is…it rocks. Seriously. I could get used to this.

For all you Webby fanatics, here’s a dramatic reenactment of how it all happened:

Webby Presenter: (opening e-envelope) …and the winner of the award for Best Financial Services Site of the Year is…Zopa.com!

Zopa: (e-sobbing with e-delight) Thank you! We’d like to thank the webcademy and our fellow nominees, as well as our developers, designers, and staff. We’d like to thank our mothers, our great-aunts, and all the bloggers who covered us. And above all, we’d like to thank our beautiful, passionate users. It’s been an amazing ride, and we would never be here…

*Webby Orchestra begins playing Webby theme-music*

Zopa: …if it weren’t for all our wonderful users. Users like AiflGrad, mraugust, and SuzCllns…

*Webby theme-music crescendos as Webby presenter shuffles Zopa off the stage*

Aaaaand scene.

Well. I guess they don’t call it the “Oscars of the Internet” for nothing.

Anyway, thanks to all of you lovely users, as well as everyone who voted for us. We couldn’t have done it without you.

Posted in News, Fun | No Comments »

Zopa = Best in Show!

Posted by Luke at 12:11 pm

So, a week ago I was telling all ya’ll about how we’ve been nominated for that most sacred of internet prizes — the Webby (actually, 2 Webbies, even sacred-er). But while the judges are deliberating over that contest, we have some more awards-show news: (drum roll, please….) Zopa was just voted Best in Show at Finovate!

For those of you who aren’t already familiar with Finovate, it’s a conference that “showcases dozens of the startups that are innovating at the intersection of finance and technology to an audience of hundreds of press, bloggers, analysts, VCs, industry leaders and banking executives.” Phew! Makes me nervous just thinking about it!

But not only did Zopa weather the scrutiny — we came out on top! Personally, I think all those great profiles you charmers put up had something to do with it. In fact I know it did, because during the presentation Doug (our CEO) pulled up two of his favorites to show how Zopa is working for TinaM and Anomie666. So thanks everyone — this award’s for you!

Posted in News | 1 Comment »

The internet likes Zopa

Posted by Luke at 12:53 pm

(and Zopa likes the internet, too)

Here we are minding our own business, doing our darndest to create a safe, friendly place to borrow and invest, and what happens? We get nominated for not one, but TWO Webby awards! Who woulda thunk?

To be honest, this isn’t the first time Zopa’s had a brush with Webby greatness (last year we snatched the Banking/Bill Paying award away from that dinosaur Bank of America). But that doesn’t make this nomination any less sweet. This year we’re not only up for the Banking/Bill Paying award, but the Financial Services award too. That’s what I call progress.

Since election fever is sweeping the nation, we can’t resist posting this link to the Webby People’s Voice voting site, where you can weigh in on who should be president of the internet. Check it out, sign up (it’s quick and easy), and get your vote on. Why let Pennsylvanians have all the fun?

Cast Your Vote

Posted in News | No Comments »

How low can you go?

Posted by Luke at 8:18 am

Hi everyone, just thought I’d post a quick note about some recent changes to our site.

As you can probably tell, we’ve gussied up our homepage a bit. Now you can keep up on what your Zopa friends are doing with the new “On Zopa Now” ticker, or search for them directly using the Borrower Search tool. Right now it searches for borrowers only, but soon you’ll be able to search for your other Zopa pals too.

The coolest change to the homepage (imho) is the “New Zopa Rate.” You can hold your mouse over one of those orange “New Zopa Rates” on the homepage to see what it’s all about, but here’s a summary: because Zopa borrowers often receive Help with their monthly loan payments, their effective interest rate is sometimes lower than the one they originally signed up for. For example, wlaffin may have borrowed at 12.99%, but because he’s receiving so much Help right now, his effective interest rate is actually below 0%. Not only does that mean he’s paying no interest on his loan, he’s actually paying back less money than he borrowed in the first place! How about that!

(Not to brag or anything, but this is what really sets Zopa apart: only at Zopa can you take control of your interest rate and wrestle it to the ground. Pretty sweet deal, right? Ok, that was bragging.)

We’ve also made several changes to your profile pages (here’s a rundown on those), and added a new “Summary” feature that tells investors why you’re on Zopa. To edit your Summary, sign in to Zopa and click on the “Edit Profile” link. Whatever you enter in the “Summary” field will be displayed to Zopa CD buyers, so don’t be shy — tell your story and drive that interest rate down!

Posted in News, Technology | No Comments »

Changes Comin’ to Profiles

Posted by wade at 9:34 am

We’re a little obsessed here with making things better, and we have some ideas about how to tune up profiles. The mock below (click to blow it up) highlights with a blue arrow a set of changes we’d like to make on profiles.

• A new text section that’s limited to something like 15 words. This section would take text only and it’s what we’d show in list view for your profile all around the site–i.e., search results pages, featured borrowers section on home page, etc. (Right now, it’s hard to edit that). We’ve been calling this section “The Blurb”. If you can think of a better name, let us know! We’re stumped.
• A Help Me Now badge that shows help received and how far along you are toward getting your entire monthly payment supported by Help from other people.
• Expanded financial info about your loan (if you have one) in the About Me section. This info can be hidden if you like by editing your account settings. This info also includes a new idea we call Net Rate, which is the effective interest rate of a loan that reflects any Help you’re receiving. It’s closer to the true cost of borrowing than the just the stated rate on your loan. Note, we’re not making corresponding changes for investors.
• More info about your connections. We show who’s helping you, who you’re helping, and how much.
• New urls for your profiles. We’ll be giving everybody easier urls to use for their profiles, urls that are based on your screenname.

What do you think?

Posted in News | 3 Comments »