Email from @ryze.com.
Subject line: Someone wants to network with you
Okay, fine, I’ve not been to Ryze, but I thought it was cool a long time ago, and I don’t mind linkedin, or facebook, or even myspace messages, so I take a look at the email.
Body:
Someone wants to network with you:
http://www.ryze.com/networkwithme.php NOTE: You can change your Ryze notification preferences at http://www.ryze.com/preferences.php
I visit the site, log in and see the headline:
People who want to network with you…
And the actual message:
Upgrade your Ryze membership to see the list of 2 people who want to network with you
Uh, what? Really? I click the link and it’s $10 a year for Gold, and $20 a year for Platinum.
If the two people who want to network with me are legit, they’ll find me through some other channel, or heck, won’t they just email me?
Ryze was one of the earliest social/professional networking sites I joined. I remember seeing this visualization of the Ryze network and even being spotted on it. I even paid for a premium account at one time. I believe it was the same $10/month thing. But eventually it reached a limit in terms of what it could deliver, and I canceled it. Eventually it seemed that everyone who was talking to me was in MLM folks. Nothing wrong with that per se, but I started avoiding the site.
And now, just to view people who want to network with me, I have to pay? That’s the whole reason I think classmates.com sucks. To do anything useful, you have to pay, and yet, the site is trumpeted as this great tool to network with. I’m sorry, but exclusivity and dubious value do not go together. And Ryze definitely is only of dubious value.
Ryze, get your act together. Your value proposition stinks. Bad.
MAS
October 5, 2007 10:23am
The top financial blogger Barry Ritholtz wrote an interesting piece on Social networks back in early 2005.
Why I Don’t Do Social Networking Sites
Sassy
October 8, 2007 9:30am
LinkedIn for work, facebook and myspace for fun. There’s no more room for anything else.
Nolongeraryzemember
October 28, 2007 8:01am
Having been a Ryze member for nearly 5 years, I can attest to the fact that it is not what it once was!
What started out as a civilized place, soon turned into a free-for-all and is now populated by some of the nastiest, most vindictive, shallow, threatening liars.
Ryze is for those who are starting out in business and really don’t have a clue! They spend all day chit-chatting, telling jokes, exchanging ‘kidney stone’ and ‘baby diaper’ stories and then wonder why their bank accounts are empty!
Not a serious business person among them, in my opinion!
eCademy, born in England, tends to be quieter and smaller, in the US, but effective! I attended a face-to-face meeting in my ‘local’ area about a month ago. Reluctantly, I drove the 50 miles to meet with four (yes, FOUR) other people, wondering why I was wasting my time! Amazingly, I came away with two firm clients!
Ryze, on the other hand is the place where I invested a large amount of precious time (and money) and walked away with no business! I think that speaks for itself.
Unless you are a starving photographer who hands out business cards on the street corner in Forest Hills, or a many-times-married hermit web host, operating out of a trailer, or even a wannabe network administrator who tries (unsuccessfully) to raise money for his bike ride, rather join a REAL social network like LinkedIn or eCademy, Ryze is a waste of time!
Oh, and the Network With Me function on Ryze NEVER worked! You’re right, it was provided by Ryze to all the wrong people as an convenient way to Spam!
No Longer A Ryze Member (Thankfully!)