Spruz Owners' Community For owners of websites powered by the Spruz Platform

We know one of the major reasons that people create websites is to make money.  With this in mind we have been working for some time putting together systems that will enable website owners to benefit from traffic and leverage their user base.

First we released a shopping cart that lets you sell products and services on your website quickly and easily. (This is accessible on the Shopping Cart page under the Content tab.)

Next we launched subscription services that allow you to charge for access to specific site pages and content. (You can use this by adding the Subscriptions page when you add a new page to your site.)

Now we have just released another key component to help you monetize your site and community; full advertizing management. If you have the upgrade (now called Spruz Pro), you have the option of using built in ad spots on your site to display the ads you choose. We even make it easy to find ad content for your site by providing you with a list of several great advertisers you can hook up with.  When using this feature you will get 100% of the revenue from ad sales on your site!

We have also changed the upgrade pricing to scalable format that opens up the option to many more site owners. Now, starting at just $9.95/mo, Spruz Pro is ready for anyone that wants it.

Our desire is for you all to be able to make money with your site, if you choose, and have fun while doing it.

grow yourself.™

When you first create your site, getting started can sometimes be intimidating. You're sitting there staring an empty page, and thinking "what do I do now?"

With the new content wizard, accessible from the site properties section of the admin, we are working to take the "what now?" out of your initial site creation process.  After just a few questions we will create an entire working site based on what you answered.  After that it's easy to add your own stuff and tweak things out.

We feel this is a great new tool, especially for new site creators, but if you have content on your site already be warned.  This will remove any existing content and replace it with the content that is generated by the wizard. In essence if you have stuff you want to keep on your site, don’t use this feature.

I think that about wraps it up for this update, more great stuff is on the way.

grow yourself.™

I know we haven’t really said much regarding the holidays this year.  Also we have not done anything really in the way of decorating the site to lend to the merriment of our visitors.  Instead this year we decided to focus all of our energies into improving the feature set of the sites here so that you have long term benefit.  As far as I can tell it has been paying off, but my perspective may be a little distorted from lack of sleep…

We thank each of you for your support and for using the system.  You have found bugs, suggested important features and most of all your use of Spruz encourages us to keep moving forward.

Spruz has come a long way in a year. In fact this time last year it was only a name and short page of teaser text.  I am certain that this year will move even faster than the last, improvements and updates around every bend.  But don’t just sit back for the ride; tell all your friends, everyone can be a part of the growing phenomenon that is Spruz.

We wish you all the best in the coming year. May you prosper and may your communities grow.

We hope everyone has had a great holiday, for us the work never stops. We have updated Spruz with some new features and many bug fixes.

In the most recent update there have been some new options added to the site properties section.

We have added more control over who joins your website!  You can now set your site to require approval for new members before they join.

You can set your site as private by making all visitors log in before viewing any content.

The new member security options can be changed from the Site Properties section of your site administration.

New Elements:

We have added a new random gallery pic element that you can apply to your site that will rotate gallery images. If you want to create featured pics you can create a new gallery then move featured images into it. Once this has been done add the Gallery element and select your featured gallery. The element will then rotate only the featured pics you have selected.

In our past few updates we have addressed many bug and style fixes. Please report errors or bugs using our new Support Ticket area that can be accessed from your site administration.

We welcome your ideas, and suggestions. We based our bug fixes, improvements, and new features based on the number of people making requests. If you have a suggestion post it in our suggestion box at http://www.spruz.com/forums.asp?page=t&v=124481

Some new features that are in the works:

New classifieds system that would allow you to have your own section that will allow your site visitors to post classified ads.

Complete rewrite of the site forums with all new features and many improvements.

New Geo Location community system that will allow people to find sites and other people close to them.

As Spruz gets closer to version two we have been working more and more to add features and functionality that have been requested by users through feedback. A major theme in the feedback has been requests for more help and more documentation; also to make the administration easier to use, with less clicks to get where you want to go.

In answer to our users we have released an update to the site administration that brings better functionality (one click to the most commonly used features like adding a new page), as well as support and information at your fingertips.

This update opens the door to better features and easier management.  Be sure to check out the new video, showing you around the administration area.