June, 2010


30
Jun 10

Rasmus Lerdorf has joined Earndit as an Advisor

We are excited to announce that Rasmus Lerdorf has joined Earndit as an Advisor.  For those that don’t know, Rasmus is an absolute stud for many reasons.  He is the creator of the PHP programming language most websites use (including ours).  He spearheads many open source projects and travels around the world to speak at conferences.  He was an engineer at Yahoo for several years, and now he is developing the API for a company called WePay.

All of you have certainly seen his name near the top of the Earndit leaderboard, for he is an avid runner and has been a member of Earndit since our first week.  Rasmus even won the April trophy for most points in that month.

Going forward Rasmus will help us on both the technical side of things and the user experience side of things.  We couldn’t be happier to welcome him aboard.


24
Jun 10

Some improvements

Hi everyone.  We’ve been hard at work enhancing your user experience and trying to make Earndit as awesome as possible.  To that end, here are the latest improvements:

  • Upgrade to the latest version of Nike’s API
  • Extra data capture of Nike+ activities
  • Beta version of support for the EveryTrail app (some of you can already add it from your “Profile & Devices” page, but you should download the app first).  Once the beta trial is over, we will roll it out to everyone.
  • New listing of your activities (see screenshot below showing how to access it)

A very special thanks to Harry for being an amazing product developer!!


22
Jun 10

New Reward: Tavalon Tea

We are thrilled to announce the addition of Tavalon Tea to our roster of reward partners.  Since 2005, Tavalon has been blending high-quality teas to suit the American palate.  The company can be considered part tea seller and part tea educator, ensuring that even newcomers to the world of tea will feel comfortable perusing the different teas on the site.  Tavalon has utilized over 200 focus groups to arrive at the delicious, unique recipes they offer!  Heck, one of the company’s founders is a Tea Sommelier.  These guys know tea better than Angelina Jolie knows adopting children.

Tavalon’s reward will be in two phases.  First, they will offer a completely free, no purchase necessary, jar of Peachy Oolong Tea.  This deep, dark tea from Taiwan is enhanced with pieces of peach and sunflowers.  It has a fruity, floral taste and offers body slimming benefits.  Plus Tavalon is even picking up the cost of shipping.  This reward will be available to the first 10 Earndit members who redeem 300 points for it.  Keep in mind that this is loose-leaf tea (i.e. it doesn’t come in a sachet).

Then Tavalon will introduce the second phase of its reward.  They have offered to give you double the amount of tea that you purchase on their site.  Regardless of how much tea you buy, you will receive twice that amount in your shipment.  Please note that this extra tea will not be shown in your cart upon checkout, but it will be in the box they ship to you.  This reward will also be 300 points.

Tavalon Tea has been praised by the likes of Emeril Lagasse, NBC, EatingWell magazine, NY Times, ABC News, Bon Appetit and many others.  Go ahead and experience the future of tea with Tavalon.  You earndit!


3
Jun 10

Crystalina is our May winner!

Wow, this girl has been running A LOT! Crystalina racked up an uber-impressive 1,856 points in May, securing her position on the top of the leaderboard.

In a blog post she wrote on May 5th, she says:

“I set a new friendly competition with myself:  to continuously mark 6 miles/day and achieve the maximum daily allowance. With Earndit, I have motivated myself to get out there whether I walk or run.”

Suffice it to say that Crystalina conquered that goal with flying colors.  For her accomplishment, she has been honored with the May 2010 trophy and 50 bonus points have been added to her account.  Great job!