RideSearch.com March Newsletter

1. A Thank You from Brian Bass
2. Wanted: Your carpool stories.
3. Beta Testers Wanted for iPhone site.
4. The future plans (The 5 Cs).
A. RideSearch for Commuters
B. RideSearch for Companies
C. RideSearch for Colleges
D. RideSearch for Cities
E. RideSearch for Countries
5. Encouragement


Many thanks to all of you that have signed up with the premier site for carpooling RideSearch.com! I certainly appreciate your support. Our mission is, and will continue to be, to make our environment cleaner and to ease the rising cost of fuel at the pump. As I look through the news, I see more and more reasons for you and I to carpool, and I thank you for being the pioneers in that endeavor. I think that as we look to the future we will definitely reap the rewards of carpooling for a better tomorrow.

I want to encourage you to stay with us as we grow. We are going through some growing pains. For instance, I would ignore the email that was sent to you by getresponse.com asking you to join the RideSearch mailing list. That was a mistake as I was searching for newsletter software I was unaware that they give away emails. RideSearch seeks to not be a spammer and will never sell or give away your email address. You have already taken that all important first step in signing up and as more users sign on, check back to Ridesearch.com and go to the tab marked "Find a Ride" or "Message Center" to see if you have new matches. If you aren't sure if you have messages in your inbox, we will take care of that for you. You will receive an email that says "A Carpool Message is Waiting For You" whenever you get a message from a potential match. I also encourage you to send a personal email, even this email, to a friend and tell them that signing up with RideSearch.com will help every commuter in the United States.

The word is spreading about Ridesearch and it is truly exciting! In the first month alone we had over 1,000 visitors and in the months following we experienced a growth of over 2,000 visitors to the site. We feel that the next big news story could launch RideSearch.com into the household name status. RideSearch is mounting many aggressive internet advertising campaigns and our goal is to spread the word to the entire nation. We are also reserving booth at the Plano, Texas, Green Expo and at the Green Apple Festival in Los Angeles for Earth Day. Get involved in Earth Day (April 22, 2008) and show up to your local festivities with flyers to hand out to people. Email me, Brian Bass, address is brian@ridesearch.com and I can provide you with eco-friendly business cards, also.

I encourage you to post our link in your blogs and forums that you visit. Just copy the following text into your signature or wherever you post things on the Internet:

Carpool with RideSearch.com


2. Wanted: Your carpool stories.
As our membership grows, the odds of you finding the perfect carpool gets better. I am currently looking for your carpool stories. Be one of the first RideSearch users to send in their story about how you and and another RideSearch user are actively carpooling and I will pay for a full tank of gas for both users. Both users should send me the following information via email(brian@ridesearch.com)

Your username and real name
The other person's username and real name,
Your story of:
a. Why you wanted to carpool.
b. How you met each other at RideSearch.com.
c. How much money you saved by carpooling.
d. How long (time and distance) both of your commutes are.
e. Did you use intersections, parking lots, or addresses to meet?
f. Did you meet in a public place first?
g. Would your recommend RideSearch to a friend?
h. And any other details about what it is like to carpool.
Note: As a result of this action you recognize that your testimonial may be used on the website, newsletter and in other public relations activities like newspapers, radio, and TV.


If you are the first carpool group to send this information I will notify you with instructions on where to send your gas receipt and will reimburse you from there.


3. Beta Testers Wanted for iPhone site.

The iPhone site is almost finished! I will be releasing a press release when it is completed. Now it is in testing and I invite all RideSearch users to try it out. I still need to make a few adjustments to the 'Find a Ride' and 'Message Center' tabs in the iPhone site. If you experience any problems with other parts let me know at help@ridesearch.com

Registration to RideSearch will still be done through our normal site at http://www.ridesearch.com/register.aspx


If you would like to test the iPhone application out early and have an iPhone go to:
http://iphone.ridesearch.com


I have included 3 dynamic calculators that do the following:
1. Calculate Gas Savings by Carpooling
2. Calculate how many Miles Per Gallon you receive
3. Calculate how much a person would owe another on a carpool by MPG, Gas Cost, and Distance

I am excited about this site and view this as another opportunity to reach more commuters. You may inquire: Why would an iPhone user want to carpool? My answer is that gas is increasing at an alarming rate and by way of the iPhone we can reach more users to pull into the database.

Thank you again for supporting my development activities! I look forward to your reviews.


4. The future plans.
I have many irons in the fire and as you can tell, have high hopes and dreams. I have learned in life that if you work hard and are persistent anything is possible. So as the iPhone site nears completion I will be continuing work on the following activities:

A. RideSearch for Commuters - This is what we currently have. I will be expanding it to include a forum for one time carpools, which by definition is a rideshare.

B. RideSearch for Companies - This is currently in development and can be custom built for your companies needs.
1. We are working with a major corporation right now to get the details outlined. (stay tuned for that press release)
2. We will offer an al la carte method:
A. A landing page for your company that offers company news and personalization features - similar to a MySpace page for the HR team.
B. Advice Section for members of your company to carpool.
C. A company forum for carpool contests, stories, and rules.
D. A search feature that will only search for people who have the same domain name as your company.
E. Link trading to show that the company is environmentally conscious.
F. A press release describing how your company supports carpooling with RideSearch.com

C. RideSearch for Colleges and Universities - currently in design. If you have any ideas let me know.

D. RideSearch for Cities - We offer the customized carpool plans for cities. I have already started talking to local government leaders and can work with cities to make RideSearch.com their official carpool program. What this means is basically giving cities a landing page, street signs, and press releases that talk about their commitment to the environment. If you know any city leaders email me and I will be more than happy to speak with them about our program.

E. RideSearch for the World - One of our long term goals is getting RideSearch to expand to the world. 15% of our traffic is world wide.

5. A Note of Encouragement

Thank you again for supporting this site. I have a vision. I have hope for our future. We can all learn to share our resources and conserve our planets limited fossil fuels. We can all stop greenhouse gases from harming our planet and we can learn that sacrifice is beneficial to our planet and to our wallet. The time is right now for all commuters to carpool. Thank you for taking the first step at RideSearch.com.

Sincerely,
Brian Bass
The Creator of RideSearch.com
http://www.ridesearch.com