Some exciting new updates to the front-end rolled out this week, as well as some new features and bug fixes in Radmin. Check em out and let us know what you think!

New WYSIWYG Media Widget

The WYSIWYG editor we launched this spring to help you create better looking Event descriptions and editorial content just got a BIG TIME update.

Now, with just a few clicks on the front-end you can embed Events, Venues, Artists, User pages, and more into the content on your site.


When we first built the WYSIWYG editor (What You See Is What You Get, or “wiz-ee-wig”) this spring, we modeled the features off of those on the Medium blogging platform. Medium is considered one of the best blogging sites on the web right now, and it’s in large part due to the simplicity of its editing tools.

We’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback on the WYSIWYG editor since May, but we decided we could go even farther to help you create great content on your site.

With the new “Plus Sign” widget in the left-hand margin, you can drop in rich media with just a few clicks -- including Event, Venue, Artist, and User cards, as well as photos, videos, and Flickr galleries.

Embedding Events In A Blog Post

A couple weeks ago, Do317 put up a post on their blog announcing the chance to win tickets to a big beer festival in Indy this weekend. It’s a great post, but readers have to click through to Do317.com to find the Event page before they can enter to win or RSVP.

Using the new WYSIWYG Plus Sign, Do317 was able to draft that same blog post on a /p/ Page and embed the Event card directly under the title. When readers click on the card it expands to show the “WIN”, “BUY”, and “ADD” buttons.


No need to click through anymore -- reader’s can engage with the Event directly in the blog post. That means better conversions on your blog posts and happier partners (a.k.a. $$$).

If you scroll to the bottom of the post, you can see Do317 also embedded Venue cards for the local breweries that will be at the event. It’s a great way to support you local partners and encourage readers to visit more pages on your site.

The “Plus Sign”

To add cards and other media with the WYSIWYG editor, hover over the left margin while editing a /p/ Page or Event description until the Plus Sign appears. When you click on it, this menu appears:

1. Upload photo from your computer
2. Add photo via URL
3. Embed YouTube video via URL
4. Embed DoXXX Event card
5. Embed DoXXX Venue card
6. Embed DoXXX Artist card
7. Embed DoXXX User card 
8. Add Flickr gallery via Flickr ID and Tag

We honestly cannot wait to see how you work these features into the content on your site. Besides creating new types of editorial on /p/ Pages, you can embed Event cards into an Event description to highlight future shows in a series, or embed User cards into an Event description to promote a Tastemaker that's hosting the event.

If you have any more ideas you’re looking to try, share them in the #general channel in Slack to see what others think.

Daily Rankings View in Radmin

Every once in a while, it's inevitable that the way the Popularity algorithm ranks Events on your site just doesn't look right to you. You will sometimes notice unimportant events (like a yoga class at the public library) topping a major touring Artist on your metro's front page.

In the past you would have to do a bit of guess-and-check to manually alter an Event's Popularity, see if the change you wanted occurred on your site, and then maybe go back and try again.

Now with the Daily Rankings View in Radmin (that purple button in the top left corner), you can see how Events are being ranked and adjust the Popularity rating as necessary all in one place.



Remember, adjusting Popularity ratings should only be done if you think the ranking of content doesn't match your users' interests. If Justin Beiber is the top Event on a given day because he has the most fans, you just have to deal with it.

Update to Scraper Chat

For those that have used the new chat function to make comments on a scraper in Radmin, you may have made the unfortunate mistake of clicking 'OK' instead of 'send' and deleting your beautiful letter to our coder, Taro.

To prevent that from happening anymore in the future, we just got rid of the 'OK' button. Problem solved.

Dupes No Longer Showing Up Repeatedly

When we made the switch from Admin to Radmin this summer, one of the biggest upgrades was the Duplicates ("Dupes") Queue. Instead of a long, confusing list of repetitive Events we made it possible to quickly sort through your queue to merge, edit, or delete Events that were flagged as dupes.

The one thing that wasn't better is that Radmin was pulling in Events that had already been flagged as a duplicate. That meant you might see the same dupe come into your queue again and again.

The Dev team over here at DoStuff made some changes and Radmin should now recognize scraped Events that were already flagged as dupes and keep them from ever ending up in your queue. You will need to flush your dupes queue ("Flush All") for this to start working, but this shouldn't be a problem going forward.

If you still find that dupes are showing up repeatedly in the coming weeks, log the bug in the DSD Queue in Asana or contact support and we'll take a look.

This is the first in a new series that we’ve lovingly titled WWYNFDT?! -- or, “Why Would You NOT Fucking Do That?!” This series highlights great ideas that were conceived by one of your fellow metros and ended up turning into a big win. Every one of these is easy to copy in your own metro -- and will hopefully earn you similar results.

doNYC’s Halloween Boo$t

The inaugural WWYNFDT?! post comes to us from Jon and Johnny at doNYC. Last year around this time they had the brilliant idea to create a Halloween-themed dedicated email blast (in addition to their weekly top picks email) to earn extra revenue heading into the final quarter of the year.


It’s no secret that Halloween is one of the biggest party nights of the year. Here in Austin it’s a Top-4 moneymaker for the famous Sixth St. bar district -- topped only by New Year’s Eve, Mardi Gras, and Texas Relays.

It's for this reason that doNYC knew a Halloween email blast was a no-brainer. DoNYC's audience (& the rest of the network's) are all actively looking to make plans and promoters have bigger budgets than usual for their Halloween events. Venues are competing to get the biggest crowds possible through the door, so a dedicated email blast is the perfect way for them to get the word out to an engaged and interested group of party goers.

In fact, Jon Wilson at doNYC said promoters were more than eager to spend money with them last year. He started by reaching out to their regular advertising partners to let them know what he had in mind, they were game on to place additional ad buys for inclusion in this dedicated email.

How Did NYC Do It?

The biggest key was starting early. Since this email blast was totally separate from their regular newsletter, doNYC had to figure out what their template would look like and what they wanted to charge for the ad space.

doNYC sold a handful of 155x155 Featured Event ads, plus a large banner ad at the top of their email. Depending on the email template you use, you may plan out your ad inventory a little differently. Also, doNYC threw in one or two social mentions per ad as a way to sweeten the deal.



The important thing is to plan your inventory early so you can start pitching. Trust us -- your local partners already have their Halloween budgets in mind by early September. If they're not spending it with you yet, they're spending it with someone else.

To source the Event listings, Johnny at doNYC worked hard to make sure their Halloween List was as comprehensive as possible -- costume parties, parades, shows, everything. For the email the doNYC team just picked the best content to highlight alongside their Featured Event ads.

What Would NYC Do Differently?

Even though Halloween is 7 weeks away, Jon and Johnny at doNYC are already making moves for this year's email blast -- and thinking about how they can improve it.


First, they're putting together a serious pitch deck and reaching out to ad partners starting now. Last year they contacted advertisers in early-to-mid October, and while response was great Jon thinks there's a lot more money to be had in September. Promoters are certainly looking for a boost the week or two before Halloween, but most of their ad budgets are spent by then.

Second, they're planning two Halloween email blasts this year -- one the third week of October and one the week of Halloween. This means double the revenue but it also reinforces the need to start locking down inventory and pricing now. Jon said they decided to offer a discount to advertisers that reserve a block on both of those blasts as a way to incentivize them to buy early.

Finally, doNYC is looking at other creative ways to monetize the email blasts and Halloween list this year. Getting a brand to be a title sponsor for the email blast and/or List could be a great way to earn extra cash on top of the event ads and social mentions.

How To Do It In Your Metro

This is a strategy that every single metro in the Network should copy and get a nice revenue boost from heading into the end of the year.

Sit down as a team this week and talk about what a Halloween List and email blast would look like in your metro:

• Pricing: What's your asking price? This year doNYC is selling three different ad options ranging from $400-$600 per email blast. If you want to see details, check out the email pitch Jon is sending to his local Event partners. (If you have questions, just email delivery@dostuffmedia.com).
• Brand Sponsorships: everyone can come up with at least 5 brands to pitch. Do It.
• Content: How can you make the email and List more engaging to your audience? What do people in your city look forward to the most around Halloween?
• How many? Are you planning two Halloween email blasts in October or just one?

The A/C isn't the only thing that's been cranking at the DoStuff offices this summer.

Here's a round-up of what's been going on here in Austin and around the Network the past month -- plus some updates to look forward to in September.

Product Updates

New Sharing Widget

After some major product updates in July, August has been more tame with just a steady stream of tweaks and improvements.

One of those is the new social sharing widget added to the side of all pages on your site. This widget makes it easier for readers to share their favorite Events, Artists, and posts, and provides us with valuable insights into what content goes viral.


In the three weeks since this widget was rolled out, we can already see that Facebook is the overwhelming platform of choice for our readers, making up 77% of all shares (Twitter has accounted for only 18%).

One of the most shared pages so far has been Do415’s “10 Things We Love About Nightlife”, with 37 clicks coming from three different shares -- all on Facebook. Kind of makes you want to start publishing your own viral content on your site, doesn’t it?

What else?

• Events in Radmin Dashboard! You may have noticed Upcoming RSVPs and Upcoming Giveaways in your Radmin Dashboard this week. These are the first additions of what will become a more full-featured Dashboard. 
• Social Links in Radmin: The social links that appear in your site’s footer can now be edited and rearranged in Radmin
• Just go to Content > Social Links in the Radmin sidebar
• Advertiser Names: When setting up an ad in Radmin, you can browse existing Advertiser names in a pop-up so you don’t accidentally duplicate an Advertiser using a different (or misspelled) name
• Browsing Pages: You can now browse /p/ Pages in Radmin and sort them by either by name or date created
• Just go to Content > Pages in the Radmin sidebar
• Fixed Ticket Info Bug: We fixed a bug that was causing some ticket info to be hidden in Radmin
• Promo Users Reindexed: There was a bug reported in the DSD queue that some promo (List) users were not showing up as suggestions when voting on Events. We reindexed all promo users so that this is longer an issue.
• Radmin Ads 'Active' By Default: Some of you were reporting that brand ads that were set up in Radmin weren't appearing on the site. It turned out that they were usually just checked 'inactive'. All ads in Radmin are now made 'active' by default to avoid confusion.
• Adding Assets in Radmin: You can now add site assets in Radmin by clicking on the Paperclip at the top of the sidebar
• Assets can be managed in by going to Site Design > Assets in the Radmin sidebar

Tools to Help You Win