Skyrove Blog

This Blog Has Moved

2008-03-13T14:54:00.004+02:00

Exciting News! We've moved back to the Open Source Wordpress platform!

You can now read the Skyrove Blog here

Hotspot Reports Overhaul

2008-02-28T13:15:00.005+02:00

If you're a Skyrover running some hotspots, you recently would have noticed a revamped My Account page. You can view your uploads, downloads and earnings either per hotspot or for all your hotspots combined.

(Click on the picture to enlarge)

When you Mouse Over the red, yellow or green sections, it will show you uploads, downloads and earnings respectively. If you prefer seeing the numbers, simply click on 'show table' to get the same stats in table format.

What's great about this is that you can now easily see if there were any problems with any of your hotspots at any time. In the example above, the hotspot was down for most of 25 & 26 February.

If you'd like to see how much money your hotspot made in a particular year, simply click on the year on the left hand side, and the graph will show a breakdown month by month, instead of day by day.

We're sure you'll like the new reporting tool a lot, but in case you prefer the old one, simply click on 'Old Reports'.

Any feedback is welcome!

Online Users Now Viewable

2008-01-11T11:45:00.000+02:00

Skyrovers (Hotspot Providers) can now view online users at their hotspots!

After logging into the Skyrove Account Manager, simply click the 'Users' button to see who is online at your hotspots right now!

Skyrove Hotspot in a Tree

2007-10-21T05:09:00.000+02:00

As you know, Trees are more common in Afica than Utility poles. At a recent conference, we sponsored internet access but had to make a plan to get a decent signal from iBurst, a long distance Wireless service provider (Skyrove does 'last-yard' connectivity, iBurst does 'last-mile').

Thus came into being the world's first WiFi Treespot!

See the video below.

New: Skyrove Maps Self Add

2007-06-21T20:41:00.000+02:00

If you are a Skyrover (aka Hotspot Provider), you can now add your Hotspot location to the Skyrove Maps service yourself! No need to figure out your GPS coordinates and send it to us anymore.

Here's a screenshot showing where you can find Arnold's Cafe.

To see it looks like after adding it, head down to Arnold's for some Wi-Fi and the best Bacon & Banana Burger on the planet.

Once you're there, log into the Skyrove hotspot and send an email to info(at)skyrove.com. We'll send 500 Skyrove credits to the first 5 respondents!

The Old and the New

2007-06-21T11:43:00.000+02:00

We've been making some gradual changes to the Skyrove web interface over the last few months, which started with the Welcome Page.

I'm glad to announce that we've now finalized the new Portal Page (aka 'Splash Page') to be more consistent with the Welcome Page.

Here's a picture of the old look (Click to enlarge):

As opposed to the new:

Our brand spanking new website will also be launching soon!

Fun New Things on Hotspot Manager

2007-06-03T10:31:00.000+02:00

We've made some updates to the Hotspot Manager (the page where you set up new hotspots, set their pricing etc).

The most exciting thing is that you can now add your own Skyrove Hotspots to Skyrove Maps simply by clicking on your location!

Next up: A redesigned Portal (Splash) Page!

First Line Support and Changes to T&C

2007-05-30T11:49:00.000+02:00

We started gradually providing 1st line customer support to end-users so as to a few months ago and we are confident in handling the number of support calls.

More than 90% of support calls were related to user settings, and not to hardware problems with hotspots. Wherever we are not able to help the user directly, we will contact the Hotspot Provider to investigate further.

As such, we will be making some changes to the Portal Page (aka Splash Page). With immediate effect, Skyrove will provide 1st line support contact details on the Portal Page. In the near future, the Portal Page will approximate the look & feel of the Welcome Page (what people see after they've logged in).

We are also revamping our Hotspot Provider Terms & Conditions, and ask that you revisit these (https://auth.skyrove.com/provider_tandc.html). Due to implementing Rand Billing on our systems, clause 8 has changed slightly. Clause 10 is to ensure a consistent experience for end-users and Clauses 11 and 12 are to ensure end-users can easily identify hotspot locations where they can use their credits, either through signage or when connecting to the nearest Wi-Fi network.

Thank you for all your feedback so far!

2 Big Changes for Hotspot Providers

2007-05-09T10:42:00.000+02:00

We are planning two major changes that will affect new Hotspot Providers:

1. We plan to do first-line customer support centrally. This is so that we can provide a consistent service to all Skryove end-users, while at the same time taking off the load from the Hotspot Provider. This support will be limited to telephonic suppport related to end-user problems. If we cannot help the user, we will contact the Hotspot Provider to check the status of the Hotspot.

2. We plan to implement different revenue-share models for Hotspot Providers. We will have two common models on our website:

a) Sign up as an ordinary Skyrover (Hotspot Provider), and get 50% revenue share. If you plan to only run a single hotspot for your coffeeshop or to share with a few neighbours, you'll qualify for this.

b) If you plan to install Skyrove at lots of different locations, you can also become a Skyrove Reseller. You might be running an IT company or have a passion for technology and entrepreneurship. You can get between 50% and 70% revenues, on a sliding scale based on total revenues. We also plan to provide more documentation, training, etc in return for a commitment to upholding certain minimum Skyrove standards and to keep setting up new Skyrove hotspots.

Skyrove resellers will also have an opportunity to provide a service to ordinary Skyrovers, and we are thinking of linking up ordinary Skyrovers with Skyrove Resellers. For example, we could promote Skyrove resellers on our website, and if someone wants to start their own hotspot, they can choose to get a Skyrove Hotspot-to-Go or to use the services of a Skyrove Reseller to come and install at their location.

Currently, we have not finalised all the details, and therefore would like to ask you for any feedback on how best we should implement this.

We have only one goal with the new models: To get more Skyrove hotspots out there!

We are offering a free Skyrove router to the best feedback we receive, positive or negative. Please email your feedback to henk(at)skyrove(dot)com or leave a comment on this blog.

Google Search Box Disclosure

2007-05-02T19:20:00.000+02:00

If you're a Skyrove Provider, you may have noticed that we've implemented a Google Search Box on the Skyrove Welcome page.

If end-users use this to search, and thereafter click on a Google Adword on the Results Page, Skyrove will earn commission on the cost-per-click.

For now, we're simply trying it out and the primary purpose is for the Search Box to be a value-add to customers, NOT a revenue earner for Skyrove or Skyrovers (Hotspot Providers).

If it turns out that there are significant revenues resulting, we will look again at implementing a revenue share structure for Skyrovers. I'll also gladly publish revenue figures here, in the interest of transparency. (So far 0c earned!)

New Welcome Page

2007-05-02T19:08:00.000+02:00

We've just implemented a new look Skyrove Welcome page! (That's what we call the page that displays immediately after you've connected to a Skyrove hotspot). It's still a work in progress, so we might still add and remove a few things.

The main feature we've added is the Google Search box. We noticed many people went straight from our Welcome page to Google, so we thought we'd save you some time by allowing to do a Google Search directly from the Skyrove Welcome page.

Is there anything you really miss from the old page? Is there anything you really don't need on the new one?

Please leave a comment! (100 free Skyrove credits to the first 10 responses before 5 May, which is also Henk's Birthday! Please also mail me at henk at skyrove dot com with your Skyrove username so I know who you are)

Credit Payments in Rands

2007-04-17T16:12:00.000+02:00

We are starting to charge in South African Rands (in South Africa only), instead of US dollars for a variety of reasons.

The drawback to this to you as an end-user in South Africa is that we have to add Value Added Tax (14%) to all your credit purchases in the future.

The benefit is that our Skyrove hotspot providers will no longer be losing revenues because of overseas bank transfers, and therefore we expect to see reductions in pricing at hotspots soon.

Another benefit is that the price per credit is now fixed at 8 South African cents, including VAT, and does not vary based on the exchange rate.

Furthermore, our new credit card processing system is a lot quicker than PayPal was, and also does not ever require you to register for any special service such as PayPal's, which should lead to a lot less frustration.

If you are having any problems making payments with the new system, please don't hesitate to contact us on info@skyrove.com or by phone on +27 (21) 4488843.

Best,
Henk

South African Rand Billing

2007-04-04T10:52:00.000+02:00

We are in the process of implementing a new credit card processing system for Skyrove payments.

In future, all payments made from within South Africa will be done in South African Rands, instead of dollars. All payments made from outside of South Africa will still be done in US Dollars.

This has the following implications for South African Hotspot Providers:

1. The price per Skyrove credit will be fixed at 0.0702 SA Rands, EXCLUDING VAT. i.e. 0.08 SA Rands INCLUDING VAT.
2. If your company is VAT registered, Skyrove will pay out based on the VAT INCLUSIVE rate. If your company is not VAT registered, Skyrove will pay out based on the VAT EXCLUSIVE rate.

Please provide us with your company details and VAT registration number if you are based in South Africa and need to declare VAT.

All revenues accrued in April will be based on this new system, i.e. the first payment to be made using the new, fixed conversion rate will be made at the end of May 2007.

Sign In from Homepage

2007-03-22T10:10:00.000+02:00

I'm glad to inform you that you can now log into Skyrove directly from the home page, without first having to click on the 'My Account' link.

Simply go to http://www.skyrove.com and enter your username and password in the top right hand corner and click Sign In.

Many thanks to Axel, our super cyclist German intern, and Stelio, our hot Portuguese programmer for making it happen!

Intoducing the Skyrove Team

2007-03-18T00:10:00.000+02:00

From left: Axel, Tino, Henk, Stelio, Allister.

Check out our profiles here!

Connectivity Troubleshooting Flowchart

2007-03-13T11:27:00.000+02:00

Here's a basic troubleshooting flowchart in case you or users at your hotspot aren't able to connect. You can also view it on the Skyrove Wiki.

Skyrove at 27 Geek Dinner

2007-03-08T17:51:00.000+02:00

See if you can spot the Skyrove team in the video below! (hint: Allister's the one making sure that he gets enough wine)

Suspension of Affiliate Campaign on Welcome Page

2007-03-08T14:25:00.000+02:00

I've received some serious and very valid objections from some providers regarding the Travelstart campaign on our website. Some of our providers offer competitive services to Travelstart and as such this campaign may be bad for their business.

My apologies to anyone who was negatively affected. Our plan in the future is to offer Affiliate Marketing purely as an 'opt-in' service. Hotspot Providers will be able to choose in their account manager whether they would like to advertise 3rd party services and benefit from the revenues earned.

Before spending development time on this, we decided to run a test campaign.

Although the campaign ran only 2 days, I thought I'd post up the statistics:

1. Impressions : 227
This is how many times the Travelstart banner was displayed. Most people did not see the Travelstart banner when they logged in as they still had the old Welcome page cached in their browser.
2. Clicks : 6
This is how many people actually clicked the Submit button on the Travelstart banner and saw an offer for a flight.
3. Sales : 0
This is how many people actually bought a flight.

Of course this sample is too small to really make any estimations. Apparently, the average Clicks to Sales ratio is 0.5%, so over time we could have expected to make about 12 sales a month with Skyrove's current size and with everyone logging in seeing the Travelstart banner.

If you have any ideas for doing advertising through Skyrove hotspots, please let us know. We'd like to implement new features such as these provided that the benefits to Skyrove, Hotspot Providers and end-users outweigh the drawbacks.

Affiliate Links on Welcome Page

2007-03-05T22:29:00.000+02:00

I mentioned last year, and more recently in a podcast on the Amplitude Show, that we've been looking at ways to implement advertising on our Welcome page.

The bad news is that we haven't really figured out how to do this properly, yet. The good news is that we realised that sometimes the best way to figure something out, is by doing it!

So without further adieu, we are introducing a pilot advertising campaign for Travelstart, a discount airfare booking site, on our Welcome page. We thought that this would be the best product to promote, seeing as most Skyrovers are visitors to South Africa, and may have the need to get around.

The point of this campaign is to first try and determine whether there's any value in having advertising on the Skyrove Welcome page, or whether this is merely an annoyance to customers, before we develop a more robust product in which Skyrove Providers can partake.

And, of course, to get feedback from Skyrover Providers!

Skyrove Support Number

2007-03-05T22:06:00.000+02:00

I'm happy to announce that we've launched a Skyrove Support number! +27 (021) 4488843 We plan to progressively give more 1st line customer support to Skyrovers over the coming months.

Skyrove will start to directly support Skyrovers with forgotten passwords or who have account or purchasing queries who would normally have been referred to us only after speaking to the Hotspot Provider, thus causing extra inconvenience for the end-user.

In addition, Skyrove will also give telephone support to users who are having trouble connecting to the network due to any problems on their computers, such as Wi-Fi cards not being on and static IP addresses or proxies being set.

If we determine that the problem is with the hotspot itself, we will then contact tech support for that particular hotspot.

As always, we welcome your feedback!

Henk

Teleporting

2007-03-05T19:58:00.000+02:00

Hi folks,

I'm taking some first steps to port the Skyrove blog to blogger, away from Wordpress. Just busy setting up at the moment!

Henk

Skyrove Maps (Beta)

2006-10-28T20:20:00.000+02:00

Hi folks,

We have finally launched Skyrove Maps. It’s still in Beta, so please forgive some minor bugs and anomylous behaviour.

Please note that less than 10% of Skyrove hotspots are currently shown on the map. We depend on Hotspot Owners providing us with their hotspot coordinates, so it will be a few weeks before all Skyrove hotspots are shown.

It also only works in Firefox for the time being, so if you’re STILL running Internet Explorer head over to www.getfirefox.com and get the faster, more secure internet browser.

Your feedback is always welcome! (Either here, on our forums or by email

Skyrove Pricing Recommendations

2006-09-20T20:18:00.000+02:00

I’d like to share with you ways in which you can maximise your Hotspot earnings, while at the same time offering a highly competitive service to Skyrovers.

One of the things we’ve learnt in the last few months is that the most expensive hotspots do not make the most money.

For example, we have 2 hotspots that both cater exclusively for American Exchange students.

Here’s a brief comparison:
Hotspot A Hotspot B
12 users 18 users
~$1005 per month $734 per month
Average user time online: 46 minutes Average user time online: 23 minutes

Although Hotspot A is 4 times cheaper, its earnings are almost 50% higher! Hotspot A is also much more likely to retain customers in the face of ever-growing competition.

The reason for this is simple: Once Internet users perceive the service to be expensive, they start closely monitoring their own usage. If internet access is affordable, users don’t hesitate to download a song from iTunes or having a lengthy chat using Skype. Although they now spend more, they are definitely getting more value for money! They’re also less likley to look for alternatives.

Based on our current experience with hotspots at cafes, hotels and MDUs (Multiple Dwelling Units), we’d like to make the following pricing recommendations:

Cafes/restaurants: 10 - 20 credits per MB
Hotels: 15 - 30 credits per MB
MDUs & Student Accommodation: 5 - 10 credits per MB
(Note that these are recommended prices for South Africa & other countries with similarly high bandwidth costs)

Please experiment with your pricing, perhaps by offering time-limited discounts. Be sure to distribute pamphlets informing users of a price drop. It’s important to find a ’sweet spot’, a price that is low enough to encourage the maximum amount of usage and customer retention while at the same time retaining sufficient profit margins to fund your next Skyrove hotspot!

Changes to Pricing Increments

2006-09-20T20:14:00.000+02:00

We had some requests from Hotspot Providers who wanted to set a price somewhere below 10 credits per MB but above 5 credits per MB. Previously, you could only choose 0, 5, 10, 15… and so on.

From now, you can set the price at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, … up to 20 credits per MB in increments of 1.

1 credit is still equivalent to 1 US cent.

Please leave us some feedback about this or anything else you’d like to see improved in Skyrove!

New Portal Page is Live

2006-09-05T20:12:00.000+02:00

Hi folks,

The new portal page has gone live. If you are a Hotspot Provider, you’ll need to log into your account manager and update some settings.

Of course this is an iterative process, so we welcome your feedback for the next iteration of our portal page. Please see our previous post for the main requirements.

We know it’s not as “pretty” as the last one was, but then I prefer Google (simplicity) over Yahoo (bells & whistles).

We’ll keep working on it!

Welcome Page

2006-08-07T20:09:00.000+02:00

Hi Folks,

By now you would have noticed a slightly different Welcome page. (The page that shows up whenever a Skyrover clicks on the Connect button on the Portal page. The Portal page being the first page that shows up when someone connects to a hotspot)

The Welcome page is still very new, so doesn’t have half the features we’re looking at. We’re looking to have certain elements of the Welcome page being controlled by the Hotspot Providers. Once again, as with the portal page, there will be certain restrictions as to what is possible. (I.e. no porn, no animated advertisements etc). The purpose of the Welcome page is to provide help to Skyrovers.

As always, we ask for your feedback! You can discuss this topic on our forum at http://www.skyrove.com/community/

New Skyrove Portal

2006-07-22T20:03:00.000+02:00

The current Skyrove Hotspot Portal doesn’t look too great. The main reason for this is that it was designed ‘by programmers, for programmers’. This means it was built to be functional, rather than aesthetic.

We place a lot of value on simplicity, but sometimes a simple nature does not imply it will be simple to use or understand. Imagine a computer keyboard with only one button. You could use Morse code to enter data! Very simple, but not really user-friendly.

We’ve started redesigning our Portal page (the first page anyone sees when they connect to a Skyrove Hotspot).

Our requirements are:

1. Must be user-friendly

2. Must be fast to load

3. Must give all pertinent information, but not too much information

4. Skyrove Hotspot Provider must be able to provide their own logos, pictures and some advertising, within limits.

5. Regardless of point 4, there must be a consistent look & feel across all Skyrove hotspots, making it instantly recognizable by Skyrovers.

Here’s what we’ve come up with so far:

Changes to the way we charge for megabytes

2006-07-17T20:00:00.000+02:00

When Skyrove started charging for megabytes, instead of for minutes, a lot of people said we were simply overestimating the intellectual capacity of our customers. “No-one understands a megabyte”. Be that as it may, it seems most people have figured out that Skyrove’s prepaid per megabyte billing system is both more convenient and cheaper overall! There are many other reasons for 24/7 access based on per megabyte billing, and I’ll be sure to post about them in another post.
Up till now Skyrove has been charging only for downloaded megabytes. This means that some customers could be running photo servers and the like without Skyrove Providers getting paid for it.

In places where Skyrove Providers pay for bandwidth going up and down, this could lead to significant losses.

By the end of the month Skyrove will be amending the structure so that customers will be paying for both downloads AND uploads.

This will benefit both Providers and Skyrovers. Providers won’t be taking any risk of end users abusing bandwidth, and are therefore expected to drop their prices.

Skyrove Blog

2006-05-04T19:57:00.000+02:00

Welcome to Skyrove’s Blog!

Through this blog we’ll keep Skyrovers informed about everything that’s happening! New features, new hotspots, new partnerships etc.

This is mostly a blog about Skyrove, not general news & opinions, but don’t be too surprized if we write something irrelevant (or irreverent)!