Installing software

Installing and upgrading software on computers is a pretty boring job. Doing it manually involves lots of waiting and sometimes some pretty cryptic error messages.

At HipSnip we set up software on live, development and test systems all the time so it's important to automate it. It's very easy to quickly install something on your development server in order to get your new feature working and then make the mistake of forgetting to install it on your live server.

When I put a new version of our software up I need to be confident that everything is going to run exactly as we expect it to. That’s why we use scripts running on Chef from Opscode to make sure to match the setup we use for our tests to the one we use in production. There are always going to be differences in hardware and network configuration to take into account but if you control as much as you can the room for error can be reduced considerably.

We are in the process of open sourcing our Chef code (known as cookbooks - Chef pushes the cooking metaphor as far as it will go!). Our  dedicated github organisation has all of our cookbooks. We've been frustrated by the quality of some of the public cookbooks that we've found, so we intend to keep the quality of ours high by making sure that they all come bundled with test suites and good documentation about what features and platforms they support.

We will be posting more details about the software we use (and how we install it) on this blog. If you're a Chef user please take a look at our cookbooks and let us know @HipSnip if they work for you.

Future Plc launch a new affiliate initiative in partnership with HipSnip

Future Plc, an international media group, have today launched a major new affiliate initiative in partnership with HipSnip, a shopping Questions & Answer service.

Future are the world’s largest cycling publisher and have launched a new Q&A section on BikeRadar, one of their leading cycling websites.

This new section, called ‘Ask BikeRadar’, enables their audience of cycling enthusiasts to ask for and share shopping advice. The service is powered by HipSnip and gives BikeRadar an engaging and directly monetised social channel to their audiences.

Anyone can ask questions on BikeRadar which their audience of cycling enthusiasts and product experts will answer. Product suggestions can be made from the inbuilt database of products, which provide BikeRadar with a ready-to-go affiliate revenue stream. In addition brands are able to sponsor specific sections or come in as ‘sponsored experts’. These questions and answers will create high quality user generated content centred around cycling related questions. This will not only give their audience more exciting content to engage with but also help SEO and drive organic search traffic.

Phil Woodward, CEO and founder of HipSnip says: “We’re really excited by today’s launch. Our goal is to help BikeRadar and other sites with high quality content to leverage the opportunities in affiliate commission. BikeRadar’s audience now benefit from a simple and engaging service to get advice from the community. At the same time BikeRadar’s retail and brand partners benefit from a new channel that gives them insights into what people are shopping for.”

HipSnip’s Q&A product is hosted in the cloud, making integration and management as simple as adding a link to a site. They are integrated with all the major affiliate networks, and have built a consolidated product database from across a broad range of retailers which enables users to easily add product suggestions that are direct affiliate links back to retailers. In addition they have built a ‘follow’ system so that users can follow interesting questions or each other across any HipSnip powered site – a key feature to drive engagement and bring visitors back to sites.

Ask BikeRadar will launch on 14 December 2012 at http://ask.bikeradar.com

See this online: http://blog.hipsnip.com/2012/12/future-plc-launch-new-affiliate.html

About HipSnip

HipSnip is a Q&A platform which helps shoppers quickly decide what to buy and to buy more online.

It is embedded into publisher and retailer websites and makes it easy for shoppers to get advice from a publisher's own audience and from expert retail staff.

HipSnip helps drive increased audience engagement, new revenue and new customer insights by providing audiences a social channel to interact with.

Audience engagement comes from user generated content and a Twitter-style Follow system. Inbuilt revenue options include affiliate product feeds and sponsored brand positions for different Q&A sections.

HipSnip is as easy to set up as a blog, and is a hosted service – so there are little to no IT overheads.

http://hipsnip.com

About Future plc:

Future plc is an international media group and leading digital publisher, listed on the London Stock Exchange (symbol: FUTR).  Founded in 1985 with one magazine, today we have operations in the UK, US and Australia creating 200 special-interest publications, apps, websites and events.  We hold market-leading positions in Games, Film, Music, Technology, Cycling, Automotive and Crafts. Our biggest-selling products include T3, Total Film, Classic Rock and Official Xbox Magazine. Our websites include gamesradar.com, bikeradar.com, musicradar.com and techradar.com (the UK's number one consumer technology website). Future sells 2.2 million magazines each month; we attract more than 45 million monthly unique visitors to our websites; and we deliver over 100 digital editions and bespoke apps on tablet. Future exports or syndicates publications to 89 countries, making us the UK's number one exporter and licensor of magazine content. Future was named Consumer Digital Publisher of the Year for the second year running at the Association of Online Publishers Awards 2012 and PPA Digital Consumer Publisher of the Year 2012..

HipSnip joins the CMA and sponsors the International Content Marketing Summit

HipSnip has joined the Content Marketing Association (the CMA) as an affiliate member and is sponsoring their upcoming International Content Marketing Summit 2012.

The CMA is the professional body representing publishing and content marketing agencies in the UK. The International Content Marketing Summit gathers the world's leading experts on content marketing to share their knowledge and experience.

We're excited to be a part of association and look forward to both learning from the very best content marketers, and contributing to this exciting and fast growing industry.

We hope to see you at the Summit on Wednesday 28th November.

HipSnip joins Tradedoubler’s incubator scheme The Zoo Project

HipSnip is excited to announce that it has joined Tradedoubler’s incubator scheme The Zoo Project.

Designed to fuel grass roots business growth and innovation in performance marketing, The Zoo Project provides office space and direct commercial support to its companies.

HipSnip will be based out of Tradedoubler’s Victoria offices (with nice views from the 24^th floor :) and will work closely with their retail and publishing clients.

More at the press release on A4u

http://www.affiliates4u.com/news/2012/09/new-zoo-project-residents-announced/

Collaborative Consumption - people helping people

The BBC recently did a piece on the rise in Collaborative Consumption.


This trend includes companies such as AirBnB, where people rent their spare rooms. parkatmyhouse, where people rent their spare parking spaces. But also StackOverflow, where developers give of their spare time to help answer other developers' questions.


HipSnip sits squarely in the middle of this trend, and it's exciting to see it being picked up by the mainstream press.


We're seeking to make it as easy as possible for shoppers to get advice from other shopping enthusiasts, as well as shopping experts in the form of retail staff.


Connecting up people needing advice with those able and willing to give it is incredibly powerful. It saves people time hunting for answers and stops people wasting money buying the wrong product.


And it's fun! Underlying all Collaborative Consumption is community. We connect people and also give those sharing their advice a reputation score, so people's helpfulness and expertise are publicly acknowledged.

The last week of Springboard

For the past 12 weeks HipSnip has been on Europe's top accelerator programme, Springboard. Run out of Google Campus, Springboard seeks to accelerate the development of some of Europe's most exciting startups.

During the process we've been fortunate to meet over 140 mentors and advisors, visit top tech companies such as Rackspace, Amazon and Microsoft, and mix with a bunch of other great tech companies.

We're now entering the final week of the programme, with an investor pitch on Thursday July 5th, where over 180 angel and VC investors are expected to be in attendance.

It's been a great process, and we're looking forward to talking about what we do on 5th July.

Cisco BIG Awards

HipSnip is through to the semi finals of the Cisco BIG awards.


20 companies are at this stage and 6 will go through to the final and the chance to win a $100,000 cash prize.


More at:
https://www.thebigawards.co.uk/Page/SemiFinalists?&num_ideas=25&sort_col=2&idea_stage=1