Ecademy network for businesses

[Faith28]

Has anyone had any experience of this business club;

www.ecademy.com

Just wondered what people thought on here.

(is it just me or do the pages take ages to load up on that site!?)

[webit]

Have a look at:

http://www.ukbusinessforums.co.uk/ftopic5297.php&highlight=ecademy


I've just been looking at it again for our webit.net application.

[DarrenC]

Faith, I've been a member of Ecademy for a number of years, and also run a travel networking community on there.

I don't spend a lot of time to reading the articles and blog entries, because alot of is people advertising their business in my opinion, and I've not 'learnt' much from the articles or blogs.

What I do like about Ecademy, which is what it really is all about is the networking - I've learnt alot from speaking to people on the telephone and email who run travel businesses.

Darren

[Faith28]

Thanks for that link....should have done a search beforehand :oops:

It seems the consensus is that it takes too much time...hmm, I got lost in there!

[Tin]

Tried it but didn't like it. :roll: a bit like cold custard... you either love it or hate it.

[Jim Lowe]

Hi,

ecademy is a great place. Howevr, the front page where all the Blogs are is best avoide unless you like browsing trivia.

The main attraction of Ecademy is the club networking system. Once you get into it and find the right clubs it has amny advantages.

regards

[Tazuk]

Another site for networking is soflow

http://www.soflow.com/

and

network to connect

http://www.network2connect.com/site/index.aspx

[10 Yetis]

Ecademy is a strange one...

I never got much out of it and to be honest was on the brink of ditching it again as I get sick of the cardigan wearing "business coaches" on there (who are basically blokes nearing retirement who have been made redundant) trying to flog us their services.

And then, the other day, someone who knew someone who knew the auntie of someones cousin recommended me to a potential client who we are now close to tie-ing up a quite a big contract with.

So, although jury is still out, but in one deal I have more than covered the cost of going on there for a year.

P.s. take a look at my site profile and you will have a giggle.. as a joke I put up a pic of me wobbling me thang on the dancefloor! Still didn't scare the business coaches off.

Oh yeah, if i am honest i spend most of my time looking to find people from this forum on there. And... for the first time I saw a pic of Mark of Eagle fame. Although I am not that way inclined, he would give MacmyDay a run for his money.

[Shay]

Good points and bad.

I have learn't an awful lot from the people in there and like every network there will be those who take the mick with endless blogverts or mindless posts just to raise their google profile.

Much better beneath the surface.

The other site which has potential is www.lastthursday.net based on the social side of things for business professionals without the endless adverts.

[telemax]

I have found you get out what you put in.

I have been a member for 3 months now and already have paid for my membership 3 times over and got a great long term customer.

I also have found a very good supplier. True there is a lot of rubbish on there but the same can be said for the whole internet.

It's definitely worth a tenner a month...

Regards

Jonathan

[dan_moore]

It's worth it, if and only if you're prepared to put in the time making connections with lots of people...

I've been using ecademy for over a year now, and in the first few months whilst I met several interesting people, most people wanted free advice: particularly with web design many people want freebies in return for a link back to your company! (When you ask them for free legal advice if they're a lawyer, or free accounting if they are an accountant in return for recommendations, however, they don't think that's fair!!!)

However a year on I've had a good amount of work from people I've met through the site and paid for a years' membership many times over.

The site seems mainly to be composed of one man bands and small businesses, with a huge number of "life coaches", followed closely by web designers, graphic designers etc...

If you want to trial it you can become a standard member for a bit first (grey star I think!) before coughing up the cash...

Hope this helps,

Dan

[Bernard]

I am a member of ecademy and Last Thursday and probably get more intangible benefits than hard benefits form them, though I have had some business out of it. What I like are the public meetings where you get to meet the people who you see on line. As it name suggests, Last Thursday (http://www.lastthursday.net) meets on the last Thursday of every month. Initially the meetings were only in London but regional meetings are starting up. Details of the London meeting are here (http://www.lastthursday.net/club/89/home) and details of the Yorkshire meeting are here (http://www.lastthursday.net/club/81/7408)

Regards

Bernard