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Update News
for November 2015
Here is a quick run-down on what you will find in this bulletin:
Term4Sale Listings Frozen Until January 2016
Trial Users Will Get FREE Software
Until April 30, 2016
Special Referral Opportunity
Why Are FREE Postal Codes So Important?
Data Changes Are Delayed Until December
FINAL WARNING - Internet Engine Users
Responsive Pages Coming to Web Quotes
These topics will be dealt with in more detail throughout this bulletin.
Starting Monday, November 2, 2015, Compulife subscribers have a one week period in which to "bump" those with paid postal code listings in their local area. We have told a large number of subscribers about this opportunity and we have talked about it many times in bulletins. We expect a small land rush - first come, first served.
The only way to "bump" a paid listing is to use one of your FREE postal code listings. Each subscriber to Compulife has 3 FREE postal code listings at www.term4sale.ca (some have more, read on). Those postal codes can be used to obtain better postal code listings in your local area, where those listings were previously full and where one or more of those listed paid to be listed in that postal code.
To review the postal codes in your area, please use the Compulife Postal Code Analyzer.
If you switch an existing listing and bump a paid listing, your new listing(s) will take effect January 1st. A subscriber who previously paid for that listing will get to keep that listing until the end of the year. However, the listing will be removed immediately from the bumped subscriber's account. When we invoice the paid listing renewals in the middle of November, that listing will not be on the invoice.
IMPORTANT: Due to this transition period, where subscribers will lose listings for 2016, that they get to keep to the end of 2015, Compulife will FREEZE postal codes lists from November 2nd to Monday, January 11th.
Why Monday January 11, 2016?
January 11, 2016 will be the next important date in this process. That is the date when the new postal code listings are placed on to the www.term4sale.ca web site. Those listings will include all the changes made at the beginning of November, and subscribers who have NOT paid for their postal code renewals by the end of the day on Wednesday, January 6th, will be deleted from the list.
Therefore, Monday January 11, 2016 is an important date for those who buy additional postal codes. On that day you can use the Compulife Postal Code Analyzer to see what postal codes have become available (did not renew). Inevitably a certain number of postal codes are NOT renewed each year, and those relinquished postal codes come back into play on that day. Each year, for the past few years, this has lead to a land rush of new purchases.
Prices for paid postal codes are unchanged for 2016. Any subscriber who buys up to 20 additional postal code listings, will pay $12 per listing ($1 X 12). Standard license subscriber can buy up to 80 postal codes.
The dates and rules are all about keeping this "fair" and "equal" for every Compulife subscriber.
Each new prospective subscriber to Compulife begins with a FREE subscription, assuming that they do the "Dare to Compare" tutorial. Typically the period of that FREE subscription is 4 months.
Due to the fact that agents obtaining that subscription during November and December, will not be able to get any postal codes listings at www.term4sale.ca until January 11th, they will get the software FREE until January 10th, and then be able to select postal codes on Monday January 11, 2016 thereby obtaining free software and 3 free postal code listing until the end of April.. The only postal codes available to non-paying trial users are those that are available. Trial subscribers, who have not paid for software, cannot bump. Once again, trial subscribers who come on board in November and December will have their subscription FREE until the end of April.
If you REFER a new subscriber to Compulife they will get FREE Compulife (including web quotes and 3 free postal codes listings) for 6 months (instead of the usual 4).
IMPORTANT: The standing offer of 4 free months is what we offer on our site. If you do not use the following referral form to order the trial, then your referral will NOT get 6 free months:
Your REWARD for the referral: A FREE postal code listing at www.term4sale.ca until the end of 2017. That's $26.00 value ($1 X 26). You need to keep reading for more information about why this is more valuable than just $26.00. The sooner you get the referral started, the longer you will have the benefit of your additional free postal code(s).
How does this work?
First, you must give us the referral using THIS FORM:
Second, your referral must install the 30 day free trial and complete the tutorial. If your referral does not complete the tutorial you do not get your additional free postal code listing to the end of 2017.
Therefore, it is important for you to make the referral and then follow-up with your referral to make sure that they do the tutorial. Remind them that they get Compulife free for 6 months, which includes 3 free postal code listings at www.term4sale.ca. They also get the webquote option for free for 6 months.
The ability to obtain additional FREE postal code listings is VERY important. FREE postal codes (you already have 3 free postal codes with your subscription) are important because they can BUMP paid listings in your local area. If you can ADD free postal codes to your account, which are then paid to the end of 2017, it means that you can use those additional FREE postal codes to bump paid listings. Making referrals to Compulife is the ONLY WAY you can add additional FREE postal code listings.
For example, let's say that you refer 10 new agents to Compulife, and they all do the tutorial to get their free 6 month subscriptions. You will receive 10 FREE postal code listings to the end of 2017. That gives you enhanced leverage to be listed in the best postal codes in your local area.
Our apologies, one more delay in the new data changes.
Some bugs turned up in the newest Internet Engine during the development of our new Mobile Edition in the U.S., and we will be needing to update our U.S. subscribers with a new engine in the first week or two of November. For that reason we are delaying the release of the new engine, in Canada, for one more month. The good news is that the engine that we will be shipping to Canadian customers has been very heavily tested and should be bug free.
On a side note, I really like the changes that Jeremiah has come up with for the new Mobile edition. While it has not yet been completed for Canada, you are welcome to have a look at the U.S. version by going here:
Once the Canadian edition is completed, later in November or the beginning of December, we will send you a link and let you give it a try before updating your own Mobile Edition pages.
As we noted last month, the new data changes went live on www.term4sale.ca on August 27th. The site functioned normally. The new data changes then went live for our Mobile Quote Service (the old version) and that checked out. When then went live for our Web Quote option customers. We encountered no bugs. We are continuing to use the new version of the data on those servers.
Unfortunately we did encounter a bug with our U.S. version. While the bug does NOT impact the current edition of the U.S. system, it can and will impact updates moving forward, once the bug has been fixed in the Windows desktop software.
The bug has to do with the way products are indexed in the system, and where the program retrieves information in order to display company names. Without going into more detail, U.S. Internet Engine users will need to update their engines to resolve this issue and we decided to HOLD the Canadian upgrade until that bug is first resolved in the U.S. That means Canadian Internet Engine users will NOT have to update twice.
Just to review the process, the monthly update for November, which we released on October 31st, is still relying upon the old data structure. December's monthly update will also use the new data structure. However, the first midmonth update in December will convert our Canadian subscribers to the new data structure.
The new data structure will not affect subscribers to our Windows software as the new version of the Windows program will be released at the same time as the new data. Subscribers shouldn't notice or see a thing.
The November monthly update, released on October 31st, is still using the old data structure. Due to the delay above, the December monthly update will also use the old data structure. That will be the last time we release the old data version.
IMPORTANT: There will be a new mid-month update in the first week of December or shortly thereafter. The December midmonth update will rely upon the new data format. At the same time as you obtain that mid-month update, and place the new data files on your server, you will need to activate the new engine.
When we say Internet Engine Users, we are referring to those who pay us $960 for the version of Compulife that lets the customer run our comparison software from their own server. This does not affect the vast majority of Compulife subcribers.
Instructions for the new engine will be in the package that will be emailed to engine users, assuming that they completed the new "Internet Engine License Agreement". If you are an Internet Engine user and have not yet received that email, then you need to contact Compulife ASAP. We have been sending emails to Internet Engine subscribers, including an email requiring that the new "Internet Engine License Agreement" be signed prior to us providing the user with the new engine.
Once again, if an internet engine user attempts to place the December midmonth update onto their server, without the new internet engine, the new data will not work with the old engine. If this happens the thing to do is to go back and get the August monthly update again, and NOT get the midmonth update. Put those files on your server and you can continue to function until you get the new engine.
After work is completed on the Compulife Mobile Edition we will then focus on making the www.term4sale.ca comparison pages responsive. The home page of www.term4sale.ca is already responsive. That work was completed earlier in the year. It was the highest priority because google's search engine methodology changed earlier this year and ranks responsive pages more highly than non-responsive pages. Keeping a flow of consumer contacts coming in for our subscribers is a HIGH priority.
Whether the comparison pages are responsive or not is of little consequence to google. The search engine does not see the comparison page template files and so it does not rank a site based upon anything other than the page where the quote request form appears. Therefore, from a search engine point of view, we only care about the home page at www.term4sale.ca, and not the quotes themselves. The same is true for your copy of the web quote option if you have it.
Having said that, it is only natural that the quote pages have the same look and feel to maintain consistency on the site. Further, we want to make it easier for term4sale visitors who are running quotes on their phones. For that reason we are anxious to get the balance of the www.term4sale.ca site updated to the responsive look and feel. But in setting our priorities, we determined that the Mobile Edition would be the logical place to work on templates first, given that the vast majority of those using our Mobile Edition are using it on their phones. And it gives us a way to get subscriber feedback before those changes roll out for consumers. It is also worth noting that after we make one site/page responsive, doing it for other sites goes much more quickly.
Once the Mobile Edition and www.term4sale.ca have been updated we will then direct our attention to the Compulife Web Quote option. The page which you see here:
is virtually the same page that we give any web quote customer when they obtain the web quote option from Compulife. The only difference between the www.termsampler.ca page and the one that we give you, is the account value that we assign. Your account has a control panel which lets you manage things like which companies you quote, and which email address(es) are used for the "Request Application" button, assuming that you use that option on your site.
We encourage agents to place that page on their own site rather than run it from our server. When you place the actual page on your server you can integrate the page in any way that you want. You can also do what we did at www.term4sale.ca, and make the page responsive.
However, we see a potential source of new technical problems once we provide you with a responsive page. We do not know what will happen if we give you a responsive page, and you try to integrate it into another responsive page. We have no way of knowing how those two pages will interact and it could be tantamount to mixing oil and water. Will our responsive code be compatible with your responsive code? That, to put it candidly, is a bit of a mystery. Once we have a responsive page to give you, we'll see what happens. But given our uncertainty about it, we intend to keep the old page and add the new responsive page as an option.
The more important change will be the addition of a new group of responsive template files. Currently there are 8 templates. You can see the template files here:
Just above the client entry box, on the left side of the page, is a drop down list of the current templates. On www.termsample.ca you can select different templates and run quotes to see what they look like. Once the new responsive templates are available they will be added to your account and you will be able to choose one of those instead of what you are currently using.
The templates will not be identical to the new template that Jeremiah is building for the new Mobile Edition of the software but certainly the look and feel will be rooted in that new Mobile Edition. That is yet another reason why you might want to review the direction we are heading by going here:
If you like or don't like what you see we need to hear from you sooner rather than later.