Sunday, March 27, 2011

Latest News, Winners, and our One-Month Anniversary!

Today, we have a longer news post as we would like to announce our second round winners, and also talk about what's been happening with the web site recently and where we are headed.

On the Agenda

  • Our Second Round Winners
  • One-Month Site Update
  • Where We are Headed and Your Feedback
  • A Few Statistics
So, without further delay!

Our Second Round Winners

Our launch contest is heating up again as our second winners have now been announced. More premium cigars will be mailed this week to our most recent winners. Eligibility for our contest is the same: become a registered user of Stogie Rate and post a minimum of 5 reviews during the 2-week contest period. Winners were chosen at random from the list of eligible users. So congratulations for our second group of winners.

WINNERS (listed by Stogie Rate screen name)
1 box of cigars
sharingsmoke


6-pack of cigars
PCR
jwojo2
cigarjockey

Cigars in this Shipment:

LAUNCH CONTEST CONTINUES...
There will be more 4 more winners over the next 2-weeks. The contest rules remain the same and contestants must have five or more reviews to be eligible to win. We will pick winners at random and will post those winners on this news page. Click here if you would like to see our previous winners.

One-Month Site Update

That's right! We have now been officially live for a month. 
First on our list of updates is that we have released a major new feature this weekend.  Here at Stogie Rate, we love data. In fact, we love lots and lots of data. What we love even more is "portable" data.  If you take the time to enter a bunch of information into a website, you should be able to easily get it back out. And that is exactly what we are now providing with the ability to both import and export humidor inventory records.  You can import inventory files from the Stogie Rate for Desktop and iPhone, and we also support a more generic CSV file format.  Additionally, you can now export all of your inventory and reviews from Stogie Rate Online in a format that may be loaded by either Stogie Rate for Desktop or iPhone. We plan to expand the export capabilities down the road as well to support even more formats.
We have also added three new questions into our F.A.Q. that answer questions about our file import process and our recommended ways of using it.

Second on our list is that we would like to take a moment to thank everyone who has visited the site, posted reviews, utilized our cigar inventory tools, and read our educational material. We sincerely hope that you are enjoying your time on the site, and that you will visit us often and help build a one of a kind online cigar community.

Where We are Headed and Your Feedback

Over the coming months, we plan to continue to add new features to the site and improve and streamline existing ones. We would like to expand on the information that we store about cigars, provide new ways of exploring that information, and find ways to increase the value and usefulness of your cigar inventory information to you. Having said that, we greatly value your feedback and suggestions. We would like to hear from you on what new features you would like to see, and what existing features should be improved and streamlined. As always, you can either use our Contact Form or shoot us an email at feedback@stogierate.com

A Few Statistics

Since the site is now a month old, we thought it might be fun to calculate a few statistics and share them with you. And now on with the stats parade...

Total Stogie Rate Cigar Inventory for All Users: 8113
Average Overall Score for All Cigar Reviews: 88.01
Highest Single Cigar Rating: 98.2 (Tatuaje, Black Label Private Reserve)
Worst Single Cigar Rating: 59.8 (Gurkha Legend Torpedo)
Most Community Reviewed Brands
  1. Rocky Patel
  2. Tatuaje
  3. CAO
  4. 5 Vegas
  5. Padron
Most Favorited Cigar Brands
  1. Padron
  2. CAO
  3. Illusione
  4. Davidoff
  5. Cohiba (Cuba)
Average Reviewed Price per Stick (USD): $6.86
Average Body/Strength/Flavor Profile

Sunday, March 13, 2011

CONGRATULATIONS to first winners of the Stogie Rate Online Launch Contest

Our launch contest has produced its first winners, whose winnings in the form of some premium cigars, will be mailed this week. Eligibility for our contest was simple: become a registered user of Stogie Rate and post a minimum of 5 reviews during our first 2-week contest period. Winners were chosen at random from the list of eligible users. So congratulations for our first winners.

WINNERS (listed by Stogie Rate screen name)
1 box of cigars
JonJamesB

6-pack of cigars
jrwolfe
earnold25
spugni

Cigars in this Shipment:

MORE CIGARS AND MORE WINNERS
There will be more winners over the next 4-weeks. The contest rules remain the same and contestants must have five or more reviews to be eligible to win. We will pick winners at random and will post those winners on this news page.

Saturday, March 5, 2011

Social Networking features add greater dimension to your Stogie Rate experience

We are working hard to make Stogie Rate a place where you come every day to read and write reviews to share with your brothers and sisters of the leaf. We also want you to be able to interact with other Stogie Rate users via our social networking features. You may have already noticed that Stogie Rate offers ways to connect with Twitter and Facebook. Using buttons found on every review page, you can quickly and easily share your favorite reviews with your "followers" and "friends." You can also use the Stogie Rate PROFILE page and FOLLOW links to include Stogie Rate "Buddies." To take full advantage of future social networking features, be sure to fill in your profile as completely as possible on your PROFILE page.