Wow, 15 days since I last updated my Empire Avenue status! That must be some kind of record. The game’s got a little stale for me in recent days, but I’m impressed with the relative stability of my stock price. In older times, it would have plunged. Now it’s hovering around 144. Roll on the day when I get my new iPhone and I can get my Instagram score back to what it used to be.

Been a while since I trawled the Empire Ave leaderboards but I realised that I’m about to be overtaken as number 1 share price in Switzerland by the venerable Martin Gysler (e)MARGY (and very well deserved it is too!) so I went to have a look. Not sure when this useful new feature was added, but now the leaderboards highlight which stocks you already hold shares in (marked in bold) and which you don’t. Which means I just added several new high-earning stocks to my portfolio in about a minute. And of course, was inspired to stay above (e)MARGY for a few more days at least (sorry Martin! )

Quick Instagram tip, to increase your network score: follow people who have already liked photos from other people you follow. Active users who are liking and commenting on other posts are more likely to follow back and respond to your pictures.

This week’s goal: increase network scores. Specifically Twitter and Instagram. That means firstly, going for more followers. I’ve been mostly ignoring my Twitter follower number since it hit 1,000, so I reckon a good target is 1,500. Will be interesting to see what difference it makes to score and in turn, dividends.

Instagram is tricky: an easy way to get new followers is, of course, to follow people, but the feed soon gets cluttered up so I’m not keen on doing that. Comments might be key here. Watch this space.

I was surprised to be asked by other players twice in the last week why I was able to buy 600 shares in them while they could only buy 200 in me. It’s the ‘Bigger Piece of the Pie’ upgrades that let you do this, of course.

I’m wondering if the FAQs and ‘how to play’ info need to be improved. The game is pretty complex and the Help
pages only give the bare bones of how it works. On the other hand, asking other players for help and advice is exactly the sort of social activity that Empire Avenue rewards. There are also communities set up specifically to help newbies and answer their queries (I’m thinking of Ron Capp’s Empire Avenue Tips and Tricks community.)

I’m always happy to answer anyone’s questions and share what I’ve learned. There are so many active players like me too, who love to discuss the ins and outs of Empire Ave, that there’s really no reason to sit and wonder. So, ask away. Someone must know how this game works!

Many people on Empire Avenue use Tumblr as an easy way to raise their blog post numbers. I started a Tumblr a few months after I joined up, and I love it. It’s a goldmine of fantastic images, interesting links and humorous asides. But since Empire Avenue changed the way they value blog posts, I’m pretty sure Tumblr posts, especially single-image posts, are rated less highly, and count for less.

I haven’t done a controlled experiment. But it seems that whenever I write lengthier text blog posts (such as this, or on my other blog Twenty-Four Hours in the Day), my earnings score for the day goes up by about 30 points. When I rely on images and links on Tumblr (even when most of the images are my own), my score stays down in the middle ranges).

Might be worth checking out if you have a Tumblr blog connected but have noticed your earnings / dividends dropping over the past month or so. It would be interesting to see if  a long text-based post on Tumblr is also valued more highly than an image.

Thinking I really need to organise this blog…just need to make the time to categorise what’s already
here, what’s out of date, what’s missing. Watch this space…

I didn’t get round to [X]Pendapalooza yesterday. Just wasn’t in a buying-frenzy kind of mood. I could’ve forced myself. It’s all ‘activity’, and goodness knows my divs could be higher. But I didn’t, and you know why?

Nothing about Empire Avenue should feel like a duty. Not unless you’re getting paid for it, and I don’t mean in eaves. I see comments like, “I have a responsibility to my shareholders.” Excuse me? This is fake money we’re dealing in. This is a game – a useful, fun, interesting game, but no one gets hurt if you opt out.

Perspective is vital. And I’m telling myself that too, because I often feel like I should do more to keep my scores up. Bad move. Fakery gets you nowhere. When you don’t feel like it: go all 80s and just say no.

I’m a sucker for achievements…

I’ve been breaking a few of my own Empire Avenue rules recently. One of the important things to do to keep your share price on a steady upward trend (or at least not a downward one), is to keep your activity consistent.

Consistency means:

- posting around the same amount of ‘content’ each day
- focusing on the same few networks (remember Empire Avenue counts your top 5 when calculating your activity)

Now, we’re not robots (well, most of us aren’t, anyway). But doing loads one day and nothing the next is just going to play havoc with the market makers, make your graph look like an Alpine panorama, and freak out your current and prospective shareholders.

So: do a little, or a lot, but do it every day, and choose your networks wisely. Try it for a week and see how much more often you’re in the green.