Greetings from Maven. First off, THANK YOU for helping to make 2012 our best year ever! We grew faster, worked with more customers, covered more topics, and paid more Mavens than ever before – and to cap it all of we held a great conference in December where we got to meet many of you in person!

2012 by the Numbers

If you’ve been on Maven for a while, you’ll already know that we are numbers junkies. We track EVERYTHING in an ongoing effort to find ways to improve your experience as a participant and our customers’ experiences with you. Here are some selected stats from 2012 that we thought you’d find interesting:

125% – 2012 growth in the Maven network (in other words, there are over twice as many Mavens today than there were a year ago!)

11% – current monthly growth rate of the Maven network

250% – growth in the number of successful paid consulting interactions in the Global Knowledge Marketplace vs. 2011

173 – countries in which there are Mavens

$1,250 – highest payment to a Maven for a single Consultation (up slightly from 2011)

$201.53 – average Consultation payment (up 4.2% from 2011)

$20.17 – average Referral Commission paid for each Consultation (up 8.1% from 2011)

$190 – highest payment to a Maven for a Survey response (up a whopping 90% from 2011!)

$43.64 – average Survey payment (up 21.2% from 2011)

As you can see, whether you are sharing your expertise or seeking insights from others, opportunities abound and are growing every day.

Get Ready for 2013!

2012 was great, but 2013 is going to be even better. To ensure you don’t miss any opportunities to profit from Maven, here is handy checklist to help you optimize your profile and start the year off right:

1. Update Your Profile: if it has been a while since you last looked over your Maven profile, now is the time. Tweak your Knowledge Summary, update your employment info (or import your LinkedIn profile!), and add more Knowledge and Keyword info so we have the most up-to-date info about your expertise.
2. Build Up Your Network: one of the best ways to profit from Maven – and help out your friends and colleagues – is to introduce others to Maven and build up your network. Use our handy tools to make new connections, learn more about your contacts, and earn Referral Commissions.
3. Activate Your Public Profile: by default, your Maven profile is PRIVATE. We don’t share it with the world if you don’t want us to. However, activating your public profile will allow you to share your profile with and show off your credentials to those not on Maven.
4. Use Widgets to Advertise Your Participation: Get the Connect with Me on Maven and Consult with Me on Maven buttons to advertise your participation and generate new connections and consulting opportunities.
5. Check out the Bulletin Board: Review the Bulletin Board for open consulting opportunities you may have missed. With new items posted every day you might be surprised at what you find…

Finally, if you missed open2012, our inaugural Open Innovation conference last month, we’ll be posting video from the event here over the new few days. It was a smashing success, with over 200 participants and some fantastic presentations that I think you’ll enjoy.