Linda Franzblau began the party as she always did: by introducing herself to the guests; telling them about Petlane and its products for dogs, cats and birds; and talking about her own dog, Rocket, and her cats, Dot and Dash. Then she came to the point where every party differs--meeting the guests and learning about their needs. She asked each of them to introduce themselves and talk about their pets. A woman named Katy mentioned she had an older dog that she used to walk at night, but she couldn't anymore because the dog's eyesight was failing. Franzblau instantly knew how to help. As she handed out catalogs and order forms to customers, Franzblau took a moment to point Katy toward one of Petlane's newer products, the Pet Lamp, which attaches around a dog's neck and acts as a headlight. Katy's reaction? "She said, ‘It sounds wonderful; it looks wonderful. Sign me up,'" says Franzblau.
Her passion for helping pets like Katy's dog is the reason Franzblau, 53, decided to become a Petlane pet advisor in February 2006. She tries to help customers by not only finding products to fill each pet's needs, but also educating their owners on better pet care through the discussions and games at her parties. And Franzblau may be making money as the expert at her parties, but she's also receiving a valuable education. "Every day, I'm learning different things to make my pets' lives healthier," she says.
The Petlane business also allows Franzblau to mentor other entrepreneurs as she adds new pet advisors across the country to her sales team. She encourages and educates her team by having a group phone call each week and holding monthly training sessions online. Franzblau and her team also educate themselves through Petlane's annual conventions and its book clubs, in which they read a new book each month that's pertinent to their business.
While her Petlane business fulfills many of her passions, Franzblau also had practical motivations for getting started. She had just been laid off from her job in marketing and product development and needed a way to support herself and her daughter. Luckily, she has found that her passion and her pocketbook can go hand in hand, especially when that passion is part of a $38 billion pet industry in the U.S. She expects to easily make six figures in the next two years, all while doing what she loves.
More at:http://www.petlane.com/
Sunday, May 27, 2007
Creative marketing goes a long way when you are an entrepreneur
Creative marketing goes a long way when you are an entrepreneur.
Take Jim Kukral. He is one of the most creative people I know in the online world. He’s always coming up with new ideas for getting attention online. The fact that I consider him a friend and he’s located here in the Cleveland, Ohio area makes it all the better. Who says everything innovative has to happen on the coasts, right?
I watch with interest whenever Jim launches a new site (he has 80 websites). For instance, he started Awesome Million, an entertaining little diversion where you can create a page for someone awesome. Then there’s something a tad more businesslike, called Ask the Blogger. There you can ask him a question about blogs for business and he’ll give you advice.
But his latest site is interesting in yet another way. It is called: I Pay Too Much for Hosting.
So I asked Jim about it. In a recent email exchange, this is what Jim told me:
Question: Jim, why did you start IPayTooMuchforHosting.com?
Jim Kukral: Rackspace came to me to test out being a preferred partner. They wanted to see how a marketer could take their product and spread it around and see if it could generate business. I said sure, but I wanted to do it creatively.
Being a customer of Rackspace for years already, I was already passionate about the service. You could say I’m their biggest fan already, so taking on this project was easy to accept, and fun.
Question: What does the name really mean?
Jim Kukral: I came up with the name because it’s true.
I pay too much for hosting — but it’s worth it.
Rackspace is for people who don’t want hosting problems, ever. It’s the Bentley of web hosts. It solves problems for you by not giving you problems.
So I figured, why not tell people how much I pay for hosting and tell them why.
Question: I know you’re an expert in affiliate marketing — but this seems to go beyond typical affiliate marketing. It’s almost as if you’re becoming a customer evangelist.
Jim Kukral: That’s exactly what I have become. Rackspace realizes that small businesses are a great target for them, and they’re taking a unique approach to marketing by asking their biggest fans (me) to go out and become customer evangelists for them and giving us tools to help spread the word. I know for a fact that the CEO of Rackspace has personally reviewed my efforts so far. They get it. Sometimes in order to sell to your target audience, you have to let your target audience talk to each other and let them sell for you.
Plus, with this exclusive 15% off discount they’ve given me, I’m able to offer small businesses the incentive to at least get a free estimate.
Question: I notice that a big part of the site is your custom video message, which lets your personality come out (not to mention being where I learned you have 80 websites!).
Jim Kukral: Yes, I’m using video in my site to help convince people. Not a lot of marketers are using video yet. I’m finding that by using a personal video message I’m able to help people understand more about me and the offer. It’s natural — more like a conversation where someone would tell you why they’re recommending a product. I suggest video for more small businesses.
Check out Jim’s latest creative endeavor: I Pay Too Much for Hosting
More at:http://www.smallbiztrends.com/
Take Jim Kukral. He is one of the most creative people I know in the online world. He’s always coming up with new ideas for getting attention online. The fact that I consider him a friend and he’s located here in the Cleveland, Ohio area makes it all the better. Who says everything innovative has to happen on the coasts, right?
I watch with interest whenever Jim launches a new site (he has 80 websites). For instance, he started Awesome Million, an entertaining little diversion where you can create a page for someone awesome. Then there’s something a tad more businesslike, called Ask the Blogger. There you can ask him a question about blogs for business and he’ll give you advice.
But his latest site is interesting in yet another way. It is called: I Pay Too Much for Hosting.
So I asked Jim about it. In a recent email exchange, this is what Jim told me:
Question: Jim, why did you start IPayTooMuchforHosting.com?
Jim Kukral: Rackspace came to me to test out being a preferred partner. They wanted to see how a marketer could take their product and spread it around and see if it could generate business. I said sure, but I wanted to do it creatively.
Being a customer of Rackspace for years already, I was already passionate about the service. You could say I’m their biggest fan already, so taking on this project was easy to accept, and fun.
Question: What does the name really mean?
Jim Kukral: I came up with the name because it’s true.
I pay too much for hosting — but it’s worth it.
Rackspace is for people who don’t want hosting problems, ever. It’s the Bentley of web hosts. It solves problems for you by not giving you problems.
So I figured, why not tell people how much I pay for hosting and tell them why.
Question: I know you’re an expert in affiliate marketing — but this seems to go beyond typical affiliate marketing. It’s almost as if you’re becoming a customer evangelist.
Jim Kukral: That’s exactly what I have become. Rackspace realizes that small businesses are a great target for them, and they’re taking a unique approach to marketing by asking their biggest fans (me) to go out and become customer evangelists for them and giving us tools to help spread the word. I know for a fact that the CEO of Rackspace has personally reviewed my efforts so far. They get it. Sometimes in order to sell to your target audience, you have to let your target audience talk to each other and let them sell for you.
Plus, with this exclusive 15% off discount they’ve given me, I’m able to offer small businesses the incentive to at least get a free estimate.
Question: I notice that a big part of the site is your custom video message, which lets your personality come out (not to mention being where I learned you have 80 websites!).
Jim Kukral: Yes, I’m using video in my site to help convince people. Not a lot of marketers are using video yet. I’m finding that by using a personal video message I’m able to help people understand more about me and the offer. It’s natural — more like a conversation where someone would tell you why they’re recommending a product. I suggest video for more small businesses.
Check out Jim’s latest creative endeavor: I Pay Too Much for Hosting
More at:http://www.smallbiztrends.com/
Make Money Through Selling Imported Games Via Direct Marketing
After working in product development and marketing for a game company, Gail DeGiulio, 49, started a consulting business to help early stage companies. Through this business, she met Matt Molen and Jeremy Young, 33 and 35, respectively, who were importing European games into the U.S. and translating them into English, but were struggling to get their products into stores. Then DeGiulio approached them with the idea of using direct sales to sell games, and it clicked instantly. "On the retail shelf, regardless of what your product line is, you're competing against a bunch of other boxes," says DeGiulio. "We knew this was a product line that would benefit from being experienced in someone's home."
Though the trio thought they had a great idea, they took their time making sure they were right. They spent the beginning of 2004 researching the direct-sales industry by hiring an industry expert, attending other companies' parties and making sure they could make money for both their company and their consultants. "If you can't figure out a compensation model that works to make it worthwhile for the consultants," says Molen, "you shouldn't be in direct selling." Then, starting in summer 2004, the three partners spent six months holding parties in their homes and at their office, testing prototypes of their games, figuring out how the parties should work and making sure people would want to come back for more. Finally, in January 2005, they felt confident enough in their products and their plan to begin offering a direct-sales opportunity.
Now Bellevue, Washington-based SimplyFun offers its own line of games, puzzles, puppets and other family activities. The exclusivity of the products is essential to direct-sales success, according to Molen and DeGiulio, because the products don't have to compete with any others and the consultants don't have to compete with retail stores. "We want to make it easy for the consultants to be successful," says DeGiulio. To that end, they provide training in person, online, by video and through conference calls; choose not to charge their consultants for their website or require them to keep any inventory; and offer incentives to encourage their consultants to reach certain goals.
More at:http://simplyfun.com/
Though the trio thought they had a great idea, they took their time making sure they were right. They spent the beginning of 2004 researching the direct-sales industry by hiring an industry expert, attending other companies' parties and making sure they could make money for both their company and their consultants. "If you can't figure out a compensation model that works to make it worthwhile for the consultants," says Molen, "you shouldn't be in direct selling." Then, starting in summer 2004, the three partners spent six months holding parties in their homes and at their office, testing prototypes of their games, figuring out how the parties should work and making sure people would want to come back for more. Finally, in January 2005, they felt confident enough in their products and their plan to begin offering a direct-sales opportunity.
Now Bellevue, Washington-based SimplyFun offers its own line of games, puzzles, puppets and other family activities. The exclusivity of the products is essential to direct-sales success, according to Molen and DeGiulio, because the products don't have to compete with any others and the consultants don't have to compete with retail stores. "We want to make it easy for the consultants to be successful," says DeGiulio. To that end, they provide training in person, online, by video and through conference calls; choose not to charge their consultants for their website or require them to keep any inventory; and offer incentives to encourage their consultants to reach certain goals.
More at:http://simplyfun.com/
Multichannel Ads Exchange Network
ADS-click is describing themselves as “innovative and disruptive.” Though, I completely agree that they are innovating, I can only surmise that they are disrupting your “regularly scheduled programming” with unintrusive ad campaigns. Actually, most of what ADS-click has to offer are voluntary skype-me buttons (both SKY-Click and SKIPI) which combine costumer service and voIP. They also offer advertiseing on two levels, white label and publishing. White label enables you to harness advanced contextual and search sponsored links inclusive backoffine and adsever capabilities. On the other hand, Publisher offers traditional text-based ad links. SKY-click is a voIP services which integrates with your SKYPE, allowing users to click the button so that your company may call them back. Likewise, there is also a few button which you can utilize on you site, your blog and in your email which allows users to initiate voIP straight from your site.
“ADS-click is an innovative and disruptive company developing technologies that unite online advertising and voice over IP.
By integrating voice with advertising, ADS-click has found a customer base all around the world. ADS-click supplies services to large media groups, small and medium sized companies and individuals who wish to monetize their editorial content and knowledge. The company's search and contextual advertising technology is used by major Internet players in Europe, Japan and Australia and serves over 3 billion pages views per month.”
more ; http://www.ads-click.com/
“ADS-click is an innovative and disruptive company developing technologies that unite online advertising and voice over IP.
By integrating voice with advertising, ADS-click has found a customer base all around the world. ADS-click supplies services to large media groups, small and medium sized companies and individuals who wish to monetize their editorial content and knowledge. The company's search and contextual advertising technology is used by major Internet players in Europe, Japan and Australia and serves over 3 billion pages views per month.”
more ; http://www.ads-click.com/
With Monetize Media, you will now be able to host videos f ree of charge, and then generate revenue through subscriptions
Don´t let YouTube and Brightcove be the only ones monetizing off the videos you create! With Monetize Media, you will now be able to host videos (and likewise, channels) free of charge, and then generate revenue through subscriptions, advertising, downloads, and syndication. The ad rolls are focused on the target audience, meaning they work in context with the video they are viewing. Monetize Media promises that monetizing your videos is as easy as drag, drop and monetize, so you will be receiving complete end-to-end solution, including encoding, customization, deliver and payment. This way, you will get your content to market even faster. You can elect a few different business models, PPV, Subscription or Free with Targeted Ads, and all of your content will be protected with DRM.
“Monetize Media, Inc. is a dynamic and rapidly growing technology solution provider for the digital media. We provide complete end to end solution for the media, entertainment and enterprise customers. We help our clients to create, manage, market and monetize media, direct-to-consumers by delivering world class broadband online services.
more ;http://www.monetizemedia.com/
“Monetize Media, Inc. is a dynamic and rapidly growing technology solution provider for the digital media. We provide complete end to end solution for the media, entertainment and enterprise customers. We help our clients to create, manage, market and monetize media, direct-to-consumers by delivering world class broadband online services.
more ;http://www.monetizemedia.com/
Design your own T-shirt and sell it directly from your websites via our widget
Tshirt Takeaway is the new way to create tshirts and then get your design out on the market. You can sell your tshirts directly from your websites, blogs, and popular social networking sites, including MySpace, Piczo, Hi5, and others via a widget you can embed. Likewise, you can browse and shop for tshirts on the site featured in their online store. If you like a tshirt design, you can even grab their widget and place it on your site! You have some customization features for your tee, all the standard font, size, color and alignment, upload photos, and various tshirt types. Tshirt Takeaway will handle all of the payment and shipping, you can negotiate how much commission you will take.
“Design your own T-shirt and sell it directly from your websites via our widget. We handle the payments, make the T-shirts and send them to your customers. You decide how much commission you earn, come back and collect it.
More at:http://www.tshirttakeaway.com/
“Design your own T-shirt and sell it directly from your websites via our widget. We handle the payments, make the T-shirts and send them to your customers. You decide how much commission you earn, come back and collect it.
More at:http://www.tshirttakeaway.com/
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