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A married couple wake every morning to the sound of an advertised alarm clock and watch the weather on their advertised television. Then they arise from their advertised bed and prepare for work, using their advertised toothbrushes, cosmetics, razors and hairbrushes. They eat a nutritious breakfast of advertised orange juice, advertised coffee, advertised pancakes and advertised eggs, bought at a darling boutique they discovered in an advertisement in an advertised newspaper. Then they went back upstairs and got dressed in some nice advertised clothes and shiny advertised shoes. Then they went to the garage, opened the garage door with an advertised garage-door opener and drove their nifty advertised hybrid vehicle to the office. They unlocked the advertised door-lock with an advertised key and spent the day sitting on their comfortable advertised chairs at their advertised desks and talked on their advertised phones, worked with their advertised computers and wrote with advertised pens on advertised order pads. ...
They refuse to advertise their products and services because, they say, “It doesn't pay,” yet when their unadvertised business goes under, they will advertise it...
“For sale by owner.”
Tags: Marketing Advertising Entertainment
I have been working on getting a shopping cart that will slice bread and make the morning coffee before I get up. I have tested osCommerce, ZenCart, Drupal ecommerce, Ubercart, and Joomla ecommerce.
My newest candidate --- CRE Loaded I liked all of the shopping carts I tested, and had a bit of success with all of them. My ranking is based on 2 factors... Well, make that 3 factors. I think ease of use is very important, Feature-sets are also important and how easy it is to prettify is also very important. The 4th factor is that all the candidates have to have a free (no charge) version.
My current ranking: Joomla! (Mambo) ecommerce: Rank 2 of 10:
Joomla!'s ecommerce component is not easy to use, right out of the box, and I had 2 Joomla! installations hacked, and this makes it seem risky as an ecommerce platform. It is very easy to pretty up, and many of my clients like the "Joomla look." Drupal eCommerce Module: Rank 3 of 10:
Drupal eCommerce does not let me build user-entered product features (such as special monograms) and this is a major lacking in the module. Many clients complain about the "Drupal look" and it is difficult to make major changes.
Ubercart which I used with Drupal: Rank 6 of 10:
Ubercart lets me have options (even user-defined options) and works well for me. Has a strong set of features and is user-friendly, once one has mastered the Drupal modular design. It suffers from the "Drupal look" and some clients are unhappy with the look. This is one of my 2 favorites and has a lot of curb-appeal for me. I like the look and the feel, and the admin is very easy, if complicated.
Keep in mind that none of my clients who complain about a look, or rave about it, are doing any testing, they are only working from a gut-level "I know how I like it" place. I have had to rethink the GoodCoffeeDirect look to entice affiliates to the fold, even though the research I have read suggest a low-graphic black type on white background site converts better. Affiliates are people too and they are apparently more likely to market a product if the site fits their gut reaction as well. What's next.. osCommerce: Rank 6 of 10:
osCommerce is the heart of ZenCart and CRE Loaded. It is not nearly so modular and that is liable to set me up for difficult upgrades, as the contributed features are added, line by line, into various files on the application, in a way that really makes one yearn for the simplicity of uploading modules and components in Joomla and Drupal. The good thing about osCommerce is its relative security, and there are people who have made really nice sites from basic osCommerce. The osCommerce model lends itself to a hybrid sitedesign, with some HTML and some PHP, unlike the Drupal and Joomla portal models, which can be way too complicated for a person new to the site.
ZenCart: Rank 7 of 10:
ZenCart is just as clunky as osCommerce, but includes more features in the basic install. It worked for me for a year for a product-set that was difficult to "do" in the shopping-cart model. The product set was seminars and consulting, and having the price appear on the summary seemed to armour my customers to resist the benefits. CRE Loaded: Rank 8 of 10:
CRE Loaded is my current favorite because it includes an affiliate module in the basic installation, which you can download for free. It also includes an easy-populate feature which lets you set up your product list and pricing on a spreadsheet and upload or download the whole group at one time. This is great for product sets like coffee that fluctuate with time. I am still looking for the elusive "10." There is a free shopping cart out there with more features than CRE Loaded or UberCart. Oh, I am sure of it. Until I find it, I will settle down with CRE Loaded as the first choice.
Tags: Shopping Cart Cre Loaded Oscommerce
I am so excited! After my last conversation with the Godfather, I Finished my schedule and the outline of my business plan for the "Premium Coffee Mug Club." I started by making a declaration on the top of the page in red pencil "I am grossing 40K a month with the new project" Well I am not yet, but I liked the sound of that line. It is my goal for the site, and though it seems like a lot. I ran a business for 20 years where a great YEAR's gross was 40K - the best ever was 55K. Comfortable but no extra goodies. So with the idea of 40K a month, I developed a product price and quantity goal I set a price point at about $25, so it is easy to see that I have to get 1600 subscription sales that month. That is a lot of sales per month, but using the internet, it doesn't have to be hard. We have all heard stories about launches where they did more than that in the first 3 minutes of the launch. Where I am in my schedule right now is developing the affiliate base. I am looking for 50 affilliates, and I set up a mailing list for people who are interested in theclub http://cas.goodcoffeedirect.com/?p=subscribe&id=1 Affiliate prelaunch list I also made up a membership info list, http://cas.goodcoffeedirect.com/?p=subscribe&id=2 People who are interested in being members could sign up on that info list to be up to date on the launch. If you are interested in being in on this affiliate launch, sign up on the affiliate list above. So What is the Launch? GoodCoffeeDirect.com sells the freshest premium Free Trade, Organic, Kosher Coffee you can get (unless you live near a coffee plantation - you lucky duck!) and I was trying to figure out a way to get it to our customers even fresher, and with a special one-time-only coffee mug. The mugs will be different inspirational quotes every month. Each mug will be dated on the 26th of each month, and we will only make enough to distribute to our club members. This means every mug becomes instantly collectible. We will roast the coffee of the month from our premium selection Exclusive Varietals (17)
Choice Dark Roast (6)
Designated Decaffeinated (19)
Masters Blends (9)
Peerless Espressos (4)
Select Estate Coffees (8)
True Organics (9)
Fabulous Flavoured Coffees (46) Specifically for Members Only. This means your coffee will be fast-tracked over standard distribution, and it is a membership that will auto-ship without your having to spend time on it. Every month, new and fresh. Since it takes approximately 2 weeks to manufacture the custom collectible mug, your coffee selection will arrive 2 weeks ahead of the mug, so to make sure you have a mug to enjoy your Premium coffee We will send you a GoodCoffeeDirect Mug Club mug immediately upon receipt of your membership. Membership in the Premium Mug Club starts with a one-time membership fee of $49.97 and for that you receive that 1st Premium Coffee Mug Club mug, and a 12oz packet of our coffee of the day. Please note whether you prefer regular or decaffeinated coffees. You also receive membership in the online JavaJive newsletter and membership credentials, including a plaque proclaiming your support of Free Trade, Organic, Kosher Coffee. A portion of your membership fees goes to support free trade coffee growers all over the world, and to support organic farming practices. Monthly autoships for different levels of purchase will be developed Gold Membership - 2lb packet of coffee and Collectible Monthly Mug. $34.97
Silver Membership - 12oz packet of coffee and Collectible Monthly Mug. $24.97
Bronze Membership - No coffee but just the Collectible Monthly Mug. $14.97 I have had 4 mentors in Internet Marketing, so far. Dr Martin W. Russell showed me how an amazing surge in traffic can appear on any site by using the social networking sites. James Brausch showed me how to check search terms for viability. "They have to have at least as much search traffic as 'air guns.'" George VanValkenburg showed me the value of utility products, and the Godfather, Jae Jans, gave me the kick in the pants I needed to take the next step. It is not true that he "made me an offer I couldn't refuse."
Tags: Coffee Marketing IM
I have managed to avoid completing a schedule, and so have not done anything with my plan. I have been busy with what came up over the last week, most of which were important: I worked at my part-time job as a college professor. I am teaching 4 classes a week. I enjoy passing on to others what I know about IT and security. I did a talk at the OuterzOne security convention about the dangers of being a Consulting project manager. It was a fun convention. I got to sit in on 4 other talks as well, and when the video of the event is complete, I will get to see all of the presentations. I set up a site for a client. I wrote articles for 4 blogs. I started looking at ways to spark up the goodcoffeedirect look. I read some of Eckhart Tolle's "A new earth" that came out in 2005. I downloaded JRox affiliate program script and started reading the code and the documentation.
The only thing on my schedule this week for the gcd project was to develop a schedule with dates in it. What I think is a desire to get everything done just right just looks like a hesitation to commit. I don't know why.
Tags: Coffee Marketing Internet
I had an interesting chat with Jae Jans today, and he asked me what sorts of things I have been doing. Now most of what I do is making complicated high-end web sites with lots of features for my clients. I also teach at a local college here and I have written a couple of books with co-authors. My "Computer Security and Penetration Testing" textbook came out last year and is available on Amazon. I went around doing seminar sessions for network security people on the topics of penetration testing tools and open source software at SecureWorld Expos in the Fall at Seattle and Dallas. This blog is about a site I am doing with the help of George Van Valkenburg, an old-school marketer who can show you how to do some amazing things in the offline world. Lots of his ideas translate well into online marketing, and he has offered to mentor me in the development. The big idea is to sell coffee that is super-fresh, roasted this week. The coffees are free-trade or organic or both, and are deemed Kosher, George tells me.  The first issue: Develop a Unique Selling Proposition for the site. We already have marvelous fresh coffee, roasted in small batched and sent immediately to the customers when they order, so we need to have a site that makes the value of our coffees undeniable. The second issue: Develop the graphics on the site so they are both hi-converting and high-end (pretty) looking. The third issue: Getting the site affiliate program working The fourth issue: Getting the site sponsorship set up The fifth issue: Developing the business plan for the site. This issue uses pieces of the other four issues and adds the income projections as well. A site with no income plan is just a nice hobby.
Over the next few weeks, I am going to let you know how this project pans out here. You may have gotten here from my Extreme Tech Blog or you may already be a member of the "marketing mafia." Either way, I am glad you are hereto see how this plays out. Please make comments or ask questions. They will help all of us get better results.
Tags: GoodCoffeeDirectcom Marketing Premium_Coffee
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