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