Bonanzle Action Club Controversy – Evil Empire or Just Grass Roots Social Marketing

Posted on February 17, 2009 by Scott Pooler

There is a controversy brewing and this time it is not really about eBay - or is it?

It seems that Debbie Levitt CEO of ASWAS, an eBay Stores designer and consulting company based in Boston, MA and a personal friend, has come out very strongly against the grass roots marketing efforts of Bonanzle.com. A Prominent blogger and also a friend, Henrietta of the Red Ink Diary has responded quite directly to Debbie's take on the Bonanzle Action Club.

Henrietta has been a friend to Bonanzle.com since the beginning, I don't think she is a member of the BAC, but could be. It is a pretty small club of only 50 people when weighed against the 30,000 members of Bonanzle. Yet the effects of its political style grass roots effort to get out the word about the site seem to have gained some attention in eBay circles (where Debbie Levitt is a big swimmer).

The Article on the Red Ink Diary is available for all to read in its entirety here Red Ink Diary. I have included a short quote below to give you the idea of where Henrietta stands. (Note: Links to the articles Debbie Levitt wrote in the ASWAS blog are included, just as they appeared in the Red Ink Diary.) I don't know if I would have been quite as direct as Henrietta was in her post, but she expressed her point without leaving any doubt.

From the RedInkDiary Continue reading “Bonanzle Action Club Controversy – Evil Empire or Just Grass Roots Social Marketing” »

Advertising & Promotion and Seth Godin – New Marketing

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Scott Pooler

Last night in my car I was driving and listening to Seth Godin on a podcast....

Seth Godin

Some of you may be unfamiliar with what a "podcast" is or why anyone would listen to one? Podcasts are recordings of events, shows or seminars and/or the occasional sales pitch. Some podcasts are similar to talk radio shows with live callers hosted by a main host and sometimes a co-host.

Today's "radio show" has been moved off of the airwaves and into your iPod or other mp3 device. Thousands of these podcasts are available, mostly for free, in the iTunes store. Far ranging topics are available as podcasts on iTunes and in other places around the Internet. I usually focus on the Internet marketing and ecommerce titles but also download free photoshop training, "This Week in Tech" podcasts from Leo Laport, John C. Dvorak's "Cranky Geeks" financial news and a few more. Topics are plentiful and inspiration is included.

I listen to these podcasts to try and learn something while doing things which would be unproductive otherwise. I have learned a great deal just from this free resource and I have been fortunate enough to forge more than one friendship with people I would never have met because of podcasting. Continue reading “Advertising & Promotion and Seth Godin – New Marketing” »

Bonanzle Action Club – Creative Word of Mouth Marketing

Posted on October 27, 2008 by Scott Pooler

As i have written previously here on the Trading Assistant Journal, Bonanzle is the marketplace venue which has a new fresh outlook and web 2.0 feel. Part of being Web 2.0 is including community and social marketing as part of the overall business plan. Bonanzle has taken this idea and its very enthusiastic member base and created a new type of marketing initiative.

The Bonanzle Action Club

It is a brilliant way to get the best advocates or in today's corporate speak "evangelists" to go out into the Internet universe and promote your company for free. This particular "Action Club" is made up of 50 of the most active members/sellers of Bonanzle. These members are ready to promote the company at a moments notice and they are happy to do it simply because they are aware of the effect of community marketing.

The tasks these select members perform change from week to week. Most certainly they will be more effective as a group of 50 marketers than if they were only one or two. It is a brilliant idea and I applaud Bill and Mark at Bonanzle for hatching it before our eyes.

Here are some of the specifics of the club:

Each week, every BAC member will be given one actionable objective to help Bonanzle grow. The task will never take more than 20 minutes of your time. Some examples of a BAC objective might include: post a comment about Bonanzle on a specific forum or blog; email a specific media person to tell them to feature the site; or Digg some article about the site.

We will email you at the beginning of each week to let you know what the week's action objective is. The objective will also show up in the list of BAC objectives (accessible via "My Bonanzle"). When you complete the objective, you check it off your list, and your karma + Bonanzle cred increase a notch.

We should be clear that joining the BAC is an important commitment. If you are considering signing up, you should be willing and ready to follow through on the objectives. We are limiting enrollment to 50 people, so that we only keep people on board who feel that Bonanzle is worth 15-20 minutes of their time per week.

I became aware of this new marketing initiative through the comments section of this blog. Suddenly I was innundated with positive comments about Bonanzle coming through my Blackberry. Apparently the Trading Assistant Journal was listed in this weeks to do list for the BAC.

Taking a cue from politics I can certainly the power of many when it comes to getting out the word, either for a company or candidate.

Congrats to Bonanzle!

Twibler – Top 9 Reasons Why Twitter + eBay = Traffic Jam

Posted on September 29, 2008 by Scott Pooler

Question recently seen on Twitter from @stevekennedy:

Do you think using Twibler to post your eBay items here helps your conversion rate? Have you asked any buyers? I am just interested to see if anyone has ever made a sale because of Twibler. Thanks 4 input!

I will attempt to answer the question, (any comments from readers with different points of view are welcome in the comments section below) but...

First lets discuss what Twitter is for those who have not yet been initiated.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is first and foremost a social network

Scott Pooler on Twitter

Twitter asks "What are you doing?" and provides users with a 142 character chance to inform the world about what it is they are up to?

Think of an early 1990's AOL chat room with dozens of updates per minute available to everyone in the world. Only, as a user of Twitter, one may pick and choose who's "updates" they want to follow. Conversely other users may choose to follow you, even if they do not know you.

These features make Twitter unique, simply due the fact that users can craft the experience by selecting whom they follow.

Interested in Internet marketing and the Tech world? Simply follow icons in these industries and fellow Twitter users who also follow the thought leaders. The same goes for almost any interest or industry you can think of. Transparency is all part of Twitter, not only can you follow interesting people, but you can also see who they follow and do likewise.

Its the fastest and sometimes most accurate way to get the news and collect intelligence about anything or anyone with whom your interested in. Continue reading “Twibler – Top 9 Reasons Why Twitter + eBay = Traffic Jam” »

Flowgram PowerPoint Presentation Tool Beta SNAFU

Posted on July 30, 2008 by Scott Pooler

Yesterday I wrote about a "beta" test of Flowgram ...

Today I would like to report that there is a reason why these types of nifty programs are beta tested. Of course I was fascinated with the opportunities this program represented, and they still exist, just a few "bugs" need to be worked out first...

After I uploaded my first Flowgram iBusinessLogic Web Development Projects 2008 admittedly late in the night, when I should not have been working... I tried to get fancy by using some of the other interesting capabilities of the Flowgram service.

Flowgram has a connection with Flickr , which in therory allows the user to insert photos and graphics from Flickr into any Flowgram at any point in the slideshow. Wow, what a great time saver, since I already use Flickr it was something I really wanted to try.

I should have started a new Flowgram presentation to try this feature.

Apparently the developers at Flowgram have not figured out that Flickr allows the organization of photos into sets. When I used the Flowgram interface to navigate to one of my images in Flickr I simply selected the set of photos I wanted to find the individual picture within. Flowgram decided I wanted to upload all of the photos in that particular set (over 160 images) to my already finished presentation.

Before I realized what was happening, Flowgram had imported over 90 of those images to the presentation. This would not have been a serious problem, had I been able to delete these new slides created by the program from my Flickr images... Unfortunately, the number of graphics imported was too much for the web based interface of Flowgram, and the program would not allow me any access to these new slides. I could tell they were there, but I could not remove them, move them or do anything with them.

This was a problem, since the presentation was live on this blog and in other places.

The images were not private or racy but they just did not fit in with my presentation. I could not delete the entire Flowgram because I had spent a considerable amount of time recording narrations for each slide I did want presented.

I apologize to anyone who viewed the test Flowgram I created and came to the end only to find numerous images which did not fit in. The presentation has been corrected now (by simple luck and trying 4 different browsers), so the odd images are now removed.

My voice is still there, (if thats a good thing) and the images of our current projects are still there... (Although some do not display correctly now, and to change an image after audio has been recorded, one must also re-create the audio after the new screenshot slide has been created). Some way should be devised to keep the audio and images saved as seperate files so new images could be inserted under the same audio.

Needless to say, this is a free beta test for me, and I find the idea of the Flowgram service fascinating and possibly very useful for business and web use. But without fixing these issues, or allowing a way to save versions of a presentation without over writing the whole thing, it may be an iffy proposition to use this on a daily basis.

When the beta test is complete, I am sure the program will be much improved.

Intelligence Brings Back Links and Dollars on Qassia

Posted on June 6, 2008 by Scott Pooler

Qassia brings ad revenue and back links to all of your blogs and/or websites and its free. The site is in a private BETA now, so the only way you can get in is through this special link on my profile page.

Simply submit "Intelligence" in the form of articles, either original or previously published on your own website or blog and you will earn Qassia dollars. These are points which are spendable for ad placement. Its an ad revenue sharing site and more.

Qassia is fantastic because you get credit for sharing your intelligence. The more credit you earn, the better your websites will rank. And you get a backlink to your website for every intel you add - only Qassia gives you unlimited quality backlinks.

Last but not least, Qassia also has the best ad revenue sharing system on the Internet, so in effect you get paid for promoting your websites. Qassia rocks!

Sign up for the BETA version of Qassia from my profile - its free and can pay you and your website back in spades over the long haul.

The more people join Qassia, the more everyone will benefit, so give Qassia a spin. Signing up takes less than a minute, so you've got nothing to lose.

See ya around!

Note: This is not a paid advertisement link and I am not a Qassia employee. I only earn extra Qassia dollars by refering members. Give it a go, and once your in, you can refer members to earn your own extra Qassa Cash!

You Tube Video – Branding Your Business & Marketing to Acoustic Music – BazaarVoice

Posted on May 31, 2008 by Scott Pooler

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FCnXCju-Ag]

A fine example of creative marketing with a strong message about branding...

How can you use You Tube for your branding and business needs?

iBusinessLogic.com helped a client insert videos like this in his custom iBusinessLogic/Frooition eBay store:

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSiv98UyQNg]

Cornerstone Commercial Carpet Cleaning Supply has received over 1000 hits in just a few months from this one video and they have sold several high end truck mount carpet cleaning machines.

Example of a You Tube Video Google Search result:

What can you advertise and promote with video?

Wake Up eBay – Sharing Links, Social Marketing Good – Closed Networks Fail

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Scott Pooler

eBay started as a social network of buyers and sellers.

Interaction between these two separate yet linked groups of people crossed all boundaries, social, economic, international, class and religion.

eBay is social marketing

...and has been relying on social marketing for its success since long before the terminology was coined.

The Internet has changed a great deal since eBay started.

Back in 1995 the only social networks were AOL, Yahoo and eBay. No one at the time knew eBay would grow into a social marketing network but this is what has happened. Buyers and sellers connected on a personal level over great distances and found common ground in the items they traded for online.

Now eBay is turning its back on the basis of social networking and social marketing. Continue reading “Wake Up eBay – Sharing Links, Social Marketing Good – Closed Networks Fail” »