Posted by Mike Johnston in PersonalOct 28th, 2007 | No Comments
Some of you may have heard by now that our family’s life is about to change dramatically. Over the last few months I have been able to consolidate our business life to focus solely on the launch of our new company, Storybook Anytime and a new full-time dream job…
Several weeks ago I accepted an offer from the San Francisco based company, Millions of Us, to become their full-time technical director. I will be working on 2D and 3D virtual worlds as well as marketing systems for major brands inside video games and social networks. It’s going to be fun, challenging and ground breaking.
This...
Posted by Mike Johnston in Online Marketing, StartupsOct 11th, 2007 | No Comments
Seth Godin, marketing guru, suggests in a recent blog post that online, the economics are clear: repeat business is what matters.
Amazon has set the tone with free shipping while most online businesses tend to over inflate shipping prices. This creates a profit center in most cases from shipping charges alone. Not good for repeat business.
Take for example small ticket items that cost more to ship than the product itself. This is a loser online for both you and your customer. Once they reach checkout, your customer will feel they are getting ripped off- which is the truth.
Your product should...
Posted by Mike Johnston in Online Marketing, StartupsOct 8th, 2007 | No Comments
Many people are using the web for price comparison and research. This means that, unless you have a single unique product, your customers are going to judge you as much on price as anything else at your store. In today’s world people hit a web page and make a decision on where and what to click next within 4-15 seconds. Do you want the conversion?
Case in point: The worse usability idea ever was seen during the Christmas shopping season last year. The day after Thanksgiving (the single busiest shopping day in the US) Circuit City decided to force all visitors to add items to their shopping...