What advice do you all have regarding marketing keeping in mind that we have a small budget?

1. We own the domains we want

2. We believe in the product and think that people will purchase it

3. We have a branding that we think will work


Obviously internet but what does that mean broken down? I remember a few people on here steering clear of Yahoo for cost reasons. Are there any other pitfalls I should look out for? I appreciate ALL of your insights into this.

Thanks in advance!

Design the site for your users, and search engines. That's all. If the customers can't find it, and they can't figure out how to use it almost immediately, you will fail no matter how great the product is.

P.S. You are your partners are not the users. Don't design for yourselves.

Design the site for your users, and search engines. That's all. If the customers can't find it, and they can't figure out how to use it almost immediately, you will fail no matter how great the product is.

P.S. You are your partners are not the users. Don't design for yourselves.

Can this be tested with a small sampling? perhaps Friends family on here etc.? I cant afford a huge marketing firm to test it.

I'm sure all of us here can test for free.

I'm sure all of us here can test for free.

Im sorry what i meant was, would the results from that small a testing be sufficient to point out problems and pitfalls of a site? How big are most samples that are used to test that sort of thing? Sorry for the confusion.

If you have some pro guy, they can tell you what's wrong with the layout and design. Other than that, I'm not sure. I guess you ask a couple of people and see what they do, not just listen/read their feedback. Look at their expressions and how long it takes them to do stuff. Ask them to do specific things.

The first step would be to get somebody with some experience to review it. If you know somebody, great. If not, there are places you can post a link and get some decent free advice.

Once you move on to user testing, you can get away with testing very small groups (assuming the test is well run). Even testing five people can be enough to find most of the big issues. Of course you want to test as often as possible, but if you have access to 15 people then you're better off testing five, reworking the design, testing five more, etc.

great advice, that way subsequent testers have a fresh look at version 2 etc. THANKS! I wouldve just involved them all from the start but your way is a much better idea.

Here are some starting points, i don't know how much you know about online marketing so excuse me if you already know this as i just started from the basic concepts.

The first thing you need as you already pointed is a good website, but once you got it, the hardest part starts, to get traffic to your site. The best site without traffic means zero sales.

There are three ways to get traffic to your site.

1. Purchasing traffic in pay per click search engines (Google addwords, Overture, etc) and/or buying adds space through online advertising agencies or directly in related websites. This is the easy way, just pay for the traffic and receive it instantly. The problem is that if you dont' know what you are doing, it could be really expensive and/or a waste of your budget and time.

I don't know if you know how PPC engines like addwords and overture work, here is a brief explanation in case you don't. Basically all them work the same way, you setup a free account with them, you set your adds (eye catching text as you can use only a title and short description), then you select the related keywords to your product and then you set your maximum bid for a click on your add when your add is displayed for that given keyword. If you have an unique product and you choose well your add text and keywords, this can be really profitable, as you can get to your site the traffic already filtered by interest on your product. If you don't select properly the keywords, you will be throwing money out of the windows for nothing, and it can be a lot of money for common keywords.

Example:
Let's say your product is "A pink ball with black stripes".

A) If you bid on the keyword "ball" you will get thousands of clicks, it will be so expensive and most of the surfers you will receive, will leave your website in 1 minute as they are not looking for a pink colored ball.

B) If you bid on the keyword "pink ball" you will get less clicks, but the surfers that reach your site, will be more willing to buy your product as they were already looking for something similar. Again you will waste some money on guys who wanted a pink ball but wanted it without stripes or with white ones etc.

C) If you big on the keyword "pink ball with black stripes" you will get just a few surfers, but probably most of them will end buying your product as its exactly what they were looking for.

You would think, ok, C is my option then. Well, it can be, but usually it's not, as the traffic you will get is high quallity, but maybe not enough to get sales to keep your business alive as maybe nobody is looking exactly for a "pink ball with black stripes" so nobody will see your add. A mix of options B and C is probably the best option, you get some filtered traffic that are somewhat interested on your product, that you can later convince them to buy it (having a good website is what matters now). Also have on mind that the more traffic visiting your site, the better, as even if they don't buy it, you are getting more and more known, and maybe they can recommend you to a friend that is looking for "A pink ball with black stripes".

PPC is tricky, you can win a lot or waste a lot, it all depends on the level of competence for your product, how unique it is, etc. Also as you are paying for the traffic, you better have a good website and product as you can't afford to let a lot of surfers to leave without buying.

2. Search Optimization: Optimizing your website to be listed in the top positions in search engines when a surfer looks for a product like the one you sell. It's is free if you do it yourself, can be expensive if you hire a good SEO company (and you must be careful, i would say that at least 75% of self named SEO's are not, will take your money, and then will put excuses of why you are not in the top positions).

This is the best long time solution, but it can take from 3 months to 6 months to see results as search engines take time to index your site and to list it. Also some search engines like Google put new domains in a "sandbox" for some months before listing it in their results (to avoid spammers creating tons of websites every day).

So at the end, it's all abot using common sense, some knowledge and testing with small advertising campaigns to find how to get the most profit from your investment (Internet is just a medium like press, TV etc, advertisement works exactly the same way).

3. Exchanging links, writing articles in related blogs, etc. This is related to 2, as for example, when you write articles in blogs related to your product, you also add there a link to your website, that helps with search engine positioning. The same when you exchange link with related sites, at first you receive some traffic from them, but this is the short term profit, the long term one is that search engines boost your position for having a lot of incoming links from related websites.

If you have more specific questions, feel free to ask them here or privately and i'll give you a hand. I have been living from Internet marketing for 8 years already so maybe i can give you some starting points.

Im sorry what i meant was, would the results from that small a testing be sufficient to point out problems and pitfalls of a site? How big are most samples that are used to test that sort of thing? Sorry for the confusion.

The main thing is to ensure that the people 'testing' match your user base.

If your site is aimed at geeky programmers then having a 9 year old girl test the site isn't appropriate and vice-versa.

Sample size of testing matters only so far as the larger it is the 'safer' you are that you aren't running with the personal (and possibly unique) views of a small minority ... use the resources you have available and once its near 'beta' make it open to critiques from all-comers (via. forums etc) regardless of whether they match your demographic target market imho (not least because you might find that people you hadn't thought would be interested may well be).

Here are some starting points, i don't know how much you know about online marketing so excuse me if you already know this as i just started from the basic concepts.

The first thing you need as you already pointed is a good website, but once you got it, the hardest part starts, to get traffic to your site. The best site without traffic means zero sales.

There are three ways to get traffic to your site.

1. Purchasing traffic in pay per click search engines (Google addwords, Overture, etc) and/or buying adds space through online advertising agencies or directly in related websites. This is the easy way, just pay for the traffic and receive it instantly. The problem is that if you dont' know what you are doing, it could be really expensive and/or a waste of your budget and time.

I don't know if you know how PPC engines like addwords and overture work, here is a brief explanation in case you don't. Basically all them work the same way, you setup a free account with them, you set your adds (eye catching text as you can use only a title and short description), then you select the related keywords to your product and then you set your maximum bid for a click on your add when your add is displayed for that given keyword. If you have an unique product and you choose well your add text and keywords, this can be really profitable, as you can get to your site the traffic already filtered by interest on your product. If you don't select properly the keywords, you will be throwing money out of the windows for nothing, and it can be a lot of money for common keywords.

Example:
Let's say your product is "A pink ball with black stripes".

A) If you bid on the keyword "ball" you will get thousands of clicks, it will be so expensive and most of the surfers you will receive, will leave your website in 1 minute as they are not looking for a pink colored ball.

B) If you bid on the keyword "pink ball" you will get less clicks, but the surfers that reach your site, will be more willing to buy your product as they were already looking for something similar. Again you will waste some money on guys who wanted a pink ball but wanted it without stripes or with white ones etc.

C) If you big on the keyword "pink ball with black stripes" you will get just a few surfers, but probably most of them will end buying your product as its exactly what they were looking for.

You would think, ok, C is my option then. Well, it can be, but usually it's not, as the traffic you will get is high quallity, but maybe not enough to get sales to keep your business alive as maybe nobody is looking exactly for a "pink ball with black stripes" so nobody will see your add. A mix of options B and C is probably the best option, you get some filtered traffic that are somewhat interested on your product, that you can later convince them to buy it (having a good website is what matters now). Also have on mind that the more traffic visiting your site, the better, as even if they don't buy it, you are getting more and more known, and maybe they can recommend you to a friend that is looking for "A pink ball with black stripes".

PPC is tricky, you can win a lot or waste a lot, it all depends on the level of competence for your product, how unique it is, etc. Also as you are paying for the traffic, you better have a good website and product as you can't afford to let a lot of surfers to leave without buying.

2. Search Optimization: Optimizing your website to be listed in the top positions in search engines when a surfer looks for a product like the one you sell. It's is free if you do it yourself, can be expensive if you hire a good SEO company (and you must be careful, i would say that at least 75% of self named SEO's are not, will take your money, and then will put excuses of why you are not in the top positions).

This is the best long time solution, but it can take from 3 months to 6 months to see results as search engines take time to index your site and to list it. Also some search engines like Google put new domains in a "sandbox" for some months before listing it in their results (to avoid spammers creating tons of websites every day).

So at the end, it's all abot using common sense, some knowledge and testing with small advertising campaigns to find how to get the most profit from your investment (Internet is just a medium like press, TV etc, advertisement works exactly the same way).

3. Exchanging links, writing articles in related blogs, etc. This is related to 2, as for example, when you write articles in blogs related to your product, you also add there a link to your website, that helps with search engine positioning. The same when you exchange link with related sites, at first you receive some traffic from them, but this is the short term profit, the long term one is that search engines boost your position for having a lot of incoming links from related websites.

If you have more specific questions, feel free to ask them here or privately and i'll give you a hand. I have been living from Internet marketing for 8 years already so maybe i can give you some starting points.

WOW thanks a lot. I will definitely take you up on your offer when I have a little more to show you so I can get more specific advice to our product.

You might also check out Project Wonderful. Not sure what their penetration capability is yet, but you get to set a hard cap budget limit on your advertising. This is essentially a program that auctions off add space (and fairly cheaply at this point) rather than using the PPC model.

http://www.projectwonderful.com/

dola...

I haven't ever used Project Wonderful, but I know several bloggers who have and love it. They claim to see a ton more revenue as ad hosts (compared to AdWords), and to get impressive results on their advertising campaigns. Still, YMMV.

another question:

In this business we will be packaging ingredients together for eventual ingestion by people. What sort of health codes need to be followed outside of the obvious (wearing hairnets, gloves, cleanliness of work area[s]). I live in Duval county and I cant find anything on these requirements outside of the FDA stuff which I found (>$50,000 or more than 100 fulltime employees, etc.) FWIW, All the ingredients fall under the "Generally regarded as safe" guidelines.

another question:

In this business we will be packaging ingredients together for eventual ingestion by people. What sort of health codes need to be followed outside of the obvious (wearing hairnets, gloves, cleanliness of work area[s]). I live in Duval county and I cant find anything on these requirements outside of the FDA stuff which I found (>$50,000 or more than 100 fulltime employees, etc.) FWIW, All the ingredients fall under the "Generally regarded as safe" guidelines.

most states have specific rules regulating meth labs - so be careful.

well he did say home grown, so maybe not meth, just some pot brownies.

i wish i could be more specific but im not ready yet to roll this thing out. Regardless, as far as mixing ingredients at home (not cooking) for people's later ingestion I just can't find anything that regulates the facility, etc.

i wish i could be more specific but im not ready yet to roll this thing out. Regardless, as far as mixing ingredients at home (not cooking) for people's later ingestion I just can't find anything that regulates the facility, etc.

Did you check the state department of agriculture?

I'm sure it varies from state to state but in Georgia for example, that's who actually regulates something like what you're describing (mostly in the form of collecting annual licensing fees, in addition to your standard business license, etc). Failing that, I'd also check with the office of the secretary of state (if yours handles many of the various licenses as they do here).

awesome help Jon!

From the FL.s:

(b) Plant buildings and structure shall:
1. Be suitable in size, construction, and design to facilitate maintenance and sanitary operations for food processing purposes. Plants that are engaged primarily in the processing of foods must have concrete or other impervious floors with proper slope to adequate floor drains as may be required. None of the operations connected with a food processing plant shall be conducted in any room or area used as living or sleeping quarters. There shall be no direct opening between living quarters and any room or area where foods are manufactured or processed.


this leads me to believe that if we take necessary sanitation efforts, caps, gloves, cleaning utensils, etc. and the room (the dining room that we never eat in) we will use to package ingredients wont have a direct opening to sleeping quarters, then we should be good. right?

wait a second...flasch is starting a meth lab??

then we should be good. right?

My own experience with food-related business is pretty much limited to a friend who had a nice run with a novelty candymaking business. Dept of Ag here had some really arcane rules about things like temperature of various cleaning processes & such, really gave her a tough time for a few weeks but ultimately she satisfied them once she got the hang of dealing with them. Her take (FWIW) was that it was cheaper in the long run to make them happy up front instead of risking loss of inventory, fines, etc.

hmmm, after reading and re-reading I think I may have to use the office since it has doors on it.

Problem:

I need to get a food license inspection first before getting the license. The office (where I think Ill have to do this) has carpeted flooring. I may have to frickin' tile the office as the area must have a solid surface flooring. grrrrrrrrrr, this is an expense I had not planned on. Damn.

DOLA:

Im going to call Tallahassee to see if they can help me out over the phone and point me in a direction on this. So many frickin' financial hurdles.

My own experience with food-related business is pretty much limited to a friend who had a nice run with a novelty candymaking business. Dept of Ag here had some really arcane rules about things like temperature of various cleaning processes & such, really gave her a tough time for a few weeks but ultimately she satisfied them once she got the hang of dealing with them. Her take (FWIW) was that it was cheaper in the long run to make them happy up front instead of risking loss of inventory, fines, etc.

was this from her home?

hmmm, after reading and re-reading I think I may have to use the office since it has doors on it.

Problem:

I need to get a food license inspection first before getting the license. The office (where I think Ill have to do this) has carpeted flooring. I may have to frickin' tile the office as the area must have a solid surface flooring. grrrrrrrrrr, this is an expense I had not planned on. Damn.

rip up the carpet and pour cement (if necessary?)

rip up the carpet and pour cement (if necessary?)

good idea if need be to meet minimums, thanks!

or I guess laminate flooring could be done and it would be a tax write off.

was this from her home?

Yep, specifically from an enclosed back porch that was converted into a inspection-passing kitchen.

Yep, specifically from an enclosed back porch that was converted into a inspection-passing kitchen.

I just got off the phone from Tallahassee and it was pretty cut and dry that it cannot be from inside the home BUT it could be from a garage that would only have things in it that would be used for this process. This is going to make things quite difficult and I need to think of a way of solving this.

DOLA:

options:

move everything into the house sans bikes and lawn mower and then look to put those in some sort of enclosure in the back yard. I do not believe that the wife will go for this.

rent a storage unit and have the cost be a fixed one. This is the most likely option as we then will add a sink to the garage and use it as the processing location.

This is an interesting parapgraph:

(8) EXCLUSIONS. The following operations are excluded from coverage under these general regulations, however, the department will issue special regulations when believed necessary to cover these excluded operations: Establishments engaged solely in the harvesting, storage, or distribution of one or more raw agricultural commodities which are ordinarily cleaned, prepared, treated or otherwise processed before being marketed to the consuming public.

I believe that the italicized component applies to us. Not to say we wouldnt follow general cleanliness standards but that is interesting to confuse the issue.

On second read, I think that this is targeted for the farm or harvester that would then ship stuff to a processing plant. This would then not apply to us as an exemption.

What is this that burlap sack idea?

I know I always have the urge to eat out of a burlap sack.

What is this that burlap sack idea?

I know I always have the urge to eat out of a burlap sack.

shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh ;)

I have a Youtube commercial in mind for this that I'd like to get going but I need a legal waiver for people to sign if their in it. anyone have a link to one or one I can trade for a free order, when we launch? :)

I have a Youtube commercial in mind for this that I'd like to get going but I need a legal waiver for people to sign if their in it. anyone have a link to one or one I can trade for a free order, when we launch? :)

Here's a standard model release form for $8
http://www.megadox.com/d/Photographer-Model-Agreement-and-Release-Form

There's a couple of others out there I saw for like $15, just google for "release form" or "standard release form" or "photographic release form", something like that. I haven't hit a true freebie yet, but I imagine there's some out there somewhere.

eh, $8 is awesome. Jon, youve been awesome in this!!

thanks a bunch!!! You will most certainly be getting some freebies :)

We're probably about a month or 2 out if all the tests go well up until then.

oh yeah, update to the location problem. I have a friend whose parents own College Used book store where they already do some of what Im planning so Im planning on presenting them with an opportunity to partner up. We'll see how I flesh this out when the time comes. I received my business cards today and they look great, planning on having them here on a sample night coming up.

need some advice again:

The friend whose dad owns a store that I thought I might be able to work with already has a similar business, same genre but not with the product family Im doing (that's about as specific as I can get right now)....anyways, the friend talked to the dad and the dad said he'd like to meet with me but one thing that stuck out from the friend was the comment, "You could ask him for some advice". Now this could be all the son's creation but I dont want to come to the dad with a business proposal and have it be some sort of lesson. I'm not ready to launch the product as I'm now shooting for March but at one point is it best for me to approach him about a possible relationship or an investment when we look towards evolving into a semi0automated process?

I dont want to go too early and look unprepared. I think it's best to wait until the website is fully operational and the samples are all complete and market ready, no?

Hard call on that one without knowing the prospective partner in question.

I'll use myself as an example. I probably wouldn't have a problem with having a preliminary "here's what we're working on, maybe there's an opportunity for us to work together down the road" sort of meeting. I know several other people who something like that would drive them absolutely batty, more oriented toward "I don't need to hear about this until there's something for me to make a decision about".

I'd love to be able to give good advice on this one, but I'm afraid it's one of those things that's pretty case by case & you hardly ever know for sure. One school of thought could certainly be to err on the side of caution here, and since you're not really in the market for advice from him but rather he's a potential investor/partner, I'm not sure what you would really gain by going to him too soon. At the same time, a solid presentation of the business plan plus a working timeline shouldn't be too off-putting, and it really isn't all that long until March so it's not like you'd be presenting to him 18 months before anything was ready to go.

So I had my first "public" trials with this and boy I truly showed that Im an amateur. The cost of said event ballooned on me when it came to providing food for the guests (friends and family). So stupid and oversupplied on everything.

Then I basically made every mistake in the book. I created my product early in the day with 6 variations and then had a couple alternatives thrown in. My thoughts on this we're to have people, on index cards, rate the product from 1-10 and then have space to write comments. In creating the product early in the day (6 hours earlier) and then placing it out for trials just before people arrived, I forgot or didnt think about stirring the mixtures again therefore the initial taste(s) were completely different than late arrivals tasting from the same recipe. Even my initial tastes had me scratching my head thinking (that's not how it's supposed to taste) and then later on that night the same recipe tasted spot on. Stupid and ruined some of the feedback's accuracy.

Then I failed to make a sample of an indirect competitor although even if mine tasted exactly the same I would still be moving forward since Im marketing in a specialty niche premium sort of way hoping to differentiate the product in that vein. Still a stupid oversight that I attribute to running out of time throughout the day and being frazzled and stupid.

Finally, I found that while people liked generally most of my recipes there were a few that liked the alternatives. Generally I found that tastes were all across the board and while on every card I had at least 1 or 2 that rated highly it wasn't the consensus i had hoped for. Initially when I began this endeavor I wanted to hit for the middle of the spectrum and still do but I'm finding that it's an awfully wide spectrum.

Just venting and examining some of the stupid mistakes I made from my first venture into trials and public invites. Im probably leaving out some other mistakes I made (like the lower than anticipated attendance which also effected the misjudgment on cost to provide food) but right now Im just pissed and frustrated.

Im just pissed and frustrated.

Don't be (yeah, easier for me to say than for you to do I know).

You learned something from the experience. Okay, you didn't learn what you expected to learn but still you learned something. That's progress.

And, as you said "Then I basically made every mistake in the book".
That's great because now you've gotten a ton of them out of the way.
I'll wait until another day to point out that "the book" has several sequels ;)

Thanks Jon

Today is much better. I found an avenue to a possible product partnership that would add an option to our product that may be great! Once the site is up an running, which Im very impatient about due to my ignorance when it comes to site creation, I will be using it as a backdrop to having these conversations to foster these partnerships.

As we get a little closer to launch which Im aiming for March, I'll be posting on here what everything is, and a FOFC coupon. If the partnerships pan out it could be a huge jumpstart to this. Im getting a head of myself.

I spoke to some of the people from the party and explained my mistakes (remember friends and family so it wasnt groveling) and theyre open to trying it again down the line. So stupid, at least next time the test group will be smaller and less expensive.

Im so impatient when it comes to the site. Im working with a friend and Im not paying him much up front but offered a nice sized portion of the first year's profits and I really dont have any alternative to getting this done but unfortunately, due to my ignorance when it comes to web development I have a difficult time understand the time frames that need to occur. What is the average time it takes to make a simple but good website that can take orders? calculate shipping costs? be good looking? etc. I know that the costs would be substantially higher no doubt but time wise what is a normal timeframe. This would obviously be longer when the monetary gain isn't upfront.

Anyways, today has been a good day. A small tweak of the recipe and a correction of the mistake I made at the tasting and we're back on track. The latest testing was awesome but that's with no outside testers (sans a few).

Hang in there!

Just for some perspective, we've spent most of the past six months working as the liason for a client and a web development company on more than a half dozen new sites that didn't include e-commerce elements but other elements that should be comparable (as a lot of the e-commerce stuff has become plug-and-play third party these days).

If you broke all of the time down to a single site, I'd say you're realistically looking at a month to two months if you really wanted it tweaked just right (depending upon how many changes you make along the way), if you're talking about a professional developer who also has other responsibilities. Most of that is a matter of getting through round after round of development, followed by getting together to examine it & approve/make changes, tweaks, more review, etc. It's that time in between phases that really eats up half or more of the start-to-finish.

On the other end of the spectrum, you could probably get a functioning ecommerce site up & running in a week or less if you set aside design concerns (or owner input) and just wanted something online to take orders. Heck, I think most hosting packages these days include some plug & play stuff at moderate cost, from handling the order entry to the credit card processing.

I assume you're going to take credit card payment... how will you handle processing? There are all sorts of legal and compliance issues around that now.

I was going to use Paypal....is their a better alternative? AFAIK, Paypal is setup to take Credit Cards even if someone doesn't have a Paypal account.

I want my fucking sack. Let's go.

that's the spirit! :)

AFAIK, Paypal is setup to take Credit Cards even if someone doesn't have a Paypal account.

Best I can tell from looking at their info, that's correct.

The one thing I might be a little concerned with is losing potential customers in the anti-Paypal clique. I've never been able to get a good handle on their numbers but they're a vocal bunch regardless of their actual size (strictly guessing, I'd say it's probably in the range of 10%-15% of online shoppers).

Thing is, I'm not at all sure that those folks are really likely purchasers as opposed to being shoppers. If they don't trust PayPal with their CC info then I'm hard pressed to believe they're likely to trust an individual they don't know with it either.

But I'd say you should at least anticipate some gripes from people who swear they would buy if only there was a CC payment option other than PayPal.

Bank of America offers the ability to process somehow through their online banking so I could look into that however there are monthly fees attached to that that could make things washier.

Paypal is probably as good as any... the key with any of them is that you never actually get access to or do anything with actual credit card numbers yourself.

One thing I'd check on is chargebacks what are acceptable chargebacks related to food products. Can someone do a chargeback just because they didn't like the taste?

At least it is worth looking into.

hmmm, this is kinda how I feel on the subject. The product Im working on has some variables that are out of my control in the usage at your home or in a restaurant. First is the water you add which is one of the avenues towards a partnership with a company that may specialize in that area that I will pursue. The length of time you "bake" the product effects it's eventual outcome therefore there are truly only suggested times and some trial and error is bound to occur and some people will weigh on less time and some on more. There will be some people, as well, who fall on an extreme side of this "taste sensation" and think it's too much or too little....I am swinging for the middle of that spectrum. :)

update:

I saw a test version of the site today and my friend is most definitely working on it and I am very very excited. Today was a very good day.

I fully made the product and all of my assumptions about it working together fit wise, delivery wise, work. The next test, when I get all of my large quantity of supplies, will be sample mailings to some family in different parts of the country to guarantee that it shows up and isnt damaged.

Oh, the processing is taking far too long by myself. The first time running the whole machine and making it all took too long so I know Ill get better but I have to also make the system faster prior to automation (which is well down the line). I can pre-make some stuff but it's still going to be time consuming / profit in the beginning. Oh well, sweat equity.

I also experimented with the possible partner's product with mine and it came out good enough that if someone desired a variation to my product that is certainly a feasible way to get specialized at home. While that particular result wasn't up my alley it was accurate as to what I thought it would be so that is good.

Anyways, a very good day indeed.

The product Im working on has some variables that are out of my control in the usage at your home or in a restaurant. First is the water you add which is one of the avenues towards a partnership with a company that may specialize in that area that I will pursue. The length of time you "bake" the product effects it's eventual outcome...

OMG, Flasch isn't selling food, he's selling water bongs! And it's not burlap bags, but "hemp" bags they come in!

Dola-

Actually, I hope it's fudge. I love fudge...

if it's fudge imma be a happy fat guy

Bake = "Barney Miller" brownies

Seriously flasch, everytime I see 'home grown business' I think that you are starting a business to cultivate a certain plant.

So it looks like we'll be mailing samples this week to make sure they reach all edges of the country via DHL without getting completely torn up.

Costs of creating the product have gone up substantially since I initially dreamt this up, I guess, along with everything else in this country.

I have had initial talks with a couple of gift shops about getting it into their stores but these are friends of the family so absolutely not a sign of things to come.

The site has come along really well and we're close to being ready to launch....much longer than anticipated but without paying it hasn't been a front burner item for the friend making it.

The TM is done, and the name is registered. I have a lawyer working for very little on solidifying my LLC stuff and making sure Im legit. He also gave me a lesson on the corporate veil and protecting it.

I have yet to follow up on meeting the family friend who may want in but at least the product seems finished and generally has been well received. One thing Ive learned is that not everyone is going to prefer it...it's not world changing but it is niche-y, could be a gift-y type item, and may find a following. If not, it was a low risk venture compared to other startups.

JimG & Marc - PM me address and I'll ship you sample product.

good progress today.

The shop has the products in it and we just need to link it to Paypal which is what we're doing tonight or tomorrow. the "Gear" page is setup (we've outsourced it for the time being and put bringing that under our own umbrella on the back burner since it's not really our niche). It's exciting though that my friend's shop is going to sell it first so that's just a moral victory if nothing else. The samples have gone out:

Jon did you get yours yet?

Anyways, hopefully we'll launch this week phase 1 then evolve and get better as we go.

Came today as a matter of fact, thank you most very much.

I think I'll be unveiling the site tonight....at least version 1.0.

ok where is it hello i'm waiting

my webguy is working with the Paypal cash register (when he gets back from the dog park) in getting it integrated and getting the imagery to match our motif. When that's done I'll post the hidden link as Im not sure Im ready to open it up to the masses as I have my first rush of supplies in transit.

Looking forward to it!

night has not gone as planned. Both dogs we're bitten by another fuckin' water moccassin so I had to run them to the ER and now $2900 later (on the lighter end of the estimate and hoping the dogs survive. Sucks, what a night. Im not sure its a good omen to launch tonight.

night has not gone as planned. Both dogs we're bitten by another fuckin' water moccassin so I had to run them to the ER and now $2900 later (on the lighter end of the estimate and hoping the dogs survive. Sucks, what a night. Im not sure its a good omen to launch tonight.


motherfuckin snakes. That's insane.

dola

and I hope the dogs are okay...i'm pulling for them

im frickin worn out emotionally. financially tomorrow but tonight emotionally. Ashley says she's selling her stock to help out with the bill (luckily the shares are at a profit now) Ill move some money around and the money I have on the sideline of the market will now go into checking. Sucks as it moves me further away from some goals I had set but I think Im just trying to focus on anything but the dogs right now. They really are our kids and I hate seeing them hurt and am praying for them tonight and await the docs call.

Alright, you ready? Im still figuring out how to get you all a coupon so bear with me on that front.

Prayers for them & you & Ashley.

Man, Flasch, I hope your dogs are OK. I know how you feel about them, we look at our 2 dogs as kids too. I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you and saying a little prayer tonight that they are alright.

Take it easy on me, im fragile tonight:

Http://www.MrBrewmans.com

Ill take feedback here.

Looks good and is making me thirsty! How much does one "pouch" make? Like 1 pouch = 1 glass? 1 pitcher?

Oh yeah, very important question...does it work when made as sun tea?

Ezekial has a myspace and Facebook page located here. Be sure to friend him and build up his networ :)

http://www.myspace.com/mrbrewmanssweettea

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1130790780

Dola...like the site alot, and the "gear" is really cute...might have to get a t-shirt or something! The club page is blank though...not sure if there is supposed to be anything there yet or not. Other than that it looks great, very retro but really easy to navigate and good information :) Good luck Flasch!

Take it easy on me, im fragile tonight:

Http://www.MrBrewmans.com

Ill take feedback here.

All I have done so far is read Mr. B's Story so all I have so far is this...

Our Mr. Brewman's Premium Southern Sweet Tea (and it's lite version) works best in a Iced-tea maker with good fresh water or boiled in a 1.5cups of water (which is then finished off with 3 cups of cold water to make a quart).

Just thought I would point that out in case you wanted to edit it. To me it seems like no 'a' should be in there, and a space between '1.5' and 'cups' would be nice.

Dola- looks like a really nice site so far though, as someone said I like the old time look.

Looks good and is making me thirsty! How much does one "pouch" make? Like 1 pouch = 1 glass? 1 pitcher?

On the FAQ it has a chart but you also receive a BrewCard to help guide you. 2 pouches = 1 quart. However, I learned through trials that everyone is different so each person will have to experiment as to their favorite BUT you will absolutely be able to taste that it's better quality than the big guys.



Oh yeah, very important question...does it work when made as sun tea?

Not with sun tea, I think (I didnt try it so I'll have to try that to see) but the temperature of the water is important to activate the Southern Sprinklins' :)

Dola...like the site alot, and the "gear" is really cute...might have to get a t-shirt or something! The club page is blank though...not sure if there is supposed to be anything there yet or not. Other than that it looks great, very retro but really easy to navigate and good information :) Good luck Flasch!

The club should be active tomorrow which will be entering your email to receive an eventual newsletter, hopeful coupons to partners like water filtration companies like Brita, and coupons from us. and more, i hope.

Yeah, I got interrupted reading the FAQ's and missed that part before I posted...

:)

On the FAQ it has a chart but you also receive a BrewCard to help guide you. 2 pouches = 1 quart. However, I learned through trials that everyone is different so each person will have to experiment as to their favorite BUT you will absolutely be able to taste that it's better quality than the big guys.



Not with sun tea, I think (I didnt try it so I'll have to try that to see) but the temperature of the water is important to activate the Southern Sprinklins' :)

On the 'Buy Some Tea' page I would add that 'estimated' amount of pouches to quarts. If I didn't read were it was from you I would have had to search the site until I found that info. Some customers my read about the tea and decide they want some and go look right at the buy page to check the price. Without knowing how much potential tea you are getting without doing a search on the site for a few minutes mat be a turnoff for the impatient people who want their sweat tea NOW!! ;)

FYI so what we're going for is a gift type item, that carries that old time feel throughout. It's shipped to the home and sits on the doorstoop waiting for someone's arrival and in that way, like Omaha Steaks or Live Maine Lobsters, it's a gift-like appeal. Premium price, I know but hopefully a Value that people can get here that they cant get anywhere else and an item so unique no one else has it. We'll see.

On the 'Buy Some Tea' page I would add that 'estimated' amount of pouches to quarts. If I didn't read were it was from you I would have had to search the site until I found that info. Some customers my read about the tea and decide they want some and go look right at the buy page to check the price. Without knowing how much potential tea you are getting without doing a search on the site for a few minutes mat be a turnoff for the impatient people who want their sweat tea NOW!! ;)

I think Cringer is trying to come up with a new product, tea made with sweat...blech! :p

Fascinating. I had not read this thread before so I had no idea what the product would be until just now. Three quick comments:

What is it I'm buying? It wasn't clear. Jars of powder tea, bags of tea, something else?

You need to to line up the pictures above the captions on Buy Some Tea.

You should shrink the vetical dimensions so it fits on a 1024x768 screen without scrolling. There seems to be a little long without adding anything (i.e., scrolling down doesn't reveal anything new).

Good luck.

I think Cringer is trying to come up with a new product, tea made with sweat...blech! :p

oops. :cool:

on the "buy some tea" page it says how many Brew Pouches you get....is that not showing up for people?

You need to to line up the pictures above the captions on Buy Some Tea.



are you using IE? Firefox? on my Firefox they seem to be lined up right.

on the "buy some tea" page it says how many Brew Pouches you get....is that not showing up for people?

I see that and I also the pouches. Couldn't tell clearly at first. Plus the homepage shows a cool burlap sack but no tea.

are you using IE? Firefox? on my Firefox they seem to be lined up right.

IE6. Do you want to me to show a screenshot?

naw, i opened it up in IE and see what you see. I emailed the web guy...hopefully its an easy fix. We mostly use Firefox....sorry. We'll get it fixed though, thanks for the tip.

I see that and I also the pouches. Couldn't tell clearly at first. Plus the homepage shows a cool burlap sack but no tea.

yeah thats just a splash page really. It was hard to figure out what to put there and we settled on that but am still thinking of what to do on the front. We once had a picture of a character of Mr. Brewman but that just didnt work...people from the 1800's did NOT smile in pictures....they look downright scary.

people from the 1800's did NOT smile in pictures....they look downright scary

You would too if you had to sit absolutely still for 15 seconds.

You would too if you had to sit absolutely still for 15 seconds.

you speaking from firsthand experience again??



okay...what about pictures of a sack but then also an open sack with several pouches scattered in front of it? so that one could see at a glance they were buying pouches

okay...what about pictures of a sack but then also an open sack with several pouches scattered in front of it? so that one could see at a glance they were buying pouches

That's what the Buy Some Tea page shows but I couldn't tell what they were at first (sort of looked like tissue paper).

Nola the Bulldog has gotten the worst of the two and is fighting but she had what the doctor called some Neurological effects involving her eyes darting back and forth. He said some Benadryl has "resolved" this but we're a long way from the end of this thing.

best of luck with this venture, flasch.

thx man

Flasch, awesome looking site and as a HUGE sweet tea fan living in the north, I'll definitely be ordering. Thank God for you, truly!

On a more serious note, good luck to your dogs, the prayers of myself, my wife, and our dogs are with yours.

thx man.

We've got a task of burying chicken wire at the bottom of our fence. We live on a ditch so we shouldnt be surprised but the chicken wire is going to be a chore. Im not even sure it'll solve this problem. It just sucks.

some IE stuff was fixed but i think webguy went to bed...so should i as I have to be at the Vet's at 7-730am if they dont call during the night.

on the "buy some tea" page it says how many Brew Pouches you get....is that not showing up for people?

That shows up just fine, but what I was suggesting is that somewhere on the page you give your suggestion of how many pouches equals how many quarts of tea. If you had not told me it was on the FAQ page I may not have noticed it.

Something like...


Mr. Brewman's Premium
Southern Sweet Tea™
36 pouches of tea (estimated 18 quarts of tea)
$14.99


Just a thought.

not a bad idea at all

I have learned that each person is going to find their own sleepnumber, per se. I had some tasting nights and the rankings we're all over the boards for stuff and I realized that when it comes to sweet tea there is no one tried and true thing for everyone. Hopefully this is just a new unique way of getting Sweet tea to those who have a hard time getting it and/or want to send a cool gift to a friend. Some people are going to prefer squeezing the pouches while some are not, some will prefer more "dilution" over others...it'll be something to try at home and mess with...while ordering lots of Brew Sacks. :)

Good luck with the venture. Site design looks really good.

Flasch, I was totally impressed with the site, and story you have put together. Really great stuff, motivation for me to get my startup business moving.

very impressive web site work. good luck to you

Flasch,

It's a great looking site..and once you get traffic, you will get sales.

However, that is where your problem will lie.

Right now, you will have to attract the bulk of your traffic through Pay Per Click advertising. Your site needs to be Search Engine Optimized so you can pick up the natural searches through google, yahoo, and msn.

It's a rough little word, and you can expend cash for the initial traffic, but you eventually want to lessen that and grow the natural searches.

http://www.seochat.com is a great place to learn about Search Engine Optimization.

It's very crucial, I do not want you to throw your hands up in the air and give up on the web based portion of this, as I think you are taking that as a major step for your business.

sidenote, Nola is doing worse than Philly and Philly is just being kept for observation. Nola looks like Jabba the Hut and theyre not sure when the sloughing off of the inside of the mouth will end. If it progresses we could be looking at a surgery somewhere down the line but we dont know that yet. They transferred her from the overnight ER to the next door vet clinic where they are calling her their repeat offender. Very likely staring a second vial of anti-venin in the face so all in all this will wipe out my savings account :( but thats what its for, emergencies. thanks for all the prayers and keep 'em coming...somethings working.

Mac, Ill talk in a sec but I gotta get ready for work and I slept not one second last night.

and there's the sack

nice work

Looks great Flasch. Best of luck with this (even if it isn't fudge).

I hope the dogs come out of this OK...

Hang in there Nola, we're pulling for you & praying for you. And Philly, you & Flasch and everybody else just keep pressing forward.

Keeping Nola and Philly in our prayers...

I really hope your dogs will get well soon, it sucks it happened just when you need the money to launch, but as soon as they get healthy again and running around you, they will pay every $ back with their love and will support you in the bad days when you need it (i know you know this already).

About the site, it looks great, i would order it if i lived in USA, to taste that southern USA tea :)

Keep on mind what Macroguru said about Search engine optimization, it's the key for every online business unless you have tons of money to expend (and probably waste) on PPC engines. That site he recommended, is really good and i have learned a lot from it too.

Something cool happened, to make a long story short the webguy's Brother in law (15yo) was visiting and loved the stuff and when he went home to his mom (the webguy's Mother-in-law). Well it so happens that she used to be pretty high up in Disney PR and wants to do some sort of Press Release and get it in a bunch of magazines and such. Not sure, if when or whatever but it's kinda cool.

Philly is at home now and Im to keep an eye on him tonight. He is definitely unhappy and swollen. We're going to go visit Nola tonight at the Night ER (where they shift her to when the day vet closes) to see how Jabba is doing. She apparently slept a lot today which is probably good because when I saw her this morning she looked a mess.

Give Philly some sweet tea, maybe that will make her happier ;)

Seriously, it sounds like she is out of the woods, and hopefully Nola will be soon...still keeping both puppies in our prayers.

Went and saw Nola and she looks even worse than this morning, if possible. Entire head swollen as opposed to just half her head. They said that as long as the swelling doesnt effect her breathing it should be ok BUT after 2 vials of anti-venin it is hoped that this is a peak. To try an convey what her head looks like, it was the size of a kickball and we both gasped when she came into the room.

They said she's sleeping good and comfortably which is very important but they'll still be keeping a close eye on her.

My wife is a displaced Southerner, so I bet I will be placing an order... eventually. Great looking site. Hope everything goes well for it, and the dogs.

thanks, she is exactly who were hoping would love to see this burlap sack sitting on their front door waiting for them to get home.

On the dog front, Philly whimpered all night and unfortunately the painkillers the vet gave me came in this syringe form 9without the needle on the end) and Philly absolutely will not let me near his mouth to administer it. I called the vet to get something in pill form since he'll eat stuff wrapped in cheese.

Nola got Plasma last night and while they assured me that it was fairly common in treating severe snake bites it has me worried that it seems that were still progressing towards a peak and havnt started a downward trend towards recovery. I have a call in and she is alive and able to rest but she is now at the vet next door and theyre running their morning vitals and I should call at 900 for an update. The overnight vet said that her swelling has not gone down and I caught mentioning that it mightve even increased. Im very very very worried.

Flasch, I'm really sorry about your dogs. I hope the best for both of them. Thanks for keeping us updated.

On the Brewman front:

The Club is now up and running (join if you'd like).

We hope to have a newsletter at somepoint following the growth and travels of Mr. Brewman's Premium Southern Sweet Tea. We also have it mind to work out partnerships that make sense (like with Pur or Brita water filters, BBQ specialties, etc.) and have them provide the club's members with special discounts and offers. More importantly we plan on having members receive a discount on Mr. Brewman's teas and gear.

Im not sure when this will actually start though but sign up if you dare ;)

and....went to the vet (Philly's) and got painkillers in pill form and he started on them this morning. I hope it helps. We will not go see Jabba anymore as it seems to get her worked up and what is best for her right now is calm and rest. I think not seeing her will be more painful for us than her.

Dog -

So Nola's face is so big that this morning they had to put her food in a litter box instead of a food bowl so she could eat. the good news though was that she did eat. they continue to treat with Fluids and antibiotics but the doctor said the idea of some sort of organ failure is diminishing by the hour. Her eyes are swelling shut now, though.

I don't think I've said it yet, but hang in there with Nola - I know how tough this can be.

thanks man. this is the worst. I just cant believe it happened again. We now going to be meshing in the bottom of the fence all around in hopes to keep snakes from getting in. We shouldve done it before but we (I) never thought it'd happen again.

so a question for you all:

Keeping in mind that this is a mail order gift type item, much in the vain of say Omaha Steaks, edible bouqets, team ties, popcorn tins etc. What price would you suggest this be at? I wont tell you the cost so it will be unbiased suggestion. If it were on the aisle next to bread baskets, gift baskets, etc. what would you see it at?

thanks in advance....no update on the dog or I should say no change. Ill checkin again this evening with the nighttime ER.

Maybe a little higher, like $16.99.

$14.99 seems like a decent price between gift item and a price that if someone really liked it, they would still pay.

Man, i can't believe nola got snakebit again. hope he or she comes out okay again.

thx BTW vitals are good and the night nurse said that, from just looking at her, the swelling may have started to retreat. HOORAY. she's still resting well and breathing good. someone warned me off possible kidney damage...anyone know anything about that?

I'm confused, your dog got bit again?


good luck on a speedy recovery for her/them.

yup this time both my dogs got bit. Nola the Bulldog got bit first and got the brunt of it. Philly got bit second so only got the leftovers venom-wise. Philly's back home now and whimpering quite a bit and juts plain old acting pissy, which I dont blame him. Nola swelled up huge to the point where she earned the nickname Jabba the hut but it looks like she's going to make it. Luckily the swelling never blocked her breathing or eating. But imagine her head the size of a kickball. We are going to wiremesh the edge of the yard at the bottom of the fence.

I was just telling my wife, she sends the best also, we both agreed we would pay anything to ensure our dogs survival.

another shot of the hell demon:

http://www.carolinanature.com/herps/cottonmouth3666a.jpg

that thing is nasty looking.

update:

Mr. Brewman's - thought I had an order today from some random person. Turns out it was 3R's mom :) WE still are doing zero marketing as Im awaiting some supplies. Then we'll figure out if we're to wait for this ladies' PR stuff or if we do some other stuff.

Dogs - Nola i doing a lot better and the doc today said "we're out of the woods". There is a spot inside Nola's mouth that she thinks will go through necrosis but if the spot remains the size it is now and doesnt grow in necrosis, that it will likely heal on it's own however I will have to be sure it remains clean especially after eating. I tried to convince her to let me bring her home tonight but she really wanted one more night of observation. the Vet also mentionied that they are going to try to "finagle" some pricing for me as theyre somewhat surprised at how expensive things have gotten ($5K) so that's good.

Philly is having a hard time eating although he'll eat cheese when we wrap his pills in them. He is not eating regularly though so the other vet gave me some high calorie food that stinks "real good" so he'll probably eat that plus it's somewhat softer. He's not happy but I think he'll be happier when his sister gets home tomorrow morning.

update:

Mr. Brewman's - thought I had an order today from some random person. Turns out it was 3R's mom :) WE still are doing zero marketing as Im awaiting some supplies. Then we'll figure out if we're to wait for this ladies' PR stuff or if we do some other stuff.

Unless she wants to take on the entire p.r. effort (instead of just a specific targeted idea or two she's offered) I'd say there's no need to wait completely on everything in this vein.

Dogs - Nola i doing a lot better and the doc today said "we're out of the woods".

That noise you may have just heard was the joint relief & happiness expressed by three people in a basement office in Athens, GA. (yeah, Will has even been asking for Nola updates today).

A picture of the dear Nola for everyone.....imagine her cheeks being twice as big, hanging twice as low, and the swelling wrapping around the sides so that it closed her eyes up. that's what she looked like a few nights ago. I have a picture of her from today on my phone Ill try to get on here but camera phone quality leaves a lot to be desired.

http://a511.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/44/l_14ea660f0166e3ef2992a72911704b3e.jpg

alrighty prepare yourself:

http://a947.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/8/l_54389abed1fc6cb6dd3227255e9e85ba.jpg
http://a9.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/45/l_331c5b23ee001ac406c9f810b04f54a0.jpg

Oh no! Poor Nola. :(

http://a511.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/44/l_14ea660f0166e3ef2992a72911704b3e.jpg
hay nola sup ;)

The good news is they are getting better AND Nola can do one hell of a Marlon Brando impersonation. :)

LOL - Brando!

update on the dog front:

Nola is home and you shouldve seen Philly light up when she came moping in. She still has a hard time moving her head due to the huge amount of swelling. Its almost as if she is carrying a tire around her neck. Anyways, lots of meds and lots of TLC and the dogs should be good to go.

thanks for all the kind words and prayer.

Awww - so glad she is home and going to be ok! I'm thinking you and the Mrs. were quite happy when she came home as well! :) Glad everything and everyone is getting better...

alrighty prepare yourself:

http://a947.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/8/l_54389abed1fc6cb6dd3227255e9e85ba.jpg
http://a9.ac-images.myspacecdn.com/images01/45/l_331c5b23ee001ac406c9f810b04f54a0.jpg

she looks like a potbellied pig, all jowly

Jeez. Are those snakes quite common? It would scare te shit out of me to have my kids or dogs out in the yard with the potential for those guys to arrive. Glad Nola is okay, definitely need that wiremesh up godspeed.

I hadnt seen one my whole life until i lived here, in this home. Now Ive seen 2 and each one has bit at least one of my dogs. Im not happy.

Dog update:

Nola's lethargy is scaring me. she ate nothing all day and finally we just spoon fed her some dinner. I dont want to be an alarmist but I called the vet and they said if she doesnt start eating well Im going to have to bring her back in and put her back on the IV. During her lethargy and the extra weight she has started favoring a leg and today when I went o asisst her in rising so she could go outside she screamed. Not yelped. Screamed. Obviously we just laid back down and she hasnt been potty in a long time, instead she's slept. Im nervous about this, perhaps it's normal at the vets but I didnt expect this at home. Any insight would be most appreciated.

Philly is doing much better. Not eating much either but a much better demeanor.

Brewman's update:

We reworked one of the processes and sped up the creation of the product. Hopefully this will help with speed and integrity, basically instead of using a hand sealer we are using the impulse sealer we used to seal the entire sack, now on the individual units as well and getting much better results.

re: the dogs

I imagine I would share your concerns about Nola's condition but she has been through an incredibly rough experience so being out of sorts (even very badly out of sorts) seems kind of, well, "normal" to some extent. You're doing the right thing by keeping the vet in the loop, there's definitely some side/after effects that can lead to new problems of their own, so keeping on top of it is the way to go.

well it was a late night at the vets, again. this time he recommends an xray or mri on the shoulder on Monday as something is wrong in there. Could be arthritic, could be a congenital thing could be minor but through some manipulation he saw some pain in her. I mentioned seeing something in her eyes to and he diagnosed a couple ocular ulcers that he gave me meds to treat. This girl is going to be bionic when it's all said and done.

another shot of the hell demon:


This is why I don't live in the south. :eek:

Best of luck on the website venture and with the dogs, Flasch.

update:

So we had to add some packaging, namely putting the sack in a box because DHL is beating the snot out of it. This drives the cost up a good deal but having a failure rate of zero is desirable, not 30% of the samples, so its a must.

The site is down until next week....while I work out the logistics of getting 9x9x9 boxes...ULine seems to be the best I can find PLUS its where I get the burlap from.

All in all, Im hoping to be able to bring costs down as I streamline things, order more in bulk, and get towards a semi-automated direction.

Anyways, right now we're using Paypal for CC processing. does anyone know of a less expensive way to have a trusted, embedded CC processor?

DOGS - Theyre doing much better, much much better and almost look back to normal. I just have to keep an eye out for any necrosis in Nola's mouth. thanks for all the well wishes, guys! It was some tough times.

Woot & double woot on the dog good news.

Awesome news on the dogs.

As far as a CC Processor, PayPal themselves has an integrated merchant solution that you can apply for, it ties right into your site, and your customers do not know that it is paypal.

Because I wanted to verify and approve my orders, I process using ProPay, they are not a real time solution, but it has allowed me to catch the fraudulent orders and chargebacks a little bit better than a normal processor would.

do you know if the Paypal way of doing it you mention is cheaper than the first level I have of theirs, which is that people transfer to them to pay and back to my site upon completion? This costs about $1 per trans.

do you know if the Paypal way of doing it you mention is cheaper than the first level I have of theirs, which is that people transfer to them to pay and back to my site upon completion? This costs about $1 per trans.

They charge a monthly fee of about $30, plus the transaction processing fees of 2.2% to 2.9% + $0.30

As you start moving with online processors you will be looking at paying either:

a monthly fee plus a low transaction fee (also called a discount rate)
an annual fee plus a mid tier transaction fee
no fee plus a high transaction fee.

For example, ProPay who I use, I pay an annual fee of $60 (3000 month limit) and I have 2 accounts with them.

Plus a discount rate of 3.25% + .35 per transaction

I am roughly paying $3.60 for a $100 transaction (Which is my avg sale)

I had to figure that into my pricing, which to me doesn't hurt because we are able to do 100% markup on what we sell.

For me, I went the ProPay way because it was cheaper than MOST of the solutions out there. The ones that were better, wanted to pull a credit check and I am against that, you don't need that information to determine whether or not I can process someones card and ship them an order. A fraud background check would be more plausible to me in this situation.

Again, this is a determination on how much you are willing to pay for integration, and an overall solution and how much of a pain is.

I will tell you, the ProPay way can be painful, July last year we did just over 7k dollar total in orders, it was mind numbing sometimes processing that and Christmas was double that. But it allowed for us to cut down on charge backs (We had 1, and that was it, I wanted to fly to Pensacola and beat them with a stick, then pour lemon on the wounds, beat them some more, and toss them in the ocean. They took close to $500 worth of product from us.)

so after running into our first snafu and pulling down the site, we rejiggered and solved it...getting better at the same time and now the site is back up. I have no idea how to give a discount through paypal yet but if any of you want to try it I'll Paypal you back $2...just PM me.

http://www.MrBrewmans.com

so after running into our first snafu and pulling down the site, we rejiggered and solved it...getting better at the same time and now the site is back up. I have no idea how to give a discount through paypal yet but if any of you want to try it I'll Paypal you back $2...just PM me.

http://www.MrBrewmans.com


I sort of lost track on this thread, but noticed the site in you sig. Let me just say "Good Idea" and you'll probably being seeing an order from me some time soon.

sweet

The webguys Mother-in-law finally received her order after receiving 2 trial (and error) ones and she is ecstatic. She's going to lend her PR expertise and do some PR stuff for us when she gets back from a long vacation. After that Ill be talking to the friend's father who has the mail order coffee company to see if and how that fits in. then we'll figure out what magazine / mail order catalogs we want to pursue (like SkyMall etc.).

oh yeah, for FOFC there is no way for Paypal to allow me to do a discount unless we have our own shopping cart, we dont....we use theirs. So just keep in mind that if you PM me on here Ill mail you back $2 via Bank of America and it will come from me so dont throw out the BoA letter thinking it's junkmail....so PM me when you order with your real name and I can cross reference it to the order and keep track of it all in Quickbooks.