Internet Marketer or Bust

2006-11-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

WEEK FIVE ASSIGNMENT:
4 Ps MODEL & PORTER’S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

I’m interested in marketing some high-quality, fashionable Yoga pants I discovered while visiting Brazil last year. I bought the pants on the street in Rio for $14, and one of my Brazilian friends told me he “thought” he could help me find the factory where I could “probably” purchase them for about $5 a pair. I was thinking I could bring $1,000 worth back and sell them online to kick off my internet marketing career.

But upon returning to the U.S., I discovered that someone beat me to it! I found the same pants at a gift shop at a Yoga center in Massachusetts. The hangtag, in English, listed the importer’s name as Alicia Nogueira, and the price on these babies was $80! They are very nice, though, and the price isn’t totally unreasonable.

I immediately Googled Alicia and sure enough, she had a web site where she had a range of pants selling from $79 to $86. Most of her pants had a floral design on them, but the ones I bought do not. I realized after reading the article below, that she does original artwork (floral paintings) and has the pants made to order in Brazil. But the ones I’m interested in are different. They don’t have Alicia’s artwork, just a printed design. So maybe I can still market the pants.

Alicia markets several other clothing items on her site, as well as jewelry and home decorating objects. Hers is more of a New Age Yoga site than a Brazilian import site, because only the workout wear seems to be made in Brazil.

You can visit the site at www. Balidog.com

For additional background, here are some excerpts from an article I found through Google about Nogueira. It was reprinted from her local Telluride, Colorado newspaper:

As Nogueira tells it, Bali Dog was born following an inspirational journey to Indonesia, in which the mystical pull of Bali kept her on the island longer than her originally intended three-week stay. While there, Nogueira fell in love with the unique and brilliant locally made clothing, and began creating her own batik patterns. She returned home with 400 pieces of hand-crafted, wearable art, and to her surprise, she managed to sell them all. Nogueira returned to Bali the following year and this time brought back 4,000 pieces, which again were quickly bought up by her friends and yoga students.

Today, nearly 12 years since the birth of Bali Dog, the company has taken on a life of its own. Nationally recognized as one of the hottest yoga clothing companies, Bali Dog’s inimitable yoga pants, tops and shorts are worn in yoga studios from New York to San Francisco. Nogueira receives orders from all over the country, oftentimes from yoga studios that, after their first order, typically reorder within 30 days. Bali Dog also does business in England and Australia, and hopes to expand further into the international market.

Of the humble beginnings of her now booming business, Nogueira says, “I got a lot of compliments – people adored the stuff. I was surprised [about Bali Dog’s success] because I never wanted to be a merchant.

Bali Dog clothes are now manufactured in Brazil, where each garment is individually hand painted as a unique work of art following design patterns created by Noguiera.

PRODUCT

Hard products, some designed by Nogueira and some not. Much of the clothing seems to be made at a factory in Brazil and shipped to her warehouse in Telluride, Colorado.

PRICE

The prices on the site are high. I would expect to pay this at a boutique in Soho, NYC. She’s selling quality, fashion, and a sort of “spiritual pampering” benefit. The Yoga pants are her most featured item. Her home page calls them “wearable art.” I’m pretty skeptical and picky about such things, but I agree. They ARE beautiful and worth the price! I think she should keep her price high.

Shipping cost was a hefty $10.95 for a pair of $59 pants. Perhaps she could offer free shipping during the holidays, or a break in shipping costs for orders over $200.

The site accepts Visa, MasterCard, AmEx and Discover. Perhaps she should add PayPal.

PLACE

Because I saw the pants in a boutique in Massachusetts, I’m guessing that Nogueira is distributing to ashrams and yoga farms all over the U.S. (This was confirmed by the article I found.)

When I Googled her name, I found that her pants are sold at numerous other Yoga web sites: anahata.com, yogafinder and omtime to name a few. I didn’t see Bali Dog at any of the big sites such as Amazon and Yahoo.

If Nogueira wanted to grow her business, she could certainly market them to other types of workout stores that weren’t specifically for Yoga. Maybe she could do some search marketing. I’d run a search on wordtracker. A few of the keywords I’d start with are: yoga pants, workout pants, lycra pants, women’s workout clothes/clothing, Brazilian athletic wear, women’s athletic wear, Pilates workout pants. I bet she could make money selling some of her designs to Nike.

PROMOTION

I couldn’t find much evidence of any promoting she’s doing on the Web. She was listed on Yoga Journal’s web site as a featured advertiser. Here are some ways I thought Nogueira could promote her business:

- Say that a percentage of the profits go to underpaid factory workers in Brazil. Then she could do PR and advertise on a lot of non-profit or charity web sites. Advertise this fact in newsletters for non-profits.

- Open an eBay store

- Send a PR release to Yoga Journal

- Do affiliate marketing with Amazon and Yahoo and the myriad new age and Yoga web sites. I bet there are a lot of stressed out women who doYoga who would like to pamper themselves with a pair of these pants.

- Expand advertising to Pilates studios and gyms, as well as their web sites. Not just Yoga places.

- Do a blog on Yoga and fitness that features the pants. Or advertise on a popular fitness or Yoga blog.

- Do a Wordtracker study and see where people look when they’re buying yoga pants or workout wear. She could advertise on those sites.

- Write a newsletter about the art of Bali or Yoga, or ways women can lower stress and pamper themselves.

- Promote the pants as a gift. Time promotions with end of year holidays, mother’s day, valentine’s day, graduation

- Get a link on an Amazon page that sells Yoga books

- Capture customer data and send out an e-mail marketing campaign with notices of sales and new designs as they become available. Yoga pants wear out after about a year and could be a repeat purchase.

PORTER’S COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE

I think Nogueira should keep her prices high. She positions her pants as art to a very specific audience – young women who do Yoga. And women seem willing to pay it. So in Joe’s analogy of C-Town, Whole Foods and the Butcher, Bali Dog is Whole Foods, because she sells a lot of different high-quality stuff. If I sell the pants, I’m going to be the Butcher, because I’ll limit my inventory to pants (oh, and maybe a matching top!)

IMPLICATIONS FOR ME, IF I WANT TO START A YOGA PANTS BUSINESS

To compete with Nogueira, I would buy the one SKU that she did not design from the factory in Brazil and sell it for a lower price, for perhaps 30% less. I’d look for a range of about six patterns or designs that I would sell in 3 sizes, Small, Medium and Large. I would consider selling them in an eBay store to get greater exposure, and do an intense keyword marketing campaign. I’d write a blog and offer a newsletter at my site. While Nogueira positions her pants as Bali inspired (you have to look pretty hard on the site to see that they’re made in Brazil) I would emphasize the Brazil origins and promote the pants as being authentic Brazilian. Brazil is HOT and has a lot of cache for people who like to work out. Perhaps I could create content that would get my ads placed on Brazilian tourism sites, athletic, Pilates and Yoga sites, and women’s pampering spa sites.

Usability and Web Analytics Study

2006-11-10T08:01:00.000-08:00

THis is my homework for November 9. I'm posting it in a little late because I missed the last class. The site i chose is www.DentalDepot.com. I’d give you a link, but I’m using a MAC!

WHO IS DENTAL DEPOT?

Dental Depot sells all kinds of dental products, from athletic mouth guards to mouthwash. I am a customer at this site, because I can get some of the products my dentist sells for less than he charges. The products I buy aren’t available at retail. So Dental Depot fills a cool niche of offering me professional grade products without the professional grade mark-up,

WHAT I TRIED TO DO AT THE DEPOT

Here are the tasks I set out to perform:

1. Search for -and perhaps buy- one of those cool sonar electric toothbrushes – available at retail, but expensive

2. Check out Dental Depot’s return policy, in case I don’t like the toothbrush

3. Contact customer service about my last shipment of Super Floss that didn’t arrive

When I arrive at the home page, I see a busy, cheesy looking site, but a good description of what they offer: “a one-stop shopping site for wholesale, name-brand oral care products.” I’ll bite (ha).

1.

I begin task #1 by looking at the search box. It’s right on top on the left where I can find it (good) but has a pull-down menu with the words “description” and “item number” (confusing). Thinking this might be for dentists, I look right below and see a list of products headed with the word “departments.”

Suggestions: The heading “departments” isn’t needed, because right below that ARE the departments, which are really product categories. Also, this list of categories should be alphabetized! It’s all over the place.

I look down the list and find Electric Toothbrushes and click on it.

I get a page of logos, two of which have the word “sonar” in them. I click on the first and there are no products available! Breadcrumbs at the top help me go back. I click on the second and get a choice of three but they are all “replacement tips.” I don’t want to go back and look at all the toothbrushes again and see if some of the names that don’t sound sonar are sonar. So I’d abandon here.

Suggestion: Divide electric toothbrushes into Sonar and Non-Sonar. Present a nice neat list of product names rather than presenting a page of free form scattered logos.

2.

I had set out to learn DD’s return policy and am delighted to see it featured in the top navigation. I click on it and find a long, poorly written paragraph –kind of negative in tone about what they WON’T do. Below that, oddly, are four product logos with phone numbers and links to their respective companies. Does that mean that if I buy from Dental Depot and want to return, I have to deal with the manufacturer? That DD washes its hands of the transaction? I didn’t like this idea or the tone of the opening paragraph, so I might abandon here.

Suggestion: Clean up, bullet and put a positive spin on the opening copy. (eg.: Dental Depot DOES take returns. Buy with confidence!) I’d have a hard time figuring that out from the information here. A direct phone number to Dental Depot would also be helpful.

3.

I’d like to track a missing package, so I go to the home page. Unfortunately, Top Navigation has no Customer Service link! Nor does it have Contact Us. Ah, but then I notice E-mail Dental Depot. That sounds like work. I’ll have to compose an email about my missing package. I was hoping that if there were a customer service link, I’d find another link to “Missing Package?” or “Call us.”

I click on E-Mail Dental Depot and instead of another page, my own e-mail program pops up with a pre-addressed email to Dental Depot. Drat. I have to go find my confirming email with an order number and explain that my package never arrived. They didn’t make this easy for me.

Suggestion: Add a Customer Service or Contact Us link where I’d get a choice to call or email. I would prefer an email box embedded in the page with a pull-down menu that starts me out… one like on eBay with pre-written subject lines: Missing Package? Got the wrong order? Damaged shipment? This would make it easier for me and more user-friendly.

Have a “My Orders” link where I could quickly find and reference the missing order. Maybe even have an email link here that says, “Check Status” of order or shipment. That would make my life really easy!

MORE ADVICE FOR THE DEPOT

I know this assignment wasn’t about web design, but this is probably one of the worst looking sites I’ve seen. Very poorly written too. It looks homemade and unprofessional. For such professional grade, “serious” products they should hire a good designer and re-do the site.

LivingLowSodium.com Search Campaign, cont.

2006-10-28T22:30:00.000-07:00

After I read Joe's email, I did some more work.

First I went to Google adwords and typed in a few phrases from my previous blog's keyword list. This resulted in 67 keyword phrases. I didn't really like many of them, so I chose the following 4:

"heart disease diet"

"Meniere's Disease diet"

[salt free foods]

[salt restricted diet]

And here are some ads I wrote:

Low sodium snacks.
The foods you love without salt.
Free shipping with first order.

Want low sodium soups?
Choose from a healthy variety.
Discounts for buying in bulk.

Need low sodium foods?
We have a great variety
from soups to desserts.

Meniere’s Disease Diet
A complete variety of low sodium
foods. Free gift with first order.

On a low sodium diet?
Soups, Condiments, Snacks
and more. Quick service.

Notes on the Competition:

I Googled low sodium foods and really found nothing but recipe books and support groups in the organic search, and in the paid ads just the usual ebay, “Looking for low sodium foods? You can find anything on eBay” ad. There were other ads for cookbooks and meal plans but really nothing to compare to what Steve was offering. So I think his idea is a winner.

The only company that was remotely close was one selling low sodium BBQ sauce… but that’s only one product, while Steve offers so many more! And there was another web site based in New York that offered low sodium meals delivered. A service like that has to be local though, and came up only because it was detecting my computer’s IP address. (Steve is in Florida and ships his non-perishable items nationwide.)

Then I Googled "low sodium soups" so I could compare prices on one item. There was really nothing here either but recipes and the usual boilerplate ads from Yahoo and Amazon. There was, however, an ad from NextTag, a company that does a round up of prices from different sites to get you the best deal. I clicked on that and was presented with 6 different brands, ranging in price from $1.81 to $3.75. Steve only offers one brand of soup, a well-known brand, and his price was $2.48-- very compeitive.

I didn't have time to search every category (condiments, salad dressings, desserts, etc.) but it seems to me Steve has a relatively --if not totally-- unique idea: marketing a number of low sodium foods under one e-roof. There really IS no competitiion!

To put Steve over the top, perhaps he could offer a blog or newsletter about living the low sodium life to establish himself as an authority in the category. That way, people would have more confidence in the quality of his products and buy from him. They might also feel that he feels their pain, and be more inclined to buy. There is info like this hidden in Steve's "Contact Us" section. When I read this page I realize this business really cares about people with low sodium food needs... that they're more than just a business trying to make a buck. But I'd put this info on the Home Page, where people see it right away. When I go to contact us, I don't expect more than an e-mail link, so I think this valuable "simpatico" copy is wasted there!

SEARCH CAMPAIGN FOR LIVINGLOWSODIUM.COM

2006-10-27T11:06:00.000-07:00

My friend Steve’s Web site, Livinglowsodium.com, needs a search box. He offers a lot of products with specific brand names. If I were searching for a particular brand of salad dressing, for example, it would be nice to be able to simply type it in.

But that’s for within the site.

TO HELP PEOPLE FIND LIVINGLOWSODIUM.COM ON THE WEB, I WENT TO WORDTRACKER.COM FOR HELP. BUT FIRST I CAME UP WITH THE FOLLOWING LIST OF KEYWORDS ON MY OWN:

Low sodium
No sodium
Low salt
No salt
Low sodium soups
" " snacks
" " dressing
“ " diet
“ " condiments
“ “ catsup/ketchup
“ " dessert
high blood pressure
Meniere’s disease
Blood pressure
Hyperteension
Healthy diet
Healthy soups
Healthy eating
Heart diet
Low salt diet
Unsalted
Unsalted potato chips
Unsalted soups
Salt-free diet
Salt-free soups, condiments, ketchup, desserts, etc.

One could also research the top five products people who need low-sodium diets may be looking for, and use those names as keywords. These products may be hard to find in stores, but we’d make them easy to find on the web. For example:

Heinz Low Sodium Ketchup
Kettle Chips Unsalted
Wild Thymes Salad Dressing

THAT'S WHAT I DID ON MY OWN. NOW, HERE’S WHAT I FOUND ON WORDTRACKER.COM AFTER TYPING IN LOW SODIUM DIETS:

There are 15 keywords here for the trial
using the Wordtracker database.

low sodium diet
low sodium diet recipe
low sodium diet list
food on low sodium diet
low fat low sodium diet
low sodium diabetic diet
low sodium diet plan
low protein and low sodium diet
low potassium low sodium diet
low carb low sodium diet
free low sodium diet
diet low no salt sodium
low sodium diet for hypertension
low sodium diets
diet low recipe sodium

We will now compare each of these keywords with MSN, a major search engine. In the full subscription you may access all major engines. You will see that some of these keywords have very few competing web pages. These are your niche keywords!

HERE'S WHAT THE CHART SAID. HARD TO READ, I KNOW...

No. Keyword
KEI Analysis (?) Count (?) 24Hrs (?) Competing (?)
1 "diet low no salt sodium" 1104.500 47 5 2
2 "food on low sodium diet" 354.025 119 14 40
3 "low protein and low sodium diet" 142.811 87 10 53
4 "low sodium diet recipe" 50.895 151 18 448
5 "low potassium low sodium diet" 48.460 74 9 113
6 "low carb low sodium diet" 46.878 62 7 82
7 "low sodium diet list" 39.325 124 14 391
8 "low sodium diet for hypertension" 36.750 42 5 48
9 "low sodium diabetic diet" 18.222 109 13 652
10 "low sodium diet plan" 15.250 92 11 555
11 "diet low recipe sodium" 13.000 26 3 52
12 "low fat low sodium diet" 9.333 112 13 1344
13 "free low sodium diet" 8.310 51 6 313
14 "low sodium diet" 1.831 348 40 66154
15 "low sodium diets" 0.178 37 4 7679

COMMENTS:

I don’t really like the first set of keywords. Who would ever type that in anyway?

Since I’d already used my free trial, I started typing stuff in on Google’s search box to see what would happen.

When I typed in “low sodium Meniere’s disease” only ONE paid ad came up! Same for “Heinz Low Sodium Ketchup.” These are the first two pages where I’d buy an ad.

I have a lot of questions about this processwhich I want to bring up in class next week. Like, once I come up with good keywords, am I suppose to stuff my home page with same? And how do I maneuver up through the list in the Google organic results?

That’s all for this week.

Bikram Yoga Redux

2006-10-27T09:03:00.000-07:00

I asked my friend Laura to go to bikramyogachelsea.com and investigate classes.

She typed the name into the browser and the page with a Bikram Yoga logo and the choice of two locations, Chelsea and Park Slope, presented no problems. She clicked on Chelsea and arrived at the home page.

In addition to the beautiful clean type and logo, there was a row of tabs:

Home
General Information
Store
Postures
Location
Schedule
Rates
FAQs
Contact us

Since none of these called out to her, she scrolled quickly past the rest of the “top of the fold”, down to a blank box with the word “go” next to it. Thinking this was a search box, she typed in “classes” and hit “go.” In return, she received a message that she needed to enter her e-mail address. This made her go back and read some of the copy above the box and realized that the box was an attempt to get her to sign up for a newsletter! Not wanting a newsletter, she scrolled back to the top once more to peruse the tabs.

She clicked on "General Information." The first thing she read on this page was, “For more information, go to FAQs!”

“That’s absurd,” she said. A quick look at the General Information made her do just that, however. General Information didn’t give any info about the center or how to take a class. It merely sold the generic benefits of bikram yoga.

She clicked on FAQs, but there she found more of the same. Laura was getting frustrated at this point, and just for the heck of it, clicked on “postures.” The schematic diagrams of about 20 postures appeared and Laura scrolled past them to a headline, “Read February Newsletter here.”

“Huh?” she said. “This is October. This site is useless,” she said.

She then clicked on schedule, thinking she’d find times when classes were offered. The second and last breadcrumb identified this as the “Winter 2006” schedule. “This is promising,” she said. “But I want beginners, and it doesn’t tell me what level any of these classes are.” Indeed. It was the same calendar that Jeanne found with the pretty mandala-like logos in every box corresponding to the day of the week and time a class took place.

At that, Laura went to “contact us” looking for a phone number. Finding the form to fill out to rate an instructor was not expected and resulted in more frustration.

“I guess I just need a phone book,” she said.

Since the “home” button was visible on every page, she clicked on “home” again, hoping to find a phone number. But alas, there was none. So Laura told me that if she really wanted to take a class, she’d have to go to an online yellow pages to find a phone number for the studio so she could call and inquire.

THIS SITE IS BEAUTIFULLY DESIGNED AND LOOKS LIKE IT WOULD BE EASY TO NAVIGATE AND FIND WHAT YOU’RE LOOKING FOR. BUT THIS IS NOT THE CASE! IT’S POORLY THOUGHT OUT, AND THE COPY ISN’T VERY CLEAR EITHER. THE WORST DISAPPOINTMENT WAS THAT THE TABS DON’T REALLY DELIVER WHAT THEY SEEM TO PROMISE.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. The site’s home page needs a big fat button that says: TAKE A CLASS with an arrow pointing to GO!

2. Home page has too much verbiage above the fold. Replace this with the TAKE A CLASS button. They could also solicit names for the newsletter in a clearly marked section… not with a box that looks like a search box that’s accompanied by overlong copy but with SIGN UP FOR FREE NEWSLETTER HERE.

3. The tabs don’t change to move the “active” tab to the front. They stay stationery. They need to follow Steve Krug’s advice and make them “active tabs.”

4. A nitpick, but when I type bikramyogachelsea into the browser, I shouldn’t have to choose between Park Slope and Chelsea. I should land on Chelsea!

5. On the “schedule” page, tell me what levels the classes are, or at least say, “all levels.” Perhaps give the name of the instructor too.

6. Update that newsletter! It’s moribund! A bad reflection on a yoga studio whose management should not be a bunch of slackers.

7. Put all the verbiage under faqs and general info under one tab and call it “about bikram yoga.” It sells the category and doesn’t tell anything about this particular studio. Delete general info (too general!) and use FAQs to tell me how to sign up, what to bring, how soon before class starts to arrive, what to wear… that kind of stuff. Have the people at the phones write down what people call and ask the most, and use it for this page. I bet they also ask stuff like, what subway stop are you near? What’s the cross street, do you have discounts if I sign up for a series? But none of this info was anywhere on the site.

8. The rates page needs help too! When I arrive at this page, my eye went to a list of bullet points on the benefits of having employees do yoga. Then I noticed that the copy above was about corporate rates. So not what you’d be looking for when you click on rates! How about an easy-to read chart with One class…..$20. Pack of 10 classes … $180. Something like that? Then a clear ASK US ABOUT CORPORATE RATES. CLICK HERE.

9. Worse of all, I think was “contact us.” I should immediately get an email link to the studio, an address and a phone number. Not a rating sheet for the various instructors!

10. The map and phone number shown on the location tab should include subway and bus info. And the map should be bigger, phone number more prominent.

11. The breadcrumbs don't seem necessary since there are only two levels, and I can clearly see on this site where I am because the tabs change color when I go to the corresponding page.

Lots of other ideas:

Perhaps after removing all the copy from the home page, they create a little ad for CORPORATE RATES, click here

Add a search box to every page where I could find “classes," items in the store, names of postures, specific inquiries on bikram yoga.

How about a 15 word or less definition of Bikram Yoga on the home page? It's radical. You do it in a very hot room and wear very little clothing and you sweat a lot. Not everyone knows this!

Thanks for reading, Joe!

Sorry, No Yoga Today

2006-10-24T12:19:00.000-07:00

I had my friend Jeanne go to www.bikramyogachelsea.com and told her I wanted her to take a class. Jeanne is very fast on the computer so I had to ask her to slow down from time to time and take the best notes I could.

At the above url, one sees the name, bikram yoga, in giant letters on a clean white background with the school’s peaceful-looking logo beneath it. In bright orange letters next to that were two words, "Chelsea" and "Park Slope." She immediately clicked on Chelsea because we were in Manhattan, but I wondered why bikram yoga Chelsea even had a choice between Chelsea and Park Slope.

Upon clicking "Chelsea" another page appeared with the same clean white look and beautiful logo. It said bikram yoga Chelsea at the top. Ok, good, we're there. Beneath that were several attractive orange tabs. Jeanne kept looking for a place to “register.” I wondered why she didn’t simply click the tabs marked "location" or "schedule." But this was her search, not mine.

Not liking any of the tabs, she quickly scanned a lengthy paragraph beneath them with the headline, “Welcome! What is Bikram Yoga?” She began to mutter now about where to register. She said she didn’t know if just anyone could take a class or if you had to join something first. “Ah,” I said and continued to watch.

She then scrolled to the bottom of the page where there were no less than 14 links in tiny type. She had no patience with these so she went back to the top tabs and clicked on a one called “general info.” Here there was a set of bullet points with advice such as “drink plenty of water” and “bring a towel.” Beneath that was a lot more copy about the benefits of bikram yoga. But not what Jeanne was looking for. She started to grumble at this point and clicked on another tab, "faqs."

This was a very copy heavy page with info on what to wear, what to bring, and tons of verbiage on the benefits of bikram yoga. She was clearly frustrated by now and went to “contact us,” another tab. This made her really upset –I was starting to get upset also!— because we saw the word “comments” above a huge form to fill out. It was the school’s attempt to capture data and students’ opinions. At "contact us" they were asking for info from Jeanne—rather than offering to give Jeanne info!

At this point, she went back to “home,” thinking maybe she’d missed something there. But again not finding what she wanted, she clicked on the “rates” tab — thinking that perhaps along with a price they’d tell her how to sign up. This was a really aggravating page because it merely told about corporate rates. Definitely not what she was looking for!

Next, she clicked on the “schedule” tab, thinking she could sign up for a class there. I was sure this would help. But this page, though pretty, merely sported a calendar with the days of the week running across the top and the times of day down the side. Whenever there was a class that beautiful logo appeared in the corresponding box. So while it told when classes were going on, it didn’t tell how to take one.

Net she clicked “location.” The only other two tabs left were “store” and “postures” – and it clearly wouldn’t be one of those. "Location" had a map and address for the Chelsea location and a phone number in small type midway down the page. Pay dirt! Jeanne said that to take the class, she’d just have to call.

“This is a really bad web site,” she said. “Pretty to look at-- but bad.” After looking at six pages, she never found out how to take a class—just a phone number, hardly visible, that she could call to ask.

Just for fun, she clicked on “postures,” one of the remaining tabs. “These are cool,” she said. And they were. You could click on each one of about 20 postures and a box would pop up with a close-up of the posture, the Indian and English names for it, a description of how to achieve it, and the benefits it provided.

But I doubted Jeanne would get to practice it at bikram yoga Chelsea, because they never told her how to take a class. And she was too mad to call.

JEANNE-MARIE BUYS A BOOK!

2006-10-09T09:14:00.000-07:00

On Friday I went online to buy “Don’t Make Me Think.” What a great title, I thought. The message? Get non-thinking zombie-types ie., most people, to click on the links of your site without even, well, thinking.

I started at Google, my home page on Safari, and entered the book title. Amazon was the first listing in the organic search. Since Jim wanted us to branch out and try something different, I looked over at the “Sponsored Links” and see that Ebay was offering something. Hoping to pick up a bargain, I clicked only to find a ZZ Hill 45 entitled “Don’t Make Me Pay for His Mistakes,” listed at $9.99 with no bids. Ah, the joy of search engines!

I went back to Google's organic search results and clicked on the link for the third entry because I liked the name: Sherpa Store. A clean, tastefully designed page popped up with a great shot of the book. But it sported the unattractive price of $35. I can do better than this, I thought. I was impressed that Sherpa offered its phone number right at the top of the page— something I’ve rarely seen offered by online marketers. But that wasn’t enough to get me to part with $35.

Next, I tried something called BooksPrice. This was really different. It was apparently one of those comparison shopping websites that rounds up every offering of the item you’re looking for (I used this once to get an electric toothbrush) so you’re sure you’ll get the best deal. Every website marketing the book is pitted against one another and listed in order of price, lowest first.

I really liked this site. Here's why:

It was clean and airy. Lots of white space. The first page I saw had a picture of my book with the ISBN number, author’s name, a link to some reviews and the list price. Two large links below were labeled “Compare Price” and “Add to compare-cart.” I chose the first and was blown away by the page of sellers, and their prices, that popped up.

Wanna see it? Click here!

http://www.booksprice.com/comparePrice.do?searchType=compare&inputdata=0321344758

The lowest listed that had a “like new” copy –I didn’t want a marked up dog-eared edition- was called Textbookx.com. BooksPrice listed the price at $20.49. Looking down the list, I noticed that all the usual suspects were also listed: Amazon, Powells, Overstock, Alibris, and even Wal-Mart! Each store had a rating (from one to five stars). Textbookx only had three, but for $20 and change I’d take a chance!

BooksPrice was great because it organized the page into columns with important info about what each seller had to offer: the basic price, shipping price, total for book with shipping, a customer rating (it linked you to Amazon to read the rating) PLUS the condition of the book. This made comparison shopping easy.

Here's something else I liked: When I ran my mouse over each seller, it told me a little about them. What kind of books they specialize in, where they're located, specials deals and memberships they offer. I could learn all this without taking the time to click and check them out.

Once I clicked on Textbook'x entry, I found my book with a short review. I put it in my shopping cart and pressed “check out.” I was allowed the option of either creating an account so I could come back and easily make more purchases, or just make a one-time transaction. I chose the one-time transaction.

The rest was fairly routine. Texbookx promised to have the book to me in 5 to 7 business days. I can’t wait to get it!

It's like shopping on the Internet -- only different!

2006-10-06T21:40:00.000-07:00

Who knew my first assignment would be to, well, buy something! Now that I can do! I've completely furnished my apartment and filled my shoe rack with Internet purchases. But this time I was buying a book about, ta-da!! INTERNET MARKETING. The book is called "Don't Make Me Think," and I think it's about writing for the web. Y'see one of my pals, a guy who got fired from my agency and who had to go freelance, suddenly found himself tasked with writing a website, and he didn't know where to start. After several trips to Barnes & Noble, he discovered this book, and told me about it weeks ago. Of course, I never bought it. But now I HAD to, lest I flunk my Internet Marketing Strategies class. I'll tell you how I did it in my next post!