Failed Sales Pitch

Some time ago I entered a contest to win an adjustable bed. Entering sweepstakes is a hobby of mine. I was waiting for an important call today. When the phone rang, I picked it up. Turns out it was a sales call. And what a fail it was.

I answered the phone, "Hello?" No reply. I repeated myself. On the third time I heard someone announce my name. I thought it might be an automated calling system. Then some woman starting reading a sales pitch. It was obvious that she was reading from a script.

Come on. Even if you are reading, try to make it sounds a little natural at least. I was asked some questions that I answered. The sales lady did a good job moving the offer forward by saying a representative would be out to talk with me. I declined. The phone call was a fail from the very beginning. You had better start strong or do not call at all. In other words, come correct or stay the hell home. Rant off.

Self Publishing Success

I recently found out about a young adult fiction author who has some great success self publishing her books. Her name is Amanda Hocking. She says she tried to break in the traditional book industry for 8 years. However recently her self publishing books have been bringing in the big bucks.

I looked her up on Amazon. One of her books goes for 99 cents. However I hear most sell for $3. She keeps 70% of this money. I understand she sells around 100k copies of her books per month. Doing the math that comes out to over $200k per month. Damn.

Personally I am going to look for her story in the April issue of Elle magazine. Check our her My Blood Approves blog to find out more about her.

Marketing Win

I got of a bunch of coupons from McDonalds. Some give you the opportunity to buy an item at a lower than normal price. Others give you outright free stuff.

Today I used a coupon to get a free drink. This enabled me to go in and dine in. I usually get a sandwich off the dollar menu from the drive through. But now that I had a free soda, I could go in and sit down.

It turns out that once inside, I decided to go big and order their Big Breakfast. This couple a couple more dollars than I normally spend. All McDonalds had to do was get the coupon to me, and provide a free drink which costs them very little extra.

This turned out to be a big win for McDonalds. I find myself going to them for my fast food needs now. A little book of coupons goes a long way in developing customer loyalty. Of course you need to have a good product, but you can benefit from something extra to keep the traffic in your stores.

Web App Secrets

I just read a magazine article on building successful web apps. Most important thing is to have a really fast app. Do this even if you have to fake it and make the app look like it is responsive.

Make sure your apps reach out to your users with reminders. Here is a thought. Listen to what your users are saying. Then respond by adding new features to your app that wow your users.

The end goal is to make money with your app. That does not mean you have to charge for it. You can go freemium. Or you can puts ads in there. There are a lot of other options.

PR and Infographics

I read this list from Software by Rob on how to launch your startup in 16 steps. It was some good stuff. There were two steps I had not thought about before. They were the use of public relations, and the use of infographics.

Using PR can be costly. So you might want to skip using a big firm at first. You should choose a small local firm instead. Or you can do this in house. Just make sure you don't assign it to a junior employee.

I had not heard the term "infographics" before. Apparently it is short for information graphics. It is a graphic representation of data to make complex topics easier to digest. An example of an infographic is a map.

Startup Compensation

I checked out a chart on Ackwire that detailed the compensation for a bunch of people at startups. The salaries varied between $50k and $150k.

Equity was normally much less than 1%. Mostly it hovered around a quarter of 1%. There were some notable exceptions. One person had a whopping 25% equity in their startup, but had a very low salary. However another had a respectable 3% equity in addition to a high salary ($130k).

The valuations of the companies were mainly in the $1M to $10M range. So if you consider the average equity was a quarter of 1%, then the equity would be worth between $2500 and $25k. Ouch. I guess you better love what you are doing. Because it does not look like these people are getting rich, even if the startup is successful and gets to an exit.

Android Phones

A buddy recently shelled out $200 for a Motorola Droid 2 phone. This included a contract, so the retail price is higher. I am thinking about getting a new phone. I am considering the Android phones for myself.

There are many different Android phones. Android is actually the open source Linux based operating system from Google. Examples of the phone are the T-Mobile G1, HTC EVO 4G, and Samsung Galaxy.


Android has a number of advantages over the iPhone. The phones themselves are usually lighter. You do not have to connect to your computer to get the apps. The web browser supports Flash. It is better for navigation, and well as tethering your computer to it for Internet access.

The Android user base is mostly dudes. Developers prefer to create apps for the Android market. You can only get a true QWERTY keyboard with an Android phone. The iPhone uses a software keyboard only.

There are times when there might be different Android OS versions out there causing some confusion. I hear that Android phones are not as reliable as iPhones. I also understand that some of the Android phones have security holes. I continue to debate whether I should get an iPhone or Adroid based model.