Well that gave us a scare. We had switched a lot of our emails over to the americanpromotions.com domain because of problems with spam. However, in so doing our domain provider renewal notices were not getting to us, and we didn't know that the domain registration expired today. Then without notice, the screen went to an expired domain page and we all panicked.
With immeasurable relief, I got right on the phone and learned that it was not too late. $64 later, we are fine for the next four years.
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Upgrade your stadium cushion
This self-inflating stadium cushion is an upgraded variation from your standard foam style. It has a 5" x 5" imprint area. I ought to try it out to see if it is actually more comfortable. I'm sure it functions like the Thermarest cushions I use when I camp.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Close to Marketing Fame
Earlier this year, we were contacted by a professional balloonist about putting together a promotion involving a now famous movie which I won't name here, which prominently featured balloons as one of the central plot devices.
After considerable research and some scrambling to put together prototypes, we came very close to winning a promotional contract to help premiere one of the biggest movies of the year, but we ran into one problem, our giant $75 balloon prototype, (of which our customer wanted to do 800 for the full order) popped!
Sometimes, marketing glory is just not meant to be ;)
After considerable research and some scrambling to put together prototypes, we came very close to winning a promotional contract to help premiere one of the biggest movies of the year, but we ran into one problem, our giant $75 balloon prototype, (of which our customer wanted to do 800 for the full order) popped!
Sometimes, marketing glory is just not meant to be ;)
Holiday Moose
I'm already starting to see holiday promotions on our vendors' websites, and we are starting to sell some cool weather items. This Bellisimo Moose would be the perfect winter promotion and way to show you care for the company working to convey a feel-good and fun gift.
Nine Ways To Motivate in Tough Times
Here is a great article by contributing writer Kenneth Hein to the Counselor magazine about motivating people in tough times.
http://www.asicentral.com/asp/open/content/content.aspx?id=3706
The 9 ways are:
1. Lead by Example
2. Offer Incentives for Strong Performance
3. Be Flexible
4. Buy Them Lunch
5. Keep People Informed
6. Invest in Marketing
7. Make Them Better at Their Jobs
8. Image Matters
9. Create Clear Goals
This has a lot of good nuggets for getting your organization through the recession.
http://www.asicentral.com/asp/open/content/content.aspx?id=3706
The 9 ways are:
1. Lead by Example
2. Offer Incentives for Strong Performance
3. Be Flexible
4. Buy Them Lunch
5. Keep People Informed
6. Invest in Marketing
7. Make Them Better at Their Jobs
8. Image Matters
9. Create Clear Goals
This has a lot of good nuggets for getting your organization through the recession.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Keeping out the skunks
We live in the country, and we try, albeit pathetically, to be country people. Currently, we are raising a rooster and 11 laying hens. One of my sons is expected to do most of the work, and we buy the eggs from him so he can earn extra money. The problem is, we are very inexperienced in the shelter of chickens, and we seem to lose more to predators than we keep. We have lost a couple dozen hens to predators over the last couple of years, and we are really putting forth a concerted effort to do better with this set.
One of the arch enemies of our chickens is a small family of neighborhood skunks. They also frequently territorially mark our property with their trademark scent. Tonight, a good friend came over with his kids and set special traps to catch the skunks. He has captured and killed three of the critters in the protection of his own flock of chickens, and now we are hoping we can use his resourcefulness up here.
I actually like skunks, in that I think they are very interesting and cute animals. Nevertheless, we cannot have them ravaging our poultry investment, and I don't have the courage or the time, or the desire to try to manage a catch and release which means transporting them in my car.
Skunks can be great marketing mascots, because they are so memorable. One of America's best franchises, Aire-Master uses the skunk to market with winking irony.
Here is a cute skunk promotional stress toy which could be used to remind your customer service staff to not let their customer service stink and for other fun applications.
One of the arch enemies of our chickens is a small family of neighborhood skunks. They also frequently territorially mark our property with their trademark scent. Tonight, a good friend came over with his kids and set special traps to catch the skunks. He has captured and killed three of the critters in the protection of his own flock of chickens, and now we are hoping we can use his resourcefulness up here.
I actually like skunks, in that I think they are very interesting and cute animals. Nevertheless, we cannot have them ravaging our poultry investment, and I don't have the courage or the time, or the desire to try to manage a catch and release which means transporting them in my car.
Skunks can be great marketing mascots, because they are so memorable. One of America's best franchises, Aire-Master uses the skunk to market with winking irony.
Here is a cute skunk promotional stress toy which could be used to remind your customer service staff to not let their customer service stink and for other fun applications.
Princess Leia Headphones and other rejected Star Wars promotions
I found a fun gem of a link of concept art for Star Wars promotional products which didn't quite make the cut. My favorites are the Bantha slippers and the Leia Headphones as pictured below.
Link and picture courtesy Action Figure Insider and the Ottertorials blog.
http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/ottertorials/2008/02/10/rejected-a-long-long-time-ago/
Link and picture courtesy Action Figure Insider and the Ottertorials blog.
http://www.actionfigureinsider.com/ottertorials/2008/02/10/rejected-a-long-long-time-ago/
Saturday, September 12, 2009
Chris Jones remembers 9-11
Chris Jones is not only one of my dearest friends, but he is also one of the best writers I know. His September 11th blog post is well worth the read.
http://thechrisjonesgroup.com/chrisjonesmortgage/2009/09/11/never-forgetwhat/
My favorite paragraph reads:
http://thechrisjonesgroup.com/chrisjonesmortgage/2009/09/11/never-forgetwhat/
My favorite paragraph reads:
"So on this 9/11, I’ve decided to remember these two things: one, that I never know what day will be my last day, what hour my last hour, what act my last act, and those days, those hours and deeds are precious beyond expressing. And two, because that is true, if I truly remember that, then every hour and action should be one that I am proud of. That if this turns out to be my last communication with the world, I want to be proud of it."Amen.
Promotional product distributors I admire
I'm in the business of selling promotional products. I founded American Promotions, Inc. in 1996 while I was still in college. In recent years, our company has moved online, and we have found that most of the more innovative businesses in our industry have a substantial online presence.
So when I see competition which are web savvy and doing it right, I take notice.
I've decided to give some of the competition a sincere hat tip:
1. 4imprint.com They are one of the biggest, but one of the best. I admire everything about the way they do their website. They are innovative. The Slide tool is ingenious and patent pending (darn it!). They are the industry leader in building trust.
2. promopeddler.com These folks are fellow Oregonians. They are very smart with their search engine optimization and the "Ideas Guru" blog and videos are a lot of fun as well as a good way for buyers to get the creative juices flowing.
3. discountmugs.com Technologically, these guys are awesome. They allow you to design the image and artwork on your drinkware right on the website, and they direct sell a good percentage of the merchandise on the site, so the pricing is fantastic. I have read reviews that their product quality isn't very good. Maybe that is why buyers continue to find little sites like ours. ;)
4. inkhead.com The name and the logo rock!
When the competition is as good as the companies above, I don't mind saying so. One day our site will reach those lofty levels.
So when I see competition which are web savvy and doing it right, I take notice.
I've decided to give some of the competition a sincere hat tip:
1. 4imprint.com They are one of the biggest, but one of the best. I admire everything about the way they do their website. They are innovative. The Slide tool is ingenious and patent pending (darn it!). They are the industry leader in building trust.
2. promopeddler.com These folks are fellow Oregonians. They are very smart with their search engine optimization and the "Ideas Guru" blog and videos are a lot of fun as well as a good way for buyers to get the creative juices flowing.
3. discountmugs.com Technologically, these guys are awesome. They allow you to design the image and artwork on your drinkware right on the website, and they direct sell a good percentage of the merchandise on the site, so the pricing is fantastic. I have read reviews that their product quality isn't very good. Maybe that is why buyers continue to find little sites like ours. ;)
4. inkhead.com The name and the logo rock!
When the competition is as good as the companies above, I don't mind saying so. One day our site will reach those lofty levels.
Friday, September 11, 2009
SIGG cited for BPA liners in water bottles.
Iconic Swiss water bottle manufacturer SIGG has admitted in an official letter from the CEO, that water bottles manufacturered prior to August 2008 contain bisphenol-A. In the past SIGG had dishonorably kind of skirted this issue by maintaining that their bottles did not leach BPA, but they remained opaque about the actual chemical makeup of the liner in order to keep their product appealing in the marketplace with BPA so prominently and negatively portrayed in the news. Here is the full article from the Advertising Specialty Institute http://asicentral.com/asp/open/content/content.aspx?id=3760
9-11
I logged onto the Drudge Report this morning and saw this picture. No caption. No link. Just the picture. I was struck with poignancy. It has been 8 years. I quietly shut my eyes and prayed.
Wednesday, September 02, 2009
Great Geek Promo for Your Office Party
This is an "empowering" geektastic promo for your next Star Wars themed party. I mean who wouldn't want a "light sword" (code for avoiding the trademark folks over at LucasFilm) proudly emblazoned with the corporate logo?
This is an "empowering" geektastic promo for your next Star Wars themed party. I mean who wouldn't want a "light sword" (code for avoiding the trademark folks over at LucasFilm) proudly emblazoned with the corporate logo?
Tuesday, September 01, 2009
Gravatar
I just set up a Gravatar account, a global avatar, which follows my posts. I don't think it will work on this blog as I am using a different email address. I was bugged by the fact that the account is undeletable and their terms of use seem way to broad to me, but I need the tool as I'm going to be blogging a lot more directly to the ameripromo.com website.
I just set up a Gravatar account, a global avatar, which follows my posts. I don't think it will work on this blog as I am using a different email address. I was bugged by the fact that the account is undeletable and their terms of use seem way to broad to me, but I need the tool as I'm going to be blogging a lot more directly to the ameripromo.com website.
Enjoying RatePoint
RatePoint practices what it preaches. The website's motto is "Reputation is Everything" and RatePoint is definitely living up to it. I wrote about this company about a month ago, and they continue to impress.
American Promotions has been signed up with their service for about five weeks - first for a free trial period and now with a paid subscription. Soon after signing up, I received a personalized email with a representative of the company offering to set up a time to walk me through the service. I went ahead and set up an appointment, and the rep spent a solid 20-25 minutes with me on the phone showing off the features. Talk about ease of use! The service imports your contacts like any other service does, but the power comes in the tools used to manage those contacts and to get feedback both negative and positive from a business's customers.
RatePoint is similar (from what I understand) to Constant Contact. It is an online contact management service which enables a business to send email communications to opt-in lists of contacts. It is subscription based, and is very affordable starting at about $17 - $18 a month.
The service differentiates itself with their customer feedback and surveys which I'm excited to try out. My graphic designer and I are also very pleased with the email design building tool. There are over 100 templates predesigned to choose from, and every component of the template can be easily modified with basic skills to produce a slick and professional looking product.
After spending more than an hour toying with the various features of the email design system, I wanted to go over it with our in-house graphic designer. I quickly used the live chat with a RatePoint CSR and to learn whether we could both go into the design editor remotely on the same account and review it simultaneously. I learned this is totally possible, and you can even collaboratively edit the same template together (similar to Google docs). However, it is not recommended as it requires frequent refreshing or you end up undoing each others work.
I'll post more about the service as I learn more about it and use it. Continually impressed.
RatePoint practices what it preaches. The website's motto is "Reputation is Everything" and RatePoint is definitely living up to it. I wrote about this company about a month ago, and they continue to impress.
American Promotions has been signed up with their service for about five weeks - first for a free trial period and now with a paid subscription. Soon after signing up, I received a personalized email with a representative of the company offering to set up a time to walk me through the service. I went ahead and set up an appointment, and the rep spent a solid 20-25 minutes with me on the phone showing off the features. Talk about ease of use! The service imports your contacts like any other service does, but the power comes in the tools used to manage those contacts and to get feedback both negative and positive from a business's customers.
RatePoint is similar (from what I understand) to Constant Contact. It is an online contact management service which enables a business to send email communications to opt-in lists of contacts. It is subscription based, and is very affordable starting at about $17 - $18 a month.
The service differentiates itself with their customer feedback and surveys which I'm excited to try out. My graphic designer and I are also very pleased with the email design building tool. There are over 100 templates predesigned to choose from, and every component of the template can be easily modified with basic skills to produce a slick and professional looking product.
After spending more than an hour toying with the various features of the email design system, I wanted to go over it with our in-house graphic designer. I quickly used the live chat with a RatePoint CSR and to learn whether we could both go into the design editor remotely on the same account and review it simultaneously. I learned this is totally possible, and you can even collaboratively edit the same template together (similar to Google docs). However, it is not recommended as it requires frequent refreshing or you end up undoing each others work.
I'll post more about the service as I learn more about it and use it. Continually impressed.
Polyconcept: A promotional products juggernaut
Leed's is the most powerful player in the U.S. promotional products market, which is something I've known for a long time. I've always been impressed with their remarkable efficiency, their innovation both in products and in decorating and delivering those products. They are a huge company, which makes them all the more remarkable.
I personally prefer working with smaller businesses, because it represents my values. I like to support smaller family companies. However, all companies want to get bigger, and I don't begrudge a large brand because of their success - only if they begin to be arrogant and abusive to their customers.
Leed's is one of those companies that started out as a smaller family business and became much larger and did it well.
What I did not realize is the scope and the power of the company behind Leeds: Polyconcept. Polyconcept is a Dutch company and appears to be a promotional products juggernaut. They are approaching 700 million euros a year in sales, and about 50% of those come from their business divisions in the United States and Canada.
Polyconcept's service brands in the U.S. and Canada include Leed's, Bullet Line and Journalbooks, three of the largest brands in the promotional products industry. American Promotions, Inc. is a distributor for all three of these fine brands, but I simply had no idea that they had all consolidated under the same corporate umbrella.
I wonder if it is any indication of more consolidation to come in the industry's future.
Leed's is the most powerful player in the U.S. promotional products market, which is something I've known for a long time. I've always been impressed with their remarkable efficiency, their innovation both in products and in decorating and delivering those products. They are a huge company, which makes them all the more remarkable.
I personally prefer working with smaller businesses, because it represents my values. I like to support smaller family companies. However, all companies want to get bigger, and I don't begrudge a large brand because of their success - only if they begin to be arrogant and abusive to their customers.
Leed's is one of those companies that started out as a smaller family business and became much larger and did it well.
What I did not realize is the scope and the power of the company behind Leeds: Polyconcept. Polyconcept is a Dutch company and appears to be a promotional products juggernaut. They are approaching 700 million euros a year in sales, and about 50% of those come from their business divisions in the United States and Canada.
Polyconcept's service brands in the U.S. and Canada include Leed's, Bullet Line and Journalbooks, three of the largest brands in the promotional products industry. American Promotions, Inc. is a distributor for all three of these fine brands, but I simply had no idea that they had all consolidated under the same corporate umbrella.
I wonder if it is any indication of more consolidation to come in the industry's future.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Custom Sandals: Make your imprint your footprint
We recently more than tripled our collection of custom imprintable sandals. American Promotions is an authorized distributor for Neet Feet custom sandals, the industry leader. With custom sandals, the straps, the colors, the foot beds and most uniquely the soles of the sandals can be customized to create a custom logo footprint leaving your message in the sand wherever your customers walk.
Check out our great selection of custom sandals here.
We recently more than tripled our collection of custom imprintable sandals. American Promotions is an authorized distributor for Neet Feet custom sandals, the industry leader. With custom sandals, the straps, the colors, the foot beds and most uniquely the soles of the sandals can be customized to create a custom logo footprint leaving your message in the sand wherever your customers walk.
Check out our great selection of custom sandals here.
Pbase is cool too.
My last post contained my raving review of istockphoto.com. I also enjoy pbase.com which is a photo sharing site featuring professional and aspiring professional photographers. The photography is gallery quality, and there is a strong community on the site where the various submitters are able to respond, critique and admire each other's work. It seems to be a very supportive and positive community for someone who is looking to have their photography get more notice.
I discovered pbase when I took a particular interest in the growth and development of the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and I came across the travel photography of Brian McMorrow. He has a breathtaking gallery of the buildings and vistas of Dubai, and a really great photography collection from all over the world as well. Here is his Dubai gallery.
My last post contained my raving review of istockphoto.com. I also enjoy pbase.com which is a photo sharing site featuring professional and aspiring professional photographers. The photography is gallery quality, and there is a strong community on the site where the various submitters are able to respond, critique and admire each other's work. It seems to be a very supportive and positive community for someone who is looking to have their photography get more notice.
I discovered pbase when I took a particular interest in the growth and development of the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates and I came across the travel photography of Brian McMorrow. He has a breathtaking gallery of the buildings and vistas of Dubai, and a really great photography collection from all over the world as well. Here is his Dubai gallery.
Istockphoto.com : Anyone can feel like a great designer!
When creating artwork and website wire frames for ameripromo.com, our online promotional products business, one of my favorite resources is istockphoto.com. This is a marketplace for royalty free graphics, audio and video bits and most importantly, photography which can be used in all kinds of corporate advertising and communications. The quality of the photography is generally very good and some of it is exceptional.
We have a graphic designer on staff who adapts the images to our needs. What I love about it is the point/credit pricing is so affordable that I can purchase images for a couple of bucks when we are going over design ideas and not worry too much about the cost. The service is even affordable enough for dressing up personal websites, family blogs and the like. There are all kinds of sweet downloadable buttons and vector graphics.
Although, I wouldn't consider myself a professional designer, I can make my way around Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I have been in the logo imprinting business for long enough, that I have done work for clients to dress up or convert their corporate designs to usable formats. It is tools like this which really increase my confidence in creating really nice design.
If you want to make money from your best photography, I've also heard that there are photographers on www.istockphoto.com who are pulling down several thousand dollars a month, although I have not independently verified it.
When creating artwork and website wire frames for ameripromo.com, our online promotional products business, one of my favorite resources is istockphoto.com. This is a marketplace for royalty free graphics, audio and video bits and most importantly, photography which can be used in all kinds of corporate advertising and communications. The quality of the photography is generally very good and some of it is exceptional.
We have a graphic designer on staff who adapts the images to our needs. What I love about it is the point/credit pricing is so affordable that I can purchase images for a couple of bucks when we are going over design ideas and not worry too much about the cost. The service is even affordable enough for dressing up personal websites, family blogs and the like. There are all kinds of sweet downloadable buttons and vector graphics.
Although, I wouldn't consider myself a professional designer, I can make my way around Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I have been in the logo imprinting business for long enough, that I have done work for clients to dress up or convert their corporate designs to usable formats. It is tools like this which really increase my confidence in creating really nice design.
If you want to make money from your best photography, I've also heard that there are photographers on www.istockphoto.com who are pulling down several thousand dollars a month, although I have not independently verified it.
Friday, July 31, 2009
PRIZE-A-TRON
I found a fun little blog a couple of days ago. at http://www.prizeatron.com. It is a blog which specializes in guiding the reader to giveaways and contests for free stuff all over the web. From what I can gather, this blog has a particular focus on the cottage industries and cottage web etailers selling items for mothers and their young babies and children. I showed it to my wife and she got very excited and had me bookmark it.
We have been giving away prizes at American Promotions and hosting trivia contests which we promote on Twitter. Naturally, this little blog piqued my interest. Our success so far has been marginal, but there is always a learning curve with these kinds of things.
I found a fun little blog a couple of days ago. at http://www.prizeatron.com. It is a blog which specializes in guiding the reader to giveaways and contests for free stuff all over the web. From what I can gather, this blog has a particular focus on the cottage industries and cottage web etailers selling items for mothers and their young babies and children. I showed it to my wife and she got very excited and had me bookmark it.
We have been giving away prizes at American Promotions and hosting trivia contests which we promote on Twitter. Naturally, this little blog piqued my interest. Our success so far has been marginal, but there is always a learning curve with these kinds of things.
Wednesday, July 29, 2009
Doing God's Work? Image Can Still Matter.
In a brand and image conscious world, there is something to be said for quiet, unrecognized service. Unadvertised, unheralded service of one's fellow man is, in my view, one of the most valuable human endeavors. There are so many good, salt-of-the-earth people I know who spend large portions of their time volunteering, reaching out and privately giving without ever expecting or even wanting the acclaim and notoriety of others.
Yet, there are other times, when promoting service (whether Christian or of another faith) is the only way to help the larger world understand and receive the religious message.
Promotional products can support and spread the message in a more permanent and memorable way than other forms of media. Take for example the Mormon Helping Hand's efforts. This is organized (usually community service and clean-up) organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The organizers have the option to order yellow t-shirts or vests from the church with the Mormon Helping Hands logo and imprint. (They are actually encourage to download the necessary artwork and to print the t-shirts locally.)
The Mormon Helping Hands brand has increased the visibility of the Church. It brings almost uniformly good press, and it shows the wider community that the Mormons are people who are willing to give back.
In a brand and image conscious world, there is something to be said for quiet, unrecognized service. Unadvertised, unheralded service of one's fellow man is, in my view, one of the most valuable human endeavors. There are so many good, salt-of-the-earth people I know who spend large portions of their time volunteering, reaching out and privately giving without ever expecting or even wanting the acclaim and notoriety of others.
Yet, there are other times, when promoting service (whether Christian or of another faith) is the only way to help the larger world understand and receive the religious message.
Promotional products can support and spread the message in a more permanent and memorable way than other forms of media. Take for example the Mormon Helping Hand's efforts. This is organized (usually community service and clean-up) organized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
The organizers have the option to order yellow t-shirts or vests from the church with the Mormon Helping Hands logo and imprint. (They are actually encourage to download the necessary artwork and to print the t-shirts locally.)
The Mormon Helping Hands brand has increased the visibility of the Church. It brings almost uniformly good press, and it shows the wider community that the Mormons are people who are willing to give back.
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