The Wax Blog

Beth and I are always talking about the need to provide variety on your website to really engage your readers.  Much as I hate to say it, cereal companies tend to do a good job of engaging kids through games, sound, video and other media that really grabs their attention.

One industry we can all learn from is the financial services industry. Perhaps it’s because they’re often viewed as the most “boring” industry – they need interactive websites that will not only engage, but also inform the visitor.  I don’t know exactly what a surety bond is, but when I was sent the SuretyBonds.com site by an online marketer I realized this was a perfect example for us to review here.

Weigh in…tell me what you do and don’t like about the site. Here are my two cents: (more…)

As many businesses grow, the hassle of managing employees grows along with it. Two of the hardest groups to manage for me were outbound sales and customer service.  In the technology industry in the 1990′s (which is where my management career started and ended) had few processes developed for inbound and outbound calls. In a small business, your “super admins” end up dealing with most of these things and often get burned out.

Many, many call centers existing in the United States that are affordable, well-managed and easy to integrate into your business. It’s not all the stereotypical Indian or Malaysian call center that we’ve all come to dread. If you’re overwhelmed because you’ve got more business than you can handle, you might want to consider outsourcing call centers as an option. But just what do they do? (more…)

Occasionally I get a pitch from an Internet retailer asking me to write about their site. Usually, it’s some poorly designed site that survives on tiny affiliate commisions, with barely any added value to the customer who shops there.

But Market America, the online retailer that recently bought shop.com, seems to be a new type of shopping site – one that incents its customers by offering considerable cashback opportunities, often highlighted on the Market America Blog. The Greensboro-based retailer is banking on the newly-created frugal shopper by enticing what looks to be mainly baby boomers with “MA Cashback” ranging from 8 to 35%. Looks like the strategy is working – Market America just announced it will be hiring 40 new staff members in 2011.

So just how does this work? A page called Market America Facts indicates the company is a direct selling enterprise that sells a range of products, from supplements to home decor through partners like Walmart. More than 3 million “preferred customers” make commissions and 180,000 distributors make retail profits based on the use of this retail portal. The company is growing rapidly with more than 500 employees currently – it’s one of the success stories of the true “new economy” – a rapidly growing business that exists solely because of the Internet. (more…)

When the folks at CafePress asked me to  do a review of their site, I thought it was a perfect time to throw in a bonus post about creating and using promotional items for your business. Whether it’s a tshirt, mug, sticker or something more elaborate, promotional items (aka doodads, tchotchkes, trinket, swag…) can be a homerun or a giant waste of money. Here are some ways to make sure you get the most out doing promotions: (more…)