Who said nothing is for free?Written by Nicole Seekely
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consumers to redeem a coupon. For freebies,  request or return rate is often higher. When asked about kind of feedback they get, some companies said they generally see an increase in response rate from 5 to 50 percent. Some days there are lots of requests, and other days it's steady. It all depends on who finds out bout freebie. If publisher of a large newsletter hears about an offer, a company can expect more requests than usual if they publish offer in their newsletter. There are also other reasons or ways of offering freebies. One company, Girl Power! (health.org/gpower) is a national education campaign that was developed and supported by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. They are able to give free materials because government recognizes that those items are good for health of people in America. There are a lot of other U.S. Government organizations that provide free materials. Lastly, most companies that give away freebies don't anticipate high response rate that they receive; therefore a lot of times they can't afford to give away all of their freebies. Freebie hunters can help this by only requesting freebies they are really interested in. Also, freebie hunters use unethical practices such as giving out wrong e-mail addresses, or other information which is what helps marketer afford to give out freebies. If you don't want to be added to someone's mailing list, then don't request freebie.
Nicole Seekely is the publisher of The Panda Pages weekly e-zine. You can contact her at gymaholic7@pandapages.f2s.com Also, visit her website at http://www.pandapages.f2s.com for freebies, cool sites, and more. To subscribe to her e-zine send an e-mail to gymaholic7@pandapages.f2s.co
| | How to Become a Dot Com Millionaire (Part 1)Written by Jim Barrington
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Thorough research is first and most crucial stage of setting up a successful dot- com venture. The 80% of dot-com firms who will fail in future will do so simply because they do not understand their market and customers and hence cannot survive in long term, due to lack of planning and research. Do not make same mistake. Stage 2 Once you have a clear idea and evidence your concepts will work as a business venture, it is time to call in technical expertise to build a working model. At this stage, all of research and knowledge of your marketplace is critical to success. You will need to convey your ideas across to people who may never have been in business and have no grasp of business fundamentals. As they will probably be responsible for design of complex programs to ensure seamless operation of your services and transactions, it is crucial you make them understand your goals. Specialist consultants who design projects specifically for Internet can help here, however demand for their expertise is high and they are certainly not cheap. Have a Written Project Plan Most designers and programmers will thank you for a simple project prospectus, summarising what website intends to achieve in short and long term. This is known as project plan (similar to a business plan). From there they can draw up a technical specification for website prior to any work being performed, listing all of functions and explaining how each program will work to achieve your goals. Only when you understand workings and are happy with how things will work, should you proceed on to next stage of designing technology. Things to look out for: - (a) Will systems be robust and capable of handling large traffic volumes? (b) Are e-commerce and transaction sections secure and reliable? (c) What administration systems will you require in real world? (d) Can systems be enhanced and improved for future growth? (e) How fast will they operate? - Surprisingly important on Internet.
Jim Barrington is the founder and Managing Director of The Barrington Group, The ASB and Netsightuk.com an Internet strategy and design company. E-mail:- James.Barrington@btinternet.com URL:- http://www.netsightuk.com
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