Popdeck is an ongoing skateboard deck design contest. Just like Threadless.com (and others) anyone can submit a design, then the website members vote for their favorite designs. The design with the most votes wins $200 (currently) and gets a free deck. I love the concept of popdeck and that business model in general.

I’ve recently been doing online Marketing consulting with an ecommerce client. They’re an old school ecommerce company with not very sexy products. Never-the-less they’ve been around for a longtime and will be going public soon. So, as a part of the process I put together a list of 5 ideas for their internal marketing team to review and hopefully implement or improve. I thought I would share those 5 things here. I know that most ecommerce companies do most or all of these, but you’d be surprised at how many “old school” companies that are out there that do not.

1. Create a corporate blog, and brand it in a way that reflects your main site but also gives you the appearance of being an expert (which you should be). This is a good way to have an online presence that will possibly get you a new audience and get bloggers talking about you. Update it daily.
2. Blog marketing: make a list of all of the authority bloggers that write about products in your niche and spend an hour or less a day participating in their conversations. It’s important to do this without spamming them. If you participate in the conversation you’ll get more respect.
3. Be diligent about making sure sale items or breaking product/ technology news gets in front of the Digg, reddit and other social news sites audience. This could be huge. It might even be beneficial to do some sort monthly “overstock” item sale that’s by design just for the digg crowd. Everyone likes good deals.
4. Boost up your affiliate marketing: I’m sure you are already doing some sort affiliate deal through CJ or others. In my experience, affiliate marketing is one of the best and least expensive ways to get your products out there.
5. Be creative and unique: It would be awesome if you could create some sort of “contextual” ad network just for your products. Bloggers would eat it up, as they are always looking for ways to monetize their blogs.

The important thing to remeber is that all of these will work, but you have to be diligent and understand that it doesn’t happen overnight.

Zappos.com is closing in on the $1 billion sales club. The online shoes retailer expects to generate web sales of $800 million in 2007, an increase of 34% over sales of $597 million in 2006, and $1 billion in 2008. There’s no wonder that Amazon is trying to get a piece of the action with their new offering Endless.com. It’s amazing the growth that Zappos has experienced  since launching in late 1999.

Read my earlier post on Endless.com

On of my new favorite clothing brands has two new polos, just in time for summer. The have the Daytripper and Exploding Sky polos. Both are pretty awesome and I might just have to get my hands on one. The Daytripper might be a little “loud” for me but the Exploding Sky polo (pictured below) is just my speed. If you’re not familiar with Rockers NYC then you should check em out. FYI, there website is super cool.

Amazon.com recently launched their Zappos competitor called endless.com. Endless sells shoes and handbags at competitive pricing. The site is well designed and it’s easy to find what your looking for. The have some nice search features that allow you to drill down by brand, size and color. The only downside that I see so far is that they have a limited brand selection, compared to Zappos. However, I’m sure that’ll get better over time. As a part of their launch promotion, they’re giving away next day shipping and give you $5 off your order. Not a bad deal. I’m a big fan of Zappos and it’ll be interesting to see if Endless can take a significant portion of their market share.

Technorati Tags: shoes, shopping, amazon, endless.com

For those of you not familiar with Chopper, Mark Brandon Read. He’s a convicted murderer and has admitted boasted of killing 19 people- and bashing, axing, shooting and stabbing “human filth”. He was in and out of prison his early life- as you would assume. He wrote a book and became some what of a cult hero. Most Americans have never heard of him, that’s because he’s Australian. He’s authored over 10 books, done PSA’s for the Pedestrian Council of Australia and had a film done about him that starred Eric Banna…which is a must see. His Myspace page has over 40K fans and he uses it has a marketing vehicle.

When I was in prison… I got slashed in the face… my ears cut off… a butcher’s knife here, an icepick here, etc… If you drink and drive and you’re unfortunate enough to hit somebody, you ought to pray to God that you don’t go to prison.

The reason I’m writing about this, besides being fascinated with his celebrity. He just recently launched a new “online/offline” business that I thought was pretty interesting. He just launched the “The Chopper Club” which gives his fans exclusive deals, a newsletter and most importantly, a Birthday Card signed by Chopper. Who wouldn’t want that? As a matter of fact, I think that would be a great business for someone to manage fan clubs or at least do some sort fan birthday club. I’m not sure how difficult/ expensive it would be to get celebrities to sign birthday cards but I’m sure it could be done. Never-the-less, for more info on Chopper, check out the links below and his PSA.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mark_Brandon_Read
http://www.chopperread.com/
http://www.myspace.com/markchopper
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0221073/
http://www.thechopperclub.com/

This post proves that allthascool.com has no focus, at all. But, I couldn’t pass this up. Some smart person makes and sells fake pot plants. Awesome! I’m getting one for my office. Find a need and fill it, basic business principal.

I guess there’s some new manufacturing process that takes the fiber of bamboo trees and turns it in to soft, like cashmere, fabric. Apparently, bamboo “absorbs and evaporates sweat in a split second”, keeps you 2 degrees cooler and is is antibacterial, forever. I’m not a big hippie type, but, the planet is falling a part. So, if there are products out there, that doesn’t contribute to screwing up the planet, then, I’m down with em. Check out bambooclothing.co.uk for more info and to purchase a tee.

via coolhunting

Just in time for Valentines Day, kind of. I guess if you’ve waited this long to get your girlfriend/boyfriend a Valentines Day gift. You’re screwed! Well, maybe next Valentines Day you can get Michael Leavitt to make an action figure of you and your spouse. Michael’s lives in Seattle and makes one-off action characters of artists, musicians, entertainers, and lately he’s been pushing the custom figure angle a lot more. He’s started doing custom wedding cake toppers, figures of people of themselves. If you’re getting married, then you have to get Michael to do a custom wedding cake topper for you. It’s a lot more personalized than the $9.99 generic cake toppers that you get at the craft store. Anyway, you can check out some of his work below ( love the Mary Kay Letourneau) and through the following links.

Here’s how he makes them
The Wedding Cake Topper Info
All of his work

Dale Chihuly

Mary Kay Letourneau and Vili Fualaau

David Bowie

technorati tags: michael+leavitt, seattle, art, weddings, Chihuly

Here’s a great idea. Nextworth has launched a new service that will allow you to trade your old Ipod up for a new version. With Apple releasing new versions all the time, this is a could way to keep current.

Why wait until your iPod has problems or it becomes out-dated before you upgrade. There is still a demand for previously owned iPods and we have the processes that allow us to offer you the highest purchase price along with hassle-free shipping. Simply select your iPod model, its condition and accessories and you can see exactly how much money you could have towards that new iPod.

technorati tags: nextworth, ipod, trade, nano