Making Cash With Napkin Ads

http://www.napads.com/

NapAd, which just launched this fall, uses what it calls high-definition napkins to bring marketers' messages directly into the hands of urban consumers when they're relaxed and uninterrupted by other media. The photorealistic, 5-by-5-inch cocktail napkins are distributed free to NapAd's network of bars, nightclubs and lounges; in exchange, the venues serve them with drinks to their patrons, who can then be exposed to the messages printed on them for hours at a time.

Targeting is customizable within NapAd's network, so that if an advertiser wants to reach males aged 18 to 34 in Garden City, Kansas, for example, NapAd might tap into a network of sports bars in the area. The company is currently focusing its program on Manhattan, but it's planning to add five more markets in 2008 and can serve areas requested by clients as well. A typical New York City campaign with 1 million NapAds starts at about USD 27,500.

NapAds is part of Maryland-based guerilla marketing firm JI Worldwide, which was founded by 28-year-old Jay Jaber, a finalist in the 2007 Wall Street Journal’s Creative Leaders Challenge. The company (which also sells its napkins under the name HDN—High Definition Napkin) is now seeking distribution partnerships with major airlines, cruise ships, bars and lounges, and is also interested in hearing about other collaborative opportunities, Jaber says. It's a big world out there—so many bars, so many patrons, so little time… ;-)

Check This Out - The Most Profitable Blog Post In The Entire Blogosphere

City Tours For People Interested In Art And Fashion

http://www.urbangentry.com/

You can't be all things to all people, as the saying goes, and guided tours are no exception. Now Urban Gentry is offering a set of customized, insiders' tours of London for those interested in art, fashion or other elements of style.

Featuring a team of guides that includes artists, designers, journalists and trend spotters, Urban Gentry serves up small, specialist tours that take participants well off the beaten path. The focus of each tour can be chosen by theme—"Creative London," for example, or "London Close Up"—or by interest, such as art, fashion, interiors or shopping. The Art Insider half-day tour, for example, starts in London's hip east end enclave of Shoreditch, "the epicentre of contemporary bohemia," and continues further east into Bethnal Green, winding its way through artists' works and exhibits. The 7-hour Home Style tour, on the other hand, takes participants through London's interiors and furnishings shops and studios, highlighting the eclectic choices on offer. Pricing is GBP 159 for half-day tours, GBP 269 for those lasting a whole day. Personalized tours are also available.

Urban Gentry just launched earlier this year. For style-minded consumers with the resources to afford them, its tours will offer a fresh, new way to learn about the parts of London that interest them most. This is customization at work once again, creating a new niche market for an old type of service. Who will take Antwerp, L.A., Sydney, Hong Kong...? The sky's the limit on the opportunities for this one. Just pick a city and a target audience.

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ePoll.Com - How To Get Paid For Your Opinion

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ePoll Success Story

The E-Poll Market Research Panel was founded in 1997, and has a primary focus on gathering research on consumer attitudes and behavior towards entertainment and media. Members are invited to take mostly entertainment and media related surveys, and membership to the panel is free. Members that complete these online surveys are rewarded with points that can be redeemed for gift certificates from online retailers like Amazon.com.

I know that I promised an update here and now I can add one, I redeemed my points 3 weeks ago for a Ben and Jerry's certificate for a free pint of ice cream and I have now gotten it in the mail. So it took me three weeks to get that from them and I don't consider that to be too bad of a wait. The redemption process was very simple, they verified I did own the account by asking my password and then I selected how many points I wanted to redeem and then selected my price and verified my address. So overall that was a simple process. They say that it could take up to 6 weeks for you to get your reward, which I'm sure they add in case it does take longer.

But overall I am pleased with the results.

This Blog Has Made Over 10K With Copeac (With Affiliate Links Like This One) . Do Ask Me For Tips, After You Register And Play Around With It A Bit (Include Your Copeac ID In Email So That I Know That You've Used My Ref Link).

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What Is Thummer Anyway?

http://thummer.com

In 2000, Jim Plamondon quit his job at Microsoft and embarked on an obsessive quest to invent a new musical instrument. His brainstorm: an odd keyboard variant with stubby joysticks and a honeycomb of buttons he dubs the Thummer.

Among the last new instruments to be widely adopted were the synthesizer and electric guitar more than a half century ago. But Mr. Plamondon believes his Thummer has a shot. One of the instrument's key features is a smarter keyboard that he says makes playing music more intuitive.

Mr. Plamondon is part of a subculture of musical inventors all vying to be the next Adolphe Sax (he invented the saxophone). They range from composers, such as an MIT professor who built a high-tech "hypercello" for Yo-Yo Ma, to basement tinkerers, including a piano player in Traverse City, Mich., whose "friction harp" resembles a TV aerial.

They demonstrate their instruments at conferences and niche music festivals. They upload videos to YouTube and sites like Oddmusic.com, which catalogs roughly 10 new instruments a month, including the "symphonic house," a home in Michigan outfitted with walls of resonating strings. Occasionally, their wares are adopted by big stars. Recent concerts by the singer Björk have featured a futuristic device called a "reactable," built by a team in Spain: Players issue eerie electronic tones and rhythms by moving glowing blocks across its table-top surface.

The bulk of new instruments rarely get played outside small circles of loyalists or early adopters. One big obstacle is the high cost of producing experimental instruments, which are usually built one at a time. Seasoned musicians who have spent years mastering an instrument also are reluctant to start over with a new one, while beginners gravitate to what they see on stage or in the orchestra pit. And most of the immense repertoire of Western music, from Bach to the Beatles, was composed for traditional instruments.

"The hardest thing to do is sell something to someone who doesn't perceive the need for it," says Roger Linn, who is credited with inventing the first digital drum machine in 1979. "I've seen the trail of bodies of inventors who have tried and died."

What sets the Thummer apart from other musical inventions, says Mr. Plamondon, isn't the way it sounds but the way it is played. It consists of two keyboards, each about the size of a paperback book. They can be played piano-style on a tabletop or sandwiched together and held aloft.

To play a three-note chord, for example, you press a cluster of three buttons. To play the next three-note chord, you keep your fingers in the same shape and move to a different group of buttons. Mr. Plamondon says this design makes the Thummer easier to learn than instruments like the piano, which require players to learn many more chord fingerings.

The Thummer doesn't make any noise on its own. It must be plugged into a computer or synthesizer, which uses software to mimic other instruments. To adjust volume and pitch, players thumb a pair of joysticks mounted on the side -- hence the instrument's name. Like the Nintendo Wii controller, it has an internal motion sensor, so players can also adjust the sound by moving the instrument around as they play it.

Marc Rossi, a synthesizer specialist and professor of piano and jazz composition at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, says the Thummer sounds like a good-quality synthesizer. He says the internal motion sensor is what's truly innovative: "That could be a whole new world."

While veteran players would have little use for a new keyboard configuration like the Thummer's, Mr. Rossi says, "it could be very useful for kids and for people learning music who want less technical demands than a keyboard."

Mr. Plamondon, 47 years old, hasn't played an instrument since quitting the tuba after high school. He studied geology and computer science in college and later sold storm windows over the phone. He spent most of his career in the computer industry, taking on a series of software-writing jobs before landing at Microsoft in 1992, just as the company's Windows operating system was becoming ubiquitous.

He spent eight years persuading third-party developers to create software for the Microsoft platform, then left the company to take some time off and later pursue his own projects. He says he exercised his Microsoft options and invested in a portfolio of stocks valued at $2 million. He bought a beachfront home on the southwest tip of Australia and moved there with his wife and two children.

Most people designing new instruments are musicians. For Mr. Plamondon, financial need was the mother of invention: Shortly after moving to Australia in 2000, almost half of his assets were wiped out in the dot-com crash. He saw the Thummer as a way to start making money again.

After years trying to get his project off the ground, his family is strapped for cash. The two kids have put their college plans on hold, hoping that in a couple of years their father will be able to help pay tuition. The family doesn't have health insurance.

Mr. Plamondon says he needs to raise up to $1 million to engineer a final prototype, finalize patents and manufacture a first run of instruments.

The idea for the Thummer began when his wife and daughter both quit piano lessons after only six months. His wife, Patti, complained that learning to play separate lines on each hand "was like reading Spanish with one eye and French with the other," she recalls.

He began reading up on music theory and researching why piano keys are arranged as they are. He wasn't the first to hunt for an alternative. In the 1880s, Hungarian Paul von Janko patented a configuration that made fingerings identical in any key. A similar idea was developed for the concertina with an 1896 patent by a Swiss inventor, Kaspar Wicki.

In the fall of 2003, as Mr. Plamondon was playing the videogame Halo, he says he realized he could use thumb sticks like those on his Xbox controller to shift sound effects. He created a company (Thumtronics), hired an engineer to build prototypes, leased an office above a music shop and brought in nearly $500,000 in a first round of fund raising. In 2005, after outside funding for the Thummer dried up, he mortgaged the family's home for about $1 million.

"Things got really tight," says Ms. Plamondon. For a time, she says the family relied partly on the paychecks her then-18-year-old son brought home from his computer-store job.

For many on the tech-savvy side of the music world, sweeping change seems overdue. One of the last breakthroughs to catch on in a major way was the saxophone -- invented in the 1840s. During the past century, most inventions have only gained cult followings. The Stick, for example, is a bodiless guitar with strings that players tap instead of strum. Inventor Emmett Chapman has sold about 6,000 of them since 1974.

Mr. Linn, the drum-machine designer, calls the Thummer "a very good idea," but stops short of predicting its commercial success. Instead, he groups it into a broader category he calls "new little organisms in the Darwinism of musical instruments."

The music-products industry faces a mixed outlook. Retail sales fell in 2006 to $7.5 billion, down 4.2% from a record high the year before, according to the International Music Products Association, a trade group. And while the category of computer music products fared best last year, growing by about 15%, sales of some more traditional instruments suffered, such as pianos, which dropped more than 18%.

The Plamondons live in Austin, Texas. They moved there in April from Australia, seeking affordable housing and a music- and tech-friendly city. They bought their home online for less than $200,000, using some cash from the sale of their Australian home as a down payment.

In Austin, Mr. Plamondon started over, working up the entrepreneurial food chain at conferences and coffees; networking with think tanks and professors; fishing for endorsement blurbs that he posts on Thummer.com, where he writes a blog to build online buzz. He co-authored a paper on the Thummer that was published in the peer-reviewed Computer Music Journal.

The funding hunt has been more of a challenge. He recently targeted a pair of Austin investors, Fito Kahn and David Peterman. On a Thursday afternoon in October, Mr. Plamondon walked into Mr. Peterman's office eager to make a deal. His geek tendencies were on display: He set the alarm on his wristwatch to beep, prompting him to announce when there were 10, five and two minutes remaining. As the three men sat down around a table in straight-backed chairs, Mr. Plamondon eyed the papers in Mr. Kahn's hand. "What's in the folder? Is that a checkbook?"

It was -- but it wasn't going to be used on that day. The two potential investors had questions about patents and the prospects of manufacturing the Thummer in China. Mr. Kahn said they also want a sleek new look for the Thummer, in part to make it appealing to a younger audience: "We imagine the Thummer as Guitar Hero, only you're learning an instrument as you play," referring to a popular videogame that uses a guitar-shaped controller to simulate the rock-star experience.

Mr. Plamondon left with assurances that a written offer would be ready for their next meeting. Waving as he headed toward the door, Mr. Plamondon said, "I look forward to getting a check from you next time."

Following their October meeting, Mr. Kahn emailed a proposal to Mr. Plamondon. Instead of the lump sum Mr. Plamondon sought, the investors offered him $2,000 a month for six months and a promise to cover expenses involved in securing manufacturing deals in China. In exchange, they asked him to set up an advisory board and submit more business plans and other "benchmarks."

Just after Thanksgiving, Mr. Plamondon turned them down in an email to Mr. Kahn: "I'm going to wait for a better offer," he wrote.

None are currently forthcoming. He recently hit a wall at a local venture-capital firm, Gefinor Ventures. Wes Cole, a principal in the firm, says he was impressed by a video of someone playing "Summertime" on the Thummer, but he has reservations. "This is a market where you've seen no successful investment ventures, that I'm aware of."

With a handful of working prototypes, Mr. Plamondon is continuing to search for investors and gain a consumer audience. Taking stock of his savings, he says he has about six months left before he'll have to find a full-time job. At that point the Thummer will be relegated to an evenings-and-weekends enterprise, he says, "and that's the death of a start-up."

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Panera Success Story

He started college thinking he would end up working in politics. But after he was falsely accused of shoplifting and then kicked out of a convenience store while still a student, Shaich launched a rival shop - and his business career. Twenty years later, Shaich made a name for himself as the owner of Au Bon Pain, an East Coast bakery chain he grew from three stores into a $200 million a year company.

Many thought Shaich was crazy when, in 1999, he sold Au Bon Pain to concentrate on developing Panera (, its small bakery division. But today Panera is the country's 17th-largest food-service company, boasting some 1,115 U.S. locations and annual revenue of $1.9 billion.

Shaich met with FSB at one of his bakery shops near the company's headquarters in Needham, Mass. After busing a few tables he talked about his journey from that first general store to the top of the food chain. This is his story:

My first interest in life after high school was politics. I worked on George McGovern's campaign in 1972 and majored in political science at Clark University in Worcester, Mass. Then during my sophomore year I was unjustly accused of shoplifting and got kicked out of a Worcester convenience store. To fight back, I opened a rival shop nearby on campus, and it became quite successful. Everyone said I should go to business school, so I went.

Two years after I earned my MBA, I took a job working for a chain in Boston called the Original Cookie Co. I wanted to open a store downtown, but the company preferred suburban mall locations.

One thing led to another, and I decided to quit and open my own cookie place, with a goal of creating the kind of company I had always wanted to work for.

I requested a third of my inheritance from my father. That way, if my idea didn't work, I'd still have two-thirds left over to try again. My father, who was a CPA, thought I was nuts but gave me $75,000. I combined his money with $25,000 in personal savings and opened the Cookie Jar in downtown Boston. I ended up subletting a store from a jewelry store owner who wanted to consolidate his two locations.

I'll never forget that first day: Our doors opened at noon, and I had two employees. I can't remember ever working that hard. I was the baker, mixer, chief salesman. I think we made $400. The first six months were stable, and I was making a nice living, but I wasn't satisfied. A business is like a sculpture: It's about creating something that's three-dimensional. And I wanted more dimensions.

At the time, Au Bon Pain was a Boston pastry chain that was having problems expanding and had taken on a lot of debt. The business was founded in 1976 by a French oven manufacturer and later sold to a venture group headed by a man named Louis Kane. After I realized that people don't buy cookies before noon, I decided to add French pastries to the Cookie Jar's menu to attract a morning crowd.

Louis always said he remembered me as a kid walking into his office with flour on my shoes. I told him I wanted to buy his business (at that moment I had no idea how troubled his company was). Louis was a real estate guy; he had no one running his place on a day-to-day basis. He saw me as a "concept guy" who could help turn the business around. So we merged Au Bon Pain's three locations with my cookie store.

Over the next three years I observed Au Bon Pain's shops and identified problem spots. Many had to do with employees who just didn't care. I remember walking into a store in Faneuil Hall and watching as a cashier put money from a sale into his pocket. I also fired about six bakers I caught doing cocaine in the middle of the night. After I let those guys go, they chased me in a car through the parking lot. It was a mess! It wasn't about building a company back then - it was about survival.

I also made efforts to retain the good employees. I wanted to take care of the folks who cared about my business. One night when I was on a date in that same Faneuil Hall location, I discovered the assistant manager's wife washing dishes because the store didn't have enough personnel to handle cleanup. So for about two hours my date and I helped clean dishes. The girl on the date is long forgotten, but that assistant manager is now a Panera executive.

We grew Au Bon Pain into a 250-store chain by paying close attention to our customers. One day in 1984, I was working behind the counter waiting on customers (which I still do today). A woman walked in and asked me to cut a baguette for a sandwich. Then she pulled out a bag of lunch meat from the grocery store and threw it on my bread. You didn't have to be a Harvard MBA to figure out that there was an opportunity in sandwiches. That same year, we expanded our menu and became one of the first companies to create an urban bakery, selling high-quality meat on fresh bread along with soup and salads.

Around that time Pepsi, Sara Lee, and several others all tried to acquire us. We resisted and took the company public in 1991. By this point Au Bon Pain's profits were growing about 30 percent annually. We had 250 stores and were opening about 50 new shops every 12 months.

Au Bon Pain worked best in really dense marketplaces like Boston, New York City, and Washington, but we felt that growth was limited in smaller cities such as Cleveland, Indianapolis, and St. Louis. We needed a concept that would work across America in a wide range of communities.

One day in 1993, an investment banker I knew asked me for some advice that he could relay to the owner of a Midwestern bakery chain called St. Louis Bread Co. I met the owner, Ken Rosenthal, and we developed a nice relationship. (Little did I know that this would be the beginning of Panera.)

Six months later I flew back to St. Louis and offered to buy his company for $23 million. Its success in smaller cities made it attractive as an additional vehicle for our company. Rosenthal had incredibly loyal customers, and we wanted to preserve what made the brand so special.

For two years we traveled the country, talking to customers and employees and observing buying patterns. We were trying to figure out how the world of fast food was changing. Rosenthal loved to say that even he didn't understand the St. Louis Bread Co. as well as we did! He must have trusted us, because he used his proceeds from the sale to buy our franchises in Cincinnati, Columbus, and Denver. Today Rosenthal's Panera franchise is four times bigger than the company he sold to us.

I concluded from our research that the St. Louis Bread Co.'s customers weren't looking for commodity food. They wanted to feel special in a world in which they were not. I grew up outside Newark in the 1950s, when folks frequented the neighborhood Italian bakery, the local beer brewery, the independent coffee roaster. Everything was local. What happened to all that? Post-World War II, the only bread option was three loaves for 99 cents at the A&P. Coffee came from a Folgers can. And fast-food chains became self-serve gasoline stations for the human body.

By the early 1990s, Americans wanted to feel good about what they ate. There was a big opportunity for businesses that could deliver that. In our eyes there was no more powerful platform than artisan bread. Other entrepreneurs had opened independent bread shops, such as Amy's Bread in New York City. We decided to build a company selling freshly made salads, sandwiches, and soups. In 1995 we sat down and wrote a vision for how we would compete.

During the first year, we opened a few new locations. Growth was very slow; we tried to make sure that the ground was solid. In 1996 we rolled out a breakfast menu built around bagels.

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Mixaloo.com - Music Business With A Profit-Sharing Twist

http://www.mixaloo.com/

Mixaloo is an online venture that lets music lovers create, distribute and sell custom mixes of the tracks they love and receive a share of the profits in return.

Mixaloo, which just opened its doors to the public a few weeks ago, allows music fans to choose from more than 3 million songs when they create their mix, including every major label and thousands of independent artists. Based on their searches, Mixaloo also suggests related artists to consider. Once users finalize their mix, they can distribute it with 30-second song samples inside a widget to any personal or social networking website, or email it directly to their friends.

Creating and distributing the mix is free, and users can personalize its appearance by uploading images, adding titles and selecting from different widget formats. Visitors and friends can then listen to the clips for free; if they like the mix, they can purchase and download it. Best of all, when someone makes a purchase, the original compiler of the mix receives half the profit from each sale--generally between 8 and 20 cents per track, Mixaloo says--along with points that can be redeemed for Mixaloo merchandise such as T-shirts and audio gear.

"Everyone's favourite songs are closely tied to the experiences and memories they represent, which makes creating and sharing mix tapes such an enjoyable way for people to express themselves," explains Mark Stutzman, Mixaloo's cofounder and CEO. "We created Mixaloo to merge that experience with the viral nature of blogs and social networking communities, giving users the added incentive of earning cash for popular mixes. This 'social record store' creates a vast network of personal recommendations to increase sales and visibility for artists of all sizes."

Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based Mixaloo is open to advertising and partnerships, but it currently offers its service only to US users. As fans continue to play ever-larger roles in the music industry, however, it's a good bet this type of service will spread quickly. With one part crowdsourcing, one part viral marketing, one part profit-sharing and one part great music, sounds like this mix could be a hit...

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How To Start Your Own Record Label And Make It Profitable Right Away

http://www.thegridrecords.com/

Picture it now: driving down the highway in a sleek car with loads of cash in your pocket, hobnobbing with the rich and famous. Heck, as an entrepreneur with a glamorous business, you're rich and famous yourself. Whether your dream is to launch a killer clothing line, the next big thing in cosmetics or even the hottest restaurant and nightclub around, you can already feel the allure of that high-profile business drawing you in.

But before you go applying for that American Express Black Card, here's a reality check: Launching a glamorous business isn't always so glamorous from the business side. It's a thrill ride for sure, but one of the scariest ones of your life. Just ask Mark Schmitz, founder of The Grid Records, a hip-hop record label based in Phoenix. The Arizona State University graduate launched his business in 2005, the summer before his senior year, after interning at Atlantic Records. He was convinced that the world was missing out on Arizona's untapped hip-hop talent, so he decided to carve out a niche as its ambassador.

What he didn't know was that starting his own record label would take every bit of cash he had and all the willpower he could summon. During one especially tight week, he had his apartment's electricity turned off and put the money toward mixing a song instead of keeping the lights on. "It's a very risky, hit-or-miss industry," says Schmitz, 24. "Regardless of how talented you are or how great your product is, you need that element of [luck] to really break into the business."

Combine that with the typical stresses of starting a business while still in college, and you've got a serious challenge on your hands. Making your glamorous business work means getting into the down-and-dirty aspects of business ownership--back-office duties like financing and marketing--yet presenting only the pristine aspects to clients. The real crux of a high-profile business is making your customers feel glamorous. If you're an artist or designer looking to build a business, says Jeff Sandefer, master teacher at the Acton School of Business, you have to learn to specialize in a particular niche and scale it up to create a market. If you're doing this on a lark, forget about it. "If you're doing it because you're serious about making money and you're a true entrepreneur, then you're going to be hustling, innovating, trying new things, [going through] trial and error and not giving up," he says. "There's not much glamour involved."

Well, there is a bit of glamour--at least for Schmitz when he signs a talented new artist or works with the same Los Angeles producers who've jammed with hip-hop heavyweights like Jay-Z. He's promoting his artists everywhere, including on his website, thegridrecords.com, and projects 2008 sales to hit $150,000.

As hard as it may be to launch your so-called glamorous business, it'll definitely be a rush. Just know what you're getting into. "You'll have to observe the realities that are present in every single business," says Peter Burns, founder of the College of Entrepreneurship at Grand Canyon University. "But you may as well pick something that's fun because you're going to spend a lot of hours doing it."


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Gamer Graffix Success Story

http://gamergraffix.com

Gamer Graffix, a manufacturer of stick-on decals for videogame consoles, started out selling its own designs before landing licensing deals with Nintendo and Sony. With new "skins" based on game-giant characters such as Donkey Kong, the Providence-based company (gamergraffix.com) doubled revenues to $10 million in 2006.

Founder Chris White, now 41, was running a toy importer five years ago when an intern showed him how a decal had ruined the finish on his PlayStation. White spent eight months developing an adhesive that let stickers be removed and reapplied.

Niche stores such as EB Games began carrying White's skins in fall 2005. Sales took off in May 2006, when large retailers, including Circuit City and Staples, picked up Gamer's new labels. Gamer started applying its sticky technology to videogame accessories such as Sony's miniguitars and wall graffix, posters that peel easily from walls. Late last year Hasbro licensed the technology to create a line of Transformers wall coverings. Gamer projects sales of $25 million in 2007.

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How To Make Money With Free Notes Swapping Site

http://www.thecollegefreeway.com/

Students at Cornell, USC, Princeton and a handful of other US universities now can pool their resources in a handy online forum at TheCollegeFreeWay—a network for sharing notes, outlines, essays, problem sets, study guides and more. Users can search by university, course or type of document needed. While anyone can view the materials, students must register to upload or download documents, rate them or make comments. Students can register directly through the site or can sign in via their Facebook accounts.

While the site might not be a huge hit with professors, the site was not designed with cheating in mind, but rather to streamline the process of combining notes and other resources—which college students have been doing for ages—in a more convenient and organized fashion. And as long as TheCollegeFreeWay sticks to student-generated materials, copyright infringement shouldn't be an issue with school faculty.

As the name suggests, the site is free to use and is financed through Google ads. As with any venture that relies on user-submitted content, getting off the ground can be tricky. But while the offerings are limited for now (the site currently lists ten schools, but only has documents available for half a dozen), once the buzz gets around campus, things could quickly take off. Now may be the time to start up duplicates for colleges or even high schools in other countries—or to consider how this type of sharing might make sense for professional networking in other industries.

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Did Your Child Receive A Letter From Santa This Christmas?

Mail By Santa is not a unique business idea, but it just proves a point that you don't have to be a genius to make money online.

Children look for reasons to believe. This is what makes these letters from Santa Claus so magical. These letters remove any doubt if there really is a Santa Claus.

The MailBySanta Letters are both personalized and addressed to a child. Imagine the thrill as a child receives a letter from Santa Clause addressed to them.

Each letter is written to a child such as Dear Michael, mentions the achievements along with the names of their best friend, teachers and other information that comes from parents.

The letters are fairly inexpensive, only $12.99 and the shipping is free, so clearly the profit margin has to be fairly big. The only downside is that Christmans is only once a year.

And by the way, if you are into history of Santa Claus and Christmas, here are some books to read (keep 'em away from your children):

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Wii And Marketing

Howdy…

One of my favorite hobbies is to go into stores and be insulted by clueless sales staff.

It used to offend me… until I realized all the really good marketing lessons inherent in every face-to-face encounter with anyone selling anything. (One of the coolest taxi rides I ever took was in Vegas, many moons ago, when the driver spent twenty minutes trying to pimp out his personal line-up of hookers. He used every salesman’s trick possible — including take-aways, upsells, cross-sells, urgency, guarantees and special offers. I actually took notes.) (And no, I didn’t become a customer. Shame on you for thinking so ill of me.)

For online marketers, the offline sales encounter might not seem relevant, but it is.

Your ad is your salesman, and your ordering process is your checkout experience.

All the things that can go wrong in the store, can and do go wrong in the online virtual sale process.

Quick example: I’ve been hot to get a Nintendo Wii gaming console since, oh, about five minutes after the product was announced last year. (I’ve been a gamer longer than you, and I don’t care how old you are. Back in the seventies, I hung out with the guys who ran the Stanford University Artificial Intellegence lab, and dated a proto-geek lady who created gaming software for Atari… so I was bopping around the very first online games, and got to sample arcade prototypes you’ve never seen.) (Plus, I have friends who created some of the first interactive gaming experiences by networking multiple computers inside a single house from different rooms, using early Doom versions.) (So there.)

The Wii is definitely aimed at guys like me.

Decades of anti-ergonomic mousing and typing have ruined my wrists, and I have no interest whatsoever in learning the “language” of another multi-buttoned/toggle-switched controller.

Naw. Give me realistic action like the Wii. And, heck, I hear the bowling game just rocks. (Though you don’t get to shoot people.)

However, for some reason known only to them, Nintendo has never come close to producing enough Wii’s to fill demand. Here in Reno, Wii’s last approximately sixteen seconds after being uncrated… and even the largest retailers can’t tell you when another batch is due in.

The people I know who own one got them on eBay… at four times the list price.

I want one. But I’ll be damned if I’ll bid against extortionists, or get up at dawn to fight teenagers at the local Game Stop to get it.

Still, I persevere. It’s a hobby, and I’ll miss all the exploring and hunting when I finally score a unit.

In fact, I really enjoy going into various different gaming joints and seeing what happens when I ask about buying a Wii.

Most common response: A rude snort of laughter and a long look of pity.

I’m amazed at how similar the staffs at different stores react. They seem to enjoy crushing my spirit by explaining, ever so patiently (because I must be brain-damaged or something), that if I want a Wii, I’ve got to come to the store every day when it opens, and hope they got some in the night before.

And stop bothering them.

Seriously. That’s the line I’ve been given a dozen times in the past few months.

Even if the owner is in the store, it’s the same story. I’m barely worth dealing with, if I’m so friggin’ dumb to have to ask about the availability of a Wii, which EVERYONE knows is almost impossible to get.

Now, consider this: Often, while I’m hanging out enjoying their anti-sales pitch, they will interupt our interaction to deal with a younger (and obviously smarter and more hip) customer who is trading in a game, or who wants to talk about the intricacies of the latest release.

The store is paying all it’s primo attention to the demographic it THINKS is where the money is: Younger gamers.

And yet, there I stand, ignored, with a fat wad of moolah burning a hole in my pocket. I’m gonna buy a TON of new games with my Wii, and load that sucker up with every option available.

And dude — when I find a game store operator who appreciates what I bring to the table, I will be fiercely loyal, and spread the word. Cuz I know a LOT of other geezers who love games… who would dearly love to find a store that respects them.

On the other hand, I am never setting foot inside the joints that disrespect me ever again. Freaks.

Hey — I have all the sympathy in the world for the modern store owner. The workforce available out there is clueless about selling, and has an attitude problem that would give King Louis XIV a run for the Arrogant Prick Award.

But here’s the thing: You don’t have to become a grovelling, obsequious slave to be a good salesman.

Just understand the basics, and it will change your life: Figure out what the customers wants, and help him get it. (Advanced lesson: Give him what he wants first… you can then sell him what he needs, later — after you’ve gained his trust, and he is open to hearing about the options he hadn’t considered before. Allow his inner process of “self-selling” to unwind naturally, without you getting in his face like a know-it-all.)

You don’t even need to be polite. I’ve encountered some KILLER salesmen lately — of both sexes — who didn’t smile, interrupted me, and even turned and walked off suddenly. However, they walked off because they had a brainstorm about my problem, and they quickly returned with answers and/or product that clearly proved they had listened very carefully, and actually cared about finding the best solution (not just the most expensive one).

I don’t need you to have a great personality when I know what I want, but I’m having trouble finding it.

I just need you to do your friggin’ job.

Have you figured out what the lesson for online marketers is here, yet?

Think about the time, energy, money and will to live you put into finding a prospect on the Web. Think about how carefully you write the copy, how precise you are with the process of moving him through your sales funnel.

Are you SURE you’re not offending good prospects, even unintentionally?

Are you sending people off to your competition, because you put up too many obstacles to helping them get what they want?

Are you stinking up the sales process… because you don’t have exactly what they thought they would get from you… and you don’t offer them ANOTHER path to take, to stay in your world?

Imagine how easily any of those game store non-salesmen could have snagged my loyalty and money. “Those Wii’s are hard to find, aren’t they. We do get them, but the manufacturer is way behind on production, and we can’t tell you exactly when another shipment will come in. How about if I take down your name, and call you when I know a shipment will be coming in? In fact, if you like, I’ll set one aside for you. Because of demand, I can’t set it aside for very long, but I’ll keep it on my desk until you have a chance to get down here after work or on your break…”

Et cetera.

And then, before I leave, why not offer me a quick lesson on the Wii floor model… so I’ll have a head-start when I fire up my own unit at home. And then offer me a deal on after-market options or games. And then…

These are the basics, people.

Know your demographics. I’m not gonna get up at dawn and freeze outside a store waiting for the doors to open, so I might get the chance to beat down a twelve-year-old kid and grab one of the few Wii’s that came in.

I WILL, however, pay a premium for the dignity of getting a little special treatment.

Look — I’m all for democracy. But in sales, it’s always a good idea to create an option for people who want to give you more money. It’s called First Class Service, and while the concept may piss off socialists, it’s a great way to do business when you’re in it for the sake of creating wealth.

Many online marketers I consult with have never even considered a “platinum level” of service… or even thought about raising their prices to see what the market will bear. They are often astonished at how many people are willing to pay more for insider service and priviliges.

Wait. Make that “always astonished” at this. Because every single market out there has a certain number of people who put more value on thier time than on the money in their wallet.

I, for example, am extremely willing to pay extra to save time. That hour spent shuttling back and forth to the game store would cost me a small fortune in lost productive time. Even shelling out more for a Wii, if I can save time acquiring it, would be an overall bargain. (Not the four-times-cost demanded on eBay auctions, of course… but certainly much more than retail.)

And there are a lot of busy, successful people out there seeking the same deal.

(Want another example? Southwest Airlines — which has built its reputation on low fares — has just introduced a slightly higher ticket price for people who want to automatically be among the first to board. If money’s an issue, no one’s forcing you to pay this extra fee. But if you’re in a situation where getting a seat close to the front, or on an aisle, or being assured you’ll find space for your carry-on… and you can’t count on having the time or luxury of checking in early enough to get an “A” on your boarding pass (as most business travelers ride), then this small fee is a drop-dead bargain.

It’s made Southwest an option for hard-core biz travelers again.)

Think about how your online “salesman” comes across to prospects. They’re looking for help, for advice, for direction and also for bargains and insider deals. If you stop caring about anyone but immediate buyers, then you’re like the store operator who refuses to deal with anyone not willing to spend untold hours playing a stupid game of waiting and guessing and hoping in order to get what they want.

Buying something shouldn’t be a hostile act between pissed-off customer and aggressively-apathetic sales person.

It really can be a pleasant capitalistic experience of using money to acquire goods and services. With the opportunity to leverage your hard-earned money to save time and gain insider privileges.

I mean, geez Louise.

We’re all in this together, you know.

Stay frosty…

John Carlton
www.carltoncoaching.com

P.S. One more thing.

You know how experienced shopkeepers diffuse an angry customer or prospect?

They listen to the complaint.

That’s it. Listen, acknowledge the legitimacy of their right to complain, and decide rationally and fairly how to proceed.

People get angry when they feel they’ve been insulted, or that they aren’t being heard.

As the owner, you can still toss the real bums out on their ear. But only after you’ve made absolutely sure the anger isn’t coming from real abuse or a real problem.

I’m a calm, Zen kinda guy. I actually enjoy all kinds of experiences in the selling process, including bad ones (cuz I can write about them).

Still, occassionally even I get righteously outraged. You cannot assume anything about a sales encounter gone sour until you get all the facts straight.

Same online. If you’re not flipping a decent percentage, you need to find out why.

Too many sales people today think it’s all about them.

That’s just dumb, and wrong, and evil.

However, it’s also wonderful for all the marketers out there — both online and offline — who see the opportunity to fill the void with better salesmanship and smarter processes.

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Facebook For Millionaires

http://asmallworld.net/

A new crop of online social-networking sites has taken aim at the rich, seeking to create exclusive Web communities of like-moneyed friends. The sites -- essentially MySpace for millionaires -- promise safe havens for the affluent where they can flirt, swap advice, plan parties and find new pals without mixing with hoi polloi.

The sites -- the best known is aSmallWorld.net -- borrow many of their rules from blue-blood social clubs. People must be invited to join. Membership decisions seem to be based on an applicant's education, job title and connections, since it's difficult to verify wealth levels. Those who engage in improper behavior, like trying to mingle with strangers or sell products too aggressively, are kicked out.

On the surface, the sites seem like a winning idea. Social networking outposts have exploded in popularity, while the number of millionaires and billionaires is also surging. Since wealth likes to be with wealth, the rich often seek out networks to help them with everything from vacations and parties to managing money and making business contacts. What's more, the sites host frequent member events, like jet rides, vineyard tours and sailing trips, sponsored by high-end corporate partners.

Yet getting the rich to mingle online, it turns out, isn't so easy. Today's wealthy, aside from being intensely private, are so pressed for time and overloaded with existing social commitments that they may have little interest in trolling the Web for new pals.

What's more, while the sites claim to be exclusive, they're opening their doors wider and wider to please advertisers and investors, who often prefer quantity over quality. And the sites can't ensure that all their members are what they say they are, despite verification systems from fellow members and the sites themselves. All this has rankled some members, who say the sites have become simply well-dressed Facebooks.

"It's very difficult to build a network based solely on wealth," says Stephen Martiros, a managing director of CCC Alliance, a coalition of rich families based in Boston. "You might start with a few wealthy people, but as you grow it eventually reverts to the mean. And once that happens, the wealthy leave. If you have one guy worth $100 million sitting at a table with a guy worth $1 million, only one of them is going to be excited to be there."

Take the recent experiences of aSmallWorld. Launched in 2004 by Swedish banker and globetrotter Erik Wachtmeister, aSmallWorld has more than 250,000 members. Weinstein Co., owned by movie moguls Bob and Harvey Weinstein, bought a stake last year, giving it added cachet. Joe Robinson, the company's CEO, says aSmallWorld is aimed at tastemakers, social connectors and the migratory rich, who may want to meet up in Scotland for golf or Paris for dinner.

Prospective members have to be invited to join by another member. Rules state that members aren't allowed to "annoy, harass or unreasonably disturb members, or try to connect to members with whom you have no previous contact."

The site's classified ad section reads like a billionaire's yard sale: "For sale -- Caviar Servers and Horn Spoons." "For Sale $2.8 million Tsavorite gemstone." "Bugatti Veyron, Black, 2006. 1.1 million Euros."

This week's hot topics in the forums included "Best Fencing Clubs in the world," "Surfing in Gstaad?" and a discussion of lobster-abuse in St. Tropez. (One member recoiled at watching them boiled alive.) Another asks: "If you had $20 million where would you invest it now, given the subprime crisis?" (Members advised commodities and cash.)

Yet aSmallWorld's fast growth -- membership doubled over the past year -- has taken a toll. Some early members complain that the site is being overrun by spammers and riffraff. Membership invitations or passwords to the site can be purchased easily and cheaply -- though in violation of the site's rules -- on eBay or other online invitation sites, members say. (Mr. Robinson says he quickly shuts down membership sellers.) And some complain of strangers hawking products.

One member recently posted the question: "Is it just me, but lately I see people on ASW who really shouldn't be there. Who invites these people? We should be selective who to invite. What about quality control?" Another member wrote: "In the real world, we are each discerning about who we make friends with, who we socialize with. There is no reason why when we come online we should have to socialize with truck drivers etc. from hick parts of the USA."

A Geneva member wrote: "One of my friends, a funny old-timer here, told me that the site has lowered so much its level, that she has invited her maids."

Mr. Robinson says the site maintains its "trust and word of mouth" by allowing only about 15% of its members to invite new members. As for whether the site has become too common, he says that while some members prefer the old days, a much greater number appreciate the benefits of a larger network.

"We pay attention to our growth with vigilance," he says. "I don't take it lightly."

A new site, Diamond Lounge, will also target the elite, but promises to avoid aSmallWorld's growth pains. Founded by Arya Marafie, a British entrepreneur and former marketing executive, the site has 5,000 applications but will launch with no more than 500 members, Mr. Marafie says. Members must be invited to join by a three-person membership committee and have to pay $60 a month in dues.

Mr. Marafie has modeled Diamond Lounge on "Fifty," a gentlemen's club he belongs to in London. And since he owns the site, Mr. Marafie says he will let the members (rather than advertisers and outside investors) decide the site's future. While he insists members will be chosen for being "interesting," rather than just wealthy, he says most of the applications from the U.S. highlight net worth.

Sheikh Majed Al-Sabah, a prominent Kuwaiti who owns a Middle East fashion retailer, is a member of both aSmallWorld and Diamond Lounge. He says he joined the Lounge hoping for a more "exclusive" experience. Still, he says, he's getting some of his most valuable contacts and feedback for his business from a much broader networking site: Facebook.

"It's strange, but a lot of my friends are joining Facebook," he says, adding that "I get feedback from people who normally wouldn't have access to me."

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Thirst For Profit

http://www.drinkhint.com/

The first time Kara Goldin left her job as a vice-president at AOL was in 1996, the boom years. Kara's boss quickly persuaded her to return. The second time she left, the decision stuck. It was early 2001, and Kara figured her best days at AOL were behind her: She and her team had built an online shopping business, and now she was expected to maintain it. Then there was the matter of the Time Warner merger. She wasn't eager to work for an even more bureaucratic company. "I love the idea of creating a need, of building something new," she says.

So at 34 she cashed out and went home to her husband, Theo, two children--and a renovation on their San Francisco house. By then Theo, also 34, had left his job as an intellectual property lawyer at Netscape. "When we moved out here, I never in a million years thought I was going to work for a big company," he says.

The couple renovated their work lives, too. In May, 2005, the Goldins launched Hint, a naturally flavored bottled water made without sweeteners or preservatives. Kara is the chief executive; Theo the chief operating officer. This year they expect revenues of $3 million to $4 million, and next year three times as much. The water is sold in several grocery chains, including Whole Foods Market, Stop & Shop, and Ralphs, as well as small stores. And, because Cherise McVicar, Walt Disney's senior vice-president for national promotions, happened to try (and like) a sample of Hint, the Goldins now have an arrangement to put Disney' characters on their bottles.

For the Goldins, the years between leaving their familiar world and entering unknown terrain were filled with questioning, sussing out possibilities, then a moment of recognition followed by months of experimenting, gathering info, listening, cold-calling, and being called naive. Then they just plunged in.

They were among the many Silicon Valley exiles who departed ahead of the bust with their bank accounts and confidence intact, entrepreneurs in search of an idea. While their experience reflects a specific time and place, it also resonates more broadly. "It's clear that creative, ambitious people want choice, control, a greater sense of power in the world of careers," says Stewart Friedman, a Wharton School professor. A recent Harris Interactive Survey for CareerBuilder.com found that three-quarters of working adults have already switched careers at least once, and more. More than one-third were interested in a career change.

Those numbers suggest a new way to think about careers. "These people aren't actually shifting careers, but building skill sets," says Penelope Trunk, the author of the Brazen Careerist. "It's a metaphor for the new American Dream. People who aren't moving around should ask themselves why they aren't. They think it's risky. But the more skills you have, the more stable your career is."

Kara did not begin to search for a new career right away. She spent the first few years caring for her young children (she had a third in 2002). Theo did some consulting while overseeing their home's makeover. Then Kara started to get itchy. She considered positions with nonprofits but couldn't find a place where she could use her business experience. "And I didn't have any great ideas of how to start one that could quickly make a difference," she says.

Kara began paying more attention to the concerns of health-conscious mothers. "I was looking for the low-hanging fruit," she says. Then there it was: the sugared-up juice box. "I always wondered why there wasn't another option." There is, of course. It's called water. But Kara figured kids (and everyone else) wanted a drink with flavor. At spas, she had been served water with fruit in it, and realized there was something to that: "I thought someone should put it in a bottle."

Kara began testing fruit combinations on her family and friends while trying to squeeze information from any people in the beverage business who would talk to her. They were pretty skeptical that someone without any experience could succeed with the most difficult of drinks to produce and sell: one that was unsweetened and made without preservatives.

When she put together a business plan in 2004, she started to see what the skeptics were getting at. "I had no resources for labels, bottles, bottlers," she says. "I had only halfway listened to their point about how hard it is to get shelf space [in stores]." The only thing that wasn't a problem was money: She and Theo financed the company themselves initially. Now, after additional investments from friends and family, they own more than 90%.

Theo began devoting more time to Hint about six months before the May, 2005, launch--in two stores, one in Marin County, Calif., and the other in Manhattan. They hadn't signed up any distributors yet, so they drove the first delivery to the local gourmet market (one case of each flavor--apple, cucumber, lime, and tangerine).

A few months later, they got their first big break. At the Fancy Food Show in New York, the San Francisco buyer for Whole Foods expressed interest in carrying Hint. He asked if the Goldins were with United Natural Foods. They had no idea what that was. Turns out it is the largest natural food distributor in the U.S. With the promise of Whole Foods as a customer, they worked out an agreement.

Getting distributors is what it's all about in the beverage business. And for those who work on other things besides health foods, an unsweetened drink retailing for $1.69-$3.00 is a hard sell. The Goldins did, though, just manage to get in with an important network of independent distributors. "They have surprised a lot of people," says Gerry Khermouch, the editor of Beverage Business Insights. "They're selling overpriced, unsweetened water with a slight hint of fruit. They're the niche of the niche."

Now the Goldins have begun to grapple with some of the compromises they made early on. They've improved the production process so that Hint has a shelf life of 12 months instead of four. They've changed their 16-ounce bottle, which was originally an inch shorter than others on the shelves and looked puny by comparison. Their new one is a standard eight inches tall.

They've also figured out a few things about the flavors. Apple and pear are too difficult to work with, so they're on hiatus. To develop mango grapefruit took 15 tries with three different consultants over an entire year. Peppermint, though, took only two attempts.

Next year they hope to raise $3 million from an investor who might help expand their distribution and sales. "We learned over and over again in the tech world that it's not really about the idea. It's about how well and how fast you execute the idea," says Theo.

If they do well with Hint, Theo might consider another job altogether--teaching sixth grade science. Kara says: "I'm sure there's at least one more career in my future."

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For TreeGivers.Com, Money Does Grow On Trees

http://www.treegivers.com

In a town in northern New England a small group was gathered for a memorial service for a family member. It was suggested that a tree should be planted as a living memorial for the deceased. That is how it started in 1981. Known as Lofty Oaks Association, the company grew rapidly representing the funeral industry nation wide. Shortly more and more companies and individuals alike were asking to have trees planted on their behalf for special occasions.

That is when the founders, Leslie Dreier and Bruce Hadlock started TreeGivers. TreeGivers was developed for a new market of businesses and for the public consumer. With steady growth it wasn't long before they out grew their location and needed larger accommodations. They found the answer in a century old farmhouse. In keeping with their conservation initiatives, Bruce and Leslie have carefully preserved the exterior of the 100-year-old farmhouse much like the original. The interior has been updated to contain the newest in processing equipment, while still maintaining some old New England charm including the original working fireplace.

Today this restored farmhouse contains the corporate offices and the dedicated staff of both TreeGivers and Lofty Oaks Association. We have planted hundreds of thousands of young trees on public lands in all 50 states of the United States and in the International Tree Planting countries as part of their reforestation programs. Since we began our program in 1981, we have always endeavored to find youth groups to be involved in the plantings. We have enlisted Scout groups and 4-H Clubs from all over the country in this effort. Naturally, experienced nurserymen or national foresters guide them in the planting. In other states, the trees are planted by professionals with special consideration concerning the species and best growing locations.

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Social Network For The Disabled

http://www.disaboom.com/

There are more than 50 million adults with disabilities in the United States alone, but so far, as a specific market, they’ve been largely unrecognized and underserved. Disaboom, which just launched last month, aims to change all that with a social network aimed specifically at consumers whose lives have been touched by disabilities.

Disaboom was founded by J. Glen House, who graduated from medical school after a skiing accident left him quadriplegic at the age of 20. Its mission is to develop the first interactive online community dedicated to improving the lives of people with disabilities or functional limitations. In so doing, it aims to serve not just those who have disabilities themselves but also caregivers and families.

The Denver-based site brings together content and tools ranging from specialized health information to social networking to daily living resources, including medical news, career advice, dating resources and travel tips. Ford, Netflix and Johnson & Johnson are among the advertisers that have enthusiastically flocked to the site, which also features video, chat and city-by-city accessibility reviews. Disaboom recently acquired Lovebyrd—a dating site for disabled singles—and just before launch it raised more than USD 5 million in a common stock offering. The site already boasts a network of more than 180 million people.

As populations age throughout the industrialized world, the number of people with disabilities of one sort or another will only increase—and so, too, will their collective spending power. Marketers, take note!

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Life Is Really Good When Your Annual Sales Are 100 Million Dollars

http://www.lifeisgood.com/

Even though he broke his foot dancing at his brother’s wedding one recent weekend, life is still good for Bert Jacobs.

Mr. Jacobs is the 42-year-old co-founder of Life is good, a popular apparel brand based in Boston that is on track to break $100 million in sales this year. This is rarefied air for Mr. Jacobs, who a dozen years ago was selling T-shirts out of a battered van on the streets of Boston with his brother John, now 39.

From a single childlike drawing of a character they named Jake and their uplifting three-word slogan, the brothers have developed a fashion brand sold in 4,500 independent retail outlets in the United States and 27 other countries.

Since 1994, they have sold nearly 20 million Life is good T-shirts and now have a product line with more than 900 items, from hats to dog beds, and the company continues to grow 30 to 40 percent annually. There are now 93 independently owned Life is good retail shops selling only their merchandise, and the company plans to have a total of 200 by the end of 2009. With all that, Life is good has just 250 employees.

Life is good, which rations its use of capital letters, offers one more example of a small company creating a big brand. Though most consumers associate great brands with marketing giants like Procter & Gamble, General Motors, Apple and Nike, the ability to build a powerful brand is no longer reserved for the big spenders. Small companies with great ideas and well-planned strategies — Kryptonite bicycle locks, Stonyfield Farm yogurt, Zipcar — have spawned prominent brands.

“A big brand comes from big insights about culture and consumers and what it is that they need,” said Susan Fournier, a brand expert and associate professor of marketing at the School of Management at Boston University. “To me, that has nothing to do with big budgets.”

“Life is good tapped into an emotional ethos that struck a chord with where the culture was at a certain point in time. That is not done by a marketing budget but by their customers who become evangelists and give the brand visibility and credibility.”

Internet start-ups like Google, YouTube, Craigslist and Facebook used the Web to promote themselves and have now grown into giants themselves. Facebook, the popular social networking Web site, for example, was started in a Harvard dormitory room by three undergraduates less than four years ago, and today, with just over 300 employees, has nearly 50 million active users and has been signing up 200,000 new ones a day since January. New brands can be started online with stunning speed and efficiency by small groups of entrepreneurs who understand the impact of the viral environment of the Web.

Creating that ubiquity for a brand in the nondigital world is tougher. Though they had been reasonably content to sell enough of their wares to pay a meager rent and avoid taking real jobs, the Jacobs brothers always believed that they could make a better T-shirt and turn it into a bona fide business.

They posted their own drawings and slogans on the wall of their apartment near Boston and regularly polled friends at their frequent keg parties for feedback about their ideas. “It was truly like a focus group,” Bert Jacobs recalled.

In search of something that would resonate with a broad audience, they created Jake, a crudely drawn stick character not all that far removed from the Smiley Face, and were amazed at how he inspired an intensely positive reaction.

“This guy has life figured out,” wrote one friend next to the drawing.

They later posted a list of 50 slogans they had compiled and got a similar reaction to the unremarkable phrase “life is good.” A girlfriend concluded that the slogan with three simple words “kind of says it all.”

The brothers printed 48 test T-shirts that combined the slogan with the drawing for a street fair in Cambridge, Mass., in 1994, and sold the entire lot in 45 minutes.

That night, the brothers huddled and decided that the gold they had seemingly struck was a result of their message of optimism. “The reason people bought those shirts was because they understood it instantly,” Bert Jacobs said. “It made them smile, and it was tangible. They could reach out and get a little sunshine.”

Doug Gladstone, chief executive of Brand Content, an ad agency in Boston, agreed. “They tapped into something positive yet benign,” he said. “The product makes you feel good but it’s not over the top.”

By the end of 1994, the brothers had sold $82,000 of Life is good shirts through a couple of willing retail outlets. Within four years, they broke the $1 million barrier and believed they had found the small business they had always dreamed of and that they were sitting on an emerging brand.

The outside world did not see it that way. “It was a real uphill battle to get other people to say we had a brand,” Bert Jacobs said. “At $10 million and even $20 million in sales, they were still asking us when we were going to launch something different.”

With no business acumen, the brothers sought out successful retailers and peppered them with questions. Bert Jacobs acknowledged that smarter businessmen could have expanded the company more quickly but that was never the point.

Prof. Fournier said that slow growth is an asset for small companies trying to build brands.

“People with deep pockets put the pedal to the metal and do too much too quickly,” she said. “Big companies try to do everything in the first two years but often fall off the cliff. Small companies have to hold back and build the brand more carefully and diligently. Slow and steady often wins the race.”

The Jacobs brothers considered a consumer advertising campaign several years ago but decided to wait until growth slowed to start it. Growth has never slowed. Instead of advertising, the company spends its money on charitable fund-raising festivals for children’s causes.

“People who are facing adversity embrace our message the most,” Bert Jacobs said.

Skeptics have warned the brothers that their concept has a limited shelf life, and, indeed, they plan to extend the brand to try to keep it vibrant. Next spring, Life is good plans to start several apparel and product lines like Good Karma, Good Kids, Good Dog and Good Vibes that will aim at specific audiences. Good Karma, for example, is an environmentally sustainable clothing line. Good Kids will extend the product line for children.

Bert Jacobs is confident the brand has legs. “So much of fashion and culture is cyclical. It comes and goes,” he said. “When the trend tails off, so does your business. But optimism is not a trend. It’s empowering to celebrate life’s simple pleasures.”

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1. Lessons From The Vice Squad

It’s no secret among top marketers that some of the smartest salesmen are con-artists. I do NOT suggest you get involved in any sort of unethical project... and, in fact, I hope you rot in hell if you do.

2. The Most Violated Marketing Rule

I call it the “Pearls On A String” lesson. And it is the single most-violated marketing rule I see among the people who come to me for advice.

3. Mass Delusion and Other Good Marketing Ideas

One of the very critical techniques that I have used in my mail order ads is a process called “linking.” Basically, it is the technique of relating what the consumer already knows and understands with what you are selling, to make the new product easy to understand and relate to.

4. Knowing vs. Doing

We know the Rules: 80-20, 95-5. But how zealously do we apply them? You know that 80% of your problems, aggravation, grief, etc. come from 20% of the people in your world – customers, vendors, associates, employees. But how often do you purge the 20%?

5. How Marketing Success Is Deeply Connected To Farting

Watch closely, now. See, nothing up my sleeves. For my next trick, I shall reveal to you how marketing success is deeply connected to... Farting!

6. The amazing advantages a street-savvy near-illiterate hustler has versus a fancy MBA with years of book-learnin’ under his Gucci

I’ve never held a grudge against anyone with a fancy Master’s degree in business. I’ve never trusted them, and gotten a few fired. But I’ve never held a grudge. I just can’t understand what sort of moron would look around and decide that, yeah, that’s the ticket: Academia must be the place to go learn how to make a fortune in bidniz.

7. What great salesmen know about the mysterious power that secrets hold over people

Savvy street hustlers know something most civilians do not: You can’t con an honest man.

You need two critical ingredients in the mix:

1. Greed (which is easily understandable), and...

2. Secrets (which is less easily understood).

Greed gets the mark hooked -- he’s thinking he’s gonna make a killing, or pull one over on someone.

8. A very critical marketing lesson I learned while trying to bluff a veteran poker player (Hint: I lost.)

I know, I know... I sound like a broken record with the “get a life” rant. But I see the wasting of life as a crime. You know, many subscribers tell me they always wished they’d started a band way back when, or had a few more unseemly adventures before settling down. And I say, yeah, I hear you.

9. Astonishing sales secrets I learned playing rock and roll in sleazy biker bars

I have played music in some of the sleaziest dives on the West Coast. I am not joking. I’ve had a lunatic cowboy launch a full can of Pabst at my head because he thought I was singing about him. (Remember “Third Rate Romance, Low Rent Rendezvous”?)

10. Evil Marketing? What A Buffalo Rancher Taught Me About Selling.

Yesterday I met a rancher who raises buffalo and sells bison products. He clearly loves his job. He gushed facts. For example:

I didn't know buffalo never get cancer. Or that buffalo meat is leaner, healthier and better for you than any other red meat. I also didn't know that buffalo contains less calories than even chicken.

Babajob.Com - Recruiting Site For Unskilled Labor

http://www.babajob.com/

Websites like Monster and Craigslist handle a large share of recruitment for skilled workers. But most jobs that need to be filled require very little training at all. And finding good store clerks, housecleaners, dishwashers and other menial workers can be as hard as a finding a good lab technician or XML programmer, even in developing nations. That’s because those seeking work frequently have no means of connecting with those wanting to hire. It’s a problem Babajob, based in Bangalore, hopes to solve. The site helps the city’s legions of unskilled workers find work using an online social network.

Historically, giving India’s poor a means to log onto the web has been especially tough, since people of low social status are often barred from even touching someone else’s computer, and may not be able to read or write (adult literacy in India is estimated to be 61.3%). Babajob uses intermediaries like charities and owners of internet case to help job seekers post their online profiles. The go-between helps create a resume, typing up details as dictated by the jobseeker, and takes his or her picture to add to the profile. To gain the attention of potential employers, Babajob utilizes a system where those who connect job seekers with employers receive a small fee based on their success.

The site mimics the intricate social networks that already exist in India. Traditionally, the head of a family in need of a cook might ask the cooks currently working in the household for a referral. The cooks in turn will send word out through their extended families. The time-proven system of close connections helps insure that job applicants are trustworthy.

Babajob was launched by a former Microsoft employee who was transferred from the company’s Redmond, Washington, headquarters to India. The website resulted in part from the software company’s efforts to encourage India’s high tech workers to explore ways to use technology to help the poor, and has plans to expand throughout India

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PerezHilton.Com Success Story

http://www.perezhilton.com/

The site where Perez reports gossip, scrawls insults and compliments across celebrity photos, and generally causes a ruckus has transformed the once-unknown writer into the go-to gossip guy and a budding media maven.

Hilton, né Mario Armando Lavandeira Jr., wasn't planning to reinvent himself when he started his first blog, PageSixSixSix.com; he thought blogging seemed like an easy way to entertain himself and his friends. The New York Post--home of the "Page Six" gossip column--thought otherwise, and handed Lavandeira his first lawsuit. Lavandeira didn't have the resources to fight the suit, so he changed his domain name.

"Changing the website name to PerezHilton.com was actually the best thing that ever happened," says Lavandeira, 29. "That forced me to become my own brand. Instead of being 'that dude from that website,' I became Perez Hilton from PerezHilton.com."

It took 12 months for Lavandeira to start making money from the venture. And it took a phone call from the TV show The Insider asking to feature the site as "Hollywood's Most Hated Website" to make Lavandeira understand how big PerezHilton.com could get. "They asked me, 'How do you feel about being No. 1?' I said, 'Well, I don't necessarily agree, but I'll put it on a T-shirt. I'll make it my slogan.'"

That media savvy and bravado has paid off big-time for Lavandeira. He whole-heartedly embraces controversy ("I'm old school--I think any press is good press."), is unabashedly outrageous, catty and just plain funny when interviewing celebs, and he cites his ability to "give good TV" as a factor in his success. In addition to garnering him guest spots on shows like the The View, these talents helped him land a six-episode series of VH1 specials called What Perez Sez, which started airing in September.

What comes with success like this is accidental entrepreneurship, and for Lavandeira, who also cites his hard work and lack of sleep as success factors, it means playing catch-up. Still the lone blogger on PerezHilton.com, he's branching out further by booking and promoting concerts for up-and-coming artists. Lavandeira's blog posts have been credited with helping spur album sales (after he praised pop singer Mika on his site, Mika's debut CD sold 50,000 copies in its first two weeks). He doesn't cop to being such an influential tastemaker but does say, "I have an opportunity to share, and my readers have the opportunity to receive." Lavandeira's first concert last September sold out in four hours, with no line-up announced and just a blog post as promotion.

He hired his sister to be his personal assistant and moved his mother out to Los Angeles as his second employee. "She'll help me out personally--do momlike things and get paid for it: 'Mom, wash my clothes. Mom, clean my apartment,'" explains Lavandeira with a laugh. He's even moving her into the same apartment complex he lives in, keeping this new family business close.

Lavandeira doesn't release his annual earnings, but BlogAds, the company that sells his advertising, lists a one-week, top-of-fold skyscraper ad at $16,000 for 41 million impressions--and that's just one of many ads on the site. Nielsen/NetRatings showed that PerezHilton.com traffic rose 215 percent from July 2006 to July of this year, and ComScore Media Metrix listed the site as the 10th most popular entertainment news site in August.

It's obvious that Lavandeira has a strong brand on which to build a bright future as an entrepreneur--if he plays his cards right and can keep up with his business's growth. He says he gets approached by potential business partners; his attorney and business manager weed through the requests. "My brand is invaluable to me. I don't think anyone could afford to buy me out," says Lavandeira, again with one of his ubiquitous laughs.

So what's in store for the Perez Hilton brand? "I would like to be like Oprah," says Lavandeira, referring to Oprah's many media ventures. "I would like to be in a position where if I have an idea, I could make it happen. I'm open to new ideas, and I'm not afraid of change, and that's a very healthy thing for entrepreneurs. You've got to change with the times or you become irrelevant."

Wise words for the flash-in-the-pan internet age, where YouTube makes blink-and-you-miss-'em celebrities, lolcats are thought of as high humor for a few months and TV shows recycle the latest viral videos.

With Lavandeira embracing the outrageous--remember, this is the love-him-or-hate-him guy infamous for insulting celebrity offspring while giving a free pass to the celebrities he befriends--and with his keen ability to turn his personality into a brand, he's now the one to watch to see if a no-holds-barred blogger unafraid of offending celebrities can truly become a media mogul.

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Birthday Card Outsourcing Business

http://jackcards.com/

While there are plenty of reminder services online that help people remember anniversaries and birthdays, few connect to the physical world. Which is where Boston-based Jack Cards comes in: a company that delivers pre-scheduled, ready-to-go greeting cards to the card sender, just in time for them to add a personal message and drop the card in the mailbox.

Customers register on jackcards.com, enter important dates for their family and friends and select cards for each person/date. Jack Cards offers a range of cards created by over 40 independent designers. Members schedule when they'd like the cards delivered—1, 2 or 4 weeks in advance—and select whether they would like the envelopes to be pre-stamped, pre-addressed, or both. Jack Cards takes care of the rest and even sends an email reminder to make sure customers don't forget to post the cards they've ordered and received. Membership is free and cards start at USD 1.50, plus postage and delivery (normal shipping rate is USD 0.99 per shipment).

While entering all of the necessary data might be a bit of a chore, it's a one-off time investment that helps customers unload the worry of letting an important date slip by unnoticed, and turns them into thoughtful, organized people who recognize the personal touch of a handwritten paper greeting. Since this is the kind of business that demands localization (language, local holidays, national postage), it's an enticing opportunity for entrepreneurs in other parts of the world. Basic requirements: a knack for logistics and a good eye for design. And, um... major greeting card manufacturers—why aren't you already doing this?

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Psychodelic Hoops

http://psihoops.com/

Patrick Deluz spends his days crafting battery-powered Hula-Hoops that pulse with light and color.

His interest was first piqued when his girlfriend brought two hoops home and he tried to spin. He failed miserably and gave up until he met a performance artist who explained that it’s all in the hoop, not the hips: The children’s models are too light for adults.

Inspired, Deluz, 58, made his own hoops out of black irrigation tubing wrapped in leather from thrift-store skirts. He added LED lights for flash, and his company, Psychedelic Sensually Interactive Hoops, based in Encinitas, Calif., was born. Since then, Deluz’s customers have been spinning them everywhere, from nightclubs to the opening party of Cirque du Soleil’s Ka in Las Vegas.

Each hoop costs $250 to $320, and Deluz says he has sold 1,000 over the past three years. He is looking for a Chinese manufacturer to help boost his volume, but until he finds one that matches his quality, he must spend six hours handcrafting each hoop.

Reverse Funnel System

How To Make $1,200 A Month From A Blog That Has Only 250 Readers

http://www.angschickencoop.com/

Angie Mecklenburg, a mother of four in Sutter, Ill., blogs about chickens, God, and her farm. For an estimated $15, she'll write about soy-wax candles for a marketer.

Over the last 18 months, Mecklenburg has kept up three blogs, the most popular being Ang's Chicken Coop, which has the tagline "a view of the world from the coop." With about 250 daily visitors to her sites, she said she manages to make as much as $1,200 a month, collecting fees from Google advertising and marketers who pay her to write about their products via the blog ad network iZea.

For example, iZea recently paid her about $15 to write about candles from the Maddison Avenue Candles Company. She also was paid to write a blog about the Christian movie The Last Sin Eater earlier this year.

"iZea sent me a synopsis and movie clip. I blogged it and then I went and saw it," Mecklenburg said at the BlogWorld conference and expo here, a three-day event for blog entrepreneurs and professionals. She said she loved the movie.

Mecklenburg's story is just one of many here this week at the Las Vegas Convention Center, which is also playing host to GodblogCon, a gathering of religious bloggers. Many of the attendees are trying to figure out how to make money from their small publishing ventures, whether it's a political, military, or God-related blog.

iZea, formerly called Pay for Post, is one company trying to capitalize on that desire. Founded in June 2006, the company pays as many as 85,000 bloggers to write about a range of products, including household products, cars, wireless phones, and new movies. According to Randy Mountz, vice president of sales, iZea has roughly 11,000 advertisers in its network, including Hewlett-Packard, Ford, and MGM.

Mountz said the company pays bloggers an average of $18 for a 200-word post on a product or service. Its top blogger, the Florida mom behind Simplekindoflife.com, has made as much as $18,000 over the last year, he said.

Still, the company has had some push-back from other bloggers for buying blog editorial, he said. That's why, "we strongly encourage full disclosure in the post of the sponsorship," he said.

And so far, that's working for Mecklenburg, who now has as many as six blogs to discuss her different interests. Those sites include Twitter-patted.com and Ang's Brood.

"I blog about God and the things I see he does in my life," she said. "But it's not my sole focus. I have many interests and it's really hard to wrap all of them in one blog."

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How Bad News Can Generate Good Traffic

http://www.badcyclopedia.com/

People are addicted to bad news. That's one trend BadCyclopedia.Com is going to capitalize one. Started less then one month ago, the site is already getting up to 1500 daily unique visitors, thanks to articles, like Halo 3 player punched mom after she took away game, High Canadian Dollar Hurts Sales Of Premium BC Pot In US or Indian Man Forced To Marry A Dog.

David Molinsky, the owner of the site, was browsing PickyDomains.com (a well known service among web entrepreneurs who need stickingly unusual domain names), when he stumbled upon the name BadCyclopedia.Com. The domain hasn't been used, so David worked out a deal with PickyDomains.Com - he gets the domain for the minimum price and PickyDomains.Com gets free adverting and links for lifetime.

The next step for David was to go looking for bad news. And there were plenty of them. The trick was to find ones that were so outlandish that they were sure to become viral. The big break came with the story about a hundred year old wiskey that police was going to pour down the drain, because it was sold by a person, who had no liquor license. Traffic spiked and with it the confidence that the idea of site devoted exclusively to bad news make actually become a big hit.

Now David entertains the idea of converting BadCyclopedia from a regular WordPress blog to a Wikipedia-type resource. After all, there isn't going to be a shortage of bad news any time soon.

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Portamee Success Story

http://www.portamee.com/

Who: Jennifer Gilbert, 38, and Robin Stein, 39, of Heartbeat Products Inc.
What: PortaMEe, a New York City-based line of high-style baby carriers
How Much: About $600,000 in 2007 Sales

In 2004, Robin Stein was a stay-at-home mom with a 21-pound 6-month-old and an aching back. She tried all types of baby carriers but didn't like the way they fit or looked. Because Stein had previously worked in product development and merchandising, "developing product was a sport," she says. She began sketching ideas for a carrier that rested the baby on the hip. "A hip carrier is more natural, and kids develop faster when they make eye contact with you and you can see what they're doing," she explains.

In the fall of 2005, Stein posted a note on Craigslist looking for people who knew how to sew structured handbags and work with leather. She then spent more than a year making prototypes. When she started wearing the PortaMEe, "people were handing me their cards and telling me to call them when I started selling," she says.

Stein had met Jennifer Gilbert in November 2004, when she joined a women entrepreneurs' group. In mid-2006, Gilbert signed on to fund the business and become a 50 percent owner. "Sales is not my strength, but Jennifer is a genius at sales," says Stein. "I had a list of my top 10 dream accounts. [Thanks to Jennifer,] by the end of 2006, we were in many of our top 10, including Bergdorf Goodman, Best & Co., Giggle, Neiman Marcus and Takashimaya."

Because the market was crowded at the mass price point, they decided to price PortaMEe higher than most baby carriers and target higher-end retailers. So far, the strategy has paid off: The company was recently forced to turn orders down until new shipments arrived.

With a co-branded product with Pottery Barn Kids and a new infant headrest that both launched in September, Stein and Gilbert have plans to move into a new fulfillment center and are looking to raise more capital to fund growth.

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Homeless Man In LA Inspires A Brand

http://www.thecrazyrobertson.com/

The newest sensation at the center of Hollywood's fashion scene isn't a famous designer or starlet. It's a 56-year-old homeless man who spends his days dancing on roller skates.

John Wesley Jermyn has been a fixture in West Los Angeles for more than 20 years. Nicknamed "The Crazy Robertson" and "The Robertson Dancer," he is a constant presence on a stretch of Robertson Boulevard that has become the city's trendiest shopping corridor and a prime strolling spot for tourists and movie stars. Among locals and online, there's much speculation about Mr. Jermyn's personal history, including one oft-repeated rumor that he's a secretive millionaire.

In a plot twist worthy of Tinseltown, Mr. Jermyn now has a clothing label named after him. Since it was introduced last month, "The Crazy Robertson" brand of T-shirts and sweatshirts, created by a trio of 23-year-olds, has flown off the shelves at Kitson, a haunt of tabloid stars like Paris Hilton. The clothes feature stylized images of Mr. Jermyn, including one design -- available on a $98 hoodie -- that has a graphic of him dancing and the phrase "No Money, No Problems" on the back. At the largest of Kitson's three boutiques on Robertson, shirts bearing Mr. Jermyn's likeness are sold alongside $290 "Victoria Beckham" jeans and $50 baby shoes designed by pop star Gwen Stefani.

The label's owners, who grew up in Beverly Hills, have created a MySpace page for Mr. Jermyn. It doubles as an ad for the clothing brand and their nightclub-promotion venture, which is also named "The Crazy Robertson." The young entrepreneurs spent months trying to forge a relationship with Mr. Jermyn -- who now goes by the name John Jermien -- before gaining his approval. They have consulted him on design decisions and had a photographer shoot him for publicity images.

In May, Mr. Jermyn agreed to a deal that entitles him to 5% of "net profit" from clothing sales, according to a copy of the contract seen by The Wall Street Journal. He signed the contract, without speaking to an attorney or family members. But so far he has refused to accept much cash, preferring to be paid in food, liquor and paper for his art projects, according to Teddy Hirsh, one of the label's founders. "He tries not to involve money in his daily life," says Mr. Hirsh, who says he is Mr. Jermyn's agent and manager for future endeavors.

Mr. Hirsh says Mr. Jermyn has already received several small payments, even though the company hasn't "made much profit" so far. "We haven't collected anything for ourselves," says Mr. Hirsh.

Mr. Jermyn's slide into homelessness is a painful subject for his sister Beverly. And so is the clothing deal. She believes "The Crazy Robertson" founders are exploiting her brother's condition to build their brand. "I think these guys saw an opportunity and they took it," she says. "I am not happy with the arrangement."

Ms. Jermyn, who lives close to the alley where Mr. Jermyn sleeps, says her brother has a form of schizophrenia. He refuses to take medication, she says, despite suffering from fits of shouting and cursing. In the years since his condition began deteriorating in the late 1970s, "he slipped through my fingers like sand," says Ms. Jermyn, 64, who manages facilities for Oracle Corp.

In the late 1980s she testified in court in a proceeding to force her brother to seek help, but psychological evaluators found him "lucid and gracious," according to Ms. Jermyn. She has made countless attempts to provide him with shelter and therapy, and she still visits him twice a week with food. She also pays for his cellphone and collects his Social Security checks on his behalf.

The repackaging of Mr. Jermyn as a fashion front man comes at a time of increased fascination with homelessness. The producers of "Bumfights" -- a collection of videotaped street battles between vagrants -- claim to have sold more than 300,000 DVDs since 2002, and a British TV series called "Filthy Rich and Homeless" made headlines this year for its depiction of real-life millionaires posing as London beggars.

Across the U.S., a growing number of homeless people have gained attention through the Internet. More than 17,500 videos on YouTube are tagged with the word "homeless." Leslie Cochran, a street resident in Austin, Texas, who has twice run for mayor, has 10,775 "friends" on his MySpace page. In Boston, the profile of Harold Madison Jr. -- a homeless man better known as "Mr. Butch" -- rose through online clips and a Web site made in his honor.

Mr. Jermyn was raised in Hancock Park, a historic L.A. neighborhood that's home to some of the city's wealthiest families. His father managed one of L.A.'s largest Chevrolet dealerships.

A star athlete in high school, Mr. Jermyn was selected by the Kansas City Royals in the 1969 Major League Baseball draft. He attended Pepperdine University and played a season for a Los Angeles Dodgers' minor-league team in Bellingham, Wash. (He hit just .205 and made 12 errors in 63 games, according to the Society for American Baseball Research.)

Joel John Roberts, chief executive of People Assisting the Homeless, which provides shelters for L.A.'s street residents, says the branding of Mr. Jermyn is "like designing a line of clothing patterned after Iraqi refugees fleeing the war."

Mr. Hirsh and Vic Ackerman, one of the other founders of the clothing line, are sensitive to Ms. Jermyn's concerns about her brother, but say Mr. Jermyn "specifically asked" them not to contact her about the clothing line or the contract. They view Mr. Jermyn as a "business partner" and say they make sure he's aware of how his image is being used.

"He knows everything that's going on," says Mr. Ackerman, noting that Mr. Jermyn nixed a set of promotional photos because he didn't like his outfit and thought he "looked a little puffy."

In conversation, Mr. Jermyn speaks softly and mixes short, lucid sentences with longer, less coherent remarks. He has been arrested more than a dozen times since 1986 for violations such as trespassing and jaywalking, according to court records. Most of his skating and curb-side dancing now takes place near Robertson Boulevard, but in the past he roamed throughout Beverly Hills and West L.A., often cradling a boombox and shimmying to loud music. "He was always an extraordinary dancer," says Jim Horne, a classmate of Mr. Jermyn's at Los Angeles Baptist High School.

In addition to his sister, Mr. Jermyn speaks regularly with Ginny Berliner, a 64-year-old woman who befriended him when she owned an antique shop on Robertson. Mrs. Berliner, who now lives in Maryland, used to pay for Mr. Jermyn to sleep in a motel and covered his monthly coffee bill at Michel Richard, the well-known patisserie. "He wants notoriety and glory, but he can't accept money," she says.

On a recent afternoon, clad in his trademark black leggings and visor, Mr. Jermyn said he is "a facilitator" for the brand, and hopes it will expand into music or film. He has become a one-man marketing team, plastering company stickers and pictures of himself on a wall that faces pedestrians on Robertson.

At Kitson's boutiques and on its Web site, the first shipment of "Crazy Robertson" women's clothes -- about 35 items -- sold out in three days, and the store immediately ordered about 90 more pieces, according to owner Fraser Ross. Many of the online buyers were not from Los Angeles and presumably not familiar with Mr. Jermyn, he says. The brand may have appeal beyond L.A., says Mr. Ross, because its name includes "Robertson," which like Rodeo Drive is a destination associated with glamorous shopping.

Mr. Hirsh says the success at Kitson has already generated interest from other retailers. He calls Mr. Jermyn "our Michael Jordan" and is looking into a trademark for "the Crazy Robertson" name and logo.

Ms. Jermyn, meanwhile, has different hopes. "I don't want to see my brother get hurt," she says. "They're taking advantage of someone who is very vulnerable and very trusting."

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When Max Durovic and Michael Kenny were in high school, they had after-school jobs advertising for local businesses with sandwich board signs they strapped to their bodies and carried around the San Diego area. But the duo, who were both athletic, became bored with the traditional approach, so they started to do tricks with the signs, spinning them around and tossing them into the air to attract attention. Their antics captured prospective customers' attention. By 2002 the pair had started their own business, Aarrow Advertising, with $100. They developed (and copyrighted) a number of athletic routines that involved manipulating six-foot-long arrow-shaped advertisements, turning the human wielding the sign into an advertising spectacle.

Durovic says Aarrow Advertising now employs 40 full-timers and 460 part-timers who range between 16 and 25 years old. New employees start at $10 an hour and get raises based on the number of tricks they master. Durovic says Aarrow had $2.3 million in sales in 2006 and projects $4.2 million this year. He says the company, which has done advertising for a range of products including Vitamin Water and Bud Light and been mentioned on numerous talk shows, plans to sell franchises in the beginning of 2008 in the U.S. and abroad.

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