We recently joined an Affiliate Network mainly to push the Awesome Century Disc. We decided to go with the PepperJAM Network due to their ease-of-use Web 2.0 interface, their attraction to top-level affiliate marketers and a whole lot of other reasons.
When we first started, it took us a few weeks to get past the 'Learning Curve' and not only learn how their interface works, but to learn that there are a whole lot of things we still need to learn. At least we are willing to learn.
Which only means that we still have a lot to do, a lot of changes and additions, and this is like anything else in life. Depending on what you put into it, will determine what you can expect to get out of it.
The first major holdup we ran into was getting their sales tracking code to interface with our ShopSite Shopping Cart.
We were having problems with the Pixel Integration. First we tried to implement the code ourselves in the back office of ShopSite. It wasn't tracking correctly. Then, we called our ISP. The ISP put us in direct contact with one of the founders of ShopSite who referred us to Michael. It's not that they did not want to handle this in-house, because the people at ShopSite are great to work with. But, this just happened to be one of those perplexing problems that ShopSite had not run into before and it would probably have taken them longer to get back to us then the solution they gave us.
For some reason, our integration with PJN was a little different than other integrations they had encountered. So, Gary, a really nice guy, sent us to Michael Masin, who got us up and running in about 20 - 30 minutes.
Michael wrote us a script that didn't alter the PJN pixel code but incorporated it smoothly. A simple solution but, not simple to someone who has not worked online in over seven years now (and really didn't have time to figure this one out).
If you have a ShopSite problem or would like a new template created for your ShopSite shopping cart interface, contact Michael Masin through his development website @ www.ssdev.us.
Not only will Michael treat you right, his honesty, integrity, and work ethics in the way he does business is well worth the price. Which by the way, his prices are probably the most reasonable I've seen in months and highly recommend Michael Masin to anyone.
I just met him last month during this situation so I am not touting his services because he is an old pal or anything of that nature. He is a 'find' in this industry and we look forward to working with him for our new templates (he writes the code, your artist has to do the design work) for our RMGProducts.com Shopsite shopping cart.
I asked Michael if he would mind sending us a little background info? This is what he sent me. I hope this will help someone find him if they need his specialty services. We are glad we found him. Thanks Michael!
I’m a ShopSite Certified Developer. I build and maintain ShopSite stores, custom templates, Order and Shipping APIs, and programs for processing XML, importing/exporting data, etc. I work with end-users, end-user’s designers and other ShopSite providers on any size projects from a whole store to a small template change.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Friday, July 11, 2008
Betting on the Century Disc is not a Gamble
Well, it's Friday night and I'm home alone for the first time in almost a year. There's that part of me that wants to go out and do something and then that part of me that just wants to relax and enjoy the silence.
I was thinking about going to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in St. Petersburg, Florida near Tampa. They recently installed slot machines and that's one of the few things I like to do when it comes to gambling.
As I think about it, as I have almost all week, I thought back to a time when I took a cruise to the Bahamas. Going to the Bahamas from Florida is a lot cheaper than going there from other states (it used to be).
I went on a cruise that left out of Miami to Paradise Island and a couple of other surrounding islands. On that cruise they had a casino and the only other time I had been in a casino was when I flew to the Bahamas the year before (haven't been to Vegas, yet).
On the cruise, they have one night that used to be the 'black tie affair' night and was now just called the 'formal dinner night.' The dress code is basically dress slacks, dress shirt, and at least a tie. Though, trying to be a gentleman, I wore a sports coat as well.
Earlier that evening, before the formal dinner, my date was in the stateroom resting and I was in the casino. I remember having about $22 in quarters remaining and I felt like I had to get rid of them. I needed to stop myself and go get ready for dinner.
I had already won and lost a little here and there. I was still up about $400 from the two days before and the next day, my cruise was over. So, I wanted to get my fill and play the slots a bit more.
I started dumping 3 quarters at a time into the machines and I literally hit the jackpot. The lights went off, the bells were ringing, and the quarters started falling out of the machine. Wow! What a cool feeling.
One of the manager's came over and asked me not to load up on the quarters, that they would issue me a check and they would clean up the quarters.
So, I did as asked, I had my picture taken in front of my 'lucky' machine and they even gave me a couple of 'jackpot winner - Lucky 777' t-shirts. Which I've never worn, but still have somewhere.
As I look back at that fun time in my life, I started to think about gambling in general. All of the tips and rules people tell you about gambling and such. Things like never gamble more than you can afford to lose, never use your bill money to gamble, quit while you're ahead, etc.
Then, I got to thinking about the brand new Century Disc CDs and DVDs and how they really are a sure bet for people who use them, and for those who need them, but do not know that they are available, yet. That's partly because we just started selling the Century Disc this year and had a lot of marketing materials and things to prepare for a national rollout of this awesome new product.
Of course there is the time period where we needed to study the competition, observe the industry, and a lot of other things. Including who our market is, what retail stores might be interested in carrying them in their photo centers, setting up a website, shopping cart, Google and Yahoo accounts, credit card processing, tying in FedEx and UPS, and on it goes.
So, as I think about how awesome this Century Disc really is, I can only think about how much of a gamble it is to put your precious lifetime memories, family videos, transfer slides, scan polaroids (instant photos), and all of the new digital photos on an ordinary off the shelf CD, DVD, or even a USB drive.
The gamble is, as everyone has known over the years, is that most off the shelf CDs and DVDs are not stable and are unreliable in general. There is a rating system used to rate the quality of CDs and DVDs that is not applied to the packaging on the discs you buy off the shelves in any of the stores. These ratings being A++, A+, AAA, AA, A, B, and C grade discs. A++ being the highest or the highest available to the buying public.
The Century Disc is an A++ (A - plus, plus) rated disc. Now available to you for the first time. They are fine tuned to the point that they really are a near-perfect disc. You can read about the Century Disc on our website at http://www.rmgproducts.com and later in articles I plan to publish here in this blog. So check back often.
The point is, when you buy off the shelf discs, the manufacturers' really don't want you to know that what you are really buying are a variety of grades of discs all in one package. That's why sometimes you get A discs, B discs, and even C grade discs all in the same stack of 25, 50, or even 100 discs.
How many 50 or 100 packs have you purchased in terms of CDs or DVDs? Of them, did any of those fail? If not right when you used them, did you try to use them later only to find that your CD player or writer thought the disc was blank? All of these things and more have happened to all of us who have ever used CDs and DVDs for any length of time.
I still have a stack of a brand name of CDs that every once in awhile I go to use them and 1 out of 10 or even 2 out of 10 will fail on me. Either when I record/burn to them or after I have burned my data or music on them, only to find that either the disc didn't finalize or maybe it never recorded in the first place, or maybe it burned but the dye didn't take like it is supposed to, in order to accurately record my data.
The point again is this. Most off the shelf discs are a combination of A, B, and even C grade discs all discombobulated together in one package. Early on, manufacturer's were practically giving CDs away just to get people used to buying the drives, the discs, and upgrading their computers to one with a CD drive.
Once this caught on, they started selling computers with a CD burner already in them. Remember when they did away with the 5-1/4" floppy disc drives and only offered 3.5" disc drives and CD burners? Now you don't even get the extra disc drive, you get a DVD reader or DVD burner that is downward compatible with CDs.
Once the CD generation caught on, it was only a matter of time before they pushed this as 'the way to back up your personal files and hard drives.' Until the discs' life started to give way and people got tired of backing up on discs that failed or were unreliable. But, in order to make them affordable for the manufacturers' to even make them for us, they had to produce them in serious mass quantities. They would use the same stamper die for up to as many as 1 million discs. Generally, 500,000 discs per stamper die was about the limit before major failures. Some companies still use a silver alloy or other inexpensive materials in order to not only fill the demand for cheap discs but, to be able to compete in the cheap disc marketplace.
So, I guess when you look at that scenario and you look at what appears to be an expensive disc like the Century Disc, you have to really know what you are betting on. With the Century Disc, you have a Royal Flush in every disc. Guaranteed to work every time you use it, even after it has been burned. The Century Disc has been tested to last over 100 years. With the off the shelf discs, sometimes you get a pair of Aces, sometimes you bet the farm and lose.
Visit www.rmgproducts.com and read about the Century Disc or you can watch the videos on youtube at www.youtube.com/centurydisc.
If you're going to gamble or want to bet on a sure thing, bet on the Century Disc CDs and DVDs for all your lifetime memories, critical data, and anything you wanted to store on a disc but were afraid to, until now.
One day I hope you'll be able to say how lucky you were to have found the Century Disc!
BTW, the cruise cost me $558 + $90 port fee and I won a total of $1,487 that cruise.
I was thinking about going to the Seminole Hard Rock Casino in St. Petersburg, Florida near Tampa. They recently installed slot machines and that's one of the few things I like to do when it comes to gambling.
As I think about it, as I have almost all week, I thought back to a time when I took a cruise to the Bahamas. Going to the Bahamas from Florida is a lot cheaper than going there from other states (it used to be).
I went on a cruise that left out of Miami to Paradise Island and a couple of other surrounding islands. On that cruise they had a casino and the only other time I had been in a casino was when I flew to the Bahamas the year before (haven't been to Vegas, yet).
On the cruise, they have one night that used to be the 'black tie affair' night and was now just called the 'formal dinner night.' The dress code is basically dress slacks, dress shirt, and at least a tie. Though, trying to be a gentleman, I wore a sports coat as well.
Earlier that evening, before the formal dinner, my date was in the stateroom resting and I was in the casino. I remember having about $22 in quarters remaining and I felt like I had to get rid of them. I needed to stop myself and go get ready for dinner.
I had already won and lost a little here and there. I was still up about $400 from the two days before and the next day, my cruise was over. So, I wanted to get my fill and play the slots a bit more.
I started dumping 3 quarters at a time into the machines and I literally hit the jackpot. The lights went off, the bells were ringing, and the quarters started falling out of the machine. Wow! What a cool feeling.
One of the manager's came over and asked me not to load up on the quarters, that they would issue me a check and they would clean up the quarters.
So, I did as asked, I had my picture taken in front of my 'lucky' machine and they even gave me a couple of 'jackpot winner - Lucky 777' t-shirts. Which I've never worn, but still have somewhere.
As I look back at that fun time in my life, I started to think about gambling in general. All of the tips and rules people tell you about gambling and such. Things like never gamble more than you can afford to lose, never use your bill money to gamble, quit while you're ahead, etc.
Then, I got to thinking about the brand new Century Disc CDs and DVDs and how they really are a sure bet for people who use them, and for those who need them, but do not know that they are available, yet. That's partly because we just started selling the Century Disc this year and had a lot of marketing materials and things to prepare for a national rollout of this awesome new product.
Of course there is the time period where we needed to study the competition, observe the industry, and a lot of other things. Including who our market is, what retail stores might be interested in carrying them in their photo centers, setting up a website, shopping cart, Google and Yahoo accounts, credit card processing, tying in FedEx and UPS, and on it goes.
So, as I think about how awesome this Century Disc really is, I can only think about how much of a gamble it is to put your precious lifetime memories, family videos, transfer slides, scan polaroids (instant photos), and all of the new digital photos on an ordinary off the shelf CD, DVD, or even a USB drive.
The gamble is, as everyone has known over the years, is that most off the shelf CDs and DVDs are not stable and are unreliable in general. There is a rating system used to rate the quality of CDs and DVDs that is not applied to the packaging on the discs you buy off the shelves in any of the stores. These ratings being A++, A+, AAA, AA, A, B, and C grade discs. A++ being the highest or the highest available to the buying public.
The Century Disc is an A++ (A - plus, plus) rated disc. Now available to you for the first time. They are fine tuned to the point that they really are a near-perfect disc. You can read about the Century Disc on our website at http://www.rmgproducts.com and later in articles I plan to publish here in this blog. So check back often.
The point is, when you buy off the shelf discs, the manufacturers' really don't want you to know that what you are really buying are a variety of grades of discs all in one package. That's why sometimes you get A discs, B discs, and even C grade discs all in the same stack of 25, 50, or even 100 discs.
How many 50 or 100 packs have you purchased in terms of CDs or DVDs? Of them, did any of those fail? If not right when you used them, did you try to use them later only to find that your CD player or writer thought the disc was blank? All of these things and more have happened to all of us who have ever used CDs and DVDs for any length of time.
I still have a stack of a brand name of CDs that every once in awhile I go to use them and 1 out of 10 or even 2 out of 10 will fail on me. Either when I record/burn to them or after I have burned my data or music on them, only to find that either the disc didn't finalize or maybe it never recorded in the first place, or maybe it burned but the dye didn't take like it is supposed to, in order to accurately record my data.
The point again is this. Most off the shelf discs are a combination of A, B, and even C grade discs all discombobulated together in one package. Early on, manufacturer's were practically giving CDs away just to get people used to buying the drives, the discs, and upgrading their computers to one with a CD drive.
Once this caught on, they started selling computers with a CD burner already in them. Remember when they did away with the 5-1/4" floppy disc drives and only offered 3.5" disc drives and CD burners? Now you don't even get the extra disc drive, you get a DVD reader or DVD burner that is downward compatible with CDs.
Once the CD generation caught on, it was only a matter of time before they pushed this as 'the way to back up your personal files and hard drives.' Until the discs' life started to give way and people got tired of backing up on discs that failed or were unreliable. But, in order to make them affordable for the manufacturers' to even make them for us, they had to produce them in serious mass quantities. They would use the same stamper die for up to as many as 1 million discs. Generally, 500,000 discs per stamper die was about the limit before major failures. Some companies still use a silver alloy or other inexpensive materials in order to not only fill the demand for cheap discs but, to be able to compete in the cheap disc marketplace.
So, I guess when you look at that scenario and you look at what appears to be an expensive disc like the Century Disc, you have to really know what you are betting on. With the Century Disc, you have a Royal Flush in every disc. Guaranteed to work every time you use it, even after it has been burned. The Century Disc has been tested to last over 100 years. With the off the shelf discs, sometimes you get a pair of Aces, sometimes you bet the farm and lose.
Visit www.rmgproducts.com and read about the Century Disc or you can watch the videos on youtube at www.youtube.com/centurydisc.
If you're going to gamble or want to bet on a sure thing, bet on the Century Disc CDs and DVDs for all your lifetime memories, critical data, and anything you wanted to store on a disc but were afraid to, until now.
One day I hope you'll be able to say how lucky you were to have found the Century Disc!
BTW, the cruise cost me $558 + $90 port fee and I won a total of $1,487 that cruise.
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Century Disc Videos
We just setup a page on youtube with our new videos of the Century Disc. You can check them out at www.youtube.com/centurydisc . We are in the process of setting up the new Century Disc website and hope it will be complete next week. At least the first edition. From there we can always tweak it and work toward improvements.
In the meantime, check out the videos on youtube and visit our current site at rmgproducts.com
In the meantime, check out the videos on youtube and visit our current site at rmgproducts.com
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