BoomTime's servers will be taken down Saturday, May 17th, 2008 at 12:00am MDT to perform security and system updates. The expected downtime is 90 minutes or less.

During this time, you will be unable to login to BoomTime and linked-in Gift Certificate pages will be unavailable. If you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to support.

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…and your online sales are frightful!

Let it Boom, Let it Boom, Let it Boom!

We'd love to help you get through the winter with more green in your pocket once spring rolls around. Increase your cold weather sales by employing all of our guidelines for marketing, SEO, and in-store advertising, and you'll be having a very Happy Holidays, indeed.

Blog posts on Instant Gift Certificates

Help topics (from your BoomTime account) on Link Placement

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Because we are BoomTime, you might wonder why the name was chosen, or more specifically what that "Boom" might mean for your online potential.

In short, it can and will draw in new customers that might have never before purchased from your company.  They could be coming from a web search, finally finding your site after our SEO-friendly pages have been picked up by the major search engine companies.  Or, they could have seen a sign in your store advertising your Instant Gift Certificate capability and happened to remember it on the eve of a friend's birthday.

There are many ways your customers can find you online, and adding BoomTime's capabilities to your website just ups the odds significantly.

Read our posts on marketing and you'll find many more ideas on how to spread the good word far and wide. Have a particular success story to share, such as printing flyers or running radio ads to promote your new Instant Gift Certificate capabilities? We'd love to hear it!

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Seth Godin's blog had a great post a week ago to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the launch of Sputnik.

He uses the launch and the example of runner Roger Bannister to talk about some key marketing concepts which might not seem immediately appropriate if you are small business owner, but they are thought-provoking and inspiring at the same time.

Remember, of course, that at one point in time individuals with names like Steve Jobs and Henry Ford also were "small business owners". Making an impression on your clients is important - doing something new and novel or just doing something "old" far better than everyone else is doing it will help you stand out from the crowd.

Have a great week, and keep doing the great work of being a businessperson.

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We're fortunate to have an artist on our team, an artist who's also incredibly techno-savvy — what a great combination! When Joyce gets on a roll and we can't stop her — she's a design machine in the best possible sense!

We recommend periodically logging into your BoomTime account and mixing up the GC designs that you make available to your online visitors. Simply log in, then go to Setup, GC Designs to choose what you'd like your visitors to see. Just Hide those you don't wish to appear in your GC design library. When you're done picking and choosing, then perform the Update Designs Task and you're all set!

Examples of new designs:

      

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BoomTime and BizLand have partnered up. The result? Small business clients with the tools to create great looking websites that now serve up e-commerce the modern way, via Instant Online Gift Certificates.

We share a vision, one in which small businesses easily and affordably build websites, then use Instant Gift Certificates to immediately generate revenues by reaching those online last-minute and long-distance shoppers.

It's a partnership with vision, lots of great potential and great common ground.

To learn more about BizLand, please visit: www.bizland.com.

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Technophobia is usually joked about between friends and colleagues when someone is afraid to use a new computer program or some new piece of technology that is all the rage. However, this new fear can be a real problem for your business if your clients are infected by it.

I'm in no way technophobic, but I have an interesting story to tell about a recent encounter I had with a new form of technology that I hadn't run into before. I'm not one to go into my local bank (or in my case, my credit union) to conduct my transactions. I love a smiling, helpful teller just as much as the next guy but the speed and convenience of the ATM is what I normally prefer. Since I use the ATM on a semi-regular basis I keep deposit slips in my car in case I need them. A few weeks ago I needed to make a deposit, so I drove to the ATM near my house only to find that the new ATM machines didn't accept envelope deposits anymore. This new ATM takes your cash and/or checks without an envelope or deposit slip needed! I wish I could say I used the new ATM, but that wouldn't be true. Habit and routine were too strong and I drove another five minutes to find an ATM I knew took envelopes and completed my transactions there.

The same situation occurred this past weekend and this time I was feeling a bit more daring. I decided to try the new ATM to make my deposit. I started the process, making sure to pay close attention to every instruction on the screen. I was amazed at how much faster and simpler this new process was. The ATM scanned my check in seconds and showed me a copy of my check on-screen to confirm that what I had entered was correct. When the transaction was completed a miniature image of my deposited check was printed right on my receipt. The whole process took about half the normal time and saved two pieces of paper, the envelope and the deposit slip. I'll never go back to the old way of depositing at an ATM again!

Habit is human nature. Asking your clients to try a new piece of technology you've added to your business whether it be paperless deposits or Instant Gift Certificates, can be challenging at first. I've included a few easy things you can do to help your clients get over any form of technophobia:

1. Educate - make sure that you spend the time to educate your customers on the new technologies you add to your business. This can be as simple as letting them know that the technology exists to actually walking a customer who might use the new technology frequently through an example so they'll feel comfortable the first time they do it themselves.
2. Anticipate - realize that your customers might naturally fall back into their old habits. Make it a point to walk through the process you are implementing a few times looking at it from your customer's point of view. Doing this will help to identify areas that might create confusion or anxiety for your customers and will allow you an opportunity to make the process better and easier for your customer to use.
3. Communicate - make sure that your staff and customers tell others about the new technology you've implemented. Spreading the word can be the best way to help others become more comfortable using a new technology. They'll probably think "Hey, if they can use it, so can I". Also, having someone tell you about their positive experience with a new technology can help to ease the anxiety of using it yourself.

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We'll be attending our local Barcamp meet-up this year. Barcamp is an international network of unconferences — open, participatory workshop-events, whose content is provided by participants — focusing on early-stage web applications, and related open source technologies and social protocols.

Okay, I just heard a bunch of you say, Huh? What does that mean? Basically Barcamp is a way for professionals in the web design and development communities to get together on a local level and share ideas and discuss some of the new trends that effect our industry.

This year I will be giving a talk on "Holistic E-commerce" which is just a fancy way of saying how to look at all the options and issues before implementing an e-commerce solution for a client. Obviously we have a lot of experience in this area and we're excited to share what we've learned and some of our thoughts on where e-commerce is going in the future with others in our field.

If you are a web designer or developer in the Albuquerque area we'd love for you to join us! The Refresh Albuquerque group has created a Google Group if you are interested in finding out more information about the planning of Barcamp.

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Having a big mouth has its advantages, particularly when it comes to promoting your cool Instant Gift Certificates!

So, use your gift of gab in constructive ways. Train whomever answers your phones to mention that you offer a great, time-saving way to buy from you–Instant Gift Certificates–right on your website.

And be sure to talk about Instant Gift Certificates, as well as including your business URL, in your voicemail. You should be pleasantly surprised at how many people will embrace the ability to buy from your website. We'll also bet you'll notice a dramatic increase in sales when your place of business is closed (which happens to be when the rest of the world likes to hop on the 'net and surf for stuff).

Technology is a beautiful thing. Be sure to take advantage of how much time you can save, and how much more convenient you can make it for your customers to buy what you sell using Instant Gift Certificates. And spread the word–literally!

Happy Sales, BoomTimers!

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Business owners are always on the lookout for innovative ways to grow their business. The recent trend to find ways for businesses to operate greener has lead to some interesting business ideas.

A new business that creates a product called EcoHangers has found a creative way to help dry cleaners become more eco-friendly and save money at the same time. EcoHangers are sturdy paper hangers that replace the old wire hangers that most dry cleaners use. These new hangers are made from 100% recycled paper so no trees are harmed, and they are fully recyclable! The best part is that these hangers can be provided to dry cleaners absolutely free because they are paid for by the advertisers whose ads are imprinted on the the hangers themselves. On average this saves the dry cleaner about five cents per hanger which is what they would spend on a normal wire hanger.

We love this idea because everyone wins! The earth, the business owner, the advertiser and the consumer! What are some of the ways your business is being innovative and "green" at the same time?

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Of course there is still no such thing as a free lunch, and if you're a business owner you know this better than the average person.

However, with BoomTime Instant Gift Certificates on your company's website, you can get "lunch" for next to nothing - about 5% and even less if your sales take off.

When you sign up to have an Instant Gift Certificate page created, a very basic landing page is generated just for you.  After everything is linked up and ready for your customers, you can watch the extra sales start to trickle in.  Aside from your usual website maintenance costs, driving new customers to your door and the extra features of BoomTime are at no charge to you.

Granted, in the beginning it will be a trickle, but with some basic marketing and our SEO know-how, the flow into your cash drawer can increase dramatically.  We will cover many of these subjects in fine detail in future blog posts, but the very first step is just to get started and get that Instant Gift Certificate page live and linked to your website's front page.

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Help us welcome Joyce to our clan.

• Need a tweak to your existing look by changing your logo?
• Just beginning your business and need a perfect logo to share the essence of your business with the rest of the world?
• Want a completely yours custom Instant Gift Certificate that extends your brand into your online offerings?

We can help! BoomTime now offers up graphics design services on demand for our clients.

Let us know what you're looking for, we'll ask you a few questions, then our designer, Joyce, will provide you with a quote for your project! In just a short time you can have an enhanced look for your business and a fresh look to show your customers.

 

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Over the last couple of years we've had some interesting responses to our you only pay if you sell pricing. We've heard, "No way! There has to be a catch!"; "I don't get it, how can you guys make any money doing it this way?"; and others that we really can't and won't share for obvious reasons (but if we did share, there would be a lot of funny exclamation marks and other characters in the post).

This pricing model, one in which you pay nothing if you don't sell, is based upon our belief that if you aren't making money, it doesn't make any sense for us to charge you for our Instant Gift Certificates each month.

We want to help you do several things, the first of which is to get up and selling ASAP. After that we want to help you sell more. You win, we win, life is good.

We'll use this blog to share marketing tips and tricks, and things that you can do to make your online presence more effective and profitable.

Tip #1: Tell people that you offer Instant Gift Certificates!

It's simple, really, but you must communicate that you offer a super-easy, instant online gift option. Include language to that effect on all printed materials AND on any signage you have in your business.

If you have your telephone number painted on your front door, be sure you add your website address right below it.

Do you use voicemail? Include that you now offer up a great, instant, online gift solution! Direct folks to your website using your recorded greeting and watch your sales increase!

Stand by for more ideas, and happy sales!

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We will be attending HostingCon this year! HostingCon is the premier conference for companies and professionals in the hosted services industry. This year's conference is being held in Chicago at the historic Navy Pier site.

We are looking forward to this year's conference because it gives us a chance to meet some of our existing partners face to face, as well as learn about new trends in hosting and how they will affect our clients.

A major topic this year will clearly be how web hosts can continue to improve their plans and attract new customers. Web hosts are constantly looking for new products and services to add to their platform. Web hosts want and need to help their customers promote their sites better and sell more online. Another interesting topic will be how web hosts can go "green", meaning how they can reduce, reuse, and recycle during the operation of their company to have less impact on the environment.

If you will be attending HostingCon this year, leave us a comment and let us know so that we can stop by and introduce ourselves.

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Increasing your online sales has never been easier! By choosing to sell Instant Gift Certificates on your website you're acknowledging the power of the Internet, and the ever-increasing trend to buy online vs hassle with traffic, deal with long lines and get stressed where it's possible to avoid it.

Now what? You've got the link up on your website. Your logo automatically appears on every BoomTime Instant Gift Certificate you sell, effectively extending your brand online. You're poised for online revenue greatness, but there's still more you can do.

Position matters. Where did you place your Instant Gift Certificates link? It should be above the fold, ie easily visible, ideally on every page of your website, in the same place so people don't have to work to find it.

Frequency matters. Repeat yourself. Seriously, your Instant Gift Certificates link needs to show up on every page of your site, in the same place. Oh wait, I'm repeating myself.

Use your navigation well. Be sure you have an Instant Gift Certificates link in your main nav. Businesses that do tend to sell more. And make sure your navigation is consistent on every page of your website.

Feature your Instant Gift Certificates! Go ahead and dedicate a small paragraph to your cool Instant Gift Certificates. A heading like "New! Instant Gift Certificates" can work well. Text like, "We have the perfect last-minute gift! Design, preview and immediately print or email an Instant Gift Certificate" will do the trick. Note: Avoid graphics with this mention. People have been trained to ignore them. Turns out if a person is besieged with flashy graphics and banners for long enough, they simply tune them out over time.

Embrace the Boom! You're a BoomTimer now. You're unique, and you're offering a great gift solution for your online shoppers. Always include the word "Instant" when you're describing your offerings. Lots of businesses offer gift certificates, only savvy ones know enough to offer up "Instant Gift Certificates."

Link directly.Make the link from your Instant Gift Certificates links in your site go directly to your Instant Gift Certificates page.

Promote printing, too! Emailing Instant Gift Certificates is convenient and FAST. (Good for the last-minute buyers.) Guess what? 75% of people actually print them out at time of purchase–they are beautiful, after all!–so be sure you tell them they can.

Role play with your website. Close your eyes and pretend that you've never seen your website before. Play the role of first-time visitor and see if you can figure out how to buy an Instant Gift Certificate. It should be very straightforward and nearly effortless. If it's not, simple changes can do the trick!

Now go on back to your website and tweak it. It'll make a difference.

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Have you ever wondered why it's so hard to buy something from most websites? It feels like there are layers and layers of to do's and a lot of steps between wanting to buy and actually purchasing a service or product. We got tired of that, and decided to offer BoomTime Instant Gift Certificates to small businesses.

Look here for ideas to help you sell more online, and for feedback from other BoomTimers on topics we'll throw out for discussion.

If a great idea strikes you at some point, feel free to me with it.

Stand by as we ramp up, and once again, welcome to the BoomTime Blog!

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