Today's marketing lesson. If you're going to use an email address on your product packaging, use one that's branded with your company's domain name.

It was snack time on my US Airways flight from Philadelphia to Fort Lauderdale today and I got a little excited as the basket made its round in the first class cabin, for I spied something new. To hell with the sea salt and cracked pepper potato chips (they’re ghastly), be banished Biscoff and help me in welcoming the latest confectionary – whole wheat fig bars.

I know figs may conjure up some bad memories, but I always liked Fig Newtons. Figs are pretty much the ugly fruit in the orchard, but they still deserve some respect.

As I bit into the fig bar, I started reading the package. The bakery that makes them has a website – naturesbakery.com – but apparently they haven’t embraced the concept of branded email yet, as the package displays an email address with an sbcglobal.net email address.

Bad marketing. Good fig bars.

The next package I laid my eyes on was for a package of “Cranberry Nut Mix.” As one would expect, this savory snack contains what else – cranberries and nuts. A quick look at the ingredients confirms that along with an unexpected warning – “Produced in a facility that processes peanuts and other nuts.”

I guess that’s good news for nut lovers and I’m sure it’s better than having nuts processed in a facility that processes sewage and other waste water. The nut warning is meant to alert those with peanut allergies not to eat the product, but I don’t think anyone with the allergy would be willingly reaching for a bag of nuts.

Next time you have way too much time on your hands, go grab some products that you have laying around the house and take a look at the packaging. You may find something on that box of cereal that may make you chuckle or say, “are these people nuts?”

Those nuts are processed where?

Looking for a domain name for your business?
Sure you are!  After all, you want your business to look professional with branded email and a great looking website found at yourcompanyname.com.  Check out Web.com, Network Solutions and Register.com for your domain name, email and webhosting needs.

When it comes to ice cream, I’m pretty much a vanilla guy.

Chet Mozloom, Suzanne Kelly and Scott Sanfilippo with the first batch of "Solid Cactus Crunch" ice cream from The Lands at Hillside Farms

With or without the beans.

I’m not into all the funky flavors that are in a pint of Ben & Jerry’s but occasionally I’ll get a little crazy and have some butter pecan.

So, when Suzanne Kelly from The Lands at Hillside Farms called me and said, “We want to thank you, and Solid Cactus, for building our new website by naming an ice cream after you guys,” I knew I wasn’t going to be the one to come up with ingredients.

I called upon the Solid Cactus staff to put on their creative thinking caps and come up with ingredients that will go into our very own frozen delight. Once all the prospective flavors were submitted, the staff voted for their favorite.

The winner turned out to be “Solid Cactus Crunch” submitted by call center manager, Katrina Domkowski. With a base of my favorite vanilla, the ice cream is accented by ribbons of rich peanut butter, chocolate fudge and for the crunch – pretzel bits.

Wow!

With the challenge of making this a reality, Suzanne and Chet Mozloom from The Lands at Hillside Farms headed out in the fields, latched on to a healthy set of utters and started the process. From milking the cow, to adding the ingredients, to finally putting it in the freezer, every aspect of the ice cream making process was done by hand.

Yesterday, the duo stopped by with the first batch. Like a winemaker taking the first sip of his latest vintage, I grabbed a plastic spoon and dug in.

They nailed it. And the rest of the team agreed. At lunchtime, employees were treated to a sample of “Solid Cactus Crunch” and it received rave reviews.

Thanks to Suzanne, Chet and everyone at The Lands at Hillside Farms for honoring us with an awesome frozen desert with the Cactus name on it.

Next time you’re out at The Lands, stop by the dairy store and ask for a scoop of “Solid Cactus Crunch” and grab a quart of chocolate milk to go, it’s a great way to wash down this tasty treat.

A few weeks ago, Solid Cactus introduced the latest version of Solid Cactus eCommerce – a shopping cart platform for online stores. When it came time to get the word out to our base about the new cart, we decided to do an email blast that directed people to a landing page with more information and a funny little video to go along with it. We tossed a few ideas around for video content and came up with a theme that rings true.

Over the years, I really was asked over and over again, “when are you going to get your own shopping cart?” Since our early beginnings we developed on the Yahoo! Store platform but since being acquired by web.com, we now had the resources to develop and market our own eCommerce shopping cart. So finally the question could be answered!

Donna Talarico, Greg Davis and myself set our sights on some fun places to shoot some video. Not all were used in the final version of the video but we hit the men’s room, the gym, the supermarket and a cafe. Along the way there were some bloopers and like always, there here for you to laugh along with us. I’ve also posted the final version of the video as well.

The Boot Camp training room is ready to go!

This time around, I’ve got 30 eCommerce store owners from around the country coming to Northeastern Pennsylvania for three days of networking and educational seminars put on by the Solid Cactus team. We’re going to be covering search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, customer service, social media, email marketing, as well as deconstructing various attendees websites and introducing some great new features for Yahoo! Store as well as Solid Cactus eCommerce.

In addition to all the learning, there’s going to be plenty of time for socializing, and that for me is one of the most valuable parts of the event. As an eCommerce store owner myself, I continually learn new things by listening to our team during the presentations, but the best knowledge always comes from sharing thoughts and ideas with other store owners. While the products we sell may be vastly different, we’re all looking to capture that sale and we all do it in different and unique ways. By listening to others describe what works for them and what doesn’t, we can take some of those things and try them in our stores and hopefully find a winner. Not everything will work, but after all, there is a lot of trial and error involved in finding ways to lead the customer to the checkout.

There’s a lot to learn over the three-day event and I always leave plenty of time for fun of course good food. Corinne Agolino-Salko and her brother Sam Agolino will be hosting us at their restaurant Pazzo Wednesday night, Jeff Wytovich of Cafe Pic-a-Deli sets up for us Thursday evening and then on Friday we have a cocktail reception followed by our keynote speaker and dinner at The Woodlands Inn & Resort.

This time around, I have Janis Krums tabbed as our speaker. While the name not be a familiar one, the picture he took on January 15, 2009 certainly is. Janis was on a ferry boat in the Hudson River when US Airways flight 1549 made a crash landing after it’s engines were taken out by a flock of birds. Janis grabbed his phone, took a picture of the Airbus floating in the water with passengers standing on the jet’s wings and life rafts waiting to be rescued. After snapping the image, he immediately posted it on Twitter and became an instant celebrity having captured the first image of what was quickly dubbed “the miracle on the Hudson.”

Following his tweet, he was interviewed on every cable news outlet while news directors around the country scratched their heads and wondered how an average Joe broke the biggest story of the year using a cell phone and Twitter. Friday night, Janis will tell his story once again and talk about the importance of social media in today’s society. I’m really looking forward to his presentation and I’m sure all our attendees are as well.

(If you’re a member of the media and would like to have access to Janis’ address Friday night, you know how to contact me.)

Finally, I’m looking forwarding to connecting a few customers who have become close friends over the years including Pam Macharola from blaircandy.com, Karl Schilling from kaleidoscopestoyou.com, Andrew DiMino from carbsmart.com and Vance Selin from countrytradedays.com as well as everyone else coming from far and wide. It’s going to be a heck of a busy week for me, but a fun one as well!

Keep your eyes on the Solid Cactus Blog for the latest happenings as well as photos and videos of the event!

I’ve come to notice something very interesting on one of my eCommerce stores and I’m beginning to wonder if this is just a coincidence or something that can be attributed to Google.

MyOutwardHound.com is a small, niche store that primarily sells the Outward Hound line of dog gear that includes car booster seats, dog strollers, dog life vests, and outdoor gear for dogs. The manufacturer of these products is the Kyjen Company located in Huntington Beach, California. Since the site is pretty keyword rich in “Outward Hound” terms, our search engine placement is good – which is a double edge sword. People looking to buy Outward Hound items find us pretty quickly, but so do people who think we’re the manufacturer and are looking for replacement parts or warranty information.

To help those customers who aren’t looking to buy, but need the contact information of the manufacturer, I added the following text to the customer service page:

Outward Hound Product Warranty Question or Information:
For question regarding replacement parts, accessories or warranty claims on Outward Hound pet product, please contact the manufacturer directly at:

The Kyjen Company, Inc.
P.O. Box 793
Huntington Beach, CA 92648

Phone: 800-477-5735
Fax: 714-841-8979
E-mail: info-mail@kyjen.com

Since that text was added, nearly 16% of site visits for February MTD comes from the state of California, which is more 3 times more than the second highest state.

I started noticing the number of orders being shipped to CA and I had to dig further into why, and the numbers got me thinking.

Is Google (or other engines for that matter) crawling pages like this looking for information that may determine where orders ship from and geo-target search results based on where the search originates from? Or, do these products fit the California lifestyle?

That same page has an address on it for our office in Wilkes-Barre, PA, but traffic from Pennsylvania is just like any other state according to the sites analytics. I want to ride out the month of February before making changes to this page, but come March, I’m going to remove the California address and do a test to see if site traffic from California users decreases.

I’ll keep you posted with my findings. In the mean time, if you own a dog that you spend a lot of time with outdoors, check out MyOutwardHound.com – even if you don’t live in California.

I’m at Starbucks on 45th Street.

I’m at McDonalds on Main Avenue.

I’m at the Rental Car Center at LAX.

These are examples of Tweets and Facebook posts from dedicated users who like to share their every second of being with their friends and fans.

I used to be one of them. That was until a colleague said to me one day, “you’re crazy for letting everyone know where you are, what if someone…” that’s when I stopped her. I didn’t want to hear how the sentence finished, but I got the point.

I used BrightKite on my iPhone to “check-in” at different locations and my “check-in” would then be plastered on my Twitter and Facebook pages. The purpose was to alert others in my circle of friends where I was in an attempt to meet up or meet new friends. After all, this is what the “social” in social media is all about, right?

Jeff Stolarcyk, a member of the Solid Cactus Internet Marketing team did a blog post about a relative newcomer on the social media scene, foursquare.com. Foursquare is one of these “check-in” type sites which bills itself as “a cross between a friend-finder, a social city-guide and a game that rewards you for doing interesting things.” Quite a concept if you understand it, right?

In a nut-shell, you load foursquare on your phone, you check-in at these various locations, meet friends and fellow foursquare-ers, and climb the social media ladder in foursquare as you visit new places or return to ones previously visited. An interesting and fun concept. If you’re a business owner, you can offer incentives for foursquare users to visit your location and capitalize on this new and emerging market segment.

While those of us who are into this kind of stuff become more and more connected, privacy becomes an issue. If you don’t mind letting people know that you’re at Mel’s Diner five nights a week for dinner, go for it. If you’re somewhat hesitant about sharing your location with your friends, you can always either not “check-in” or do so in “stealth mode.” Then if you’re completely freaked out by the openness of social media, this stuff just isn’t for you.

It’s interesting to see just how transparent people are willing to let their lives become. I can see some things happening that could prove to be interesting:

Diane: Hey Jack, what did you do last night?

Jack: Oh, nothing. I sat at home and watched “Dancing with the Stars”.

Diane: Really? Then why did your Facebook page say you were at the night club?

Jack: Um, yeah, well. Gotta go!

Social media is changing the way we go about our lives, we’re becoming more interactive. Whether that’s good or bad is yet to be determined, but one thing is for sure, as we open our every move to more and more eyes, we have to be more and more cautious about our surroundings.

I’m sitting in a hotel room in Jacksonville, FL going through my email listening to the person in the room next to me cough like someone who smokes a six-pack of Lucky Strikes a day. At the same time, I realize that the TV in my room has been on Lifetime for the past hour.

Jacksonville?

Indeed! I’m here today and tomorrow meeting with the marketing folks at web.com, parent company of Solid Cactus, to discuss some of our ongoing eCommerce marketing projects. After a day packed full of brain-storming, a group of us headed to Maggiano’s for dinner.

I’ve been to my share of Italian joints, from the chains like Maggiano’s and Carabbas to family run holes-in-the-wall where the kitchen may be dirty but the food is pretty damn good. We opted for the “family style” dinner where the food kept coming and the calorie count kept rising.

When we arrived, I opted to valet park the car. Being in south Florida a lot, everywhere you go there is valet parking. If you go to the Pubix in Palm Beach, there’s someone to park you car. Need to pick up something at Macy’s? Valet. I’m convinced that valet parking is so common due to the number of elderly people who drive but just can’t park between the lines, so to avoid damage claims arising from fender benders in parking lots, shopping center owners hire valets.

I paid the five-bucks for the valet and got my ticket, which happened to have a coupon on the stub for 10% off service at any Jacksonville area Lexus dealer. Not gonna help me much as I drive a BMW. Makes and models aside, this is the first time I’ve seen ads on a valet stub and I’ve done some unique advertising over the years. Those from the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton area may remember ads for my FerretStore.com at the urinals and in the stalls in the rest rooms at the First Union, then Wachovia, now the Mohegan Sun Arena.

While intrigued enough with the valet stub to bring it back with me to add to my collection of marketing tid-bits, something caught my eye that made this marketing campaign fizzle. The coupon for 10% off service at any Jacksonville area Lexus dealer expired on December 31, 2009 and today is the 25th of January, 2010.

Like any good Italian chef would tell you, the mozzarella ain’t any good after the expiration date so don’t use it. The same thing goes for time sensitive valet tickets and marketing campaigns.

I’m not a chocolate fan.

Now, now… I didn’t say I “hate” chocolate, or I “don’t like” chocolate… I’m just not a fan. Maybe my disdain for this confection comes from being exposed to such cheap drug-store brands like Russell-Stover or Whitman’s as a young lad. Or maybe it had something to do with eating way to many 3 Musketeer bars and spending the night repositioning them into a bucket next to my bed.

Whatever the reason, I’m just not a fan. Except at Easter time.

Oh, Easter! The one time a year when Cadbury makes the only chocolate I’ll eat – the Cadbury Mini Eggs. These irresistible nuggets of milk chocolate shaped like a bird’s egg and coated in a crispy, sugary, candy shell are my weakness. Just ask Pam, the owner of BlairCandy.com.

When she told me that she spent this past weekend getting all the Easter candy up for sale on her eCommerce store, I knew this was the moment I’ve been waiting for. Just a few weeks ago, I finished the last bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs I had left from last Easter. You see, I buy a lot and keep a candy dish filled with them throughout the year, so when it’s time for a quick Mini Egg fix, they’re right there.

Today, I received my order of three cases of these sugary delights from BlairCandy.com.

• 108 bags.

• 1,080 ounces of chocolate.
• 1 year’s worth of way too much chocolate.
• Far too many calories to even think of.

But who cares! I’ve got a year’s supply of the only chocolate candy I eat and I’m happy.

If you’re looking to get a chocolate fix or if you have a hankering for some nostalgic candy, head on over to Pam’s website and see all the delicious confections she offers, and tell her I sent ya.

Just don’t buy up all the Mini Eggs, I may be back for more…

Jeff Chirico from WBRE TV called me early Monday morning. He was doing a story on the biggest shopping day of the year for online merchants – Cyber Monday.

While Black Friday may be the big one for brick-and-mortars, Cyber Monday has gained a reputation as the holy grail for eCommerce store owners and it gains in popularity each year. Jeff turned to Donna Talarico and myself to get the skinny on how social media is being used by both consumers and businesses alike.

Granted not everyone has embraced social media to the extent that you and I have (right!!!), but those who did got to take advantage of some great Twitter, Facebook and MySpace only deals! I hope you were one of them.

Thanks to Jeff and the WBRE crew for thinking of us!

Jeff Chirico from WBRE

SHAVERTOWN, LUZERNE COUNTY –The internet was also very busy with shoppers. Today is Cyber Monday. Tonight, consumer reporter Jeff Chirico tells us how bargain hunters can score by using social media.

If you’re shopping online this Cyber Monday, you’ll find deals on almost every retailers website. But to find some of the best sales this year –you may have to go social. Scott Sanfilippo, co-founder of Solid Cactus says “social media has taken on a whole new dimension in marketing. Years ago it was print ads, radio, email marketing. Now it’s all changed.”

Solid Cactus is an ecommerce developer. Sanfilippo says retailers are jumping on the social media bandwagon because it reaches hundreds of millions of potential customers for relatively little money. A lot of retailers are taking advantage of Facebook, they’re using twitter to promote deals and offers.” Donna Talarico, Solid Cactus interactive media specialist, says “they’ll put links to Cyber Monday deals, coupon codes that are exclusive to Twitter. Toshiba for instance is giving away three free laptops on Cyber Monday only on Twitter. It’s a way to boost its base of followers. Even small retailers like Blair’s Candy from Altoona, is tweeting its holiday discounts.

So if you’ve never used social media, where do you start? Sanfilippo says the quickest and easiest site is Twitter. It takes just a minute to create a username and password and another few seconds to follow your favorite retailers.” Talarico says one of the biggest things on twitter is people using hash tag, the number sign and Cyber Monday, so if you do that search on Twitter you can find real time Cyber Monday deals.”

And experts agree –this new form of marketing to holiday shoppers won’t disappear once Santa returns to the North Pole.

Me, behind the controls of a Boeing 737-900. Because I couldn't find the photo of me at the airport party that I was looking for.

That is when the new terminal opened at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport and on Friday, May 19, 2006, I along with 899 others were invited to a gala evening of food, drink, music, a light-show and mingling with the area’s politically connected. That party, according to the Citizens Voice, is now being looked at by the FBI.

So in the interest of full-disclosure, I was there.

My picture was also taken with a group of people and made it into the newspaper, hence my quest to find it. Which I never did.

Anyone who knows me knows I despise politicians. In fact, last evening I went to dinner with by brother at Bistro on the Ave in Kingston. When we were walking in, a group of people were walking out and being the gentleman I am, I held the door open for them. One gentleman exiting happened to be political hack and former state representative Kevin Blaum. He never said “thank you” so I turned around and called him a schmuck then said to my brother and the hostess, “That was Kevin Blaum, I should have slammed the door instead of holding it open.”

I find politicians, no matter who they are, to be slimy. After being in close proximity to them I feel the need to take a shower. To me they’re nothing more than a glorified used-car salesman pushing an agenda instead of a Pinto. But that night there were plenty of them there. Commissioners from both counties, row officers, representatives from the Governor’s office, congressman, senators, even congressman Joe “I wasn’t masturbating in public, it’s my Parkinson’s” McDade who the new terminal is named after was there. The list was long, the photo opps were plenty and the booze was flowing along with the food.

I happened to be invited, not because I’m politically connected – heaven help us all, but because at that time I still owned Solid Cactus, and I offered to give the airport a new website because their old one was, well, old. So, we donated the design, programming and hosting of the site as a sign of good-will and as a means to help promote the area and the airport and to show off the new terminal online. So as someone who has worked with the airport, I received an invitation to the event and was excited to go and see what the new place looked like.

It wasn’t until today I realized the party cost $176,000.00. To quote Lackawanna County Commissioner A J Munchak, “Holy Shit!”

If knew that, I would have ate more, drank more and stayed a bit longer.

The feds are looking into the party as part of the ongoing corruption probe in Luzerne County. According to the article, the party was paid for mostly by the various contractors who worked on the new terminal and the airport picked up $23,000.00. What will come of the investigation is yet unknown, but the investigators have taken documents relating to the construction of the terminal and are reviewing them.

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with asking the people you just paid nearly $50 million to, to write a check to throw a party in order to show off the work they did and to showcase the new facility to people who an encourage others to use it. It’s called marketing. If I open a new supermarket and I want to have a grand opening, you bet I’m going to put the squeeze on every “brand” that’s in my store to give me deals, some co-op money, etc to offset the cost of the party. It’s done every day and it’s commonplace. But in the airport’s instance, it was public money, and the spotlight is on them.