Who do you work with? What do they do? Well I’m here today representing Clickboards. Clickboards is a new type of Internet advertising that connects the web to feed to mobile.  The reason it is called Clickboards is because they are like banners but you can click on them more than once (making a clicking motion with my hand) and you can enter information into them like your phone number.  Then without leaving the site you are on, the information is sent to your personal coupon feed.  Then those discounts on the feed can be accessed at the point of purchase with your mobile.  The discount is then verified for the vendor and is erased from your feed.

I told a lot of people I was based in Tianjin and why Tianjin was such a perfect test market for the fact that most retailers have no register or computer in the stores and that I was at a point where I just need to start spending money to get it started.  Most people were a little shocked I was from Tianjin.

So…………………. I met a lot of great people from really cool companies. I guess the conclusion is that I am successfully beginning to brand the term Clickboards and I’m still number one when you Google Clickboards.

I did get to thinking if some of these guys wanted to start this in more developed markets, and I tend to believe that having oversimplified Clickboards to get to this point, that it wouldn’t work.  So I am in the clear as far as broadcasting my message.

Next post is about Smart Kiosks and how they are already being installed, and in the beginning of creating Clickboards this was part of the conclusion to the future development of Clickboards.  So now how do I leap frog?

When I see Alvin I need to find out how much he already knows.  From what I gather, very little.  But that allows me to take the conversation wherever I want.  I need to explain the slides I sent him, so I guess that is a good place to start.  I probably should call to confirm my appointment before I take off.  But it is too late now to return my tickets. 

See you in Shanghai!

Alvin,

Were you able to take a look at the slides?  Did the information come across clearly?  Would you find it beneficial to give me the opportunity to expand?  I was hoping next Monday you would be available.

Regards,
AC

Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 10:05 AM

Thx for checking back…  yes, I reviewed it.  Not sure I fully understand your rev model yet…  also, can you better explain the sales model?  Who do you sell to and how to do you sell to them and what the sales costs are?

alvin

Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 3:21 PM

Alvin,

I sell to the coupon advertiser every click on their Clickboard ad that I make them.  The cost to me is the placement of the ads on various host sites.  Whether the host website charges a monthly rate, pay-per-click, cost per action, or impressions; the Clickboard will in the end cost more (more clicks).   I recoupe the amount from the advertiser that the Clickboard garners over the host placement cost.

Coupon collection and management is not limited to mGuanxi.com but can be incorporated within many social networking utilities as you can see with the one slide I gave you.  All coupons when accessed and used from the phone, I would pay mInfo for this service.  This actually makes the service free to the user.

Hope this adds to the picture,
AC

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 10:57 AM

Alvin,

Basically I am at a never loss scenario and you are at an always win scenario.

I do not lose money from the placement of ads.  I make money when coupons are acquired.  And I only pay you when a coupon is used.

However, I do need your help with the initial set up.

I was also thinking I could work for you as your mGuanxi representative creating traffic on the website and encouraging people to use the current service until this new project can be established.

AC

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 12:15 PM

Let’s talk more when you are in town.

Btw, are you thinking of moving to SH or doing all this in tianjing?

Wed, Aug 5, 2009 at 12:36 PM

Alvin,
If I were to leave the magazine it would create quite a stir as to what I am doing next in Tianjin which could prove beneficial in this local market.

To enable Clickboards I believe I would need to spend time in Shanghai but would later like to retreat back to Tianjin.  I find Tianjin a good test market if it could be isolated smoothly, before tackling the myriad of clients in Shanghai.

Tentatively I could be in town on the 14th to the 17th.

AC

The second slide will be a mock-up of the mGuanxi page that will be the Clickboard page.  I will incorporate buttons that are already present throughout the site and put them into this one visual.

The third slide will be a graph and pictorial representation of the money to be made.  This will include three lines.  The CPM, Billing per month, and the CTR for the Clickboard.

The fourth slide will be a representations of the phone app and store app that will be needed to create the full effect of the Clickboard at point of sale and maybe a mock up of a receipt.

The fifth slide will be a representation showing the possibilities if Clickboards was incorporated into multiple local sites and all were to use the mInfo mobile service to activate all the Clickboards.

I have found that most people who give me the time to sit and listen often have many questions.  The reason is because this is about something that does not exist.  So after my initial debriefing, there are often many questions.  Slowly as I stayed centered and answer their questions, the light starts to get a little brighter, until the concept is there with them and they understand.

This blog can’t do the same thing as face to face interaction.  Here I pick a topic that is most relevant to my thoughts at the moment and talk about that whether you are ready for it or not.

Another drawback of this blog is that my examples of the Clickboards are not 100% yet.  So there is still a lot left to the imagination.  And without me as a guide to your imagination, the idea is still left with a very fuzzy exterior with too much left not understood.  Especially when I am trying to convince someone in another business that this is a great idea, without a personal touch, it is no wonder why I would be left on the back burner.

Dear Ken and Jessy,

You may not know me directly but I believe you have been talking with Don Stewart and now my boss Richard Zhang is in Shanghai soon to have a meeting with you.  I want to put forth a proposal for you.  I am your man in Tianjin.  I have been the Chief Editor of Jin Magazine for over a year now.  I am responsible for putting a ‘famous face’ of Tianjin on the cover every month as well as find the multiple stories and contacts for these stories together for the writers each month.  If you like I could send you a copy of the magazine from before I started and our most recent so you can see the drastic improvement that has happened under my supervision.  I have been able to carry out every task that Richard has put forth and I have added elements to the magazine that generates response from the readers.

I wish to do the same for you.  I am extremely interested in your mGuanxi and believe I am one of the most beneficial people you will need to make this web and mobile service successful in Tianjin.  I’m excited about the possibilities and wish to give you a business plan that could incorporate advertising into your site.  This would take your site from being a social and savings  media to a social savings networking utility.  I proposed this to Richard and he could not see the finer details.  But RMB100,000 at base is something I think worth pursuing.  I’ve attached my business plan for Clickboards geared toward facilitating mGuanxi, as well as my resume for your revue.  Regardless of your wish to accept my plan I would still like to take the same opportunity I did with the magazine and really add some real impact to your up and coming web portal and mobile media which is emerging in Tianjin.  I have already begun to invite my friends to join my contacts on mGuanxi.  

I know all the clients from Jin Magazine and deal with them directly.  I am in charge of getting coupons and discounts to many places.  My frame of mind around advertising is the financial aspect as I got my MBA here in Tianjin.  I look forward to helping you and quite possibly introducing Clickboards to your web portal and mobile media. 

For the best of your consideration,

AC Grindl

Chief Editor 

Jin Magazine

My example comes from my girlfriends iPhone. There is a game on there called the ShakeMate. There is a beautiful girl with work clothes on. You shake the phone the first time and her glasses fall off. Again and again you shake it and articles of clothing fall off. In the end you are happy if you stopped shaking at the right time and a little embarrassed if you kept shaking.

The Clickboard can do the same thing. Each time you click on the ad the little more erotic it gets. This all without having to travel through the website looking at the preview pages. A little here a little there and you really get people interacting and experiencing the website.

Now that I have told you how the porn industry will change with the Clickboard, how will Clickboards.net be involved. First of all this really depends on the user. No information on the Clickboards.net database is for sale to such parties even if desired. So you will probably never see the Clickboard icon on any of those ads. Maybe I will make a side business and seperate website to facilitate the influence of Clickboards, even if it is a shady area. One thing is for sure, the two worlds are separate. I will probably call the website Crankshaft.net and make the icon my beloved Crankshaft logo. If you don’t know what I’m talking about you can go to my Myspace account and look at my photos under logo. I can be found at myspace.com/acgrindl

Well if I can improve the effectiveness of their ads on their site by being an agent between the advertiser and the admin, ‘who’s side am I on?’  By allowing three more clicks to the click-through process, ‘should the advertiser pay the same price for each and every click?’ And if so, ‘do i make a cut from each click?’

Or, ‘should the advertiser pay me to make their ads more effective?’  But as I stated before the Clickboard is free for everyone to make.  I make my money when the Clickboard has my icon on it, and eventually connects the Clickboard to my site.  Here the advertiser does have to pay me to be incorporated into my site, depending on the depth and presence they want on my site, and how focused the targeting is for the users on my site.

Back to the question.  The advertiser pays me for my icon, ‘but who makes the money on all those clicks?’  Are my ads no more valuable for the admin than regular banners, and if so, should he charge more if an advertiser wants to put a Clickboard on his site?

I hope so!

So if a site is using their own measuring tools like Google AdSense or their host providers numbers, and these all vary based on the tools used to measure, then where are you going to get numbers that are actually relevant to your product and people’s response.

Clickboards.net acts a second party seller.  Although you do not buy anything on the site, you can acquire information and promotions used to buy the products as well as package deals and rebates for products.  Then when you decide to buy, either directed to the advertisers site, or by going to the brick and mortar store, that is when the first interaction between buyer and seller takes place.  So really the advertiser takes themselves completely out of the picture except for the sale, which is really the way it is supposed to be.