Clickboards.net is currently under construction. Coupons will be able to be collected from the site and around the Internet using the Clickboards and sent to users coupon feed on Clickboards.net.

Coupons in users feed can be redeemed and verified at the point of sale for the records of the vendor and then be expired from the users feed.

Print and other media can use mobile device to collect coupons and send them to users feed to later be redeemed again using their mobile device.

Right now the mobile number and service is going to cost me RMB5000 a month.  The set up for the application to be used with the website will cost me RMB10000 a month for development.  The initial cost for development is water under the bridge and probably won’t be recouped for maybe a year.  I do believe I can sustain the site with no losses making RMB5000 a month.  Charging advertisers RMB1 a click or maybe RMB3 per acquisition of the coupons, that would mean I need 1500 coupons collected each month.  So if most people collect at least three coupons I would need 500 unique visitors to my site.  I believe that that number is attainable if I promote myself well and people see the relevance of the coupons.  Either it will become sustainable or die a quick death.

We also talked about the difference between SMS and MMS.  It seemed common that this idea worked better through MMS and that most phones are capable of receiving MMS.  We did argue about the potential plagiarism rights an SMS creates.  He was saying that people can simply send themselves coupons, thereby creating cause for theft.  He was saying that waiters can simply send themselves a bunch of messages, or even in the first place not tell that the SMS was used and pocket the money.  This led me to the validation step.  Currently his process does not have a validation system.  I suggested that once the coupons have been sent to the user, that they would be required to validate the coupon in front of the waitstaff thereby expiring the coupon from use by that user.  The total validated coupons received for that client could then by submitted at the end of the week or month for their records, eliminating theft from waitstaff.  But he saw that people would not pay the extra money to send one more message to validate their coupons.  This led me back to the fact that I wanted to change his model to be free to the user.

Regardless each message is locked in to costing RMB1 under his model so this would not work or change.  However he said I could have my own number to use for RMB3000 a month.  So the Clickboards on his site or others around the Internet could be accessed through my number.

He kept explaining that the mobile coupon market is still very young and has not taken off.  He has seen little success with this type of business model.  Something that can not support itself.  And charging the client for giving away the coupons is very difficult.  Alvin sees the light that the Clickboard has but not necessarily through coupons and believes charging clients RMB12 per acquisition of coupon will be difficult.  Getting any money out of them would be hard.  So he sees value in the Clickboard but not for this.  This is a conundrum.

He followed up his argument with a colleague he helped try to take print coupons to the mobile media for use.  He said there was little success.  However I am going to follow up with this person Andrew Collins of MailMan.com to see if he sees the light in what I’m doing.

We concluded by saying that I need to do my own stand alone website that would act as the hub for Clickboards and that I could on a trial basis use his website as an extended portal.  And again use my free number in which these discounts would be accesses through MMS.   This he said he would do on the basis of a friend.  However to build this standalone website with full Java applications could take three months with ten people working solely on the project for a grand total of RMB300,000.  This is currently what his mGuanxi.com website is worth.

I then asked what he is doing with mGuanxi.com and he said it was simple the social tool of his service.  I began to understand that not too many people are that involved with this site as their choice for a social media.  We then went into behavioral advertising and that kind of tailspinned as he did not see people interacting heavily enough with the site to truly allow it to work for the clients.  I see that and asked why there was no advertising on the site now and he said he did not want it to be overbearing to the user at this point but that is in the plans.

Currently Alvin is working more in Search Mobile Advertising which I agree is where most people see the potential for the mobile devices in the future.  He is working with some big names and I think that is where his aim is.  Maybe he will apply the Clickboard to this service in the future.  He liked the idea and I’m sure he is thinking of ways to utilize it.  One day I hope I still get credit.

He left me feeling encouraged that the idea has potential but told me the more you do the more pitfalls you will discover.  He is reluctant to change, that is one of the number one pitfalls that occurred during this meeting.  However if I was to start he would go with the flow and help me out.  So as he said keep talking to investors and get their advice.  So keep talking about it!

Searching for ‘social shopping’ I found several sites listed here.   They basically use words like Rave, Impartial Advice, Recommend, Community, Wish list, where people in the community act as promoters for products they bought.

Searching for ‘networking discounts’ and ‘network savings’ I found that networking basically means on the web or saving on getting your computer onto the network online.

All have nothing to do with a Social Savings Networked Utility.  The second search I did was the most relevant.  However it requires user interaction after the sale, which I would have to argue is a weak platform.  Even Wikipedia defines ‘social shopping’ as making informed decisions from information about products posted by the community.  However, coupons and deals are usually researched or collected prior to the sale, so this system relies on people finding the deals and then becoming self promoters of the products they bought.  And none have anything to do with creating a network where you begin to save more with the more people in your network and the common characteristics in shopping behavior you all share regardless of whether or not you actively promote your shopping behavior.  Network here still just means a group of people not actually webbed together.

One site had the ability to pass coupons to friends where you gain commission from the sale if your friends buy the product.  There was also a site that rewarded you for using the coupons with bigger coupons that you can cash in your points for.  There is still only one degree of separation in these methods.

None of these integrated mobile possibilities.  In the mobile media playground here in Beijing, China, there a system where you buy a card and get access to the discounts around the city as well as 1200 points.  Each time you buy the card you get 1200 more points. These can be used at some locations like cash.  The discounts you recieve are obtained by texting the store code and price of purchase to the number.  A confirmaion text is sent back and you show that to the teller.  There are several similar services.  Again no mobile media has anything to do with a network.

Newsletter

With the advancement of our Newsletter we can now incorporate more into this giving more reviews and news that we cannot otherwise in the magazine.  This also allows us to concentrate more on giving deeper information in the magazine that we cannot otherwise in the Newsletter.

The future of the Newsletter is to provide quick promotions to our clients as well as encourage them to interact with the magazine.  For example a current project I am working on is to have Newsletter recipients to write reviews for our Website and to promote our Survey and Subscriptions.  Rewards will be given in the form of Coupons for their participation.

Coupons

In the next six months it will become fairly important to collect Coupons and Gift items that we can give away to stimulate activity on the Website and Magazine.  The Magazine will act as the initial stimulus to any promotions we want to promote.  For example at the end of the summer there will be a party (probably at the Sheraton) where we will give away the prizes for the writing and photography contest currently underway.  Prizes have been sponsored by Hyatt Hotel Jing Jin City.

Coupons can also be used to stimulate activity on the Website.  Daily, weekly, and monthly prizes can be given away for the most involved.  Other contests we can have include tickets for concerts, dinners for special occasions at hotels, drinks at bars for special events, DVDs and CDs for new releases, talent contest prizes, best weekly news about the foreign community, and more; all of this will be funded by the Magazine promoting these reward programs for the various venues.

Radio

We will begin working with the local radio stations that have English hours.  We will invite the people in our focus stories to come to the radio with us where we will interview them on the air.  If there is a band that we focus on in the Magazine we will invite them to play.  The Radio also allows us to sell advertising on our show time and to help promote our sponsors and contests.

Website (jin-emag.com)

The Website’s main new focus will be to stream the Radio programs that we create.  Again we can sell advertising before and after the streaming of the shows.  We will modify the website to be a true emagazine and we also need to change the name to jin-emag.com because Tianjinexpats.com has bought jinmagazine.com and this redirects people to their website.

Also using a new service I have found we can sell advertising on other websites for our sponsors that will drive them to our website.  We will promote our sponsors through local advertising on major Internet sites that are frequented by foreigners.  So our Website alone does not limit us to the amount of web advertising we can supply.

JIN MEDIA
JIN Goal
To create interactivity in the community

JIN Card

In the next year we want to work towards making the JIN Card.  This will allow users to redeem any promotions that they hear on the Radio, see in the Magazine, or browse on our Website or the promotions we display through other local online media outlets.  The discounts will be easy to redeem and collect and I want to just bring this up at this point.  The JIN Card will be unlike other cards that only get you standard discounts like 10-20% at participating vendors.  Actually discounts can be quite varying depending on product and time the clients want to put something on special.

As I have recently read, people do respond quite heavily to numbers in the discounts rather than flat rates.  This is a promising market and I believe with the combination of these five factors we can put much greater value into the Newsletter, Magazine, and Website, as well as our Radio portal on the Website.

This of course would include my Clickboards especially with the coupons and the redemption process through the Website and using the JIN Card.

Then enter imaginary Clickcard number and click…

Then replay or go to Clickboards.net.

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 what do these points do for you and why should you take the time to manage them and share them?  Well you can use these points for special discounts.  It is like a store where you purchase coupons using your points.  The more points you hand over, the bigger and more special the discounts you can select.

Advertisers can give you points for using the Clickcard on their site and basically the more you get involved with Clickboards.net the more points you get.  So the more you control your account and the better the targeting and more sophisticated your filters and the more you open your privacy settings, the more benefit there is for you.

For instance if you sign up your phone with the account you could earn a designated number of points each month.  Imagine going grocery shopping and paying for half your items with preferred customer points.  With more people in your network and the more integrated you become with them, the more potential there is to acquire shared savings.

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The newspaper you received today will have your name address and Clickcard number on the mailing sticker.  When you get back to the breakfast table and pour yourself a cup of orange juice you will find as you flip through and read the headlines, that all the stories and all the ads are actually quite interesting.  It might actually take you a little longer to get through the paper this morning because so much of the information is relevant to you.  This is because this newspaper was personally printed for you based on your profile from Clickboards.net.  You will feel happy to know that all those direct mail specials and early bird sale items you see in the paper have been already sent to your profile even before you picked up the paper that morning.

So it’s off to work and time for a coffee.  Well you are a regular at Time Coordinate Cafe, and its Friday.  You know what that means, this is your sixth cup of coffee this week and you have used your Clickcard each time so this one is going to be free.  They are even going to give you a discount on your muffin because you found a Clickboard online that you saved yesterday using your Clickcard.

Your just getting to work and you realize that printer is out of ink.  You can go to the store but you have work to do, so you instead quickly go online to Officegizmos.com.  This is a usual place for you to buy office supplies and you know you have a folder of coupons that you saved which have been sent from them to Clickboards.net.  You managed these coupons into this folder so you know when is the best time to make a purchase and use the coupons together.  You make your order and it asks for your Clickcard number.  When checking out you notice that you saved $15 on the ink, pens, paper, and folders that you just added to your cart.  This is a pretty good start to your day.

At lunch you and one of your colleagues head to Old Four Rivers.  You know a lot of people that go here for lunch and they are part of your Clickboards.net account.  Your hungry so your order the ribs.  Wow, that was good.  The waitress comes and takes your Clickcard and credit card off to the register to pay the bill.  When she comes back you notice that you got your meal at half price.  Your lucky today.  Five other people you know ordered the ribs in the last week.  That earned your group a half price meal and you were the lucky one to get it.  Awesome.

At work again, you check your Clickboards.net account.  You want to check in and see what kind of business purchasing activity your competitors in your network are up to.  You see that there is a lot going on with people investing in advertising.  You think this could be the time to do the same.  You go back to your profile and change one of your business interests towards possible advertising deals.  Tomorrow you will come in to check one of your folder in boxes to see if there are some deals that could make advertising a real interest.

Time to go home, you want to stop by the grocery store to pick up a few items for dinner.  When you get there you quickly go over to the Clickboards.net Kiosk and swipe your Clickcard.  You see from the morning paper that there are some specials on tomatoes, beef, and cheese, that you want.  You tap those and exit.  This info is sent to Clickboards.net and it sees that you are probably going to be interested in lettuce, onions, and potatoes.  You once answered that you like to make taco salad so it adds these items to your short term account.  You go ahead and pick up some milk like you do everyday along with some taco shells and hot sauce.  When you check you swipe your Clickcard and pay.  The specials for the day were taken off and the best prices from all the local grocers was found for the lettuce, onions, and potatoes.  For the milk you got some points and a coupon for the next time you buy hot sauce.  You look at your receipt and you see the cents off on all these items.

Happy you head home and make dinner.  Later that night you are watching your iTV.  With your iRemote bla bla bla (Too much in the future)…

Before you go to bed you get back on Clickboards.net and manage your account a little.  You break down your incoming savings into different folders and then spot one that you know your friend Billy would like.  It’s a ten dollar discount at Banana Banana.  You just bought some shoes there that he really liked.  So you forward the coupon to him.

It’s good to know that the newspaper the next morning is already being tailored for your morning reading and orange juice.

该卡的操作系统可以在一天之内变得和你一样复杂。现在让我们跳到未来，假设报纸还没有消失而还在坚持被人们使用着，让我们举几个简单的例子来看看使用clickcard会给您的生活带来些什么方便和利益。

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The iClickcard is one piece in the puzzle for creating a shopping history everytime you shop to save money.  Your personal Clickcard can be used online or at brick and mortar stores, the phone can actually become the Clickcard, thus ‘iClickcard.’  Savings based on your shopping history will be automatically added to your account to further enhance your experience.

With all your discounts stored in one database online (available to be viewed and updated while shopping using your phone), your iClickcard gives you every discount in the city and online for any product that you are interested in.  Any coupons available for the product like two for one deals, discount on alternative flavors, additional discounts on relating products, rebates, and additional freebies, can be found by entering the UPC code, or in some cases scanning the barcode with the phone, helping you better manage your selection of products.

Using the Bluetooth feature when you check out, the register can be signaled of your online database and any discounts you will gain upon check out from your pre-shopping experience.  Another way is the iClickcard could display your personalized database barcode that would then relay any information for anything you are purchasing and that could be scanned.

Yes this is still a card, but what I am saying is that there may be no need for a Clickcard in the future.  All this could be stored on your car key or mobile phone.  So the card is actually becoming outdated.

The point here is that most of these universal cards, keys, and phones will have a display on them for management purposes and probably GPS location so you will never worry about losing them and probably automatic locking features.  The beauty here is that the Clickboards can be sent to these devices.

I’m not saying you will be harassed every time you walk by a McDonald’s for a cheeseburger.  Actually only things that you have already stored at your Clickboards.net profile will be sent to you.  So if you are out shopping and you are at the Galleria, you could get reminded that you acquired a $50 gift certificate at Banana Republic.  Well then, it is now worth my time to go look around there.

Oh and when you check out, you’ll just pass your pager sized key over the register to pay and save.