Four Click Freedom

Well, I’m off to Shanghai to talk to Alvin today.  Michelle couldn’t come with me.  It is just way too expensive for me.  I’m just going down there for the day.  I’m currently in the airport.  This morning it only took twenty minutes to get to the airport.  I guess there isn’t much traffic at six thirty in the morning on the way here.  My flight is starting to board now.  I take off at nine and get there just before lunch.  I’m going to take a taxi to get near the building I need to go to and then have lunch.  I have two papers to write today so maybe the two hours on the plane I can get some work done. 

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!

Tue, Aug 4, 2009 at 9:04 AM

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

Alvin wrote me, “Quickly scanned your materials, but didn’t have time to fully dig in and digest all the materials. Would be helpful if you just sent me 5 slides telling me what you are proposing, how we could help each other and the benefits/cists to each side.”

The last part got me thinking, ‘the benefits to each side.’  My current thinking has been very one sided.  I wanted him to hire me and support me as I developed and integrated Clickboards into his platform.  But what do I get out of it? A salary and advertising shares?  Well that is not exactly a trade.  I mean I have to do business with the guy and show there is a future with my involvement and provide some measure of growth for his products.

So it struck me.  I can approach Alvin saying that I want to add a Clickboard portal to your website.  I could explain the benefits to him and how this will help spur his current business.  But here is where the real opportunity comes in.  The Clickboard portal can be added to any community site whether it be local, national, or global.  People can manage their Clickboards at any and everyone of these portals no matter which website they are on.  Granted each Clickboard portal will be tailored to the site that it is on and the management of the coupons will be more in line with the site they are on, but the access to all their coupons from Clickboards across the Internet is universal.  And this will be key to Alvin.

Any and all Clickbaords can be redeemed using Alvin’s mGuanxi mobile media application.  So now I am not stuck to supporting one website but able to grow the Clickboard portal across the web while it is hosted by other people’s websites, now all of them will be integrated for the use of one easy to use phone application, produced and manned by Alvin.

Now I just have to come up with those five slides.

I guess I haven’t mentioned why I am so interested in mGuanxi and why I switched my focus from Jin Magazine.  First thing is first i guess, Richard, my current boss here at Jin Magazine, had the opportunity to review my proposal, well at least I put it in front of him.  Whether he looked at the numbers or not, I can’t say, but he refused the new project based on the fact that he is not looking to invest any more time or money into the Jin Media and rather focus on his logistics business.

So that said I needed new options, I was going to re propose to him but now that I think about it, that would have been futile.  So as the opportunity came to my attention when talking to Don Stewart, an indirect colleague of mine here in the office, who at one point offered himself as an angel investor, he brought to my attention several services that are in the same field I am pursuing.  One of which was mGuanxi.  Unlike the other text discount services he put before me, this media had a very unique web portal.

This web portal had the ability for people to come together and add contacts and join groups, take polls, blog, and send messages.  Much like other social media sites.  However this had no connection to their mobile outlet and the benefit to the users over Facebook and local forum websites was quite minimal.  But to me, this was a perfect platform to develop Clickboards.

By adding another tab which would represent Clickboards, using the clicker icon, users would enter a section of the website where they could manage their mobile coupons and acquire Clickboards.  Here they could share with their groups or contacts and friends and redeem points for luxury vouchers.  Really this is the high dive that could really put Clickboards on the map.  These are the top four reasons I had Don tell Alvin of mGuanxi why he should listen to me and my proposal:

Gives a reason for people to interact (to share their coupons, rewards, freebies and earn more)

Makes service free for user and adds performance for clients

Advertisers can decide what and to whom they reward

Breaches the gap between behavioral marketing and static impressions

So far, I have no response and neither does Don from Alvin Graylin from mGuanxi owner of the parent company mInfo.  He may think he is a little taller than me in his high heeled boots and can’t see the relevance of a Jin Magazine editor having come up with a good idea for him because he is a dual major MIT graduate.  But if he could stop himself a minute and so could the rest of you to review what I keep going on about, he may see the true validity that my project has.  Or maybe he is just on vacation and I need to sit back myself for a second.

The real reason I am going after my boss and mGuanxi is so that I don’t have to develop my own brand image.  Jin has a name which would make the Jin Card more recognizable here in Tianjin, and although mGuanxi isn’t a true silver dollar in terms of user interaction, it does have some strength in its name, something that I could definitely build upon.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Is Facebook Now The Top Personal Branding Tool? (socialmediatoday.com)
• Marketer addresses social networking for businesses issues … (jonggunlee.tistory.com)