Clickboards are made in Flash.   The input material such as phone numbers go into input boxes just as if you were making equations.  These boxes are part of the Flash programming.  The material has a destination, the destination can be a URL.  At the particular receiving box at this URL, the data is received,  just as if a mathematical part of an equation was received for computation.  Both the phone number and coupon code.  With this information, the coupon picture is uploaded to the users feed.

So this all happens with Flash and is very important in the development of the mobile applications.  With Flash, this is very easy.  But as you will see below, the table has not yet turned and more understanding of HTML5 needs to be made to understand if the same thing can be done as stated with the Flash entry and accepting boxes.

http://on.mash.to/i7r6bk

It’s been an interesting year for Adobe Flash. The technology has withstood criticisms from Steve Jobs, has been heralded by RIM and is now available on Android handsets.

Adobe is doing a lot of work to help make Flash more suitable for mobile platforms; the problem is for Flash to really work well on these devices, existing Flash content needs to be reoptimized. For many developers or companies, if a site has to be retooled anyway, it is simply more pragmatic to adopt a solution like HTML5 that will work on a wider variety of mobile platforms.

Flash 10.1 was a big improvement, and I expect that Flash 10.2 will be even better, but I still don’t think Flash is going to become a massively adopted mobile technology.

That isn’t to say that Flash is dead — or that on the right platform (like the BlackBerry PlayBook),Adobe Air runtimes won’t be perfectly suitable. On the whole, I still think that the momentum that HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript and native libraries have in the smartphone and tablet space is unlikely to be usurped by Flash.

I told them that this magazine probably makes about RMB1,000,000 a year.  That got their attention and they asked if I could do it on my own.  I started telling them about printing, which is probably RMB2 per copy, the staff needed, and fact that the magazine should probably be an emag.

They are still interested in we are in the midst of thinking this over.  My idea would be to make about a forty page editorial and journalistic magazine.  We would launch it at the same time as our new website.  The website would have all the listings and maps and relevant info on it.  And I will discuss the Clickboards option with them.

What I want is to have all the information on the website able to be sent to your phone.  So if you are looking at a listing or a coupon, you can send it to your mobile.  So in a sense we would be launching three things at once: a website, a magazine, and a mobile application.

The mobile application would be created by Alvin from mGuanxi, this group I am now in contact with would create the website, and I would create the magazine.

I would also be responsible for bringing all the advertising clients from Jin and Tianjinexpats to the new magazine lineup.  I want to call the magazine and website ‘The Grind’,  but I’m sure I will think of something better.  Selling advertising in the beginning is going to be hard and cheap.  But I think I could get people to sign contracts that they would start at a base pay and then month after month the price would go up 5% until the retail price has been met.  However, with the whole operation based on advertising sales based on a very infantile start-up, things are shaky.

So let’s see.  I want to do this, thing is I will probably have to support myself till there is actual revenue.  Hopefully the others feel the same way.  Maybe my old professor Shafa could help out because he keeps telling me I should buy Jin Magazine, where I currently work.

This is starting to really get somewhere.  The interactivity is what it is all about.  The actions on the ad can be tracked.  However there is no user input.  I’m sure this will eventually be incorporated.  Another down play is that you still need to be directed to a third party website in the end for various options.  I know that is most advertisers point, but in the end it is unnecessary and is a draw back.

I want Clickboards to be much like the Google Gadget Ads and I think if I want to start I should probably just create them and become a client of Google and just use them the way I want to.  It’s not hard with this format to promote discounts and relay enough information to promise the user that when they disclose some information about the product they like that the next time they go to the store to purchase the advertised item, the discount will be waiting there for them.

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!

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.

The problem however is when they visited the Clickboard page.  The Clickboards are supposed to be ads.  Now Google Analytics will track ads but they have to be registered.  My Clickboards are not registered, so I was unable to see if they clicked on them and how many times and how far they went through the Clickboards.  Very upsetting because that was kind of the point of their visit.  Tomorrow I will have to find out how to register my Clickboards with the Google Analytics.  My first assumption is to add the tag to the Flash coding and then repost them.  And another way is somehow with this WordPress site.  It has an ad tracker too but haven’t explored this in detail yet.  Both options seem viable but I like the new Google Analytics tool so I am going to explore that first.

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.

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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.

So now I am still thinking of how to incorporate my current boss into this affair.  I went to him today to discuss a few things.  One of them being the value of jinmagazine.com.cn.  If you see on my site it is worth $518 and his website which I recently did a homepage makeover is only worth RMB580.  So my blog is actually worth more than his website.  Our two competitors in the land of Tianjin Expat sites are between $10,000 to $15,000.  Even redoing the website so that all the links work and it is really flashy isn’t going to help.  Even promoting contests through the magazine that drive people to the site isn’t going to help much.  Richard told me that money wasn’t a problem as long as he can see a revenue stream.  Well when you are competing in a $30,000 market your share really can’t be that big.

So I was thinking that I would transform part of jinmagazine.com.cn into the Clickboard website.  The first step is to clean up his website so everything is functional, then I can begin incorporating the Clickboards.  Basically we would issue a JIN card and promotions can be gathered from all three websites, plus using Alimama we can put local ads on websites across the Internet where we can put Clickboards and people can collect discounts.  Then we can even incorporate print ads to carry text message codes so people can acquire the coupons when reading magazines in town.

But Richard is not going to pay for any of the development, probably just keep my at my shitty salary.  So that is where the angel investor comes in.  I would continue to make the backbone of the magazine each month, but the actual editing would be done by someone part time.  I could still write articles and do some design critique, but all the other little stuff can be taken care of by the consultant and a part time editor.

I on the other hand would have an income I could use to recruit students and we could put this into action.  However, this would now entail three parties: Richard, the angel investor, and myself.  Before this goes any further I need to see a lawyer and find out what I can protect.  If I can incorporate everything into jinmagazine.com.cn, then what is mine in the end?  I have to have some legal entity, and does Richard in the end pay me for facilitating his website?  How would it move onto bigger arenas past that of Tianjin?

At this link you can see how one website is embedded in another.  The secondary site is completely functional within its embedded location.  The only thing that refreshes is the embedded site.

Now imagine a site that is made up of several embedded sites.  For easy understanding take the ads as my first example.  All the ads on the site will be there own websites.  When I sell advertisements I will give the buyer a list of sizes for the Clickboard spaces on my site as they will change depending on interaction.  Then the advertiser will create various websites based on those sizes able to transform if the workspace transform but continue with their current operations where it left off from the last interaction.  They will be completely functional all the way to acquisition of coupons or even redemption of coupons and sale.  All without disturbing the rest of the site.

Now imagine all the coupons you will be receiving.  They will all have to be filed and organized for better use and sharing.  Part of the window will be a file folder system that one is instructed to create to categorize coupons into various folders as business, shopping, groceries, and leisure to name a few.  Then to manage the folder the contents can be exported to the main platform, again a different website, in the middle of the screen.  There you will have options to tag, find out more, share, extend expiration dates, etc.

I really need to draw a picture.  But the seperate windows all have to be able to take on different sizes as users switch between contents.  It is much easier to explain in person.

So if there are three websites all making up Clickboards.net, they will all share the control panel platform.  Each linked and able to update themselves based on input from other parts of the control panel.  Even actions in multiple zones will have an overall effect within the control panel.  This allows for much more accessibility, ease of use, and immediate results upon your actions.  I even want a drag and drop option so files and folders or coupons can be placed in desired locations easily without file location menus like on a normal desktop.  The working area is flat.  I think that is the biggest difference from the desktop of most computers.  But the working area can be guided through multiple actions at once, that is the biggest difference than your browser.

And the work area continuously changes. Transforming certain sections in size depending on your current operations.  For example the mail can be listed as to what you are reading, down to in box, down to in folders, down to a menu item on your screen, thus taking up half a page, to a quarter page, to and eighth page, to a one word link.  Thus the rest of your operating control panel also shifts with the information displayed.  This may seem common place actually, and I really hope it is,  basically the changes are a compilation of several operations.  I hope to have a drawn representation soon to post.

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