New style online shop

3 replies [Last post]
luminarti
Offline
Joined: May 12 2005

Hi all

I have opened an online video shop www.club-visuals.com/vj-shop
Products are being added daily....
Please can you tell me what you think??

My prices will be very competative - and my customer service will blow your socks off. Try me against any high street retailer. I have an excellant relationship with manufacturers such as Edirol, Hauge and Varizoom and so will give product news too.

Mark Satterley
M R Media Ltd
+44 (0) 191 4784171

bcrabtree
Offline
Joined: Mar 7 1999

Mark,

Ignoring, just for now, the fact that it's rather rude to dive onto self-help forums and make a posting like this - without even emailing a moderator beforehand - if you think that the people who frequent the boards will be interested in your online store, you must, I'm sure, be happy to pay the going rate for ads.

So, what I think, is that I'll be asking DVdoctor's advertising people to give you a call!

But, whether or not you advertise with us, your posting will have to be pulled, sooner, rather than later.

The reason I didn't pull it immediately was because I noticed that the posting which explains the idea behind this forum (and the loose set of rules that govern it) - which should have been stuck right up the top - was on the very last page.

I've now made it sticky, again, though.

Hope your business does very well and that your paid-for ads on DVdoctor help it grow mightily.

Bob C

luminarti
Offline
Joined: May 12 2005
hi bob

I take your piont - and do not expect you to change your action.
However - I am trying to save consumers money - like myself - by running a low cost personal service (including no advertising/town centre retail premises).
I have also the odd exclusive deal not available anywhere else.

Funny also - that there are links to corporate products like sony - so you don't mind boosting their sales/reputation through free press, but no smaller businesses.

By removing my post - yet allowing links to Sony you futher restrict consumers choice.

You should see that what i'm doing is good for the semi pro videographers - who are constantly spending due to the industry constantly releasing the next best thing to keep our cahs flowing thier way.

So when you buy a piece of kit next time - your paying extra so that the company may advertise on TV and video forum websites and have MD's with Rolls Royces.

Any comments appreciated
Mark Satterley
M R Media Ltd
0191 4784171

bcrabtree
Offline
Joined: Mar 7 1999

Mark,

Thanks for the speedy response.

It's great to learn that you are trying to save consumers money.

If you are familiar with what I've been up with Computer Video magazine and the DVdoctor forums, you'll know that I'm with you 100% - it's something I have been successfully doing for more than eight years.

However, while I also sympathise with your wish to save money yourself - the better to pass it on to your customers - I suspect that the people from whom you get your stock wouldn't buy into the idea you're trying to sell me, anymore than would the people whose bills DVdoctor has to pay.

It might be a virtuous circle, but I don't think that anyone apart from you (or in a very similar position to you) is going to see it like that.

As for boosting anyone else's business for free - I'd urge you to read that now-sticky posting I mentioned - and then think a bit harder about the whole matter, especially about why we might think it appropriate to do what we do.

This is not an argument you can win and it's not even one you should be having.

Far better that you should think like a businessman - rather than expect me or anyone to believe you're being charitable and treat you accordingly. Do that and you can work out ways that you can maximise you sales based on realistic expectations.

To help you do just that, I'd urge you to check out some of the innovations you can find on the HEXUS.net web site and forums - innovations that will be coming to DVdoctor very soon.

On the HEXUS home page - http://www.hexus.net/ - look at the two small ads at the left, directly below the HEXUS Content section, and then click on the bottom one of the two.

What you'll see - and there's work being done to fine tune this feature - is that a tiny ad can bring on screen something very much like a full-colour advert from a magazine page. Think about that for a moment.

Then realise that, totally unlike a mag advert, this page has a whole lot of hot links.

In the case of the FSP page that comes up, these links bring up more information about the products covered, as well as links to retailers who sell the products in question. What such pages actually can bring up is, of course, down solely to the creative nous applied by the advertiser (in conjunction with our ad people).

An ad like that would be great for your company and it's also going to appeal to others trying to get the best return from their ad budgets.

Among them, I believe, are the firms who currently spend - by their standards - a lot of money each month on specialist magazine adverts.

Trouble is (well, from the magazines' viewpoint) these advertisers are now realising just how few people actually see their ads.

Moreover, they're starting to understand that the number is tiny when compared to what's provided by a web site such as HEXUS or DVdoctor.

Okay, here's another great one for you.

Check out just one of the possibilities that we'll be offering you on the forums.

Click on the Forums link at the top of any HEXUS page - including that full-page advert. Now scroll down the list and go to the forum called HEXUS.bargains.

In the Threads in Forum section, the topmost posting is called, QuietPC - HEXUS Deals - April 29th 2005

This is something that MUST appeal to you (and other companies large and small). It's a relatively inexpensive sticky thread - a place where you can offer special-price deals. The possibilities are endless.

These sticky-thread ads have already proven very popular with HEXUS.net forum visitors, and that - of course - makes them very popular with the companies who pay (a very reasonable price) to have them put up.

So, getting back to what I said earlier - I hope your business does grow mightily.

I'd also like to think that with the help of the various kinds of innovative and affordable ad offerings we provide, you will find that growth can be assured, assuming that is, the service you deliver lives up to the expectations you are trying to create.

Of course, if it doesn't, forums are the place where you'll find you're quickly called to task.

Your reputation can be very badly tarnished - as at least one big UK retailer of professional video hardware that advertises in the specialist video press knows to its cost after taking a well-deserved bashing on the DVdoctor forums.

On that subject, as HEXUS already has done, we'll soon be putting in place a way in which forum members can rate dealers, so that it's easy to quickly find out to what extent our members trust and respect them.

Apologies for having now turned your advert into one for DVdoctor and HEXUS.net but, having done so, I'd like to think you'll understand that there is a lot we can offer you - things that you can afford and which will help you grow.

Hopefully, you'll now also be happy to respond to email or phone calls from our advertising people.

;)

Oh, and if anyone else wants to discuss what DVdoctor or HEXUS.net can offer them to help grow their businesses, they only need to say so (here or in email or on the phone) and I'll get them in touch with the right people.

Perhaps what I should also say is that we've deliberately not been pushing things on the ad side to date , because our main web site has been in development.

However, the site should be unveiled in the very near future, so potential advertisers are going to find us soon darking their doorsteps, well, electronically, at least.

Bob C
DVdoctor Inc
Email - [email=bcrabSPAMtree@cix.co.uk]bcrabSPAMtree@cix.co.uk[/email]
(Yup, best remove SPAM from the email address)