Up until now this blog has been primarily about me. And why not, it’s pretty easy subject matter for me to write about. But today I am going to stir things up, go a little crazy, and turn it back on YOU.
Here are some burning questions that I have:
Take a look at the aircrib . Now tell me what you think. Would you buy one? Why or why not? Do you have any suggestions for changes to make?
Take a look at BTVco. What cool, innovative products are we missing?
Now give me lots of good answers so that I can be swamped with following up on them for the foreseeable future. And thanks in advance!
I am having a bad case of writer’s block this week. All of the things that I want to talk about are too short to dedicate an entire post to. So here is what’s on my mind…
I still can’t seem to figure out how to include a video in a post. I have gone to help boards, downloaded plugins only to find that I have no idea where they went, uploaded plugins that I was able to find and still nothing works. I’ll keep trying. It’s not like I have a really interesting video, now it’s just the principle of the matter that I want to be able to do it. Just in case.
While working on posting a video I uploaded our little AirCrib spot to YouTube. Immediately I had two subscribers. For some reason that just creeps me out. Why would people subscribe to what pretty much constitutes a commercial? I did receive a great comment though. Comments rock. Hint, hint…
Usually I love wrapping Christmas presents but this year I just can’t get into it. Maybe because each evening is spent feeding, playing with, and then putting Miles to bed. Followed be feeding myself, walking the dog, cleaning up the hundreds of dishes from Miles’ lunchbox, and then packing the next day’s meal. Then I have to shower (my husband is now training for the Escape from Alcatraz triathlon and he seems to think that morning is the best time to train - I won’t tell you how I feel about that…) and then it’s past my bedtime. This weekend I will have to get to it, just in time for all of the gifts to be unwrapped.
Miles woke up yesterday sounding something like a cross between a turkey and an alien. He seems to understand what he is saying because he goes on and on and on. How can he just wake up one morning with a new skill? What goes on in that little head of his while sleeping?
I haven’t been to the gym much lately because I just seem to be busy. This is not the time of year to be skipping out on the gym. Oh well, I’m still enjoying my gourmet peanut butter cup washed down with a nice eggnog latte. I’m serious!
And finally, I don’t know what to get for our babysitter for Christmas. She has only sat a few times but she is going to start sitting for us on a regular basis so that we can have a date night (yay!). My husband wants to support local businesses so I have to get her something local. She has a baby but I would like to get something for her and not her child as she is the one babysitting for us, not the baby. And of course it has to be special. Oh - and I need to have it by tomorrow night because she is sitting for us then. I can’t take the pressure!
That’s it for my random ramblings today. Have a happy holiday!
We have been getting more very nice product reviews lately and they make us all very proud. Traffic is up on our web site and AirCribs are shipping out all over the country. Check out the nice things that people had to say about our product:
Parenting.com’s Daily Fave
Mommies With Style
Now we are trying to think of some ways that we could potentially improve the AirCrib. Any suggestions (color, size, accessories)?
I try not to promote the AirCrib too much in my posts because this blog isn’t about our products, it’s about ME. So let me make things easy and tell you right off the bat that this post is about how my hard work at marketing the AirCrib is finally starting to pay off. I just like to show you the results of what I am doing here behind the scenes. And be prepared - you should start seeing more and more results.
So the big news today is that we have an independent, outside product review on the Daily Dish! And the even better news is that Emily, the wonderful reviewer, loved it! She took one with her on vacation and put it to the test. If you read the review then you will find a nice promotion code at the bottom.
This morning I could hear the wind howling and sleet hitting our windows as I lay snug and warm in bed from 4:30 until 5:30. Why was I awake enough to hear such noises? Because the dog was shaking in fear and letting out sad little whines every few minutes (he hates the wind) and Miles kept dropping his pacifier as he tried to go back to sleep post pajama change. Yesterday the news predicted a wintry mix of weather for today but I didn’t believe them. I love snow and so I try not to get too excited when they predict it because nine times out of ten we get nothing. When I finally got out of bed (at 7!) and looked outside, this is what I saw:
A winter wonderland! This is perfect for getting into the mood for the upcoming holidays.
Our new web store went live yesterday! Check it out. We have some very cool products perfect for making the holiday travel easier. I am going to put some to the test on Thursday when we fly to the in laws. I will let you know how it goes (the products and travel that is, the in laws are always wonderful).
Happy Thanksgiving!
There is something in the air in the office this week. It’s called sales fever and boy oh boy do people have it bad. The entire office is in a hyper frenzy trying to sell the heck out of our products. And it’s working.
They are buying ad words left and right and setting up old fashioned mail campaigns. The ad word world is an amazing one to me. Little did I know that all of these companies are working like mad behind the scenes to get the perfect placement on my screen when I search for something like “infant dragon costume”. Did you know all of the work that goes into those little boxes on the right side of the screen? And, even better, did you know that every time you click on a link in one of those boxes that company is charged? When I first learned that (several years ago and in an entirely different industry) I found a company that I didn’t like and I clicked the crap out of their pay per click link. It probably didn’t do much damage though because each click doesn’t cost that much and I didn’t have the patience to do it for very long.
All of the press kits that I sweated over are starting to pay off. Editors have requested samples and we should start to see some very nice publicity. I will be certain to mention (over and over and over again) the publications that even hint at the AirCrib for your added reading pleasure.
I’m not sure if I have mentioned this already but we are in the process of setting up a web store to sell innovative juvenile products. It will be a good way to sell our products (starting with the AirCrib) and for me to get a discount on other cool products to support other companies with unique ideas. I have become the self appointed buyer which is like a dream come true! I have always thought that being a buyer would be so cool. You get to find neat new products and try them out. Now I realize that it isn’t all fun and games, that you have to find products that other people will like too. So hopefully my taste is not too unique and others will purchase what I bought. We have a really great line up of products that we found at the ABC Show last month. I will also be reviewing each product here so you can read about why I like each piece so much.
My life is completely crazy right now and if only I could get a decent nights sleep then I might be alright. Miles was sick last week with a fever so I kept him home from daycare. Because work is so busy right now that meant that I got even further behind. I’m not complaining, if my baby is sick then my numero uno priority is to take care of him but life outside of our family doesn’t slow down one bit while we are on the sick wagon.
Then we went away for the weekend to a wedding on Cape Cod. The wedding was fantastic and I had a blast dancing the night away. We hired a sitter through an agency and she was wonderful. So wonderful that I stayed out a whole hour later then I had planned. That still meant that I was in bed by 10:15. How lame am I? Miles was a party animal, he was up all night. Not really but it sure felt like we were back in the newborn days. He finally got up for good at 4:45. I had taken the care to rent us a condo rather than a hotel room so that we would have room to take care of Miles. That morning the condo was full of hungover wastoids trying to sleep off the wedding bliss that they had felt the night before. So Miles and I were stuck in the bedroom where our own hungover wastoid (my husband, his father) was trying to catch some zzzzs.
I thought that was an early morning but that was nothing compared to Sunday morning. On Sunday morning Miles woke up at 3:45 and between screams thought that it was a good time to play. That morning we were staying at our friends’ house and their 2 year old was in the next room. Not cool to wake up the neighbors Miles, not cool. So we cut our visit short, packed up the car, and headed home at 5 AM. Miles slept for the entire three plus hour trip. And we all took a nice two hour nap at home that afternoon.
The night waking has not ceased upon our return to home. And he was kicked out of daycare for having the squirts. He can’t return until Wednesday.
And through all of this I am scrambling like mad to get our really cool press kits out the door. So dear editors, please take pity on me and publish something, SOMETHING about the AirCrib. Please.
Like I said earlier, the trade show was a huge success. We came home with some great leads and even orders! Nathan and I have been busy following up on all of the inquiries for samples and trying to put together a sales team. Stay tuned for some hot product reviews featuring the AirCrib.
As is always the case in Vegas, the real fun happened at night. I can’t really get into all of the details because, well, you know, I just can’t, it was Vegas. But there were all nighters, celebrity sightings, and a missing persons report (everything turned out fine in the end) thanks to my college friends who joined me. Unfortunately I wasn’t as interesting as them and retired after dinner each night. I used to be the wild and crazy one who they tried to keep up with but motherhood has tamed me.
I have so much to say that I will break this out into at least two posts, maybe more.
Last week I packed up and flew out to hot, hot, hot Las Vegas for our first trade show, the ABC Kids Expo. It was the first time that I left Miles and I don’t want to do it again any time soon. I really missed that little guy!
Anyway, I flew out to Vegas (did I mention it was hot there?) along with one of my two pieces of luggage. After all of my luggage arrived safe and sound I dragged it out to the taxi stand. Or at least what USED to be the taxi stand. They moved the stand and its endless miles of rope. The line was, as always, exceptionally long and smack dab in the middle of the (hot) sun. When it was finally my turn I collapsed into the cool air of a cab and nursed all of my old injuries that had resurfaced as a direct result of dragging the huge bags though the miles of taxi stand ropes.
We arrived at the convention center and I dragged the luggage to our booth. The booth looked great! All of our efforts to design an eye-catching and interesting yet low cost booth paid off. We also had a killer location - right on the main aisle. From the moment that I hid my bags until the end of the day our booth was full of people. We were ecstatic! It was the light at the end of the tunnel.
One of the best parts of the day was when a woman stopped by to take a look. I started giving her the sell and explained the how, what, and why. It turns out that she was from Babble, an online parenting magazine that I love. She was searching out new products to put on her blog and our product was selected!
We also had some neighbors stop by with their babies to try out the aircrib:
Emma, from Baby Snaps
Hayden, from Snug and Tug
All in all, a very exciting day at the show.
After the show (now this is where the fun begins) we hit the first bar that we could find in the hotel and partook in a little happy hour magic. It was definitely needed. And following that was a delicious dinner outside (not so hot once the sun goes down) on the strip across from the Bellagio water show. Definitely the best seats in Vegas and the food and company wasn’t too bad either (I had to include that in case any of my coworkers read this).
More tomorrow…
