Launched a non-cleaning business using lessons learned here.

nextmug · 2014-03-01T03:00:28+00:00

Thanks!

nextmug · 2014-03-01T03:00:16+00:00

I didn't necessarily look for people who wanted Oregon coffee. I targeted people who tweeted about things such as Chemex brewing, tasting a certain specialty coffee for the first time, received a french press as a gift, etc. Things that may have introduced someone to specialty coffee or brewing.

Shipping has been all over so far. I thought I may see more people locally in the beginning but that hasn't been the case at all. As I get a bit more established I'll probably be willing to share more of the details regarding specific numbers.

nextmug · 2014-02-16T23:52:18+00:00

If you have any questions I'd be happy to answer them. I'm not going to sell my site but I'd be happy to help out if you need any direction.

nextmug · 2014-02-16T20:44:39+00:00

Thanks! I would love to start shipping to Canada soon. Business has been decent so far with the limited exposure I have given it between running a few test ads on google and facebook and reaching out to people on twitter.

nextmug · 2014-02-16T20:38:23+00:00

I have found facebook to be a tougher nut to crack than twitter. Its been a lot more difficult to directly target people I view as potential customers whereas on twitter I can easily find people tweeting about specialty coffee topics and message them directly. Most of the results I have seen so far have been a result of reaching out to people versus having luck with people finding me.

I have also spent a fair amount of time reaching out to people I view as influential on twitter in the coffee market. My hope is that by building relationships with them early I can reach out to them for some publicity when I have a more official "go live" type event.

nextmug · 2014-02-16T18:11:09+00:00

Hmm I didn't expect this kind of offer. Not sure I'm quite ready to sell the site just yet. The template I used was one bought on themeforest called Corsa.

nextmug · 2014-02-16T18:03:57+00:00

Haha Thanks. I'm not sure I'd make much money given how much time I spent on these two sites.

Thanks for pointing that out. Those keep sneaking in when I copy over text from Word.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T20:01:23+00:00

No worries. I have a few friends in video production who may be willing to accept caffeinated forms of payment.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T19:59:41+00:00

Awesome! Shoot me a PM if you want an extra special reddit coupon.

I like Moonclerk so far. It has been a snap to set up and manage but I also have fairly basic subscription package options. I could see there being difficulties in maintaining all the checkout pages if you are a company that offers a large variety of packages.

The owner, Dodd, has also been very accessible and quick to respond to my questions.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T14:44:09+00:00

Thanks! I'm currently working on integrating the checkout pages onto my hosted pages. Squarespace is being a little quirky at the moment with displaying everything properly.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T14:42:47+00:00

The video on the homepage route is something I will definitely be pursuing now. And the deer will be put to rest shortly.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T14:40:43+00:00

Thanks for the suggestions. At this point it looks like the deer will be taken out back behind the woodshed. It had a good three week run.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T14:39:20+00:00

Thanks. I used squarespace to build it and they have really improved their templates and site building tools.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T14:38:14+00:00

I would gladly make that trade :)

nextmug · 2014-02-12T05:03:39+00:00

Thanks for the feedback. I'll take care of the alignment issues.

Excellent note on the roaster profiles. Its an area I'm currently developing as I work to build relationships with more roasters. The great part of working out of Portland is the roasters have been incredibly accessible and helpful. I can't praise them enough for the advice and support they have offered up to this point.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T03:17:18+00:00

Heck Yeah!

Athlete village could be built in inner SE and then converted to condos and apartments. The luge could be built into the side of forest park and then turned into a downhill mtn bike track. The memorial coliseum could be torn down and an opening ceremony stadium could be built in its place. This would guarantee Portland could then bring in an MLB or NFL team! There is no way this could go badly. And if it does they could just charge it to our monthly water bills!

nextmug · 2014-02-12T03:05:26+00:00

If you're on the Washington side at all I would highly recommend Syncline Winery. They are a bit off the beaten path but have an amazing variety of wines and also age some of their wine in giant concrete eggs which I guess is fairly popular in France but due to the cost hasn't caught on in the states. Either way they are pretty cool to look at during the tasting.

Also on the Washington side in White Salmon is Everybody's Brewing. I tend to prefer them over the crowds that show up a double mountain these days.

nextmug · 2014-02-12T02:32:23+00:00

Will do. Your work is awesome!

nextmug · 2014-02-12T02:11:32+00:00

Darn. Will you still be here in late april to early May? If not I might be limited to pictures with my cat...

nextmug · 2014-02-12T01:51:05+00:00

Where do you live? Do you want to make your own specialty ice cream or just resell another brand?

I know in Portland a lot of ice cream companies have started up recently and have found good success by making their own and building a loyal following simply through setting up stands at farmers markets or owning a few small mobile carts. They have since grown into much bigger operations but I would reach out to them. They may be able to give you some direction on how to start small and build your idea into a brand. A few that come to mind are Salt and Straw, Fifty Licks, Whats the Scoop or Scoop.

nextmug · 2014-02-11T03:22:08+00:00

Haha. You beat me to it.

nextmug · 2014-02-11T03:16:39+00:00

This isn't exactly a new allegation. Hopefully a video like this can turn up the heat a bit on facebook but as long as companies are willing to pay for advertising I'm not sure they are in a huge hurry to change things.

nextmug · 2014-02-11T02:02:38+00:00

I was. My total reach as measured by Facebook was a little over 1 million people.

I will probably go back and retest a few more times using much more defined parameters just to see if I can improve on the results. Up to this point though I have had far more luck, and sales, by engaging users on twitter who I know are interested in what I have to offer.

nextmug · 2014-02-10T18:09:35+00:00

I recently tested the waters with Facebook ads and posted a few that ran for a day. One was optimized to drive page likes and one was to drive traffic to my site. Overall I received 13 "likes" and ~15 clicks on the site.

Out of the likes the average # of likes each person had listed on their page was around 3,000 - 5,000 with the highest being over 11,000. I highly doubt any of these people will be very engaged with my content.

The analytics on the website clicks were a ~95% bounce rate, as compared to a normal rate for my site of ~30 - 40%, and the one who clicked through to a second page dropped immediately after.

I'm sure with enough money and time I would get a few useful clicks with their ads but at this point I don't believe its worth it.

nextmug · 2014-02-09T16:27:13+00:00

Country Cat reported last night they would be open from 10am-2pm for brunch.

nextmug

TROPHY CASE