Monster Bashers big adventure

Well we're getting ready to take off on another adventure in the continuing development of our kids night light, the monster basher. We are going to the Western Toy and Hobby show to scout it out and see if we may possibly find a company to work with to license our little invention. This would make the most sense for us because although we want as much money as possible we don't really want to manufacture, promote, ship, etc. Hopefully while we are there we'll find a company that is interested. If not, on to plan B. In the meantime, we may be making a commercial to run for a test market of the product when we get back.

Damn it Jim, I'm an Inventor not a website guy.

Well I met with a guy who specializes in internet marketing. We went over all of the things that I could be doing to drive traffic to our website. He thought that we were doing pretty good as far as traffic goes but there is room for improvement. He started talking and every so often I would actually understand what he was saying, but for the most part, it was blah, blah, blah protocol, blah blah. He was good and explained it all pretty well.

Then he said, "I know that you told me that this is your first website and you did it all your self, so don't take what I'm about to say personally, but your site is pretty chaotic." I assured him that I did not take it personally and his mother wears army boots. The last part I just made up. Any way, I took his suggestions to heart and revamped our home page. He told me that I had so much information that the message was getting lost.

He laid it out like this. The title of the page needs to be key word rich with what your trying to accomplish. A simple statement that piques their interest and causes them to want to know more. You then give them the information that solves their problem and why they need your product. Finally the call to action, BUY NOW.

I followed his advice and I have to admit that the home page looks much cleaner with a clear message. It's been reinforced to me through this inventing process that you can't be an expert in every field. Find people that are experts and listen to what they have to say. You may feel intimidated, but the expert may be intimidated by you. In the case of our marketing guy, he can't fathom how to even start to invent something and get it to market. Just like I can't fathom how anyone learns HTML code.

Printing a book

It's been a while since the last post, but we've been busy. During the Seattle show we went to, we ran into a guy who had a book that goes along with some childrens pajamas. Since we need to get a book printed to go along with our products, I asked him who did the printing and how much it cost to do his book. It was really a very nice quality paper and printing. Since it was a childrens book, it had a thick paper cover. He told me that it cost him 60 cents per copy. I couldn't believe it. He gave me the name of the printer Asia Pacific Offset. I got in contact with a woman named Elizabeth@asiapacificoffset.com based out of San Francisco. I asked her to give me a quote for printing our book with the same high quality paper and color. The quote came back at 55 cents per book including customs and delivery to Medford Oregon which is where we are close to. It's amazing that we can't get it printed locally for even 3 times the price.

Now all we have to do is finish the text and find an illustrator. We are meeting with a graphics art student tomorrow. We'll see how that pans out.