Friday, March 30, 2007
Sorry for the lack of updates, but Nuffnang.com.my has really been keeping me busy!
So many things are going on.
We now have about 600 blogs and counting and 2 new team members at Nuffnang Singapore! That brings up our total headcount to 7!
On the technical end, we're continuing to optimize our code so we can work faster and more efficiently with less. I'm sure the results of this hard work is already apparent. At the same time, we're building in new features to be launched soon.
On the marketing end, I've been in KL the whole week, going for meeting after meeting with advertisers of all types!
It has been INCREDIBLE so far. Both the experience and the results.
Our typical morning starts at 8 with a hearty breakfast, and a review of all our reports from our backend, technorati, google and of course blogs! Morning call with our technical team. Wash up and we're out by 9, for meetings that for some reason are always scheduled at either 10 or 11am.
We get there, and are given about an hour to impress on the marketing executives and directors, why they should choose the nuffnang network. Or why they should even consider online advertising as a medium.
We start off by giving them a powerpoint presentation I prepared, giving them the main points like our network coverage figures and other details which I shall leave out.
After the presentation, is a question and answer session.
This is the most enjoyable part of the meeting for me.
A chance to interact. To market. To ease and banish any doubts. To turn those doubts into belief and reality.
To be honest, I get such a high from this part of the meetings. When you have connected with the person you are speaking to and he agrees. There are fewer better feelings.
The easiest way to do this in my opinion is to be frank. To be sincere and honest. You need to be confident of your own product, understand it inside and out. The strengths and the weaknesses. To sell and market the strengths, but at the same time, not to be afraid of highlighting any potential issues. But before doing so, to ensure you provide a potential solution to these issues.
I call then issues and not problems because issues represent a challenge to solve.
We met up with the representative of a financial institution. And she asked us, why two graduates from the University of London had decided to embark on a business venture like this instead of being bankers.
Timothy replied, it was because of passion. I said it was the chance to interact with so many people on so many levels. Bloggers, advertisers, affiliates.
Anyway, every single meeting went well. So that is a piece of good news for bloggers in our community. Negotiations are still taking place, but we've got some very very interesting advertisers, with global credentials talking to us. KEEP ALL YOUR FINGERS CROSSED and pray hard. There is strength in numbers. In all things. Prayer, and blog advertising included!
After a deal is concluded. It is just the start for me and tiam. We will have to monitor the campaigns, suggest improvements, and provide after sales support. Which includes getting them to execute a second campaign! And third, and fourth!
When the time comes, I hope the blogging community in Nuffnang will show our advertisers, that the faith they put in blog advertising and Nuffnang in particular was not misfounded. That we are a credible medium that deserve more.
NUFFNANG! Which incidentally means, "Real Good" in jafaican. You'll read all about it on our revamped public pages soon enough!
: 12:18 PM