Free first class tickets on Orbitz

Orbitz is giving away 100 free first class tickets in October, for users who send in updates and tips to their new Traveler Update service. Check it out at http://updates.orbitz.com/promotions. Currently there's only 30 or so people entered, and they're giving away the tickets to the top 100. Could be a great way to score some free first class tickets.

New blog

This is a very random post, but I started a new blog, after watching a random MTV Real Live - I'm Flat Broke episode. Check it out - http://helpdemarlon.wordpress.com/

Final Tally

When I tell people we're shutting POTM down, people usually respond with, "it's about time, what a stupid idea anyway, I told you guys you were morons!" Ok, they're not that harsh, but they do ask how many orders we got. Poking through the database, I've tallied the final numbers, here they are:

Total Orders: 81
Total Customers: 64
Percentage of customers we knew: about 50%
Total Revenue: $2700.58

I haven't run the final numbers on profitability, but we probably came up just short. If we would have sustained our November/December pace, we would have been quite profitable, but the pickle pace slackened in the beginning of the year, and we lost motivation.

Now, on to bigger and better things!

A Sad Day

Tears are falling here in Pickle of the Month land. As of 6:07 pm central standard time, Pickle of the Month ceases to exist. That's right, we shut 'er down.

In the end, postage killed us. It turns out $9 pickles are just too much to stomach, even if they do tickle the tastbuds, and arrive in delightful green packaging. The $20 price for the 4-month subscription seemed to appeal to a wide range of pickle lovers, but the additional $16 in postage usually killed the purchase in its tracks.

Lesson learned - don't ignore the obvious.

Looking back, a lack of motivation played a part as well. We started off wonderfully, but as the month dragged on and orders did not take off, we lost our vigor. Not that that's bad, it's just a fact of life.

Lesson #2 learned - things become tedious when there's no light at the end of the tunnel.

I don't mean to sound too down, the lessons and fun earned from POTM far outweigh the sadness of shutting it down. It's been the source of bushels of laughs, smiles, lessons, strange looks, and countless other moments of joy over the last year. In fact, it even played a part in me getting my last job, and has opened up a number of doors since. Who would have thought?

Well, that's enough rambling for this Sunday afternoon. May you always have wonderful, tasty pickles.

Pickliest Regards,
Doug

New Site #1

I am ecstatic to announce our newest foray into ridiculousness - www.CelebrityWakeUpCall.com. That's right, we want to bring the voice of your favorite celebrity to a wake up call near you.

Until we flesh out a bit more of the site, we're keeping things on the DL (that's the down-low, for our older readers). We just have an email sign up right now, which we'll keep up until launch. What are you wating for go sign up now!

Stayed tuned for updates, including screenshots and general tomfoolery.

Almost ready for the next step

Thanks for your patience, loyal blog readers (all two of you). I am happy to report we're super close to the inital launch of our next set of stupid websites. Check back tonight for more details!

We are still alive

Just wanted to throw a quick post out there letting everyone know we're still alive. We haven't posted in a while, because we've been working on some top secret pickle projects.

More to come next week.

Beer shirts

So I was doing some web research for my real job, and I ran across www.squidoo.com. It lets anyone publish pages on whatever they want, and make cash for doing so. Very cool site and idea.

Check out the guide to making sweet beer shirts I made - http://www.squidoo.com/beershirts/