Tumbleweeds

As you may have noticed, postings on here have been few and far between lately. This is partly due to other commitments (and UCLA going to the Final Four), but it is mostly because there just isn't much going on right now.

The site's development has hit some delays as the developers deal with fixing--and re-fixing--some design issues, and I have decided to save most of my advertising resources until the site is at least in beta version.

Things are coming along, however slowly. I encourage you to take a look at the updated site design here, and please feel free to leave feedback in the comments section.

In the meantime, I have been working with several organizations in order to develop mutually-beneficial partnerships. These include the Georgetown School of Foreign Service, which is a feeder into several job markets in the DC area and otherwise; MilitaryJobHunts.com, which helps military personnel transition into the civilian workplace, and InternZoo.com, which helps companies find interns (and vice-versa).

If you would like to get in touch about a mutually beneficial partnership, let me know. And if you're looking for a job or looking to refer one, make sure to pre-register here!

Updated Temporary Splash Page

There's been a lot going on behind the scenes lately, most of which has dealt with uninteresting things like the site's back end admin development. On a more interesting note, the temporary splash page has been jazzed up a bit with some color and the new logo.

Primer on Accepting Credit Cards

I've been shopping around for a credit card merchant for awhile now, and to be frank, the whole system seems rather opaque and rife with potential for fraud, waste, or both. I was glad to find this Forbes article a couple days ago, which does a decent job of giving a primer on the whole process. Some links to preferred merchants and examples of best rates would have been helpful (as would have some notes on e-commerce businesses specifically), but it was good nonetheless. I recommend it to anyone who is looking to set up a merchant account in order to accept credit cards.

What is Referral Union?

Probably the most common question I get is "What is Referral Union?" There are several answers to this, and each serves a different audience. Let's explore a few possible audiences and the responses, but first the short answer:

Short Answer AKA the Elevator Pitch (This is probably the toughest one and is always in flux): Referral Union is a community of job-seekers and current employees of companies who offer referral bonuses. It introduces applicants, who benefit by getting a foot in the door to a great new job, to those working for their target companies, who are fiscally rewarded by their HR departments for referring qualified new applicants.

A bit more detail: Referral Union maintains two databases--one each for both applicants and current employees. Much like match.com, members of both databases can browse, search, and message anyone they're interested in, which will hopefully lead to successful pairings. From time to time, you will receive suggested candidates in your inbox; these are based on some keywords you entered when you created your profile. Yes, if you have a job but are looking for something new, you can create both accounts. You sly dog.

Potential Current Employees: Referral Union is a way for you to find qualified applicants to fill openings with your firm and earn the referral bonuses associated with them. Referral bonuses range from around $500 to as much as $10,000 and are one of the easiest ways to supplement your income. In addition to the fiscal rewards, many companies include such company-involvement activities on their yearly assessments, so you look good while taking an active role improving your company/practice/division/whatever. Once you create an account and upload your profile, which includes your contact info, your company's info, and select your account type, we will help you identify and screen the candidates. All of your contact information is kept confidential until you chose to release it to applicants.

Potential Applicants: Referral Union is a way for you to guarantee your resume gets put in front of an actual person. Instead of submitting it to a corporate career site where it might disappear or waiting for someone to email you after posting it on Monster or CareerBuilder, you can partner with someone who has an active interest in getting you hired. Because the current employee you link with has a financial interest in getting you hired, she will help you customize your resume and put it in front of as many people as appropriate. Don't think referral bonuses are a big deal? A search on Google for "referral bonus" returns over 900,000 hits. Some of these are unrelated, so let's narrow it to "'referral bonus' hire". Google returns over 100,000 hits. Even the Army offers one. Once you create an account and post your resume you can choose to either seek out potential matches or wait for them to come to you. Just like current employees, all your contact info is kept confidential until you choose to release it to a current employee.

My Friends: [see short answer above]. Also, why you never see me anymore.

Various Management Types not Interested in Receiving the Bonus but Who Want Good People Working for Them: Referral Union is a way for you and your company to make on-boarding more efficient and effective. Referral bonuses have long been a way for companies to bypass traditional methods of hiring new candidates, and their merits are well-known and documented (otherwise you wouldn't offer them). By flattening the professional market, we encourage the maximization of information sharing. This, combined with sophisticated filtering systems--both human and otherwise--increases and optimizes your candidate pool.

My Mom: I'm sorry I don't call enough, and I promise I'll send back your house keys as soon as possible...

Value Added

While mulling over the conception of a Launch Party sometime over the next couple months, I came up with an idea of how to add value to both our applicants and current employees.

In order to extend the Referral Union community beyond the internets, I'm going to explore the idea of regular (perhaps monthly) happy hours that both applicants and current employees can attend. This would include drink specials, free appetizers, etc, and give both parties an opportunity to interact in a real-world environment. This would also help ensure applicants are good fits for the companies to which they're applying.

From a marketing standpoint, I might encourage members to bring a guest or two and include a free drink (or two) for each guest that registers. It's also a good way to get the word out about the site and encourage some 'buzz.'

The social and professional scenes in the Washington, DC area (where we're based) are very happy-hour-centric, and this sort of event is right up the young professional's alley.

Changes to the Logo

After a long couple weeks, I believe we have hit on a logo that works a little better than the current one, here:
Oana worked hard creating several good options from two sites, here and here, which sparked a great deal of creative energy. Both of them required a subscription or purchase, though, and I frankly was not impressed enough by either to justify the capital outlay required. I thought we could do better on our own.

I pulled a good amount of useful information from Ben Hunt's site on web development, which covers myriad topics and is a very handy resource. I began by reading his handy article on creating a web 2.0 site, which may very well influence how Referral Union looks in the end. His take on what web 2.0 sites do, which I like:

• They enable designers to shoot straight for the site's goals, by guiding the site visitor's eye through the use of fewer, well-chosen visual elements.
• They use fewer words but say more, and carefully selected imagery to create the desired feel.
• They reject the idea that we can't guess what people want from our sites

He also has a great piece on logos specifically. He covers shape, presence, weight, and contrast including several good and bad examples of each. Combined with these resources, I came up with some ideas and developed these logos









The small one will be used for smaller locations, icons, and branding while the larger one, which spells out both words will be used for other promotional activities where space is not a priority.

Here are my thoughts on how it measures up to Hunt's four criteria:

Shape: The logo, particularly the simplified one, provides a simple, recognizable shape. The synergy between the R and the U are brandable and the logo has texture without getting too complicated.

Presence: The logo makes good use of space and fills almost the entire area with meaning. There are no distractions--the first, and only, thing the customer sees is the company's name or initials.

Weight: Possibly the weakest area. Three colors are perhaps one too many (unless you don't count white, which my seventh grade art teacher might not have), and the 3dish effect might distract from the logo's overall boldness. Some of these distractions fall away with the simplified logo.

Contrast: On its own, the logo has good contrast--nothing really bleeds into itself. When placed against a white background, there exists the possibility of the yellow fading away a bit, so it will be important to ensure it remains vibrant in those situations.

I don't pretend this is the final iteration of the Referral Union logo, but I believe it is a significantly positive next step.

March Madness On Demand VIP Registration

This is rather off topic, but I think it is worthwhile nonetheless, particularly considering the March Madness promo I am considering next month. Also, according to statistics, after job hunting, watching March Madness is the second biggest time waster in the workplace (note: statistics made up).

CBS Sportsline, which runs March Madness On Demand (MMOD), has begun VIP registration for this year's tourny. MMOD allows you to watch the first three rounds live via the internets even if the games aren't broadcast in your area. Last year, bottlenecks reached into the thousands which made watching the games very difficult. VIP access will bump you to the front of the line. So sign up for VIP membership, sign up for Referral Union, and participate in our bracket competition.

Also, Go UCLA.

Founding, Equity, Vesting, and other Things that Make your Brain Hurt

Today I stumbled upon an informative piece by Joseph Hadzima, a Senior Lecturer at MIT's Sloan School of Management. It provides a good overview of some of the inner workings of founders' compensation, vesting, the law surrounding such matters, etc.

He contends most" ventures fail because of people issues and are really a failure of the relationships among the team members" and says the best way around this is fully discussing and disclosing equity structure from the start. Good, common sense, advice that apparently goes unheeded too often.

Site Updates #2

Manish, my web guy, came back with more site updates yesterday. While it appeals to my sense of compartmentalization and order, I agree with Oana that to most people it is cluttered, boring, and way too blue and white. It sort of reminds me of Google's personalized homepage, which is full of feeds, boxes, and other widgets. It also doesn't really highlight the networking function of the site. From the homepage, it looks just like any other job site, which is the exact opposite of what I want it to do.

Further, the site undergoes some goofy formatting issues when viewed by Mozilla's Firefox browser for some reason.

In the next iteration, we're going to shoot for something that looks a little more interesting, isn't drowning in a sea of blue, and better highlights the site's main value--the democratization of the hiring process by empowering current employees and applicants.

I am also thinking about changing the splash page to look something like this, which is simpler and more to the point. It would allow Job Seekers or Current Employees to choose which part of the site to go to right away.


Please feel free to poke around the demo site and provide your feedback below. If nothing else, it looks better than Google's original page, which is something....

Eco-Friendly Advertising

Joshua Jaffe, who writes for the VC Ratings blog, posted a story on Hangar Network, "a startup that sells advertising on biodegradable dry-cleaning hangers." This story can be found through either "Reads" list to the right or by clicking here.

At first blush, putting ads on biodegradable hangars sounds like sort of a dumb idea, but the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. Pretty much all the hangars I have in my closet are from the dry cleaner, and who knows how many times I walk by them every day. Seeing "We [HEART] our Customers" gets pretty old after awhile--why not ads instead? And they're biodegradable, which is nice I guess.

More to the point, dry cleaning hangars could be an extremely efficient way to market directly to my target audience--young professionals in upscale, yuppyish parts of town. According to their website, Washington, DC is their number 8 market. I've put in an inquiry for a rate card; who knows, if the price is right, you might see the Referral Union logo under your next suit jacket or blouse.

Flyers

During my first week as a marketing intern at Referral Union I began working on increasing the number of pre-registrants by creating flyers aimed at both applicants (see sample) and employees in the DC area.

The flyers targeting applicants will be posted on bulletin boards at local universities, and possibly also distributed through their career centers, while those targeting employees will be given out in restaurants and cafes that are popular with professionals during their lunch break, and in bars downtown during happy hour, where they go after work.

This is just a start in our effort to raise awareness about the site, I am glad to be a part of the RU team, and look forward to many exciting and successful projects in the future!

Tinkering: Worthwhile Reads

If you look to the right, you'll notice I've added two new sections to this blog: Worthwhile Reads and Good Reads. The first is through Google Reader, and the second is through WidgetBox. Google Reader allows you to share selected items from your various daily reads list while the widget pulls all the items from whatever RSS feed you select (in this case, one that aggregates Venture Capital items).

I'll keep experimenting with each in order to (a) hopefully provide some interesting/useful items and (b) explore how or if they might work on the final Referral Union site once it's launched.

If you'd like to use either of these, click the links above. They were both rather painless to set up once I figured out RSS feeds (almost all news sites support them now). WidgetBox has its own cache of supported feeds (about 1000 at the moment). While you're at it, sign up for my feed!

Dissapointment

One of the two interns I decided to bring on was disallowed by his academic department. The department refused to give him academic credit interning for a company less than three years old. This is rather disappointing from one of Money.com's "10 Cool Colleges for Entrepreneurs." The university also recently submitted an application to the Kauffman Foundation for a grant to

"assist in developing the Institute for Entrepreneurship, Leadership, and Innovation (ELI Institute). This Institute will unify the university's current approaches to stimulating entrepreneurial behavior on campus and throughout the extended community."

Shame the university's policies do not reflect its rhetoric.

Design Updates

I received the updated design for the site today, and I think it looks rather sharp. I had quite a few comments on the design and layout, but I think things are coming along well.

If you have any thoughts on the design, please feel free to leave a comment below.

Back to School

After a lot of deliberation, I decided to accept the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business' (hereafter, GSB) offer for admittance to their MBA Class of 2009. While I received offers from the University of Virginia and Oxford, the choice really came down to either the GSB or London Business School (LBS, although people there hate the acronym).

Several factors informed/muddled my decision.

They are both great programs, and I believe most people would argue they're both in the top ten internationally. Chicago was actually #1 in Business Week's latest rankings, and it's consistently top five or ten in all others. LBS is similarly ranked and certainly the best program in the UK.

They both offered me the exact same financial aid package, although LBS said I could have all the money right away, which would have been nice. The GSB's package is split evenly over the two years.

How they differ:

Chicago allows you to select all (but one) of your classes, which is rather revolutionary in the world of business education. Most programs, including LBS, have a required packet of classes all first years have to take, usually in a cohort with the same students. The GSB only has one required class, five or six required categories of class (e.g. you pick one of four financial accounting classes), then a bunch of electives from which you build your concentration(s). LBS allows you to pick your own classes the second year, for the most part.

When visiting the schools, I got a rather different vibe from each program. Chicago seemed to be more about independence and customization with staff support to make sure you don't wander off and get a JD on accident. LBS was rather more nanny-like in its approach, which was sort of annoying. I almost expected them to tell me about curfew and required meals.

The students at LBS seemed more well-rounded and sort of unique, but that might just have been because I spent some time outside of class with them getting drunk off surprisingly strong Belgian beer...I was done after four or five pints. The GSB's rep over the years has sometimes included social awkwardness and extreme nerdiness, but any program with a Thursday Night Drinking Club (TNDC), weekly free-booze events called Liquidity Preference Functions (LPF), and a gambling club (creatively named the Risk and Gaming Club) can't be too bad, people-wise.

Each school's living experiences differed significantly, and living in London would have certainly been a more unique "experience" than Chicago. Chicago is a great town as well, though, as I understand. Many students from both programs chose to stick around after they graduate.

Chicago's brand is more powerful in the US and Asia, while London is well-recognized in Europe. However, I feel that an MBA from Chicago would transfer better to the EU than one from LBS to the US.

Finally, Chicago's Polsky Center, which runs all its entrepreneurial activities, hosts several competitions each year and really seems to put a lot of effort into helping its students either get their businesses off the ground or invest in someone else's.

In the end, I think LBS might have been a more "fun" choice, but the GSB will better prepare me to become a ninja assassin businessman. And if all fails, I can find my own fun in Chicago.

2/1/2007: Edit: I just received the "why didn't you come here" survey from London. It was quite lengthy, but I have included some of my selected answers below (my choices in bold):

1.4 Please indicate how you think we compare with your chosen school
Brand/Reputation: Worse
Cost of programme: Similar
Cost of living: Worse
Availability of student housing: Similar
Scholarships: Similar
Length of programme: Similar
Class size: Similar
Curriculum content/electives: Worse
Language requirement (In addition to English): Better
Quality of faculty: Worse
Career placement: Worse
Admissions service: Much Worse Facilities - IT/Library: Worse

March Madness

It's a little early to start hyping up the NCAA Basketball tournament, but as a UCLA (finished second last year, ranked #5 at the moment, and a huge basketball legacy) alum, I get up for the event every year.

I am tinkering around with the idea of running a promotion on my site where applicants and current employees can sign up and enter a bracket. The winner might get something like a free six month subscription, some career-advice books, or whatever. Plus, this gives me an excuse to enter another bracket (did I mention I picked GMU to make the Final Four last year?).

In order to enter the contest, users would have to register with the site, upload a resume, post their company, etc, all of which are free. Next up, Fantasy Kentucky Derby or Fafarazzi?

Equity and Adult Supervision

Browsing through the Chicago GSB admitted students forum the other day, I came across several blogs and such that deal with tech in Chicago, various start-ups by current MBA candidates and the like. I'll post them once I have a more comprehensive list.

Until then, I'd like to mention a program/opportunity I stumbled upon in the process. TechStars is a group of entrepreneurs in Colorado who are starting what might be best described as a summer camp for entrepreneurs. They are going to choose ten founders (or groups of founders) to come spend the summer in Colorado, where they will provide incubation, mentorship, some classes, a bunch of networking opportunities, and in the end a small amount of seed money in exchange for equity: $5K per founder (up to $15K) for a non-voting 5% stake in your company.

In my opinion, $5-15K in exchange for 5% of your equity isn't a great trade off, but it's the other services they provide that really make it worth it. The incubation includes free legal help (including incorporation), shared office space, phone, internet, conference rooms, and other office-like amenities. This in addition to the speaker series they run, all the other entrepreneurs you'll meet, access to venture capitalists, angel investors, private equity types, etc, and all the fresh new ideas and perspectives you'll be introduced to (to which you'll be introduced? I hate dangling participles). Who knows if someone you meet there, an idea you generate, or whatever could be the catalyst that really gets your (my) business moving? It's certainly worth a look.

On another note, I think they have a great business model. They essentially get a slew of business plans to choose from, pick the ten best, lay out between $5-15K each, and get 5% equity in all of them. I obviously don't have access to their finances, but I can make some rough assumptions:

• 10 groups x 3 founders each x $5K per founder = $150,000
• Rental of office space, utilities, furniture, etc amortized each year = $250,000
• Speakers and mentors = probably free
• Legal help = free
• Servers = free
• Random Stuff I didn't think of = $100,000

So they lay out about $500K each year in exchange for a 5% share of what they consider to be excellent ideas/start-up companies. This is obviously a gross simplification, but if one of their sponsored enterprises gets acquired for $10M each year (or two for $5M, etc), they make their money back. I get the feeling they'll do quite well with this while helping a lot of people out. Win win, just like Referral Union (hopefully).

At any rate, I filled out their relatively painless 28 question application and sent it in. I'll keep you posted on our status....

In the meantime, check out their blog. It's full of interesting info, answers, and pretty pictures. Here's another take on the entrepreneurial boot camp.

Great Success!

I had the pleasure of speaking with two great candidates for the internship position I posted last week. I have decided to offer them both positions, and I have no doubt there will be plenty of interesting work for them. I will be working with them to develop both my current marketing strategy and other great ideas they come up with. Once they get up and rolling, you can look forward to blog entries from both Oana and Terence.

Further, I was introduced to an interesting resource yesterday, www.internzoo.com. This site allows employers to post internships for free and college students presumably peruse the postings and apply. It seems like a good idea, so I signed up and posted my internship on the site. I'll keep you posted on how well it works.

Free (or very cheap) Stuff for my Business

Buy.com has a deal for free (after rebate) 512MB thumb drives through tomorrow (limit two). You'll be charged for the $27 each up front, but you can reduce that by five bucks if you order $50 worth of stuff through this link. Just click on the Hot Deals tab once you get to the site.

So, assuming I actually send in the rebate forms (somewhat iffy...), I actually make $5 on the deal, minus postage, and I get 49 miles on my credit card.

Another inexpensive vendor I've found is http://www.vistaprint.com/, which does all sorts of business cards, magnets, calendars, etc. Their posted prices aren't great, but if you get on their mailing list, they'll send you emails with ridiculous discounts pretty frequently. I think I got 250 business cards for like $4, including shipping. Use this link for 30-60% off. Beware, they send three or four emails a week, so if you don't want them clogging your inbox, use a spam account.

1/31/07 Edit: I received an email from Buy.com today saying my stuff shipped even though the site said they were out of stock when I ordered...

2/1/07: Edit: The items came in the mail today. Success! There's another one available here.

Priming the Pump

Now that I've had a fair number of current employees register, I need to start looking at ways to build up the applicant database. I'm going to start with college campuses in the DC area, since that's where the majority of current employee pre-registrants work. Some of these schools include Georgetown (where I earned my MA), The George Washington University, American University, Catholic University, George Mason University, Howard University, University of Virginia, University of Richmond, Marymount University, James Madison University, and a few others.

Some helpful resources within each school might include: The Panhellenic Associations and the InterFraternity Councils (which govern greek life on campus), various professional clubs, career services, and good-ol' fashioned flyer-posting. These all sound excellent tasks for my intern(s).

There are also various national and regional governing bodies for both greeks and clubs. Most of them put on conferences where companies can host a booth for between $500-1000. These might be good events to attend in the future.

The Virtue of Vice

They say you'll never go wrong investing in vice. Apparently the maxim holds true even with affiliate programs. When I first posted about my affiliate partnerships, I placed links to each in the body. The two highest click through rates (CTR) were for The Wine Messenger and Frederick's of Hollywood at 9.52% and 7.55%, respectively.

If this is your bag, and apparently it is, check out some of my new affiliate partners:

Business Credit Cards

Over the past few months, I have applied for and received a few business credit cards. They are basically the same as personal consumer cards, but they typically have your business name on the front. You don’t have to own your own company to apply for these cards, and a lot of people choose to get them just because the credit check doesn’t count against your personal credit rating.

I decided to get them for a few reasons: (1) It’s a very simple way to separate personal and professional purchases; (2) Like most personal cards, the business cards I applied for offer different perks such as 0% APR for a year, cash back, or statement credits after your first purchase (or a pre-set minimum); (3) They typically provide small-business related suites of services that you won’t find with personal cards; and (4) If you find the right cards, you get a very low interest rate loan to pay for business expenses.

Of course, if you dig yourself into debt with these cards, you’re just as hosed as you would be with personal credit cards, so watch out.

I found two of the cards through www.mymoneyblog.com, which is a good blog that deals with various matters of personal finance. It’s one of the blogs I’m going to include in my “daily reads” once I get around to putting it together. Jonathan, who maintains the blog, has done a much better job of describing the different options, their upsides, downsides, etc that I could ever hope to do, so if you're interested in an overview, check out his posting here.

The three cards I acquired and the rationale behind each:

Citi Professional Cash MasterCard: This is going to be my primary business card. When I applied, they were offering 0% APR on all purchases for a year. Now it's 0% APR on balance transfers, which is still a good deal if you're carrying a balance elsewhere or want to try this. Also, I get cash back on all my purchases, which instantly adds a couple percentage points to my profit margin (or reduces my losses). Also, I like Citi's web-based interface, and there is a branch down the street from my apartment if I ever require in-person attention.

Chase United Airlines Mileage Plus Platinum Business: As a United Mileage Plus member, this was an attractive option. The offer waives the annual fee for your first year (typically a credit card deal breaker), 25,000 miles, some free travel options, and a couple other perks. It requires $250 in purchases before you get the miles, and I believe you have to keep the account active for six months. I'll close it after I get the miles.

American Express Platinum Business Premium Cash Rebate Card: This card offered a $250 statement credit after your first purchase, but unfortunately it looks like this deal is over. You still get 5,000 points with your first purchase, which is something. I've made my purchase and am waiting for my $250. I'll cancel as soon as I get it. Here are some other options for free cash.

Here is another good source for credit card deals if you're so inclined. Remember, just because it's a business credit card doesn't mean you're not held personally responsible.

Back to Work

I'm heading back to the US from London today after a quick trip across the pond to visit the London Business School's MBA program. For those of you who haven't had to deal with me over the last several months while applying for and visiting MBA programs, my decision is currently between the University of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and London Business School.

Both programs are great, and I think they would each contribute differently to the development of my site. The GSB would really strengthen it in the US, giving me access to all sorts of Venture Capital and Private Equity types, while LBS would open all sorts of doors to a more international market.

I'm currently looking into what the implications of living abroad while running this site might be (tax-wise, among other issues). If you happen to be an accountant and have some insight, feel free to leave a comment.

Craigslist, redux

Putting up the ad for an intern on the volunteer part of CL didn't really work out, so I gave in and posted it under the normal job listings. Since I'm looking for someone(s) with a variety of abilities and interests, I put it up in two categories at $25 each: business/mgmt jobs and marketing/advertising/PR jobs.

I'm not really happy that I had to spend money on this, but so go the costs of doing business. The irony of having to pay to post a listing on a job site while constructing a job site myself is not lost on me.

This is just one more thing I never really thought about in the past. In my mind, Craigslist was always a free, easy way to find roommates, sell something, or whatever. I suppose they need to make money somehow too, and they get their revenue from job postings.

AdSense, etc

I've decided to sign up for Google's AdSense despite some misgivings on how it sometimes uglies up a site. I'm going to try it out on the blog here to see how it works then decide if I want it on the actual site.

Signing up is pretty painless and really just requires a valid website and an address. It takes a couple days for them to approve/disapprove your account, then you're ready to go once you fill out some easy tax info and verify your bank account (unless you want your money sent in check form, in which case this isn't required).

There are a few options once you sign up:

• AdSense for Content, which allows you to put text ads on your site with a few different options, including lists of ads or boxes of them


• AdSense for Search, which places a Google search dialog box on your site. You get paid when people search and go to particular sites.


• Referrals, which work in pretty much the same way as an affiliate program

I don't really know how much sites make for AdSense, since their payout schedule is double top secret, and their terms of service don't let me disclose any of that once/if I make any money.

According to one resource I read about this, Google has a "heat map" of where readers' eyes go, which is therefore the best place to put up ads. Makes sense if you think about "above the fold, on the left" theories of newspapers, movie posters, etc.

So feel free to poke around the blog here and leave feedback on how you think things look with the ads. If I determine the cost (site uglitude)/benefit (cold hard cash) ratio is sufficient, I'll use them on the Referral Union site. Otherwise, I'll canx them.

For more info from someone who actually knows what he's doing, click here, here, or here.

Pre-registration going well

The pre-registrants continue to come in, and I'm happy to say employees of some top firms have signed up.

Here's a sampling:

Rolling the (free) dice with Craigslist

In order to fulfill a couple of my needs, I have looked to another useful internet networking site, www.craigslist.org, to find an intern (or two) and to solicit more pre-registrants. CL charges $25 per category for job postings, so I put the internship ad up under the volunteer tag, which is free. Also, I wasn't entirely sure which category was the best for soliciting pre-registrants, so I picked the financial services category under small biz ads. I'm a little skeptical, but we'll see how it goes.

Do you want to be my intern? Apply!

Feedback from Last Night's Email

Apparently there is some maximum number of recipients allowed by Outlook, so it took about 45 minutes to get the email out to everyone last night. Ten people at a time is no way to email a large group.

The response, though, was encouraging. A couple people signed up right away and more streamed in through the evening and into the morning. Also, a few people signed up who were not on the original distro list, which means the email is getting passed around to some degree. I'm glad people are taking advantage of the chance at a free six-month subscription for pre-registering.

Further encouragement came in the email responses I received from friends and other well-wishers. A couple excerpts to toot my own horn a bit and show how encouraging friends can be:

"Very impressive! I like the concept and the presentation, I think you've got a great thing here."
"You know, this is actually a good idea...."
"Wyatt... pretty cool idea man! Good luck!"

Less encouraging were the Out of Office and Mailer-Daemon emails indicating I've lost touch with some people.

One interesting point I noticed among those who signed up for more information: everyone who ticked the box as a current employee also ticked the box as a potential applicant.... It looks like everyone is always looking for new opportunities.

Affiliate Programs

As part of www.referralunion.com's revenue plan, I am looking into using affiliate programs to offer users useful products or services they might want to direct their new found windfalls toward.

For example, if someone receives a $1000 referral bonus, he might look into buying a nice bottle of wine, sending his mom flowers, or spending the money in other interesting ways. Through the site, I want to offer him (or her) some ideas on what to do with the cash. Affiliate programs offer a certain commission to sites that send customers their way, typically between a few percent to almost 100%.

LinkShare.com has helped me find several dozen potential partners and has been very easy to use. Once you sign up, all you have to do is browse through their categories and select the affiliate programs to which you would like to apply. Some approve you right away, some decline you right away, and the rest get back to you within a day or so.

As of now, I have been accepted by the following vendors. Their commissions are listed as well:

	10%-12%
	7%
	4%-12%
	1%-2.5%
	20%
	12%-15%
	11%
	6%
	0%-7%
	6%-10%
	10.5%-15%
	15%-20%
	8%-12%
	3% or $2.00-3.00 flat fee
	$1.50 flat fee
	10%
	75%
	$1.00-7.00 flat fee
	13%-15%
	10%-12%
	0%-7%
	3%-7%
	20%-25%
	8%-10%
	5%-10%
	10%

Of note, Ford, Best Buy, ProGolf.com, and Dell declined my application, so feel free to never purchase anything from them again. Alternatively, click away on the merchants above...