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.

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!

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:

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.

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!

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...