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TripleClicks – SFI new store grand opening

January 9, 2009 by John Dilbeck
Filed under: Affiliate Marketing, Malls and Portals, Network Marketing, SFI Marketing Group, Squidoo Lenses 

As far back as July, 2008, or maybe even earlier, Gery Carson, President of SFI Marketing Group, announced a new ecommerce store. In mid-December, 2008, he announced the opening date of the store, January 5, 2009.

I’ve been waiting for that date, because I planned to make some commitments to marketing SFI based on what I saw when the store opened.

That date has come and gone, and I have a lot I want to say about all the changes. In fact, I have so much I want to say that I’m not going to be able to put all of it into one post, so I’ll be addressing the changes in several posts over the next few days. Today, I want to talk about the new TripleClicks store.

(Update August 2009: Affiliate links removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

True to Gery’s word, the store opened on Monday, January 5, 2009. It opened a couple of hours late and there were some issues when it first went public, but by the end of the day most of those issues were ironed out and the store was performing pretty well.

Some of the problems people experienced were related to propagating the new domain through the Domain Name System (DNS), the world-wide database program that links domain names to specific IP addresses. Depending upon a variety of factors, it can take from a few minutes to a few days for a new domain to propagate worldwide. This is totally outside of a domain owner’s influence, so we just have to wait when a new domain goes public.

It’s been almost four days since the new TripleClicks store opened on Monday, and I’m seeing fewer people reporting problems with accessing the site, so I now feel comfortable talking about it and marketing the products in the store.

New TripleClicks lens on Squidoo

To start with, I just published a lens at Squidoo: SFI Marketing Group Store – TripleClicks. Come visit the lens and join in the duel and/or leave your comments. (That lens has been deleted.)

As always, I hope you’ll rate the lens and tell your friends about it.

Thanks!

SFI’s Veriuni line of products

As you may, or may not, know, SFI has a proprietary line of Veriuni products that include all-natural cleaners, dietary supplements, weight-loss products, personal grooming supplies, pet products, and probably some items I can’t think of right now.

The products you’ve come to love are available in the new store, but there is no Veriuni department. The products are shown in the departments in which they best fit. The cleaners are in Home & Garden; supplements and vitamins are in Health & Wellness; hand soaps, shampoo, and conditioners are in Personal Care; pet shampoos and supplements are in Pet Care, and so forth.

One way to find all the Veriuni products is to search for “Veriuni” on any page of the store.

You can find the Purjava products by searching for “Purjava” or “coffee.”

I’m getting better results by searching on just one word rather than a phrase. What’s your experience?

I am a real fan of the Veriuni line of all-natural, nontoxic cleaning supplies. These come in one quart or one gallon sizes and are concentrated cleaning products that you can dilute with water to obtain the correct solution for your cleaning needs.

For example, if you look at the price of a quart of Veriuni All-Purpose Cleaner, it may seem expensive to you, especially when you factor in the shipping costs. You have to remember, however, that after diluting the concentrate, you have actually purchased up to 32 gallons of cleaner. I think that makes the price much more acceptable, and that’s before you factor in all the benefits related to health and the environment.

New products

There are many new retail products in the store that we can promote.

For example, there are 53 new Dessert Essence beauty products available. Just go to the new TripleClicks store and search for “Desert Essence” to see the full list.

That’s another group of items SFI affiliates can promote and earn SVP and commissions on whenever a customer buys after following one of your affiliate links.

And, they’re even easy to promote. As an SFI affiliate, you’re already registered at the store, so just sign in with your SFI ID and password. When you do that, you’ll notice some changes. One of the most significant changes is when you look at a product’s page.

For example, look at the page for Baywood Lip Maximizing Formula, 3g. (Be sure you’re logged in.)

At the bottom of the page, affiliates will see a link for promoting the product, and your affiliate code is already built into the link. Additionally, you’ll find information related to SVP, CV, and the commission you’ll earn based on your rank as an affiliate, EA, or team leader. How much more convenient can that be? It’s one of the features I really like about the new store.

I mentioned that there are new products. In the Personal Care department, alone, there are now 186 products we can promote. Part of those products are retail products and we earn SVP and commissions from sales of them. Some are products that are being sold by private sellers – people like you and me – and we earn SVP on sales of those products, but not commissions.

If you haven’t taken some time to look at the new SFI TripleClicks store, I urge you to take some time and study it.

If you’re an SFI affiliate, you now have lots of new ways to earn commissions. If you’re not, you can join SFI for free and get started.

International Affiliate Concerns

One of the biggest concerns for international affiliates (anyone who lives outside the United States) has been the high cost of shipping to other countries.

I don’t think this first release of the store has addressed that concern. If I’m wrong, please feel free to correct me.

On the Welcome to the new year and SFI 3.0! page, Gery Carson addresses this issue, by saying:

Special note on shipping costs: One of our key objectives with the new store was to reduce shipping costs (especially for international affiliates and customers). To achieve this goal, we completely overhauled our shipping programming and installed all new software and hardware in our shipping center. We expect that this will have a positive impact.

Additionally, with TC’s Private Seller Program (more on this in a moment), products will be available for shipment from all over the world. This will also help reduce shipping costs since the product can literally be coming from within your same country, region, or city.

The biggest impact item, however, will be our alliances with dropshipping companies that will ship to you from around the world. Unfortunately, we were not able to get this component completed in time for our launch today. But rest assured, this IS coming. Watch for updates on this topic.

I’m hoping that these changes, when they are introduced, will make it much easier for all of us to sell products worldwide.

The TripleClicks Private Seller Program

This is where the new store starts to get really interesting.

Although it is unfair to compare the brand new TripleClicks store to marketing behemoths such as eBay and Amazon, I think you should pay some serious attention to the Private Seller Program.

It’s true that the features related to this are very basic at this time and don’t have the bells and whistles we have come to expect from sites such as eBay, but you can sell your stuff on TripleClicks right now.

That’s right. Take the stuff you no longer want and sell it to someone else.

Most SFI affiliates were given three credits for listing items and additional credits can be purchased inexpensively.

Anyone can buy credits to sell their stuff on TripleClicks.

For example, you can purchase one TC Credit for $1.99 or a pack of 250 TC Credits for $47.50. There are other packages of credits, too.

This means that you can sell one item for only $1.99 or buy a pack of 250 credits and sell your items for only $0.19 each.

If you have a lot to sell, you can purchase the credits you need and earn SVP. You can become an EA by buying credits and selling your stuff. Or, if someone else buys credits from your link, you can earn both SVP and commissions. This has the potential for becoming a profitable income stream.

But, don’t buy more than you need! Credits expire one year from purchase and you don’t want a bunch of expired credits.

SFI has provided marketing materials to help you promote the TripleClicks store and the Private Seller Program.

Already, a number of items have been put up for sale by private sellers on the store and more are being added daily.

Although you don’t earn any commissions when people buy from a private seller, you can earn a commission by promoting the store in your local area when the people you refer purchase credits to sell their stuff. Depending upon how well you promote it, and how well SFI implements it, this can be a good way for international affiliates to build an income stream.

At the moment, however, there are some drawbacks to doing this, but Gery says they will be addressed soon.

For example, even on the advanced search page, there is no way to search geographically. In order to reduce shipping costs, it is important that sales can be made relatively locally, especially if we’re going to consider this an online garage sale.

This is being addressed. In a recent update, it was announced:

2:09 p.m. 1/7/09 – We are busy fixing a few things that “broke” during our transition (such as Standing Order management) to SFI 3.0. Everything is coming along VERY nicely. We’ll also soon have in place some of the items that were not operational at launch, such as the “On Sale” and “Top Sellers” menu tabs. We’ll also soon have several additions to the Advanced Search so that you can search geographically, by date entered in TC, and more. We appreciate your patience while we complete these components.

So, we need to exercise some patience and see how the store develops.

In the meantime, however, I feel comfortable promoting it and look forward to it being a big success.

Sell Your Stuff

So, what do you have stashed away in your closet or garage that you no longer want? Sell it on TripleClicks.

I’m going to have to dig around and find something to sell so I can test it.

A few years ago, I had an eBay store and made some pretty good money selling my Steel Roses That Never Wilt. If I were still able to do the blacksmithing I love, I’d start selling my roses on TripleClicks. Unfortunately, I injured my left hand and can’t do any smithing right now, but I’m hoping I’ll get better.

If you make handmade arts and crafts, you may want to consider listing some of them on TripleClicks to see how it works for you.

There is a lot more to say about the changes at SFI and the new TripleClicks store, but I’m going to stop here. I’ll have more to say in later posts.

What’s your opinion?

So, what do you think?

Are you more or less interested in SFI now that you know a bit about the new store?

I look forward to discussing it with you.

Act on your dream!

JD

(Update August 2009: Affiliate links removed, as I no longer promote SFI Marketing Group.)

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9 Comments on TripleClicks – SFI new store grand opening

  1. Sylvain on Mon, 26th Jan 2009 12:53 am

    2. HI,
    I’m already SFI member(ID# 10434028), doing advertising to grab some affiliates. I put some stuffs of my business on Tripleclicks (business card holders) and very satisfied.
    My new move to promote triplecliks is to buy the domain name” http://www.tripleclicks.ca ” and make a fowarding to my link.
    More we talk about it and more people will join!
    Thanks for your blog.
    Good job.

    Thanks

  2. John Dilbeck on Mon, 26th Jan 2009 7:45 am

    3. Good morning, Sylvain.

    Welcome to our discussions!

    It’s always great to meet a fellow SFI affiliate who is actively building your business.

    Have you sold any of your card holders through the TripleClicks store, yet?

    What about the listing process? Did it go smoothly for you?

    I just clicked your new domain link and it looks like it’s working perfectly. Good idea.

    I’m more optimistic about SFI now than I’ve been in a couple of years, but I’m not totally convinced that they’re going to be able to get everything working the way they want. However, the store is working well and it’s still only three weeks old. I think that’s pretty impressive.

    Thanks for the comment.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  3. John Dilbeck on Mon, 26th Jan 2009 8:08 am

    4. Good morning, Sylvain.

    This is a follow-up to your comment.

    I did a search for “card holders” at TripleClicks and found 10 business card holders.

    Is this your listing?

    If so, how are you handling printing the photo or logo on the free pen?

    As far as I know, there is no way for a shopper to contact a private seller on TripleClicks at this point.

    Is that the way you understand it, or has something changed?

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  4. Sylvain on Sat, 7th Feb 2009 11:52 pm

    5. Hello John, you are right, when i have made this listing i don’t have think about this!
    I have sold 1 card holders and put not enough shipping cost… we learn with experience.

    Buyer can’t contact me before but i can contact the buyer when receiving of the item sold confirmation.

    Now i have learn and put more things on sales http://www.tripleclicks.com/detail.php?item=8031/10434028/ and http://www.tripleclicks.com/detail.php?item=8044/10434028/
    we are sathurday and not approuved at this time.

    I’m active in SFI and Tripleclicks for about 1 month and found 5 affiliates and just 1 is “action-taker”.

    It’s a yong system but i hope for the future!

    Sylvain

  5. John Dilbeck on Tue, 10th Feb 2009 1:13 pm

    6. Good afternoon, Sylvain.

    You said, “Buyer can’t contact me before but i can contact the buyer when receiving of the item sold confirmation.”

    That’s the key point I was missing. Obviously there had to be some way to communicate before shipping and I just didn’t think that far.

    I see that the first link you posted is live on the store and I looked at your adjusted shipping charges. It makes sense.

    As you said, we learn from experience.

    You’re the first person I’ve “talked” to who has sold something on the store. I’m happy to hear that it is working for you.

    I’ve been with SFI for several years and I’m just not getting the return I want for my effort. I’m hoping the new TripleClicks store will make a difference.

    Thanks for your comments.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

  6. MY Special Education on Mon, 15th Jun 2009 12:26 pm

    7. I’m going to open Children/Baby Photo Studio together with Baby clothing store and Cafe all in one building. I’m planning to do a Grand opening in May. Can you guys please help me on theme, games, goody bags, invitation, etc.

  7. John Dilbeck on Tue, 16th Jun 2009 2:00 pm

    8. Good afternoon, M.S.E.

    I’m afraid I wouldn’t have a clue on how to help you with this, especially with regards to games and goody bags.

    I don’t think this is your best place to ask this question. Maybe there is a forum or blog that has people who know about how to do a grand opening of a real physical location.

    Can anyone reading this offer any advice?

    JD

  8. extra income online on Sat, 27th Jun 2009 11:59 pm

    9. SFI is a very interesting program just looking at the material on their homepage. It seems like they may be a reasonable way to start an internet marketing career. Thanks for turning me to them.

  9. John Dilbeck on Sun, 28th Jun 2009 1:34 pm

    10. Good afternoon, E.I.O.

    I still have mixed feelings about SFI.

    After six years as an affiliate and after putting in a lot of effort marketing them, I feel that my revenue from them should be several times greater than what it is.

    I know some people who earn a respectable income through SFI, but I know lots more who earn nothing to practically nothing.

    I’m considering dropping them this year.

    As I invest more time and effort into online marketing, I find that I do much better with affiliate marketing than I do with network marketing, or MLM, companies.

    I no longer believe in duplication and leveraging my efforts by recruiting others. I always earn more from my own efforts than I ever have from anything done by my “downline.”

    For whatever it’s worth.

    Act on your dream!

    JD

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