We had an accident with one of the laptops a few weeks ago. It was dropped by our son and cracked the LCD screen.  After hooking the laptop up to our Hi-Def set in the family room, it was a quick and simple matter of ordering a new screen and replacing it ourselves. (It’s really pretty simple.)

The new display came a week or so ago, and quickly replaced without much trouble.

Then the question occurred – what to do with the broken LCD display?

That’s when we did a little research and found the Best Buy program which came to the rescue. Best Buy has a great policy: No matter where you bought It, Best Buy will recycle it.

Most everyone has a Best Buy location close to them, and the easier it is to recycle, the more likely it is that items such as our broken LCD will be disposed of properly instead of ending up in a landfill somewhere. While out running some errands the day after we got the new LCD installed, we took the old LCD into the store and dropped it off without any hassle.

And you know what? It felt pretty good.

Then this weekend our washing machine went down. A logical and obvious choice for us was Best Buy for two reasons. One, of course is the cash back option through ZamZuu – and two, we’d be assured that the old washer wouldn’t end up in some landfill somewhere and disposed of properly.

While visiting the site we also found a way to properly dispose of an old television and broken refrigerator that’s been taking up space in our garage. While we’re having Best Buy deliver the new washer, we’ll have them take away our outdated and broken items for a nominal fee at the same time.

While I read about this program and thought it was cool that a company like Best Buy would actually do something like this – after our experience in disposing of these large items the right way – I had to write about it and tell everyone. In our opinion, it’s a much needed service – and Best Buy should not only be congratulated – but they’ve earned our business by going above an beyond when it comes to helping the environment.

For us – this is a big deal.

Oh, and one last thing – there is a catch. (If you can actually call it a “catch” – but you should know.) Things that you drop off like the LCD or a television. There’s a nominal fee of $10 to drop it off. But get this – they give you a $10 gift card in return for a future purchase in the store. Yes, I know it’s a wash when it’s all said and done – but from marketing perspective, it’s a brilliant marketing concept. I mean – where else are you going to spend a Best Buy Gift Card but at Best Buy – right?

Sure there will be those who will consider it a hassle – or even misleading – but we all know that idiots like that get their jollies from complaining over petty crap simply as an excuse to complain. Seen it for years in our own business and frankly I don’t see them offering anything of worth themselves – ever.

If Best Buy doesn’t take the item your looking to recycle, you can also use the widget we shared over on OurSharedEarth from 1800Recycling.com to find the proper service to recycle any item your looking to dispose of.

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I’ve seen a ton of upgrades and website enhancements during my tenure with YTB. Quite honestly, I’ve lost count how many times our sites have been updated with new looks, technology features, and a wider array of product offerings.

Not to diminish anything the company has done in the past, because at the time it was released it was big. However, what I saw yesterday afternoon with a new look, technology improvements, social connectivity and user friendly design of this site tops anything the company has ever released.

Welcome to the new ZamZuu.

See, this is a result of what happens when companies pay attention to current trends and hot features of the day. Technology, especially on the Internet, is constantly changing and evolving. What’s really cool about a site like ZamZuu, is that you can implement certain features and redesigns like this on a regular basis to keep customers engaged.

There are many new features with the new site. The new look is much easier to navigate, by redesigning categories, keeping everything is what’s known in site design as “above the fold”. Let’s face it, people are lazy and scrolling down a long page just doesn’t cut it. Now, just about everything can be found without the need of scrolling down a single inch. (Trust me, it’s a very important feature – more important than you think.)

Another new addition is the shopping cart within ZamZuu.com. Now, customers can shop and purchase products within the same shopping experience. This in turn will increase the average amount of cash back for customers. (The more they buy – the more they save.)

On a promotional front as either a Free Agent or Site Owner with Zamzuu there’s a very cool feature that personally I’ve been waiting for.

Twitter and Facebook integration.

Now Free Agents and Site Owners can link directly to hundreds of stores with a simple click of a button. See a special sale at Macy’s? Tell your Facebook family about it with a link directly to Macy’s through your ZamZuu site. They get cash back, and you get a commission.

How easy is that?

I’ve got about 1000 friends on Facebook, and a portion of them are also partners in YTB and ZamZuu. They’ve already gotten the hang of this feature, and they understand what a real game changer this is.

There’s still a bit of cleanup to be done, and more stores to add over the coming weeks. While the links are correct in the Facebook integration, the API pulls a generic description for ZamTek for example. (Easily changed manually at this point however.)

There are a couple bugs to be fixed – which is inevitable when a release like this is offered to the general public. Then the company will focus on the next upgrade.

Another upgrade you ask? Yes, another upgrade for the YTB Travel Network sites with much of the same functionality as our new ZamZuu sites.

Can you imagine?! The travel site upgrade was supposed to be released in two weeks during Funshine. However, with all the work being done with the ZamZuu sites, and the new partnership with Orbitz, Funshine has been postponed until the travel upgrade is ready for launch. If it’s anything like this ZamZuu launch – I can pretty much promise it will be worth the wait.

And to the folks at the Home Office who worked on this ZamZuu upgrade. Hot damn! This is a nice upgrade!

Many thanks to you for your hard work – and especially for implementing the features the field wanted most.

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One of the nice features about a blog is the ability to track how people find you. I’ve always kept a pretty close eye on search terms and referral links coming into this site because it’s one of the best ways to come up with new material and topics. It’s also a good indicator of what’s on people’s minds.

The biggest mistake I see people make when writing a blog is it’s all about them – and that’s the wrong way to look at it. If you want readership – you have to cater to topics that interest your readership. It’s not that you can’t write about what you want or have personal opinions about your topic of choice – but you really need to think from a readers perspective.

Case in point – a really hot search right now is finding an alternative to Bing’s Cash Back program. The current number of searches is alarming and plenty of people are scrambling for alternatives. When I wrote about Bing flushing their program back in June, not only did I find out that Bing wasn’t making any money, (giving 100% back to consumers who shopped there) but some of the extremely high cash back percentages were actually coming out of Bing’s pocket.

The plan behind stacking the percentages of cash back was to drive more user traffic. In a roundabout way, Bing was paying for more traffic in cash back in the hope that it would eventually lead to more advertising dollars. When you look at Google earning revenue of $22.8 BILLION in 2009 just in advertising revenue – you’d want a piece of that pie too. But Google also dominates 71% of all search queries in the United States, while Bing captures only 9%.

Microsoft in their infinite wisdom had a better plan. When Microsoft bought Jellyfish.com back in 2007 to get into the online shopping game they eventually stripped away the “refer a friend” percentages and the revenue split that Jellyfish.com made to continue to build and develop and gave it all away to the shopper – betting they could make it up in ad revenue.

The beginning of the end came in August of 2009 when Bing doubled their cash back percentages – costing them even more money without the sufficient ad revenue to compensate. They were betting that it would drive considerably more traffic and it did – for shoppers – but it never turned into loyal search users or more advertising dollars.

When Microsoft bought Jellyfish.com back in 2007; this small little company was profitable. The cash back splits were sufficient, and word of mouth or referrals were working like a charm. Although I had no idea who they were at the time, they were by far the fastest growing cash back option on the internet at the time. Dozens of startups tried to copy them or add their own little twist to get in on this growing trend of e-commerce.

But Bing had a better plan – while going head-to-head with traditional cashback programs firmly entrenched in the market for a decade or more: Ebates, MrRebates, Upromise, MyPoints, and Memolink.

While Bing was great for shoppers and garnered a number of loyal fans it was the wrong model for business. You can’t give away more than you make and stay in business for very long.

So loyal Bing shoppers are off searching for new alternatives. Some have already found them, while others appear to be somewhat disappointed that some of their favorite cash back stores have been cut in half.

If you’re a follower of this blog (or YTB and ZamZuu) you’re well aware of the illusions some people have about MLM and Network Marketing. How MLM is the only model who takes huge cuts out of their price to pay all the people at the top. It’s a myth and illusion I find fascinating. If you look at business as whole – every company has a pyramid structure to it. (So does government and your family tree for that matter.) Why MLM is singled out as being the only pyramid that’s wrong, immoral or a scam makes me question the intelligence of those who rant and rave with their harsh and bitter commentary.

When it comes to these shopping sites, most all out there keep about half the commission for themselves to stay in business. They need to pay for employees, local management, area management, and regional management, VP’s, Senior VP’s, Partners, Presidents and CEO’s. The higher up the pyramid (excuse me – make the “ladder”), the bigger your cut of the revenue earned.

How some miss that – makes me question their intelligence.

That being said, let’s look at ZamZuu simply from the consumer experience and compare it to other “traditional models” that have been around for a while.

When you take a look at this document which lists a side by side comparison of other leading cash back programs, you’ll clearly see that ZamZuu stacks up really well. While some may be a percentage or two higher or lower, nobody really comes out as a clear winner in this chart from a consumer point of view. It’s interesting to note that all the programs listed are “traditional models” and not MLM or Network Marketing companies.

From this perspective, ZamZuu is no different from a traditional model or cash back program.

The key difference for me and why I promote ZamZuu is the “refer a friend” percentage – which clearly trumps the others by a long shot. There is a distinct difference in model and mindset in this instance however. I look at ZamZuu as a business model – not a hobby. The ability to refer friends, family, neighbors, and co-worker and earn 60% of what they earn in cash back is the game changer for someone who understands business. Instead of that 60% going to the President or CEO of Fatwallet or Extrabux it comes to me as an Independent Business Owner.

Clearly, these “friends” will be hard pressed to find a better all-around cash back alternative for themselves in this growing market of online shopping. It’s free for them to sing up, and they have the added benefit of finding comparable travel deals through a 10 year old Travel Agency that also ranks with other power houses in the industry.

Just our way of separating fact from the fiction. More like illusions if you ask me – but that’s another article for another day.

So if someones looking for an alternative to Bing Cash back – feel free to save this document and show them a side by side comparison. I can promise you, they won’t have any better relationship with anyone from these other companies. But they do have one with you.

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Yes, it’s true. Bing is flushing it’s cashback program effective July 30, 2010. While some believed that nobody could compete with the likes of Bing, it turns out it was Bing who couldn’t compete with the likes of “us”.

A program update was posted late last week which reads as follows:

Dear valued cashback customer:

We are writing to notify you that the Bing cashback program will be discontinued, and the last day to earn cash back on your Bing Shopping purchases will be July 30, 2010.

~~~~

Thank you very much for being a loyal cashback user. We remain committed to delivering great value to our customers, and we are currently working on an exciting new program which you will hear more about from us later this summer.

Sincerely,

Bing cashback Team

WOW! Just WOW!

I guess Bing wasn’t a better alternative after all. (Although, some will never admit that.) Others, who have been using the program appear to be extremely upset.

So why couldn’t the almighty Bing pull this off? Couple of reasons come to mind – but what it boils down to is that Bing was the wrong model all the way around.

First, Bing was throwing money at this – taking (in part) their advertising revenue and offering it up as cash back to customers. Great ROI for stores and a good deal for customers – but very bad for Bing. I have no idea what possessed them to make such a bonehead move, but it cost them a ton of money.

Internet advertising is one of the largest shifts in spending (and therefore wealth) we could see in our lifetime. I wrote about this transfer of wealth back in April and linked to reported profits in the billions for Google, and how Yahoo doubled its yearly revenue via online ads. The amount of money being spent right now in online advertising and pay per click revenue is the single biggest reason why I got involved with MyShoppingGenie.

Not Bing – they gave it away, and because they’re trying to catch up with the other two leaders, the easiest person to screw here is their own customers.

Bing is currently in third place behind Google and Yahoo – Google handles 71% of all search queries in the United States, while Yahoo handles around 15% and Bing around 9%. What’s even worse is that the few customers who did switch from Google over to Bing for the cash back option will most certainly switch back over to Google come July.

And what did Google do as an alternative to cashback to customers? They got involved in the Affiliate Network boom providing a link between advertisers and publishers who want to increase sales and drive leads through affiliate marketing. (Hummm – kind of sounds like another company I know…) Those who can advertise and sell on their own now earn the commissions from the retailers – a much more savvy and business minded clientele for Google. While Bing (Microsoft) has alienated and ticked off even more people, just watch how Google will become an even bigger player in online search and Internet advertising because of it.

Second, early adoption like shopping online is driven through referrals, not a search engine. Currently, only 10% of all shopping is done online. While that number will most certainly grow, it’s going to be driven by word of mouth, not advertising. Companies like Commission Junction, LinkShare, and even Google’s Affiliate program are thriving right now because every day people are promoting the products – not some search engine.

Don’t believe me? Go take a look at ClickBank and the money they pay out to every day individuals. There’s a “payout calculator” on the top right hand corner of the web site. Every one of their products are digital, and none of them are offered through big box retailer – and every bit of it generated through links and word of mouth by everyday people like you and me.

e-Bay is another powerhouse that’s done completely online, generating more revenue each year than the entire MLM and Direct Sales Industry COMBINED. None of it generated by a big name retailer – but by everyday people – and some make 6 figures a year doing it. The vast majority e-Bay’s popularity wasn’t generated through traditional advertising dollars either – but through word of mouth.

That’s a sales force that big corporations can’t compete with. It’s why Network Marketing and Direct Sales have worked over the last 120 years. It’s far more intimate and personal than a big powerhouse like Bing – especially when you combine Social Media into this mix.

Our world is changing at a rapid pace because of the internet – and so are our buying habits. For those who want to get involved and capture a part of it – now is the time to get to work. (It’s not going to just come to you – you’ve got to act and work for it.) Those who get that will thrive and profit.

Those who don’t…well, they’ll be left with more egg on thier face because they haven’t a clue.

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