Now this is funny…Google’s April fools day joke is the first I came across this year. Just subtle enough to be believable.
“I’ve always felt uneasy about the whole internet thing. With the help of Gmail Paper, now I’m taking matters back into my own hands, literally.â€
I like wine. I am no connoisseur, but my idea of a good night out is dinner with friends and a bloody good bottle of Pinot Noir…infact it was over one such dinner that me and my mate Steve decided to start a wine business. My brother Sam has since invested as well, and while it is an extra-curricular thing we do it has been steadily growing and got a boost this week with a mention in Australia’s biggest daily newspaper, The Sydney Morning Herald…
Backdoorwine is a site for Australian winemakers to list surplus inventory (canceled export orders etc) for sale direct to the public. In Australia these are known as cellar door sales, and the obvious benefit of BDW is brilliant prices achieved by only focusing on discounted inventory and cutting out expensive middle men.
BDW is different to a regular online wine shop because it doesn’t actually sell any wine itself. It exists only as an advertising channel and order routing mechanism. When consumers place an order (Australian delivery only) the system splits the order as required and securely routes the order direct to the Vineyard for processing and shipping direct. We make a small commission on completed sales which the system tracks (pay for performance).
The site itself is also interesting in the way it is basically set up like a blog, so as new offers come up they are listed in reverse chronology. Consumers can subscribe to a feed of all new offers posted on the site, while other sites can syndicate the wine list if they are so inclined. Each wine on the list also has its own permalink, and the next step will be to add a comment type feature which will manifest as reviews by people who have actually ordered particular wines.
We’ve been quietly working on the site for a while now, but with this recent media mention the time feels right to post about it.
If I have any Australian readers in the market for a case of good value wine, please head on over there ;)
Here’s something I’ve been mucking around with, questions.co.nz.
I often get questions about travel in NZ from friends and colleagues coming downunder, so when I saw that the questions.co.nz domain was dropped by the previous owner I thought why not…The site is kinda like a forum but centered specifically around a Q & A paradigm, in this case a place to ask any questions you might have about New Zealand.
There is no registration to ask or answer a question, and it has some neat features to track categories and specific questions…
The site has been live in the current state for a few weeks now and has even had some questions submitted just by virtue of having the good domain name. But if you have any questions yourself or know anyone with questions please send them our way…and of course any linkage would be much appreciated.
Feedback and comments welcome.
PS – Yes, I already know it looks all screwy in IE…working on it.
Yesterday was the last episode of The Show…bummer. Ze Frank is one of the savviest and funniest guys to ever get in front of a camera and make a daily video log of whatever caught his fancy…the really amazing thing was how consistently brilliant it was. Way more compelling that 99.999% of the rubbish that passes for network programming. Plus he’s got the craziest facial expressions.
I can’t wait to see what he does next.
I told you they were on the ball. Stephan has just announced the new version of the WordPress SEO Title Tag Plugin developed by himself and the developers at Netconcepts. Very sweet…installing right now.
Next week is my last at House of Travel. I’ve been in the online travel business for a bit over a year now, and it has been fabulous. House of Travel is a brilliant place to work…the people are cool, the business environment fast and challenging, and if ever there was an industry being revolutionized by the web it is travel. I will look back on the past year very fondly, and will forever be an interested observer of the local online travel industry.
That said, I am also very excited by the next phase in my working life as I take up a position as GM for Netconcepts‘ local business. Started way back pre-boom in Madison (WI) by Stephan Spencer, Netconcepts has carved out a very strong niche for itself, particularly in the online retail space, developing innovative products like Gravitystream, and offering a full suite of web marketing and development services to boot. The caliber of the team they’ve built is second to none.
Luckily for me, Stephan decided to emigrate to New Zealand a few years back and set up a regional office here in Auckland. Fast forward to present day and the local office is still growing, and with the scope for further growth in the New Zealand market comes the opportunity for me to join the team and help make it happen. Bring it on!
The decision for me to join Netconcepts was a total no brainer. If you’ve followed any of this blog over the last few years you know that I maintain a pretty broad passion for all the ways the web is changing business and social transactions, not just in terms of marketing but also media and product distribution and consumption. To go work for a business dedicated to helping businesses do all this stuff is very exciting. Of course it didn’t hurt that I already knew quite a bit about Netconcepts from the client perspective having worked with them while at House of Travel.
The good news for surfarama.com is that I fully expect the new job is going to stimulate me to blog more than ever, which is probably a relief if you’ve stuck with me as an RSS subscriber eventhough most of the posts have been syndicated bookmarks from del.icio.us for the last 6 months ;)
