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Work In-Progress

July 25, 2007 by Jeremy · 1 Comment 

As with most grassroots business (or is it most business?), things are perpetually changing around here, with “here” being a fluid idea that encompasses Buy Shoes. Save Lives. volunteers in America, shoemakers in Iraq, or this weird “here” called the Internet and BSSL’s online home, buyshoessavelives.com.

“Here” in America things are changing as one donor has given $1,500 for marketing and advertising expenses. We’re currently researching options for how to best spend that money, what demographic to pursue, and the timing of such an investment.

“Here” in Iraq we’ve made our first purchase of over 30 pairs of shoes and shipped them to the States. If you ordered before July 15th, your klash are only a few more weeks away from arriving at your door so you can rock the ‘hood.

“Here” in Iraq we’re aslo trying to do some travel this week to learn more about the shoe-making process and to potentially cut out the middle man, thereby allowing more funds for heart surgeries.

“Here” at buyshoessavelives.com we had a generous investment of time by a American business ownver who did an in-depth review of the site and gave us some tips on how to cut out the fat and beef up the beef. We’re not the most savvy guys around, and we didn’t start this thing because we were marketing gurus or salesmen, but we’re doing our best to keep up with demand and communicate what we have going on here and why others should want in on it.

Thanks for hanging with us. Keep checking the blog…. there’s more exciting things around the corner.

Jeremy & Cody

         

Online Store Radified

July 16, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

To “ratify” is to approve or confirm something. To vote “yes.”

To “radify,” however, is to make something cooler or better; that is, to make it more rad. You can also “coolify” something or “sweetify” if you’re so inclined. We were so inclined. So we went over the top and made it better for you.

Changes we made:

Delineating the Classic klash color options into three different products with corresponding pictures.

Added a notice that you can pay by mail-in check or cash. Just email us for details.

Removed US Shoe Size parameter. It’s proving to be useless, as even US companies do not have consistent sizing standards.

Replaced US shoe size parameter with a mandatory “Measure your foot in centimeters” parameter. We included instructions on how to Google your foot’s measurement in inches in order to get the centimeterage.

At checkout, we made a mandatory field for your foot in centimeters just to ensure that we can serve you best.

Additionally, many of you have asked about making donations. Apparently you already have enough hand-made, hand-dyed, hand-spun shoes from Iraq in your wardrobe and you just want to help the children. We applaud you. That’s why we radified the site. You can now make a donation of your designation from the online store and foot the bill in lieu of making an actual product purchase.

You guys never cease to amaze us. Keep the viral marketing going, and let us know how we can help you help us help kids.

The Radifier

         

Web Store Down (4pm-6:20pm)

July 16, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

The web store was down today from roughly 4 p.m. to 6:20 p.m. (Central). We apologize for the inconvenience and the ugly notification that appeared on the store. We strive to not be ugly. Hence the super rad shoes.

The store should be operational again thanks to the skilled hands and nerdy coding genius of Nick Means from the Helium Syndicate. Be sure to hire Nick to do something nerdy and beautiful for you.

Thanks, Nick.

The Coding-Incompetent Guy Who Was Messing Around Under the Hood

         

One Degree of Separation from the President’s Wife

July 15, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Today Buy Shoes. Save Lives. was just one degree of separation away from the First Lady of Iraq. This is one very good thing about media here: if you know someone high up at a media office, they are inherently close to the most important people in the country.

So today we pitched Buy Shoes. Save Lives. to two different people who “know” the First Lady. I leave it up to you to guess what that actually means for us. I currently have no idea.

The First Lady is well-known for her organization, Save the Children. It was all but guaranteed that she could at least expedite the visa process for children we send abroad. That is no small thing, as we currently know of two children who need medical care but are held up in process for a visa.

But there’s also potentially funding available - and I’m hopeful she would like the idea of us creating one of the first non-oil Iraqi exports.

So, if you are one who prays, please do so tonight, asking God to make this a networking opportunity that does not fall flat in the Iraqi dust. We admit that we are nobodies, know no one, and need as much help as we can get. Therefore, we hope to close the last degree of separation and get some sort of underwriting for our attempts to help Iraqi children.

Thanks.

Jeremy and Cody

         

What Do I Do with a Flyer?

July 14, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

We’re huge fans of flyers. If you design something you want to be considered for inclusion on the site, just send us a .jpg to buyshoessavelives@gmail.com.

We’ve posted two new flyers today, moving away from the strickly clean white to a more colorful, layered display. Check them out on the downloads page.

“What do I do with a flyer?” you ask?

Our flyers are 8.5″ x 11″ - the perfect size for you to throw a few sheets of paper in your nearby printer. Print out 5, 10, 50 copies and take them to a public place where the posting of notices is allowed and encouraged.

Places we suggest:

Local Mosques - We’re helping the people of Iraq in two tangible ways: economically and physically. Ask local mosque leaders in your city to support and encourage this type of inter-faith, inter-national cooperation.

Church Building Bulletin Boards - because we are doing something that the Church has historically been very supportive of (creatively loving the poor).

Coffee Houses - Let’s face it - coffee houses can’t get enough flyers.

The Office - every one needs something to read at the water cooler. Why not make it global in scope and useful in nature for a change?

Bathrooms - We’re not above it. Take a few to each stall in your local mall and leave them there for the next visitor.

The Street - it’s a catchy name “Buy Shoes. Save Lives.” Put 50 flyers in the hands of pedestrians downtown and one of them is bound to log on to see what we’re about. It would take you all of 30 minutes.

You guys are amazing. If I were there, I’d print a flyer and fold it into an airplane and fly it across the classroom to my friend who hadn’t yet heard that shoes save lives.

Flyers also make great front pages for binders, great wallpapers for desktops, and good dunce caps.

Please recycle.

Flyer Distribution Task Force

         

Kids Shoes?

July 14, 2007 by Jeremy · 1 Comment 

When you say “kids shoes,” what sizes do you have in mind? Do you mean middle schoolers, or toddlers?

We could certainly put kids shoes for sale - they hand-make them just like everything else. Let us know exactly what sizes interest you and we’ll do some research as to what we could do.

If nothing else, let us just say ‘thanks’ for your interest and willingness to make this a family attempt to serve and help Iraqi people. It’s really a beautiful thing for us to witness…

Jeremy & Cody

         

Writers Wanted

July 14, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

Many of you are bloggers and we absolutely love all the posts you’ve written this week letting others in your circles know what’s going on here. Please do not quit - give weekly updates and for those who have purchased shoes, make sure and do follow up posts after you receive your product.

But many of you see “blogging” as the poor man’s writing. You wax too eloquent to be held down by a online diary. Great! Put your wax to work…

We want writers. We need writers. We need you.

We need you to create more buzz for saving Iraqi children by writing an article for online magazines or your local neighborhood/city newspaper.

Here’s two online mags where you could get started - mags that might already be sensitive to what we’re doing:

Tree Hugger (online) - Create and account at hugg.com and submit a news story about us and the way in which our shoes are completely eco-friendly.

Relevant (online and print)

Do you know of something else? Thanks for taking the initiative in contacting them with an article! If you’re a writer, you probably have a unique conviction: words can actually make a difference in the world.

So thank you for leveraging your words for something good. The people of Iraq thank you - and so do we.

- The Want Ads Guy

         

Traffic Report

July 14, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

I’m amazed at the Internet. God bless you, Al Gore!

When we check the reports each day, it is becoming increasingly clear that you guys are behind this thing, because there’s no way we’ve generated this buzz by ourselves.

We’ve now had over 900 unique visitors from China, Korea, Africa, Indonesia, Chile, Columbia, Bolivia, Italy, Germany, the United Arab Emirates and a lot of other places, as well! That amazes us!

Do you know anyone India? We don’t. How about Australia? It’s the only continent that apparently hasn’t heard the news yet. Japan anyone? I don’t have any contacts there, but you do. Let them know.

And if anyone wants to submit banners for different languages, just submit them in the comments section below.

Keep checking back each day. It helps our status in Google, and the higher we climb in Google, the greater likelyhood that someone will stumble across us while looking for “shoes” or “Iraq.” When that day comes, we’ll truly be able to help Iraqi children with greater speed and frequency.

peace,

Passport Control

         

$2,000 in Revenues and Climbing

July 12, 2007 by Jeremy · 2 Comments 

Most companies publish quarterly earnings. We thought quarter-week earnings might be appropriate today.

If you’ve checked out the site, enjoyed what you see, and finally click on the store only to be shocked by $100/pair we just thought you should know that you wouldn’t be the only person who has actually purchased a pair.

In four days - just four days - we’ve cleared $2,000. You’re not crazy to invest $100 in shoes and saving lives. We are doing our absolute best to juggle the sticky matrix of paying local merchants a great price for their work, keeping our own overhead as low as is reasonably possible, and thereby have the most profit to reinvest into heart-surgeries for Iraqi children.

With this money we’re actually able to purchase our first inventory this week and set us on the way to having merchandise to sell specifically for heart-surgeries - no longer for overhead alone.

         

BSSL Goes International(Or Were We Already International?)

July 12, 2007 by Jeremy · Leave a Comment 

We’re receiving traffic from China, Turkey, Iraq, Germany, Italy, Chile, and other countries worldwide. Stateside we’re filling orders from New York, Pennsylvania, California, Texas, and Arizona.

We’ve been amazed at the response of this thing so far. Thanks for linking to our site and all your blog reactions. This is the kind of grassroots marketing and support that will help us the most. You are more valuable to us than a $1000 ad in such-and-such magazine. And what’s more important - the less money we spend ourselves on marketing, the more money that goes to children.

So keep talking and keep posting and keep email others and sending SMS messages and talking it up on myspace, facebook, xanga, and chat rooms. Your help thus far has been priceless!

peace

International Guerilla Marketing Squad

         

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