Thanks to our winners, our ads are beginning to drive new members to iConsumer. Better yet, prospective members seem to like the ads, because they get clicked on a lot. Which means a level of affordability in gaining new members that we hadn’t seen in awhile.
Our relationship with retailers falls into the category of “affiliate marketing” or “performance marketing”. Amazon uses it (they call the folks who hawk Amazon on their sites “associates”). Rakuten (formerly eBates – which sold for over $400 per member) is in this market. Honey, which sold to Paypal for over $200 per member, is also an affiliate marketer. The NY Times is an affiliate marketer, via their Wirecutter site.
Please take note of the fact that the estimated value of the audience we’re building far exceeds the direct cost of building that audience
We’ve published our 2021 year-end financial statements – our SEC mandated 1-K. In the traditional public company world (if we were a “fully-reporting” company), this filing would be called a 10-K. The important difference between the two is the depth that we’re required to go into creating the statements, plus the level of audit required. … Continue reading 2021 1-K Filed – Annual Report
Sure, you can use a competitor to get cash back. But that has no magic, no opportunity for an exponential return. Even if you turn around and invest that cash back into Microsoft stock. Microsoft’s stock price may go up (or down), but it’s unlikely to double, triple, or go up 400% in the near future. Or even the far future. It’s way too big for that to happen. The beauty of a start-up lies in the potential of exponentiality.
As you’ve probably noticed, Amazon is no longer paying us commissions when you shop there. We had been growing that revenue stream quite nicely, and my guess is that they decided they didn’t need us any longer. I’m very disappointed, but wasn’t surprised, since they aren’t doing business with folks like Rakuten anymore, either. It’ll … Continue reading Amazon vs. Walmart
I’m pleased to convey that, provisionally, our September cash gross profit (revenue minus the cash cost of revenue) looks to be 13X last September’s number.
Our Form 1-SA was filed with the SEC on Friday. It’s our financial recap of the first six months of 2021. In this posting I get to go into more detail about what we’ve experienced, why we’ve experienced it, and some thoughts on the balance of the year. All with a focus on cash.
I’m quite pleased with Amazon this month (it’s one of our canaries in our coal mine – a leading indicator). As always, these numbers are preliminary, subject to change without notice, and may be a misguided leading indicator. (Sometimes it’s just the canary’s time to go.)
Good things are happening. Some of them are easy to see publicly (our new member count, for instance). Some will become apparent when we issue our semi-annual financials next month. Some you can interpolate from watching how many shares are being earned.