Phone Card Mania Launches New Look and Cash Back

PhoneCardMania.com has a new look and feel this week, with the same great selection of phone cards and an easier to navigate interface. Along with the new design, phonecardmania.com has launched a loyalty program that rewards their frequent buyers with 3% cash back on all orders. "Our regular customers are our bread and butter and we needed to implement a program that treats them special" said Emma Lee President of marketing. The site also now included a live chat feature to help answer customer questions quicker and more effectively. "Our goal is to convert every visitor into a sale and we felt Live Chat was a valuable tool to help do that" said Mrs. Lee.

According to Mrs. Lee the redesign of the site has been a long time in the making "it has been a big undertaking to introduce the new look and features but is long overdue and it was designed with the customer in mind."

Visit the new look site at http://www.phonecardmania.com/

Viscom Gets Creative and Releases a Phone Card "Consumer Bill of Rights"

Viscom International Inc., an Atlanta based provider of phone cards and marketing services, created a new marketing gimmick to cash in on the recent bad press the phone card business has been receiving. They have created the first phone card "Consumer Bill of Rights" to help set a new standard on the phone card business.

Their Bill of Rights goes as follows:

-- The consumer will always receive the number of minutes that
is prompted on a call.

There will NEVER be a voice prompt given on a phone card that does not deliver what the consumer expects on that call -- the number of minutes on the voice prompt will ALWAYS be the number of minutes delivered on that call. If the voice prompt says 60 minutes, that does not mean 58 minutes.

-- Viscom fee information is 100% transparent.

All fees or other methods of reducing the original value or remaining balance will be disclosed on each card, rate posters, Viscom's Web site, and other point-of-sale materials.

-- Viscom products will be easy to use and understand.

Viscom products will always be easy to use (access numbers clearly identified), easy to understand (in the consumer's own language) and will explain exactly what the consumer will receive with their purchase (rate structure clearly explained).

-- Viscom offers real Spanish language customer service.

Viscom consumers will have full access to a live customer service representative, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, in the customer's own language.

-- Viscom offers a 100% product guarantee.

If the product does not work to the customer's satisfaction, Viscom will replace the product or provide a refund.

-- All Viscom products offer quality minutes.

Viscom offers a typical grace period of 25 seconds on each call to ensure customers are not charged if their call is answered by an answering machine or if they call a wrong number.

Source Marketwatch

Get Your Own Online Phone Card Store - Little to No Experience Required!

For many phone card distributors, selling online is an impossible task! You need to get a hosting server, register a domain, hire a web designer, purchase and install a shopping cart software, register for a merchant account and then hire customer service agents to handle all of the issues. Most likely some of you have though about opening up an online store but get scared away by all of the work! Well don't worry, I have a quick and easy solution for you to get your very own online phone card store up an running with none of the headaches and very little work!

Vtel Phone Cards offers a virtual phone card store where you can register your own domain and start selling phone cards with your brand and your name. How it works is simple:

1) Register at Vtel Phone Cards
2) Choose your stores name and register your own domain name
3) Pick from one of over a dozen off the shelf store templates or customize with your own HTML (requires some web design experience).
4) Drive customers to your site
5) Earn a commission on every sale for the life of that customer (ranges from 8 to 13%)

Best of all you don't have to worry about any of the day to day management issues like order fulfilment, credit card processing, fraud control or customer service... it's all done for you! All you do is drive traffic to your site to get sales and watch the money roll in!

Once you reach $50 in earnings you can request payment by either a check or via PayPal! I know of some people making well over $2,500 a month with this program!

Check it out now and be sure to sign up!

Phone Card Commercial Web Site

Ever since I started this blog years ago, I have been posting phone card tv commercials and I have always received a tremendous response. As a result of all of your feedback requesting more of these videos, I have decided to create a web page with all of the phone card tv commercials I could find.

I didn't want to place them all here on the blog as it would ruin the readability of the site so I created a squidoo page with all of the videos. In total there are close to 60 phone card commercials on the new site, mostly Spanish language ones and mostly US commercials with a few international ones sprinkled in where I saw fit.

So for all you phone card marketing people... enjoy the new site:
http://www.squidoo.com/phonecardcommercials

Suffering Through The Month of May!!!

I can't wait for May and June to be over, as these have been and still are the weakest sales months for me! I know this is not unique to my business as many of my friends have the same complaints. Prepaid mobile saves me a little bit as this part of my business seems to remain steady all year long but phone card sales, which make up for most of my revenue, really takes a nose dive.

With the downtime I have been adding some new products into the mix , like prepaid cash cards (low demand and low profit margin), prepaid home phone service (just acting as an agent), and also picked up one international mobile top up product which I plan to introduce in the coming months. Hopefully some of these new products help counter my consistent decline in prepaid phone card sales.

This business is getting tough and you just need to hustle a lot more to survive but if you keep innovating and moving I believe you can survive and prosper.

New Unlimited Phone Card Will Shake Up Industry!

Europhone USA, an MVNO, phone card distributor and authorized Verizon Fios dealer based out of Port Chester NY, announced yesterday that they plan to introduce an unlimited prepaid phone card to the US market. The card will be available in a $5 version which will give a weeks worth of unlimited calling, and a $20 card which will deliver a months worth of unlimited calling. It averages out to a cost to the consumer of about $0.72 a day.

The card will include unlimited calling to about 40 destinations worldwide but unfortunately I could not find any details yet of what those countries are from either the press release or their website http://www.europhoneusa.com/.

Depending on the countries that are included this card is sure to disrupt the prepaid calling card market in the USA by continuing to devalue the cost of long distance calls. Unlimited phone cards have been tried before and most have failed and I doubt the provider here will be able to sustain this one for long but nevertheless the damage to the overall industry will be felt by this. Hey I am all for giving the consumer a good deal but not when it means that you loose money in doing so!

You can read the full press release from Europhone USA here

Expanding Beyond Phone Cards to Get More Business

In this article, the second article in a long series of articles on the prepaid industry, we will be covering some alternative products that can be added to the traditional phone card business model. While most of these apply to the distribution business, some can also be applied to service provider model as well.

Prepaid Wireless:

Many traditional prepaid phone card providers like IDT, STI and Oblio have already entered into this market with the expectation that their existing distribution networks will take to the product the same way that they did with calling cards. At the beginning many of the phone card distributors all jumped on board and all signs pointed to big success. But unfortunately the consumer demand for prepaid mobile services in the US had yet to materialize making for some painfully slow sales. Add this to the fact that the distributors had to invest in expensive handsets upfront and were making far smaller margins than they were with calling cards, and you saw a quick decline in the distribution channels willingness to push this side of their business.

The good news is that market demand is finally rising, mostly due to the strong acceptance among the Latin American markets and a greater overall acceptance of prepaid services. There are also far less players today than in years past (no more ESPN mobile, AMP'd mobile and Disney Mobile) making for a less crowded and more profitable industry.

If you are willing to make a little bit of an upfront investment than this can be a lucrative product to add to your mix.

POSA:

Long time touted as the next big thing in prepaid, POSA has generated far more press than it ever generated sales. While I really don't want to get into the finer details of POSA, one thing worth mentioning is that if you can align yourself with the right partners and have the right connections to get into chain stores, this is a product than can help you increase your incremental revenues. To deploy the service you will require a fair amount of technical expertise but don't worry too much about this as most providers are usually more than happy to help in this area.

Also be very careful in this market as there are a lot of patent violation lawsuits on this technology currently being fought over in court. Research your providers and partners heavily to make sure they have the licences, patents and expertise before getting into this business.

International Mobile Phone Rentals:

This is fast becoming a big business here in the United States, with mobile phone rental agencies providing short and long term phones to students and business professionals traveling abroad. The demand for this product is created by the fact that most European countries work on the GSM network, a format not supported by too many US companies, making it almost impossible to use your existing phone outside of North America (some US companies like T-Mobile work on the GSM network but are far too expensive when used for making or receiving calls overseas).

The real challenge with this business is the distribution. In order to succeed you will need to either develop a partnership with a major retail chain like a Western Union or a partnership with travel agencies and even possibly some specific online entities (this last one you can do yourself if you have the e-business savvy).

International Mobile Phone Top-Up Cards:

I had never heard anything about this product until I walked into a Western Union one day and saw an advertisement on the wall to buy top up minutes for your friends and family in Mexico. While I am not sure about how the fulfilment process works (is it through POSA or IVR), it seems to make perfect sense as the Mexicans here are always sending money back home so why not top off their mobile phone minutes at the same time.

The major hurdle here at this point would be finding someone who provides this type of product here in the US. Nevertheless a very interesting product!

Honorary mention:

While the 4 products mentioned above are what I feel would fit the best into the prepaid phone card distribution channel there are a number of other products that can be considered as well like: prepaid gift cards, prepaid translation cards, prepaid Voip, and prepaid utility programs.

Shopping for Phone Cards Online

With each passing year, the business of selling phone cards online seems to be getting larger and larger. It used to be that the average phone card user was not Internet or credit enabled but in today's easy credit market, it seems like things are changing. More and more companies are coming out with online stores offering cheap phone cards to the public. Their used to just be a handful of sites like:

blackstoneonline.com
sdicard.com
9278.com
phonecardsavers.com
nobelcom.com

Today we are seeing dozens more sites coming into the mix... companies like

speedypin.com
comfi.com
phonecardmania.com
phonecardsmile.com
and more...

For all of you phone card providers and distributors who aren't selling online today, you are missing out on a very nice revenue stream!

For more info on getting your online phone card sales business going feel free to contact me.

Where Have All of The Prepaid Customers Gone?

Going, Going, Gone!

So many in the prepaid calling card business have been suffering through declining sales as the customer base continues to move towards other sources for making long distance phone calls. We know that many continue to use calling cards because of their convenience and savings, but where are all of the rest going to make their calls?

Calling Card Demographics

As far as I can tell, phone card customers are mostly immigrants and are generally credit challenged. They naturally prefer cash transactions as that is what they grew comfortable within their home country. Credit card availability is also less common elsewhere than in the United States.

What Has Changed?

In recent years, the credit card companies have started to cater to the immigrant population more than ever before, especially in the Hispanic market. As a result more and more immigrants are getting credit cards than ever before. Also with prepaid credit cards getting a bigger push than ever before, many who would have never had the credit status to qualify for a post paid credit card are now able to join the ranks of the credit enabled.

What This Means?

What this means is that many of these former prepaid phone card customers are now able to choose from a variety of other services that have been unavailable to them before: Mobile phones, Prepaid Cellular, Voip and traditional long distance as well.

These other companies have also been making a cognitive push towards the ethnic markets by lowering their LD rates to levels commonly reserved by the phonecard industry. Some, like Skype, have taken it a step further by offering free long distance. It's hard to compete with free so what can you do?

Look Ahead

Diversify, diversify, diversify is the answer! Unfortunately their is no one easy answer as to what to do and the answers will differ by each businesses strengths and weaknesses. Some things to consider: Prepaid Mobile (lower margins but a growing business), Voip services, Internet Affiliate programs and so much more... just put your thinking cap on and give it a try!

Phone Card Graphic Designer Starts Her Own Business

One of the best freelance phone card graphic designers, Liz Broes, has decided to start up her own business and asked me if I would give her plug.

I had used her in the past to design a few cards, posters and trade show materials and was always pleased with the work, so I have no problem recommending her to everyone.

Her company is called Em Dash Design and you can visit their website at www.emdashdesign.ca

If you are looking to take your product to a more professional look and feel, I strongly recommend using her graphic designer services.

She can be reached via email at studio@emdashdesign.ca or by phone at 1-514-499-3336

DMOZ a Forgotten Wasteland?

I noticed that the Telecommunications section of DMOZ.com has not been updated with new listings for some time and contains many old listings which are no longer relevant. I understand that DMOZ utilizes "strict" guidelines for its listings but I have yet to get any one of the sites I work with listed! I have been working with some telecommunications companies that have websites dating back to the late 90s and are very reputable... Yet none have been listed!!

Seems like they don't much care about staying current....

Not sure who the editors of this category are but it seems as if those involved (most likely telecom professionals) are selfishly trying to protect their websites from the competition. I have listings on all of the other major directories like Yahoo, BOTW, Joeant, business.com and so many more but yet can't get three sites listed after two years of waiting for the editors of DMOZ to give me a listing. DMOZ better shape up and change their strategy or risk being left out in the cold in the fast changing internet landscape!

Getting Your Telecom Site Found on the Internet

There are so many players in the Telcom space today that it is becoming increasingly hard to get your small to mid sized company found on the world wide web. Part of my job over the past year has been helping these types of companies overcome the big boys, by making them more visible on the web.

While I can't give away all of my trade secrets to becoming more visible on the web, I thought I would at least share the basics to help get you started:

1) Identify the major trade publications for your industry and see if they have an online web directory and post your link

2) Submit your site to all of the free directories you can find. While not the greatest thing, it will help get you started.

3) Buy a handful of directory listings with the major players like joeant.com, yahoo.com and businesseek.com

4) Find other web sites in a similar industry and ask them for links (you would be supprised what many people will do for nothing in return... yes there still are some good people left in this world).

5) Trade links with others in your industry

6) Create an affiliate program with Link Share where you pay people commission for qualified sales that they bring to your site. This is great because you only pay for sales and not clicks.

7) Buy AdWords on Google and Yahoo... don't go crazy but this is a essential part of any online marketing program. These are pay per click programs so expect to pay a little more than with LinkShare since you are paying for each click on the link and not for sales.

8) Buy a few well placed banners on some major sites like yahoo. This is expensive and you pay by impressions but it can be helpful for branding.

9) Try some shopping sites like shopping.com and yahoo shopping. These are also pay per click programs but unlike the adsense programs they bring you much more targeted visitors and a better CPA.

10) Post your URL in a few subject relevant guesbooks... be careful as this can get you blacklisted by the search engines so keep it to a minimum... no more than 20 or so tops!

11) Try posting on some free online classifieds

12) Ask your friends and family with web sites to give you a link!

You don't have to follow all of these to be successful but doing some will definitely help and remember be patient it can take months for search engines to take notice of your hard work.

Good Luck!

Top Ten Benefits to a Prepaid Phone Card

I often get asked “what is the benefit to using a prepaid phone card to make long distance calls.” Having answered this question so many times I decided that it would be beneficial to share my top ten list with everyone:

1) You will save lots of money vs. regular long distance - At&t can charge as much as $0.50 a minute to call some countries while prepaid cards usually cost about 1/3 less

2) They are portable! Ever found a time when you were at another family member’s house and needed to make a long distance phone call but felt guilty about running up your hosts phone bill? With a phone card you don't have to worry as you are now paying the bill!

3) Great for emergencies - carry a low value one with you in case you need to make an emergency call from a pay phone and have no change

4) They can be used to make long distance calls from your cell phone - Everyone knows that they will be taken to the cleaners by their cellular company if they make a long distance call outside of their plan but with a phone card you now use your cell phone to make long distance calls and not have to give up your 1st born to pay the bill

5) You can use them from your office - Many companies don't allow their employees to make long distance calls from work and in some cases they even block all non local calls. With a phone card you don't have to worry about your boss getting mad as now you can flip the bill using your prepaid phone card.

6) Perfect for traveling - No traveler should leave home without a phone card! If you are traveling internationally make sure to find a phone card with access numbers from the country to which you are traveling. A great traveler’s phone card is Net2Phone Direct

7) They can be rechargeable! Most of the phone cards with the super low rates are usually meant for one time use but you can find some good ones with low rates that can be recharged!

8) You don't need to sign up for a monthly plan to get the best rates. You can use it when, how and wherever you like!

9) Allows you to better budget your long distance calls! You can keep track of the amount you spend and limit yourself by only buying the amount you want to use! No more surprises at the end of the month where you are asking yourself why did you spend so much and if I only new it would have been this much money I would have talked a little bit less.

10) They are easy to use!

Are Blogs a Good Place for Promoting Businesses?

I have been running an internet store for the last two years and I have become very familiar with the art of internet promotion for my wares and how to drive traffice to my site. It seems to me though that over the last few months most blogs, which at first were a nice way to exchange ideas and provide each there own soapbox, are now becoming a spam heaven!

I spend hours on end searching throuh hundreds of spam blogs just to find one of interest. I have no problem with someone trying to get a plug for their site but they should at least try and contribute something of value to the online community.