Posts from — June 2008

June 30, 2008
Tonight I laid in bed for about an hour before I realized there was no way I was sleeping a wink.  Tonight was not my night for sleep I guess.  However, it is now 2:21 am and I have seriously discovered some of the coolest things for my mac book that will definitely add to my productivity in the near future.  

Safari 3.1 Opening new links in a new tab and NOT a new window automatically
I have been using Mozilla Firefox religiously since I first heard of it a few years back.  The Tab feature is glorious.  In one web browser window I could tab it up with everything from email, news, and anything else I was working on.  I now use a mac and after attempting all browsers from Opera, Camino, Shiira, Seamonkey, and good ol’ fashion Firefox for Mac, I ultimately liked Safari the most….but when you click a new link it always opens up a new window.  Of course you can command click it every time but come on!  And to no avail in the prefs Apple apparently hasn’t had 12 million requests yet for this feature because you can’t adjust this…they must only be at 9 million so far.  
After reading up on some forums I found this magical piece of code that makes my life sweet.  

Open source mac software for just about anything…its free and legal and it kicks ass!
 I love new features and fucntionality and I like Free.  Once more, I like if the free things kick ass.  Here is an awesome site for really making your Mac killer.  From word processors, podcasting, web browsers, and financial software, this site has a bit of everything.  

Pandora as an application, not a browser window…..so you don’t accidentally close it like I do every ten seconds!

Pandora.com totally rocks, great music streams, solid variety, and commercial free besides visual ads.  However, I am a clumsy web surfer and sometimes my speed at which I modify my tabs or windows exceeds my ability to preserve my current Pandora song.  I find myself always closing the tab mid song and thats a bummer!  Well after a google search I found that Pandora now offers a desktop software (in beta) to make it run as a windows program or Mac application.  This is totally rocking.  Go to Pandora and pick it up!

Cheers,

Lloyd 

June 19, 2008

I came across some very insightful workout videos this morning. It’s all about multi-tasking right?

Don’t forget the late night toilet bowl heaves!

Lloyd Benedict

What a fantastic Thursday.  Today AmericanWinery.com reached a new milestone that further establishes AW as the premier location to browse, search, and purchase premium wines shipped directly from the source.  Since we began the marketplace in November 2007, nearly 8 months ago, American Winery has paved new territory and redefined what is possible in the domestic wine scene.  2,000 offerings, wines that range from extrememly rare and hard to find, to boutique estates, to good value offerings–AmericanWinery.com is an extremely efficient site that helps winemakers make more cash for their wine while ensuring buyers get access to all the good stuff you can’t find on the grocery shelves–its all about access, I will write more on that later…

So how exactly did AW build a base of over 350 wineries, 2000 wines, in the marketplace and nearly 1300 for the profile service in just over one year?  The anwer is simple.  We are a value inspired company, driven by results.  The fact we don’t put the winery in the hole when they begin our service is not a coincidence.  I firmly believe that making wine in the US is one of the most difficult pursuits, requiring levels of determination and hardships that go beyond just “running a business.”  In a industry driven by a tryranny of middlemen that squeeze pipelines and funnel millions to keep their unwarranted strangle holds on the American winemaker, Wineries are stretched dry.  When it comes to the web and a winery’s opportunity to sell wine direct over the web, I felt that there had to be a better way.

Marketplaces and the “power in numbers” shopping mall approach are tested and proven methods of bringing buyers and sellers together to drive commerce.  Think Amazon, think Ebay, and think your local malls that house a JC Penny, Sears, Macy’s and Bloomingdales.  Textbook competitors but they know when they sit in the same mall people come to this place and spend money on everyone.  This is the same mentality I maintained when building AmericanWinery.com.  Give Wineries a place to express their brand, present their products, and give buyers a consolidated, streamlined, beautiful and guaranteed shopping experience.

Goals.  2000 wines is great and all, but if there are no buyers, there is no value.  I am thrilled to see the % of wineries making sales on AW going up.  As of the date of this blog post, every month 20% more of AW wineries receive orders that would not have existed otherwise.  However this is just the itty bitty tip of the iceberg for this group.  Unique views to AW are growing and AW is averaging 15,000 uniques a month with a goal of averages between 35 and 50 thousand within six months.  AmericanWinery.com and the dedicated group behind it are fired up and on the path of establishing the greatest American wine based site out there!  Watch out!

Cheers,

Lloyd Benedict

Founder | Ceo

AmericanWinery.com

So maybe you have heard of Gary Vaynerchuk…maybe not either way you need to know more about him and the impact he is making in the US wine scene. Get a bead on him by watching this video.

Some things to note. This video is already out dated. Gary now sees over $70 million in sales through his store in NJ and recieves a modest 80,000 views a day on his show WineLibrary TV.

People who believe Gary is not impacting this industry are dead wrong. Gary in one year, has broken down many barriers to entry for the US wine scene. More Americans will drink wine due to his efforts. His stance is simple, Real, Authentic, and Transparent. RAT is what Gary lives by and I firmly suggest wineries adopt a similar approach.

“The Gary Factor” Broken down into three simple points:

1) He is straight forward, honest, and passionate. Gary maintains an extreme ethic, to never be false, accept bribes, or operate with alternative motives.

2) He knows his shit. Gary has been opeating the largest wine retail operation in the United States for nearly ten years. He has tried thousands if not hundreds of thousands of wines and is an expert in Descriptive Analysis. See information about Ann Noble, I went to her seminar and she is the only other expert in Descriptive Analysis, I know of.

3) Gary is accessible. If you email Gary he will return your email. This is an actual response I recieved from Gary a few months ago, “LB whats up my man! Matt pls sched something with LB when I am up in WASH!
LB MS will make it happen, lunch b-fast something…” Not perfect English but who gives a rip, this guy is totally there for his community. He devotes every second of his day to ensuring his community is fed well.

But don’t take my word for it, let Gary tell you why he rocks!

Gary on “cutting through the noise!?”

Gary on how to please everyone

Gary Vaynerchuk is on the rise, catch the wave, and ride it and have fun

Cheers,

Lloyd Benedict

Lloyd@AmericanWinery.com

I was lucky enought to be invited to speak at the Walla Walla Wine Marketing Summit being held at the Walla Walla Enology and Viticulture Center.  I will be speaking about “Innovative Ways to Market Wine on the Web.”

I am so stoked to do this because I have so much to say.  With FREE sites like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, My Space, and many more, marketing and building relationships to consumers has never been cheaper–for the first time your resulting sales made through this channel are only dependent on how much effort you expend.

This is a big deal because the net levels the playing field in so many ways for small wineries…the type of wineries the make up the majority of WW producers.  

Some areas Im going to explore in my hour and fifteen minutes.

Basic “Best Practice” web marketing initiatives–from emai aquisition programs, frequent communications, blogs and video journals.

The Facebook and Google Phenomenon–What this means to your winery and the future of marketing.

SMO–Social Media Optimization, FREE ways to get the word out about your wines and let your wine lovers sell your wine!

SEO–Basic Introduction to Search Engine Optimization and the importance of being the top results on Google.

This is sure to be a great event for northwest wineries looking to build bulletproof marketing plans.

Cheers,

Lloyd Benedict

Details For The Walla Walla Wine Marketing Summit

When? 
June 15.16.17, 2008

Where? 
Center for Enology & Viticulture
500 Tausick Way 
Walla Walla, Washington 99362

Who Should Attend?
Wine marketers, wine sales, concierge staff, tasting room staff, winery owners and anyone desiring a professional understanding of the marketing and sales of wine from the Pacific Northwest.

What will you learn? 
Participants will learn about new channel focused methods and tools for selling wine direct, to retail and to on-premise accounts. Industry experts and innovators will lead informative sessions that include:

• Finding New Markets for your Wines
• Marketing Sustainability – Understanding Consumer Market Trends
• New Ways to Rethink Your Direct Sales
• How to Maximize your Selling Potential with Wine Club Members
• Get Your Wines on the “List” – Working with Restaurant Wine Buyers
• How to Partner with Retail to Extend Your Brand
• Distributors, Agents and the Likes… Understanding the World of Distribution
• Plus much more!

Cost 
$295 for the two day conference. Cost includes Welcome Reception, lunch each day and comparative tasting (must be 21 years old).

Register Now!

I’d like to introduce this post with a satiric video, that (A) cracks me up, and (B) rings true in so many ways….

Alright so that doesn’t happen to MOST of us when we go wine tasting, but working in the biz for a little bit now has shown me that winery tasting tours can get ugly. Here are five reasons why I believe we should (enjoy and) spit more wine….

1) You will learn more if you spit. When I went to Taste Washington, I tried nearly 350 wines in four hours. When the show was over, I was still on the sober side of things. I took a taxi of course to be sure but there is no way I could have learned so much at that event if I would have schlugged it down all the way.

2) You will not be a jack ass, guranteed. Some people don’t have problems with this, but after working in the industry for some years I’ve seen peoples’ intelligence drop and their “jack ass-nish” rise very quickly with a little wine and hot weather. If you spit, you can laugh at the “other” guy and not be him or her. Spitting wine regularly will also build discipline and aid in preventing Alcoholism*.

3) You will make more educated wine purchases and know what to buy when you get home. The point was to go out and find some great wine right!? These wineries invite you to their estates not to get you drunk but to sell their fine product! Spit wine and build a kick ass cellar with great stories from your experience at the estate, join a few wine clubs, and remember this experience is a privilege not a license to get crunked!
4) You can try more wine! I don’t know why you got out to taste but I know I want to try everything out there! Over six thousand wineries in the US, lots of wine to try and so little time, why not spit so you can squeeze the most mileage out your palette?
5) You will not risk your life or others by driving intoxicated. This is the most important reason to spit wine if you do not have a designated driver. In 2006, there were 13,470 fatalities in crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver (BAC of .08 or higher) – 32 percent of total traffic fatalities for the year according to AlcoholAlert.com. Of those 13,000 inexcusable deaths, nearly 2,000 of them were children under 14 years of age. If you are unable to adopt the simple habit of spitting, get a Designated Driver.

Wine tasting rooms in general should be more accomodating for the wine spitting enthusiast. If there is not a spit bucket on hand and easily usable request that the tasting room manager put one in! We all have to step it up when it comes to responsible tasting tour consumption. Lastly, it is always safer to designate a non-spitting tour goer, but if thats not possible, SPIT EVERY DROP, I gurantee your experience will be enlightening and totally fun, you may even get less sleepy so you can taste more freaking wine.

Other great article on how to taste wine without getting drunk.

Cheers,

Lloyd

Love Wine | Spit Wine

*This is not backed by medical research or studies, the author is representing an educated assessment due to the fact less alcohol is entering the blood stream by spitting. Therefore doing less physiologically to drive an alcohol dependency.

Last Thursday I got my butt out of bed about 4:30 am to get to Pasco to catch a flight to Chicago for something called the SEED Conference, “A ONE-DAY CONFERENCE on DESIGN, ENTREPRENEURSHIP and INSPIRATION” the site declares. My Lead Designer and Development Manager begged me to attend this conference a few months back and I was so glad I came along. I have been to a few shows in the last year, wine related and entreprener related but this one takees the cake as the show that left me wanting for more—more from myself, more from my company, and more to give to my customers.

Among the speakers were Jason Fried, Founder of 37 Signals, Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV, and the dynamic creative duo from Threadless, Jake Nickell (Founder) and Jeffrey Kalmikoff (Creative Director). Also represented was Carlos Segura from Segura Inc. as well as Jim Coudal of Coudal Partners, and Edward Lifson–a NPR Correspondant for Architecture.

Friday began around 8 am with name tags, organic coffee, and brief chit chats between web 2.0′ers and Designers from all walks of life. I sat near a cool guy named Eric Franklin, a Senior Program Manager at Amazon, and a fellow Walla Walla property owner…small world eh?

The conference lasted around 10 hours including the tasting hosted by Gary V, he selected a NZ Sauv Blanc from his shop, not a domestic wine as I would have preferred but good none the less.

Three Key Points I took away from this show were:

Build Now…Tweak Later. Jason Fried spoke heavily on User Interface design and strategy and the improtance of clear and easily managed interfaces, but the idea of “Get it out the door and make it better as you go” rang home for me. We can spend hours, days, weeks, thinking but you can waste lots of time and money if you spend more time talking then building. It rings to an old school motto I grew up with, “Just Do It.” The panel at the show swore heavily and amended the urgency of this call to action, “Just F-ing Do It… Now.”

RAT–Real, Authentic, and Transparent–Gary Vaynerchuk spoke on the concepts of building and living as a breathing brand that people can access and follow. He also delivered his strong emotions about not trying to be something you are not. The thinking behind this is that technology and the speed by which information passes these days will sting you in the ass before you utter the last breath of your falsity. So in short, don’t be something you are not, and be RAT, and be very accessible and committed to your following no matter how small or large.

Your Employee’s Happiness Matters as much as your Customer’s–maybe more. Jake and Jeffrey both delivered a clear message on investing in your company’s most valuable resource, your employees. Building fun, productive, and creative work atmospheres in the web space is essential. They both mentioned it makes terminating employees that much more difficult but performance is the key indicator of an employees activity in the company, a measurable component. Im not sure my office has space for foos-ball or Ping Pong tables but ensuring my employees are happy will remain a constant in my daily role as CEO of American Winery LLC.

The SEED Conference closed with one of the most educational Q and A sessions that I have ever attended, not to mention there were more F-bombs than the last Wu Tang Album, but the relaxed atmosphere of the SEED conference will be something that makes this show sell out time and time again. Whats better than hearing the most successful people in Web and Design dropping a few F-words?

There was rumors of a SEED show that would be 12 hours of Q and A, if so, I’m in, all I ask is that we can toast the show with some quality US wine from AmericanWinery.com!

Cheers,

Lloyd