You started this website with the main aim of helping people and from this video it is great to hear that this is still your main aim and that you won’t be ‘selling out’. I love the personal touch and think the website is amazing, I have so much more confidence since I started using your products and actually like what I see in the mirror.
I know what you mean about word of mouth, I know and see so many people who I would love to say to them ‘hey you should try acne.org’ but I know that I would have felt awful if anyone had mentioned my acne. Can’t wait to be wearing your t-shirts then it could start up a conversation which could lead them to your site.
Keep up the great work Dan and we totally trust you!
oh, i have an idea. other than advertisements on websites. what if you could like, paint the smiley on like brick building’s walls or a sidewalk that says “have acne? acne.org” and i think that would be really appealing to anyone that reads that, because the smiley and acne.org font and logo IS really appealing.
also, maybe you could have a “tell a friend about acne.org” part of the site? i don’t know if you already do…but i haven’t seen that. that’s a much easier and less painful or emberassing way to tell somebody to go there, especially if they have acne (which is probably the only people you would tell to go to acne.org).
oh! you do have a tell a friend part. goood, good.
…but i have another idea!
e-cards. !
like, holiday or random hello’s to friends and family. people could make an e-card (maybe you could partner up with an e-card site for this portion) and half of the e-card will be the message and the other half will be subtle advertising from acne.org! that sounds good to me.
I just joined the acne.org group on Facebook and would love to invite people to join but as Laura states above it is a sensitive issue, is there a way that we can add the acne.org logo/widget to the sides of our facebook pages which people can then click on if they are interested? I know other companies that have done this? That way we can get the message out that we are members (and everyone will say “but your skins great” and then we can say “ah but that’s because we are on the regimen….” etc) and that should hopefully get people to click on the link? Hope that made sense!
Also I would just like to say that your business ethics are something you should be so proud of- a breath of fresh air!
That’s a great idea Emma I have just joined the group as well and to have the acne.org logo on my profile all the time would really encourage people to take a look. Dan is there anyway we can do this??
Sorry to post again but Dan in the video you are pointing to a link that isn’t there. Emma there is a face book page which you can become a fan of which is the official one as well as the group.
Just some thoughts on ways to spread the word…that are not tv commercials
How about picking specific target groups at first…and then going from there. What I mean by this is for example you could do a ‘tour.’ Whereby you travel around university campuses (or something similar) and could maybe provide demonstrations/information/give out the little sachet samples. There are probably plenty of people on this site who are spread all around, so that even if you only had a core team of people who moved around on the tour, you would have plenty of volunteers from us to help you out…
One reason I was thinking about it, was of course because of the demographic, but also because many people have mentioned that they would find it hard talking about their acne to other people. However, it is a lot easier to just drop into conversation…did you here about the acne.org demonstration at the student union/graduate building etc etc.
Another suggestion, though I don’t know how you would feel about this is to have a reciprocal link page, (ie it goes both ways) where you show links to other products that you feel have a similar philosophy, but are perhaps not in direct competition. I am trying to think of examples now, but for instance is there a similar type of website for people with dandruff or other skin problems…or someone else who sells natural non-comedogenic body products.
You know, I think acne.org is bigger, or more well known than you may realise. Certainly theres an Irish message board I know of, boards.ie and theres a few forums there where acne advice is sought and acne.org is always mentioned. So to me I it seems like you have a silent acknowledgment but people just arent talking about you, yet!
So maybe a push for a bigger presence from you could really take off. It could be that it takes you giving that push for everyone to be ok about shouting out about being a part of acne.org. I do agree with selling it as a site where everything can be discussed, as well as selling the regimen. People would be skeptical of somewhere that just shouts about its own products. Whats great about the org is that theres a great regimen but theres also free reign to discuss anything and everything people try!
And I dont see you selling out, your too cool for that! And you care too much!
the tours are a good idea! once you have more employees, maybe you can send people apart of acne.org (or you, if you like) around to middle schools as well since adolescents’ hormones are raging and so is their new acne!
hm, what else. the regimen(s) in walmart, drugstores.
buttons or stickers or banners on other sites…Buddy4U.com would be a good choice, because the audience you would be directing your advertising to is teenagers…mostly girls.
maybe you could message Tom on myspace and ask him to add a banner/sticker/button to his site! many people see him.
also, i notice that sometimes i will type in, randomly like any website and it will direct you to another URL/site. maybe, you could look for all the unused addresses that people might type in for acne and have them be directed to acne.org. i don’t know the deal with that, but you could look into it! like if people typed in acneregimen.com, maybe it could take them to acne.org!
if you can some way get into the news about you help adolescent kids at school would be great way to get the word out. I said this before but in sex ed class when in 5th grade i was told to wash my face and that would take care pimples. that was a big lie.
Simple suggestion that will make a huge difference. Tech sites. Advertise a little rectangular web ad on it, and you will get tons of clicks from acne riddled teenagers who spend their time on the internet. My favorite tech site, jon4lakers.com, offers web ads, and most of the people involved in that community are teenagers. You have to target your market. Zero in on your demographics. It sounds selfish and marketing’y, but since your goal is to get the word out and help people, not to sell out, it will be fantastic.
Another thing. I used proactiv for a while. What they had that was great was a little form to send anonymous information about their “solution” to friends without them ever knowing. What you could do do adapt that to your site would be to have a little form we can fill out, and just like an “email to a friend” link like on cnn.com, you can send people information about acne.org. I have someone I know who is suffering from severe acne, someone who used to be outspoken and bubbly, and i can tell it is really wearing her down and hurting her self confidence. I would love to be able to say “hey, acne.org” but I dont know her that well and that’d be considered rude.
oh, and video. video, video, video. that is how you get web traffic. because it is video and constantly is updated, you constantly land at the top of search engines results.
What about submitting a proposal for a presentation at an annual dermatology convention? In academia, if you want to be the “first name” in anything, then the first thing you typically do is go to a conference to present your work to others in the field. At science/medical conventions they have poster sessions (think 4th grade science fair, with rows of tables set up where people display their research) so it wouldn’t even involve giving a paper, which could be intimidating for an “independent scholar.” It just seems that if dermatologists knew about acne.org they could refer their patients to your products, and this might give you the credibility that TV ads or Facebook can’t offer.
Dan, you have to go viral to promote acne.org, lol, and I just thought of the most amazing thing. I remember searching for one of your videos on youtube and saw that the only person who posted a comment on your video was Tay Zonday. Yes, the chocolate rain man himself lol. The way to be succesful with viral as you know is humor, and what better guy than Tay Zonday. You should contact Tay and Im sure he has people he knows on YouTube who would help. Lol, I was trying so hard to think of what you could do for a viral video, and I was thought hmmm, a catchy, funny song would be good. Tay Zonday is the ticket.
Car bumper/window stickers, you should give a sticker away with every order of your products for people to put in their car. I would definately put one in my car to promote acne.org.
GO ON OPRAH
hahaha
well, maybe that wont happen. for acne.org to go big EVERYONE on the site needs to get behind it.
maybe we could start some sort of proactiv hate campaign, because you know that there is a huge audience just in that idea. as long as noone can sued we should do it
maybe some youtube ads?
we should all email OPRAH! get all of acne.org supporters set a date and time and all send a message at the same time! as long as she looks at all the grate comments that we all write about dan i’m sure she will have him on her show. or it could be done for any other show, like good morning america. i know this will work!
You should get a huge success story from someone on the regimen and email different talk show hosts like ellen degeneres or oprah or just someone of the like. They might feel touched by the story. You can compile a video of the serious cases that healed up. :-]
Oooh definitely…I can seriously picture the talk show thing. Just not sure how the whole process works to get on a show? Any clue? Really though I can see it happening.
I’ve been watching the vid blogs for a while now but this is actually my first post. I definitely love the personal feel of the site and the community so it’s good to hear your stand Dan (never doubted).
As to acne being a sensitive issue, I completely agree. I hate it when I’m talking to someone and you can see their eyes shooting every which way scanning your face. It really sucks. Maybe if I was cleared up a bit more I would go around and just throw acne.org out everywhere, but at the moment I just don’t feel up to it. It’s strange that I even feel that way when I talk to a friend who has acne – I would love to suggest to her some things and just connect but she’s just too sensitive on the topic (and I don’t blame her!)
Sorry! I already posted this in the old blog but I wasn’t sure if you’d see it.
—————————————-
Hey Dan,
I think the shirt idea is great and I thought you might like to check out these sites.
http://www.imagemarket.com
or
http://www.imagemarket.com/Garments.aspx?GarmentStyle=Shortsleeve&
http://www.customink.com
I’ve dealt with them before and they’re really nice people. Both offer free design consultation/customizing and the cust. service is excellent. Image Market is a bit cheaper but CustomInk has more selection and they offer organic tees that I’ve seen some people asking about. Anyways though you might be interested.
ohh gosh, i know some of my ideas are a little hardd to preform, but what if you could create an app on myspace that people can add advertising acne.org while you do a photoshop thing, like. people put in a picture of them and then that’s the before and the acne.org app makes an after picture of their skin without acne + on the regimen!
It would be flippin awesome if you were able to sell your products at walgreens, walmart, etc.!!!! Once people start reading into your product they would definitely buy it!
Oh man, I would’ve died if someone had sent me some ‘anonymous and friendly’ heads up about an acne site. Can people who are up for the idea really say they’d be OK with that?. Pick some other flaw you have–I don’t know, maybe you’ve got dandruff. Would you be glad if you checked your e-mail and found an anonymous advice e-mail? I don’t know, maybe you would..
Someone should send the acne.org website into Perez Hilton! Haha, anything that he mentions on his blog becomes famous within the same day! He has such a huge audience, if we got him to mention acne.org everyone would know about it!
You started this website with the main aim of helping people and from this video it is great to hear that this is still your main aim and that you won’t be ‘selling out’. I love the personal touch and think the website is amazing, I have so much more confidence since I started using your products and actually like what I see in the mirror.
I know what you mean about word of mouth, I know and see so many people who I would love to say to them ‘hey you should try acne.org’ but I know that I would have felt awful if anyone had mentioned my acne. Can’t wait to be wearing your t-shirts then it could start up a conversation which could lead them to your site.
Keep up the great work Dan and we totally trust you!
oh, i have an idea. other than advertisements on websites. what if you could like, paint the smiley on like brick building’s walls or a sidewalk that says “have acne? acne.org” and i think that would be really appealing to anyone that reads that, because the smiley and acne.org font and logo IS really appealing.
also, maybe you could have a “tell a friend about acne.org” part of the site? i don’t know if you already do…but i haven’t seen that. that’s a much easier and less painful or emberassing way to tell somebody to go there, especially if they have acne (which is probably the only people you would tell to go to acne.org).
oh! you do have a tell a friend part. goood, good.
…but i have another idea!
e-cards. !
like, holiday or random hello’s to friends and family. people could make an e-card (maybe you could partner up with an e-card site for this portion) and half of the e-card will be the message and the other half will be subtle advertising from acne.org! that sounds good to me.
Hi Dan
I just joined the acne.org group on Facebook and would love to invite people to join but as Laura states above it is a sensitive issue, is there a way that we can add the acne.org logo/widget to the sides of our facebook pages which people can then click on if they are interested? I know other companies that have done this? That way we can get the message out that we are members (and everyone will say “but your skins great” and then we can say “ah but that’s because we are on the regimen….” etc) and that should hopefully get people to click on the link? Hope that made sense!
Also I would just like to say that your business ethics are something you should be so proud of- a breath of fresh air!
That’s a great idea Emma I have just joined the group as well and to have the acne.org logo on my profile all the time would really encourage people to take a look. Dan is there anyway we can do this??
Sorry to post again but Dan in the video you are pointing to a link that isn’t there. Emma there is a face book page which you can become a fan of which is the official one as well as the group.
Just some thoughts on ways to spread the word…that are not tv commercials
How about picking specific target groups at first…and then going from there. What I mean by this is for example you could do a ‘tour.’ Whereby you travel around university campuses (or something similar) and could maybe provide demonstrations/information/give out the little sachet samples. There are probably plenty of people on this site who are spread all around, so that even if you only had a core team of people who moved around on the tour, you would have plenty of volunteers from us to help you out…
One reason I was thinking about it, was of course because of the demographic, but also because many people have mentioned that they would find it hard talking about their acne to other people. However, it is a lot easier to just drop into conversation…did you here about the acne.org demonstration at the student union/graduate building etc etc.
Another suggestion, though I don’t know how you would feel about this is to have a reciprocal link page, (ie it goes both ways) where you show links to other products that you feel have a similar philosophy, but are perhaps not in direct competition. I am trying to think of examples now, but for instance is there a similar type of website for people with dandruff or other skin problems…or someone else who sells natural non-comedogenic body products.
You know, I think acne.org is bigger, or more well known than you may realise. Certainly theres an Irish message board I know of, boards.ie and theres a few forums there where acne advice is sought and acne.org is always mentioned. So to me I it seems like you have a silent acknowledgment but people just arent talking about you, yet!
So maybe a push for a bigger presence from you could really take off. It could be that it takes you giving that push for everyone to be ok about shouting out about being a part of acne.org. I do agree with selling it as a site where everything can be discussed, as well as selling the regimen. People would be skeptical of somewhere that just shouts about its own products. Whats great about the org is that theres a great regimen but theres also free reign to discuss anything and everything people try!
And I dont see you selling out, your too cool for that! And you care too much!
the tours are a good idea! once you have more employees, maybe you can send people apart of acne.org (or you, if you like) around to middle schools as well since adolescents’ hormones are raging and so is their new acne!
hm, what else. the regimen(s) in walmart, drugstores.
buttons or stickers or banners on other sites…Buddy4U.com would be a good choice, because the audience you would be directing your advertising to is teenagers…mostly girls.
maybe you could message Tom on myspace and ask him to add a banner/sticker/button to his site! many people see him.
also, i notice that sometimes i will type in, randomly like any website and it will direct you to another URL/site. maybe, you could look for all the unused addresses that people might type in for acne and have them be directed to acne.org. i don’t know the deal with that, but you could look into it! like if people typed in acneregimen.com, maybe it could take them to acne.org!
if you can some way get into the news about you help adolescent kids at school would be great way to get the word out. I said this before but in sex ed class when in 5th grade i was told to wash my face and that would take care pimples. that was a big lie.
Simple suggestion that will make a huge difference. Tech sites. Advertise a little rectangular web ad on it, and you will get tons of clicks from acne riddled teenagers who spend their time on the internet. My favorite tech site, jon4lakers.com, offers web ads, and most of the people involved in that community are teenagers. You have to target your market. Zero in on your demographics. It sounds selfish and marketing’y, but since your goal is to get the word out and help people, not to sell out, it will be fantastic.
Another thing. I used proactiv for a while. What they had that was great was a little form to send anonymous information about their “solution” to friends without them ever knowing. What you could do do adapt that to your site would be to have a little form we can fill out, and just like an “email to a friend” link like on cnn.com, you can send people information about acne.org. I have someone I know who is suffering from severe acne, someone who used to be outspoken and bubbly, and i can tell it is really wearing her down and hurting her self confidence. I would love to be able to say “hey, acne.org” but I dont know her that well and that’d be considered rude.
oh, and video. video, video, video. that is how you get web traffic. because it is video and constantly is updated, you constantly land at the top of search engines results.
cant wait for the word to spread,
stephen
What about submitting a proposal for a presentation at an annual dermatology convention? In academia, if you want to be the “first name” in anything, then the first thing you typically do is go to a conference to present your work to others in the field. At science/medical conventions they have poster sessions (think 4th grade science fair, with rows of tables set up where people display their research) so it wouldn’t even involve giving a paper, which could be intimidating for an “independent scholar.” It just seems that if dermatologists knew about acne.org they could refer their patients to your products, and this might give you the credibility that TV ads or Facebook can’t offer.
Dan, you have to go viral to promote acne.org, lol, and I just thought of the most amazing thing. I remember searching for one of your videos on youtube and saw that the only person who posted a comment on your video was Tay Zonday. Yes, the chocolate rain man himself lol. The way to be succesful with viral as you know is humor, and what better guy than Tay Zonday. You should contact Tay and Im sure he has people he knows on YouTube who would help. Lol, I was trying so hard to think of what you could do for a viral video, and I was thought hmmm, a catchy, funny song would be good. Tay Zonday is the ticket.
“and I was thought” = “and I was like” ……always with the grammar, its cause i was typing so fast.
Car bumper/window stickers, you should give a sticker away with every order of your products for people to put in their car. I would definately put one in my car to promote acne.org.
GO ON OPRAH
hahaha
well, maybe that wont happen. for acne.org to go big EVERYONE on the site needs to get behind it.
maybe we could start some sort of proactiv hate campaign, because you know that there is a huge audience just in that idea. as long as noone can sued we should do it
maybe some youtube ads?
Hi Laura
I don’t know if you’ll read this but thanks for letting me know that are two acne.org groups on Facebook- I have now also joined the official group!
we should all email OPRAH! get all of acne.org supporters set a date and time and all send a message at the same time! as long as she looks at all the grate comments that we all write about dan i’m sure she will have him on her show. or it could be done for any other show, like good morning america. i know this will work!
That would be crazy if he were on good morning America! I love that show!
You should get a huge success story from someone on the regimen and email different talk show hosts like ellen degeneres or oprah or just someone of the like. They might feel touched by the story. You can compile a video of the serious cases that healed up. :-]
Oooh definitely…I can seriously picture the talk show thing. Just not sure how the whole process works to get on a show? Any clue? Really though I can see it happening.
I’ve been watching the vid blogs for a while now but this is actually my first post. I definitely love the personal feel of the site and the community so it’s good to hear your stand Dan (never doubted).
As to acne being a sensitive issue, I completely agree. I hate it when I’m talking to someone and you can see their eyes shooting every which way scanning your face. It really sucks. Maybe if I was cleared up a bit more I would go around and just throw acne.org out everywhere, but at the moment I just don’t feel up to it.
It’s strange that I even feel that way when I talk to a friend who has acne – I would love to suggest to her some things and just connect but she’s just too sensitive on the topic (and I don’t blame her!)
Sorry! I already posted this in the old blog but I wasn’t sure if you’d see it.
—————————————-
Hey Dan,
I think the shirt idea is great and I thought you might like to check out these sites.
http://www.imagemarket.com
or
http://www.imagemarket.com/Garments.aspx?GarmentStyle=Shortsleeve&
http://www.customink.com
I’ve dealt with them before and they’re really nice people. Both offer free design consultation/customizing and the cust. service is excellent. Image Market is a bit cheaper but CustomInk has more selection and they offer organic tees that I’ve seen some people asking about. Anyways though you might be interested.
Best wishes and thanks for everything!
James
ohh gosh, i know some of my ideas are a little hardd to preform, but what if you could create an app on myspace that people can add advertising acne.org while you do a photoshop thing, like. people put in a picture of them and then that’s the before and the acne.org app makes an after picture of their skin without acne + on the regimen!
Audrey I get what you’re saying! Haha but I think Clearasil has something like that on their site haha.
It would be flippin awesome if you were able to sell your products at walgreens, walmart, etc.!!!! Once people start reading into your product they would definitely buy it!
Oh man, I would’ve died if someone had sent me some ‘anonymous and friendly’ heads up about an acne site. Can people who are up for the idea really say they’d be OK with that?. Pick some other flaw you have–I don’t know, maybe you’ve got dandruff. Would you be glad if you checked your e-mail and found an anonymous advice e-mail? I don’t know, maybe you would..
Someone should send the acne.org website into Perez Hilton! Haha, anything that he mentions on his blog becomes famous within the same day! He has such a huge audience, if we got him to mention acne.org everyone would know about it!
Just another thought: I hope you won’t start accepting advertising! It’s SO nice to see a popular website that doesn’t.
Dan, if i were gay id totally do you.
i think if you went big you would make the right choice in what to do just dont sell out we all neeeeeed you dan you have changed the lives of people
try selling you product on QVC