Yesterday we launched PlugandSave which sells Power-saving electronic devices.

About 12 months ago Tik and I discovered these units being demonstrated in Thailand and we got in contact with the factory.

I created a quite crude sales-letter site (now offline) which had an even cruder Paypal integration (after every customer ordered, they had to be emailed to ask for their address). I wrote a few articles to market the site and let it run itself. A few times each month we’d telephone the factory, collect one or two units and take them to the post office a few days later. We made a good profit on the units but didn’t really consider expanding on it for some time.

We ignored a lot of enquiries from people in Guam, the Philippines and from many other places when they inquired about working with us as a reseller or buying from us in wholesale. I’ve gotten to be a lot more confident now in dealing with resellers because of our experience building up ArtFromSteel. It’s time to build up a nice semi-automated business exporting small products now - with the ultimate goal of creating similar sites in the future and exporting whatever we can.

I’ve gained a lot more experience in creating e-commerce sites, adding affiliate programs, marketing and dealing with the Thai post office so we invested our profits into building a much more professional site.

PlugandSave is 99% finished now and we’ll get round to the last of the tweaks next week. Of significance with the site is that it’s my first time operating OSCommerce which - although it does everything we need, has quite a frustrating admin panel.

We’ve implemented JROX Affiliate Manager into the site which I’m pleased about. JROX Affiliate Manager really is a great program and although it took a while to really get my head around, I’m quite skilled administering it now.

PlugandSave was created by PixelsMedia. This is the first time I’ve worked with them and must say that I’m absolutely delighted with thier initiative, skills and ability. PixelsMedia are an Indian company with about 30 members of staff. Communications from them has always been excellent, they took a lot of initiatives I knew I was in great hands the minute I saw their mock-up designs.

Offline we’ve also worked hard wit this business. We’ve made an OEM agreement with the factory so that we can brand the units ourself and have them created an wired to our specifications. We’ve designed and printed labels for the units, are looking at boxes this weekend and we are working with a very hepful shipping company to prepare ourselves for wholesale orders.

This week’s really been hectic, coupled with us moving apartments and having to get final details settled with banks. Now the site’s presentable to visitors I’m going to deal with existing enquiries and get started with some creative marketing early next week.