Tap Into Customer Fear to Drive More Sales

by Aaron Putnam on February 21, 2010

Yesterday I picked up a new Logitech ClearChat Pro USB headset from Best Buy. After doing some homework online and reading all of the reviews, the consensus was that although the sound quality was good, the overall durability was to be questioned.

Many reviewers suggested that the headset was cheaply made and prone to breaking. Specifically, they cited audio dropout problems in either ear piece and microphone breakage.

Undeterred by the negative reviews (and the fact that I wanted to pick up a headset immediately rather than order it online), I checked the price online at Best Buy and discovered it was on sale. Cool. I headed out of the house with my wife and youngest daughter to pick up the headset.

Although I initially had a tough time locating any of the USB headsets at Best Buy, I found the Logitech headset a few minutes later and was ready to checkout. By this time, my 2 year old was already anxious to leave and fussing.

This is when I encountered Mr. Checkout guy on aisle #5. Here is how the conversation went down:

Checkout Guy (CG): Did you find everything okay?
Me: Yes, thanks.
CG: Oh, Logitech huh?
Me: Yeah, I figured I would give it a shot.
CG: Did you know it’s on sale?
Me: Cool.
CG: The sale ends tomorrow and it goes back to it’s regular price.
Me: Uh huh…
CG: I suggest you get our replacement guarantee, good for 2 years, full replacement, blah blah blah…
Me: How much is it?
CG: Only $9.99, and it covers full replacement in case anything breaks such as the ear piece or microphone. Just bring it back in and we’ll replace it at no cost.
Me: Alright. Sounds good.

Now mind you, I rarely ever go for the extended warranties on any of my electronics. However, having read all of the negative reviews online prior to stepping into the store, I still had the same concerns while checking out.

Checkout Guy simply understood the benefits of the replacement warranty as it directly related to my immediate concerns regarding the durability and quality of the product. It was as simple as that.

Sold!

UPDATE: Two days after purchasing the Logitech headset, it broke. Go figure.

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Backordering an Expired Domain Name using GoDaddy

by Aaron Putnam on July 17, 2009

As usual, I was tooling around on domize.com and stumbled across a niche domain name that had recently expired. I immediately checked the whois at GoDaddy and verified the domain expired 67 days ago and was currently in a redemption period.

I setup an alert in my phone a few minutes later to remind me to check up on the status of the expiring domain name on a daily basis. A few minutes after that I realized how bad I wanted this particular domain and decided this “hunt and peck” strategy just wasn’t going to cut it.

A quick Google search led me to this 4 year old post that discusses the journey of one man’s frugal attempt to secure a domain name using GoDaddy’s backordering service. Long story short and nearly $400 later, he got the domain name but not through GoDaddy. Although he later sold the site to Microsoft (cha-ching), the initial failed backorder wasn’t very encouraging.

Nevertheless, I perused the 700 or so comments from his original post and read several other reviews of the GoDaddy service elsewhere on the web. The consensus suggest that if the domain name you are trying to snag is currently registered through GoDaddy, using their own backordering service gives you a “one up” on all of the other drop catch services out there. Besides that, it’s also one of the cheapest.

Considering the official domain name drop is just around the corner, I decided to pony up the $19 and give the GoDaddy backordering service a shot. I’ll soon find out whether or not that was a Derek Fisher game 4 shot or rather no shot in hell ;) .

Stay tuned… I’ll keep you posted.

UPDATE #1: I received an email yesterday (7/24) from GoDaddy indicating the status of the domain I’m chasing changed from redemption period to pending delete. According to most sources on the web, the 5 day countdown to the domain drop is on! Fingers crossed.

UPDATE #2: Today (7/30) was the drop. GoDaddy failed. Lesson learned. Backorder domain names using multiple services instead. SnapNames, NameJet, and Pool.com just to name a few.

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Spybot Canned My Commission Junction Links

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