Arianna O'Dell

Dear Tech Start-Ups,

Just kidding. I love you. I really do. You’re creating some of the most innovative products, changing lives, and making the world a better place. I admire you.

I hate wasting time. I also hate wasting money.

I also hate when my friends waste their time or money – hence, the reason for this post.

Over the last few months, I have found a few different ways to make running a website a bit more affordable and less time consuming. From finding quality images, to finding a way to source content, I have made many mistakes. Fortunately for you, I’m giving you all my secrets right here – no need for you to make the same mistakes.

To follow is one of my favorite tools. You’d be crazy to not give it a shot.

Fotolia – Royalty Free Images

This is an Arianna quality photo. (Note the low resolution, poor photography skills, and finger in the lens)

These are Fotolia photos. These photos costs me around $1.35 each.

Fotolia

What do all of these photos have in common? I can re-purpose them in whatever way I see fit. I can put this photo on a blog post. I can use it as a header on a website. I can use it as a starting point for creating marketing material. (Royalty Free!) To see my usage of these photos, you can see it on my newest website here:

Which photo would you prefer on your website or marketing material? Probably not the “Arianna quality one.” 

Check back next week, for the next tool I’ve fallen in love with.

Oh yeah, if you liked this post, let’s be friends on Twitter.

I’m every marketers dream.

I am a heavy user of social media. I fall in the 20-30 year old age bracket. I talk non-stop. I have disposable income to buy your product.

I hate the word, “influencer” so let’s just call me someone who can’t keep my mouth shut.

Where do I talk?

I talk online.
I talk on my blog.
I talk on Twitter.
I talk on Pinterest.
I talk on Facebook.
I talk on Tumblr.
I talk on LinkedIn.
I talk on Pinterest.
I talk on every social network you could possibly think of.

I talk in person.
I talk at work.
I talk at bars.
I talk at parties.
I talk in coffee shops

You get the point – I talk all day, everyday.

What brands have I talked about recently?

The Good :
Crest – A while ago they sent me a free Crest white strips, toothpaste, and mouth wash.

Nordstroms – They recently had an awesome event that they invited me to.

Rafflecopter – This tool was amazing and I felt compelled to tell other marketing people about it.

Odesk.com – This website is an amazing outsourcing tool.

The Bad :

Clearwire – I hate this company with a passion for their poor customer service.

HP – I also hate this company for their poor customer service.

So let’s get to the point of this post. How do you market to people like me? – The people who WILL spread your message, good or bad.

Give me something for free :

As cliche as this sounds, it works. Let’s jump back to Crest for a minute. A few months ago, after some Twitter chitchat the company sent me a box of Crest White Strips and Whitening Tooth Paste. I jokingly asked them on Twitter to send me some and they did. This little “act of kindness” had a huge return on investment for them. Why? Because I think I’ve told 100 people about this. And now, a million more people will know this after I publish this post. (Okay fine, maybe 200 Let’s see, so a box of Crest Strips probably costs the company $20? For 300 solid and memorable impressions – I’d call that a deal!

That said, you can’t buy my love – I will never post anything on my social channels because someone paid me to do it – only if I truly like the product/service and think my friends could benefit from it.

Save me time and or money :

If you compliment me on my sweater, I will reply with “Thanks, I got it at _________ for only $20!” I love telling other people about where they can get good deals. I’m a firm believer that everyone should have more free time and more money – I LOVE telling people about this. If you have a product that will save time or money  – I’ll talk about it.

Give me something that will make me and my friends laugh :

My feeds are full of the following – things I like and things I think other people would like. I will always post a video or article if I think other people will think it’s funny too. Whether it’s an auto-tuned Bed Intruder video or an puppy with a hat on, if your company can make me laugh – chances are you have a shot at my wallet.

Be innovative and push boundaries :

There are too many companies that are afraid to run any kind of marketing campaign that might spark controversy. I talk about things out of the ordinary. I talk about cool things I’ve seen. There is no way I’m going to tell my friends “Hey, did you know Coke is on Facebook?” – no one cares. What I will tell my friends is “Oh hey, I had ______ experience with this company. They are so _______ !

Want some more marketing ideas? Let’s get coffee and I’ll tell you anything you need to know about marketing to me.

Like I said, I love talking ;D

Well maybe “millions and trillions” is a bit of an embellishment, but read on to find out how you can get new users and views for an extremely low cost.

Over the last few months, I’ve been building a travel website called EuropeBoss.com. My long term vision for this website is for it to be the one stop research tool for planning a trip to my favorite place : Europe.

Blah blah…. This post isn’t about my site – you don’t care. You care about driving traffic to your own website! Okay okay, I’m about to tell you about one of the most amazing marketing tools I’ve found recently.

Driving traffic is TOUGH. For a new website with poor SEO, no initial social channels, and little content – how do you get views?

Introducing Rafflecopter!

Not only is Rafflecopter easy, but their customer service is impeccable and their widget can help you get the most ROI for your marketing budget.

Let me walk you through an example. I recently put this widget on my website.
Read the rest of this entry →

Last week I just got back from a trip to Europe. This was my fourth trip to Europe over the last few years. Each time I have returned, I am met with the same response from friends and family.

“You’re so lucky.”

“I wish I could do that!

“I could never afford to do that..”

There is nothing that makes me sadder than hearing phrases like this. Anyone can travel. There are no excuses on why you can’t get your passport, hop a plane, and have the experience of a lifetime.

What are the excuses I’ve heard that cause people to never leave the country?

I don’t have the money for a flight.

Yes you do. For the past four years, between college and living expenses I have lived off around poverty level. (That said – I’ve managed to live great!) I had all the money I needed to put a roof over my head, eat well, and take amazing trips. Travel is not as expensive as you would think. I have not bought a plane ticket to Europe (round trip) for over $800 ever. This last trip, I found a ticket to London for only $432 dollars. There are so many great deals out there – you just have to look a bit harder. And to get you started, here’s a post for you on how to find these tickets.

I don’t have a passport.

Okay, go get one. For $140 dollars you can have your very own. This little book was the best purchase of my life. If you break down the cost over 12 years it costs you about 0.038 cents per day. For less than a penny a day, you can have 10 years of freedom to move about the world. For a college student or someone working paycheck to paycheck $140 is a lot of money – I completely understand. Once you take you’re first international trip – you’ll see it was worth it.

I don’t have anyone to go with.

The first time I had planned to leave the country, I had a friend planning to go with me. As the trip got closer, I never heard back from her. Silence. Since I had already bought my ticket, I decided… “who cares?! I’m going to go anyways.”Guess what? It was scary as hell. Prior to that trip I had never been to the airport by myself, I had never been on a plane by myself, and I didn’t know anyone in the whole country I was about to enter. It gets easier. Yes, it’s scary at first – but after about a day you feel comfortable, you loosen up, and you have the time of your life. There are tons of resources available for those traveling abroad. From finding new friends on Twitter, to Couchsufing – you don’t have to go the trip alone.

I can’t take time off from work.

If you have a job that doesn’t let you take even a week off during a year – you’re at the wrong job. With only a week, you can easily take a trip abroad.

I have nowhere to stay.

For anyone on a budget or traveling alone – hostel are a great options. From hostels, I’ve managed to keep my expenses low and make some amazing friends. I personally recommend HostelBookers for finding some great deals in amazing locations. If you’re even braver, CouchSufing is another option. CouchSufing is a global community of people willing to give travelers a spare bed or couch. In the past, I have hosted travelers and been hosted while in foreign countries. This site has given me some great friends and many once in a lifetime experiences.

I’ll travel when I’m older.

If you get hit by a bus tomorrow and die, traveling dead is going to be really tricky. Life is SHORT. You have no idea how many days you have left on this planet. If you want to travel – find a way to do it. There is no telling what your tomorrow may bring.

Women can’t travel alone.

Yes they can. The news is great at telling scary stories. For this reason, I worry my mom every-time I go abroad. (Whoever it was that told her to watch the movie, Taken, please let me know so I can punch you) If you watch your surroundings and stay smart – you’ll be fine. In all the international trips I’ve taken (while travelling alone) the worst that has happened was I got rude cat calls. You just brush it off.. and if that doesn’t work… the F word and the finger is pretty universally understood.

In the future, I plan to do as much traveling as I can. There are so many beautiful, wonderful places out there. You just have to hop a plane to see them. If you have any reasons on why you can’t travel, let me know in the comments and I’ll help you figure out how you can.

Oh yeah, and let’s be friends on Twitter?

Mis últimos tres meses han sido increíbles.

Gracias por amigos nuevos.

Gracias por comida y postres buenas.

Gracias por los tres meses de descanso y disfrute.

Gracias por abrir mi mente.

Gracias por enseñarme a amar.

Gracias por todo.

Nunca te olvidaré.

This year, I had planned to spend the entire year in Europe. 3 months in Spain and then 9 in Denmark. Because of misleading information by my school, this week, my plans have been torn to shreds. (Thanks, UW!) Because of visa complications, now I am unable to live in Denmark.

Not only am I disappointment I will not be going to Denmark, but I am a tad bitter that I poured a big chunk of (nonrefundable) money into visas, insurance, and flights. Now, I am required to book a flight back to Seattle (even more $). If you were to have asked me 6 months ago, where I would be in a month, I would have said – Copenhagen. If you ask me right now, I have no idea.

What do you do when everything goes wrong?

You allow yourself to pout for one day. (This includes ice cream and mindless television)
What happens the next day? You pick yourself off the floor and get over it.

Right now, everything is okay. I’m thankful for so many things. I’m in Spain for goodness sake! I have my health. I have a roof over my head. I have amazing friends. If I have learned anything from this experience is that I have the best support system in the world. From twitter friends, to IRL friends, you are all the freaking best. That’s all I have to say.

So what’s next?

No idea. I will be coming back to Seattle around the 20th of December. After, I have decided to officially start looking for a full-time job. I’m open to relocation and new adventures. Here’s to the future!

What I’m looking for :
A marketing or biz dev position in digital media. I’m looking for a job where I can use my passion for marketing to help take a business to the next level.
Industries of interest : music, consumer goods, travel, entertainment

Know of any openings? Wanna look at my portfolio? Here it is!

I got my coffee and I’m ready to work!

A few weeks ago, my friend Ludo Antonov and I attended the TechCrunch disrupt hackathon with an idea in mind. During the hackathon we build a product that enables businesses to quickly and easily establish a web presence – And so JustAbout.co was born.

During the 24 hour period we were able to build a functional prototype. Over the last few weeks, we’ve been hard at work polishing up the product and killing bugs. Yesterday, we finally launched! For our launch we got a few really nice stories from tech blogs around the web. Here are two of our favorites:

Thanks Jolie!

Thanks Drew!

Since then, a few people have messaged me saying “How did you do that? How can you get written up?”

My answer : You have to fail. You have to fail A LOT.

In the past, Ludo and I have worked on a number of start-ups and products together :
FlyByMusic – An online music streaming site that let you sync songs to your iPod from a web browser. (That got us in big trouble with the RIAA and cost us a ton of money in lawyer fees$$)
Lolzr- A platform we were going to build funny convertors on. Example : “Change your college tuition into beer.”
One Million Tweeps - An idea to get 1 Million Twitter accounts in a book.

Guess what? All of these went tank down and failed. Why?

Because we didn’t know what the hell we were doing!

….and that’s the beauty of entrepreneurship. You jump off a diving board while being unable to see the bottom of the pool. You have to change directions. You don’t know which way the current is going. Or as Pocahontas would put it, whatever is just around the riverbed. You have no idea. You have to go with the flow.

What did we learn from all these mistakes that helped us this time around?

Don’t keep your idea a secret – “My idea is super stealthy!” “Everyone will steal my idea.” 99.99% of the time, no one will steal your idea – stop flattering yourself. In the past, we’ve held off on PR efforts and refrained from talking about what we were doing. This time around, we talked a lot. We asked industry leaders for feedback and we talked about the product with all of our friends. This opened a lot of doors for us because we were able to get great feedback and feature suggestions.

PR, PR, PR – The first time I did any kind of PR I just made it up. I had no idea what I was doing. Now, people pay me to do it for them. This took a solid 4 years of mistakes to learn how to do it correctly. When you launch a product – tell people! PR is a numbers game – not everyone will write about you. Not everyone will care about what you’re doing. The more people and blogs you contact, the more of a chance you have to be written about. Everything in life is a number game.

Be flexible – Your business model isn’t written in stone and blood. You can pivot and change at anytime. Just because one model doesn’t work, doesn’t mean others won’t. Don’t give up – keep trying new things each and every day.

Though we still have a long way to go to reach success for JustAbout.co, we’re confident that this time around, we know how to run a business better than before. And on that note, I’d like to thank everyone who has given us feedback, connected us with industry leaders, and shared the website.

YOU are seriously the best. Remind me I owe you a hug when I see you!

(I’m a loser, baby!)