www.ivsuperstore.com

orware · Cholo Nako Joined: 26 Jun 2007 Posts: 38 Votes: 1

I don't know how many people were able to read the article about the Imperial Valley Superstore when it came out in the IV Press a few weeks ago, but I thought that I'd go ahead and mention here on Calecia now that I've worked on a few things to make it better and simpler for everyone to take advantage of it.

The premise behind the site is simple...use something that has been around for quite a while (affiliate programs), take a specific population (Imperial County) and drive traffic to a specific site (www.ivsuperstore.com).

Rather than just one individual benefiting from the affiliate revenue made, the funds will go to the IV Superstore nonprofit organization (which I still need good people to help run). The purpose of this organization will be to distribute the funds to various organizations/schools/programs/etc.

When the article came out I had a storefront setup, but the responses I received made it pretty clear that people were a bit confused as to what they needed to do in order to help bring money back, so I sat down for a while and thought about how to make it simpler. In my initial discussions with individuals I had described the idea as "just one extra click" so I went back to that thought and actually redesigned the site to reflect that simplicity.

Now, all you have to do is go to www.ivsuperstore.com, click on a link where you want to shop and then you'll be taken to the stores actual website where you can shop as normal. Since you went through the IV Superstore link though, the site you visited will be able to correctly credit the referral back to the IV Superstore and money will come back to the Imperial Valley.

I'd like to use the social aspect of the web to allow people to contribute ideas about how they would like the money to be spent and to have some type of online voting system, but it looks like that might have to wait until the project has a bit more momentum and users behind it.

Everything depends on individuals across the county taking the idea behind the IV Superstore and telling their friends about it so that it will actually begin to make enough revenue to be substantial.

I integrated Yahoo's search functionality and a lot of local/popular links into the site so that people who want to can set the page as their home page so that they won't forget to use the superstore when they are going to be shopping online.

If you'd like to help out, tell some friends, send out a Myspace Bulletin or just email me if you'd like Smile

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I think this is something that is easy enough that everyone can take part in, and from everyone I've spoken with they all seem to think that it's a good idea.

If you have any feedback or merchants suggestions then just reply to this post.

Thanks everyone,

Imperial Valley Superstore Simplified
Imperial Valley Superstore Article