I recently broke down and bought a new Blackberry Storm because I am a Verizon subscriber and the  iPhone is not offered with Verizon users. But I hear that Verizon and Apple are in talks to bring the iPhone to us Verizon subscribers.

If you are like me, you just hate it when your new shoes get stepped on and become dirty. You also hate door dings on your ride so you park away from other cars at parking lots. You hate when your new Maui Jims get scratched and you especially hate it when you drop a few hundred dollars on a new Blackberry and drop it to now find freakin scratches on it. And lose your interest in your new phone because now its all scratched up.

One of my biggest apprehensions with buying a Blackberry was the fact that I was going to drop it and it getting all scratched up and dinged. I mean the iPhone and blackberries are very cool but damn they are proned to getting messed up, its not a matter of will it but when will it get scratched up? On a referral from a friend I went and bought a Case Mate Shield for my Blackberry because their video made it seem so easy to install it yourself and you save your cell from scratches, well after sinking $19.99 plus shipping, I failed and throw the damn cover away out of frustration.

But recently while walking through Oakridge Mall in South San Jose, right across from the Apple store there was kiosk cart there selling “invisible shield” from Zagg. What made me look twice at their product was this video demonstrating the invisible shield strength, check it out here, I was convinced.

So if you are like me and can’t stand scratches on your stuff, go down there to Oakridge Mall in San Jose. I am sure that just about any mall will sale these invisible shields but at Oakridge Mall you can go see Rachael “the only girl” who works there and get your Blackberry or iPhone covered. They will even do your laptop or Ipod among all kinds of other devices. Keep “the re-sale value” of your cell by keeping it new looking. They will install it for you ( a huge bonus ) and you get a lifetime warranty on the shield.

It is a little pricey @ $34.95 for a complete cover ( 8 pieces in all ) for my Blackberry but you do not have to install it yourself and you pay only once and never have to buy another “invisible shield” again. You can always just get the faceplate done if you want to save money. Also if you do decide to get one, let Rachael know that the “dude with the blog” who knows the owners from Shoe Palace, sent you.

Oh btw, visit Shoe Palace as well and get yourself some new kicks. I just got these last night “Air Jordan Phat Low”

[where: 925 Blossom Hill Road San Jose, Ca, 95123]

[where: 95123]

Selling Massage Gift Certificates Online Has Been Such A Nightmare For Us At Roman Paradigm Massage With PayPal.

With all the technology available these days, you would think that selling gift certificates for spa or massage services would be so easy. And for the most part it is. You have so many different options available to you that just choosing from one company or another can be a task in itself. Take our word for it, you need to research these companies before you decide.

Just about any company will be willing to take online sales of gift certificates and offer a system of sending that gift certificate to the recipient via email. Here are few companies that are willing to “help you out”:

• Paypal
• Appointment-Plus
• Mind Body Software
• Boomtime
• Gift Certificates Online

Paypal of all the companies that offer selling gift certificates online, they are the LEAST of the desired companies to go with. Paypal being a large and known brand as they are, you would think that this would be the best solution for selling gift certificates online yet they are not. Of course, they make it real easy to accept payments online and will allow you to custom design your gift certificates with your logo and what not. And they will tell you that they have over 100 million users and that they are a well established and so forth…blah blah blah. This is just a Sales Tactic!

What they won’t tell you is that when you make a “buy gift certificate” button and embed it on your website or blog, Paypal will “hold” your funds until that massage or spa gift certificate is redeemed. And if that gift certificate is not redeemed, Paypal holds onto your money for 18 months.  I repeat, a buyer will purchase a gift certificate for a friend or family member and pay for it BUT it is put into a “PENDING” status for 18 months until redeemed.

Cash flow to a small business like ours is essential, especially in this economy. Currently Paypal is “holding” over $2,300 from us due to their system, that we cannot touch. And let’s not forget who is collecting the interest on that $2,300… (hint it is not us.)

In our last conversation with PayPal which lasted an average of one hour per call, they stated the following; if the recipient’s email address is not registered with PayPal, they will have to register their email address with them, wait  couple of days to get it activated, THEN redeem their gift certificate with us.  When a client is ready for their massage, they do not want to wait 2 days to redeem it which is why the gift certificate are PAID for by their friends and family prior to their appointment.

Appointment Plus after researching different options, appointment plus is the company that Roman Paradigm Massage is going with. We already use appointment plus for their online massage scheduling system, our clients love this feature. Appointment Plus charges only $10 a month to sale gift certificates online, branded with your logo and sent to the recipient via 4 different options. They do not take a commission on each massage gift certificate sold, you can use your own merchant account or Paypal.

Paypal for collecting money online is ok, just do not use them for selling gift certificates “buy gift certificate” button, you want to use their “buy now or pay now” buttons, yes there is a BIG difference. I may write another blog post on this at a later time.

Mind Body Software is a great company that offers many different features and options that we loved, but they were expensive over the course of 3 years ( this was researched by our good friend Jeff Sloan). Mind Body also takes a commission on each gift certificate sold as well as charging you a monthly fee. Some of the major Spa and Massage companies out there use this brand, but Roman Paradigm Massage decided not to, again based on research by Jeff Sloan.

Boomtime and Gift certificates Online both look very good to use, especially if you are first starting out. Both companies offer the same services and features and I have included them both for you to research for yourself. I am not going to talk much about these two companies due to us not having any previous experiences with them.

But here is a list of some of their benefits…

• You pay only when you sell — just 5% of online sales!
• No long-term commitment, no cancellation fees.
• Real Time e-commerce
• Secure web interface
• Your funds go directly into your account, via Paypal or authorize.net gateways
• Customized to your website’s look and feel

I know that there are allot more companies that offer selling Spa and Massage gift certificates online, and if you have some recommendations please share them with us. I am writing these blog posting to share with you our recommendations and to warn you of Paypal’s unfriendly and in my opinion un-ethical ways..

Appointment Plus has been very user friendly to us at Roman Paradigm Massage not to mention very reasonable as well. We use them for our online massage appointment scheduling and we love their reporting system, their reporting system allows to see exactly what marketing efforts are paying off and which marketing efforts are not. We never play phone tag with our customers and our current and potential customers can book 24/7/365 days a year.

I wrote a blog post early last year detailing some of the great benefits that we have seen using their services, so if you like to find out more, just click this link titled “appointment plus our choice for online massage scheduling and gift certificate sales”

[where: 3097 Moorpark Avenue San Jose, California 95128]

[where: 95128]