Bags Instead of Boxes

Although we recycle all corrugated boxes, paperboard boxes, plastic bottles, cans, and mixed paper, not everyone lives in a municipality that makes it easy to do so. Many people are not able to recycle corrugated cardboard. And even if they can, many are not in the habit of reusing and recycling. So we decided to reduce in the first place. We ended up choosing Tyvek and recycled manila envelopes over boxes because of many reasons.

1. SleepPhones are soft and do not require padding for protection during shipping.
2. Boxes are too big for some mailboxes, like those for apartments. 
3. Boxes are more easily lost because they are separated from the rest of the mail during delivery.
   
4. Envelopes take up less space in the landfill.
5. Envelopes weigh less than boxes. They are cheaper to ship.
6. Because they weigh less than boxes, it requires less gas to transport for the post office.
7. Tyvek envelopes can be recycled.
8. Manila envelopes that we use are already from recycled materials and can be further recycled in some places under mixed office paper.
   

When we started out, we used nice tuck mailer boxes to ship SleepPhones. There was a flap that could be tucked in to close the box, so it didn't require tape to be sealed. The thought was that if opened carefully, the boxes could be reused by the customer for various things. But after realizing that our reusable boxes were just being thrown out by most people, we figured that we would save landfill space by using minimal packaging instead.

If you place a large order from us, then we may ship your SleepPhones using a box. We often keep the nicer boxes we get from our suppliers for reuse in these situations. Therefore, you may get a box labeled Staples, Amazon, or some other company, but it is actually from us. Some people may think that we are being cheap, but we think we are practicing an ecologically sustainable concept. It takes our precious time and basement space to sort and store these boxes, but we do so because we want to reuse them. This type of conservation not only helps our bottom line (which helps our customers), but makes the world a slightly better place for future generations.

SleepPhones QR Code

Google sent us an envelope today. Apparently we're a favorite place
on Google! We have our own QR code now. Unfortunately, that directs
the customer to our basement, which is not open to the public.
Here's the code for our website instead.

Okay. If you're like me, you're wondering what a QR code is. It stands for Quick Response and is also called a 2D bar code. It works like a bar code, but it can encode 7,089 numbers as opposed to 12 numbers in a standard UPC. It was developed in Japan and so can also encode Kanji, in addition to binary, letters, some symbols, and numbers. It's routinely used in Japan as a replacement for the UPC. An application on my iPhone is able to read it in real-time and take me to the specified webpage. Rock bands and some cutting edge businesses use it as a marketing ploy. Hmm... I wonder what we can do with it.

3 Days Off!

For the holidays, we took 3 days off from mailing out SleepPhones. It was very relaxing to spend some time with family and friends. Here is a picture of a baby with the sheep.

I took lots of naps. We gave and received great presents. Now, it's back to work.

First Order from Cambodia

A week ago, we got our first order from Cambodia! So I did some research and found that our order had come from the capitol city, Phnom Penh. Most Cambodians are Buddhist of the Khmer ethnicity, and they speak Khmer. It borders Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam. While it currently imports its petroleum, oil has apparently been found there and will soon be extracted. The government is a liberal democracy under a constitutional monarchy, like the UK. For some reason, Lonely Planet says that there are only 20 psychiatrist in Cambodia. Recently, China gave Cambodia 1.2 billion dollars to deport 20 Muslim asylum-seekers sought by China in connection with violent anti-government protests. Despite its beautiful warm coastline, it doesn't attract as many tourists as some of its neighbors. I might like to visit some of the deserted coastal islands... but  there might be landmines. Oh well.

Sheep Models RunPhones Onesie

To Auntie Kim, Thank you for the new onesie! It fits much better than the other onesie, and it's soft and organic. The design is perfect! Love, SleepPhones Sheep.

Check out the designer's website. WestMama on Etsy
Sheep wears the RunPhones logo onesie. RunPhones will be ready in February!

Sheep Travels

We finally got our little guy! Isn't he the cutest stuffed sheep ever?

He's been traveling everywhere with us! He even helped us drive our giant rolls of fabric around!

Lavender Color and Scent

One might ask about our obsession with lavender, both the color and the plant. We have many pounds of dried lavender buds, lavender essential oil, lavender soap, a lavender stuffed lamb, lavender-colored clothes, and many rolls of lavender fabric.

The lavender color is a very peaceful pastel. So we decided to play it up in our marketing. A brand's color is extremely important. Colors have many implications. For example, red implies boldness. Blue is peaceful. Yellow and black are used for warnings and calling attention to things. Pink is very feminine. We chose lavender and gray as our company colors. Lavender is a delicate soft color appealing more to women. Gray is a gender-neutral soft quiet color. Both are appropriate for a company concerned about sleep.

The sense of smell is one of the most subtle ways to entice customers. Smells are associated with good and bad things in life. Cookies associated with the holidays remind you of good times with family. Balsam and spruce trees make me think of a crisp winter. Sour milk makes me sick. Even though the sense of smell is not as obvious as vision or hearing, its is often more memorable and triggers a deeper emotional response. Anyone in marketing knows how important emotions are. Lavender is slightly floral and sweet with a sharpness of camphor that opens up the nose. The higher the quality of the lavender, the less the sharpness, and the more floral. It is commonly used in aromatherapy for relaxation. Most people enjoy the subtle scent of lavender, even those who don't like floral potpourri and perfumes. It makes me think of pine sap and faint flowers, very relaxing.

We have two employees making our lavender sachets part-time. One is an honors college student who stuffs the sachets to pay for her rent and to earn extra spending money. The other is a high school student, and this is her first job. Her mother is using it as an opportunity to teach her the value of money.

SleepPhones Review 4.5/5.0 on thinkmac.net

SleepPhones were reviewed on thinkmac.net. He gave us a 4.5 out of 5.0 apples! The reviewer actually resides in Blacksburg, VA, my home town, but we did not know each other before.

Biggest Order Ever

At 8pm on December 17th, SleepPhones received its biggest individual order ever. Someone in California order a dozen SleepPhones! All in tins with sachets, at that. I'm going to have to order more tins soon. Plus, the college student who packs sachets is almost done with finals, so she'll have to make more sachets soon. We're running low on those. We're very excited that someone ordered so many! We speculate that they will be given out as gifts.

Big orders definitely receive some special treatment from us. We'll automatically upgrade certain things. For example, we'll upgrade the shipping or packaging. We used to include an extra sachet, but then we found out (the hard way) that some people really don't like lavender. The holiday rush still has not slowed down, so I better get back to packing orders. I've taken all of next week off from my day-job to work on last minute orders and sending out gifts to my relatives. In the meantime, I've been a bit sleep-deprived, ironically, in a good way.

Lavender and Gray Colors Are Coming Back!

Polartec® has finished production of our lavender and gray color fabrics! They are both the recycled soda bottle with spandex fleece. We will start production of SleepPhones in those colors in January, to be ready by mid-February. Some customers have been asking for those colors back, so we're working on it!

Holiday Sales

Tonight was close to another record breaking night. 40 minutes to go... but I don't think we'll break any records tonight. We've certainly come a long way since we started making the first SleepPhones prototypes three years ago. Here was the logo I had come up with at first. It was the best we could do with our budget at the time. It doesn't quite compare with our current logo, which is the cutest cartoon sheep ever.

Sheep Travels

Sheep enjoys Christmas music by Callanish Band at the church.

Corporate Responsibility - Social

SleepPhones are Socially Responsible

• We buy as many components from US manufacturers as possible.
  
• Sewing, assembly, quality control, and shipping of SleepPhones are all done in Pennsylvania.
  
• Our employees work from home, which allows them to be with their family and work whenever they want.
  
• We pay our employees double the minimum wage.
  
• We have donated to the National Sleep Foundation, Listen & Learn: Music for a Different Kind of Audience, Autism Speaks, and National Public Radio.
  
• We sponsor various informative podcasts.
  

Corporate Responsibility - Environmental

SleepPhones are Green.

• The fleece headband is made of 88% recycled plastic bottles. The manufacturing of the fleece is done by Polartec® in Massachusetts then shipped directly to Pennsylvania via FedEx ground.
  
• All of the electronics in the SleepPhones are RoHS compliant, which means that they are free of lead. They can be safely disposed.
  
• SleepPhones headquarters is powered by 100% wind energy.
  
• Streamlined operations in order to reduce waste. For example, the instruction booklets are printed two at a time so that there is minimal paper waste.
  
• Ink and toner cartridges are recycled.
  
• The SleepPhones packaging was carefully chosen to minimize materials and weight which uses less fuel to transport. We do not use packing peanuts. We reuse plastic balloons, bubbles, and boxes from our suppliers whenever possible.
  
• Almost all manufacturing waste is recycled (cardboard, office paper) or reused (leftover fabric).
  
• We decided to ship via USPS not only to save both the customer and us money, but also because the postal carrier has to make a trip to your work or residence anyway. FedEx, UPS, and DHL need to use gasoline getting the package to you.
  
• Computers are on a smart strip so all peripherals automatically turn off when the computer is not on.
  
• Our employees work from home, so they do not have to drive to and from work every day. Nor do they have to drive their kids to day care.
  
• 
  

Here is how you can help!

• Reuse as many of the packaging parts as possible.
  
• If your SleepPhones came in a corrugated cardboard box, please reuse and recycle your box.
  
• If your SleepPhones came in a Tyvek® envelope, please recycle the envelope! For Small Quantities (less than 25 envelopes), turn any Tyvek® envelope inside out, so the unprinted white surface shows on the outside. Stuff the inside-out Tyvek® envelope with other used Tyvek® envelopes for recycling. Address and mail the envelope to: Tyvek® Recycle, Attn. Shirley B. Wright, 2400 Elliham Avenue #A, Richmond, VA 23237. More information on recycling Tyvek
  

Gabriel Slate's Tech Report - Kron 4 News

SleepPhones were on Gabe Slate's Tech Report last night!
Watch the clip for New Gadgets Could Make Great Gifts for the Holidays.


Here is the permanent link to the video.

Podcast Advertising

We decided to support a few really cool podcasts. One is The Classic Tales where a literary piece is read each week. The other is Escape Pod, a weekly science fiction podcast. We sponsored the latest episode of The Classic Tales where B.J. Harrison performs The Cricket on the Hearth by Charles Dickens (Episode 136). The three-part story is about Tackleton, a toymaker who hated children. And if a Cricket was ever heard tittering near his hearth, he'd crush it, and relish the jam on the heel of his boot. But for some gentler hearts,the Cricket is a prophet that nudges their minds to brighter days.

World of Warcraft

If the World of Warcraft (WoW insider) people win the games category of PodCastAwards, then they will be giving away free SleepPhone to a listener. Good luck to the gamers!

Twitter Full Night Sleep Experience Giveaway Ending!

The Twitter Giveaway Grand Prize is coming up soon! We're about 80 twitter followers away from giving away a pair of SleepPhones and a pre-loaded MP3 player. Enter soon!

Leo Laporte Wears SleepPhones

We sent Leo Laporte some SleepPhones and he loved them! Episode 972 The Giz Wiz can be watched online!

Herbal Sleep Medicines - Be Careful!

Many people believe that herbal medications are relatively benign and do not have any side effects. However, pretty much anything with an effect will have side effects. Plus, herbals work because they contain certain chemicals that mimic traditional drugs. These chemicals can interfere with other medications or medical conditions and should always be checked with a physician or pharmacist before taking.

The main problem with herbal sleep medicines is that they are not regulated. The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) does not have any oversight over herbal medicines. That means you have to trust the company selling the product to be selling what they claim to be selling. Sometimes the herbs may be contaminated with other herbs. Sometimes the dosing from bottle to bottle or even pill to pill can be very different because the herbs were grown under varying conditions. Plant grown collected from nature may have very different properties than those grown in a greenhouse. The timing of harvests and the amount of sunshine or rain can impact potency. Herbs collected from contaminated places can contain heavy metals and various farming chemicals. Because the companies selling herbals do not have to report to any agencies to validate their products, you have to be extra careful with taking herbal sleep medicines.

Here are a few examples of herbal sleep medicines.

• Passion flower leaves and roots (Passiflora incarnata and Passiflora edulis) were used by the Native Americans for its sedative effect. However, it can interfere with antidepressants such as Prozac, Zoloft, Effexor, St. John's Wort, and may other medications. It contains compounds similar to MAOI's. It may be a mild blood thinner. It should not be used during pregnancy.
  
  
• Valerian Root may work in a way similar to benzodiazepines which are anxiolytics like Xanax, Valium, Ativan, or Klonopin. Prolonged use can result in withdrawl symptoms and rebound insomnia. It can cause a hangover in high doses.
  
  
• Hops - yes, the ingredient in beer - is a sedative and hypnotic. It contains an chemical that is stronger than regular ethyl alcohol, the main active ingredient in alcoholic beverages. The body processes it in a way similar to regular alcohol, so excessive use could impact the liver.
  
  
• Skullcap (Scutellaria lateriflora) is a mild relaxant used for anxiety and historically rabies. It is a sedative so should not be used with other sedatives like Xanax, Ambien, or alcohol. It has been contaminated with germander in the past, which caused liver problems.
  
  
• Chamomile flower teas are often used for relaxation. People who are allergic to ragweed or birch pollen may be allergic to Chamomile. It can intensify effects of other sedatives, so should not be mixed with them. It may not be safe during pregnancy.
  
  
• Melatonin is the only non-regulated drug alternative that has been scientifically proven with multiple research trials to help with sleep. It is most useful in jet-lag situations, where the brain needs a boost of melatonin to get to sleep. Melatonin is naturally produced in the brain to induce sleep. The melatonin pills are laboratory-produced chemicals, again, not regulated by the FDA. Technically it is not an herbal, but it can be found in the same section of the store. It should not be used during pregnancy because it can interfere with other hormones in the body. It should not be mixed with other sedatives or taken with other blood thinning products, including aspirin and gingko. Some people will have prolonged sedation the following day.
  

It is very important to check for drug interactions. Conditions like seizures, epilepsy, alcoholism, depression, anxiety, pregnancy, or breastfeeding are important to consider before trying any herbal sleep medications. Contrary to popular belief, herbals can be just as potent as some prescription drugs, and should be used with at least as much caution.

Website Went Down

Our website has been down since 10:33 PM unfortunately. We are working on resolving this problem with Dreamhost.

Cyber Monday

We broke a record today! The most number of orders in one day was broken by 6pm. And the orders are still coming in. We even had two orders in the same minute. I don't think that has ever happened before. Yay! Gotta get to filling the orders.

Grammar Girl SleepPhones!

We sponsored Grammar Girl's Episode 198 November 27, 2009 entitled "Because," Due To," "Since," and "As." It has just been released! In her podcast, we learn to avoid the wordy ways to say "because." Because we type like we speak sometimes, we may be too wordy. Instead of saying "on the grounds that," the phrase could be shortened to "because." We enjoy sponsoring smart, practical people like Grammar Girl. Here's what she said about SleepPhones.

I'm really excited to be able to tell you about this new product called Sleep Phones. I love the Sleep Phones because I have to listen to something such as an audiobook or podcast to be able to fall asleep. I'd tried every kind of headphone I could find and no matter what I did, my ears would hurt in the morning and half the time the earbuds would fall out and turn into little speakers in the bed, which kept my husband awake. And then I tried Sleep Phones, and my ears didn't hurt anymore, and because the SleepPhones fit right they don't fall off, and I don't have to crank up the volume to be able to hear. They're amazing, and they'd make a great gift. So, go to sleepphones.com/gg and use the code GRAMMAR to get $5 off. That's sleepphones.com/gg and the code is GRAMMAR.

One lucky Grammar Girl SleepPhones customer from November 27th to December 31st will receive a free copy of The Grammar Devotional!

SleepPhones Now Available in Different Sizes (Again.)

SleepPhones available in XS and XL now! Most people still fit best into the One size fits most. But if you know for sure you have an extra small or extra large head, then we now have a better fit for you!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving turkey dinner at the SleepPhones household.

RealSleep CD

RealSleep CD is now for sale by SleepPhones!
RealSleep, created by a neuroscientist and an award-winning musician, is a CD you play while you’re going to sleep. Nearly-inaudible sounds embedded in music work directly on the arousal centers of the brain, helping your mind relax and unwind. This produces the same effect as rocking a baby, helping many people with sleep problems go to sleep faster and stay asleep longer.

Lavender Soap Coming Soon!

We have been working with the owner of Annadele Sundries to bring you the best lavender soap with the highest quality ingredients available. They are a Pennsylvania home-based company that hand-makes soap. It takes weeks for the owner to make the all natural soap using traditional methods. The ingredients are saponified olive oil (for moisturization), saponified coconut oil (for rich lather), and essential oil of lavender. We use high quality steam distilled lavender oil from French Lavendula angustifolia. There are no petroleum or animal derivatives, sodium laureth sulfate (a strong detergent), or antibiotics (good germs on the skin keep the bad germs at bay). This adds to our line-up of products that are good for your sleep and for the environment.

Bloggers Help Marketing and Search Engine Rankings Part 2

Oh, I searched with more terms and found these cool websites referencing SleepPhones.

Dream Views - Lucid dreamers can use SleepPhones to help.
Transparent Community - Learning Strategies is a a company in Minnesota selling CDs that help you achieve your potential. They have a bulletin board where someone wrote about us.
Anew Perspective - A hypnotist in Oregon sells SleepPhones on her website.
Articles Base - Our only Hungarian order so far has resulted in a great review!  Neato!
Here First - It looks like the Hungarian person saw this blog post. Small world.
Sleep Disorder Help - This takes you to Amazon to buy SleepPhones. The affiliate program for Amazon is a really great marketing tool. We did not ask for these affiliates. Amazon gives them a commission, so they write about stuff.
Inventor's Spot - SleepPhones had been handmade by me initially. The first holiday season was just sitting in front of the sewing machine for me after getting home from work. Very busy. Then I hired some employees. Etsy didn't like that I hired employees, so they took us off of their listings.  Oh well.
IM Shopping - Thanks Mrs. Joshica for recommending us!

Trolling is when someone goes on a bulletin board and pushes their product. It's like being a door-to-door salesman. Most people don't like it.  And so they will block you from the bulletin board. We don't troll. But we'd love to have more customers to help advocate for us!

Bloggers Help Marketing and Search Engine Rankings

We have been very fortunate to have such strong supporters for SleepPhones.  There are a number of blogs online that rave about SleepPhones. Most blog entries were completely unsolicited. We just search on the name SleepPhones every now and then and find stuff about us.

Here is an annotated list of some of them.
Sleep Required - Thanks Dan for a completely unsolicited review about SleepPhones!
Brain Waver - This was one of the earliest random reviews for us. Thank you so much for your early support!

Art Van Furniture - We work with Sleep to Live, a division of Kingsdown. I think that's where this link came from. That's a nice picture!
Cranky Fitness Reviews - She contact us about doing a review and then a giveaway. She's a popular blogger, with high rankings. So we worked with her, and she gave us a very detailed honest and positive review.
Carina Romano Photography - She's our photographer for many of the pictures on the website. She was nice enough to put us on her blog, which is very popular.
Miscellaneous Finds 4 U - She contacted me about doing a giveaway on her blog, and it certainly drew a lot of great attention! Lots on nice comments about the product.
Boing Boing Gadgets - We contacted them to see if they would like to try our product. Well, they just wrote a review and never tried it. So I don't think they can really say anything with any authoritysince they've never seen just how good SleepPhones are. What they propose doesn't work. SleepPhones work. Hmm... I was going to put a link down, but on second thought, I won't give them that.
Kaboodle - A college student in TX apparently added us on this site. Thanks!
Nerd Like - Someone we don't know named Jazzy gave us a great review. Thanks!
Mind Reality - Someone we don't know had put this great ad up for us.  Thanks!

Listen and Learn - I contacted her because her blog was featured by BlogSpot as a great place to get short free music for autistic kids to learn about the world. And I had just received a rave review from a parent of an autistic child. So I asked if she would review a pair for me, and I'm so glad she liked it!
iliketotallyloveit - Another unsolicited great review. Thanks!
Deep Delta - Thanks whoever you are! Nice info on binaural beats and how we can help.
Busika - We're so glad Yellow Start 2000 put us on the list of must-haves for travelers! I found out about it from Google Alerts.
Thifty Boutique - Thank you for this Ad! I think she probably gets a commission from Amazon when someone buys with her link. Well, that's fine by us!

Some bloggers contacted us via email or Twitter to see if we would send them a free pair for a review on their blog. We have taken a few people up on that, but there would be a never-ending free sampling if we were not discriminating about that. In the past, after we did two giveaways, many small-time bloggers (who had just set up a blog to get free stuff) wanted giveaways too from us.  We just can't afford that, so I had to turn them down. Now that bloggers are suppose to disclose these deals, I expect we'll see fewer of these propositions. I think it's great advertising for us, but realistically, when the blog is about free stuff and cheap stuff, the people visiting those sites are not ready to put down $50-60 for SleepPhones. We have not seen much sales from blogs, even when we offer a coupon for the blog readers. I think the biggest benefit to advertising on blogs is name recognition, back-links for search engine optimization, keyword associations, and positive reviews for potential customers to read.We really really appreciate all of the bloggers and niche community people who voluntarily advertised for us over the past few years. If you contact us via DM in Twitter (@sleepphones), we'd love to talk to you!

RealSleep Collaboration

RealSleep is a well-produced CD of relaxing classical music songs overlaid with binaural beats. We made the mistake of listening to it on the way home from work and had to go straight to bed when we got home. Each song has several refrains, each with a slightly different interpretation of the melody. It's really very lovely. But it's hard to stay awake to fully analyze all of the songs! The CD has been tested in clinical trials and shown to be effective in improving sleep. I also like that it uses classical music because that might make you smarter! In other studies, rat listening to heavy metal can't run around a maze as well as rats listening to classical music.
RealSleep has an innocent quality because it's so peaceful and simple. It is being marketed for kids currently, but I think it works for anybody. We really enjoyed the music, and it definitely made us sleepy!
So here's the list of songs and credits.

Track Length
1. Delta Wave Canon 4:05
2. Subvocalize 6:06
3. Basking Breeze 3:22
4. Maria's Song 4:41
5. Lullaby and Goodnight 5:11
6. Arcangelo's Tale 3:18
7. Evening Joy 3:17
8. Sicilienne Dreams 3:08
9. Night Air 3:19

Original recordings, based on:
J. Pachelbel, Pachelbel Canon for Violin and Piano
Sergei Rachmaninoff, Vocalise for Violin and Piano, Op. 34
J.S. Bach, Arioso
Charles Gounod, Ave Maria
Johannes Brahms, Wiegenlied (Lullaby-Berceuse) Op. 49 No. 4

Credits:
San San Lee - Violin
Bernadette Hoke - Piano
Lance Massey - Additional instruments
Seth Horowitz, Ph.D. - computer algorithms
China Blue - CD art and design
Recorded and and engineered by Lance Massey
Produced and arranged by NeuroPop

Lance Massey is an acquaintance from back in Stamford, CT. He was working at the same place as Jason back in early 2007. I met him at his going away party when he took a job elsewhere. At that time, Jason had just joined the company. So we really didn't know each other well. A few weeks ago, Jason was reviewing the website referrals for SleepPhones and found that a few hits came from Lance's Facebook page. Well, that was quite strange since he would not have known about SleepPhones. But then we figured out what happened. One of the other co-workers who knew both Jason and Lance commented on his post.

Go Nishchay! Thanks to him, we hooked up with Lance, and then we just talked with RealSleep's marketing director David. Some time next week, we'll start selling RealSleep on our website.

SleepPhones Versions

I've finally made a big table listing the versions of SleepPhones we've had since going into business. We've had three versions.

Light Therapy Products

Light Therapy Products is an online company specializing in products for seasonal affective disorder (SAD). They sell various light boxes and sleep aids. We have sold them some SleepPhones at wholesale prices, and they will be reselling SleepPhones over this holiday season. Although the old model of SleepPhones are shown on their website, they will carry the latest black model.

Famous? Maybe one day we'll be as popular as Grasshopper.com

So last week, Grasshopper.com's Ambassador of Buzz contacted me because of my previous post on how cool their new phone system was and how it helps improve our customer service.  Apparently they can help promote our business too! I know they are pretty darn popular with all of the big names mentioned on their website.  I think our most famous contacts would be Grammar Girl and Steven Gurgevich who works with Andrew Weil (one of my idols). We were just lucky to be mentioned in CNN Money and Health magazine. If Grasshopper can help promote our business, it could do wonders! I didn't think anybody read this blog, but even if it's only Google Alerts reading it, I guess that's good enough!

In order for Grasshopper to promote us, we have to give them some material to work with.  Here's what I typed up for them.  It's the same basic story, just condensed, since I like to write in tangents.

I had trouble getting back to sleep after the emergency room called. With my sleep being frequently disturbed, I needed something that could help me fall asleep quickly. I am a family doctor who finally realized how important sleep is after being sleep deprived for many years in school and in training.

Many people need help either with falling asleep or staying asleep. It could be that they can’t stop an internal voice from worrying or an external noise snoring next to them. Insomnia is a very frustrating experience. One usually gets more and more angry as the night drags on slowly, and that makes sleep even harder. To put a stop to the frustration of not sleeping, it would be nice to listen to something relaxing in bed, in comfort, without disturbing any bed partners. I know it works from personal and patient experiences.

We invented SleepPhones because there were no headphones for sleeping on the market. You can listen to anything with SleepPhones by plugging them into your iPod or any other music player. SleepPhones are the softest, most comfortable headphones for sleeping. The patented design is completely unique. Thin high-quality speakers are hidden and padded within a fleece headband made from recycled plastic bottles. SleepPhones are assembled in the USA and shipped directly from us (the manufacturer) to customers via orders from our website. Visit http://www.SleepPhones.com to check out the ultimate sleep headphones.

Pretty New Websites by Yahoo and Google Sites

We have more homes on the web for SleepPhones.

This website is designed through Yahoo Sites. Their content management system makes it easy to design pretty simple websites. There is no HTML edit option, so the variations in design are very limited. The payment system is through PayPal and is easy to setup. Again, because it's so simplified, there are no detailed options. Check it out at site.HeadphonesForSleep.com.

Here is the Google Sites webpage. At the minimum we have to hold down the name SleepPhones in all of the major internet locations. It's like trying to get a street corner with parking for a retail store or putting up a big sign. Google Site for SleepPhones

We made these website in order to have yet another way people can find us on the web, emphasizing a slightly different set of keywords.

Random Student at Barnes and Noble

Last night we had about an hour to kill before our dinner plans with friends, so we stopped by Barnes and Noble. Jason's a bibliophile. We have a library with 10 tall bookshelves and no cable TV in the house.

Anyway, we saw a friend (the best cupcaker maker ever - her snickerdoodle cupcake was spotted at the entrepreneurial women's expo) who was knitting at a table there. We have a whole group of cult-ish friends who meet every Monday night at Barnes and Noble to sit around and knit. They even have a name badge and T-shirts for the club. They are called the Knit Pistols. They nearly swept the County Fair's knitting contest this past year, having entered for the first time.

My form of knitting is quality control on this latest batch of SleepPhones. I put on the Velcro cord wrap, check the speaker placement, and make sure everything works just right. I happened to have my bag of SleepPhones with me because I work on this in the car when Jason's driving. So while the Knit Pistol Baking Fool Hannah worked on her flip-top mittens, I worked on my SleepPhones. Surprisingly, Hannah had not heard of our company. So I started telling her about how I couldn't sleep being on call and how I needed sleep headphones. She is so excited about our product that she's going to blog about us now!

Meanwhile, a random student was sitting around, waiting for a friend. She turned around and said, "Wait, what? Headphones for sleeping? I totally could have used them last night." So we got to talking. I showed both Hannah and this student all about SleepPhones and how they are the coolest things ever. I gave the student my card, and she said she was going to tell all of her friends about them. (I've learned by now to always have my card everywhere I go.) Yes!

That was a very productive hour of random marketing at Barnes and Noble.

Grasshopper.com

Grasshopper.com is our business phone/fax system. To be honest, I hate talking on the phone. I always have. I guess I'm much more visual than auditory. We figured we have to have a business phone number and fax number, so we went this this very cheap and convenient option.  We're one of those households that don't have a land line anymore. We both have cell phone numbers from 2-3 moves back, so they aren't even from the same state. Grasshopper with all of the options we need is about $12 a month.  Plus it does faxes - as a PDF attachment to the email, so we don't have to have a land line with a fax machine wasting paper and ink.
Grasshopper used to be GotVMail. This new name is cuter, and I like their new system.  It's easier to make outbound calling card phone calls now.  And for a limited time, I get free voice to text conversion. How cool is that?  That just became available a few days ago, so now instead of having to listen to a message with a pen and paper, ready to write down pertinent information, I can just read it.  We've had 2 messages transcribed by computer so far. One was perfect, barely a mistake. The other was less good, but I can tell what they were asking. I'm debating whether the $10 monthly extra charge is worth it or not when the free trial runs out.
I just dread having to listen to a voice message because I never know if it's a nice message or a complaint or a stupid question (err, I mean, there is no such thing as a stupid question) or a really good question I don't have an answer to. And I'm very sensitive to the accent and tone of the speech too. I have to take a mental timeout after listening to a message just to interpret the emotions in the message, especially if it's a complaint. The detached impersonal standardized text for reading is much easier for me to process.  I wish I could email back to the phone calls so I wouldn't have to muster up the composure for speaking to customers.
I'm a doctor all day long, so I have to keep my composure and exude a certain air of confidence and compassion. While it is a service profession, and customer service does count, I'm the authority in the situation. The personality I assume as a doctor is very different from the subservient acquiescing customer service representative where the customer is always right. And as a CEO discussing deals with suppliers, business advisers (lawyers, accountants, etc), wholesale customers, and business relationship, I am again used to being in charge. When I have a few phone calls a day to return as the nice customer service rep, I have to change my personality so much. And by the end of the day, my patience runs out, I'm tired, and I'd rather eat dinner than call a grumpy person back while being as nice as I would like me to be. When I've called Land's End in the past about placing orders, sizes from previous orders, mistakes in orders, or anything along those lines, I've always been very impressed with the level of customer service. That's why I've been such a loyal customer for so long.  They are always nice, alert, competent, and with excellent follow-through. I try to hold myself up to those standards, but I guess I just wasn't cut out for the sales/customer service field.
P.S. If you have comments or questions, please send us an email. Don't call, because I'll respond slower to that. And we're never immediately available by phone because we have day jobs that take all of our attention during the day.

Newly Added Box on Website

We just added the Follow Us box on our website. It has all of our social media links so you can get the inside scoop and the latest on SleepPhones! I think this Blog covers most of the SleepPhones news, but it takes much more effort to come here than to get the occasional update on Facebook or Twitter.

Google Search

It's always scary for the entrepreneur when the bulk of customers are from one source. If the source goes away, it could spell disaster. In our case, most of our customers find our product from a Google Search. I don't think Google will go away, but our ranking on Google is never a guarantee.  We constantly monitor searches on SleepPhones and the listing for our main keywords: sleep headphones, headphones for sleeping. We've optimized those terms as much as possible in our website so we do show up highly in those searches. That's an achievement not to be taken lightly nor messed with frequently. We'll probably upgrade our website to Drupal 6.0 after the holiday season. Making changes right now that might change our ranking is just too risky, since our December sales are typically double a normal month and help boost our sales for the following year. We're working on bettering our search results in Yahoo, Bing, and Ask now.

eBay Auction for Sleep Headphones

SleepPhones eBay auction starts bid price at $24.99 for the best headphones for sleeping - more than half off!

SleepPhones in Yahoo Store!

We have a Yahoo Store for SleepPhones now! We're trying out this marketing method by creating another website. Perhaps by increasing internet presence and cross-referring to our various accounts, we'll increase our back links and strengthen our grip on our main keywords: sleep headphones and headphones for sleeping. We're also hoping that by paying Yahoo for this account, they will crawl our site a bit more often and rank it higher. So far, it hasn't seemed to happen.
We decided to try it because there's a good deal for 3 months of the Yahoo! store with no setup fees.
We do have the best and only headphones for sleeping on the market today. But we are competing with big names in audio for the attention of search engines. We have to try every inexpensive resource. Amazon has worked out well for us. Hopefully Yahoo! will pan out too for optimizing headphones for sleeping.

Taxes

We've paid all federal, state, and local estimated taxes through the end of the year. Whew! Cash on hand is low, but we anticipate getting it all back over the next 2 months. And I finally filed the 3rd quarter state sales and use taxes too. That's after updating all of my bookkeeping in Quickbooks since July. And I finally learned how to write off bad debt too, thanks to this nice video. A local retail store that sold many local crafts and carried SleepPhones went out of business during this recession, so we are having to write off a lot of money.

Packing Station Organized

Yesterday was a busy SleepPhones day. Jason worked on starting some ad campaigns on Bidvertiser and AdBrite. We found that we were good on Google but not so highly ranked in Yahoo, Bing, or Ask. So we have to ramp up our rankings on those engines.

Due to the more complex nature of our sales now, with multiple options on an item, we have to pack each individually and very carefully. It taking us hours to fulfill orders each night. So I decided to rearrange our packing system. Everything we need is now in one central location and the computer is right there to check orders and listen to Pandora at the same time. I suppose sometimes I might listen to Grammar Girl Podcasts, lectures about business, and world news channels. I'm happy that it's finally all organized in one place. The various components of the packing used to take up the whole house. Here's a picture of Jason looking through the reorganization. We're going to take a break today and go practice archery.

SleepPhones Coupon

SleepPhones Coupon $5 off.