- Coach House Gifts
SleepPhones are at the Coach House Gifts in the Valley West Mall of Des Moines, IA. If you live near there, please pick one up!
- Best Buy
Online, Best Buy is carrying SleepPhones. They aren't in the stores yet, but if you want to see SleepPhones in the Best Buy stores, please let the store manager know!
Wednesday, November 16, 2011
New Places to Find SleepPhones
Sunday, November 13, 2011
SleepPhones Continues to Increase Employment During Recession
Despite these economic times, we've continued to add more help! And we continue to pay them a decent wage.
SleepPhones currently employs 8 part-time workers. 3 of them live within walking distance, so they don't even have to drive to work. I think it's great they don't have to drive to work, which saves them gas money and creates less pollution. I also try to have some of the others work as much as possible from home, especially with handling customer service, marketing, and sales. That also helps to save gas and time.
Since the arrival of Baby, we've been super busy trying to keep him happy and keep up with the SleepPhones work. Thankfully, we have lots of great help. We look forward to a productive holiday season!
SleepPhones currently employs 8 part-time workers. 3 of them live within walking distance, so they don't even have to drive to work. I think it's great they don't have to drive to work, which saves them gas money and creates less pollution. I also try to have some of the others work as much as possible from home, especially with handling customer service, marketing, and sales. That also helps to save gas and time.
Since the arrival of Baby, we've been super busy trying to keep him happy and keep up with the SleepPhones work. Thankfully, we have lots of great help. We look forward to a productive holiday season!
Friday, November 11, 2011
Baby and Sheep Pictures
The lighting was just right, and he was being such a good boy, I couldn't resist taking some pictures!
Friday, August 26, 2011
My Thoughts on Press Releases
The truth is, so many people are posting press releases now that search engines are the only things reading them. So unless a search engine finds enough good keywords in there, no one will read it. Journalists and bloggers doing research on a topic will likely just do a search for the most relevant keywords.
Therefore, just as important as readability or conveying important information is making sure the machines like it. That means optimizing search engine scores. For press releases, I like to choose 3-4 keywords to target. Often, we want insomnia and snoring. In our latest press release on our new iPhone App, however, we want sleep, iPhone and App. So at the end of writing everything, I check with a keyword analyzer to make sure they are among the top 10 words with 4 letters or above.
Then I write a title that contains the keywords I want and throw in highly charged words that grab attention. If the journalists look through a list of headlines in a listing of press releases, you want to have something that will grab them. I'm not a professional copywriter, but there are various techniques out there. One that I use the most is this headline analyzer. http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/index.htm
I don't know just how effective it is, but it's interesting. I try different words to make sure the headline scores highly on this system.
The other headline gimmick is to use words like "free," "new," "discovered," "amazing," or other kitsch words you see on infomercials. I have a distaste for over-blown exaggerations, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to be competitive in conditions of information overload. We managed to use Free and New for our last press release title.
So to me, the two things that are critical in writing a press release is to have a great headline and SEO optimization.
For the first 3 years of this business, I was the one writing the press releases. Since money was tight, I wanted to make sure that every release that we paid to get out there was completely optimized in every way. I did lots of research, and it made sense to me. One of our earliest releases really helped us to be established in the area of sleep and headphones, our most important keywords. We are still at the top of Google for "sleep headphones." Yay!
Therefore, just as important as readability or conveying important information is making sure the machines like it. That means optimizing search engine scores. For press releases, I like to choose 3-4 keywords to target. Often, we want insomnia and snoring. In our latest press release on our new iPhone App, however, we want sleep, iPhone and App. So at the end of writing everything, I check with a keyword analyzer to make sure they are among the top 10 words with 4 letters or above.
Then I write a title that contains the keywords I want and throw in highly charged words that grab attention. If the journalists look through a list of headlines in a listing of press releases, you want to have something that will grab them. I'm not a professional copywriter, but there are various techniques out there. One that I use the most is this headline analyzer. http://www.aminstitute.com/headline/index.htm
I don't know just how effective it is, but it's interesting. I try different words to make sure the headline scores highly on this system.
The other headline gimmick is to use words like "free," "new," "discovered," "amazing," or other kitsch words you see on infomercials. I have a distaste for over-blown exaggerations, but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do to be competitive in conditions of information overload. We managed to use Free and New for our last press release title.
So to me, the two things that are critical in writing a press release is to have a great headline and SEO optimization.
For the first 3 years of this business, I was the one writing the press releases. Since money was tight, I wanted to make sure that every release that we paid to get out there was completely optimized in every way. I did lots of research, and it made sense to me. One of our earliest releases really helped us to be established in the area of sleep and headphones, our most important keywords. We are still at the top of Google for "sleep headphones." Yay!
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
New Packaging
After many months of design, picture taking, revisions, and working with a box printing company, we have a new package! It will be the one you see on stores shelves at the chain stores we hope to get into. We will soon offer them for sale on our website!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Pregnancy and SleepPhones
The SleepPhones family is getting a new member! The CEO (me) is due to deliver a baby very soon! Here is a picture of me posing in bed wearing SleepPhones.
Nearly all sleep-inducing drugs are potentially harmful to babies when the mother is pregnant and are not recommended. Even Benadryl or Tylenol PM (which also contains diphenhydramine) shouldn't be taken while breastfeeding because they reduce the amount of milk production. Many chemicals can cross the placenta or mammary glands, so please ask your doctor before taking any medications (even over-the-counter meds), herbals (including valerian root, kava kava, and maybe chamomile), or supplements (like melatonin). None of the ones just listed are recommended during pregnancy.
SleepPhones are great for pregnant and breast-feeding women because they are a natural method for falling asleep without drugs. I've been listening to hypnobirthing CDs at bedtime to train myself to relax during the delivery process. Hypnosis is great for general sleep as well as a variety of other things to help the mind think a certain way. The hypno-birthing CD has lots of positive affirmations to reduce pain and fear as well as a guided relaxation technique. I've learned some great breathing techniques, but we'll see if I can actually do them during delivery!
Nearly all sleep-inducing drugs are potentially harmful to babies when the mother is pregnant and are not recommended. Even Benadryl or Tylenol PM (which also contains diphenhydramine) shouldn't be taken while breastfeeding because they reduce the amount of milk production. Many chemicals can cross the placenta or mammary glands, so please ask your doctor before taking any medications (even over-the-counter meds), herbals (including valerian root, kava kava, and maybe chamomile), or supplements (like melatonin). None of the ones just listed are recommended during pregnancy.
SleepPhones are great for pregnant and breast-feeding women because they are a natural method for falling asleep without drugs. I've been listening to hypnobirthing CDs at bedtime to train myself to relax during the delivery process. Hypnosis is great for general sleep as well as a variety of other things to help the mind think a certain way. The hypno-birthing CD has lots of positive affirmations to reduce pain and fear as well as a guided relaxation technique. I've learned some great breathing techniques, but we'll see if I can actually do them during delivery!
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