Shipping Pal - my first overt client pitch post
I *promise* this isn't lame. Really. You know me by now. In five years and nine months of blogging, not once have I fallen off the straight-and-narrow path and used this blog to promote a client.
Sure, I've talked about the companies I've been working with before - and probably said nice things about them (at least while sober). But as far as I can recall, not once have I come here frothing over with excitement about a client and wanting to publicly sing their praises like this.
I'm making an exception for Shipping Pal.
About an hour ago, I was in my colleague Chris Clarke's office, trying to figure out the best (i.e. fastest, and cheapest) way to ship my broken iPod off to DMDepot in St. Catharines for repair.
Chris walked me through Shipping Pal's Quick Quote thingy. You give it a From and To address, and an idea of what you're shipping, it pretty much does the rest. The site trots off and checks a slew of different couriers (from tiny little ones all the way up to UPS), and it comes back with a list of different options in a matter of seconds.
You pick the price and delivery date/time that suits you, click the button, and it processes the order, prints the waybills - everything. Simple, but bloody brilliant.
We've just got through a stack of parcels at home, shipping all the Christmas goodies off to our many friends and family members in the UK, Ireland, and Belgium. We did a fair amount of shopping online, of course - Amazon and such. For all the things we bought here and shipped, though, I wish I'd known more about Shipping Pal a couple of weeks ago. Would have saved a heck of a lot of figuring out.
So. There you have it. Not only do I now carry an advert (for the next few weeks, at least), but I'm now posting an absolutely shameless and overt client rave on my blog. Am I selling out? Doesn't feel like it. You can make up your own mind.
To me, it's straightforward: this blog is my space, where I come to write about stuff that genuinely interests and/or excites me. I point to things I think other people - the kind of people who choose to come here and read this kind of ramble - might also be interested in. Shipping Pal fits that bill (ugh - terrible shipping pun); it's pretty much incidental that they just happen to be a client too.
You can tell that I'm still somewhat conflicted - otherwise I wouldn't be so painfully attempting to justify something that probably needs no forced justification. Whatever. Have a look at Shipping Pal. Or not, as you see fit.
Here endeth the pitchery.
Sure, I've talked about the companies I've been working with before - and probably said nice things about them (at least while sober). But as far as I can recall, not once have I come here frothing over with excitement about a client and wanting to publicly sing their praises like this.
I'm making an exception for Shipping Pal.
About an hour ago, I was in my colleague Chris Clarke's office, trying to figure out the best (i.e. fastest, and cheapest) way to ship my broken iPod off to DMDepot in St. Catharines for repair.
Chris walked me through Shipping Pal's Quick Quote thingy. You give it a From and To address, and an idea of what you're shipping, it pretty much does the rest. The site trots off and checks a slew of different couriers (from tiny little ones all the way up to UPS), and it comes back with a list of different options in a matter of seconds.
You pick the price and delivery date/time that suits you, click the button, and it processes the order, prints the waybills - everything. Simple, but bloody brilliant.
We've just got through a stack of parcels at home, shipping all the Christmas goodies off to our many friends and family members in the UK, Ireland, and Belgium. We did a fair amount of shopping online, of course - Amazon and such. For all the things we bought here and shipped, though, I wish I'd known more about Shipping Pal a couple of weeks ago. Would have saved a heck of a lot of figuring out.
So. There you have it. Not only do I now carry an advert (for the next few weeks, at least), but I'm now posting an absolutely shameless and overt client rave on my blog. Am I selling out? Doesn't feel like it. You can make up your own mind.
To me, it's straightforward: this blog is my space, where I come to write about stuff that genuinely interests and/or excites me. I point to things I think other people - the kind of people who choose to come here and read this kind of ramble - might also be interested in. Shipping Pal fits that bill (ugh - terrible shipping pun); it's pretty much incidental that they just happen to be a client too.
You can tell that I'm still somewhat conflicted - otherwise I wouldn't be so painfully attempting to justify something that probably needs no forced justification. Whatever. Have a look at Shipping Pal. Or not, as you see fit.
Here endeth the pitchery.
