So this MySpace thing...

Righto, so you can't afford a website? Why not get a MySpace page happening!

Now I'm not on MySpace - but I keep hearing about it so much, I thought I should give it a cruise. And I find it's a great mish-mash of a personal website, personal blog, music sharing, social networking, advertising, interaction, etc. And pretty customisable, peopled by tres cool people. I even found two people's sites I knew within a few clicks...now I find that very impressive, especially since I'm not that cool!

So if you're a groovy young brand, or hip freelancer, that wants to interact, be a touch edgy, then make your first foray into MySpace. It's TOTALLY zero budget and you're bound to earn some cool points...

What I learned from a hairdresser...

...ok, a hairdresser with 35 years in the business and a chain of 18-odd successful salons!

Vouchers - one of my favourite, yet underutilised, retail marketing tools - are even better that I thought.

You see, I was running a "Zero Budget Marketing" seminar for Wella. And I said that the crew at Loyalty Magic had confirmed for me what I'd always suspected - that when you get given a gift voucher, you spend on average 5-8 times the value of the voucher.

And this is where the hairdresser of my story says - try 10-20 times. You seen, his chain is SuperCuts. They hand out $10 "cheques" that people can bring in to cash in on a haircut/colour/style/etc.

He said people regularly brought these in and spent close to $200 - and this was a COMMON occurence.

So for all those who doubt the value of giving away a little something for nothing, I offer this story. $10 to get $200 - and a guaranteed sale, not $10 that MIGHT bring you $200.

Retailers - go give away more gift vouchers!