Archive for the 'babble soft' Category
September 21, 2008
Photo by Sandy Blanchard
Yes, the title of this post is another fortune from a fortune cookie I got a few weeks back at PF Changs, and I’ve found it true in many respects in my life and career. [As an aside, I started this post while listening to Chiquitita by ABBA and after a glass of red wine! I'm usually not able to write or think while music is on because I'm easily distracted so take that into consideration as you read.]
The title of this post is also in a well known Christian Bible verse in the book of Luke Chapter 11 verse 9 (”And I say to you, ask and it shall be given to you: seek, and you shall find; knock and it shall be opened to you.“). I believe when you set your intention on something, if it’s with pure intentions, and if it’s meant to be something will happen. It may not be what you envision but something happens. I guess it’s sort of a cross between the belief that many people hold like Edward Mills, who writes about the Law of Attraction, and taking destiny in your hands. You seek but you also pay attention to what people are saying and doing.
I’ve had people tell me I’m lucky to a) start a company before, b) to get the education I’ve gotten, c) to find the amazing childcare for our kids, for d) having the friends I have, d) to have the things we do, e) etc., etc., etc. What most people haven’t seen is the hard, dark times in between that I’ve been through. I’d venture to say that most people who the world perceives as doing something beyond “normal” have struggled through many things.
I’ve always felt there is a healthy portion of luck involved but also a good portion of seeking, asking questions, and listening involved. Finding good childcare (gosh we are so lucky with the people we had take care of our kids part time and full time when they were little and where they go to school and pres-school now — knock on wood!) didn’t just happen because I sat on my couch all day. Finding good jobs or opportunities didn’t happen because I was watching TV or drowning my sorrows (which is tempting!). Plus, I think I like to see the good in people and expect great things from them so when I do get disappointed, it is pretty deep.
So just over a month ago, I finally let the realization that I could not continue with Babble Soft with a day job and no funding, and I needed to do something different hit me. There are many options out there including a) moving on to something else, b) finding a business partner, c) finding a large baby-related company to take the risk early on and buy us. Given the economy and the hard realization that we are in fact creating a market with Babble Soft, option c) is unlikely. And I’m not ready to just give up. So now I’m seeking a business partner (so I’m not just a lone pumpkin by a tree). Hopefully, the right person will happen across my path…maybe she or he already has!
I’m wrapping up this post listening to 70s music…for some reason I enjoy listening to 70s music. I also enjoy 80s music but there is just a deepness to 70s music that resonates with me sometimes. The song currently on is Piano Man written by Billy Joel. I was fortunate enough to hear Billy Joel in Concert when I lived in Dallas several years ago and I remember thinking to myself “What a feeling it must be to hear hundreds, nay thousands, of people singing along word for word to a song you’ve written.” It must be so energizing yet so surreal at the same time. I wonder if I’ll ever experience that kind of feeling…
September 11, 2008
Photo by Sandy Blanchard
There’s a little hurricane heading our way here in Texas called Ike. Many places along the coast have been issued mandatory evacuation notices, including Houston, one of the largest and sadly also one of the fattest cities in the country. Houston has also still been working on integrating all the permanent victims of hurricane Katrina (2005) that evacuated to their city since then.
The schools here in Austin are closing early tomorrow, airports are in a muddle, and far more importantly for all of you college football fans out there, they have actually rescheduled the UT Austin vs. Arkansas football game that was going to be held this Saturday! Of all the things that have been happening, I think rescheduling a college football game in a college town that’s not directly in the landing path of the hurricane speaks volumes about the fears and concerns of the people around here as well as the anticipated amounts of rain.
So shifting to HARO (Help A Reporter Out) and it’s relation to hurricanes, it might be a stretch but Peter Shankman (the founder) seemed to bring it out from nowhere a few months ago and now he has tons and tons of subscribers – both reporters and sources. He’s managed to make ProfNet/PR Newswire nervous because he’s giving all his leads out for free and us resource and money constrained entrepreneurs are loving it. He even got on the radar screen of Seth Godin who mentioned Peter and linked to HARO on a recent Getting reporters to call you post.
I can quickly scan the queries and make a decision as to whether to try to pitch based on my company and my personal background. Because of HARO, I don’t have to pay tons of money to get access to these great queries from reputable sources. I have had couple of people interested in learning more about Babble Soft (mostly bloggers) and am crossing my fingers that I’ll soon have the opportunity to share with national/international reporters my ideas on how the world of parenting is changing and how technology can support that transition! I guess I’m hoping that by using HARO I can eventually create a hurricane of activity around my company. 
So may you all be safe and avoid the disastrous effects of Hurricane Ike but also take advantage of HARO (tell your friends). I, for one, am glad the last two big hurricane’s have male names instead of female ones like Katrina. I was getting a bit tired of all the jokes/innuendos surrounding the big hurricanes being referred to as feminine and destructive.
Posted by Aruni
8:32 pm •
FYI,
babble soft,
rain •
September 7, 2008
A couple of friends of mine recently released a book called Some Assembly Required: A Networking Guide for Women
and for some bizarre reason, they actually included me in their book! I guess that means I’m a good example of how to network. 
I’ve known the authors, Thom Singer and Marny Lifshen, for probably close to 8 or 9 years now. I met them somewhere along the journey of my first high-tech startup and we’ve remained in touch off and on since then. In fact, Marny was one of the very first beta testers of Baby Insights when her daughter was born!
For long time readers of my blog, you may remember that Thom Singer did a great guest post called Networking and the Stay at Home Parent that continues to get a lot of eyeballs. If my 2009 SXSW interactive panel idea is selected, then Thom will serve on the panel with me because he is building his speaking and writing career after hours just like I’m trying to do with Babble Soft.
The book is easy-to-read, easy-to-understand, and a great reference guide for those looking for some tips on how to network. Although it’s written for women in mind, much of the advice they share is great for men too!
I attended an informal book party they held this weekend at Marny’s house and gladly paid for my autographed copy. Check it out and look for my name in the Acknowledgements and in a nice little vignette on page 172. See below for a link to buy their book at Amazon:
August 14, 2008
Earlier this year, I had such a great time at SXSW Interactive 2008, that I submitted a panel idea for SXSW Interactive 2009 called Building A Web Business After Hours and more people than I thought are interested in seeing it happen!
Panel Description: Many businesses are built after-hours or during odd hours of the day and night. Join us for a panel discussion by entrepreneurs who built (or are building) their Web/E-commerce/Other business while holding a day job, multiple jobs, or who are currently balancing two+ career options.
For those of you who don’t know, I am attempting to build a web business (Babble Soft) after hours and lets just say it has it’s ups and downs but mostly it’s really hard and challenging with a big upside bejng that in my day job I get to be around other entrepreneurs.
How many of you (or people you know) are building sites and businesses in their spare time (on the side)? What kind of businesses are they? Many great businesses start with tinkering on the side…
I’ve started to assemble a great group of panelists including:
- One of the co-founders of BlogHer, the top female blogging site in the world that has partnerships and customer relationships with some of the top recognized brands in the world! Elisa Camahort Page, a co-founder, awesomely mentioned my panel in her Time to vote for SXSW panels post. Check out Elisa’s post to see the other great panels she’s recommending.
- Thom Singer is the director of business development for Austin based vcfo. Additionally he is the author of four books about the power of business relationships and is a professional speaker. With the support of his employer, he successfully manages his job and his own business, speaking to companies around the country on how to network. He blogs at Some Assembly Required.
- Karen Bantuveris, Austin founder & CEO of VolunteerSpot, knows firsthand what ‘juggle’ means. She’s built VolunteerSpot from the ground up while running a successful management development and executive coaching business, and being active in her daughter’s school PTO Board and Scout troop. She even manages to sleep, occasionally.�
- Jeremy Bencken, co-founder of ApartmentRatings.com, Tenant Market, and PR for Pirates. Jeremy and his wife, Katie, founded ApartmentRatings.com in 2000 out of their one bedroom apartment in Mountain View. They bootstrapped the site while attending business school at UT-Austin and then during full-time jobs for 4 years before selling the company to Internet Brands in 2007. Along the way they grew traffic to over 12M unique visitors per year (without an ad budget), built a base of advertisers, fought off frivolous lawsuits, and got their site featured on NPR Marketplace, and in stories in the NY Times and AP.
Please, please, please go vote for the panel by clicking on this link: Building A Web Business After Hours. I believe 30% of the weight on whether a panel is chosen is from people like you voting. The only downside is that you have to create a log in, but the upside is that you will be in the SXSW system and see all the other cool panels going on and vote for many more!
Thanks and I look forward to seeing some of you at SXSW next year. 
July 3, 2008
I hope everyone here in the US enjoys their long 4th of July holiday weekend. We’ll be heading to a couple of parties with some fireworks and sparklers so I know the kids will enjoy themselves immensely and we’ll be making sure they don’t burn themselves on the sparklers.
Since we no longer have a tree to put our US Flag on, I’ll have to do an extra patriotic blog post!
By now most people around the world know that July 4th is when we here in the US celebrate our Independence as a country. We celebrate our freedom by getting together with friends to watch fireworks.
I’m not sure what our troops overseas do on July 4th or even if they will get to see fireworks in Iraq, Afghanistan, or elsewhere. I bet they miss their home and would look forward to communicating with people back home.
So, if you would like to share emails with someone in the military, you should sign up at eMail Our Military and have them assign you an active duty military personnel to communicate with. I signed up and hopefully soon I’ll get assigned someone to share experiences with back home. It only costs $2 plus a couple of stamps!
Also, my company, Babble Soft, partnered with eMail Our Military to offer free subscriptions to active duty military personnel with newborns to help them stay connected while they might be separated by thousands of miles.
Happy 4th of July!
June 29, 2008
It’s been a while since I’ve shared a Parent Story and now we have a great one! I met this fabulous mom (Kerry Reynolds), who also happens to be a doula, on twitter. I was introduced to her by none other than her mother, Susan Reynolds, of Frozen Pea Fund and Boobs on Ice fame! Check out the post I did on the Frozen Pea Fund back in December 2007.
Stories like these are what keep me going and and make all the ups and downs of being an entrepreneur building Babble Soft all worth while!
Mother: Kerry (SAHM/Birth Doula)
Father: Mike (Project Manager)
Baby: Emma
Born: April 2008
Place: Burke, VA
Browser: Mozilla Firefox v2.0.0.11
Website: www.birthinbloom.com
Kerry’s story
Emma is my second child and her birth was long awaited as she was seven days overdue! Labor lasted 20 hours and was exhausting. In the process I was up for 50 hours straight and was so ready to come home. After Emma was born we brought her to her first doctor’s appointment only to discover she had a worrisome case of baby jaundice. We were concerned about her health and the doctor told us to make sure we kept careful watch of her weight gain, feedings, and diapers. We were very worried about little Emma but little did we know at that time, jaundice would be the least of our concerns.
When Emma was one and a half weeks old she had a frightening episode which resulted in a trip to the emergency room. We discovered she has a heart condition called Wolffe Parkinson White and learned she would need to be on a heart medication until she reaches three years old, when her heart will be large enough to have a surgery to correct the defect. After three nights in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) we arrived home frantic and sleep deprived, her medication schedule had to be so exact that we needed Baby Insights to help us keep track of every detail of her routine. In addition, her dosage was on a schedule to increase as her weight increased so it was imperative that we monitor it closely.
Babble Soft helped us through some challenging times
The information I got from using Baby Insights was and continues to be extremely useful! It helped us think in a time we could barely add two plus two or string coherent sentences together. The ability to go to one place and see all of Emma’s information was a life saver. I use Baby Insights to:
- Keep detailed notes on how often and when she was eating, which helped us track improvements in her jaundice and report feedings to her pediatrician and cardiologist.
- Monitor her diaper changes so that we could feel comfortable she was in fact absorbing her food and that all was working well.
- Monitor her heart medication which helped us remember the exact time and dosage as that is a critical part of keeping any further episodes at bay.
- Keep track of how much breast milk I was pumping to make sure we had enough to give to baby Emma and to ensure my milk supply would stay steady and increase over time.
- Stay aware of any decreases in her appetite as this could be a sign of another episode with her heart.
—End—
If you are interested in participating in your very own user story, please activate a FREE Babble Soft Trial. All you need is an email address! If you find that Babble Soft applications work for you and you want to tell the world about your great experience, please email us at info at babblesoft dot com for more information.
June 15, 2008
You’ve probably seen those Nationwide insurance commercials that go something like “Life comes at you fast. That’s why there’s Nationwide.” And they show people whose car gets hit by a garage door, a leaf blower or some other random, humorous, or shocking thing. Check out some of their video ads on their site.
Photo by Sandy Blanchard
Well in every entrepreneurial journey things can happen fast and often there appears a fork in the road. I decided to pick one of the paths that will have quite an impact on my ability to spend time on Babble Soft. The opportunity presented itself when I wasn’t looking and I had to take a cold, hard look at it. The difference between success and failure can often come down to being open to opportunities that seem to randomly present themselves.
The decision on which path to take was not an easy one. It was not made without much thought, stress, doubt, questions, frustration, etc., but I believe it is the right decision for me, my family, and yes even for Babble Soft.
I worked part-time on Babble Soft for a while and started full time in late 2007. As some of you know, I went out to raise funds in early February 2008. By end of March and early April (because I’ve raised funds before and could see the writing on the wall) it became clear to me this was not going to happen right now for a variety of reasons including:
- We are too early. In other words, we don’t yet have enough users or market traction to make investors comfortable enough to take the bet given they have started losing money on many of their Web 2.0 companies that they invested in at the concept or early beta stage. It’s become clearer to me that we are trying to “create a market” which is often quite painful and takes a long time. Therefore, I cannot yet prove that the market is HUGE for what we were trying to do. By the way, what you see on the site is just a fraction of what I envision as a site for new parents. It also did not help that we continue to struggle to find a good SEO rhythm due to a variety of reasons including the fact we are, as I mentioned, for all intents and purposes making a market.
- I need a business partner. It’s tough going it alone without someone to bounce ideas off of on a daily basis. What I need is a strong technical co-founder and/or an expert consumer marketing partner. I remember meeting with another Austin entrepreneur, Chris Justice of Sparksight, a while back and he shared with me a sound bite from one of his mentors: “People fund teams, not individuals.” My husband helps me a lot, but he has a full time job and isn’t really into the business concept the same way I am.
- The economy is in flux. Investors and consumers alike are concerned about the economy, high gas prices, home foreclosures, job losses, the presidential election, impending tax increases, etc. and their behavior and outlooks have changed. I won’t freak you out with links to all the articles about the demise of Web 2.0/social networks and people losing their money and their jobs but suffice it to say there are many. There’s also a lot of good stuff happening but uncertainty is definitely in the air.
- Other personal stuff I can’t blog about yet but which is probably the biggest driving force for choosing this path right now.
So, not being one to continue banging bang her head against a brick wall, I took a J-O-B (another form of insurance that I don’t think Nationwide or any other insurance company offers) to support my entrepreneurial addiction!
I wasn’t looking, but the opportunity arose for an interesting, most likely fun, hopefully low stress job working with people I like. My boss (who has been a long time subscriber to my blog) is a very cool guy who I’m sure I’ll enjoy working with. He knows I will continue working on Babble Soft and is very supportive of my doing so. He also knows I’m a mom to two great kids and wife to a pretty good guy. 
I’m excited about the potential of this job combined with what’s going on in the rest of my life. Of course, I will have to become a guru in time management to make it all work.
The entrepreneurial lifestyle is not made up of beautifully paved, straight roads. There are often detours and roundabouts. Right now I’m crossing my fingers that this path I’ve chosen will lead to bigger and better things for me, my family, and my company. A friend of mine, who is a screen writer trying to make it big in Los Angeles, CA (probably similar odds to building a successful company), wrote an excellent post about his decision four years ago to do the same thing I’m doing now when he took a job. He reflects on how its been both a good and bad decision for his goal to become a recognized, well-paid screen writer.
I’ll continue to blog and will eventually tell you more about my new ‘day job’ so Sign up for free email updates so you can see a) how I make it work or b) a train wreck in action. If you see a train wreck about to happen, please leave comments and maybe if I read enough of them, I can find a way to build another track or jump off the train beforehand!
Aruni
May 29, 2008
Trish and I were pleasantly surprised at the number of people who blogged and tweeted about our partnership with eMail Our Military that we announced just before Memorial Day weekend. We are forever grateful for them in helping us spread the word about Babble Soft giving free subscriptions to Baby Insights and Baby Say Cheese to active duty military with newborns who are members of eMail Our Military! We’d like to thank each and every one of them!
Please check out their posts and leave them a comment and let them know how great it is that they picked up a partnership created by two entrepreneurs who are trying hard to make a difference in the world. 
If you’ve blogged or tweeted about it and we missed it, please let us know and we’ll add you to the list. Even though it’s past Memorial Day, if you are only now finding out about our partnership, please continue to tell everyone about it because the partnership is ongoing and Father’s Day is just around the corner. We will still link to your post!
Blog Posts
Fred Wilson at A VC - Memorial Day
Jeff Nolan at Venture Chronicles - Markets are Communities
Maryam Scoble at Maryamie - Memorial Day
Lauren Vargas at This Mommy Gig - Serving the Homefront
Robert Hacker at Sophisticated Finance - Memorial Day
Barbara Ling at - 77 Great Resources for Memorial Day (she links to www.eMailOurMilitary.com)
Jeremy Bencken at PR4 Pirates - Anatomy of an A-List Blog Mention
Omar Gallaga at Austin 360 - Post-Memorial Day Web catch-up
Ashlee Allen of Mama Speaks - Keeping in Touch State Wide
Nicole Johnson at Pick Nick’s Brain - Quick Tip - Logging Sleep
Tweets
Pistachio - Challenging: newborns. More challenging: while your partner’s on active duty. @emailourmilitary @aruni memday help http://tinyurl.com/5gmmrs
KeithBurtis - (aruni)Happy Memorial Day! Help us spread news of @MailOurMilitary (aka @Dayngr) and @babblesoft partnership http://tinyurl.com/5gmmrs...
MikeChapman - Two of my favorites! @MailOurMilitary and @babblesoft join forces post http://tinyurl.com/5gmmrs
TroyTurner - @aruni , @dayngr FYI - I just fwd’d your offer to some insiders at Walter Reed, Ctr for the Intrepid-BAMC, and Naval Med Ctr-San Diego.
MackCollier - Retweeting @aruni: @MackCollier @MailOurMilitary and I have positive news to share too re: Memorial Day http://tinyurl.com/5gmmrs
NewMediaJim (we know he tweeted but can’t seem to find the tweet now)
Hametner - @aruni @mailourmilitary Glad to see the partnership between www.BabbleSoft.com and www.eMailOurMilitary.com, looks like a great fit!
May 23, 2008
I met a gal on twitter who tweets by the name of @MailOurMilitary and @Dayngr. Her real name is Trish. We got to tweeting and emailing and then talking.
Since Trish had gone through the hardship of being away from her husband when her first child was born, we both thought it would be a great idea to join forces to offer members of her non-profit organization, eMail Our Military free subscriptions to Babble Soft applications as well as access to a discount code for 20% off purchases for non-active military and friends.
So please let the military families you know about our offer and encourage them and others to sign up at eMail Our Military. We know there is no way to make up for the lost time and touch of a parent who is away but now they have access to a free tool that can help bridge the unavoidable physical gap between two parents of a precious newborn. We wanted to give people another reason, which is often overlooked (i.e., being away from their baby), to remember all those men and women who have put their lives at home on hold and/or laid down their lives to protect our freedom.
You can see the press release below, on our site, on PR Web, and on eMailOurMilitary’s blog. Trish also wrote a more personal blog post called Baby Memories, Milestones, and Our Military where she mentions her experience as a new mom whose husband has to leave one week after her baby was born!
Happy Memorial Day everyone!
Babble Soft and eMail our Military Join Forces to Offer Free Subscriptions to Babble Soft Applications for Active Duty Service Members with Newborns
Just in time for Memorial Day, Active Duty Service Members with Newborns now get free access to Babble Soft’s web and mobile applications through their membership at eMail Our Military.
AUSTIN, TX; MIAMI LAKES, FL - May 22, 2008 - Babble Soft and eMail our Military are partnering to offer free subscriptions to Baby Insights and Baby Say Cheese for active duty service members with newborns.
“We are very excited about the opportunity to partner with Babble Soft.” said Trish Forant, Founder and President of eMail our Military. “My husband was called into service only one week after our first child was born. I had very few friends and family to turn to for support where we were stationed and it was difficult for me to convey to him what I was going through with our new baby. I would have loved to have the online tools Babble Soft provides to communicate to him how often and when our baby was feeding, sleeping, etc. as well as important picture milestones!”
”Our goal at Babble Soft is to help strengthen and enhance connections between family members during that wonderful, yet chaotic time after a baby is born.” said Aruni Gunasegaram, founder and president of Babble Soft. “We support our troops and know how important it is for new parents who have to be away from their newborns to feel connected to what is going on at home. Partners can share experiences and photos with each other through Babble Soft’s unique web and mobile applications. As an added bonus, members of eMail our Military will have access to a discount code to purchase gift subscriptions for their other family members who may or may not have military ties.”
Baby Insights helps caregivers keep track of baby’s breast & bottle feeding, sleep periods, diaper changes, medicine doses, immunization records, as well as mom’s breastfeeding, pumping and medicine intake. Having important information stored in one location makes communication between parents, their nanny, babysitters, grandparents, or doctors seamless and reliable and gives new parents insight into their baby’s patterns to help with crucial baby care decisions.
Baby Say Cheese lets you create a wonderful online baby’s first year photo album with milestones such as ‘first crawl, first smile, first word’ and family tree that you can share with friends and family. You can even send a fun, cute picture postcards of any of your baby’s milestones to anyone with an email address!
About eMail our Military, Inc.
eMail Our Military was created in 2001 as a response to the DoD’s cancellation of the “Any Service Member” and “Operation Dear Abby” mail programs. As a safe alternative, eMOM picked up where these programs left off. eMail Our Military is composed of volunteers from all walks of life who understand that regardless of our political views, our military service members deserve our respect, support & encouragement. Website visitors can join and take part in a number of support projects ranging from sending eMail on a one-on-one basis with a service member to year round support projects that are open to the public. For more information on eMail Our Military, please visit http://www.eMailOurMilitary.com
About Babble Soft, LLC
Babble Soft is based in Austin, Texas and creates products that help make the transition into parenthood 
easier. Whether you need breastfeeding support, are experiencing baby sleep issues, are expecting twins, or taking care of a premature (preemie) baby and would like to create your baby’s first year album, Babble Soft offers unique, easy-to-use Web and Mobile software solutions that improve communication between caregivers. Babble Soft makes a great baby shower gift that you can easily send via Email to any new parent anywhere in the world! To learn more and purchase Babble Soft applications, please visit http://www.babblesoft.com.
For more information, please contact:
Trish Forant
eMail our Military, Inc.
(786) 228-7096
Info(at)eMailOurMilitary(dot)com
Aruni Gunasegaram
Babble Soft, LLC
(512) 961-6002
aruni(at)babblesoft(dot)com
Posted by Aruni
11:53 am •
FYI,
babble soft,
baby,
baby insights,
baby say cheese,
baby sleep,
breastfeeding,
diversity,
entrepreneurship,
father,
national holiday,
parenting,
twitter,
working father,
working mother •
May 19, 2008
Photo by Sandy Blanchard
We are about 5 months and thousands of dollars into our search engine optimization (SEO) campaign managed by SpryDev and before you read the rest, I suggest you check out my Part 1 and Part 2 posts.
Let’s just say I’m not yet ecstatic with the results. On the plus side, Website Grader now shows our grade as 79 which is up from 67 when I ran it for my Part 2 post on March 3, 2008. We are also just now starting to show up in the first and second page of Google for our current keywords of ‘breastfeeding support’ and ‘baby sleep.’ We are showing up in the top 30 for other important terms. Interestingly enough, we are showing #1 for ‘baby care software,’ but I have no idea what the search volume is for that term!
On the not-so-great side, although our overall traffic is increasing at a pretty good percentage rate, we still aren’t seeing a huge jump in total number of visitors or more importantly a significant jump in trial sign-ups which have shown in the past a 7 to 10% conversion rate to purchase! For instance, according to Google Analytics, in December 2007 we had 873 total visitors of which 626 were unique visitors. In April 2008, we had 1,585 (82% increase) total visitors of which 1,162 (86% increase) were unique. Page Views during that same time have gone from 2,364 to 4,898 (107% increase). In the world of the Internet, the percentage increases are good, but the total numbers seem low to me especially when you see numbers like 1 million visitors per month thrown around often on Mashable and TechCrunch.
In February and March we saw an increase in percentage totals of people finding us using organic search engine terms but saw a drop in organic search and trial sign-ups in April. The more trial sign-ups we have, the higher the conversion rate of customers purchasing our apps. Direct and Referring site traffic is still greater than 70% of our traffic sources which means that’s a heck of a lot of my time emailing, blogging, twittering, as well as links from my friends and other interested parties. My family does not blog or twitter so unfortunately I don’t get back links that way.
I know that the SEO link team is submitting articles, press releases, and creating directory submissions on a monthly basis which seem to be getting accepted and picked up at a reasonable rate. SpryDev gives me good weekly and monthly reports, and I check out our Google Analytics to see how things are going. So I know that they are sharing all the information they can with me.
We did have an account manager change back in early March when Rose, who I mentioned in a previous post, left for personal reasons and now our account manager is Erik. We also had a keyword shift around that time from ‘pregnancy week by week’ to ‘baby sleep.’ I’m still not sure why we selected that keyword since we don’t have an offering for that keyword, but I think it was because it had a high search volume…needless to say it had a high bounce rate. In other words, people who found our site using ’pregnancy week by week’ didn’t stay long on the site.
We have also made several website conversion changes based on recommendations by SpryDev via Brian Massey of Customer Chaos, who I also mentioned in one of my previous search engine optimization posts. Some examples include:
a) Changing trial period from 30 to 15 days
b) Changing our trial follow up emails from same text emails X and 2X days from sign-up to different text emails on sign up, X days out, and Y days out.
c) Adding the Try It Free button on the Babble Soft home page and throughout the site.
d) Creating a new Contact form.
I can’t really opine on the conversion changes until we see a huge jump in trial sign ups. So honestly, I’m a little stumped and frustrated. Maybe my expectations at the beginning were not correct?! I had hoped we would see better results by now especially since I was tying some of our fundraising success to SEO. I don’t know if I’m alone in this or if everyone just has stellar SEO experiences and all of a sudden trial sign-ups and sales go through the roof! Anyone?
As I mentioned in my SEO, Here I Come post, I signed up with SpryDev because of their guarantee:
“By the end of your contract you will have at least as much additional business from your Web site as you spend on our services… or we’ll work for FREE until you do.”
Since the contract is for 12 months, we have 7 more months to go and they are assuring me that around the 6 month mark is when their customers start to see the big results…although so far May hasn’t been proving to be a big trial sign-up month yet. I’ve heard from others that they’ve seen big results in as little as 3 to 4 months from their SEO endeavors.
So now I’m wondering what could we have done better and what could we do better? Are we optimizing for the right keywords? Do people know to even look for applications like ours? Are people even interested in using applications like ours? Do we need to do more marketing around the benefits of using these kinds of applications more than the parent stories I pull together when the opportunity arises? Should I put the money that I would be putting into SEO into paid ads on parenting related sites, Google AdWords, etc. instead?
I have pretty much come to the conclusion that I will need to continue to bootstrap Babble Soft since fundraising has been challenging given this economic environment and because we have yet to demonstrate a compelling increase in the number of our users. I would feel much better going out to raise funds with thousands or tens of thousands of customers.
I am beginning to think that I might just have to get a job to support my entrepreneurial addiction! 
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April 28, 2008
I don’t often do a full on post about Babble Soft, but considering Mother’s Day is coming up on May 11, 2008 and we are offering 15% off of all subscriptions (click here for full press release) to Baby Insights and Baby Say Cheese using code MOTHER#1 on the Purchase Form through May 15, I figured it would be OK.
So for all the new moms out there who want a record of their baby’s newborn activities, who want a place to create a unique baby’s first year photo album with a family tree, who want a better way to communicate about childcare with their spouse, nanny, sitters, and family members, this one’s for you!
Gift subscriptions also make great Mother’s Day and baby shower gifts for those couples who you know will want breastfeeding support or see how often mom pumped and share when their baby ate, slept, and pooped!
I even came up with a poem that I had submitted for a local parenting related publication. It wasn’t selected so I thought I’d share it here. As you can tell, I didn’t major in poetry but I hope you like it anyway!
Motherhood and Childhood
What does it mean to be a mother?
Is it love?
Is it fear?
Is it feeling dear?
What does it mean to be a child?
Is it love?
Is it joy?
Is it having a favorite toy?
As mothers we hope for our child’s happiness
We pray for our child’s health
We hope they are treated with kindness
We pray our children find peace in the world
As children we live for today
We anticipate a life of fun
We hope for a million tomorrows
We cannot imagine a world without our mothers
As mothers we cannot imagine a world without our children
We are one and the same…
Aruni Gunasegaram
March 2008
April 17, 2008
I made it to the semi-finals for the Women 2.0 business plan competition in California for my company Babble Soft! It’s so exciting because it’s a great opportunity to meet people who ‘get’ what I’m trying to do. People in Silicon Valley live & breathe social media and social networks which is very different than here in Texas. The grand prize includes some money ($1500) but more importantly access to a network of people with great experience! Here’s the email I got this morning:
Congratulations! You’ve made it to the semi-finals of Pitch 2008. This is the next step you should take.
Please log into your application via Angelsoft and upload a 2 min video pitch. Any pitches that are more than 2 mins will be disqualified.
Upload your video by Apr 20 2008, 11.59PM (PST). If we do not receive your video pitch by Apr 20 2008, you will be eliminated from the competition.
If you have already submitted a video, please ignore this message. You are only required to upload a 2 min video pitch. Do not upload any other files or presentations.
Please RSVP to this message so that we know you have received this email. Thanks.
All the Best,
Women2.0 Team
I guess my napkin handwriting skills were better than I thought! My husband, who has much better handwriting than I do, didn’t have time to help me, so I ended up doing it myself.
Now I have to submit a 2 minute video for a chance to make the finals. I haven’t done a video pitch for Babble Soft before so I’m not exactly sure what to do. Actually, I have never done a video pitch. Should I be formal about it? Should I have my kids in it? Should I walk through a slide deck? Should I beg, borrow, or steal a professional to help me with it? Should I just use our digital camera and record something in our house or should I do it outside, etc., etc., etc.?!?
Help!
April 15, 2008
I see the world of childcare changing before our eyes and having a place to keep up with your baby’s precious moments and activities can be a great way not only to share with your family and friends but also to make sure your baby is getting what he or she needs. More often than not, these days there are many people involved in childcare from dad, to nannies, to sitters, to grandparents, to aunts, and communicating effectively with everyone about when your baby ate, slept, or had medicine can be extremely important!
One of the ways I am currently trying to get the word out about Babble Soft is through marketing relationships with nanny and sitter agencies, and I recently had the honor and priviledge to write the following article for the International Nanny Association.
Why Keeping a Daily Journal is Important for Moms and Nannies
By Aruni Gunasegaram, President and Founder of Babble Soft
Written for the International Nanny Association Spring 2008 newsletter
When a new mom leaves her infant in the care of a nanny or newborn care specialist, what are her concerns? What does she want to know? How can a nanny help her feel more connected to her baby and help her deal with possible feelings of guilt over leaving her baby?
A new mom’s perspective
As a new mom, I was so concerned about leaving my baby with anyone else … even my husband! When I returned, I wanted to know when he ate, if he slept, and practically everything he did. Now that I have two kids, I still ask their teachers and care providers what they did during the day. It’s so comforting to have an idea of how their day went. I sent our son to a home care on a part-time basis when he was a baby. I felt frustrated by the vague answers I received when I asked about the details of his day; but I bit my tongue, felt guilty, and walked away wondering what I had missed.
It was difficult to leave my son with someone else and thereafter, leave my daughter - but I wanted to work. My career is very important to me and I knew I would be a better mom if I was able to pursue my passion. However, I still wanted to stay connected to my babies. It would have been a pleasure to receive an email, a text message, a picture, or even have the ability to log in to a website to see how my babies were doing. It would have made my life so much easier if I was assured that although they might have cried a bit when left them, they were eating well, sleeping well, learning and having fun.
I was still breastfeeding when I returned to work, and I made every attempt to time my pumping sessions so that I could nurse my babies when I picked them up. If I arrived only to find out they had just been fed, I would have to go home and pump instead of feed them, making me feel very disappointed. On the other hand, it was nice having breastfeeding support and knowing that I had expressed enough milk for them while I was away made me feel more connected to them.
What moms want to know
In the “old days,” moms had no choice but to stay at home. They could get advice and make decisions based on one-on-one face time with baby, family members, and friends. Nowadays, moms rely on their nannies to communicate their baby’s daily activities, issues, fussy periods, smiles, and schedules. When moms are not present, having the opportunity to review their baby’s activities at a glance in a daily journal or report is not only powerful, it helps them and their nanny make better baby care decisions. It is also a great way to provide records for their pediatricians, which can aid in making medical decisions. Here are more examples that illustrate the importance of keeping a daily journal:
- A new mom misses important milestones. While she is at work, baby shows off her biggest smile or makes a first attempt at crawling. Imagine a caregiver who captures the moment via a picture, includes a milestone caption, and emails it to the mom. What a way to brighten her day. Although the mom is not present physically, she can take delight in knowing that the true “first” was captured.
- An infant spits up often but with no discernible pattern. Both the mom and nanny are busy and jot down handwritten notes, which might be stained or misplaced by the next day! Maintaining an online daily record of the baby’s feedings (with corresponding spit-up times) can help to establish a pattern of feeding times and a correlation between the feeding quantity and spit-up periods. The mom can forward the reports to the doctor to aid in a decision regarding whether her baby needs medicine for acid reflux or if there is a need to simply change the baby’s feeding schedule.
- A baby has difficulty sleeping. Mom (or dad) puts the baby down in a specific manner and in a specific place during the weekends. The nanny arrives and puts the baby down in a different manner, thus she witnesses a different outcome. The baby appears confused, which results in additional stress for both the nanny and family. One solution is to review online reports that are designed to track a baby’s sleep patterns and reveal how the baby was put to sleep. The reports can serve as physical proof that specific baby sleep positions or methods work better than others for the baby. The reports can also give parents the assurance that their baby is okay, and shifting their behavior or the nanny’s behavior can make life easier for everyone.
- A baby needs regular medications. Administering medications is a critical part of providing childcare. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a central place where medicine doses are recorded. This procedure can allow both the mom and nanny to ensure medicine doses, reactions, and duration are properly recorded and timed. Proper daily record keeping can help to avoid accidental overdoses and ensure a dose is not missed.
- The nanny runs out of expressed breast milk for baby. If the mom keeps daily pumping records and both the nanny and mom keep daily bottle-feeding records, Mom can adjust her breastfeeding and pumping schedule to ensure there is enough expressed milk for her baby.
There are many more sound reasons to keep daily records. However, the most important reasons in my opinion, are for the health and well-being of the baby, and improved communication between the nanny and family. Although moms today have many more opportunities than they did in the past, they also have more decisions to make and more balls to juggle. Keeping daily records of an infant’s activities helps nannies and moms make better baby care decisions - and it helps moms feel more connected to their baby. A happy mom means a happier baby!
Aruni Gunasegaram is the President/Founder of Babble Soft and she blogs at entrepreMusings. To learn more about Babble Soft, please visit http://www.babblesoft.com.
Posted by Aruni
8:30 am •
babble soft,
baby advice,
baby care,
baby sleep,
baby tips,
breast milk,
breastfeeding,
breastfeeding schedule,
mom,
mother,
nursing,
parenting,
sleep,
working mom,
working mother •
April 7, 2008
I’m applying for the Women 2.0 business plan competition in California for my company Babble Soft. Thanks to Angie Chang for leaving a comment on my recent Economy and Entrepreneurs post letting me know about it. At the time the deadline was April 1, but they’ve since extended it to April 15. They encourage companies located outside of California (and the Bay Area) to apply so we’ll see if they will actually select a company from l’il ‘ole Austin, Texas.
It’s a pretty short application form that challenges even the most frequent twitter user (i.e., type your thoughts in less than 140 characters) with maximum character requirements between 210 to 410 characters to describe things like your target market, business summary, or competitive advantage! It sure made me focus on picking what I believe are the right words. The online application form is run by Angelsoft, which I mentioned in one of my SXSW posts.
I will be submitting my application later today and then mailing in my paper napkin with my best paper napkin handwriting ability (UGH!) soon thereafter. I might have to ask my husband to write it for me because his napkin handwriting talent is much better than mine.
Wish me luck!!
March 27, 2008
Entrepreneurs are all just a little bit crazy and add motherhood on top of that and you get a whole new experience! Entrepreneurs see the world differently, yet we still want to fit in, maybe more so if you are a woman and mother, for the sake of our children.
I’m sure there have been books written about the psychology of entrepreneurship, but I don’t have time to seek them out. I figure one will fall in my lap as I need it. And interestingly Liz Pabon, who wrote The MavHERick Mind
, recently reached out to me and will be doing a guest post on my blog soon. I just began reading her book and so far it’s a fascinating read on how and why women entrepreneurs in particular hold themselves back from achieving the success that they are capable of.
A post also recently fell in my lap in-box written by Marc Andreessen, founder of Netscape and Ning, called The Psychology of Entrepreneurial Misjudgment. It is an excellent read where he puts modern language around observations made by Charlie Munger, Warren Buffet’s long time partner and Vice Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Here are the themes and you’ll have to head on over to Marc’s blog to read the rest:
One: Reward and Punishment Superresponse Tendency
Two: Liking/Loving Tendency
Three: Disliking/Hating Tendency
Four: Doubt-Avoidance Tendency
Five: Inconsistency-Avoidance Tendency
Six: Curiosity Tendency
The Doubt-Avoidance Tendency is the one that resonated with me the most. It’s true that “You’d better not have a lot of doubts about what you are doing because everyone else will, and if you do too, you’ll probably give up.” But it’s darn hard not to have doubts when the stakes can be so high. I would add that if you don’t have any doubts at all, then you might just run over a cliff without knowing it. But if you need a quick answer, you can always ask the Magic 8 Ball (thanks to Scott Allen of The Virtual Handshake for the link). I only had to ask my question 3 different ways to get the answers I wanted.
One thing I remember from Marc’s past blog posts is that there is a direct correlation between success and how many times you get up to bat. Many inventors had a string of things that didn’t work out before they found the few that did, and the chances of finding something that does work increases when you try more things. So Babble Soft is my second at bat. I believe we barely slid into 2nd base with our first company, which is still operating, so I’m swinging for the fences on this one!
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