We are happy to announce that after several months of hard work and gallons of coffee we are officially launching Client2Central, a powerful online help-desk web application specifically designed for smaller companies whose support staff must multi-task, as opposed to having staff that is dedicated solely to help-desk functions.

Check our presentation (click on the right arrow to begin / forward)

Sign-up for a free account now, or test-drive the application in our sandbox. In an era when customer loyalty can provide an important edge for any business, small or large, Client2Central gives the smaller business the means to stay a big step ahead.

Visit: http://www.client2central.com

Press-Release: read press-release.

We are working on final details to launch Client2Central.com and you can check now our presentation video.

Awesome job by Felipe Zafred and team!

We’ve been discussing the weaknesses of ad-based revenue models for web applications. Now we would like to share what, in our opinion, is the best way to monetize a web startup. Let’s remember that startups need to produce positive cash flow, which doesn’t simply mean occasional funds or a second round of venture capital.

We believe that if you have a web application that makes users more efficient,  helps them save money or improves their organization, you should seriously consider adopting the Freemium model. It’s great for consumers to have a free starter account (which is generally for a limited time or with limited features) so they can test the application’s features and learn what it’s all about. For the prosumer market segment you can offer Premium, Pro accounts with enhanced features.

Free = Consumer
Premium = Prosumer

In Freemium model some heavy users are willing to pay for the service and subsidize the costs of running the business. The average conversion rate of free to premium offerings is about three percent. However, it is still important to provide a free service so users can become fans of your startup and help spread the word about your great service. You can offer a basic free service and charge for Premium enhanced features. If you do this it will be ok, but we suggest dealing differently with your free accounts. People don’t want to feel that they are getting a free, “second class” service account. Make them feel respected by giving them all the best features, but in a small quantity. They want a taste of the same high quality as paid accounts.

Apart from “Freemium,” there is also a “donation” model which deserves attention. Let’s check, for example, the Remember The Milk “Pro” account. For only $25 you get a one year Pro account. And what does it mean? Basically that you get “a warm fuzzy feeling for supporting RTM”. So they are not really charging for Premium features but asking for a donation to support their great service. I did it and I was glad, as it is a great web application.

Now let’s do some math. Remember The Milk has more than 500,000 members. Let’s apply an average conversion rate of two percent to this amount. They earn at least $250,000 per year in donations, or, more than $20,000 per month. This is not bad at all, and I’m glad for Bob T. Monkey.

Although it’s our favorite model to monetize a web startup, Freemium model is not a magical solution for every web business. It will not work well under certain circumstances, such as if you have a consumer-facing social network.

Please leave your comments and we can discuss where and when to not apply the Freemium model.

You can follow us on Twitter from now on!

In English you can follow our official Twitter @c2cballoon

In Portuguese you can also follow our official Twitter @c2cballoonbr or follow at your own risk our All Work* Twitter: @all_work :)

We will update it with fresh last news from our crew, projects and day-by-day stuff. Hope you like it. :)

* All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

And talking about Freemium model, Twitter confirmed that they will soon sell commercial “pro” accounts.

We don’t know yet what goodies will be included for the monthly fee, but Twitter confirms that pro accounts will have “more features.”

The Freemium model is just perfect for Twitter. A lot of companies would pay for an improved Twitter just because they find value on it.

And don’t think that Twitter’s planned introduction of a paid account is an isolated case. This is a trend that should guide most web applications’ revenue models from now on.

And guess what? Google is in late stage negotiations to buy Twitter… Coincidence? Not really… :)

For some time now, I have been hearing about how web applications need to be free, or very close to free at the least.

The interesting fact here is that these “free future” gurus are often owners or founders of social networking sites. And as we discussed on our last post, no one has a clue as to how to go about making cash from a social community; the ad-based revenue model works only for huge and very particular social sites. So why then should we consider that this “free” model is worth it for everyone?

If you have a consumer-facing application, perhaps you don’t really have much of a choice and you have to bet on creative strategies to make money for your business indirectly. But if you have a fancy and useful business-oriented web application, why on earth wouldn’t you charge for it? Why do some pseudo-gurus insist on turning the word “charge” into a dirty one?

Let’s say this very clearly. Startups need to become cash flow positive, and as one friend always tells me, “in an economic crisis cash is king.” There’s nothing to be ashamed if you focus on profitability, especially if you are building your web business in a socially responsible way. Humanizing Technology remember? Let’s be consistent here. We simply cannot expect entrepreneurs to invest in bringing brilliant ideas to life and building sustainable web businesses based on the weak ad-based revenue model.

Even if you have big subsidies and raise huge capital, you should put a price on your idea if you have a niched product. You’ll be amazed - and maybe you shouldn’t – at the number of people who are willing to pay for a good web application.

Do you believe you have a great product? Does it help your clients save money, make them more efficient, or just be more organized? Then don’t hesitate and put a price tag on that web application.

Well, welcome to the club! There isn’t a clear and killer way to monetize social networks yet. Consumer-facing applications are struggling to pay the bills using the traditional advertising model, and even if you read in the news that “Facebook is worth $15 billion,” you may face significant challenges if you want to make money by building your own social networking application.

The interesting thing is that even if nobody has a clue about how to make millions with a social community, they still can sell it. Blame the “bubble” for this irrational behavior.

People may tell you that these sites have zillions of members, high traffic, marketing potential, blah, blah, blah, but ask yourself if you would pay just $10/month to use MySpace or Orkut? Your answer is probably a resounding “No!”

Here, we are talking about big, huge social sites. It just doesn’t seem reasonable to me to believe that small or new social networking applications can really be profitable with an ad-based revenue model. You have more chances of winning the lottery than to have the same luck and success as Facebook.

I’m not saying that social networking is not for businesses, but the big problem is that it’s not clear what it is you can do with a consumer-facing social network when it comes to making cash. There’re some great business-oriented examples like LinkedIn, but they don’t count only on advertising to be profitable.

If you want to do something cool, and you don’t care about its profitability, then go for it! And write to us as we really love to talk with passionate and idealistic people like you. But don’t do it for the money. Coolness shouldn’t be confused with business utility or profitability.

It’s about time we had a reality check. Startups must recognize the need for profitability. I think some investors are going to lose of lot of money if they’re rooted in irrational behavior. And this time, they can’t really blame any economic crisis.

Wrong. We’ve seen too many great ideas going directly to the dead pool because all that the creators had in mind was this fixed idea of going
viral.

Let’s say this clearly: you may have a better chance of winning the lottery than you would have of your brand new web site or web application being catapulted into the stratosphere through the viral process.

Have we destroyed some dreams here? Not at all. Promoting on the web is definitely the best way to go, but you need to build a solid promotional
strategy and, most of all, you have to expect to work hard at it regularly.

Don’t believe in miracles. Believe in your potential and in the power of intelligent minds helping you to promote your web business on a regular basis.

A week ago it was Charles Darwin’s birthday. Two hundred years ago he exposed his statement - all species of life have evolved over time - and I kept this in mind the whole week.

I could not avoid comparing “natural selection” with the current situation we are living. We are in a crisis. Not only in an ordinary financial one. We are in a crisis of values.  In a way we’re forced to polarize to our strengths when times get difficult and the crisis provides a  “golden” opportunity to rethink a “couple” of things.

First of all there is no more turning back. Desktop software’s have their days counted. They are not dying, they are just evolving. No matter if you call it web 2.0, web 3.0 or whatever, each day new web applications show their powerful innovation mood and amaze everyone with their features that were unthinkable just some months ago.

But we can also think in another kind of  “evolution”. I’m talking about sustainability. The “green” one but also the human side of it. I’m talking about building web businesses that use technology to promote socially responsible development. Sustainability and great commercial profits can and have to go side by side. That’s what we call Humanizing Technology.

It’s a fact that things changed and new entrepreneurs will have to be more effective, more selective and even more “human” and I honestly believe that the “new Entrepreneur 2.0 will win the “natural selection”.

You still can go at 150 MPH but not in the wrong lane. Evolution is not just a fashionable word, what does it really means to you?

Perhaps you are thinking about dedicating to a brand new web startup. Perhaps you have time and the capital. But do you fully understand what is required to  start a new venture on the web?

On a regular basis we at C2C Balloon hear of new Web 2.0 startups building cool applications.  Some are completely useless, and others seem like promising and advanced web applications.

There’s never been a better time to be a web entrepreneur because it’s never been cheaper to be one.  In today’s economy hardware costs are far too cheap, social networking sites for promotion are becoming more and more popular and even a crisis – one that could potentially cool the marketplace down – may actually open the door to a great opportunity for those willing to take constructive action instead of panicking.

Building and running a successful business on the Web can be a fruitful, exciting, but time consuming task.  The spirit behind starting a web business is one of truly committing yourself to an idea. It takes enormous commitment, patience and determination.

Are you passionate about creating your own web-based startup? Are you driven? No seriously. Real startup entrepreneurs don’t simply love their ideas, but are “married” to them. If you answered, “yes,” then you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur. And C2C Balloon is here to help.

Contact us now and let’s talk about your project.

So you got a great idea for a web application. Something simple but effective that would connect people or maybe make them improve collaboration, become more organized and even more productive.

Why not being a web entrepreneur?

C2C Balloon is powered by a highly motivated, creative (not to mention friendly) team of experts, all willing to do whatever it takes to make your idea a huge success. We are not talking just about coding, but effective help with strategy and consultancy. We will bring your web 2.0 application to life, promote it with state-of-the-art videos, presentations, and provide attention-getting content to some of the Internet’s hottest social networking sites.

We like to think we’re different. Not only because we’re passionate about what we do, and have a gifted team to make good on our promises, but we genuinely believe in this new era of business 2.0. Yes, we‘re driven, but also friendly and ethical.

No “magic formulas”, just hard work and a team that will lead you to run a successful business on the Web. When we take on a project it is much more than a job. At C2C Balloon, every day we earn our client’s trust and respect, and we do whatever it takes to make your project a stunning success.

Well, Felipe just played a bit with the concept and illustrated it with a video. Always interesting to put words into images…

Hope you like it. :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g_RhSCDRt1A&fmt=18

Vile LA is a concierge tour company offering private special tours of Los Angeles .

They needed a special project and we were excited to be there to help.

We started by creating their logo that had to show a mix of LA styles and scenes.

In this first stage we built Vile LA website showing all nine tours with a stylish and unique layout. We also built a “booking” tool that allows Vile LA to manage all tours, get payment and deal with all customer’s data in a smooth way.

Next step now. We will add some cool collaborative features like galleries where customers will be able to upload their tour’s photos into their personal photo pages and use many social web tools to share and interact.

Stay tuned we will keep you guys informed. :)

It’s been some months since we planned and started developing a pioneer project with an ambitious goal – to create a powerful web 2.0 help-desk support  application that could offer a great advantage for small-medium businesses.

We are happy and proud to announce that from today on we will be slowly phasing people into the beta version of our super duper, user-friendly help-desk application! :).

Yes, we do need your help. We know that no matter how much we tried our best, there’s nothing more important and helpful than feedback from real users, real people using our application.

We hope you enjoy using Client2Central. :)

http://www.client2central.com

Whether we like it or not we are and will be connected all the time. In fact, we collaborate, share and have found many ways to be present in several places at the same time.

C2C’s key mission is to revolutionize communication. To connect people to ideas and not just to machines. Our challenge is to use technology to humanize the human/bits relationship.

Humanizing technology and breaking down barriers. These are our guidelines to build cutting edge web 2.0 applications that really make difference in people’s life.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pon5Bur_zqg&fmt=18