The last couple of weeks have been full on as we get closer to the launch of Best Deals Australia.

Last weekend we finished the second video update. I really have to thank Asish who not only shot the video but came in to the office to edit it the day before he was due to fly out to go home for a well earned holiday.

I know it is a little long coming in just under the 10 minute mark but it really does give you a good over view of why a business should participate. However our original intension was to make two shorter videos but we ran out of time and splitting it would have required some hours of work. I apologise but hope you will watch it as it could prove to be a big boost for your business.

I have two pieces of news. The first is that we have now added a virtual office tower so service businesses can also benefit from the marketing package we have put together. In fact when you look at the marketing package you will see that it is worth far more than the rent and you get a shop or virtual office as well.

The second item is that we have approximately 50 businesses involved so far. Some are one product shops and some have far more, Gernani's for example has over 150 items. There was a last minute rush at the end of last month (January) so we are pretty snowed under getting them all up but I look forward to launching in the next couple of weeks and from then on you will see more shops or offices being added weekly.

Tags: Best Deals Australia | ESTV | Virtual Office Tower | Online shopping mall

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We are working on a new and quite unique shopping mall which will be launched around December 2009. It will be called Best Deals Australia and will be accessible through that domain name as well.

The unique part is that although every shop is individual and custom designed to represent the brand of the business our customers can go from one shop to another and add items to their shopping cart and then pay for them all in one go. It will be like a real world shopping mall but better - you don't have to pay for your goods every time you leave a shop.

We already have some great shops on board and we haven't done any marketing yet. We just discussed the idea with a few companies to get their feedback and they insisted on being in from the beginning.

There are some really nifty features as well, like we do all the work. We will upload your products to the shop, add new items or delete sold out ones and update the other content. We also do all the design and construction and every shop can include video.

But more importantly, we will do all the marketing.  That means we will run promotions in all the social media web sites like Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, do the regular PR, create posters and much more.

And here's the bit I know you will like, there is no set up fee and no hidden charges just one really low rent per month and you pay us a commission on sales.

It will be the easiest and the cheapest way for any business to get a branded shop online without the hassle of worrying about updating it or promoting it.

The one thing we have learned over the years is people hate updating their web site and online shops are twice as hard and therefore get updated less often. But if you want customers to come back regularly that's exactly what you have to do. So I think of all the new and unique features we have added the thing that will make taking a shop in our new shopping mall a no brainer is the fact that you never have to do the work and you don't pay any extra for us to do it.

Tags: Cheapest way to get an online shop | Online shop | Online shopping mall | Shopping Mall | Best Deals Australia | ESTV Blog | Ric Vatner

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(Editor's Note: This post was supposed to go up last week but it has been so long since I wrote I forgot how to do it. That's bad.)

I must admit with all the new blogs we have started as part of this ESTV magazine, I forgot this one was here and as you know from my note above I even forgot how to do it. This blog of course is the one where I can talk to you in private about what's happening at Eastern Suburbs TV. But remember, mum's the word. Don't tell anyone.

I certainly hope you don't think we have been sitting on our backsides doing nothing and that's why I have had nothing to write about. I can assure you it is definitely the opposite. We have been soooooo busy a few things have fallen by the way side. But I hope to rectify that from now on. Especially now I know how to post again.

So, a bit of ESTV news for you, hot off the press (I wonder if kids in the future will even know what a press is let alone know what it was used for?) we have produced an ESTV Commercial. Its only short but I hope it gives you a good idea of what we are trying to achieve here. Please let me know what you think of it.

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On Sunday I interviewed Logan Courtman the larrikin presenter of Unseen TV at their studio in Ultimo. For a Sunday afternoon the studio was just as busy as it is on any week day except that there were a few people sleeping on the couches liberally sprinkled around the unseen offices. Doing the rounds of Sydney's night life till the early hours on Sunday morning and then backing up to film the fans at the Chile Vs Columbia game was obviously taking its toll.

Now for those of you who follow Unseen TV you will know that Logan has a reputation for being "unpredictable" in his interviews. When he interviewed Pamela Anderson early this year he whipped a chicken drumstick out from within his underpants and then offered it to her. Thankfully she wasn't hungry. But that little antic made the front page of the English tabloids.

So when I knew I was going to interview him I wondered what I could do to surprise him. Remind me to never let him interview me!

Tags: Logan Courtman | Unseen TV | a sleepy Sunday at Unseen TV | Unseen TV Chile | Unseen TV Malaysia | Inside Out on Unseen TV

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It is only a few weeks before we have our official launch at Cellini's in the Westfield Shopping centre (opposite the Post Office on Level 5).

I feel as though I should be going crazy about now but somehow I feel very calm. Prehaps because crazy is my regular state  :-)

This in my blog, so if you have heard the term "Blog" and wondered what it is, this is one. A blog is more personal than an article. It is me taklking to you and you can respond by leaving a comment.  It is a personal journal of the ups and downs of every day life according to ME or whoever is writing the blog.

What do you talk about in a blog? Well the short answer is anything that takles your fancy but in this blog I will generally talk about what's happening at ESTV, tit bits about people we have met along the way or comments on stories that may or may not have appeared on ESTV but which I think are interesting for one reason or another.

In the future we will offer our readers the opportunity of having a blog of their own and other ways for you to interact together including in person as well as online. But more on that later.

Bye for now.

Ed.

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Tags: ESTV | Eastern Suburbs TV | ESTV Blog

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