Jacob S Paulsen's Blog, page 2

USA Carry Podcast: 5 Reasons Your Holster Might Suck

I was interviewed recently for the USA Carry Podcast. We spoke primarily about holsters and the major changes the holster industry has seen. In this show you will learn:

Why big box retailers don't have any good holsters for saleThe huge education gap in holstersThe requirements for a quality holsterWhy most gun owners don't realize their holster is junkThe only 100% reliable quality belt clipShould the mag release be covered by the holster or notWe recap my recent article about sweatguardsMy little soapbox issue with WML holsters

The post USA Carry Podcast: 5 Reasons Your Holster Might Suck first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

Coupon Marketing Is About To Face An Armageddon

For a long time eCommerce websites have utilized coupons to incentivize first time customers, track referrals from influencers, and conduct short term sales only advertised via email or social media. I foresee a big shake up in the near future.

The New Threat Facing ECommerce Companies

In the last decade we've seen the explosion of coupon aggregators in the marketplace. There are the big ones you have probably heard of like Honey, CapitalOne Shopping, Coupert, and Karma but you probably are unaware of just how many there are. I have a tracking document with about 60 of them listed.

These services promise to find and catalog coupon codes for web stores and make them available to you when you are shopping. In many cases they encourage the installation of a browser extension or app that will even go so far as to prompt you when you are checking out on a site that they may have coupon codes they can inject for you. One click of a button and presto you are saving money.

I get the appeal for the shopper and consumer. Sounds fabulous. For the web store business, not so much.

How Coupon Aggregators Get The Coupon Codes

There are a few ways these companies effectively scrape the internet for coupon codes.

First, their browser extension “sees” and copies codes being manually added. For example, imagine you have the Honey browser extension installed because you like saving money. You are also on my email list and I email you about a sale we are doing this week to celebrate National Park Week. In the email I provide a coupon code.

You visit my site and place an order. During checkout you manually type in the coupon code that was in the email onto the checkout page. Presto, Honey now has cataloged that coupon code and then next user to come to the site will be prompted to add that coupon code to checkout even though they were never on my email list and otherwise were unaware of the sale we advertised to our email subscribers.

In addition, people can manually submit coupon codes to these services.

The above example about National Park Week is a real story. Sent out the coupon code on a Monday and by Tuesday CapitalOne Shopping had the code indexed and was prompting users to inject it on my site. This also suggests that swapping out codes often isn't a real solution. It takes almost no time for them to be compromised.

Coupon Campaigns Are Now Unreliable

Businesses often generate coupon codes for influencers. The influencer then can promote a discount to their followers and audience. This allows the company to more or less track the referrals that are coming from that influencer and better leverage their audience by using a discount as an incentive to buy.

Or perhaps a company creates a coupon code as a way to gather email leads. You land on the site and it pops up asking you to put in your email address to receive a first time buyer coupon code.

These are the kinds of activities that are now effectively corrupted by coupon aggregators. There is no way of knowing if a recent order with a specific coupon code came through the promotional efforts of the marketing campaign / influencer or if that code was scraped up by an aggregator and is being inserted into orders that otherwise would have been received without any discount.

If You Don't Want To Provide A Discount, Don't Give Out A Coupon

I've been told this by a few people. Afterall, if we aren't willing to deal with orders coming in with a coupon attached why did we generate the coupon code to begin with? Well it isn't that simple.

First, as a business we accept when we hand out a coupon code that it will be added to orders associated with that marketing campaign… but not other orders. If someone comes to the site and plans to place an order regardless of getting a discount but their browser extension hands it to them regardless that is money the company would have received but now they won't and even worse they are assuming that the order came by way of a marketing campaign to which that coupon code was assigned.

This skews the marketing data and causes significant waste in marketing efforts and advertising dollars which further hurts the business.

Yes, we accept the idea that there is going to be some profit lost when we promote a coupon code but speaking for my business we can't afford it if a large % of orders all have a coupon code attached that otherwise wouldn't if it were not for these coupon injector apps.

However, one potential solution to this challenge is to stop utilizing coupons in marketing at all. It would be difficult and ultimately probably less good for the consumers.

How Are These Coupon Aggregators Making Money?

You might be wondering why there are so many of these services and how they make money. The answer actually helps you to understand how these are an even greater problem for businesses.

It comes down to affiliate marketing and affiliate programs.

These days most online retailers have affiliate programs. An affiliate program is an effective way to work with influencers, marketers, and publishers to incentivize them to send you customers. Different from providing a coupon code, an affiliate program may or may not provide any discount to the end customer but does generate a commission to the affiliate who referred the sale.

Affiliate marketing is another marketing avenue and potential stream of income. These coupon aggregators sign up for affiliate programs for all the web stores they can. Then, when you use their service, extension, or app, they redirect you to the web site using their affiliate link.

Let me give an example. You are on one of my websites about to place an order. You get to the checkout page and your coupon app tells you it has potential coupons it can insert into this website. You click the button to prompt it to try the coupon codes. First, it refreshes the page in your browser redirecting you through its affiliate link. So now, regardless if the coupon codes work or not they are going to earn a commission on this sale. Lets suppose for example that the affiliate commission is 15%.

Then they auto-insert all the coupon codes on file and lets assume one of those codes works and it gives you a discount of 15%. You are happy, you just saved 15% on the order. The coupon aggregator service is happy, they just made a 15% commission on the sale, and the business is sad because it just lost 30% on that order and has falsely attributed the order to a marketing campaign that had no actual impact on driving that order.

Coupon aggregators don't limit themselves to only scraping coupon codes for sites with whom they can broker an affiliate relationship. They will scrape and catalog coupon codes for all sites so it isn't in every circumstance that they do make money but often enough they do and that not only justifies their business model but it also gives them an incentive to redirect customers away from a company's website to an alternate website where they do have an affiliate relationship.

So this acts as an incentive to allow these coupon aggregators to be a part of your affiliate program because if you don't play ball they may just pop up on the screen when your customer is trying to complete an order and tell them the same or a comparable product is available on a different website for less.

The Various Potential Solutions

Now, with a full understanding of the problem what are eCommerce companies to do about it? Hey if you have any ideas please share them with me in the comments. Here are a few that I've been pondering over.

Coupon Injection Blocking Solutions Currently On The Market:

First, there are a number of software solutions on the market that claim to be able to block these apps and browser extensions from injecting coupon codes or scraping/reading them when they are manually added by customers.

GetBensonVeeperKeepCartPromoPiratesVigilance

I haven't used any of these services yet but they work in different ways and in some ways I'm very interested and in other ways I'm skeptical. I suspect I'll setup and pay one of those services in the not too distant future.

As It Relates to Affiliate Marketing Stop Using Coupon Codes

This has never been an issue for me because I don't like giving my affiliates coupon codes as a means to track their referrals. I'm comfortable with affiliates just having an affiliate link and using it to track referrals.

However, if you are a eCommerce company that today utilizes coupon codes as a means to aware affiliate commission to your affiliates that probably needs to stop. You need to utilize a professional affiliate software tool that tracks referrals by affiliate link and ask your affiliates to utilize the link moving forward.

The alternative is to continue to pay out affiliate commissions to your affiliates when they have done nothing more than submit their code to various Redit groups and coupon aggregators.

Insert Coupon Codes Via Link and Hide Them on Checkout

Many eCommerce solutions have the ability to auto-insert a coupon code via a link and then potentially to hide that coupon code from the user frontend. This could be beneficial. Instead of putting a coupon code in an email campaign I can instruct customers to click on this link to auto-add the discount to your cart. Then on the cart and checkout pages use other code/tools to hide the coupon code from visibility so that the apps and browser extensions can't see it.

This isn't a simple and built in functionality for most of the eCommerce tools out there but it strikes me as a potential way to minimize the damage of the Coupon Aggregeddon so we might see these kinds of tools be built and developed.

Stop Utilizing Coupon Codes

Then of course there is the most obvious solution. Stop using coupon codes. Find a different way to attribute sales to influencers and campaigns. Find alternative ways to give discounts and rewards to customers.

Perhaps you don't have to stop using them altogether but can limit their usage.

As an example, one of our brands offers a discount to veterans and first responders. Previously we asked them to contact us to get the discount. Once we verified their status we gave them a generic coupon code we gave to all the vets and first responders. You can see where this is going. Those codes popped up on all the aggregators and suddenly we were seeing a ton of orders with the code that weren't customers we had verified.

So now when they contact us we provide them a one time use code specific to their email address. If it gets scraped it can't do any damage because it was only valid for one use.

The Real Long Term Consequences

I'm not sure where all this is going. There are plenty of eCommerce companies I talk to that are only beginning to see the danger and challenge that these Coupon Aggregators present while other businesses are in full panic mode.

The Coupon Aggregators aren't going to disappear or stop doing what they do. They are making too much money to stop and their existence and market penetration is only going to increase as more and more consumers discover them and leverage them to save a few bucks.

I guess only time can tell but I'm open to ideas or solutions that protect businesses and still support consumers.

The post Coupon Marketing Is About To Face An Armageddon first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

The Tale of The $30 Ping Pong Table

The year was 1999 and I worked as a low-level employee at the local K-Mart. I was a general handyman, doing everything from receiving to cart retrieval. It was a great job for a 16-year-old boy and it presented at least one very important opportunity.

There was a floor display ping pong table in sporting goods which had seen better days. Management decided it was time to go and marked it down to some very low sale amount.

Lucky for me I got wind of what was happening and before the clearance tag could be added I was asking my manager what the lowest price was that I could buy it. The answer? $30.

I didn't hesitate. The $30 was paid and I started making phone calls because a few things were certain.

First, I had no way to transport a ping pong table. It would not fit in my 2-door Nissan Sentra. Second, there was no point in even asking my parents if it could come to my house. There was no space and it wasn't going to happen.

Ultimately, the ping pong table was transported to the seminary building less than a block from my high school.

Seminary, for members of my faith, is a program for high school-age kids that offers a daily scripture-based class. In many parts of the country, it is offered early in the morning before school starts but I grew up in a place where I felt lucky to be able to take seminary as a class during the middle of my day during high school.

So the building was a go to hang out center for high school age kids, especially of my faith. When a class wasn't being conducted the ping pong table often came out and countless hours were spent in innocent diversion.

After 2 years of abuse from high schoolers I graduated and moved to Utah into an unfinished basement and the ping pong table came with me. In its new home ping pong became a go-to entertainment option for my coworkers, friends, and my brother who lived above me in the finished portion of the home.

It was there that this picture was captured which is the only picture of the ping pong table I could find and the table is only visible in a small corner of the picture…

My friend Kirt feeling quite confident about his Ping Pong skills

 

I wish I could tell you how many games were played on the $30 table. I'm sure it was thousands. I'm sure that ultimately more than $30 was spent over time on the ping pong balls though if we had to purchase new paddles I don't have any memory of it.

In January 2003 I moved out of that home for a 2 year missionary experience in Brazil. Needless to say, I didn't take the ping pong table with me.

This began the saddest time of the table's life. While I was in Brazil my parents moved into the Utah home and decided to finish the basement. The ping pong table didn't play a part of their overall design for the space. So my Dad folded up the table and stuffed it into the furnace room. Frankly, it was more like a furnace closet.

My Dad was giving me the benefit of the doubt. Instead of throwing it out he figured when I came home I may take it with me on my next adventure. When I did return home I fairly quickly took a job in summer sales which took me away from home for a summer and that fall I was married.

There was no room for the ping pong table in our apartments, or eventually in our home. Perhaps there was theoretical space but not a dedicated space where I could justify it with my young family. My Dad continued to be patient though comments were made on occasion.

In 2011 I moved to Colorado and my Dad's hope that I might one day come for my ping pong table was extinguished. With the help of a neighbor and a truck, the table was dismantled, and hauled up the stairs and to the dump.

It was a good table that provided joy to hundreds. It will forever be missed.

P.S. If you ever find a ping pong table in good working condition for $30 or less please let me know.

The post The Tale of The $30 Ping Pong Table first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

Defenders Live: Keys to Success in Business & Life

I was interviewed for the Defenders Live show. Lora Thorson hosts the show and does a great job of asking probing questions and surprise we discussed effectively NOTHING about guns or shooting them. You should subscribe to their show on YouTube or Facebook!

In this interview we do discuss:

How to be good at selling yourself and selling generally without being a salesmanThe difference between being a business owner and an entrepreneurWhat it means to Start With Why and how it can change your lifeDealing with situations that cause conflict with your purpose or beliefThe “Producers and Consumers” paradigm

The post Defenders Live: Keys to Success in Business & Life first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

Colorado Springs Family Adventure – Pikes Peak, Cheyenne Mtn. Zoo, Garden of the Gods

Our family recently was blessed to spend a few days with my in-laws in Colorado Springs. Even though we've lived in Colorado 12 years we've never done any of the tourist-like things that Colorado Springs offers. We are so very grateful to those in-laws who made the arrangements and showed us a great time.

Garden of the Gods

Garden of the Gods is a no-cost park in southwestern Colorado Springs that features amazing large rock formations.

According to Lucy:

It was beautiful. There were so many rocks and each one was different. There were so many shapes and sizes. There were also so many animals. Bighorn sheeps, caterpillars, and lizards. There were all adorable.

Here are some pictures we took:

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We were there about 2 hours, and another hour might have been nice, but we were running out of daylight and ready for dinner. I think an adventurous type of person could spend a solid half or even a full day there.

That night we ate at nearby Front Range BBQ which took a little longer than we would have liked but was very delicious. The brisket was especially good.

Cog Railway Manitou-Pikes Peak

Pikes Peak was wonderful. Lucy said, “If there's one thing I learned from coming up here, it's that it's cold and windy. The visitor center was nice, and at the top, I saw a wonderful view. On the way up, I could see parts of Colorado, Kansas, and New Mexico. This part of the trip was something that I would've gladly done again.”

Some pictures from this experience:

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default: document.getElementById('page_number_1').value = 1; } bwg_ajax('gal_front_form_1', '1', 'bwg_thumbnails_1', '0', '', 'gallery', 0, '', '', load_more, '', 1); } jQuery('.first-page-1').on('click', function () { spider_page_1(this, 1, -2, 'numeric'); return false; }); jQuery('.prev-page-1').on('click', function () { spider_page_1(this, 1, -1, 'numeric'); return false; }); jQuery('.next-page-1').on('click', function () { spider_page_1(this, 1, 1, 'numeric'); return false; }); jQuery('.last-page-1').on('click', function () { spider_page_1(this, 1, 2, 'numeric'); return false; }); /* Change page on input enter. */ function bwg_change_page_1( e, that ) { if ( e.key == 'Enter' ) { var to_page = parseInt(jQuery(that).val()); var pages_count = jQuery(that).parents(".pagination-links").data("pages-count"); var current_url_param = jQuery(that).attr('data-url-info'); if (to_page > pages_count) { to_page = 1; } spider_page_1(this, to_page, 0, 'numeric'); return false; } return true; } jQuery('.bwg_load_btn_1').on('click', function () { spider_page_1(this, 1, 1, true); return false; }); #bwg_container1_1 #bwg_container2_1 #spider_popup_overlay_1 { background-color: #EEEEEE; opacity: 0.60; } if (document.readyState === 'complete') { if( typeof bwg_main_ready == 'function' ) { if ( jQuery("#bwg_container1_1").height() ) { bwg_main_ready(jQuery("#bwg_container1_1")); } } } else { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() { if( typeof bwg_main_ready == 'function' ) { if ( jQuery("#bwg_container1_1").height() ) { bwg_main_ready(jQuery("#bwg_container1_1")); } } }); } Cheyenne Mountain Zoo

Our family hasn't been to dozens of zoos around the country or anything but we've been to the Denver Zoo about 40 times. The Cheyenne Mountain Zoo is something you always hear people around here rave about. I think that there are a few things that make it unique. Certainly, the placement on the side of the mountain helps with the views but also creates animal enclosures in which animals are more likely to be viewable for the same reason that movie theater seats are setup on an incline.

Here are some pictures from the Zoo:

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} } #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .displaying-num_2 { font-size: 12px; font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; margin-right: 10px; vertical-align: middle; } #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .paging-input_2 { font-size: 12px; font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; vertical-align: middle; } #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .tablenav-pages_2 a.disabled, #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .tablenav-pages_2 a.disabled:hover, #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .tablenav-pages_2 a.disabled:focus, #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .tablenav-pages_2 input.bwg_current_page { cursor: default; color: rgba(102, 102, 102, 0.5); } #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .tablenav-pages_2 a, #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 .tablenav-pages_2 input.bwg_current_page { cursor: pointer; text-align: center; font-size: 12px; font-family: Ubuntu; font-weight: bold; color: #666666; text-decoration: none; padding: 3px 6px; margin: 0; border-radius: 0; border-style: solid; 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return false; }); #bwg_container1_2 #bwg_container2_2 #spider_popup_overlay_2 { background-color: #EEEEEE; opacity: 0.60; } if (document.readyState === 'complete') { if( typeof bwg_main_ready == 'function' ) { if ( jQuery("#bwg_container1_2").height() ) { bwg_main_ready(jQuery("#bwg_container1_2")); } } } else { document.addEventListener('DOMContentLoaded', function() { if( typeof bwg_main_ready == 'function' ) { if ( jQuery("#bwg_container1_2").height() ) { bwg_main_ready(jQuery("#bwg_container1_2")); } } }); }

Simon said he really liked seeing the wolf. None of us had seen a wolf so close up before.

The post Colorado Springs Family Adventure – Pikes Peak, Cheyenne Mtn. Zoo, Garden of the Gods first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

PayPal and the Gun Industry – What You Need to Know

Updated: May 4th, 2023

Operating a business in the firearm industry even if you don't sell guns, comes with complications and risk. This article is part of a series of articles I'm publishing about various online platforms, merchant providers, and tools that have policies related to the firearm industry.

PayPal is a merchant provider that enables small businesses and helps them accept credit card payments online in a secure way. In addition to being its own payment gateway and merchant provider, PayPal also has the benefit of being an online bank where you can keep a balance. You can get a PayPal debit card, send money to/from other PayPal users and transfer funds back and forth with other bank accounts.

What Is PayPal's Gun Policy:

“You may not use the PayPal service for activities that: relate to transactions involving … ammunition, firearms, or certain firearm parts or accessories, or (k) certain weapons or knives regulated under applicable law.”

Not exactly specific is it? Virtually everything my business sells MIGHT fall into their list of prohibited items. Or it might not because who is to say WHICH certain firearm accessories are on the PayPal naughty list?

I called PayPal. They were unable to provide me with a list. I was told explicitly that “holsters, bags, and tactical gear” are all ok. Many years ago I also had a PayPal representative explicitly tell me firearm training and classes are ok. Beyond that nobody knows. I'm not even sure if PayPal knows from one day to the next what is prohibited.

In January 2023, I was proactively contacted by a PayPal “account representative” named Jeremey who wanted to meet to discuss how I could better grow with their platform. I saw it as a sales call to get me to use more of their services. Over the next 2 months,  a lot of back-and-forth emails, and 2 video calls, Jeremy was unable to provide me with even an ounce of clarity on their policy.

He eventually asked me to email aup@paypal.com which presumably is their compliance team. I copied Jeremy on that email but the compliance team wasn't even willing to respond to my email. Not even when their own employee replied all and asked for a response. Just 100% ignored which leads me to believe that PayPal not only doesn't have any clue what their own policy means but they also have really bad customer service.

The most troubling thing is the lack of consistency. I know several businesses that only sell training classes and have had PayPal delete their account. I know at least one company that only sells holsters and yet PayPal froze their account.

Further, they don't seem to be educated enough to enforce their own policies. For example, they restricted my company's account because of a transaction for “dummy ammo.” Dummy ammo is very obviously not ammunition and is in fact a safety product that renders a gun safe but even after a phone call, PayPal's compliance team couldn't reconcile the possibility that anything with the word ammo wasn't against their policy that prohibits ammunition.

What Can You Expect From PayPal:

An important clarification you need to note about PayPal. Different from other merchant providers; when a customer places an order on your website and checks out using PayPal the list of items by title, that make up that order, is sent to PayPal.

If someone purchases a holster on my website and pays with a traditional credit card merchant that merchant provider will only get an order number or whatever I've programmed for them to receive. Something like “Concealed Carry Inc Order #5555555. PayPal on the other hand will get the exact title of the holster being purchased. In my opinion, this level of data transfer to PayPal is a HUGE privacy concern for my business and our customers.

PayPal appears to conduct audits from time to time on accounts looking for keywords against a “naughty list” of keywords. Since the actual product names show up in a PayPal transaction this is something they can do.

*Note: Based on my interviews with companies who have dealt with these issues as I have, I suspect that PayPal might only conduct these audits on accounts that either have high balances or a volume of activity that is higher than normal for that account.

PayPal has different types of account restrictions they can apply. If for example, they see just one product you sell that is in violation of their “policy” they might put a restriction on your account only until you remove that product and stop selling it. However, if they think your core business is fundamentally in violation of their policy they might fully delete your account.

Is there an appeal process? Not really. You can try contacting PayPal customer support via phone and get a supervisor on the phone but their ability to help you is very limited. They can't tell you what is or isn't prohibited and at best they can “add notes to the account for the compliance team to review” but that isn't likely to have any impact on anything.

If your account has recently been restricted I suggest you do whatever they request in order to be compliant. My rule of thumb is to always play by their rules to avoid potential issues.

What Are Your Options – Should You Leave PayPal?

This is a difficult one. As a general rule, I prefer to not work with companies that don't have clear rules or a way to appeal when you feel you have been restricted regardless of following those rules.

Sadly however PayPal isn't just another behind-the-scenes merchant provider that will process a credit card charge. They have worked hard to build a brand that many consumers equate with trust and security. Customers like PayPal because they feel it is more secure than giving their credit card info to some random website.

As a large eCommerce company that processes millions of dollars each year on our website, we have the opportunity to conduct experiments in real time with a substantial amount of traffic. Those experiments have shown that offering PayPal as an option at checkout increases the conversion rate by about 10%.

Thus removing PayPal as an option would be the last resort that would almost certainly cost us as much as tens of thousands of dollars each year in gross revenue.

My Suggestions to Any Firearm Industry Company Relating To PayPal:If you sell guns, ammunition, knives, or firearm parts that replace OEM parts on a firearm I strongly suggest you do NOT use PayPal. Perhaps on the checkout page, you put a note to the effect of “We do not offer PayPal as a checkout option because PayPal specifically prohibits the sell of our products on their platform.” Such a statement might lessen the negative impact of your conversion rate.If you think your business fully complies with PayPal's policy you need to acknowledge the possibility that at any point they may choose to shut you down. There may not be any rhyme or reason. Just expect it as an eventual inevitability.Setup a dedicated bank account to tie to your PayPal account. This is valuable for a number of reasons. First, you limit PayPal's access to all the funds in your business's primary bank account. Second, if your account gets shut down and you decide to open a new PayPal account you will be unable to do so using a bank account previously connected with a PayPal account that was restricted or shut down.Maintain a low balance. Pick a balance number that is appropriate for your business that you want to maintain there for whatever working balance reasons and frequently transfer anything over that dollar amount out of PayPal. I suggest that working balance never be more than $2500.See if there is a way with your eCommerce solution to restrict the data being sent to PayPal or even block certain products from being paid for with PayPal. Perhaps you too sell dummy ammo and don't want to trust PayPal compliance officers with knowing the difference.On your website, if you accept PayPal, you should be able to add a note on the checkout page to the effect of “While we do accept PayPal to meet the demands of many customers please note we don't recommend paying with PayPal. PayPal will receive all the data about the products you are purchasing which we feel is an invasion of your privacy. Further, PayPal has proven to be against the second amendment and we don't suggest patronizing companies that don't respect your constitutional rights.”

The post PayPal and the Gun Industry – What You Need to Know first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

Gun Radio Utah: Permitless Carry & The Guardian Conference

The post Gun Radio Utah: Permitless Carry & The Guardian Conference first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

Warrior Wednesday – Iowa Firearms Coalition Interview

I recently gave an interview to John McLaughlin of the Iowa Firearms Coalition. It was published in two parts on the IFC YouTube channel and Facebook page.

In this interview, we discuss:

An overview of the tools and resources on ConcealedCarry.comWhy we started Mountain Man Medical and the value of medical preparednessSome key tips on holster selectionThe value and importance of measuring both accuracy and time when trainingSome important Dry Fire considerationsThe way to have a substantial impact on the 2A right movementHow do local news outlets operate and how can you help them remain unbiased3 Rules to follow in order to support gun rights

The post Warrior Wednesday – Iowa Firearms Coalition Interview first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

Warrior Wednesday –arrior Wednesday – Why The Firearm Industry Should Get Off The Platform

I recently gave an interview to John McLaughlin of the Iowa Firearms Coalition. It was published in two parts on the IFC YouTube channel and Facebook page.

In this interview, we discuss:

An overview of the tools and resources on ConcealedCarry.comWhy we started Mountain Man Medical and the value of medical preparednessSome key tips on holster selectionThe value and importance of measuring both accuracy and time when trainingSome important Dry Fire considerationsThe way to have a substantial impact on the 2A right movementHow do local news outlets operate and how can you help them remain unbiased3 Rules to follow in order to support gun rights

The post Warrior Wednesday – Iowa Firearms Coalition Interview first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.

Warrior Wednesday –arrior Wednesday – Why The Firearm Industry Should Get Off The Platform

I work with a lot of firearm trainers. This industry consists of people who primarily have day jobs and teach classes on the side. Those who are blessed enough to do it full time are still NOT web builders or marketing gurus. They are firearm instructors.

So it is no surprise that a large majority of them utilize Eventbrite to sell their classes. The idea of setting up some sort of online checkout with credit card processing etc can be very intimidating. Unfortunately, Eventbrite comes with its costs:

Why You Should Get Off of Eventbrite

While Eventbrite's terms of service do not prohibit firearm classes or any other firearm-related event ticket sales, Eventbrite doesn't support your rights. Eventbrite co-founder and CEO Julie Hart is among 46 Fortune 500 CEOs to sign a letter in 2019 asking members of the Senate to pass a bill requiring universal background checks and federal red flag laws. So that is one reason I would try hard to not support their platform.

Taking customers off of your website to a different website to finish registering for your class shows a lack of capability and in my opinion, looks less than professional. Furthermore, it exposes the student to classes being offered by your competitors on Eventbrite.

Then of course there is the literal cost. Sharing your money with Eventbrite limits your business growth.

What is Technically Required to Setup Your Own Event Sign Up

Before I get into the step-by-step process I want to clarify some high-level things that will be necessary to leave Eventbrite. This article is not for super techy people but for those to whom the process feels intimidating. At first, I think it valuable to focus on the high-level requirements.

You are going to need an Ecommerce-capable website. Effectively you need a way to list a product for sale and have someone pay for it. My preference is WooCommerce (click here to learn some of my why) which is a plugin added to a WordPress site. So if you are currently using WordPress, this is going to be easy.You are going to need the ability to process credit cards. That means a merchant provider and processing gateway. For a large number of reasons I'm going to recommend Stripe, which is a tier 2 provider in the firearm industry but is easy to set up, is a one-stop shop of sorts, and is competitive in terms of transaction fees and costs.You are going to need a business bank account. You should have one anyway if you are any degree of legitimate but now it's required because the credit card merchant provider needs a place to deposit your money.While not completely necessary, I think you are going to really be glad to have some sort of event-selling plugin/addon for your website that is specifically designed to make it easy to sell events. There are several out there for WooCommerce but you can find them for Shopify, Wix, GoDaddy, BigCommerce, etc. In some cases, it might be a native (built-in) capability and in other cases, it may be something extra you need to add or install. You might already be using something like this to display upcoming classes on your site. Perhaps you can use the same thing or you will need to transition in order to integrate it with the sell of products directly on your site.

That is roughly the checklist.

Basic Steps to Setup Onsite Event Sales with WooCommerce

For the purpose of this article, I'm going to assume you have WordPress for your website both because I think it's best and because my experience is more extensive with WordPress and WooCommerce. These steps as outlined aren't extremely detailed.

They are high-level and will require a little bit of research and leg work on your part but you can't hope to maintain your website over time if you aren't willing to invest some time upfront to figure out how to use it.

Step 1: Install WooCommerce if you haven't already

WooCommerce is a free plugin for WordPress. Just log in to WordPress and click add plugin and then search for WooCommerce. Click install. Now click activate. WooCommerce has its own start-up guide you can follow to set up basic things like preferred currency, etc. There are endless tutorial videos and guides online. Just search if in doubt.

Step 2: Apply for an account with Stripe

Stripe is both a merchant provider and a payment gateway in one. A very popular choice for online credit card processing because the fees are relatively low and they have done a great job of making their software easy to integrate into websites, mobile apps, etc.

To get started click here or go to Stripe.com and click on “get started.” You are going to need your company's EIN and other relevant legal information and bank info.

Step 3: Install the WooCommerce Stripe Gateway Plugin and Configure

You can download the plugin for free here.  You can follow this easy tutorial and documentation about how to set it up here.

Step 4: Choose and Install an Event Sales Plugin

I am going to give you two options to look at. I've used both for different projects over the years.

Option 1: Event Tickets by The Events Calendar: This is a plugin that is freemium. Freemium meaning that there is a free version that will work for most situations but depending on your specific needs you may need to pay for their paid version to access some features.

I think their solution is amazing and very versatile and I can recommend it without hesitation. The Pro version is $99 per year but you might find the free version sufficient for your use.

Option 2: FooEvents. FooEvents is a paid plugin that I've always been fond of. There is a FooEvents core plugin and then various addon plugins that give you additional features. They sell these in bundles so check the site for pricing options.

There isn't a free FooEvents option so that might be a turn off at first but if you find Event Tickets above to not have the features you want or if you don't like the user interface you might prefer FooEvents.

Step 5: Create Your First Event Product

The exact process is going to be different depending on which of the above you chose but either way it won't be difficult and you can follow the tutorials on the respective websites.

Step 6: Retool Your Site Around Your New Product/Class System

Now that you don't need Eventbrite anymore, you need to tweak the way you are displaying classes on your site. Both FooEvents and Event Tickets have built-in ways to display a calendar of upcoming classes for sale. So perhaps you add a new page on your site (or change a current page) to add an upcoming class calendar.

Feel free to post comments or questions below and I'll respond as I'm able.

The post How to STOP Using Eventbrite & Why The Firearm Industry Should Get Off The Platform first appeared on Jacob S. Paulsen.com.