In line with that idea, the other day I was thinking about a way to promote the site via simple contests. The first few ideas were decent, but they didn’t reflect what the site is all about. I realized that I wanted to use a contest as a way of teaching people how TypeTribe will work.

Thus the $25 Your Best Opening Sentence contest was born. I’m looking for 10 writers to submit their best opening sentence, and over a 48-hour period starting Sunday night, anyone will be able to vote on the best sentence and offer their constructive criticism in the comments section. Not only will the winner of the contest win $25 cash, but so will the person who has the single most insightful comment.

Here’s why I’m so pleased about the “educational” aspect of this contest:

1. Eligible opening sentences can be from novels, chapters of novels, short stories, essays, or speeches, illustrating that a wide variety of written works can be posted on TypeTribe.
2. The poll will run for 48 hours, the amount of time it takes you to get feedback from TypeTribe reviewers for any project.
3. Not only do writers benefit from the contest, but readers–people willing to offer insightful feedback–do too.
4. The contest enables people to promote their work by exposing it to tons of people who otherwise never would have heard of it.

Also, I’m hoping that people petitioning their friends to vote for their opening sentence will draw more people to the site and encourage more people to sign up for the launch notification e-mail, which you can win $25 for doing.

If you’re interested in entering a sentence in the contest, there are 7 slots remaining, so submit here soon!

This absolutely, positively bewilders me. Most business spend a significant portion of their operating budgets trying to reach new customers. When a customer finds you and tells you they want to pay you for your services, how do you not respond?

My philosophy on customer service is that you treat every potential customer like a potential girlfriend. You meet a girl, you get her number, you call her up to ask her out. When do you call? Countless movies and books have made a big deal about the rules regarding when a guy will call a girl, but I really think it’s as simple as this: If the guy’s interested, he’ll get in touch with you within a day or two. We’re guys–we’re not idiots. If we’re excited about the prospect of going out with you sometime, we’ll let you know we’re interested.

Customer service is no different. The message that Intridea is sending me is that they’re not interested. I talked about this with Nancy, and she pointed out that the owners of the company could be on vacation or there could be a death in the family or something unexpected. The thing is, it takes about 20 seconds to set your e-mail autoresponder to “Out of office. We appreciate your proposal, and we’ll get back to you on July 27.”

The issue goes beyond this web-based businesses. About a month ago I was in Best Buy–which usually has great customer service–to pick up a new TV. There were two people behind the customer service counter. One was helping the only other customer in line, and the other was…well, it looked like she was trying really hard to look busy. The first woman had done the right thing and told me that she’d be with me in a minute (again, that phrase makes a big difference), but as I stood there for 5, then 10 minutes, not only was the other woman not really doing anything, but she was actively ignoring me. You know what I mean–avoiding eye contact, walking more briskly than normal, etc. Yes, she was literally walking back and forth right in front of me, not acknowledging me at all. She was on the phone for part of that time, but she could have looked up and given me a look or something.

I’m not trying to sound like the victim here. I easily could have said something to this woman instead of getting pissed off about it. But honestly, I didn’t know what this woman’s job function was. I didn’t want to assume that she had the ability to help me (as it turned out, she did). Literally, all she had to do was look up and acknowledge me, and I wouldn’t be telling you this story.

I don’t want to point a finger at Best Buy. A similar situation happened at Walgreens a week ago. Not as pronounced, but still irking. I just don’t understand how you actively ignore someone who’s standing right in front of you. And frankly, I understand that there are some people who you really want to ignore. The people who want to interrupt you, pull you away from what you’re doing or talk with you while you’re in the middle of something. I am not one of those people, nor do I come off as one. When I’m in a Walgreens, the last thing I want to do is hang around and chat.

I want to end on a happy note. I was twice pleasantly surprised by the customer service at the Richmond Heights Schnucks today. First, I went to the deli counter and ordered some Boar’s Head turkey, thinly sliced. The woman cut one slice and held it in front of me, asking if it was thin enough. I said it was. She then did something that no one has ever done for me before at Schnucks. She asked me if I’d like to sample that slice while she cut the rest of the turkey. I hardly ever ask for samples or even take free samples when they’re out in grocery stores, but I was so caught off guard by this special service that I took the slice.

Then, later after I finished checking out, the cashier asked me if I needed any help taking my bags out to the car. Obviously I didn’t, but it was the thought that counts (I’m guessing that Schnucks has a new rule where they offer this service to all customers).

I walked away from the grocery store literally beaming. How often does that happen at a grocery store, particularly one that you’ve gone to every week for the last 6 years?

Of those four businesses, I have a feeling that Schnucks and I have a beautiful relationship in our future.

Today’s example of my shame is www.textsfromlastnight.com. The first part of its brilliance is that you know right away from the URL exactly what it is: It’s a site where people post funny things they texted last night, usually under the influence of alcohol. The posts are crude and mostly sexual; all are anonymous except for the zip code.

Here are a few reasons why this site is awesome:

1. It’s funny. No, it’s hilarious. Every sentence is a punchline.
2. Simple interface. You get exactly what you want when you load the page: the most recent texts posted on the site. You want to see the best of the best? Go to the top, click “Best Nights,” and choose the time period you want to look at. A baby could figure out this interface.
3. No barrier to entry. You want to post a text of your own? You don’t have to fill out a long sign-up form or type in some captcha word. Just type your area code and the text and hit “post.” You just want to give a text a thumbs up or thumbs down? Click once and it’s done.
4. It’s clearly quite popular. Nobody wants to go to the restaurant that nobody else goes to. Same with websites–people want to visit popular sites. You can see right away that a ton of people are commenting and rating each text.
5. It’s niche. This site isn’t trying to beat Twitter and Facebook, even though it’s essentially the same concept. It’s Twitter for texts from last night. But it does what it does so well that people would rather go here to post their texts than do so on Twitter (which is arguably easier). I’m surprised Twitter doesn’t let you thumbs up/thumbs down tweets.
6. Limited, consistent ads. The site has two ad blocks–one on the left, one on the top. They’re both sponsored by American Apparel, whose image is perfectly in line with the site. My only issue is that the slideshow style of the ads is really distracting when you’re trying to read the texts.
7. It is what it is, and nothing else. The site does one thing, and it does one thing well. I’ve had to stress that as I’ve been creating TypeTribe. It’s easy to keep adding components in the hopes that one of them will take off. I think you have a much better chance of a site working if you pick a target market, decide your mission, and stick with it.

Well done, textsfromlastnight. I applaud you and I’m insanely jealous of you.

But I’m realizing that I need to do more as I build a brand image. I need to gain consumer trust. I need to infuse TypeTribe with a personality.

That’s why I’m starting a short daily series on the TypeTribe blog called “Should’ve Used TypeTribe” (SUTT). You can see the first entry here.

In each SUTT entry, I’m going to make note of something written or something that originate from something written (like a movie) that could’ve been better if the writer(s) had created a customizable, targeted focus group on TypeTribe before finalizing their work.

The first example is an inane song lyric Nancy mentioned to me from a group called 3oh!3 (they need a TypeTribe for their group name as well).

There are tons of examples of things like this, but if you’ve ever heard, read, or watched something and thought, “If only they hadn’t said that, this would be great!”, post it in the comments below or on the TypeTribe blog. Or send it to me at jamey.stegmaier@gmail.com and I’ll include it in a future edition of SUTT. Please be specific, down to the line if possible.

If you’ve been curious about what TypeTribe is, go to that page and be one of the first to know.

Also, sign up on that page to be notified when TypeTribe launches. On a whim, I decided to up the stakes and offer a $25 Amazon.com gift card to every 100th person to sign up. I’m going to post about it on Twitter in a minute, so by the time my faithful blog readers read this post, it should be right around the 100 mark…

Update: I wanted a way to appreciate people who refer others (especially readers and writers) to TypeTribe, so I’ve added a $100 cash drawing to be held at the launch of the site for all referrals. You get an entry every time someone other than yourself enters your e-mail in the referral box of the launch e-mail notification signup. So tell your friends!

Happy Fourth of July. America isn’t perfect, but it’s great to live in a country where a guy can turn a passion project into a legitimate business.

(It’s also great to not be in the hospital today. Yep, that’s where I spent the Fourth last year.)