We sent him a couple of Portapads and he agreed to review them. Today the review was released on youtube.  I must admit I was a little  nervous about what he had to say, but I was soon put to ease. The review is excellent — fair and balanced. Check it out for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok5rEOEYBj0

And there is another cool thing about this review. It includes a competition that lasts for the rest of the month (September 2010) in which you can win one of five Portapads.  Just click the link and follow the steps in the video. If you are the lucky winner, we’ll send a Portapad to your door, absolutely free of charge.

Good luck.

The 3 pads ordered to the London address arrived and have been distributed. My daughter got one, my husband got one – both delighted – and I gave my son (33) his on Sunday while he had a BBQ/tennis/pool party at our family home. I was happily surprised with the numerous thirty-something’s reaction – they did take this message about having their bits cooked very seriously! So onwards and upwards.. I think you have a winner here.

I’m inspired to see how much our customers like it, if we only manage to get the product into their hands. We’re on the right track here!

• Sell 10 Portapads in June
• Sell 100 Portapads in July
• Sell 500 Portapads in August
• Sell 1000 Portapads in September

Fortunately, we reached our goal for June. 10 Portapads exactly were sold, much thanks to a very enthusiastic customer who absolutely loved them and got six.

Now, July 3 has come and we haven’t sold a single one so far in July. We have much work to do. Help us spread the word if you like the product.

I’m working on getting the technical side of things up and running. Hopefully our Indian developers can help fix the webstore bug tomorrow.

I’m a little frustrated that we have an amazing product and noone (or very few) to buy it. We need to find the key. Checked out some material by internet marketing expert Jeff Walker today. Maybe some of that can help. Check it out here: Product Launch Blueprint.

We don’t need the Portapad top succeed to survive, but damned if we’re gonna give up just like that. The Market Penetration Challenge shall succeed!

– Eivind

The problems which still remain include free shipping, since Paypal don’t receive the shipping & handling information anymore.

None of these problems affect you (our customers) negatively. Free shipping is a pretty good deal, we think! So act while it is still broken, because we intend to fix this ASAP.

Eivind

We are hoping to sell 1500 Portapads (yep, the inflatable laptop cushion you know and love) by the end of September, which we call our Market Penetration Challenge. It is essentially an affiliate campaign. We are firm believers in this product and are a little frustrated that we can’t seem to really find the right buttons to press to get it out on the market. That’s because we are new to this internet sales and marketing business of course, but we believe we are making progress.

If anyone has a question about the Portapad or a user story, please share it with us on e-mail or in the comments section (whups – that’s not in place yet. Will arrive soon).

Until next time,
Eivind

In the late 90’s I lived in London, playing bass in an avant-garde metal band called Cheese Cake Truck. I learned to love the British culture and language. After I moved to Norway in 2002 wanted to build a career as a writer and solo artist. Unfortunately I did not have the ability to focus clearly enough on what I wanted. I did some interesting things, but my efforts were scattered and thinly spread, so I wasn’t able to make the impact I needed to bring my vision into the world.

I met Eivind in 2007 and we bonded over our shared passion for personal growth. We established a “mastermind alliance” where we challenged each other once a week and helped each other develop our self discipline and purpose in life.

Since then I’ve slowly and steadily built my discipline and focus. I became able to make commitments and actually follow through on them. About 3 years ago I married my long time girlfriend Solvor and a year after that I became a father to a beautiful girl. These events have helped me further sharpen our focus and purpose, which is to be a successful writer and performer.

About 1.5 years ago I was working as a freelance web and multimedia designer and in the office next to me were these two crazy guys from the northern parts of Norway who were inventing stuff. They showed me the very first prototypes of the Portapad and I loved the product. Having just read the Four Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss, and recently inherited some money from my grandmother, I decided to invest.

I bought a batch of 3000 Portapads and had them shipped to the UK where I set up a company. Initially I didn’t have the stamina and attention to follow through to make it successful. It was after Eivind picked up on the idea and we decided to become business partners that the sparks really started to fly.

We both have a strong commitment to making this business work. We intend to use it as a launching pad for our further growth as human beings and fulfilling our life purposes. It’s an exciting journey, and if you want to join us please sign up for our newsletter, or even better — get yourself your very own Portapad by clicking the link below.

I first started working with Staale after he contacted me via Zaadz, a now defunct community for people interested in self-development. We hooked up locally here in Oslo and soon found that we held some shared aspirations. Every Tuesday since that time – almost without fail – we have met to discuss our life and our visions and challenging each other to be our very best.

Early on in that period, I discovered my passion: Men’s work. I understood that the tremendous challenges I had back in my early twenties were to a large part caused by the fact that noone had ever told me what it meant to be a man. Noone had told me about my own gender identity. So there I was, the younger brother of two older sisters, and a pretty reserved guy, and I didn’t know what it meant to be male.

And I asked myself the question “Why has noone told me?”. And the answer frightened me. I realized it is because hardly anyone really knows. The knowledge of how to be a man – in the very best sense of the word – is lost to us. I decided to rediscover it and started reading people such as Robert Bly, Robert Moore and David Deida. What I discovered was tragic: Manhood has been equated with violence and destruction and so we decided to discard it from society. Hence the cultural climate that caused me to think several years previously if I were just a waste of space. Inspired by a night of watching movies with my girlfriend at the time, I went forward and started the website Masculinity Movies, where I’m exploring these questions.

When we approached 2010, I decided it was time to step it up with Staale and that we should initiate our selv development exam. Staale had invested a sizable chunk of money in a bunch of Portapads one year previously, but hadn’t had success selling them. At that point, I had just become a Portapad user myself, and I really dug the product, so I said hang on! – let’s try this one more time.

And here we are, trying to get a Product I love out to the masses so that I can keep working on what I feel passionately invested in – resurrecting the image of a positive manhood in our culture and in myself.I’m a trained graphic designer and IT technician who was born in 1978. I trained for my BA degree in graphic design at The Arts Institute at Bournemouth, during which three years I developed my affection for England. That’s also where I connected with my desire to grow as a human being, for I was going through some really deep existential inner conflicts back then. I remember once thinking the thought I wish on no other man “Am I just a waste of space and resources?”. So I started a spiritual search.

I first started working with Staale after he contacted me via Zaadz, a now defunct community for people interested in self growth. We hooked up locally here in Oslo and soon found that we had a shared interest in self development. Every Tuesday since that time – almost without fail – we have met to discuss our life, our visions, and how we can best serve each other.

Early on in that period, I discovered my passion: Men’s work. I understood that the tremendous challenges I had had back in my early twenties were to a large part caused by the fact that noone had ever told me what it meant to be a man. Noone had told me about my own gender identity. So there I was, the younger brother of two older sisters, and a pretty reserved guy, and didn’t know what it meant to be male.

And I asked myself the question “Why has noone told me?”. And the answer frightened me. I realized it is because noone knows. The knowledge of how to be a man – in the very best sense of the word – is lost to us. I decided to rediscover it and started reading people such as Robert Bly, Robert Moore and David Deida. What I discovered was tragic: Manhood has been equated with violence and destruction and so we decided to discard it from society. Hence the cultural climate that caused me to think several years previously if I were just a waste of space. Inspired by a night of watching movies with my girlfriend at the time, I went forward and started the website Masculinity Movies, where I’m exploring these questions.

When we approached 2010, I decided it was time to step it up with Staale and that we should initiate our selv development exam. Staale had invested a sizable chunk of money in a bunch of Portapads one year previously, but hadn’t had success selling them. At that point, I had just become a Portapad user myself, and I really dug the product, so I said hang on! – let’s try this one more time.

And here I am, trying to create market penetration with a product I love so that I can keep working on my true passion – resurrecting the image of a positive manhood in our culture and in myself.