Can an Affiliate Program work?

Well, our new site is up, www.MitzvahArt.com. We chose Volusion to host it because its easy to use and it has a number of great features that I could not (or did not have the time to) code myself.

For example, we can now offer Gift Certificates, so if you do not know the Torah portion that the Bar/Bat Mitzvah recites you can buy a Gift Certificate!  Another cool thing is that we can set up coupons for promotions or for partnerships where discounts can be offered.

But the topic for today’s blog is affiliate programs.  The site can support affiliates.  The way the program works is that partners sign up for the affiliate program and get special links that they can post on their site, add to newsletters or however they want to promote the program.

Then, if people come to MitzvahArt by clicking on that link, the affiliate is associated with the purchases by those people. Then we can pay the affiliates a percentage of the associated deals. It’s really cool but like anything else takes effort to promote and sell.

The reason I am interested is that I want to make Temples and Congregations affiliates.  Ideally they would promote our site and products a little to give us exposure and if successful they make money.  Why would a Temple be interested?

1. All congregations are looking for ways to generate money.  The economy has hit everyone and while its counter intuitive, people tend to leave Temples in times of financial need.
2. Our gifts are religiously significant and connect the Bar/Bat to the Torah and hence Judaism.
3. Keeping young adults active in Judaism is a key contributor to member retention.
4. We pay well. If they have 15 B’nai Mitzvah a year they can generate from $100 to $300 a year.
5. It’s free and only takes a little time to incorporate the links into websites and electronic communications.

So it makes sense to me but I have to ask: Can an affiliate program work?  Please let me know what you think..

New Year, New site!

On the eve of Yom Kippur, shalom from MitzvahArt.  We have been busy redesigning our website, www.mitzvahart.com to be more friendly and to add some new business features that we hope will let more people learn about our products.

Now we will offer Temples 10% of our sales for each MitzvahArt that is bought from a member of their congregation! We can also offer discounts and coupons, which gives us much more flexibility with promotions.

But one of the coolest things is that customers can now buy Gift Certificates! So if they do not know the Torah Portion or only want to give a portion of the price they can easily do that now.

We are excited about the options this will give us and hope you will be too.

Happy New Year from MitzvahArt.

I’m back

Sorry about the inactivity, but life has been really hectic. Between family things, health uncertainty, driving lessons, soccer practices, renovating a basement, back to school, High Holiday registration forms for my congregation and rebuilding a website, I have just been flat out.

I think I will start a new method, little snippet posts just to keep the activity up and to honor the fact that you all are busy too.

Its never too late to connect with Torah

Not sure if you saw this story in the NY Times:
Having a Bat Mitzvah in Their 90s Because It’s a Hoot

But its really an inspiring story about women who never had the chance to have a  Bat Mitzvah because it wasn’t done back when they were of age, finally having their chance.

In the story, Rabbi Howard Kutner researched old calendars to find the portions they would have read if they were boys. The women studied their Torah portions and recited them in a service in the sanctuary in their community center, Menorah Park in Beechwood, Ohio.

What a great thing and what a mitzvah for Rabbi Kutner to have helped make this happen.

We are trying to connect with Rabbi Kutner to see if we can create MitzvahArt for them so if anyone knows them please let us know.

Imagine how these women must have felt last weekend fulfilling what must have been a lifelong desire.

By the way,we can create a MitzvahArt for someone whose  Bar or Bat Mitzvah was a while ago.  I recently had someone contact us about a 70th birthday present….

Finding your voice – Purim’s connection

Whenever my children speak their mind I am always proud.  Even when standing up to me, it makes me feel awe when they rise up and make their point. These little babies that I have had the pleasure to watch grow have not only souls but strong personality and confidence in their views. They are particularly passionate when they feel fairness has been violated or when someone has been taking advantage.

With Purim on the horizon, Purimspiels being rehearsed, and the final calls for volunteers to work at Carnivals coursing through email queues, I am touched more by the connection to our heritage and the strength that the Jewish People get from the Torah and Midrash.

Of course, Purim is about a story about how Esther found her voice, but over history there have been brave Jews who have found their voice and used it to fight wrong, to lead the Jewish people and to propagate the religion.

Where does the strength come from? It comes from the teachings, the stories and the examples of leadership that start in the Torah.  The book of Exodus reveals the process of building a society born of slavery and the many challenges that brings.  At the core of course is faith in G-d and that strength that people get from that faith.

The story of Purim is another Exodus from bondage.  But while Moses got his strength directly from G-d, Esther had to summon hers from her faith.  As our history evolves, there are no red seas being parted, there are no cases of generally accepted divine intervention being chronicled.  Yet there are many acts of faith and many miracles.

It is the connections we make to the teachings of the Torah that are the foundation of much of our ethic.  And that ethic drives us to our voice.

At MitzvahArt we are proud to preserve each Bar/Bat Mitzvah’s connection to Torah through our Art.

The Relevance of Torah

This is a theme I am going to start writing about a lot.  To me its the practical side of what Judaism is about.  How do I and my family really use the Torah to guide us in our lives?  To me its mostly about decisions.  How do you make the right decisions in life? There are stories and themes in the Torah that build the foundation for our personal ethic.

One of the things I try to do is make sure I read each Torah Portion we create at MitzvahArt. Its amazing, no matter how many times I read the same passages I generally get something different out of it depending on what is happening on that day.

I was struck by the faith needed to survive as an Israelite fleeing Egypt and wanted to blog about it.

This past week the portion was Beshalah. Its packed with symbolism including the parting of the Red Sea, Manna from Heaven, getting water from rock and opening your arms to G-d to win war.  And while these are great stories the thing that struck me this time reading the portion was the effort that the children of Israel had to make to see the miracles around them.

I mean really, how could you not go through the Red Sea that was split in front of you and ever doubt that you were being taken care of by a higher being?  But Israel whined about food and water and enemies. And each time G-d answered their whines as a parent cares for a newborn. (Don’t get me started on that because being  parent of older children and dog owner I am against responding to whining)

Now of course the story depicts a people emerging from slavery much like a newborn people, and we are more mature from that perspective.  But we too are emerging from a sort of slavery.  Certainly the last decade or more was filled with material metrics, excesses and with that a loss of what is meaningful. By the way, I am as guilty as the next person, more that some I am sure.

So what miracles are around us?  Well for starters, how about electing an afro-american President of the United States?  As ardent a follower of Obama I was, I did not really grasp this miracle until watching the coverage election night.  Truly this is an emergence from slavery at last.

How many of you are cooking dinner at home more?  Having more dinner table conversations and as a result getting better connected with your families?  Having the opportunity to discuss really important things. To me that is a real miracle.

Please tell me about the miracles in your life.

When are you too old?

I am sorry that I have not posted much lately.  I originally wanted this blog to be about MitzvahArt and my personal spiritual path (as it relates to MitzvahArt) but I am in the middle of a more personal spiritual “event”.  My Dad is 89 years old and recently had open heart surgery.

Yeah, I know, isn’t he too old for that?  That was my first thought too.

But to answer that, you really need to know my Dad. He is not your average 89 year old, or so I think.  At 63 he had a heart attack and completely changed his life.  He retired from the financial industry, eats not just well but carefully and deliberately, exercises regularly and frankly before the latest heart issue was fitter than me. In retirement, he worked on advertising and merchandising at the family clothing store. At 70 he decided to become a commercial real estate broker, at 80 his summer project was to de-thatch his lawn…. by hand, at 83 he had a knee replaced because he could no longer enjoy golf with his original one. He is no stranger to difficult obstacles and has always had goals to keep him

So when his heart started to slow him down, he sought out the reason. “Well your 89 years old” was not acceptable. I started thinking about the notion of acceptance and started to think that once you “accept” fate, age or the way it is, you lose control of your destiny and in some way your person. Interestingly, in the Torah many of the great stories are of people into their second century, which we all consider to be figurative but realistically I think its about what you can do with a level of maturity that is just not reached until later in life.  So who are we to tell older people they cannot do anything?  To take away their motivation.  To force them to accept their fate. In the back of my mind, I put myself in his shoes and wonder if I have the determination and love of life that he has to put myself through what he is going through.  A new level of admiration for a man I already place high up there.

Anyway, needless to say even though I am three hours away from him, he is dominating my free thoughts and my not so free time. I am looking at the bright side of this, spending lots of time with the family and helping where I can.  (I must say that my sister and brother in law, who are local to my folks and the hospital, have been godsends and I thank them for their diligence).

Working with customers – the way it should be

At MitzvahArt we recently got a request on our toll free number, (877) 9-MITZVA, or (877) 964-8982, about whether we offer a “Sign-in” board version of our product. Unfortunately, as is often the case in business, we do not. So we called them back and talked about what they were looking for, with low expectations of course.  But a remarkable thing happened.  We talked about what this customer’s vision was (I’ll call her Stephanie).  She was looking for a larger piece that had plenty of space on the matting for guests to leave a personal note to the Bar Mitzvah.  The issues with our piece were three:

• First, the mat area was too small for the number of guests they were expecting,
• Second, with the size of the art itself the enlarged mat would be huge and frankly too big, and
• Third, she was afraid that someone might write on the art itself and ruin it.

The temptation was to say, ok well sorry… but we continued to talk and Stephanie proceeded to tell me about a Sign in board product she saw on another site that was designed to slip an 8×10 picture in to personalize it. Well we could certainly make the MitzvahArt 8×10… problems 1&2 all of a sudden seemed solvable.  Would she consider buying two products and putting them together herself?

Well the nature of a sign in board is that you have to take it apart to get the matting signed and put it back together after the event anyway so…. Yes Stephanie would do that.  Things are looking up.  She suggested that she could use a picture of her son during the reception and swap in the MitzvahArt afterwords.  Hmm… not ideal but ok.  Then I suggested that we could send her two copies of the MitzvahArt, one as usual on high quality paper for the final product and another on regular printer paper that she could use during the reception in case of a particularly sweeping signature ends on the art… Success! We had a deal.

A few weeks later we got a great email from Stephanie and this very cool picture of the final product!

Needless to say, we are both very happy we could work together on this.

Doing something right

Have you ever had things happen in your life that make stop and wonder?  This year I was asked to sing the closing prayers for the Haftorah on Yom Kippur at my Congregation.  It was an honor, and then I found out that they were an ‘alternative’ version.  So much for my Bar Mitzvah training.

But I was saved by my new friend Cantor Debbi Ballard (mypersonalcantor)!  This blog connected us and within a month that connection affected me in a personal and spiritual way.  A friend at the service pulled me aside and commented on what a great experience for my son to see me participate in the service and what a great example it was for him (he’s 11).

Shortly thereafter (last week during Sukkot) we were playing soccer in the front yard and the rabbi of the local Chabad came walking by with his family.  Now let me tell you that in over forty years life, never has a rabbi been just walking by my house, I mean really…. After introductions, he breaks out, yes you guessed it,  a lulav and etrog, and asked me if I wanted to make a prayer for Sukkot.  A few years ago, I would probably have passed but now, after studying Torah a little, I accepted the sign and the opportunity to suck my son into both a spiritual and embarrassing moment.

So picture this, my son and I standing in our front yard with a rabbi reciting prayers of thanks with cones on our heads for yarmulkes (the kind you run around for an obstacle). Where is a cell phone when you need one

The point is that as I have opened myself and started following a spiritual path I have been blessed by friends, great coincidences and personal connections.  I use the word coincidence but my rabbi does not believe in them, he believes in G-d.

Whether its my personal path, or that we are providing MitzvahArt, I think its pretty clear we are doing something right.  Feels good.

What do you think?

Do you remember your Torah Portion?

I was speaking with my Rabbi about MitzvahArt the other day.  He is a great supporter and helps out proofing many of the MitzvahArt we produce.  He said that he often asks parents of b’nai mitzvah what portion they recited when they were young.  Interestingly, he is constantly surprised by how of them many have forgotten their portion.

I had to admit that I had forgotten mine until my daughter had started practicing hers.  I dug it out and still had a hard time figuring out which verses I studied.

But really, what is the significance of the portion recited at one’s Bar or Bat Mitzvah?  You might say that some portions are better than others.  My daughter and son will both have portions about Joseph with great lessons of forgiveness and leadership, while others talk about leprosy and how to adorn the tabernacle. Is there anything that can be concluded by which portion you get?  Does it say anything about the personality of the young adult? Their potential or their future?

I am interested in your thoughts on the matter because frankly I do not know. Each portion I have studied has many facets and lessons.  And each year there seem to be new ways to look at the same portion and learn something new. And I think that is the point. The politics of the era, your personal life, family life and local happenings all impact how you see things and what the Torah offers in the way of guidance.

So what does it mean to remember your Torah portion? It means you remember that you have a connection to the Torah already and that if you revisit it often it will continue to be meaningful in new and relevant ways.

So try to dig yours out if you have not recently and read it again, read what others say about it and seek to apply it to your life today.  I bet you will be surprised.

If you cannot remember your portion but know the date of your Bar or Bat Mitzvah your more than halfway there. (HebCal has a great calendar that can help you find the portion for a given month and year, click here.)