Hello all,
Ilan Abehassera, our VP Business Development for Zlio in the US and the UK, had a chance to be interviewed by Stephanie Frasco for Mashable.com 2 weeks ago in New York.
We wanted to share this video with you, so you can see what we are up to 
Here are the top 5 members with most referrers for this month:
1- Maguie
3- Tonya
4- Redwitch
If you would like to be featured as a top referrer, start notifying everyone you know and maybe next time you will appear on our top 5 list!
Could you introduce yourself?
My name is Ray; I’m 58 years old and live on the outskirts of
What made you want to launch a “retro shop”?
Ever since I was a very young teenager, I have been devoted to Rock and Roll music and the 1950’s era in general – the clothes, the music, the movies, the lifestyle….everything!
How are you planning to promote it?
At the moment I have a link to my shop in my email ’signature’. I also sell on eBay and I have a link to the shop on my “about me” page. Every time I sell an item I send a compliments slip with the goods which also have my shop’s URL advertised.
Do you have other shops?
I have just recently opened a second shop in which I have products related to
What did you think of the Zlio service?
I think that Zlio have a marvelous idea. It costs nothing to set up, the goods are all ready and waiting for you to add into your shop and you can make some extra money through services such as Adsense. This truly is a “Something for nothing” system!
What new features would you like to see added on Zlio?
I hope eventually to see a
Any extra ways of making residual earnings would also be most welcome!
How do you foresee the future of your ZlioShop?
I can only see that the future for my shop will get better and better as more and more businesses get involved. The more shops that open, the more we can set up reciprocal links and the better we will be able to drive business to each other – everybody wins in this kind of situationJ!
If you’re curious to know what “medieval geekery” is, read on ! This is the interview of Anachronista.
Could you introduce yourself ?
Greetings! I’m Carrie, the girl behind “Anachronista”, which started out as a simple blog about 2.5 years ago. Initially, it was just a place to organize my thoughts and findings of medieval interest. I have been involved in medieval re-enactment for over 15 years, and blogging was a way to categorize and promote my hobbies to other people who share these interests. I soon learned that content and links to funny comics alone were not enough to keep people coming back for more, so I started adding videos and photos I had taken at events, and my readership skyrocketed. This was when I started considering affiliate marketing as a way to cash in on those readers.
What made you want to launch a “Anachronista Shop” ?
I found out about Zlio through an email newsletter that I subscribe to from Robin Good. He’s been a major influence on my blogging, and I always look very hard at sites and software that he recommends. When I saw how customizable and easy it was to create a shop, I removed the Amazon ad blocks from my site and replaced them with ZlioZones. They are, in my opinion, more attractive than most other ad block type services, and update in real time if I add items to that category.
How are you planning to promote it ?
I have a couple of ZlioZone ad blocks in the sidebar of my blog, plus a text link. If I post about a particular subject that I happen to have a category for in my Zlio shop, I will add a ZlioZone ad block to the end of that post. I have also referred to a product or two in emails or bulletin board postings to the 4000+ member group that I moderate on MySpace. Beyond that, I haven't really promoted it, but that has more to do with my lack of free time than anything else.
Do you have other shops ?
I tinkered with a few different affiliate stores in the early stages of my blogging. I created a 5 or 6 page Amazon store, but I have pretty much abandoned it on favor of Zlio. The only other one is my Art.com store, which is my only source for antique maps. But if Zlio had as huge of a map selection as Art.com (or had Art.com as one of their affiliates) I would probably use Zlio instead. I have a Zazzle shop to promote my own t-shirt designs, and I hope to open an Etsy shop in the future which will carry my own handmade items.
What did you think of the Zlio service?
Instead of being an affiliate marketer for 15 different sites, and having multiple competing ad blocks on my page, I can just select the products I want to promote regardless of the store of origin. Saves me lots of time in signing up, getting approved and designing ads from the many different websites offering affiliate marketing programs. One stop shopping for me!
What new features would you like to see added on Zlio?
An English version of the newsletter! My French is ‘tres mal’! And greater control over store appearance – while I like some of the templates, I’d like to be able to upload my own images for the backgrounds, headers and graphics. Also a graphic button for my site to use as a direct link to my shop – I know I could make this on my own, but a nice selection of ‘logo links’ would be another great promotional tool.
How do you foresee the future of your ZlioShop ?
I’d like to be making a decent income off of the commissions, but if not, it’s still a fun feature of my blog. I’ll keep adding items periodically and promoting them, and if it takes off, great! If not, it cost me nothing but a few hours of my time to set it up. Five years ago, a service like this would have cost me a fortune – thank you Zlio for being free!
You can’t imagine how proud we are to know that you, Zlio members, are all over the world ! An example below with Peter Pradeep from India who was kind enough to answer our questions.
Could you introduce yourself ?
36 Male, from the hospitality industry. New entrepreneur, restaurateur. I own and manage a restaurant named Dal Fryday – Fine Indian Food, in Bangalore, India. Have been an avid blogger. In a growing economy like ours the opportunity for growth is tremendous and with a highly flexible and unique ways of doing business here I thought it would be interesting to see how technology can be used to develop and sustain business’ especially when one has limited time available at hand.
What made you want to launch a “blog store” ?
Yes, I have a few shops on Zlio, my favorite is the one on Indian Art. I foresee a huge market for Indian Art globally in the coming decades…what people have seen is just the tip of the iceberg and since Internet penetration has not reached the grass roots level some of the finest art forms will take time to be visible online and to the western world. This needs to change and I think a Zlio shop can be a very effective catalyst. My others Shops are Funny Emails online shoppe, The Nike and Reebok store , Blogging Store.
What did you think of the Zlio service?
I think its brilliant. I am still a novice in many ways and I am learning… I think the features available on the Blog store has been very carefully planned out and are very easy to use and therefore very effective.
What new features would you like to see added on Zlio ?
Firstly I would like to see more Indian websites made, more Indian products visible on Art , handicrafts, hand made toys,…There is a treasure trove of antiques available here, sadly not much of it has been catalogued.This is easily possible if more people are made aware of what a Zlio shop can do to their business.
Secondly I’d like to see Zlio grow in popularity the world over, which means I’d like to see Zlio come away from being a web store made specific for the French and American markets. I can only imagine what this can do for your bottom line. I believe the faster you get this done the better you will be.
How do you foresee the future of your ZlioShop ?
I can only see you grow and become popularity. With every big gun of the blogging world praising you, you can be sure of a great future. Here’s wishing you all the very best for an exciting future !
This ZlioShop is dedicated to this very interesting and very topical theme: saving energy and money. Let’s meet up with Thibaut Aube, its proud owner.
Could you introduce yourself ?
I’m 25 years old and I’m personnally and professionnally involved in sustainability. I work for a non-profit organization which promotes Fair Trade and Sustainable Development. As a consumer, I try to buy only things I really need and to purchase the ones which respect people and the planet most.
What made you want to launch a shop about saving energy ?
I thought it could be interesting for people looking for products respecting environment, saving energy and money, to have all this on the same website. US consumers are more and more concerned with energy saving, because of the cost of energy and because of global warming. There are so many things to do to save both energy and money ! My Zlioshop gives some ideas.
How are you planning to promote it ?
I already submitted “Saving Energy and Money” to webdirectories. Now I’m discussing with other websites specialized on sustainability and energy saving in order to be listed in.
Do you have other shops ?
I have another Zlioshop which deals with Fair Trade and organic products. I linked both Zlioshops, because people interested in saving energy might be interested in buying these products.
What did you think of the Zlio service?
It’s simple, quick and effective. Furthermore, Zlio’s customer service answers in a couple of days at any question. That’s why I’m very confident in Zlio’s future. Besides, the ranking on search engines is great, which is a good point !
What new features would you like to see added on Zlio ?
I’m very impatient to have the possibility to create subcategories. It will make our Zlioshops lighter. Besides, it would be great if I could see directly in the search engine results products which are still in my Zlioshop.
How do you foresee the future of your ZlioShop ?
Let me introduce to you one of our youngest members … (if not the youngest !). His name is Tevin, he is French-American and with the help of his father he started www.tevin.fr, a bilingual Zlioshop he dedicated to Yu-gi-oh.
Yesterday, I was presenting Zlio to someone who precisely said to me ” I should show Zlio to my chlidren, they always want to buy everything that comes out. Instead of spending, they’ll learn how to sell !”. Tevin is a good example then !
Maybe this will give ideas to all the Moms and Dads who read this blog !
and… here comes an interview withTevin !
Could you introduce yourself ?
My name is Tevin, I’m 9 years old, I just came back from the United States where I spent several years with my parents and I decided with my father Christopher to start a Yu-gi-oh shop on Zlio which you can find at this url: www.tevin.fr
What made you want to launch the first YU-GI-OH shop ?
Like a lot of boys my age around the world, I’m a big fan of the yu-gi-oh cartoon and trading card game, so my father and I checked on Zlio if someone else had had the same idea before us. It seemed not, so then we checked on google to see if 100 % yu-gi-oh shops existed in French and since there weren’t, I decided to start my own.
How are you planning to promote it ?
Well, since I’m a member of several yu-gi-oh forums, I’ve had the occasion to mention it to my contacts.
I also have a Myspace page http://www.myspace.com/tevin_store which enables me to pitch my zlioshop to my friends.
My father bought Adwords from Google for me a few days ago, and the traffic has considerably increased since. I have about 250 single visits a day.
And… well I hope that thanks to this interview on your blog, your readers will come and visit my shop !
Do you have other shops ?
Not yet, but I will soon start new ones with the themes from cartoons I like: ed, edd & eddy, johnny bravo, dexter labotories, etc…
What did you think of the Zlio service?
Well my father and I created the shop in just a few minutes. I chose all the products I wanted to insert and I think I’d be able to create the next shops by myself.
Also, the pay per click program is a fantastic idea, it gets me commissions every day !
What new features would you like to see added on Zlio ?
I’d like to be able to add sub-categories because for the time being the categories are a bit vast. Also, if readers could develop new templates with ready-to-use CSS to pimp the pages of Zlio like on myspace (see here) that would be great !(NB: It’s available now !)
And since I’ve spent most of my life in the USA, I’d like Zlio to have American partners so that my friends can enjoy it too. (NB: well, now that’s done too 
!!)
How do you foresee the future of your ZlioShop ?
Well first of all I wish that the traffic on my ZlioShop will increase more and more to receive more and more commissions and I’m motivating all my friends so that they can own their ZlioShop too and therefore become my referalls.
If you too wish to start your own shop for you or your kids, click here !:-)
