News... check back often!

 

 

 

~Head Notes~
 

 Shirley Knapp
Phone 907-598-0015 • Fax 267-960-6440
shirley@shirleyknapp.com

 

Editor Note: Northwinds was honored to be part of this pilot project undertaken by Muze.
Billboard magazine reviews the Muze store concept tested by Northwinds!

Muze Nurtures Body, Mind, Spirit
Service Enables New-Age-Themed Web Sites To Create Customized E-Commerce Centers
By TRUDI M. ROSENBLUM
March 29, 2003

With an eye toward capitalizing on a growing market for wellness-oriented products and services, Muze has launched a new database/e-commerce product that enables everything from health food stores and yoga studios to new-age-themed Web sites to preview and sell on the Web a comprehensive selection of related music, videos, and books-a category the company calls "body/mind/spirit."

Muze president/CEO Paul Zullo says, "It was clear to us a year-and-a-half ago that the body/mind/spirit area was a wave that would grow into a tsunami, and it has."

The service-Muze Store-Plus for Body, Mind, Spirit-features a database of 35,000 to 40,000 products, including 11,000 CDs. Participating Web sites pay Muze $100 per month. In return, the database is customized with the Web site's logo and style. For an extra fee, the site can also have fulfillment handled through Baker & Taylor, making the service a turnkey solution.

"The environment is branded to look and feel like the client's home page, so the customer feels an intimacy with the site," Zullo explains. "The customer stays on our client's site; they're not sent to a different place."

The database features what Muze calls a "category tree" that breaks each brand down into smaller, more specific subcategories. For example, in the music category, a search for "new age" creates a list of subcategories that includes instrumental, voice, flute, and piano, enabling the customer to find exactly what he or she is looking for. Likewise, in video, a search for "yoga" brings up such subcategories as hatha yoga, chakra yoga, kripalu yoga, and yogacise. As a result, the service gives a small, independent Web site the appearance of a much larger business with an inventory of tens of thousands of products.

Muze did a beta launch of the product Jan. 4 and rolled it out at the end of that month. Zullo says Muze Store-Plus currently has a half-dozen clients.

He adds that Muze Store-Plus represents one way that new-age music labels can branch out beyond traditional music stores. "A health food store or a yoga studio might carry a few CDs or videos but couldn't really stock a big selection or sell it efficiently," he says. "With this service, they can offer their customers thousands of products virtually."

Among those making use of the service is author/teacher/spiritual healer Shirley Knapp, who sells books, tapes, and services through her one-woman Web site. In January, she added Muze Store-Plus to it. "It gives me the appearance of having a huge store. I'm getting a lot more visitors to my site every day," Knapp says. "It's great not just to get more orders but to be able to share all this information with visitors. I can offer my clients thousands of body/mind/spirit products that they might never have found otherwise." [emphasis added]

The service is a good fit for this genre, Knapp says, because "most people in this industry are small-a little shop with two or three people" and thus would not be able to offer such a comprehensive selection without help. She adds that for these nontraditional outlets, music is a natural product to offer: "We use music so much: for healing, for relaxation, for meditating."
[emphasis added]

Barbara Smalley, assistant executive director of Ladyslipper-a women's music label based in Durham, N.C.-sees an opportunity to increase sales through nontraditional outlets with the service. She says, "[Specialty] shop owners have seen sales through [music] marketing."

Robert Ansell, CEO of Raven Recordings in New York, says Muze Store-Plus is "a way for retailers to expand their catalog and inventory without really expanding their catalog or inventory."

He adds that "gift shops, new-age-type stores, health food stores, [and] yoga studios are all tremendous outlets for music. More and more of them are carrying it now."

Shirley's Book Promos

Shirley has been participating in internet book promos recently. Join her list to be notified of these offerings in the future!  The books are valuable self-empowerment tools, and you get free promotional  products from like-minded alternative and holistic practitioners, many with insight on how to succeed using the Law of Attraction!  Plus you'll get a free promo version of Shirley's book Sustaining Joy!
 



New! Developing Intuition class! Promotes living without fear! (offered on CD-Rom or as audio file)

Sustaining Joy now available in eBook and Audio File!

  Most insightful! Sustaining Joy now available in Audio File with Intuition Class!

Shirley is currently working on a NEW BOOK, Sustaining Joyful Relationships!

Available soon in e-Book format!

"Our relationships in our everyday life are key to the peace and tranquility we feel inside ourselves. Sustaining Joyful Relationships is a collection from Shirley's workshops and classes as well as personal testimonials. Each chapter presents different aspects of soulful alignment, as the situations discussed began in a challenging way and resulted in great growth and joy.

"When we are aligned with our relationship to work, family, community and spouse, our world transforms and sustains the joy in our lives! Use this book as your guide into new worlds of passion and truth within your relationships."

We welcome your stories of transformation
 for Shirley's new book, Sustaining Joyful Relationships! Click here to tell us your journey, challenges, achievements. Share
in this project!

BOOK EXCERPTS from Sustaining Joy
now online! Click here. Get insight
into balancing the masculine and
feminine in partnership. All at
InnerSelf.com, an online inspirational
magazine!



TELECLASS WORKSHOPS NOW!

Shirley is currently conducting teleclasses on various topics including
"Sustaining Joy," (with the book
and intuition class as accompaniment),
self-empowerment, manifesting, and developing intuition.

If you have a subject you wish to explore,
tell us!

Join her list for the most current information about her upcoming workshops!   

LIVE WORKSHOPS!

Contact Shirley to conduct a workshop in your area! Let us know if you have a subject you wish to explore! E-mail or call for more information.

Get Sustaining Joy at Amazon.com !





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