Archive for December, 2007

What We Rent – Party Supplies

This is our second installment in our “What We Rent” series. Considering what time of year it is, it is very appropriate. New listings continue to pour in to iRent2u. It is great to see so much happening so quickly – and look for even more soon. It looks like we may be adding construction equipment, those big inflatable jumpers that kids love so much, and other great stuff such as pinball machines and antique jukeboxes. Who ever knew there was so much cool stuff to rent?

Party Supplies
Today’s topic is party supplies, something that you see a lot of over the holidays. Party Supplies is a pretty broad category, and includes some of the most commonly rented items in the country. You’ll find everything from tables and chairs, to disco balls and lighting equipment, to dunk tanks! Apparently, people all around the US like to party, and when they do they like to do it in style.

Throwing parties is fun, but can require a lot of equipment to do it right. There sure is no reason to go out and buy 20 tables and 100 chairs - when renting is so easy. Most of the party rental companies will deliver everything to your location, and even set it up for you. If you can think of it, there is a company that will rent it to you. Plan on having a lot of people and don’t want them all walking through your house to use the bathroom? Rent out portable toilets! Planning a party in the winter and don’t want to get all your guests sick from the cold? Rent out some propane heaters! Want to make the party a real treat? Get costumes and party props - to fit any theme. You can have an Egyptian party right where you live - and think of how much money you just saved on plane tickets!

Wedding Supplies
For those of you in the Inland Empire, we already have over 1,300 items in our “Events & Parties” category, with much more on the way. You can rent plates, glasses & tableware. You can find barbecues, generators, and all sorts of lighting equipment. Planning a winter wedding? Make sure to get one or two of the nice tents or canopies in case the weather isn’t perfect. Our providers will not only take care of the equipment rentals, but they also provide access to all sorts of services to make the occasion easier and more successful.

Party Planning
Planning a big event can be quite challenging, so when you look through the inventory don’t get overloaded. Probably you don’t really know what you need, but there is help! Submit a request to one of the rental providers and they will get back to you and help you through it. Often times working with a professional will give you a lot of ideas and save you money at the same time, as they will assist you with planning your event.

Have Something to Rent Out?
While we already have a large number of items, there is a lot more that we are looking for. Do you have some neat things that you think others would enjoy having at a party? List them on the site, you could really make someone’s day! I know I plan on listing my karaoke machine – but then again maybe that is just my way of trying to get it out of the house so no one makes me sing. =^)

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Popularity: 12% [?]

What We Rent – Audiobooks

iRent2u has now launched and is in full swing. We have successfully added a very large inventory, and new items keep pouring in every day. We hope that very soon you will come to rely on iRent2u as your single source for all rentals, and list your own items as well. Remember, by helping others you help yourself – as they save money by renting you earn money – a win win situation!

Today we begin a series we are calling “What We Rent”. This will be an ongoing series where we highlight items listed on our site, which ones are new, and which situations rentals are the best solution.

Our first category we will cover is “Audiobooks”. One reason we are covering them first is that we have a lot of audiobooks to choose from. Presently we are hosting an inventory of over 9,000 different titles. Audiobooks are great for people who commute, people who exercise with a personal listening device like and iPod, and for people who are vision impaired but still love the joy of a good book.

I personally love audiobooks, and have listened to many. This is originally because I commuted for two to four hours a day for the last couple of years. After a couple of weeks I got bored listening to the radio and knew I had to find something different. My father who has had a long commute for almost 20 years recommended that I try listening to audiobooks. He gave me a few of his, and I immediately fell in love with the concept. Now instead of dreading the long commute to and from school, I actually looked forward to it! Sometimes I even found myself sitting in the car after I had arrived at my destination waiting anxiously to hear some conclusion or pivotal point in the story.

After a while I discovered that there is much more to audiobooks than just exciting stories. Think of all the incredible non-fiction books there are in the world, that hold incredibly valuable knowledge on anything from how to succeed in work to how to be happy in life. I found days where I learned more in my commute back and forth to school than I did in the classroom!

Beyond the commute I found audiobooks to make exercising more enjoyable. Instead of focusing on the treadmill, I could become engrossed in some story or concept. The time would fly by and before I knew it my exercise was over. And when my grandparents began to lose their vision, they turned to audiobooks so that they could continue to enjoy reading. This has been a great solution for everyone!

There is one problem with audiobooks though, once you listen to them you don’t have much need to listen to them again. That is why my father was able to send me two boxes full of audiobooks, with over 50 titles. Obviously he was spending a lot of money to buy these books, yet listen to them only once. That sounds like a perfect situation for iRent2u, and now we are happy to help audiobook lovers all over the US.

Do you have audiobooks that you have already listened to?
If so, great! List them on our site and let others borrow them – share the joy of a good book and recover some of your investment. My father has already listed 5 of his books and is ready to list a bunch more.
Click here to list your items on a site, and make a free account if you haven’t already.

Do you want to find and listen to good audiobooks?
Well you are in the right place then also! We have thousands of books to choose from, with new listings coming every day. Try either renting individual books one at a time. Or sign up with one of the services listed and get a subscription – keeping the books coming on a regular basis.
Click here to browse our thousands of audiobooks that are available right now!

Do you know someone with a long commute, who likes to exercise, or is vision impaired?
If so, consider giving them this Christmas a subscription to a service like Jiggerbug – one of our premier partners – so that they can share in the joy of audiobooks for a long time.
Click here to learn more about JiggerBug, see or leave a user review, or see which titles they list

Either way iRent2u is the place for audiobooks.

Know of other ways that audiobooks are better than regular books?
If so, click “comment” and let us hear about it. We are always interested to hear good ideas from our readers.

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Popularity: 14% [?]

Expert Opinion – Pete Krainik
CMO of QD Technology
Chairman of the CMO Club

We were really lucky to have someone with such considerable experience in the marketing and sales industry take the next look at our site. Pete Krainik, current CMO & CSO (Chief Marketing & Chief Sales Officer) for QD Technology, has been in technology, marketing & sales for over 25 years, and definitely knows what he is talking about.

As you will soon learn from the number of impressive titles Pete has held, he is an industry veteran. As early as 1999 he was the VP of Sales for Mars, moving quickly to Chief Business Officer. From there he moved to up to the role of General Manager for i2 Technologies, and it just kept getting better. Next he was the Executive Vice President and GM of Siebel Systems, the CMO of Doubleclick, and then the Global VP of Marketing for Avaya. You may remember DoubleClick, they just were acquired by Google for over $3 Billion! Wow, we are sure that is all due to Pete’s influence. =^)

On top of all this, he has now started an organization of CMO’s from across the country, which has experienced over 300% growth in the last six months. If you are a CMO and you want to finally connect with a group of your peers in a setting where no one is trying to sell to you, check out the CMO Club (www.theCMOClub.Blogspot.com).

We have just have one question for you Pete, is there anything you can’t do? =^)

Here is a summary of Pete’s response to iRent2u.com:

“My first impressions of the site were that it has a simple and clean look. Overall it is very good. I liked the ease of registration, which has a great look and feel with reminders to complete the different components of the registration. In fact, I don’t see anything that stands out as needing improvement.”

Thanks Pete, coming from you that means a lot!

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Popularity: 8% [?]