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Free Resource! July 22, 2008
Sharing branded content across social networks, blogs, and email and engaging in a contextual dialog has never been easier. PopularMedia SocialNotes™ delivers instant social interactivity on any web page with a simple click of a button.
Basically, you can add this widget to your site, and enable viewers to share your content with friends, reblog it, and more.
Go to http://www.popularmedia.com and click on Social Notes to learn more.
Seems I need to recommend a new domain registrar. July 16, 2008
I used to sing GoDaddy’s praises six ways to Sunday. They were cheap and reliable registrar.
Then they decided to become everything else, too.
I guess their spokesmodels are raising their rates…I can’t figure out why they have decided to turn a natural downside to email marketing into another stream of revenue. There is no logical reason why this needs to occur.
I for one will be yanking everything ASAP. Spam complaints are a part of life, and fortunately I’ve never received one…it’s the principle that pisses me off.
GoDaddy should go back to being what they were, and leave the real email marketing services to handle email marketing.
So…did you lie to get me to come to your event? July 9, 2008
My business was recently invited to a pre-opening reception at a new, swanky restaurant. The wording on my invitation said “thought this might be a good networking opportunity for you. We’re inviting a variety of businesses, and wanted to make sure we included women-owned businesses. We hope you can come and have a cocktail, make some great contacts and enjoy the reception. Thanks!”
Now, I realize that networking events, receptions, etc. are hit-or-miss, and you shouldn’t pin too much on the outcome, ever. With that in mind, I RSVP’ed, dressed accordingly, and we headed out.
Well, when we arrived, (more…)
You Can’t Beat $5 Sunglasses … So Don’t Try July 8, 2008
In a post at his Influential Marketing blog, Rohit Bhargava talks about walking down the street in New York and watching people as they buy $5 sunglasses from street vendors. He knows there’s a rationale for purchasing cheap knock-offs, even though they are of clearly inferior quality:
- A customer might lose or break sunglasses on a regular basis, and so hesitate to spend $100 or $200 for the genuine article.
- It could be an impulse buy.
- Or someone might operate under the mistaken impression that they can pass a fake off as the real thing.
Whatever their reasons, says Bhargava, they point to an interesting lesson: “[F]or some people, good sunglasses just aren’t worth paying for.” In other words, you can demonstrate the features and benefits of your product or service until you’re blue in the face, and still fail to get any traction with a certain audience.
“[I]f a consumer doesn’t believe products in your category are worth paying for, you are unlikely to convince them to make an exception for you,” he says.
“Instead of asking if your marketing is selling the right messages, you really need to ask if you are targeting the right customers,” says Bhargava. “The real question isn’t whether you can compete with the guy selling sunglasses on the street … it is whether you should even be trying to.”
Source: Influential Marketing. Click here for the entire post.
Will you still be using flyers when your competitors are using video? July 8, 2008
In the June issue of SPIRIT MAGAZINE, the in-plane publication for Southwest Airlines (whom I absolutely adore), is an interesting article about the steady growth of video advertising. Here’s an excerpt:
REDLASSO EMERGED thanks to the convergence of several Web 2.0 trends, the foremost being the pursuit of multimedia search. Increasing bandwidth caused a proliferation of Web multimedia, with more people listening to podcasts and watching online video than ever before. And while Google has quite profitably sewn up text-based search, multimedia search remains a largely uncharted territory because it requires different technology. A traditional search engine can only “see” text. YouTube searches, for example, rely on accurate keywords and descriptions: a search for “winning Super Bowl touchdown” returns useful results only if the nearby text contains those words.
Advertisers have followed video to the Web. (more…)
Would you come up with this for your advertising? Maybe you should. July 8, 2008
Creative Advertising! Many of these ads do not get produced or run in the US, which by itself is food for thought. How can these ads spark some creativity in you?
Notice the UPS trucks “inside”?
If you can’t read the fine print, this is for a funeral home:
Free Resource! Micromentoring. July 8, 2008
Micromentor.org matches entrepreneurs with mentors to create short-term (3 month) relationships. It works somewhat like a dating service: you create a profile of your business, and after you go live on Micromentor.org, you can connect with mentors to request mentoring, and mentors looking for proteges can also send you connection requests.
After a match is made, you are asked to spend three hours per month working with your mentor (usually via email) and then another 3 hours each month implementing your mentor’s suggestions.
I’ve just signed up, so i’ll post updates on how it’s going, but it sounds promising. I’m very excited.
Free Resource! Online business course. July 8, 2008
My Own Business is a site designed to help you no matter what stage you’re at in your business.
They offer a free e-course that covers all the steps, from researching your market to projecting cashflows to expansion. Quizzes and business plan templates also included. Might be worth giving a whirl! I know I will be.
