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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
Advice – 5 Cents
Interesting post by Seth G. over at the magical TypePad blog.
It makes me wonder, as a service provider, how I could translate that consumption into real understanding for my clients and potential clients.
Wait. I think there are definition issues in my brain. What is the difference between a client and a potential client? A signed contract and money? Is that really all? If I give enough free advice to someone, are they a pro bono client? Or just a potential client waiting to get enough money they can give me some?
If I don’t know the difference between a client and a non-client, this is not going to be an easy conversation to have! Okay, we’ll say it’s money. The contract is assumed in the equation because contract comes before money.
So a potential client is someone I’ve spoken with that has not paid me for my services or advice.
In Seth’s post, he mentions the rates at which consumption decreased when IKEA started charging a nickel for a bag. (Go to his post to read about it, I’m not going to just steal all the good bits for my post!)
The picture in my head for how this translates to a service industry is swift and immediate:
If you’ve ever read the Peanuts comic strip, Lucy sits behind a wooden booth that’s boldly emblazoned in childlike script “Advice 5 Cents” (I can’t figure out the ALT-number to make the cent symbol.)
So do we start charging five cents for advice on whatever our specialty is? How do we do that? By using Skype’s “charge by call” or putting a big “Advice – 5 Cents” sign on our website?
Would that even work? I think it could be an interesting social experiment. But…would my time get taken advantage of by someone thinking “WooHOO free advice for a nickel!?” And would it make a difference considering I can hang up the phone at any time?
What do you think? Do you give out a lot of free information to potential clients? Do you think that could be monetized in some way to increase your perceived value as a contractor and service provider?
Massive Profits Alert!
I just wanted to send out a PSA (Public Service Announcement) to the internet today:
If someone tells you that a product or service will make “Massive Profits” – I mean, if the term “massive profits” is actually used….it’s probably bull$*it.
It’s like massive profits is code for “Hey SUCKER! Come over here!”
Why today? Because I was just in my Bloglines account catching up on my marketing blogs (both high-fallutin’ and trashy in the extreme) and I think I came across the phrase “massive profits” no less than fifteen times.
Not only am I sick of reading it, I’m sick of thinking “I wonder how many people are sucked in by massive profits as opposed to big profits or huge profits…”
Because I think about things like that a lot. So now you know.
Massive profits are massively deceptive.
The Dawn of the “New and Improved” Press Release
Even when most people know their content has to be engaging and readable for others to care about it, press releases are still getting neglected.
Over at PR 2.0 there’s a very nice (and long) blog post about how press releases need to change, and the first step is accepting that PR is changing in a very real, user/reader driven way.
My favorite quote from this post is
No matter how tricked-out your press release is with “extras,” if it is still full of garbage, then we’re only placing our trash in a fancier container.
I think the same holds true for many things on the Internet: Social Networking sites that are basically “phoning it in” – websites – even print media with bright colors and no message.
But press releases have so much potential power, it’s imperative that we all start thinking differently about how we deliver information to media outlets.
Beware the free AdWords Advice!
Be careful with the Google AdWords.
If you don’t know what you’re doing it’s going to feel a lot like gambling…you’ll lose a lot of money in a short amount of time. You won’t even be sure what you did to make that happen.
This is usually the point where people start asking their friends and networking groups for advice.
How not to network.
Wow.
I went to a networking event that was kind of a disaster for me.
First off, it was about a million miles away from my house and started at 8am.
Not a morning person (not by a LONG shot) I planned on getting up extra early to get a headstart jump on rush hour traffic. Oh, did I forget to mention I took THREE separate expressways to get there and all of them were basically bumper-to-bumper traffic? Yeah…the drive was not pretty. Rush hour traffic drivers are not morning people, let me tell ya!
Read more
Will your search engine ranking drop if you don’t keep paying the SEO people?
There’s a great question over at the HighRankings.com forum – it was actually in the newsletter, not on the forum itself.
A gentleman named Andy asks if a search enging ranking will go down if a company stops paying the SEO company to keep it up high in the search results!
Read the blog post and the response HERE (go on, it will only take a minute!)
Let me know if you have any questions, I’ll be happy to help out!
Wikis and Push vs. Pull
Pushing is bad.
Well, maybe not as bas as pushing someone in person…that would be very bad. But it’s not as good as the magical action du jour which is Pull marketing.
Part of me wonders if this actually works for the masses. I mean, you can lead a horse to water but you have to push the hell out of it’s head to force it to drink. Oh, wait, that’s not how the phrase goes.
He says…
This isn’t trivial. It changes everything about the way you market what you market. I’d spend some time thinking about whether you push or pull, about whether you can flip that, and about whether your posture matches your message.
It really comes down to knowing yourself. Because if you don’t know yourself you won’t know your message…and if you don’t know your message your marketing will never work the way you want it to. It will just be hoping and throwing money and time at a never-ending problem.
Oh and I believe he’s right – saying “it’s on the wiki” is dumb. But for a solopreneur that’s looking to have their processes and procedures in one place for an assistant or independent contractor(s) to access via username and password…I think having one can be utterly priceless.
Thanks to Shannon Cherry of Penny Pinching Publicity for turning me on to the idea of using a Wiki. I think it’s a simple, elegant solution to a big ol email with a big ol’ .pdf attachment.
Invention is the Necessity of Mothers
There is a fantastic, quirky little blog-post/article over at Startupnation about why so many innovations happen at home. Here’s an excerpt…
Lately, I’ve been trying to learn new ways to inspire creativity by reading books by leading innovation experts and it hit me like a sack full of Rubik’s Cubes: No wonder the greatest product ideas and the most amazing businesses are cooked up in home offices and garage laboratories.
Some traits that stir the creativity pot just come natural for home bizzers.Take sleep deprivation for example…
Click HERE to read the rest of the post!
