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Yep – I’m a Joiner!
Starts fun, ends by bashing Napoleon Hill (still fun)!
My friend Dawn and I went out for lunch and a margarita at my local Pepe’s this evening. We had a fantastic waiter, who spoke to us in a lovely hybrid of spanish and english. It was quite sexy. We didn’t understand a word, but all was forgiven when he brought the pitcher of margaritas and poured for us. There were even little pieces of straw top on the straws. So we knew they were sterile…I think.
After finishing our culinary journey to salsa-land, we talked about what to do next and instead of calling it a night, we decided to be complete wild women…which means (of course) we took ourselves straight to the bookstore.
She wanted crochet mags, and I needed to do a little market research.
I have told you I’m writing a book, haven’t I? No? Well…more on that later. I’m a big fan of not letting cats out of bags before their time. Let me just say I’m terribly excited and couldn’t find anything like itig fan of not letting cats anywhere in my local – and quite large – Borders Bookstore (always a plus, wouldn’t you say? Unless it’s about something in which no one is interested…that’s not the case here, I assure you!) One thing I did notice, because it always sticks out like a sore thumb, is that no matter what time of day, what day of the week, or how busy it is in the bookstore I’m always – ALWAYS – the only person in the business section.
From my location, I’m always able to see that while I peruse yet another business book telling me yet another tale of rags to riches through the power of the great sale, there are at least three people in the self-help section.
Seriously, people, isn’t the business section self-help?
Obviously the resounding answer in my community is “No! Business books are NOT self help!” If anyone else thought it was, I wouldn’t be the only one in the business section desperately wishing there was a book that I could pick up and have a moment of pure joy from having found. (I’m becoming melancholy, just a little, about business books and marketing gurus and all kinds of business-y subjects. I think it’s an end of the year kind of thing.)
The only thing I ended up scoring on our fantastic journey to the bookstore was the current copy of Fast Company magazine. I’m looking into getting a subscription…is it worth it? It seemed that the way things are changing in the business world (fast!) it would behoove me to look into a magazine rather than a book, for more up-to-the-minute knowledge of what’s going on out there.
There is still a part of me that resists getting all of my information from blogs and online sources. Even if those online sources have magazines or print books behind their blogging. I just like paper an awful lot and hate the thought that I may be giving it up for blogs and RSS feeds. My fondest memories (some of them) are of libraries in different states at different points of my life. Libraries have always been there for me, full of knowledge that was mine for the asking. Libraries symbolize the pinnacle of information availability – well, in my mind. The Internet is actually the pinnacle of information availability now, not the library, but I’m an old dog and as long as my memories comfort me, so do my books and magazines.
Where are people getting business inspiration from? Seriously, I hope the Napoleon Hill phase is over. “One must have definiteness of purpose.” No s*** Dick Tracy. Positive attitude, I get it. Have a plan. Focus. Um, yeah. I would have to say that makes sense.
But it’s all theory. No one says WHAT to do. If you can’t get it from theory to practice…I don’t care if your personal deity of choice comes down (or up) to talk to you personally, you’re not going to succeed.
We cannot seriously just get our insights from people that had to wing it because there was nothing to look back 100 years to find. This whole craze of getting your business knowledge from Gutenberg.org is killing me. Yes history repeats itself, I get that. But maybe if someone broke out of the shell, it would create a new present and that moment would then be the new history that is repeated. See how this works?
But no one has done that. Does that mean there isn’t a new way of doing business? Must we follow the robber barons and ancient self help gurus? I thought we were trailblazers here on the ‘net – why do we keep trying to find someone to follow?
Damn. I answered my own question again.
I want to find someone to follow that has broken the mold and isn’t following anyone else. Is it just me or does that strike you as odd? It’s like I want to be the first groupie for a band that hasn’t been formed yet that plays a genre of music that doesn’t exist yet.
Sometimes I feel a little silly when I’ve written out an entry like this. When I re-read it, it seems so obvious that it was illogical, yet I’ve been looking in the business section of Borders for years.
Thank you, blogosphere. Thank you brain. I get it. If I want something to be done a new way, I have to suck it up and do it myself. Then others will see that there is a better way (or at the very least a new way, that may work better for a different personality type) and maybe there can be a new breed of successful people.
It still remains, however, that I have a fear of being a leader. By definition, if I lead, I’ll have followers. While that’s all well and good for my Twitter account, I don’t know how I feel about feeling responsible for my decisions and beliefs affecting the lives of others.
Even if the change is for the better.
Wal-Mart Sam’s Club ConglomoCorp offers SEM Services
Seriously, are you kidding me? I just heard about this through SEObook (who heard about it from Karl Ribas) and I’m baffled and amazed and…kind of freaked out.
Wal-Mart is offering SEO services and PPC services.
Not real SEO services, I don’t think. It states on the webpage that they’ll give you some kind of profile page and submit your website to search engine directories.
I already knew they did custom or template websites, that disturbed me but I let it go because I know people that can’t count to ten that offer website services.
But PPC is like calculus with words. It’s crazy detailed and if you’re doing it right it’s as much an art as a science. Wal-Mart (Sam’s Club, whatever) taking on something so skilled freaks me out. I mean, the husband and I studied and took the test and became Google Advertising Professionals. I wonder if Wal-Mart (known for superior quality *laugh*) has put each of its workers through this process. I tried to call the Toll-Free number to find out, but it wanted me to leave a message…so for now I have a voicemail in to my friend who is a medium-level muckety-muck in the Wal-Mart machine. I will update this post as soon as I have more information from him.
It just feels wrong, somehow, that Wal-Mart (Sam’s Club, whatever) is offering this service – I mean, is there nothing they don’t have a hand in? What happened to being the best by being a specialist? Who is backing this? Who in the marketing department went “Hey! I have a GREAT idea!”
Google or Yahoo! working with Wal-Mart for PPC services just feels like Darth Vader frenching Luke Skywalker. Wrong on so many levels.
And who the hell is USING Wal-Mart’s services for PPC? That’s what I *really* want to know.
UPDATED TO ADD
I was thinking about this a little more. Wal-Mart can use its huge marketing budget to bring the idea of SEM to the masses, and then the people who buy based on price will buy SEM through Wal-Mart…but…the people who buy based on value will see that if Wally World is offering this then everyone really is doing it and it will make it more acceptable and streamlined as a serious way for a business to market itself.
This could mean more demand for SEM jobs and really skyrocket the acceptance (and as a logical outcropping of acceptance, more demand). With higher demand, you’re looking at higher paychecks for the high-value creation firms.
This bodes very well for SEM as a whole, methinks. I won’t go so far as to say “thank you” to Wal-Mart, but I will probably not bash the offering, for it will make my husband that much more successful.
It still freaks me out, even if it makes the family more money.
Why I broke up with Seth Godin
Pretend you’ve known me for over a year, because then you’d come into this post knowing of my love for Seth Godin. It was a fanboy, otaku kind of love…nothing scary, nothing obsessive, weird, or creepy.
I read his blog, he commented on mine a couple of times, and I even had a chance to speak to him once. It was all very dizzying in a “you’re my marketing hero” kind of way.
One of my friends joked to me once that if there was a bracelet that said WWSD? (What Would Seth Do?) that I would probably wear it, and look at it before instituting any online marketing programs for a client. (My friend was probably correct…I could easily see Seth-fans selling and buying many of those bracelets, especially if they were done in brightly colored rubber, because then boys could wear them too.)
But then there was this whole Community Organizer thing going on at Squidoo, and I really wanted to be that person. Long story short I received an email stating that they’d shelved the idea and he’d let me know if they unshelved it (or something to that effect, just as short and sweet). I tend not to directly quote even if I have it in writing because I’m not trying to throw a gauntlet or be challenging. I’m just telling a story.
Two weeks later I get my first email blast from the new Squidoo Community Organizer.
I don’t have a problem with Seth, or whoever, picking someone else. I just didn’t like putting (a lot of) effort into a project only to hear that they’d decided not to do it at all, and then find out they’d done it, like, a minute later. Don’t get me wrong, I realize I’m not important enough to receive a personal email letting me know why I didn’t get the gig, or why I was told it was shelved instead of just being told “no, thanks” – I’m pretty sure I wasn’t uber-fan enough that he was scared I’d stalk him or go all single white female and track him down with nothing but a four inch stiletto heel and thoughts of murder.
What I did do is some serious thinking about the person I looked up to as someone I wanted to emulate in my marketing efforts. I mean, he is the darling of the online marketing world.
But…when you break up with your hero, you think about how human they are. How one of the first things (if not the first thing) he sold online was Email Addresses of the Rich & Famous – just another Internet marketer selling to the masses. Yes, he was the first to have the epiphany that there was a better way and the uber-epiphany to sell the s**t out of that first epiphany, and that’s great, but yeah…five books later and Meatball Sundae comes out and really, I just can’t say I’m enthused. No matter how much I respect Brian Clark’s opinion.
I’m just a little sad, in a nostalgic kind of way because I still want to look to Seth Godin as my marketing hero. I still want to be one of the masses that believe he’s found the holy grail of being an honest person and a marketer simultaneously.
But I think he just explains the same stuff in ways people can understand. It’s all out there, and everyone’s doing it, I think he just figured out how to explain it better, faster, and easier. And he’s perceived as the first person to do this, the grandfather of relationship marketing. That very same relationship marketing that’s been around since the dawn of time. But he made it fresh, and interesting, and different.
I hate it when I find out my heroes are human. It’s such a buzzkill.
All is not lost, however. I’ve found a new Oz – Mark Earls – I like reading things that aren’t written for everyone to understand and enjoy. I love the fact that I understood myself a smidge better after reading today’s blog post. It felt cathartic, it had references, it was enlightening. Being called “Herd” certainly doesn’t hurt either. This is one blog I wouldn’t kick out of bed in the morning.
This all gets so tiring. I really just need to come up with my own theory instead of finding other people with theories I want to learn more about. If I didn’t have an Oz I’d never have to worry about pulling the curtain aside and seeing that whoever my hero is, they will always turn out to be human.
Should your small business have a blog?
So you wanna know if you should be blogging for your small business, huh?
- Afraid of doing anything online.
- Hate the computer.
- Don’t understand relationship marketing.
- Don’t want to attract relationships or customers from the Internet.
- Cannot talk about what you do or why you do it.
Because even if you hire someone to do your blog posts for you, they need to know what you want them to blog about, and what your opinions are. As a bonus, you should at least try to find someone that can blog in a similar manner to the way you write or speak. The whole point of the blog is to get your company’s personality across. In most cases the company’s personality is one in the same as the owner’s personality.
Not every company needs a blog.
There, I said it.
That being said, of course, the big question arises “Does YOUR company need a blog?” There’s a great article over at the New York Times that addresses the issue in a smart, simple way.
The most basic premise is that if your audience needs to learn about what you do in order to understand the true value of what you do – you need a blog. Well, maybe not need, but it will help your potential customer figure out why they’re going to want to write you a check before they step into your office.
That’s good times.
For other companies, Ms. Risdahl said, it can be challenging to find a legitimate reason for blogging unless the sector served has a steep learning curve (like wine), a lifestyle associated with certain products or service (like camping gear or pet products) or a social mission (like improving the environment or donating a portion of revenues to charity).
Even in those niches, Ms. Risdahl said that companies need to focus on a strategy for their blogging and figure out if they have enough to say.
“As a consultant, blogging clearly helps you get hired,” she said. “If you are selling a product, you have to be much more creative because people don’t want to read a commercial.” Click Here to read full New York Times Article
So there you have it. I feel like there is going to be the mandatory follow up article about when your company doesn’t need a webpage.
But right now there is a grilled cheese sandwich waiting for me. I’m tired, I’m still a little woozy from being sick for almost a week, and I’m hungry for the first time in days. It’s time to eat!
My Favorite Christmas Song – Ever
Dominic the Italian Christmas Donkey by Lou Monte
Click Here to play or right click to download the .mp3 file
This is my favorite Christmas song of all time. It’s currently the ringtone on my cell, and I’ll be sad to see it go. I’m pretty sure my husband hated it after the first Christmas we spent together. I play it an awful lot, because it makes me smile every single time.
For lyrics, click “Read More” below to see full entry.
Martini Marketing #2
I think I remembered to mention in the last post that I’m sick. I’ve been sick for three days, and this has been (by far) the worst.
So its possible that the show is going to be awful this week. I don’t remember what I said. I know I covered that people are really emotional this week and it’s good to plant the seed of your business but not try and close any deals this week.
The second half of the show I was joined by my husband, Google Advertising Professional and all around pay-per-click know-it-all. He just got a gig as a full time Search Engine Marketing Analyst, and considering his resume didn’t say a whole lot … his work had to speak for itself. (That’s my way of showing he can prove that he knows his stuff.)
So, that being said, I hope its not too painful to listen to.
I’m considering shortening the show to a half hour if I can’t get a cohost. It’s too difficult to talk to myself for an hour. What I mean by difficult is “not fun” – which in my world means “fix it, change it, or scrap it.” Let the fixing/changing commence!
Business Builders #2
Business Builders just had show #2 over at BlogTalkRadio.com
We started by going over how the Wall Street Journal uses Digg and quickly segued into Digg being dead. Looks like they’ve even hired a company to try and sell Digg. It’s unfortunate they didn’t do that before the whole DVD code debacle happened. It proved what the actual demographic was for Digg and that it did not appeal to the Internet as a whole (which no one really expected it to, but it was trying) but only to gamers and geeks. Well, mostly. It showed what the community was willing to step up and take a stand for.
I say this as a geek, but come on, I have other ineterests too!
We talked briefly about Snowglobe, a move that I saw the marketing for last week and was going to watch the show this week and try to glean a marketing parable out of. I’m usually pretty good at that…but fell short after watching the movie. It was pretty cut and dry, and didn’t lend itself to marketing parables. So we kind of had to mention we watched it because we said we would last week…but didn’t have much follow up because the movie kind of sucked.
Then we dove into our main topic for the evening – Top Ten Tips for New Year business success. We even separated it into two sections – Starting your business and Growing your business.
Starting your business
Don’t choose a business JUST because you think it will make you a lot of money.
Don’t do work you suck at – get training or move on
Know what you are selling – especially if you’re selling a service
Give your business or product a personality – and make it a good one
Be able to explain what makes you different – in a good way that adds value
Growing your business
Tell People About your Business – every chance you get
Network – in person and online
Everything Costs Time or Money … or time and money
Don’t be Lazy – do something for your business whenever you can
Be consistant – working one day a week isn’t going to cut it
We even had our first caller! A person that trains fitness instructors. It wasn’t a complete disaster, but it was an interesting marketing story, because she pretty much told me about her business without finding out why it would be relevant to our show, or either one of us hosting.
After the call ended (partially because the show is to give advice and partially because I’m sick) I went through and gave suggestions on how she could have presented a bit better. Her response in the chat room was “You didn’t offend me, people say I’m overwhelming a lot!”
My question: If you hear something like people telling you that you are overwhelming a lot, why wouldn’t you do something (ANYTHING) to try and correct that? Do you hear it and somehow rationalize that this is positive feedback? Do you not notice that people can’t get a word in edgewise? I mean come ON – how oblivious are you to the person you’re talking to? If someone is interested in what you have to say, they will ask questions. The only way to give them a chance to ask questions is to let them talk.
There is your “Marketing your Business 101″ tip of the day. Don’t give a “pitch” – have a conversation.
I think that wraps up this Sunday’s Business Builder show. Please feel free to join us at 5pm EST at BlogTalkRadio. We have live call-ins, a chat room, and we’ll be happy to plug your business or website if you call in – just please ask a question, be relevant, or be friendly and let us hosts get a word or two in.
Really, that’s not too much to ask for…is it?
Why aren’t the presidential candidates talking to BlogHer?
This issue was first brought to my attentinon when I read this blog post about presidential candidates basically ignoring a BlogHer representative asking them (very politely) to come over and talk to the BlogHer community.
All of them ignored her.
I’ve been thinking about it, and the first conclusion I came to was that, perhaps, everyone is behind the times and all these candidates expect us to ask the nearest man to help us decide who to vote for.
Because the only place candidates seem to be talking to women is on “mommy” sites where a good portion of the BlogHer community wouldn’t be found dead at. Don’t get me wrong, they’re mommies alright, but a different kind of mommy. Not better, not worse – just different…and maybe a teeny bit edgier on the whole. Just a smidge.
But I had an ephiphany when I saw this video on the subject.
When I heard Erin use the phrase “mommy sites” my cold or flu addled brain responded silently with “Of course they’ll talk to the mommies, they know what to say.”
Eureka!
BlogHer has .6 million uniques every month (you’d know that if you watched the video up there) and that’s a good chunk of people to talk to. But as a presidential candidate, the first thing you learn is not to talk to people unless you know what they want to hear.
Even if you’re not going to tell them what they want to hear.
The group at BlogHer is too diverse. Being (mostly) women isn’t enough of a niche for candidates to talk to. They know what they want to say to mommies. They know what they want to say to the readers of TechCrunch…but 600,000 unique women?
I don’t know that I’d want to go in front of 600,000 completely diverse women at once and say what I had to think.
That could be political suicide! The odds are better that they’ll piss off more people than they’ll make happy. That’s not how politicians work. Now, if you could get ONE candidate to step up (even if it’s Ron Paul, cause that guy is everywhere…) then I think the rest would because they know that if ONLY one talks to BlogHer (or any large organization) then the vote count will increase because people are loyal to the groups they’re in.
But if the first candidate doesn’t bite, no one else will either.
I wonder if this is rambling, because to me, I feel like I’ve hit on this insane moment of clarity through the fog of my temporary physical illness. Let me know what you think – I need feedback.
Thanks!
