Beyond Niche Marketing

Fast Track to Blog Success is Free until Friday!

2008-10-06T09:38:00.000-04:00

Last week, Problogger.net announced that Bankaholic,1 Man Blog Sells for $15 Million Dollars.

A story like that is all you need to get some people moving towards launching their own blogs. If you've got a blog, then you know it's true - creating a blog is EASY. Creating a SUCCESSFUL blog is hard!

You should know that I'm a blog pusher by trade. I've helped HUNDREDS of people launch their own self hosted Wordpress blogs over the past two years. However, while teaching my clients the MECHANICS of blogging was easy - there's a LOT more to creating a successful blog than creating random posts.

To create a successful blog, you have to have a plan. So, I created the 8 Week Power Blog Launch to walk my clients step by step through the blog launch process. (I paced it over an 8 week Period because my clients would complain of "brain overload" when I tried to information dump on them!)

When I offered the 8 Week Power Blog Launch to the public, it had already served the intended purpose. One of my clients used the course to achieve a #2 ranking on her desired keywords. Another client had landed a 5 figure consulting contract as a result of her blog. I was happy, my clients were happy so any sales of the product from the site were just bonus.

When I started selling the program to "strangers" a funny thing happened. I started getting emails from people who didn't want to wait 8 whole weeks to finish the program. The buyers of the 8 Week Power Blog Launch program wanted instant results. I understand. I also grew up in an age where 30 minute solutions to life's biggest problems are considered possible thanks to the magic of television.

I was working on a "quick start blog success course" when the Bankaholic sale was announced. There's nothing like a successful case study to illustrate a point, so the Fast Track to Blog Success report includes an in depth analysis of the keyword strategy John Wu used to make the Bankaholic blog so attractive to the buyer, Bankrate.com.

If you head over to my blog at Virtual Impax.com, you can pick up this report for free until Friday, October 10th. After that, the 100% discount code will be retired and you'll pay $24.95 for the report.

The Lazy Ad Executive's Path to Success: Using Soft Core Porn to Sell Cars

2008-07-25T06:16:00.002-04:00

Are you an advertising executive who is struggling for ideas?

Do you have a client who is being courted by other agencies?

Are you telling yourself that those other agencies are probably providing high class hookers to steal YOUR account away from you and your agency?

Well my friend, I have the three step answer which will put those fears of losing your agency's biggest client to ease.

ADVERTISING SUCCESS STEP ONE : Define the Target Audience

You may have been told that defining your client's target audience requires time and thought, BUT IT DOESN'T HAVE TO BE THAT WAY!

Simply pitch your client that you're creating an "exciting" campaign that will appeal to men age 25-101 who earn $50K or more a year.

Your client should begin drooling immediately. If not, make sure it's not some feminine hygiene product. (You can still sell this demographic to them, you'll just have to exercise a tiny bit of creativity to do so.)

All clients love the high income male demographic. Be sure to stress that this demographic has not been hurt by the recent economic downturn. (If the economy is not in an economic downturn a.k.a. after an election, then emphasize that this demographic won't be hurt by the next down turn, a.k.a before the next election.)

If they're not drooling over the potential of this demographic, don't worry. We'll close them solidly later on.

ADVERTISING SUCCESS STEP TWO: Create a campaign based on soft porn

Present your lewd and lascivious print campaign. (See BMW's example of lews and lascivious advertising here.)

Be sure you find a model who's barely legal for this ad and be sure that she's an aspiring porn star. Remember, you may be telling your CLIENT that the target demographic for this ad is high income men ages 25-101, but in reality what you're going for is a complete lack of blood flow to the brain every heterosexual man in the room.

See, God played a cruel trick when He created man. In essence, He didn't give men enough blood to run both their brains and their genitals at the same time. So, by creating a print ad that effectively drops the IQ of every male executive in the room to 1, you eliminate any resistance to your low effort/low creativity advertising promotion.

If the lady is as lovely in person as she is in print, bring her to the meeting. Be careful not to hide her many "attributes". On the other hand, if she's been heavily airbrushed, then bring in scantily clad 18 year olds who are future Playmates to help launch the campaign.

Remember, the goal is to reduce the IQ of every man in the room to 1. Once that is achieve, victory is yours.

ADVERTISING SUCCESS STEP THREE: Gentlemen, put on your flame suits.

Now you can sit back and reap the fruits of your labor. The women's groups will see your ad and raise a ruckus. Nothing generates more free PR than a bunch of picketers in front of the business.

If your client gets nervous, point out that there's no such thing as bad publicity. Point out how much such airtime would cost if the client were buying that time. Now, try to figure out a way to bill your client for PR services in addition to billing them for the ad.

There you have it, 3 easy steps to pave the lazy ad executive's path to advertising success.

Business Website Design Preparation

2008-07-22T11:11:00.000-04:00

It doesn't matter if you're preparing to launch a Blog or a static website, preparation is by far the most difficult part of the business website design process.

Business website design preparation ideally should begin with a complete review of the marketing strategy of the business. After all, most business websites are considered marketing tools, heck they could be classified as an advertising expense.

Notice I said marketing strategy... the business seeking to launch or relaunch a website should not consider the website merely a marketing tactic. There's a huge difference between a marketing tactic and a marketing strategy.

(Read Why the best marketing tactics may fail to produce results for a thorough explanation of the difference between a marketing strategy and a marketing tactic.)

As Shakespeare would say, "Ah, there's the rub!"

The most difficult part of business website design preparation isn't which Content Managment System to use... nor what language to use to code the site. It isn't even deciding upon the design elements tha tis the most difficutl part of business website design preparation.

The most difficult part of business website design preparation is creating the content... the marketing message that the website will be asked to carry.

Every other step in the business website design preparation is based upon the marketing strategy of the business.

Blog Diagnostic Tool to Create a Better Blog

2008-07-08T10:53:00.000-04:00

First, WHEW!!! Blogger doesn't think this blog is spam! I was just reading A Newbie's Guide to Publishing: Fuzzy Navel & Help Needed and blogger thought his blog was spam. Which is weird because to a human, his blog doesn't look like spam at ALL!

Most of the web is ruled by machines.... programs really. Sometimes the machines don't see things as we humans do, as is the case of the blog above being marked as spam by Blogger.

However, sometimes the machines can help us to see things more clearly. Such is the case with Wordle. A Wordle is a word cloud with style. Wordle can take the contents of your blog's rss feed and create a beautiful word cloud which shows you what your blog looks like to the machines.

In my post Blog Diagnostic Tool - Wordle: Graphic Illustration of Your Blog’s Content I show different wordles for different blogs. The wordle I created for my book's blog Beyond Niche Marketing shows that I've been spending too much word capital on "free" and not enough on "niche".

It's important to write your blog for the human visitors... but it's equally important to keep the machines in mind. The machines are what run the search engines and the search engines drive a LOT of the traffic on the internet.

If you're blog is struggling to find it's place in with the machines, Wordle is a great tool to let you see graphically what you've been blogging about from the eyes of the machine.

What the Hell is Blogging

2008-06-26T17:15:00.000-04:00

What the hell is blogging and why should I want to do this for my business?

Blogging is simply publishing information on the web using specialized software. This software allows you to get your words, your images, your audio and your video onto the internet quickly and easily.

Blogging is really nothing new, but it's recently taken the web by storm because businesses have learned that blogs by nature are more "search engine friendly" than their traditional HTML websites.

For example, a client of mine recently launched a website, Hypnosis and Diet which is actually a blog. You'd never know by looking at it though.

Not only is this website attractive, it's easy for the client to update as well and it's doing well in the search engines to boot!

So if you're wondering what the fuss is about blogging, blogs are easy to use, easy to update and tear up traditional HTML websites when it comes to the search engines.

The Problem with Booksurge

2008-04-08T12:08:00.000-04:00

Optimizing Amazon wants authors and publishers to "simmer down" over the strong armed tactics being used by Amazon to promote their POD publishing service... BOOK SURGE.

Here's the story:

Amazon bought POD publisher Booksurge a few years ago and Amazon has been quietly "pushing" the Booksurge PO service.

POD stands for "print on demand". Instead of publishing a book "traditionally" and printing 5,000 or more copies of the book, POD allows publishers to print books as they're sold. There are two "wholesale" options for POD publishing... INGRAM and BOOKSURGE.

Publishers who use INGRAM's services are able to offer POD books for sale via traditional book stores. For example, if you went into Barnes and Nobles and ordered my book Beyond Niche Marketing, Barnes and Nobles could order the book from Ingram and have it delivered to your local Barnes and Noble store in a relatively timely fashion.

Had I chosen Booksurge as my POD printer, that would NOT be an option. Any book buyer who tried to purchase my book through Barnes and Noble would be told it wasn't available. UGH!

That's one problem with Booksurge. The other problem is actually bigger. Authors and publishers who have used Booksurge are often barraged with complaints about the book quality. Frequent issues include pages being printed upside down, pages which fall out of the book and covers that are printed off center are frequent complaints.

Now remember, when Booksurge prints your book, their name doesn't appear ANYWHERE on the book. Your publisher's name appears and some readers will voice their complaints about the book's quality there... but the number one place to complain about a book's quality is... you guess it.... to the author whose name appears LOUD AND PROUD on the book's cover.

Which is why authors and publishers, in general, have chosen NOT to use Booksurge for POD publishing.

The beauty of a free market is that publishers and authors have a CHOICE in the POD publishing service they used.

However, Amazon has decided to embrace "strong armed tactics" to force publishers to use their POD publishing service. Angela Hoy reports on her Writer's Weekly website

When Lightning Source customers speak with the BookSurge representative, the reports say, they are basically told they can either have BookSurge start printing their books or the "buy" button on their Amazon.com book pages will be "turned off."

So that's the deal. Booksurge does a CRAPPY job of providing POD publishing services. Instead of fixing the problems with Booksurge, Amazon has decided to flex it's retail muscle and threaten authors and publishers with the removal of the buy button if they don't use Booksurge.

There is no promise of better service or better quality... just the threat that your number one sales channel will be shut down if you don't use the service.

Here's a list of over 100 sites reporting on the story. Visit the post at Easy Author Websites to add yours to the list.

A New Amazon Mandate? Say it ain’t so, Jeff by Morris Rosenthal
Amazon Forcing POD Publishers to Make a Hard Decision, Virtualbookworm
Amazon Tightens Grip on Printing by Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg, Wall Street Journal
Amazon Tightens Noose on Print-On-Demand Publishers; Insists They Use Company’s Own Service by Rafat Ali, The Washington Post
Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge by Jim Milliot, Publishers Weekly
Amazon changes rules for print-on-demand publishers by Linda Rosencrance, Computerworld
Amazon pulls a Microsoft by Robert L. Mitchell, Computerworld Blogs
Amazon Puts the Squeeze on Publishers by Betsy Schiffman, Wired Blog Network
Amazon Gets Demanding with Print-on-Demand Publishers, O’Reilly Radar
Amazon.com puts the screws to small publishers, Valleywag
Amazon’s POD monopoly, booktwo.org
Is Amazon Getting Greedy? , open…
Oh, REAL nice, Amazon.com, Beatlegirl’s Blog
Market Report — In Play,MSN Money
Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services by Duncan Riley, TechCrunch
Amazon & BookSurge, words count
Urgent News for Authors, The Holistic Writer
Monopoly - It’s Not A Game by Jean-Marie Hershey, Print CEO Blog
Of oil lamps, Print on Demand, and e-book machines: Amazon’s Bezos as a would-be Rockefeller by David Rothman
Deal Breaker? Amazon - BookSurge - POD - No Choice?, Workboxers
Amazon.com’s POD land grab, BookFinder.com Journal
Amazon Changes POD Tactics, Removes Velvet Gloves by Kassia Krozser, Booksquare
Amazon The Monopoly, PersonaNonData
Amazon Muscles Print-On-Demand Services, web2bite.com
Use BookSurge or Die? by Victoria Strauss, Writer Beware
Amazon/Golliath takes on the little guys by Helen Gallagher, Release Your Writing
Amazon Bullies POD to Use Booksurge — or Else., Shadowhelm’s Journal
Amazon Says It Will Only Sell Print-On-Demand Books That It Gets To Print, Techdirt
Amazon deletes competition, LibraryThing
What’s Amazon Up To Now? by Tawny Taylor
Amazon Shaking the POD World Big Time, Juno Books
A hearty “F$%k you!” to Amazon by Elf M. Sternberg
A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Inhabitatio Dei
Amazon to Force POD Publishers to Use BookSurge, Media Mensch
Self Publishers and Amazon, Writerly Stuff
Amazon Tightens Grip On Printing, booktrade.info
Amazon to Block Other POD Services from Using Amazon Marketplace, Dear Author
Amazon trying to screw small presses?, lupabitch
Dear Amazon, What are You Thinking? by Monica Valentinelli, Words on the Water
Will Amazon Hurt Small Pagan Publishers?, The Wild Hund
Amazon and us by Gill Polack
Will Amazon Become the Google of the POD Industry? by Deborah Woehr
Down with The Zon! by Celia Kyle
Beyond the POD grab: The IDPF should fight Amazon’s new eBabel, look for anti-trust violations, and reach out to Google by David Rothman, TeleRead
Amazon blocking books of competitive publishers?, electronista
We are not amused–veinglory, PODPeople
Bully on the block?, The Pearlsong Letter
The monopolists: You need to worry about Amazon too by Eion Purcell
Amazon owns the marketplace: return of the distributor, Thudfactor
Is Amazon trying to monopolize the empowering Publish-On-Demand market?, Chris Boese’s Weblog
500 pound gorilla, Idle musings of a bookseller
Bye-Bye “Buy Buttons” for POD Authors?, The Backroom at Dehanna.com
Amazon Making a Big Mistake by Cheryl Pickett
Amazon to force POD publishers to use Booksurge, Murder by 4
Amazon.com’s dirty little deed, pds_lit
Amazon’s Stupid Anti-Competitive Move, Principled Profit
Amazon Bullying POD Writers and Publishers Unfairly, A-ha
A Call to Bloggers: Stop Supporting Amazon, Resurrection Life
Amazon.com Is On Drugs, Thought Patterns
Amazon launches their weapon of mass destruction, steps on the long tail of independent authors by Mark Riffey
Amazon puts the Squeeze on POD Publishers by Easy Author Web Sites
An Important Lesson from Amazon on How NOT to Treat Your Customers by Virtual Impax
Backlash Over Amazon Monopoly Tactics by Deborah Woehr
Amazon plus BookSurge WTF?, by AuthorNation.com
Just Remember Amazon.com that karma is a beautiful thing, by Jupiter Gardens
Amazon Trying to Screw Small Press by Lupabitch
Amazonian bullying, Satima’s Blogspot
Amazon May be on Receiving End of Internet Justice, Small Business Trends
Amazon Situation Continues and Lesson #1, The Publishing Answers Blog
Amazon Chaos by Marshall S. Thomas
That Amazon decision, PETRONA
POD Publishers Told to Sell Directly Through Amazon, They Have to Use Booksurge, PublishersLunch
Maybe Amazon’s problem is obvious?, The Snoozeletter
No longer an Amazon customer, The Books of My Numberless Dreams
Are They Nuts? by Heather S. Ingemar
Amazon not playing fair, Synthstuff
Amazon attempting to squeeze POD industry, Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog
Amazon.com Takes On Digital Book Printers, Graphic Arts Online
Boycott Amazon!, PlainTalk
Amazon.com Hates Small Press? by JM, Fiction Scribe
Telling the 900-pound Gorilla Where not to Sit, Quaker Pagan Reflections
Dear Amazon, What are You Thinking by Words on the Water
Amazon punishes Bloomsbury on terms Publishing News
POD Publishers Outraged by Amazon’s New Restrictions by Law X
Amazon to Force POD Publisher to Use BookSurge by Publisher’s Weekly
Do Not Panic…yet by DIY Publishing
Calls to boycott Amazon over greedy, bully-boy tactics on POD by the Red Ferret Journal
Amazon to force POD authors to use BookSurge by WWG Blog
POD Publishers Outraged by Amazon’s New Restrictions by Law Librarian Blog
POD Publishing by Tim Wordstall
Amazon coercing publishers to use Book Surge? by right reading
Amazon.com’s New POD Policy by Forensics and Faith
Is Amazon Seeking to Dominate Small Presses? by Wandering Author
Amazon puts squeeze on book self-publishers by Social Media
Amazon/BookSurge Issue by Vixen Writer
Amazon.com Telling POD Publishers… by Pete Ashton
The Eight Hundred Pound Gorilla by Daily Brief
Amazon May be on Receiving End of Internet Justice by Small Business Trends
BookSurge: The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Ugly by the Writer’s Buzz
POD hardball … by Prester Frank
Continuing to Update the Amazon/BookSurge Story by Julie’s Web Journal
Amazon Flexes Its Market Muscle by Dear Author
Amazon.com Telling POD Publishers - Let BookSurge Print Your Books, or Else… by Red Wolf
Amazon as Standard Oil: Jeff D. Rockefeller’s telephone crew in action against POD competitors by Teleread
Amazon not playing fair by Synthstuff
Amazon attempting to squeeze POD industry by Terry Heaton’s PoMo Blog
More on Amazon and POD publishing in More Words Deeper Hole
Amazon Deals Blow to POD Companies by A Writer’s Life

The Real Truth about Success in Niche Affiliate Marketing

2008-03-06T11:09:00.000-05:00

Affiliate marketing is HOT! I mean, it's a great way for a blogger to earn some cash by simply raving about a product or service he/she already adores.

Affiliate marketing is a win/win situation for both parties involved. The affiliate gets a percentage of the sale as a commission while not having to deal with any of the customer service headaches which come with doing business online.

Meanwhile, the business running the affiliate program gets to create channels within the target niche.. possibly hundreds of affiliate blogs and web sites promoting a product or service.

However, the truth about being a successful affiliate has a lot to do with not only Niche Marketing, but also building trust.

In order for your readers to trust you, you're going to have to make contact with them on a regular basis. (A blog is a great way to do that. Another option is a newsletter.) You're going to have to give them a reason to believe you.

That means not endorsing every affiliate marketing program on the market.

I once read a newsletter by just such an affiliate "whore". One week, the guy's newsletter was extolling the virtues of Web Product A and then two weeks later, he was completely contradicting his previous views as he extolled the virtues of Web Product B (a competitor of Web Product A).

The reason I was on the list was I had a client who kept referring to the affiliate marketing whore's advice on marketing tactics to the point where I felt I needed to subscribe to the newsletter. When I pointed out the two separate newsletters and their incongruity... he just shrugged. "I hadn't noticed that before," was his only reply.

I know I unsubscribed from the list soon thereafter, his credibility was gone.

I'm sure his newsletter contained SEVERAL hundred less scrutinizing readers who continue to follow his affiliate recommendations.... but counting on your reader's inattention is a horrible business model.

Another client of mine operates from a position of integrity. When she makes an affiliate recommendation, her lists moves and moves quickly. Now admittedly, affiliate marketing is NOT her main source of revenue... but it does provide a nice side stream for her. But only because she is excruciatingly careful in what products she stands behind.

Tales of Customer Service

2007-10-31T14:57:00.000-04:00

It seems appropriate that during the week of Halloween that so many tales of customer abuse would be making the news. It seems that Web 2.0 can be a REALLY scary proposition for businesses who don't make customer service a top priority.

Earlier this week, the story broke about the little old lady who took a hammer down to her local Comcast office to let off a bit of steam. Almost simultaneously, Fix Your Thinking announced that they finally have legal closure (and victory) over a poor review offered via a blog for a local business.

Long ago, when I was an account executive with an advertising agency, I remember spending an entire weekend on the phone with a client who was FURIOUS over an editorial in his home town newspaper. He was DESPERATE to retaliate, and was willing to spare no expense by running full pages and a full electronic media saturation to "clear" his company's name.

Fortunately, the agency owner was not the "quick buck" kind of person. She STRONGLY suggested to my distraught client that he settle down and instead of engaging in a smear campaign, instead take the high road and invest those dollars "productively".

Her exact wording, which I delivered to my client was this: "Poop stinks most when it's stirred." OK... that's not a direct quote. She used a much more colorful term for the fecal matter... the the thought is what counts.

Instead of "stirring" the poop, we (the agency) advised the client to ignore the attack. He did and it's amazing how QUICKLY the whole incident lost steam.

Ah, if only Bidzirk had consulted someone in the PR business. Over the past 18 months, they've been embroiled in a legal battle... over a review by a disgruntled customer. Would it not have been cheaper/easier/faster for Bidzirk to APOLOGIZE ?

A word of advice to the owner of Bidzirk, mkemorize the universal retail mantra.

"The customer is ALWAYS right"

I had a quote from an attorney for $3000 to compose a "cease and desist" letter to a web development firm in New Zealand who stole every word of content from my home site and posted it as their own. (They changed the copyright notice to reflect the date they stole the content.) Instead of paying that much to send a letter, I decided to take the site down and launch a blog instead. At least that way, it's harder for them to stay current with their theft. I can only imagine the cost involved in pursuing this legal matter.

Second Life Branding BONUS

2007-05-23T09:39:00.000-04:00

Fellow Blogger blog viralavatar happened to be blogging about the singer Irene Grandi. Two weeks later, the keyword "singer irene" becomes the top trend in keywords, according to Google's newest service "Google Trends."

As a result, the viralavatar blog finds itself as the top blog post on the hot trend keyword.

There are two morals to this post:

1) Irene Grandi is using the popular alternate reality "Second Life" as the setting for her latest video. NICE! It's a great gimmick to get people to watch the video. Singer Irene Grandi wins by attracting Second Life users to her video and Second Life wins because video viewers may get interested in joining Second Life. (I love win/win situations like this!)

2) Blog about what interests you. You may find your post being ranked number one by the new Google Trends tool.

Having trouble finding content for your blog?

2007-05-10T07:44:00.000-04:00

Over the past four months, Acumen Web Services has launched over 30 blogs. As a result, I get a LOT of questions on how to come up with content for those blogs.

My answer to those questions differs depending upon the blog owner. The consultant who launches a blog to promote his/her business has different content needs than the person who hopes to achieve Google Adsense income.

In case of the blogger in search of Google Adsense income, the number of visitors to the blog is the name of the game. It's not a matter of quality, it's quantity both in the number of visitors and the number of posts. It's been my personal observation (in my own sites) that quality content actually HURTS your click through rates. Perhaps it's merely a matter of visitors who find the answer on your blog or web site are less likely to click upon a Google adsense ad.

On the other hand, if you're a consultant who's using your blog as a tool to build your business, then quality, both of your content AND of your visitors is of primary concern. You're not interested in a "turn em and burn em" type of blog. You want to create ENGAGING content, one that sells the solutions you're offering.

For bloggers in the second category, who have a product or service to sell, I highly recommend using your email "sent" file as inspiration. Look at what you've been talking about with your CURRENT clients. (My sent file is showing content issues these days...)

I've gone so far as to post and edit those outbox items.

The Go Daddy Tar Baby

2007-04-30T12:13:00.002-04:00

A client wrote to me, asking about using Go Daddy's low cost blogging solution.

Here's my answer:

I understand the "low cost" attraction of Go Daddy. However, the client's I've had who used their services have been VERY disappointed in the final product. VERY disappointed as in "would have gladly paid big bucks rather than endure what they had to endure!"
(I STRONGLY recommend that clients NOT EVEN USE Go Daddy for domain name registration for active web sites! Read more at: http://www.virtualimpax.com)

Instead, if there is concern about cost, not to mention"sticking with" blogging, I HIGHLY recommend using http://www.blogger.com

Blogger is free. The advantages of using this free quality services is:

a) you don't have to deal with the whole "sandbox" issue for the new domain name
b) if you "fall off" the blogging wagon, your blog won't be penalized as severely as if you were on your own domain name.

Now the "problems" with using this free service are:

a) the traffic belongs to BLOGGER not you.
b) should you develop a following, it will be difficult to "transition" to a stand alone blog.

I actually encourage clients to establish accounts on blogger. One of the keys to blogging is doing it often. It helps to establish blogs in many different areas.

Here's what the domain name will look like for the blogger.com blog:

http://beyondtheniche.blogspot.com/

I post about once a month to my blogger account and use that as a "breadcrumb trail" leading to my stand alone blog http://www.beyondnichemarketing.com along with my other site which promotes my book (find my niche).

You can see that I can't use the blogger blog to :

a) sell my book directly
b) encourage sign ups to my newsletter

I have to rely on visitors clicking through to my other web sites..... something that reduces book sales and sign ups SIGNIFICANTLY. However, like I said, it's a great way to "experiment" with whether blogging is right for you.

Please, use one of these free services rather than embrace the Tar Baby that is Go Daddy.

Laying a Foundation for Success

2007-03-16T17:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes being the first to market isn't always the best position to be in.

It's called the BLEEDING edge for a reason. Even if the public is HUNGRY for your product or service, you have the daunting task of reaching out and letting people know that your product or service exists. Because it's cutting edge, people aren't looking for you... so you have to come to them.

That means a MASSIVE awareness campaign, which can take months or even years. You'd better have deep pockets if you're going to introduce an entirely new product or service.

Web 2.0 is FULL of incredible applications that you don't know exist. Applications that could CHANGE YOUR LIFE if you knew where to look. And unless they can find a way to let you know about their web site.... you'll never know.

The value of targeting a Niche

2007-02-01T13:13:00.000-05:00

The most frequent struggle I face when I work with clients is helping them to focus upon a niche market which to target.

For some strange reason, my clients seem to harbor the belief that if they narrow their focus, they'll miss out on sales. Nothing could be further from the truth.

A current example of the value of targeting a niche market would be the upcoming Super Bowl.

Because I live in Southern Florida (about 2 hours away from Dolphin Stadium) I've been seeing merchandise promoting Super Bowl XLI since early December. At our local supermarket, they had the bright orange and teal shirts displayed right along side the seasonal Christmas items. However, I don't see a lot of people wearing those brightly colored shirts. What I do see are dozens of Colts and Bears fans wearing shirts to proclaim their team alliances. I do see homes with signs in front proclaiming that a Bears fan (or a Colts fan) live here.

See, targeting "NFL fans" may SOUND like a good target market, but it really isn't. There are still the same piles of shirts on display at the market that were there the first week of December. Few people are hyped about the Super Bowl, but there are a lot of people who are hyped that THEIR TEAM is playing in the Super Bowl. See the difference?

After all, my friends from Boston who are football fans aren't exactly in the mood to celebrate this week. They are definitely NFL fans, but they are definitely not in the mood to celebrate. They aren't buying gear, they aren't flying to Miami.....they probably aren't even going to watch the game on Sunday.

Targeting NFL fans is too broad. Instead, if you target "Bears fans" or "Colts fans" then you're targeting a niche market.

The problem most people have is they try to define their target too loosely. Super Bowl XLI may sound tightly targeted, but it's not. There's a difference between tightly targeted and a narrow window of opportunity. Targeting Super Bowl XLI is a narrow window of opportunity. Targeting Colts fans or Bears fans is the opportunity to sell them gear to show their love of their team.... THAT is a narrow target. Sure, you won't sell much to NFL fans in Boston.... but you're going to CLEAN UP in Indianapolis!

Great post on Social Entrepreneurship

2007-01-10T13:09:00.000-05:00

Amazingly, the tips Colin Ong offers to improve social entrepreneurship are virtually identical to the tips you need to market your business.

According to Colin, the tips include:

Create a content-rich and informative website.
Develop a press-kit that provides lots of details for ease of publishing.
Get mentors who are as knowledgeable and passionate about your organization. They are able to guide you and also provide you with the all-important buzz!
Along the same lines, your choice of team members will also provide more marketing buzz. The reason is that through word-of-mouth, they will also inform their networks about your organization.
Write about your social cause and get these articles published with a link-back to your site.
Design corporate brochures and materials that effectively communicate about your organization.
Get the recognition and acceptance of government bodies.
Get your organization listed in various directories.
Attend as many offline and online networking events.
Conduct public talks or participate in conferences.

Writing for humans vs writing for the web.

2006-12-28T11:01:00.000-05:00

I subscribe to a writer's newsletter that featured an article from a "professional" writer. She was horrified that she had answered an advertisement to find out that the payment for her article would be in the less than $10 kind of payment.

She responds in outrage. She writes in essence that you wouldn't pay your auto mechanic or your plumber less than $10 to do his job, why pay her so little to perform her craft.

So, I visited her web site, where she opens with :

Welcome to the home of freelance writer [name removed to protect her identity]. I write copy for online and offline applications, including keyword/SEO articles, press releases, features, and short fiction.

Now, it just so happens that I am VERY good at writing keyword/SEO articles. If you don't believe me, click here to see a screen shot of the positioning a web site I wrote for has at google.

Yippee for me! I’m a top 10 result in almost ALL of my keywords for the web site!

(By the way, it's essential that you offer some kind of proof when you make claims like this.)

So, not to brag but I write GREAT selling copy. Copy changes I made on a client's site once increased sales four fold. (No proof because I didn't grab a screen shot of the traffic analysis. RATS!)

I write GREAT keyword copy (which is DIFFERENT than selling copy.) See my google screen shot above.

With all of that said, you do NOT want me writing short fiction for you. As a matter of fact, you do not want me writing ANY kind of fiction for you. Any fiction I would write would, from the movie "Beatlejuice" read like "stereo instructions".

My book, Beyond the Niche, was written for people just like our frustrated writer, quoted above. See, while our young writer may earnestly believe what she says inside her web site:

As my portfolio demonstrates, I have proven my skill in a number of different genres. As a talented, flexible writer, I am pleased to offer a wide variety of services.

Chances are that she is either good at SEO/keyword copy OR she is good at fiction. The thing is, if I'm looking for SEO copy, I don't want to see that my copywriter dabbles in fiction.

However, if our aspiring professional writer wanted to continue to pursue both paths, my recommendation would be that she set up two separate web sites, each focusing on her different writing styles.

Oh, and I'd recommend that she stop writing articles which appeal to other starving artist writers. I joined the newsletter to see if there was a market for MY services. However, reading the newsletter for six months now, I realize that I don't really want to write articles that speak to starving artists. I get enough "free web development" inquiries on my own.

Why I love Host Gator

2006-12-18T13:08:00.001-05:00

So, I'm searching for web hosting resellers and happen upon my current reseller hosting provider: Host Gator.

When I signed up with Host Gator two years ago, they offered 500MB of disk space for $25 per month. Now, I see that they are offering 1200 MB for the same price. So, I write and ask if they could show some love to a long time customer and bump up my disk space.

Now, I'm still reeling from my Myriad Network experience, but I forge ahead. I get an email from sales at Host Gator. I brace myself before opening it.

I find myself reading a very well thought out response which outlines the REASONS Host Gator can't just bump up my disk space. I realize, I'm not angry at all. As a matter of fact, I'm feeling much more secure in my decision to host with Host Gator. At the end of this MAGNIFICENT email, I am given the opportunity to UPGRADE to the next level. For only $10 more per month, I'll get 4 X the disk space as I have in my current account.

They turned what could have been an ugly situation into one where I felt renewed loyalty to Host Gator. Not only did they keep a customer, but they're going to get more $$$ out of a current customer. NOW THAT IS A WIN/WIN situation.

WebHosting Reminders...

2006-12-18T13:08:00.000-05:00

After my HORRIBLE experience with Myriad Networks, I have renewed love for my current hosting provider, Host Gator.

If you wonder why I was host shopping while I had a great one on tap, here's why.

I still would like to have a back up hosting company to go to if Host Gator ever gets bought by the evil INTERLAND. Even though it's been YEARS, I'll never forget the horrible experience of Interland's aquisition of Communitech.

Communitech was founded by two guys in the middle of Kansas. Their support was EXCEPTIONAL (these were the days before $1-2 per month hosting accounts), their service was outstanding.

Then, Interland came to call. Servers were down for DAYS, customer service was non-existent and the forums were filled with angry posts by betrayed customers. If you were lucky enough to get through on the phones to Interland, you would find yourself talking to someone who hated Interland MORE than their customers did!

By the end of my Interland hosting experience, I was threatening to pay my $25 per month hosting bill in PENNIES! Yes, I know that shipping for 2500 pennies is MORE than $25, but that's how furious, not to mention frustrated, I was at the time.

Oh, did I mention that I was hosting about 50 accounts at the time? I lost 30 of them thanks to Interland.

That's why I maintain not one, not two but THREE reseller web hosting accounts. Two are "old faithfuls," web hosts that are performing well at the moment. One is the "scout" account. If the scout account beats out the old faithfuls, then it will replace an old faithful when an old faithful either outgrows it's capacities or is bought by Interland. It means hosting isn't a profit center for me, but that's ok. It's a SERVICE I provide for my web development CLIENTS!

Questioning the safety of online transactions....

2006-12-16T17:01:00.000-05:00

I was looking for reseller web hosting account and read a GLOWING review on a third party web site about Myriad Network's reseller web hosting account service. I went and visited the Myriad Network website. Myriad Network has their own forum. Again, nothing but rave reviews for Myriad Networks reseller web hosting account

So, I place my order with Myriad Network for a reseller hosting account. I ask for a user name that can't be created in Cpanel and Jeff has my back. He writes to tell me that he fixed my error and has set up my reseller hosting account.

I go to check my Myriad Networks reseller web hosting account. I'm getting a 403 error when I enter the domain name I used to set up my Myriad Networks reseller web hosting account. UGH! Maybe they don't allow the main account to be a hosted account, I think to myself.

I set my nameservers and set up a test account. When that domain name starts resolving, I'm seeing a page with a message about how Cpanel isn't correctly configured.

So I send an email to Jeff at Myriad Network. Jeff replies with "contact support@myriadnetwork.com

I try the address he gives in the email, and it bounces. So, I try sending to him again, telling him the support address he gave me is bouncing. In this email, I tell him thanks, but no thanks. Got off to a bad start, please close my account and refund my payment.

His response:

"Please fill out the cancellation form in the link I provided above and I
will gladly terminate your account immediately. Any futher emails sent
by you to my personal email account will be deleted."

So I went to the page and cancelled my account. There's a box to explain, so I did.

Jeff decides that he is right and I am wrong. Even though I can't email him, I start getting emails from him in my email box:

This was recieved AFTER I filled out the cancellation.

> Wow.
>
> I ordered a reseller account. It\'s not the first time I\'ve done such a thing, but it\'s the first time someone emailed me and told me to never email again.

Correction: you were told to stop emailing me AFTER you cancelled your account. If you still feel the need to email me direct, which you were not only not instructed to do, but asked /not/ to do, your emails will be deleted, simple.

>
> My account isn\'t working. I get a 403 error on the main account. The resold accounts get a Cpanel set up error. Now the \"wonderful support\" I\'ve read about in the forums has informed me emails to his personal account will be deleted.

Yes, you were informed of this AFTER you stated you were cancelling. Let's not obsure the truth here to make yourself look good and us look bad.

>
> OUCH!
>
> I\'m just trying to imagine telling one of my clients, \"My email address is not a replacement for support. Multiple methods of for contacting support are mentioned in your Welcome email.\"

Last time I'll say this: you were asked to stop emailing me direct AFTER you said you were cancelling"

So Jeff is right and I am wrong. Goodie for Jeff.

Then, five minutes later I get another email from Jeff, again telling me how wrong I am and how right he is.

AND ANOTHER ONE!

Now I'm getting nervous. Unfortunately, I used my CC to pay for this, so as a result this toad has my CC information and all kinds of personal information. I'm starting to get nervous. "I think I'm going to have to cancel my credit card that I used to order hosting" nervous.

Yeah, I'd better report my CC stolen. Unfortunately, the toad also has my home adddress instead of my business post office.

I've done a LOT of online transactions in the past few weeks... Christmas is coming you know and I hate fighting the traffic at the mall. It's scary how you just assume the person on the other end is trustworthy and how horrifying it is to find out they aren't.

The sweet smell of success

2006-12-13T20:59:00.000-05:00

Dean Hunt maintains a blog. He's been blogging since June of 2006.

He blogs about affiliate marketing, about SEO and life in general.

He got a bizzarre email over the weekend. As a result, his story has been picked up by the national media. He got so many hits on his blog that it crashed his server.... twice.

Is the story for real or is it a hoax? The guy is in the SEO business.

In any case, he certainly has created a viral campaign....

Opening up to the search engines

2006-12-03T08:14:00.000-05:00

With the upcoming release of my book, I've forced myself to open my site back up to the search engines.

About three years ago, I reached an enviable place in my practice. My best clients were coming from referrals and I made a conscious decision to set up my web development web site so that it wasn't search engine friendly. I did this by "hiding" the navigation bar inside a javascript. The search engines would reach the opening page of my web site, find a little bit of content and nothing more, then move on.

Like I said, I did this on purpose. Well, about six months ago, as the book publishing process moved from the writing phase to the publishing phase, I began to look forward to the phase which follows the publishing phase... which is known as the marketing phase. To be honest, in my eyes, the marketing phase is the BEST part!! It's fun and exciting.

So I launched a web site for the book. I launched it in blog format because the search engines LOVE blogs.

OOPS!!!! While the search engines love blogs, they HATE new urls. Well, I had a solution for that. My original web site is OLD SCHOOL in the search engines. I just needed to uncloak the inner pages and begin the linkage!

Well, opening up my site to the search engine has had positive and negative effects.

On the negative side, on Friday night at around 8:00 PM the phone in my home office began ringing. The caller called three times in rapid succession, each time reaching my answering machine. The fourth time, I picked up the phone. I found myself on the phone with a gentleman with a heavy accent.

The call began with the caller asking whether I did web sites or marketing.

"Both," I replied.

"How much do you charge for hosting," he asked.

"What type of site are we talking about hosting?" I asked.

"Does it make a difference?"

"Yes. If you're wanting to host video or audio, it takes a lot more diskspace and bandwidth."

"Is video better? Is that what I want?" he asked.

"Wow! Video is great for almost any business, but I still don't know what kind of business you have," I replied. I could hear the Christmas music wafting in from the family room where my children were decorating the Christmas tree.

"Well, how much do you charge for a web site?" he asked.

At this point, I was getting annoyed. Was this guy for real or was he a competitor price checking me?

"Sir," I began, "it's impossible for me to answer your questions without more information from you. Right now, it's like you're calling me asking to buy a house. I don't know where you want to buy the house, let alone how many bedrooms and bathrooms you need."

In the end, the guy had bought into some "get rich quick" web site programs. You know, the kinds advertised on late night television . Well, this may come as a surprise to you, but $2500 up front and $75 per month later, this gentleman wasn't seeing ANY results from his investment.

I ended the conversation by explaining to the gentleman that I worked with people who had real businesses. He announced he wasn't ready for that yet, and we ended our conversation. He's off trying to find a quick and easy way to earn money on the internet. He wants to pay someone to put up a web site for him that will make him money without any effort on his part.

Phone calls like this are the reason I closed my site to the search engines.... but then, then next day... I got an email which made me glad I did open my site up....

The Search for Black Hawk Down Team Saber

2006-11-29T10:14:00.000-05:00

My children are big into video games. They discovered online gaming after we moved to southern Florida. Forced indoors by the incredible heat, they hooked up the PS2 and discovered a whole new world of gaming.

Well, one of their favorite video game is Black Hawk Down. They've made a lot of online friends through playing the game over the summer. Well, EA games released a new version of Black Hawk Down and my daughter and older son were both DYING to get it.

Read more about my daughter's search for the video game and, more importantly from a business owner's stand point, how a 17 year old girl redeemed a nationwide chain's reputation.

Customer Service and Surveys

2006-11-22T15:29:00.000-05:00

Technology is a wonderful thing. It allows you, as a business owner, to purchase software that actually tries to simulate an actual relationship with your customers. It’s called CRM which is short for Customer Relationship Marketing.

Chris Baggot tells of an experience he had with a business who has bought into the “CRM” model. OUTSTANDING POST!

Shortly after reading this post, my son relayed another CRM story.

In case you've been living without electricity for the past three months, there are two new gaming consoles which have just hit store shelves in time for Christmas: the Sony Play Station 3 and the Nintendo Wii (pronounced we).

Many, many avid gamers put down deposits months ago to secure their game system. One retailer which accepted such deposits was GameStop. In order to reserve one of the highly treasured systems, customers were required to provide contact information. The thought was that when the game system was in, that Gamestop would use that information to contact said consumer.

Well, one of my son's friends put his name on the list. That's when the fun began. My son was highly entertained by his conversations with his friend during the past week. It seems Gamestop was calling his friend frequently, though not to tell him that his treasured system had arrived. Instead, Gamestop was calling to ask him to participate in a customer satisfaction survey. After the third such call, my son's friend became enraged, hurling curse words at his unsuspecting tormentor.

What's ironic is that their relentless pursuit of his opinion actually served to destroy the fledgling relationship with the gaming retailer.

Remember, this is a teen age boy who is REALLY into gaming. What could have been an opportunity to have this young lad singing Gamestop's praises turned into a story MY son has yet to tire of telling. The phone would ring; his friend would see Gamestop on the caller id, pick up the phone and then begin cursing a blue streak at yet another survey.

The advertising agency owner for which I worked two decades ago used to preach that a satisfied customer will tell three people. A dissatisfied customer will tell twelve. Remember, this is during the days BEFORE the internet and blogs.

Even with my kids begging for the hottest consoles this Christmas and said consoles bringing two to three times their retail price on ebay.com, I’m still not convinced it would have been worth enduring call after telemarketing call to secure the system on a pre-order basis.

Preparing for Black Friday

2006-11-20T05:11:00.000-05:00

Black Friday is what US retailers call the day after Thanksgiving, a day when eager shoppers flood America's retail centers and begin the buying frenzy for the holiday formerly known as Christmas.

Walmart has announced that they are aggressively slashing prices for the 2006 Holiday Season. This is actually GREAT PR (Public Relations not Page Rank) for a retailer whose slogan is "Low Prices... Always Low Prices," for those who pay attention to what Walmart does, it's once again positively bewildering.

In my Blog, Beyond Niche Marketing,I noted that Walmart appears to be chasing the dollars of more affluent shoppers. If you look at their ads, they definitely scream "upscale consumer" through the visual elements. Television and print have both taken on an "upscale" theme yet Walmart follows this upscale shift with the announcement of even LOWER prices throughout the store.

Is it just me, or is Walmart losing it's way?