Leap Moments can we have one and do we know when that will be?
I've been obsessed lately with the frequency and duration of leap moments.
This is a term of my own making, and I'm referring to those moments when whatever it is you're doing is put on hold, paused, or there's otherwise a few minutes that don't seem to belong to anyone.
Read the rest of the blog, it is quite good: This is from Baskin Dim Bulb branding advertising social media business strategy, and written by Jonathan.
Blogs are no longer just online personal journals - they are now key business tools. Blogs allow you to engage in a conversation with your customers while improving your website's search engine rank. Don't know where to start? Download this kit to learn key tactics for business blogging and engaging in the blogosphere to grow your business.
Interesting chart?
Not too surprising, really: Home values taking? Check. Lost jobs? Check. Retirement accounts in the toilet? Check. How about that global warming thing? A collective "Huh?" from the masses naturally ensues.
From the Environmental Leader Daily:
"A new poll shows that people who once put a huge emphasis on the government’s green efforts now have other issues they care about more.The latest Pew Research Center poll shows that the economy and job market have jumped to the top of the priority list for most people. Last January, 75 percent of Americans polled said that the economy should be a top priority, and in a year’s time, that has jumped to 85 percent.On the other hand, however, protecting the environment has fallen from 56 percent a year ago to just 41 percent today. Of the 20 issues raised, the least important issue raised was global warming. Experts say that issues such as the environments are secondary when there is a more immediate problem."
~Amazon Green Scene
From "ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom" via
Read the entire post here: 2009: The Year Of Direct Marketing?
There has been a lot of talk about the death of direct marketing. I don’t buy it. Here’s why: Every time the economy softens, marketers are pressured by higher ups to utilize tactics that can be quantified. Direct marketing is on the list in all tough years. Is it on your list this year?
First, you need to develop a plan. It does not have to be as long as War And Peace, but it must include a few key elements so that you can develop a focused, targeted, measurable program that gets results.
Determine what is it that you want the email program to achieve from marketing and communications perspectives. Is this a newsletter designed for relationship management purposes, or is it a sales-oriented vehicle? Are you trying to build awareness, generate leads, increase web traffic, encourage loyalty, or close sales?
If you want more than just an e-mail plan..take a look at the entire Duct Tape Marketing System
Shameless self promotion: but this weekend I am the featured author on Business Week's home page http://www.businessweek.com
If you would like to review a few of my other published articles check out this recent blog post:
Recently, I read a blog on Simplify by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing that reminded me of one of my favorite authors that I have not followed recently.
It is the The Jensen Group who is on a mission: To make it easier to get stuff done. They have focused for over two decades on Simplicity and Clarity. As Bill says, "We help companies and leaders get simple." I have always offered the book on my readers list that is become buried back into the back of my website. Take a look, great reading.
Read this great post from Chris Brogan on Small business Blogging.
Howsimple. How perfect. I love the whole blog.
There are other small cafe blogs out there now, each with its own personality.
Are we seeing cafe-shaped businesses already? Learn from these people. Oh, and read Becky McCray. She lives and breathes this stuff where I dabble.
Or if you want to get started, look at my main blog, Business901.
Most of you know that follow my blog that I am a big fan of the One Page Business Plan and Jim Horan. Recently, they have been mention in "O", Oprah magazine twice and now...
We wanted you to know… Money Magazine is recommending One Page Business Plans!
They have a free would be entrepreneur's handbook that you can review on the site. More details on my Business901 blog.
Group says diesel retrofits could stall stimulus package
The Associated General Contractors is urging President-elect Barack Obama to block a California rule that would require contractors to retrofit heavy equipment engines to cut pollution. AGC officials say the current economy makes it impossible for the contractors to pass along the cost of the retrofits to their customers. That could mean that some economic stimulus funds are used for the retrofits. "What is the point of stimulus money if it's used to replace equipment instead of building?" asks AGC General Counsel Mike Kennedy. The Washington Post (1/20)
From the AGC today, I love news like this. However, where does the money go it does not go here! :=)
From Chris Brogan the other day
This post on Dosh Dosh is worth considering. The basic premise is that before planning a web business, first ask what people use the web to do. From this, ideas might come that will be useful.
When considering what people do on the Internet, the simple version of the answers given were:
- To communicate and socialize.
- To find information, learn new things and be entertained.
- To do work, generate income and run a business.
It’s quite a list to consider. Can you differentiate? Can you improve? Are you thinking about the models?
Photocredit, A.M. Kuchling
Many bloggers have found ways to add some functionality and bling to their blogs with plug-ins - little add on scripts that extend a platform like WordPress.
Some of these such All-in-One-Seo Pack are under the hood tools helping with search optimization, some are on screen, like the Top Commentator Widget, extending commenting functions.
One neglected area of plug-in functionality is that of plug-ins designed to enhance the RSS feed. You blog’s RSS feed is very important to the overall health of the blog, but because most bloggers don’t experience their blog that way, the way that a majority of reader may, it mostly stays “right out of the box” vanilla.
Here are some practical suggestions for giving your RSS feed a makeover with your readers in mind.
1) Use Feedburner (now a Google property) - you can add some great things to your blog feed using FeedFlare so your readers who...
Read the entire post on Duct tape Marketing
Fort Wayne, IN - Business901 has just launched a small business and nonprofit podcast website. An ITunes store was also created to facilitate subscription by Itunes user. The site offers visitors the opportunity to listen to current small business and nonprofit topics such as discussions on Social Media and Lean Marketing. The podcast site is Business901.podbean.com and the Itunes store is named Business901.
Why a podcast website Dager was asked; “The Connecting You Passion TV Show needed a forum other than video to reach the public. There are some great stories that have been told on the show and with just a little modification we were able to post them to the podcast. We also had a collection of articles and blog posts that we have been developing into e-books and realize that they could be easily converted to audio. The format worked perfectly and brings a new dimension to our company.”
The Connecting Your Passion TV Show is a bi-monthly program hosed on the Fort Wayne Public Access station. It is aired every other Tuesday at 9:00 AM. The The program that is hosted on the Fort Wayne Public Access station. It is an interview type format and focuses on the participating “Nonprofit’s Story.” The shows guest have included nonprofit organizations: Big Brothers, Big sisters, Reach for Your, Huntington Youth Service Bureau, SCORE, TQM Network, Childrens Hope Hospital. There has also been shows done on Social Media and Why do people volunteer. Joe Dager of Business901 is the host of the show.
About Business901
Business901, http://www.business901.com uses proven methodologies to enable its customers to build applications in a very short amount of time. Joe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as target marketing and organized referral marketing. As a certified coach of the Duct Tape Marketing Consulting organization, Joe provides practical, information-rich, immediately applicable direction that profoundly impacts the success of small and mid-sized businesses. His experience includes numerous start-ups, several turnarounds in variety of industries to include manufacturing, retail, and professional services to include marketing.
Via "ScLoHo's Collective Wisdom dedicated to Marketing, Advertising and the Creative Process" - 1 new article
from Top 10 Small Business Marketing Mistakes to Avoid
Got this in an email from Mantra.com:By Susan Burnash
Marketing is critical to the success of every business. Unfortunately, many businesses discount the effect it can have, and they forgo marketing because they believe they can't afford it or simply don't have the time or energy to create a plan. Perhaps this is why a high percentage of small businesses fail. But you don't have to be a statistic when you approach marketing with the importance it deserves. Below you will find some of the most common marketing mistakes businesses make.
Mistake #1: Not Developing a Marketing Plan
Mistake #2: Not Planning a Marketing Budget
Mistake #3: Not Targeting a Specific Target Audience
Mistake #4: Not Developing a Clear and Consistent Marketing Message
Mistake #5: Believing Your Product or Service Will Sell Itself
Mistake #6: Not Clearly Defining Your Product or Services' Benefits
Mistake #7: Underestimating the Value of Your Existing Customers
Mistake #8: Thinking that Advertising is Marketing
Mistake #9: Ignoring the Benefits of Public Relations
Mistake #10: Expecting Too Much, Too Soon
I like these guys and their webinars are great!
Invitation to HubSpot Marketing Webinar 12-1PM EST (GMT -5)
With more and more consumers turning to search engines as their first stop on the purchasing path, companies that make the first page of organic search results are those that win business, even in a tough economy. But making it to the first page of organic search results takes work and doesn't happen overnight. Recognizing this, businesses may turn to paid search to supplement their inbound marketing efforts. This webinar will discuss how to get the most out of your pay per click marketing campaigns and how paid search fits into your inbound marketing strategy.
Topics include:
- What is Pay Per Click marketing & when should you do it
- How to size up your market with PPC
- How to launch and optimize a PPC campaign
Space is limited so reserve your seat now.
The first step in any lean process , Woops the 2nd step(the 1st being 5S), is understanding or identifying your target market and ideal client. Many people fail to do this and in a recession it can lead to disaster rather quickly.
The Marketing Mavens by Noel Capon is a great book to assist you in this identification. They have slightly different take on it but the book brings out 
some points that may help you identify your market and client. He professes that the fundamental challenge of business today is to serve customer needs amid continuous change. Nothing earth shattering but he also states that the top companies do this based on these five core values:
If you really think through his process, you can see how apparent your target market may become. Also, it corresponds to the Product Market and Product launch processes that I adhere too.
Repost from my Business901 blog.
A Hubspot website grade of __/100 for www.______________.com means that of the hundreds of thousands of websites that have previously been evaluated, our algorithm has calculated that this site scores higher than ___% of them in terms of its marketing effectiveness. The algorithm uses a proprietary blend of over 50 different variables, including search engine data, website structure, approximate traffic, site performance, and others.
I inserted 6 of the top web developers in Fort Wayne into this grading system:
17/100 for
44/100 for
1/100 for
2/100 for
54/100 for
37/100 for
Ok, I was to embarrassed to print their names! How does your website grade out?
Attention: Small Businesses, Professional Services, Salespeople and Organizations:
The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is specifically designed for entrepreneurs and business owners that want to take their revenues to the next level as soon as possible, but don’t have an in-house marketing department to help make that happen.The Duct Tape Marketing® EXCELerator Program is designed to fulfill all the needs you require from a part-time marketing department. You will receive a mix of products and services to help you:
October 22 thru 24th, 2009.
Hotel Boulderado Boulder, Colorado.
This unique three-day retreat brings small businesses together in a group environment to expose them lie to someone North America's leading marketing experts, as well as two other small businesses for source of inspiration and motivation. While enjoying the beautiful mountain setting of Boulder Colorado, small business will learn and implement various tools and techniques available to grow their business. Our team of experts(this will include some heavyweights) will work with you to create various marketing tools on the spot!
By the time you leave your three-day retreat, you will:
be able to implement immediately at least part of your overall marketing system.
Be more comfortable utilizing some very cost effective and powerful marketing tools.
Still more confident in your marketing strategy and experience a much shorter timeline and executing these strategies now and in the future.
Have met other small businesses to garner ongoing support and possibly a line with on future marketing endeavors
A sample of topics: PR- being an expert, harnessing the Internet, getting media attention, landing speaker engagements, optimizing your site for search engines, e-mail marketing, creating effective paper click campaigns, referral marketing
And what is really cool, is this package is included in your monthly fee. You are only responsible for a couple of meals, room rate of $130 and airfare.
