In yesterday’s post, I presented a case study about how bloggy giveaways reap fantastic benefits for the giver and the receiver.
I’m a strong believer in the barter system, and over the years, I’ve benefited by trading my professional services for goods and services I needed, but couldn’t afford.
I’ve literally “worked for food,” exchanging public relations [...]
When Antoine’s father has a stroke, Antoine - the prodigal son - reluctantly returns from life in the city to his rural French village and takes over the family store.
None-too-happy to be time-warped to the past from which he’d tried to escape, the surly Antoine drives his father’s grocery van around the sparsely-populated countryside, delivering [...]
I am a news junkie. Reading the daily newspaper-the printed version that’s delivered to my home-borders on an addiction for me.
But two months ago, I did the unthinkable (at least, in my mind). I canceled my subscription.
Bottom line:
I opted out because of the newspaper’s shoddy marketing. The product continues to shrink while the price [...]
I often bookmark helpful articles about blogging, marketing, and writing on Delicious.
Here’s a bit about several I have bookmarked lately:
The Ultimate Small Business Twitter List
Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends provides lotsa links of folks who address small business issues on Twitter.
Press Releases Are Useless
In this opinion article, Penny Sansevieri explains why she thinks crafting [...]
If I asked you to name the five best books on selling, Green Eggs and Ham probably wouldn’t leap into your mind.
But it should.
Immortal Sam I Am is one of the greatest salesmen ever. Here’s two reasons why:
1. He tries to close the sale sixteen times before he gets a yes.
Sixteen! The average salesperson asks [...]
Laura’s and my friend, Mary DeMuth, owns a private e-mail loop for advanced writers. Last Thursday she invited all members of the loop to submit their Web sites for critique.
Some of the sites were excellent. Others needed a significant overhaul.
I learned a ton from the comments. My guess is most of us did.
If you’re a [...]
We kicked off our blog in April, 2008 with a 10-part series, “10 Marketing Lessons From a 12-year-old Entrepreneur” (http://heblogssheblogs.com/10marketinglessons/).
Check out our other popular marketing columns (feel free to post the links on your own site):
Business Card Marketing
http://heblogssheblogs.com/businesscardmarketing/
Cows Falling from the Sky & Other Innovative Marketing Ideas
http://heblogssheblogs.com/innovative-marketing-ideas/
Yellow Page Advertising: Waste? Or Essential Marketing?
http://heblogssheblogs.com/yellow-page-advertising-waste-or-found-wanting/
McDonald’s ‘Four Bucks [...]
Warning: rant coming up.
I tried to resist writing this post. Really. I’m a not a “the-glass-is-half-full” kinda guy. I’m a “someone-will-be-by-any-second-to-fill-up-my-glass-the-rest-of-the-way” kind of guy. (There’s a reason I have a Tigger baseball hat.)
But I have to comment on some customer service I’ve, uh, been subjected to recently.
Office Max: I go in to order biz cards. [...]
Last week we discussed Amazon’s “Frustration-Free Packaging,” a plain brown box that replaces that irritating clamshell packaging most parents hate.
We asked:
Where do you see clamshell packaging on the Internet?
Laura says:
When I apply the clamshell packaging concept to Web sites and blogs, I immediately think of sites with black (or dark) backgrounds and white (or light) [...]
These ads–from the February issue of Writer’s Digest magazine–bother me.
First burr in my backside? The line, “Where all authors are published.” Really? Wouldn’t it be more honest to say “We’ll take $$$ from absolutely anyone.”?
The line is tantalizing to beginning authors. They read it with emotion, not logic and don’t consider that not everyone is [...]