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Archive for August, 2011

Surrounding Yourself With Breakthrough Nonsense

Thats it. Ive declared jihad on certain marketing terms and phrases.

Sounds ludicrous to you? Well if youre battling for wallet share or implementing guerrilla tactics to reach your target then I can declare jihad.

Were all combatants now or so youd think if you were to spend a day in the ad industry. I once went to a client meeting where the Marketing Director talked about how to improve her companys onetoone customer communications and make her brand more customerfocused. So this pleasantlooking woman in her midforties said I want to surround our customers with messaging. I want to break through to reach them.

It was right there and then that I knew shed never be successful communicating with anyone in a onetoone capacity. She wanted to surround and break through.

We have other terms for those concepts in our society: assault and trespassing.

Simply put you cant use the language of war or criminal behavior and expect people to like you. And you cant spew that nonsense in meetings if you want to be taken seriously or have your agency or your clients brand to be thought of in a positive light.

I know military expressions are pervasive in our lives. Im not sure if it originated with SunTzu or World War II veterans returning home to become The Men In The Grey Flannel Suits but somewhere along the line the language of war became the language of business and marketing.

You hear it every day in your ad agency or company I bet: Its all hands on deck. We need to add some creative firepower. That is if we want to execute some really killer ads. Got it? Alright everyone lock and load!

Am I overreacting? Is it okay to embrace war language? After all theyre just figures of speech right? Wrong. Its too easy to use war as a metaphor for business. It gives everything a false sense of urgency; it implies that in every business decision there are outright victors and losers.

Theres a great cartoon by a fellow named Hugh MacLeod and it has a very simple caption: If you talked to people the way advertising talked to people theyd punch you in the face. Hes absolutely right. So why do we legitimize such language in advertising? More insidiously why do we use that language in PowerPoint presentations RFPs and creative briefs? Why do we allow our clients to say it with a straight face?

Even in this age of digital and video words still mean things. It doesnt matter if you think the way so many people are now conditioned to believe no one would read a twosentence headline or three sentences of body copy. Wanna buy a house? You dont sign a picture of the house. You sign a lengthy binding legal contract of which most every word is carefully crafted.

Yet in everyday life in meetings emails and everywhere else were perfectly content to throw around needless hyperbole masquerading as forceful language. It makes simple matters seem more important than they are. And it lessens the impact of really dangerous situations. Ill give you an example.

Right now we have 200000 soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Many are spending their days finding and rooting out enemy combatants and insurgents. Sometimes they have to go door to door house to house. So what are they really doing at those houses when they’re forced to?

Surrounding. And breaking through.

I promise you our soldiers arent doortodoor salesman. What theyre doing is really fighting for their lives. What youre doing is just advertising. Theres a difference.

We have the ability to be upliftingin the words we use and the work we do. We have an obligation to help our clients communicate better with customers. So when we start saying things in more credible ways well have a much more positive effect on our business and the world.

I hope you agree with me. But Im not looking to emerge victorious in this crusade. I just want to change some minds.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Branding. Religion. Censorship. Office politics. Global politics. Sexual politics. And getting drunk during a job interview.
Since 2002 Danny G. a.k.a. Dan Goldgeier has been writing the most provocative advertising columns ever published. They’re all witty thoughtful and probing and a must read for those who want a perspective rarely seen in traditional industry publications.
An Atlantabased copywriter and ad school graduate Dan has worked at shops big and small. He reads incessantly about advertising and is a whiz at rock roll trivia. Learn more about him by visiting his copywriting website or AdColumnist.com the View From The Cheap Seats Archive website. You may also find articles by Danny G at TalentZoo.com.

Do Ready Made VRE Websites Actually Earn Any Money?

Recently there has been major interest in ‘Vitual Real Estate’ or VRE resulting in many people wanting to own websites which make money through Google Adsense. This increased interest created a demand for ready made websites with the Adsense code built in but are these websites the VRE solution their creators claim them to be?

That depends on what their new owners do with the websites…

The vast majority of people will upload the website ‘as is’ and pray fervently for an income from it which is never going to happen as demonstrated by the following two reasons:

1 There are many identical websites on the internet and I do mean identical in every aspect mirror images. While the search engine’s duplicate content filters may be limited in their abilities they can and do spot mirror image pages and will filter them out.

2 Every website is targeting the same keywords which mean sudden instant competition. The website that gets top ranking for these keywords is going to be the one with the most inbound links.

Not looking good for the ‘upload and pray’ website owners is it?

If you’re looking to buy a website with the view to uploading it ‘as is’ forget it you’re wasting your time and money. You have to modify the website and then promote it before it will reward you with an income.

Assuming your website is created from private label articles here are a few tips for quickly modifying your new website:

1 Change the titles of each PLR article page One fairly big chunk of text on every page is the website menu. Most VRE websites use dynamic menus meaning you just have to upload a webpage into a directory or folder and it will automatically be included in the website menu. Because the webpage title is invariably used for the menu link text by changing all the titles you change a good percentage of the text on every page.

2 Change the keyword targeting of each PLR article page By choosing a different popular low competition keyword for each page you eliminate nearly all of the new competition created by the other website owners. At the very least each page should be optimized with the keyword appearing: In the Title i.e. between the title tags In the Description Meta Tag In the Keywords Meta Tag In the Heading i.e. between h1 tags Once in the first sentence and then once in every paragraph. In the webpage file name You could use the title as the file name just replace the spaces with hyphens or underscores _ .3 Place a ‘Sponsored By’ text advertisement in the middle of the article text This will break up the existing article text and assuming you’ve changed the keywords will give the PLR article page a slightly different ‘fingerprint’ and give you the edge over other website owners. The quickest way to do this is by using a server side include for the advertisement…

Even though you’ve now got the edge over the other website owners your website will not earn a cent unless you promote it. Here are a few tips to get you going:

1 Place a link to your website in every related directory you can find. For a list of SEO friendly directories enter “seo friendly directory list” into your favorite search engine.

2 Trade links with websites of a similar theme to yours or buy one way links. When you first start out you should look for websites that receive a fair bit of traffic as some of this traffic will be funneled through the link to your website. For more effect get links to each PLR article page of your website i.e. use different linking text for each page.

Finally a promotion tip which while not mandatory could mean the difference between your website earning 1 per day and 5 15 per day…

3 Write or have written several articles on a similar theme to your website and submit them to the major ezine and article directories. At the end of your article you are allowed to add a resource box consisting of a few lines in which to place an advertisement for your website plus a link to it. For more effect write and submit several articles which link to each PLR article page on your website e.g. a 5 page site could have 5 x 5 = 25 articles.

About the writer:  Joy Gendusa founded PostcardMania in 1998 her only assets a computer and a phone. By 2005 the company did over 12 million in sales employed over 100 people and made Inc. Magazine’s prestigious Inc. 500 List. She attributes her explosive growth to her ability to choose incredible staff and her innate marketing savvy. As an Expert Author she is always willing to share her marketing advice through articles interviews and speaking engagements; visit www.postcardmania.com

Why Employers Should Offer More

Law firms offer pro bono opportunities financial services firms offer community service days and those who work for construction enterprises often have the opportunity to give back through charity homebuilding projects. But the internet marketing industry being so new offers few opportunities along these lines. On the other hand some internet companies provide a quasipublic service themselves. Why not enjoy doing good while youre trying to do well in this fastgrowing industry?

At first it may seem like a strange question to ask but this very issue was addressed by Avi Dan at the end of October The Key to Luring Talent? Social Activism. As veteran Dan joins many others in pointing out advertising and marketing talent is waning. There is simply a vacuum of qualified internet marketers and advertisers at every level of professional development. But is social activism the answer to attract new hires and recent graduates?

Particularly for smaller companies offering community service or charity opportunities just isnt feasible. A better answer may be for large and small internet companies to reevaluate or diversify their own core service offerings. It is possible to offer employees the ability to advance their careers in internet marketing and make a difference in people’s lives. This article offers an example of achieving public service objectives while doing business.

Search enables the family finding movement

A few short years ago social workers began to turn to the internet to find family members of children in state welfare systems. Beginning in Washington State the family finding movement was pioneered by Kevin Campbell a former state socialwork administrator. Campbell now director of EMQ a private nonprofit family services agency discovered that using people search technologies he and his staff can locate eligible adoptive family members in more than 75 of cases.

According to a Wall Street Journal article covering the family finding movement there are roughly 525000 children in foster care at any given moment in the U.S. many of them moving to a new foster home every few months. Approximately 25000 foster children each year reach adulthood without ever having found a permanent home. People search technology such as US Searchs services has changed these statistics drastically in states like Washington Oregon and California where using internet search is becoming a mandatory part of the child placement services.

US Search is a fundamental part of the family finding movement. US Search employees work with private agencies like EMQ and with over 75 state county and private agencies to find family members for foster children. As a result of its corporate program dedicated to family finding US Search employees go to work everyday and make a real difference in the lives of thousands of children. In one study by Mr. Campbell U.S. Search was able to find more than 85 of parents who were listed as “whereabouts unknown” in California court records.

Due to the success of the family finding program US Search is beginning a new internet initiative to make social networking sites safer. With the prevalence of internet dating and social networking sites comes the concomitant danger associated with communicating with strangers online. US Searchs public relations marketing and advertising divisions are working on safety education campaigns to inform social networking and internet dating consumers.

The answer to the question of luring talent with social activism is split. It is a great concept. But new hires also want training benefits and a good quality of life. Most of all new hires in the internet vertical they want their job to be fun. The new focus for attracting socially aware talent should lie in incorporating positive social initiatives into existing business objectives. Internet and interactive companies have set the bar for many new work force initiatives maybe adding social responsibility to the business mix will be the next paradigm.

About the writer:nbsp;nbsp;Rod Stoddard is the Group President of US Search responsible for the day to day management of the consumer services and public records businesses. Rod initially joined US Search as the General Manager of companys Business Solutions group which focuses on the sales of business intelligence and employment screening products to small and medium sized enterprises.
Prior to joining US Search Rod was the founder and CEO of Set Wave Inc. an Internet and interactive television company that partnered with major entertainment and apparel companies to sell consumer related goods. You may also find articles by Rod at the TalentZoo.com