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The Power of Thank You!

February 25th, 2010

Business evolves at such speed these days that we sometimes forget the power of common courtesies. Who has time for quaint little customs?

Who has time for niceties when our competitors are rushing forward?

I found this brilliant article at Microsoft.com about using “thank yous” as a way to actually gain an edge in the marketplace!

Author Joanna L. Krotz writes:

Today, extending old-time courtesies helps you stand out. Yes, boys and girls, saying “thank you” has become a competitive advantage. So few people express appreciation — a Lenox etiquette poll found that nearly five out of every 10 people don’t always say thanks — that remembering to do so is a sales point of difference. It also goes a long way toward forging the relationships that can turn into opportunities.

Then she outlines (in good detail) the following 11 tactics that you can sart using right NOW! Remember: Don’t underestimate the power of saying “thank you”.

Throw a bash that boosts their business.
Be warm and personal.
But know that timing counts.
Pass along compliments.
Send value-added appreciation.
Consider when to send for maximum impact.
Be quirky.
Appreciate employees.
Thank your complaining customers.
Don’t go over the top.
Feel the power.

Read the rest of the article.

Tags: appreciation, customer relations, customer service, Small Business, Thank You
Posted in Small Business Online | 1 Comment »

Marketing Like a Rock Star – My Sharona

February 22nd, 2010

This is part 4 of my Marketing Like a Rock Star Series. What do you have that can be your single most powerful door opener (conversation starter)?

Did you play college ball in the Pac 10? Traveled to all 7 continents? Did Kobe Bryant crash into you when saving a ball from out of bounds? We all have ‘em, now it’s time to start using ‘em…

Among the friends and family who attended services for Knack lead singer Doug Fieger was Sharona Alperin, the real-life inspiration for “My Sharona.” Alperin, who dated Fieger for more than three years, toured around the world with the Knack and is now a real estate agent in Los Angeles who makes wise use of the domain name mysharona.com.

It is important to leverage what you have.

In my bio, I always mention my Film Production background. Why? Not everyone can say they worked with Julia Roberts on “Pretty Woman”. It gets people’s attention. Once the door is open, it’s up to me to close the deal.

For Sharona – her opener is and probably will always be the song “My Sharona”.

Here is part of the press release from Sharona, released after Doug’s passing:

Doug Fieger wrote a song about me that changed both of our lives forever. “My Sharona” became an iconic smash hit, and even though Doug and I didn’t end up together, we remained close friends through all these years. His searing wit, love of music and ability to recall the B side of any 45, his gift for making friends and keeping them for decades, and his incredible optimism in the face of the toughest challenge remained vital until the very end.

The door is open so now Sharona wants you to know about her very successful real-estate business.

Sharona Aperin is one of the most successful and sought after real-estate professionals in Southern California. A life-long Los Angeles resident, Alperin has carved out a niche as the go to source among the entertainment community however she is happy to help anyone find their dream home.

Alperin attributes some of her success to the fact that when she was only 17, she was immortalized in the Knack’s 1979 hit single “My Sharona”.

Sharona believes that “‘My Sharona’ has had an impact on my ability to understand the entertainer’s mind, there’s something simpatico. You’ve got to care to the n’th degree. You can’t drop the ball for one minute.” I sell “the most emotional product on the market, because a star’s home is their only safe haven.”

My friend Brent Bye over at Box Wrench creates engine rebuilding DVD’s. He had a production deal with Holly (the carburetor guys) – to produce a nitrous injection kit installation viideo – the same one used in the Film “Fast & Furious” (2009), starring Vin Diesel. Do you think he used that bit of info to open some more doors? You bet he did!

Question is – “What can you leverage to open some doors for you?”

Tags: business marketing, Doug Fieger, Fast & Furious, Julia Roberts, Knack lead singer, Knack lead singer Doug Fieger, Kobe Bryant, marketing, Marketing Like a Rock Star, My Sharona, online marketing, Pretty Woman, real-estate, Sharona Alperin, Southern California, The Knack, Vin Diesel
Posted in Rock Star Marketing | No Comments »

Marketing Guru or Con Artist?

February 16th, 2010

marketing guru or con artist

4 things to look for when hiring a marketing consultant:

I am constantly surprised (and down right annoyed) at shat some people try to pass of as Internet Marketing skills. Whenever hiring a web designer, “marketing expert” or SEO company, look out for these warning signs. Or don’t and them come to me so I can fix it for you.

1. They insist on Using a Single Marketing Tactic

Quick – run SCREAMING for the hills! Why do they suggest this? Because it’s all they know.

This reminds me of a story.

A young husband and wife are in the kitchen on Christmas cooking their first Christmas dinner together. Before putting the ham in the pan, the wife cuts a chunk off the end of the ham. Her husband asks why? She says, “That’s the way my mom did it and that’s how I’ve always done it…”

This makes no sense to the husband so he walks out to the living room and asks his mother in law.

Her answer is the same, “That’s the way my mom did it and that’s how I’ve always done it…” she trails off.

Now the young wife chimes in with, “Let’s call Grandma and find out why.” So they do and she tells her story: “We always cut the end off the ham so it would fit in the oven.”

The moral of the story – There may have been a reason for this strategy in the past, but trust me, there are a lot of ways to cook a ham.

2. They Bring No New Ideas to the Table

A marketer or consultant should be able to fluidly relate several marketing tactics to your specific market or niche.

It’s not “one size fits all” here folks – you are looking for custom tailoring.

Secondly, your marketer should be up to date on the newest trends – if they suggest using MySpace as your main marketing push, I may use someone else.

3. They Don’t recommend Upgrading your Website

Every time I take on a new web client, I recommend upgrades to their existing site. The basis of everything you do online is your site. I am yet to find one that is perfectly built to suit the multi-pronged marketing campaign that I want to unleash… Unless, of course, I built it myself.

No matter how well built your site is, there is always room for improvement.

Most “Web Designers” don’t think like marketers and conversely, most marketers don’t have an aesthetic design bone in their body. You want to have a solid foundation for your online marketing. That’s why I ALWAYS use Wordpress when I create a site and/of marketing campaign.

4. They Guarantee Results

Guarantees are cool, right? Yes, but often times, they are very unrealistic. In the online marketing game – rules are always changing, as are strategies. A good marketer will give examples of successful strategies – and will often use several tactics to increase the chances for success. Remember #1 – that’s why you look for multiple strategies from any marketer or consultant.

Tags: Internet Marketing, marketing, MySpace, online marketing, web designer
Posted in Internet Marketing, Marketing & Promotion | No Comments »

4 Tips to Small Business Marketing on a Shoestring

February 15th, 2010

So you are a small business. If I ask you what your marketing budget is – does your answer sound like: “What marketing budget?” If that’s the case (or if you said, “pretty small”…) you need a dose of guerrilla marketing – or marking tips for a shoestring budget.

Following are some tips that will help you get new customers and clients – and get them to take action – without breaking the bank.

1. Word of Mouth Marketing

Once your business is up and running, tell everyone you know – friends, family, business colleagues and acquaintances, essentially, anyone who will listen. Describe your business to them – what it does or offers. You can even offer them an incentive – like a discount on your products or service or even a cash commission. Nothing wins over allies like cold, hard cash…

2. A little Public Relations

A lot of folks believe that Marketing and PR are one in the same. Not quite…

There are a few differences: Marketing is paid-for exposure under a company’s direct control, while public relations was free exposure.

Marketing has at its core a desire to reach consumers and make them think, believe or do what you want. Public relations is more focussed on influencing reputation, whether corporate or personal.

There are several ways that a small business can generate good Public Relations – using press releases, media events, even getting yourself exposure in local media. By positioning yourself (and your business) as experts in your arena – you suddenly create a lot of value for yourself to the local media.

3. Social Media

If you know anything about me, you know that I believe no business (large or small) should be without a social media marketing strategy. I suggest that you focus your attention on this power trio: Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. They are a great way to create new relationships and deepen existing ones. They allow you to highlight new products and company news. They also provide a great platform for customer feedback. And remember I mentioned “Word of Mouth’ efforts above? These sights give your friends, connections and followers the opportunity to tell their friends about you.

4. Email Auto Responders and Newsletters

No business website should be without an email capture – right there on the home page (and every page, if you ask me). Put you signup form right in front of your site’s visitors. Don’t make them click for the privilege! Yes there was sarcasm… Statistics show that every time you make a visitor click a link, 50% don’t do it. And if you have other links on your page, you reduce the odds further.

Good, they’ve signed up, now what?

A regular Newsletter is a great marketing tool – it let’s you reconnect with existing contacts on a regular basis. This accomplishes two things: 1) It acts a a gentle reminder about your business and service, and 2) You can offer specials that get them returning to your site and/or physical location. Pretty cool, huh?

My suggestion for an email service provider is MailChimp. They are great, they automatically clean your list and provide a nice easy way to create beautiful newsletters.

Best of all, until you grow over 500 subscribers, their service is free!

Tags: email auto responders, Facebook, guerrilla marketing, LinkedIn, marketing on a shoestring budget, marketing strategy, newsletter, PR, public relations, shoestring budget, social media, social media marketing strategy, Twitter, word of mouth marketing
Posted in Doing Business Online | 1 Comment »

Twitter To Find A Job?

February 12th, 2010

Are you on Twitter? If you are, you certainly know that you are not alone–32 million others are tweeting right along with you. But did you know that you can use this awesome social media tool to help you find a job? A recent Yahoo! HotJobs poll showed that only 8% of respondents have used Twitter to help with a job search. Considering the state of the job market today, don’t leave any stone unturned if you are out there looking for a job.

Dan Schawbel, author of “Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success,” shares some tips to help you use Twitter to raise your professional profile and put your job search on the fast track.

1. Brand yourself. Instead of just jumping in, Schawbel says, “Before using any social network, create a single, unified social-media strategy, so that your brand remains consistent throughout each network that you join, including Twitter.” He recommends using the same professional picture or avatar and user name, a consistent bio, and a “personal brand statement” that explains what you do and who your audience is.

2. Fine-tune your Twitter homepage. Twitter has some great tools that you should use to make sure that your Twitter homepage looks professional. Schawbel: “Just like your other social network profiles, your Twitter profile should be completely filled out. This includes your full name, location, a biography, and — the single most important element — a single link to a site of your choosing. I recommend directing people to a blog, your LinkedIn profile, or a site that you feel best represents you. If you really want to take your brand to the next level, then a custom Twitter background, which you can make using twitterimage.com or twitterbacks.com, is required.”

3. Build your audience. Don’t think you know anyone on Twitter? Think again. “A percentage of your friends, family, and previous coworkers are already on Twitter,” says Schwabel. “You can easily import contacts from most Web-mail programs or find people using Twitter’s search engine and invite your network onto Twitter with an email invitation. Then, use Twitter search to locate people in your industry, follow them, and interact with them through a series of tweets and ‘retweets’ over time.”

4. Start tweeting. Not sure what to tweet about? “Tweet what you know”, says Schawbel. “The more you tweet about what you know, the more you’ll become the go-to person on that topic in the Twitterverse. The key to building an audience is to remain interesting to your current followers so that they retweet your messages and more people discover and follow you. And, again, by constantly following more people, namely the influencers in your industry, and pushing out relevant tweets, your audience will grow rapidly.”

5. Don’t be shy-let people know you are looking. There are a few ways to let your followers know that you’re in the market for a new job. “First, revise your Twitter profile to call attention to the type of job you’re looking for. Second, customize your Twitter background and add in text that talks about where you’re headed in your career. Finally, you can send a tweet after you’ve built your follower count, which states your expertise and the type of job you’re looking for,” he advises. To get a job you may have to help others find them too. “If you discover a job lead on Twitter and it’s not related to what you want to do, passing it on is an effective way to network.”

Tags: "Me 2.0: Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success", Dan Schwabel, employment, job search, social media, social media tool, Tweets, Twitter, Yahoo!HotJobs
Posted in Doing Business Online | No Comments »

A Kinder, Gentler Facebook Design

February 6th, 2010

Yet another Facebook Makeover

What did Facebook Change?

So here’s the scoop – The top navigation has changed. One big change (some may say RADICAL!) is that Facebook’s search bar is on the left – “Oh no! Say it isn’t so! On every site I visit, the search is on the right, what will I do?!”, I can hear the cries already… Sometimes change is good.

Top Right Navigation

Now on the right you’ll see your “Home”, “Profile” and “Account” links:

The “Account” link opens a dropdown menu so you can easily navigate to all your account needs:

On first glance, I wasn’t really sure about any of the new features, but now I feel tht it does make it a little simpler to navigate and a bit more intuitive.

Top Left Navigation

Here’s the top left side of your new Facebook:

There’s that search bar hanging out on the left. Starting on the left, the Facebook logo still links to your home page. Next is the feature that I really like on this redesign: 3 icons for:

Friend Requests
Messages in your Inbox
Notifications

Remember on the “old” Facebook, your notifications were on the bottom right of the screen, your messages were up top on the left (close to where it is now) and friend requests were only found on your home page. I really like that these 3 are all together now. Anything that makes my time spent on Facebook more efficient!

See? Instant Notification Gratification!

Left Menu Bar

This is pretty similar to how it was but here is a list of features here:

Your News Feed, Messages and your Friends – are at the top, this way it’s easier to keep up with what’s new.
Applications you’ve bookmarked are now higher up the page for easier/quicker access.

Here’s the part I both like and dislike: The next feature, “Chat with Friends” and “Go Online”. Once you click “Go Online” you are connect to all your friends also online – this can be cool if you like to use the Facebook Chat Feature. Here’s my beef: Once you click “Go Online”, there is no link in the Left Bar to “Go Offline”! Instead, you have to navigate to the bottom right where the chat feature still lives and go to Options –> Go Offline. That’s kind of lame if you ask me.

And Finally

Not much really, except that the new layout increases the amount of clicks I need to take care of some simple tasks like logging out and accessing settings.

All in all, I like the changes – I am always helping my clients reduce the amount of time needed to maintain efficient and personal contact on Facebook (and other Social Media sites), so any good intuitive simplifying works for me.

Tags: Facebook, social media, social network, Social Networking, Web Design
Posted in Facebook | No Comments »

10 Tips to Getting Your Business Blog Started

February 5th, 2010

I preach about blogging (using Wordpress) for small business – until I’m blue in the face, really. But there is good reason. Let me explain:

Blogging might very well be the single most important thing you do for your small business online. It’s not the only thing – but it sets the foundation for everything else you do online. What ever you are doing anywhere else online, your blog is what will ultimately capture your visitors’ interest and as long as you are consistently adding new, engaging content, keep them coming back for more.

Consider your blog as your “Relationship Maker” , “Branding Agent” and your “Expert Creation Assistant”. A well written, informative blog will help you accomplish all three of these things.

Relationship Maker

Certainly you can begin “relationships” on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, but your business mission on these sites is to create enough interest so that your social media “friends” will go visit your website. This is why it is not only important to have a nicely designed site but a well integrated Wordpress blog to keep their interest. If your visitors like what they are reading – it is extremely important to give them value – not only will they continue to come back and possibly buy your products, and services or even walk into your store, they will also become advocates for you and your business to their networks!

Branding Agent

Once you get people to your site, your blog can help mold people’s perceptions of you and your business. Branding as a concept means much more than your logo and colors… What you say on your blog will shape your visitors opinions about you in ways far greater than any logo of service mark. This is why it is important to use your blog consistently, relevantly and on message. And above all else: Give your visitors HUGE VALUE.

Expert Creation Assistant

The more valuable and insightful your blog is the more you leverage yourself as an expert – Period.

One of the major reasons to use your blog to establish yourself as the expert in your field is because your competition probably isn’t… Yet.

All that being said, here are 10 things to do to get your blog started:

Install and set-up your self hosted WordPress blog (Or hire someone else to do it. Your blog should be fully and neatly integrated into your site and not hosted somewhere else like blogger or Wordpress.com
Write a list of 30 topics you can write about – just headlines
Set up news alerts from http://www.google.com/alerts. Once Google Alert is set up, you can receive daily digests of articles and blog posts on virtually any topic. This is a great way to discover new topics to write about.
Write 1-3 Blog posts per week.
Always stay Ahead! Write five to 10 posts and save them as drafts in your blog. Do not publish them yet.
Send an email to your friends, family and colleagues and invite them to read you blog and ask them to leave comments.
Invite people in your online networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) to read your blog.
Find 10 blogs that target similar markets (not competitors) – read them, add comments and make friends with those bloggers. The blogging community always seems ready to help other bloggers spread the word.
Make friends with 10-20 people who already have strong social networks and ask them to help you spread the word.
Stay consistent with your blog posts – write 1-3 blog posts per week.

Good luck and happy blogging. Above all else… Have fun!

Tags: blog, Blogger, blogging, Branding Agent, engaging content, Expert Creation Assistant, Facebook, LinkedIn, Relationship Maker, Twitter, WordPress
Posted in Small Business Online, WordPress | No Comments »

6 Reasons Business Owners Should Embrace Social Media

January 11th, 2010

There are tons of reasons, literally tons, that you should be using social media to generate more revenue for your business. Today I’ll give you six reasons why you as a small business owner or sole proprietor should be using social media every day to effectively connect with your current potential and future customers and clients.

1. Social Media helps you establish your business online.

By using sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, you not only stay connected to current customers and clients you also allow new ones to find you. Social media is a great way to introduce yourself to people who share the same interests. By engaging them on social media sites you can turn some of those people into customers and clients.

By establishing yourself online, you help establish yourself and your business as the experts in your field.

2. It’s a great way to stay connected to customers and clients.

Social media sites provide a very easy-to-use platform where you can stay connected to your current customer and client base. So what exactly do I mean by staying connected? Let’s take a look at a site like Twitter. Twitter is a site commonly referred to as a micro-blogging site, where you can post messages that have 140 words or fewer. By staying active on Twitter, posting information about your business, links to your site, links to other useful resources and even asking for customer feedback, you engage current customers and clients as well as potential future ones.

3. It’s a great way to offer coupons discounts and specials

Social media sites are one of the most inexpensive ways you can reach an extremely large audience. You can create special offers available only to those people who are connected with you online through social media sites.

I have a friend in Minneapolis who owns a coffeehouse, nearly every day on Twitter he announces daily specials, and sometimes even gives out a secret word that you have to use in order to claim the special price. Do you think you could do something like this to bring people into your store, or to have them pick up the phone and schedule an appointment for your service?

Social media is an extremely overlooked way to get people to take action and walk into your store or schedule an appointment for your service.

4. It’s that great way to receive feedback

Social media sites are great way for your customers and clients to let you know how you’re doing. On a regular basis ask your followers some of these following questions:

a. How are we doing?
b. What product or service would like to see?
c. What can we do differently or better?

By using questions like these you allow customers and clients to feel like they have a stake in your business, and to feel like they are being heard. Not only is this great customer service, but it also gives you an opportunity to learn from your current customers and clients.

5. Social media can turn your followers into an army of referrers

By engaging current and potential future customers and clients online, you actually create a network of people who will refer you to others. Staying consistent and providing your followers with valuable and helpful information you also give them the opportunity to pass that information on to their network. And the best part of this is: it’s free.

In general, people are much more likely to take an action suggested by a friend or acquaintance, than from a perfect stranger. How many times have you seen a particular movie or gone to eat at a particular restaurant because a friend suggested it? I’ll venture to guess that sometimes when a friend refers something to you they might be very excited about it. Imagine now, if you will, a perfect stranger coming up to you with that same level of excitement insisting that you go to a particular restaurant or see a particular movie. Kind of weird, right?

The same thing holds true in social media. It is important to build a level of trust. once you do, everyone you connect with on social media sites has the potential to be an avid referrer.

6. Social media can help you generate extra revenue

As I talked about numbers two and three, social media can help you drive people into your store or business, and even pick up the phone to schedule an appointment. Social media allows you to touch many people at once and by using great tools like HootSuite, where you can actually pre-schedule your social media activity. More people walk into your store or picking up the phone and scheduling an appointment equals more revenue.

If you aren’t using sites like Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn as part of your consistent marketing efforts, times a wasting… Create accounts on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, and start engaging your current clients and customers as well as all those potential future once. And above all else, have fun doing it!

Tags: business, Facebook, HootSuite, LinkedIn, marketing, social media, Twitter
Posted in Social Media Revolution | 1 Comment »

Case Study: How Aaron Patzer Made $170 Million in Two Years

November 4th, 2009

In 2007, Aaron Patzer launched Mint.com as a user-friendly alternative to Quicken. Now, just two short years later, Intuit, which makes Quicken, paid over $170 million for his website. So how’d he do it?

Let’s take a look shall we and see how we can apply this to your business. Inc Magazine offers 5 quotes from Aaron. I’ll dig a little deeper into what he said and give you a few ideas of exactly how these concepts can apply to you and your business.

AaronPatzer

Create a product that makes the difficult & boring easy & fun

“What set us apart from 95 percent of other start-ups is that we served a real need,” Patzer says. “Personal finance is so complex and too difficult for most people. I was frustrated with the existing tools and found out that others were frustrated as well.”

Volkswagen is using this idea in an ad campaign to help our environment: http://www.thefuntheory.com

How can you attract new customers/clients by making something fun. Adding a coupon to your website or maybe a game or puzzle to solve for a prize discount. Think about this one and get your creative juices flowing!

Business_and_internet_concept

Choose a market that’s really, really big. What’s the word? (BIG)

“There are 250 million people worldwide who already use online banking,” Patzer says. “With our 1.5 million users, we’ve barely scratched the surface. Intuit made a billion dollars on its tax business alone and that’s a once-a-year thing. People do online banking every day.”

Or target a niche market the is BIG enough. Of course it would be great to score that $170 million home run – that’s why we think big. But if you target your niche thoughtfully – always delivering your value to the marketplace, you can always target a bigger, wider market at any time!

money

Develop a business model that actually makes you money.

“Our product is free, but we make our money by helping people save money,” Patzer says. “We understand where people spend their money so we can say, ‘You should refinance’ or ‘You should change your auto insurance.’ The only ads people see on Mint.com are ones that will save them at least $50. Financial institutions then pay us for new customers.”

On the surface, this one seems like a no brainer. That is why we are in business – to make money. But if you are spinning your entrepreneurial wheels, not making money, it’s time to get a better model.

How can you improve your model so that it delivers maximum value to your customers and maximum dollars to you?

post-no-bills

Don’t pay for new customers/clients. Ever.

“All of our customer acquisition has been free — through social media, blogs, and the press,” Patzer says. “We don’t pay a dime for advertising. We also use business partnerships with Motley Fool and the credit-report companies. And Apple has given us a lot of free advertising as a featured application.”

This is my favorite! I love FREE stuff! That’s why I am active on the social networks and my blogs giving value away. I follow the Universal Law of Reciprocity. In your life how many times has someone given you a gift that you were anxious to repay? My guess – almost every time you receive a gift. We want to give back, return the favor. It is built in us naturally.

“One of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us is the rule for reciprocation. The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided us.” ~ Robert B. Cialdini, author of The Psychology of Persuasion

business_woman_with_group

Be a extremely careful about who you hire.

“In the last start-up I worked for, hiring was done haphazardly,” Patzer says. “We have a very rigorous hiring process. For tech people, we might screen 50 people and hire one. For all managers, we use a technique called top grading which reveals patterns in behavior. In the history of Mint, I’ve only fired two people and only one has left voluntarily.”

Bringing people onto your team is a big deal and should be treated such. Don’t hire someone just because they are cheap. This is not a good policy. People who believe in your mission will go the extra mile for you – be on the lookout for those people.

If you found this post helpful, please leave a comment or use the “Tweetmeme” button above to tweet it.

Thanks

Tags: $170 million, Aaron Patzer, blog, business modelsocial media, clients, customers, Intuit, Law of Reciprocity, market, marketplace, Mint.com, niche, Personal finance, Quicken, Volkswagen
Posted in Doing Business Online, Marketing & Promotion, Small Business Online | 1 Comment »

Resizing Your YouTube Movies

October 28th, 2009

Adding a YouTube movie to your website is super easy – we all know that… But what if you want to customize the size of your movie so that it fits elegantly within the parameters and style of your site, then what?

I have a nice little formula for you that will help you resize any movie for you.

You see, it isn’t enough to just change the width of your movie – you must adjust the height too. But in order to keep the aspect ratio of the movie intact (we don’t want to stretch, squish it or have a huge black border) we must reduce the height the same percentage as the width – but how?

Let’s take a look at a YouTube embed code:

<object width=”640″ height=”385″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hbnUbXX-8L0&hl=en&fs=1&”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hbnUbXX-8L0&hl=en&fs=1&” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”640″ height=”385″></embed></object>

I have highlighted (in BOLD PINK) two places where you will have to change the height and width information.

Say our center (content) column is 529 pixels wide, we can easily change the width from width=”640″ height=”385″ to width=”529” height=”385″ pixels. That’s the easy part – now how do we figure out the correct height?

If we only change the width, the movie looks like this:

Not elegant, big ugly black border… (FYI – I was the 1st Assistant Director on this Music Video).

We need to do a little math – wait don’t be scared, don’t even think of it as math – it is simply a system that will work every time. When you put your key in the ignition and turn it and your car starts, you don’t (I am guessing) ask why – you are simply happy that it works – do the same here.

Here’s what we do. First we find out what we know. We know (in this example) that the YouTube movie is 640 pixels wide and we also know that our center column is 529 – our movie must be only 529 pixels to properly fit on our page.

Here’s the math: We divide 640 by 529 to get a ratio of the difference. 640 divided by 529 equals 1.21. So to figure out the correct height we simply divide the current height by 1.21 to get our new height. 385 divided by 1.21 equals 318.

Easy right? The correct height of our movie is: 318. Now let’s take a look at the new code:

<object width=”529″ height=”318″><param name=”movie” value=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hbnUbXX-8L0&hl=en&fs=1&”></param><param name=”allowFullScreen” value=”true”></param><param name=”allowscriptaccess” value=”always”></param><embed src=”http://www.youtube.com/v/hbnUbXX-8L0&hl=en&fs=1&” type=”application/x-shockwave-flash” allowscriptaccess=”always” allowfullscreen=”true” width=”529″ height=”318″></embed></object>

This will work every time. To summarize:

Always start with an embed code that has the width of the movie wider than you need
Divide the original movie width by the width of your page.
Divide the original height by the answer in number 2.
Replace the width and height in both place in your embed code.

When we do the math, the video looks like this:

If you found this post helpful, please leave a comment or tweet about it. Thanks,

Lennie

Tags: resize, You Tube, YouTube, youtube movie
Posted in You Tube | 2 Comments »

How to Hire a Web Designer

October 13th, 2009

A large portion of my clientele are folks who have gotten a bad deal or, in a lot of cases, made a bad deal for themselves when hiring a designer for their website.

I spend a lot of time cleaning up other “designer’s” messes, in large part, because the client didn’t know a few key things to do when looking to hire a Web Designer or Web Design firm. Following is your six item checklist of things to do before you hire a web designer.

1. Make Sure the Web Designer Has a Website

This is HUGE mistake number 1!

Come on folks. This is so obvious, it is almost embarrassing to mention. However, for some reason, this gets the pass often. Never, what’s the word? NEVER hire a designer or design firm if they have no site. It’s like hiring a money manager who is broke!

Are they active in Social Media? Do they promote themselves? If not, how successful will they be build a marketable site for you?

Do they blog about their business? This is a good indicator of what and how much they know and understand about the business of designing a successful web site.

If you answer no to any of these questions, chances are, they can’t help you either.

2. Make Sure They Have a Portfolio

Check out their client list and portfolio. Do you like the design style? Good, now dig deeper. Are the sites live? This is a very good indicator of the clients satisfaction level.

3. Ask For References

No brainer again. If they have happy clients, they will happily supply references. On the other hand, if they hesitate; that loud sound going off is a warning siren!

When you check with the references, ask these questions:

a. How was their experience with the designer?
b. Did the designer seem knowledgeable about the “business” of the internet?
c. What are their results?

4. Pay Attention

When meeting with the web designer or firm, make sure to pay attention to every detail. See if they ask you about your business, goals and target market? See if they offer suggestions to broaden your target market, business ideas and online marketing efforts?

Are they taking detailed notes and offering suggestions of what type of site would be effective for your business and explaining why? If not, ask why not?

Are they taking the time to explain the web design process explained to you so you know what to expect?

Are they organized?

Does it feel like the are running a business?

These are all things that any professional web designer would cover during an initial client meeting. If they aren’t bringing any business savvy to the table, it’s probably because they don’t have any.

5. Ask Questions

During the meeting ask the company how familiar they are with your industry. Is this important? Yes and no. I lost a client to a designer more familiar with the aerospace industry – and I can assure you that in this case, it did not make any difference. Unless the designer is creating content, this is not really necessary.

Ask them what programming languages they use. A good understanding of various programming languages is helpful. Ask them if they can build content management websites or sites that will allow you to update the site in the future. For us, this is a must. We exclusively use Wordpress as an amazing blog platform and content management system. Most business sites do not need systems like Joomla or Drupal. Those are usually overkill and not very simple to self-manage.

Have them detail their web design experience and tell you how long they’ve been in the industry. Ask them if they are familiar with search engine optimization. Ask them for examples of their results.

You are the client, so do not be afraid to ask questions.

6. Go With Your Instinct

Most people have pretty good intuition. If something doesn’t seem quite right, it most probably isn’t. If this is the case, continue with your search until you find a company that you can trust.

Tags: business, hire a web designer, internet business, social media, Web Design, web designer
Posted in Web Design | 2 Comments »

Riding the Google Wave

October 8th, 2009

What is Google Wave?

Wave is an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration. A wave can be both a conversation and a document where people can discuss and work together using richly formatted text, photos, videos, maps, and more.

Google Wave is a real-time communication platform. It combines aspects of email, instant messaging, wikis, web chat, social networking, and project management to build one elegant, in-browser communication client. You can bring a group of friends or business partners together to discuss how your day has been or share files.

This from Mashable:

Google Wave has a lot of innovative features, but here are just a few:

- Real-time: In most instances, you can see what someone else is typing, character-by-character.

- Embeddability: Waves can be embedded on any blog or website.

- Applications and Extensions: Just like a Facebook (Facebook) application or an iGoogle gadget, developers can build their own apps within waves. They can be anything from bots to complex real-time games.

- Wiki functionality: Anything written within a Google Wave can be edited by anyone else, because all conversations within the platform are shared. Thus, you can correct information, append information, or add your own commentary within a developing conversation.

- Open source: The Google Wave code will be open source, to foster innovation and adoption amongst developers.

- Playback: You can playback any part of the wave to see what was said.

- Natural language: Google Wave can autocorrect your spelling, even going as far as knowing the difference between similar words, like “been” and “bean.” It can also auto-translate on-the-fly.

- Drag-and-drop file sharing: No attachments; just drag your file and drop it inside Google Wave and everyone will have access.

All of this sounds quite amazing – we’ll have to see if it lives up to the promises. As of now only a relative handful of people have been invited to take part in initial Wave testing, but I hear you can buy an invite on Ebay:

With Google releasing 100,000 invites to test the beta version of the much-hyped Wave, one enterprising blogger decided to capitalize on all the buzz surrounding the new messaging and collaboration tool by selling his invite on eBay.

Hagan Blount, a 30-year-old food blogger based in Baltimore, had been listening to the chatter about Wave and hatched the idea to auction his invite on eBay. “I figured there’s a whole lot of buzz. I wonder how many hits this would get?” he said.

Of course, Mr. Blount hadn’t yet received his invite, but he said that a software developer friend of his who did not wish to be identified had promised to procure one for him. Mr. Blount commenced the auction on Tuesday night, and by the time he had woken up at 6 a.m. Wednesday, the day that Google would be releasing Wave invites, his auction had already received 12,000 hits.

If you want to learn more about Google Wave, check out the official Google Wave Page and Mashable.com.

Tags: Google, google wave, instant messaging, mail, maps, Mashable, photos, richly formatted text, Social Networking, videos, web chat, wikis
Posted in Google | 1 Comment »

Marketing like a Rock Star – Take 3

October 6th, 2009

This, I guess is a part 3 of the Rockstar marketing series…

The 1st 2 posts dealt primarily with how Rock Stars enroll their audience, building and solidifying relationships, before “closing” the sale.

In this installment of “Marketing Like A Rock Star”, I am going to take a different approach – talking about a Rock Star building her social capital and using an ethical bribe to increase her Twitter following!

The “who” in this story is Tina Sugandh, the “Tabla Girl”. Tina and I have been friends (in the social networking sense) for years going back to MySpace.

Tina has an amazing story. She has been performing with her family since she was 5 years old – this is from her website bio:

Growing up in New Jersey (her parents moved from Bombay when she was five months old), Tina Sugandh was immersed in music. Naturally gifted with an enchanting voice, Geeta, the matriarch of her close-knit family sang on the radio and at various functions (when she wasn’t carrying out her responsibilities as a marketing professional); while the patriarch, Kanaiya, was a charismatic and charming master of ceremony, singer, and comedian (when he wasn’t teaching at his University). Together, they were an enthralling couple, entertaining friends at gatherings and parties.

Tina and her sister, Seema, traveled with their parents to all of their performances. It was at the age of five that Tina had found her calling. “The first time my parents allowed me to sing on stage was at a fair,” she recalls. “I was five and I sang a ghazal, which is a type of song you can sing only if you have a trained voice. As soon as I got up there, I tried to take over. My parents were surprised when they realized I was trying to steal the spotlight! They recognized that I loved performing and wanted to be a part of the show. They encouraged me and supported my love of music and performing. They also kept me focused and gave me a strong work ethic by insisting that I could continue performing as long as my grades at school remained high.” That started “The Sugandh Family” music legacy.

Like in every great story, sometimes there is tragedy. On December 3rd of 2009, Tina’s “Ma” Geeta lost her battle with breast Cancer.

This, however, is where this take on Rockstar Marketing takes a turn – by using the following techniques Tina accomplishes 3 (three) different marketing goals:

She gets people to visit her site
Has visitors take action using an ethical bribe, and
Raises awareness of a good cause!

Let’s break these down for you so you, too, can use them in your own business.

1. Getting people to visit tinasugandh.com

Tina uses the “giveaway” (I like to call it the “ethical bribe”) method. Visit the website and I will give you a free download of my new song. Using email and social media sites, Tina made the offer of the free download…

Once you get to the site, here’s what you see:

In honor of Breast Cancer Awareness month, get a FREE DOWNLOAD of the what Tina calls the most important song…

Notice how #3 starts right at the beginning. We click the link and we are instructed how, exactly to claim our free download.

2. Getting Visitors to take action with the ethical bribe

This is so great! Here Tina reinforces her calling attention to a good cause and gives instructions on the action the visitor must take in order to receive their free music download.. This from her site:

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month! In honor of those whose lives have been affected by cancer, Tina has written and recorded what she calls the most heartfelt song of her career, entitled “Snake Charmer”, and would love to share it with you all. To receive your free download link, join Twitter and follow these easy instructions:

No I’m not going to post the instructions – you’ll have to visit her site: Tabla Girl’s Free Download – to do that.

So, in order to receive the free download, you first must follow Tina on Twitter – Great way to build your follower list on Twitter, don’t you think?!

3. Raising Awareness of a good cause

Now how about using your platform, in addition to giving your clients/customers/fans/followers something of value for free, but also taking the time and using thee opportunity to introduce them to something that is meaningful to you. Just as Breast Cancer Awareness means a lot to Tina.

Do you think you can apply these 3 steps to a promotion in your business?

If you have found this post helpfful or insightful – please leave a comment or Tweet it using the button above.

Thanks,

Lennie

Tags: breast cancer awareness, ethical bribe, giveaway, good cause, marketing, MySpace, Rock star, Rockstar, Social Networking, Tabla Girl, Tina Sugandh, Twitter, Twitter following
Posted in Rock Star Marketing | No Comments »

10 FREE Photo Editors for Windows

October 5th, 2009

We all love free resources! I may be a “Mac Guy” but I still have nothing but love for those of you using my cousin the PC… So in the spirit of fairness I now provide you (the Windows users of the world) with not 5 but 10 FREE photo Editors for you to choose from!

1. PhotoScape

photoscape-win

PhotoScape is an all-in-one style photo editor with fun and ease of use. Major capabilities are: viewer, editor, batch editor, page, combine, animated GIF, print, splitter, screen capture, color picker, rename, raw converter, resizing, brightness/color/white-balance adjustment, backlight correction, frames, balloons, text, drawing pictures, cropping, filters, red eye removal and blooming. PhotoScape has been used for two years and is expanding its features continuously.

2. GIMP for Windows

gimp

GIMP is a popular open-source image editor originally developed for Unix/Linux. Often lauded as the “free Photoshop,” it does have an interface and features similar to Photoshop, but with a steep learning curve to match. Because it’s volunteer-developed beta software, stability and frequency of updates could be an issue; however, many happy users report using GIMP for Windows without significant problems.

GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring.

It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.

GIMP is expandable and extensible. It is designed to be augmented with plug-ins and extensions to do just about anything. The advanced scripting interface allows everything from the simplest task to the most complex image manipulation procedures to be easily scripted.

Requirements: GIMP should run on any NT-based version of Windows (NT4, 2000, XP or Vista). Older GIMP versions (2.0.x) could also work with older versions of Windows such as Windows 95 but they are not supported anymore. The amount of memory can be an important factor, especially if you intend to work on large images. A minimum of 128 MB of RAM is recommended, but the more RAM the better.

3. Paint.NET

paintnet-win

Paint.NET is a free photo editor for Windows XP.

Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

It started development as an undergraduate college senior design project mentored by Microsoft, and is currently being maintained by some of the alumni that originally worked on it. Originally intended as a free replacement for the MS Paint software that comes with Windows, it has grown into a powerful yet simple tool for photo and image editing.

4. Serif PhotoPlus

serif-photo-plus-win

PhotoPlus is the amazing photo editing software from Serif that enables you to enhance your digital photos and images, create stunning bitmap graphics and even web animations.

With PhotoPlus you can easily edit images, enhance colour balance, adjust brightness and contrast and make many more changes and adjustments to achieve fantastic results every time! The Pro version costs under $80!

5. Pixia

pixia-win

Pixia is the English version of a popular free painting and retouching software that originated in Japan. It features custom brush tips, multiple layers, masking, vector- and bitmap-based drawing tools, color, tone, and lighting adjustments, and multiple undo/redo. Like many freeware editors, there is no support for saving GIF format. Pixia is also available for many other languages. Pixia works with Windows 95, 98, Me, NT4, 2000, and XP.

6. VCW VicMan’s Photo Editor

vic-win

VCW VicMan’s Photo Editor is a versatile image editor with an intuitive interface and a wide variety of features. This powerful application is user friendly, offering simple image editing, high productivity and easy customization.

Now you don’t have to fork out hundreds of dollars for a quality image editor. This award-winning application is freely downloadable and comes with a wide range of essential features for both novice users and professional designers. With VCW VicMan’s Photo Editor you can refine your digital photos, draw artwork naturally and effortlessly, producing superb graphics for the web.

7. PhotoFiltre

scr_photofiltre

PhotoFiltre is a complete image retouching program. It allows you to do simple or advanced adjustments to an image and apply a vast range of filters on it. It is simple and intuitive to use, and has an easy learning curve. The toolbar, giving you access to the standard filters with just a few clicks, gives PhotoFiltre a robust look.

8. Ultimate Paint

ultimate-paint

Ultimate Paint is a full-featured 32-bit Windows graphics program for image creation, viewing and manipulation. On this page you can download different versions, see what extras UP gives you compared to other paint programs, take a look at its cool plug-in effects, register the trial version and browse the tutorials.
In the latest trial version all basic functionality can be used without limitations. In addition we have also introduced a new freeware version.

UP supports JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, PCX, AVI (reading only), TGA, WMF/EMF, ICO (reading only), IFF/LBM and WAP BMP image formats and Twain compatible scanners. You can easily print your image, setting its size, position and orientation.

9. ImageForge

imageforge-win

ImageForge provides you with a set of powerful tools for painting and editing images, photos or other graphics.

Create and edit images, acquire pictures from your scanner, digital camera or other Twain-compliant device, apply special effect filters, produce your own photo albums and simple slide shows, and much more.

Upgrade your ability to edit images with this free paint program.

10. Picasa

picasa

This third version of Google Picasa is earning enthusiastic reviews for its improved image management and editing features, along with a basic movie editor and a lot of web synchronization. It even has a face-recognition feature that helps you find photos with people in them. The Mac version has now been released, joining versions for Windows 2000/XP/Vista and Linux. Older versions of Picasa run on earlier Windows operating systems. Reviews now give Picasa 3 the edge over other free photo software and say it may well be all you need — unless your collection gets too big.

If this post was helpful or if you have any photo editing suggestions, please add a comment below.

Tags: FREE photo Editors, GIMP for Windows, ImageForge, Paint.NET, photo editing software, PhotoFiltre, PhotoScape, Picasa, Pixia, Serif PhotoPlus, Ultimate Paint, VCW VicMan's Photo Editor, windows
Posted in Website Resources | No Comments »

Lennie Appelquist on Twitter

Lennie Appelquist has 5523 followers

If you aren't using a blog, then you are missing the most dynamic opportunity in HISTORY do drive customers to ANY BUSINESS! WordPress makes this easier than ever.

The time is now to get yourself online, with an amazingly simple system that allows you to take full control fo your website. Doing business online has never been easier! We'll arm you with you own WordPress blog, 31+ templates and a handful of tools to get you started right away. What are you waiting for? Read more...

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When I decided to put a website up I never thought I'd actually get business from it. I started working with Lennie on the design and he understood what I wanted so effortlessly. In no time my site was working for me as I never imagined possible. And when I don't know what I need but know what I'd like to see happen, he jumps in with the latest on marketing and e-commerce tools that we can put in place. I consider Lennie to be a trusted advisor, and key to my ability to reach the people who need to know about my services.

Daisy Swan, MA, CPCC
Strategy Advisor and Coach
11812 San Vicente Blvd. Suite 505
LA, CA 90049
310-820-8877
www.daisyswan.com