Archive for December, 2009

Some New Year’s Resolutions

December 31st, 2009

Here are some New Year’s resolutions for myself:

Starting in mid 2008, I kind of became more business-focused, both in my personal writing and business demeanor. And it’s not making me happy – I feel like I’m not quite “me”. I will change that. Look for me to get a lot looser in tone / demeanor / what I write about / etc.
As part of this change, I will probably post a little more here, but maybe some shorter posts, and not always try to say something meaningful (in a pure business sense, which is what I was trying to do.) I am also interested in personal / entrepreneurial / relationship / business success, and will talk about that a little more. I live a good, satisfying life here, and I can help others get there.
I also like larger, macro-type issues, and I kind of struggle with this. I’m not a corporate guy, but I can help larger companies, too, because I see things they miss. But I’m not a corporate guy… it’s a paradox. I don’t know if I can do much about this, but I’ll try.
I should take up a sport… well, maybe not. I suspect the next time I actually run, it’ll be because someone larger than me is chasing me with a meat cleaver or something. Which, happily, isn’t the norm.
We’re going on a cruise in May. This time, I will not get drunk on sail away… Silly resolution, but necessary. I do have an excuse for last time… see, it was our first cruise, it was festive, and six bottles for the price of five (after I already had a few) sounded good. But it was also rough seas that night, and being drunk and seasick is really, really unpleasant (trust me). I was fine the next day (got my sea legs), but I’d rather not do that again.
I will start another income stream. Right now, most of my income is tied to copywriting (books pay astonishingly little), and I want to change that to some degree. I have a few ideas, and one will surface.
I have had trouble sleeping the last two years. But taking stuff to help me sleep is starting to bother me – I just know it’s not the optimum solution. So I will tackle this (I’m actually quite good at stuff like this – once I decide to do something, I almost always do it.) This is all in my head – when I go on vacation, I sleep fine with no help.

Ok, that’s a good list – I can live with this.

Happy New Year, everyone.

Posted in Misc / Personal Stuff, Success | No Comments »

Time Warner Cable’s big gamble

December 30th, 2009

I’m a Time Warner Cable customer, and I’m not happy with what I am reading.

First they fought with the NFL Network, and as of now, remain the only major cable provider who doesn’t offer the channel (a channel your humble author would really like.) Now they are getting into it with FOX. There’s a decent chance that FOX could go dark on 1/1 for all TWC customers (this means I might miss more football.)

Time Warner Cable’s argument is basically this: “we want to protect our subscribers from increasing fees”.

That’s a sappy sentiment, for sure, except that I don’t believe it for a second. Am I really to believe that TWC would stand alone on an island like they are to protect little old me??? I seriously, seriously doubt that. TWC wants to protect their profits, and wants the NFL Network and FOX to charge them less (and they hide behind “well, if NFL and FOX knuckle, we won’t have to raise fees. Aren’t we swell?”)

Now, this could be a nice “little guy stands up to the big guy” story, except for one little thing: Time Warner is in the business of providing me programming. They aren’t in the business of watching my wallet. Sooner or later, any choice for television comes down to channels/services provided. We’re probably talking less than $2 a month for subscribers. Believe me, nobody chooses cable TV providers for $2 a month. They choose based on other factors (channel lineup being king.) TWC is gambling we want our $2 instead. They are going to lose.

They are standing alone here, and it’s going to cost them. Don’t they understand that the public won’t see FOX (or whomever) as the villian here? People aren’t going to say “FOX abandoned Time Warner” – they are going to say “Time Warner isn’t getting me FOX“. And then they will switch to someone else.

I’m baffled how they can be so blind. But hey, even the insane guy thinks everyone else is insane.

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Initial Impressions – right or wrong?

December 27th, 2009

Maybe this is a trick question, and maybe it isn’t.

Ok, real quick… which has more calories – a pint of skim milk, or a pint of Guinness Stout? Pretend it’s for a million bucks, and you have one second to answer. Again, maybe it’s a trick, and maybe it isn’t. Just go with your first impression for the mil… Which one?

It was a trick. If you guessed the skim milk, you were wrong.

mmmmm…. Guinness

Happy New Year!!

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Blu Rays not doing as well as they’d like… bet I know why

December 22nd, 2009

I don’t understand how companies can improve a product in one area, and break it in others. Because, you know, that isn’t an improvement at all.

Being a big movie fan (I have like 900+ DVD’s in my collection), I take an interest in news about the video business and the like. And I’ve been reading that Blu Ray sales are getting softer. It’s almost as if the public really doesn’t like them all that much. And executives are puzzled as to why.

Well, here’s my .02 – they aren’t that big a leap. And they are a significant downgrade in other areas. I have a Playstation 3 (which is supposedly one of the best Blu Ray players available) and I’ve bought more than my share of Blu Rays to play in it, so I feel qualified to talk about it (note: whether I feel qualified to discuss something usually never enters into it anyway… just thought you’d want to know that.)

Ok, back to Blu-Ray. Here are the strengths: The picture looks a little better (and in some cases, a lot better.) And some of the new online type features are neat. Those are largely what they are selling you with Blu-Ray.

But there are three annoyances that make me pause when reaching for a Blu-Ray:

Blu-Ray Annoyance #1 – It doesn’t remember where I stopped- Ok, I usually like to watch a movie the whole way through. But it’s not always possible. So I hit stop, and will come back to it later. 9 out of 10 Blu Ray discs have to start over. Seemingly every DVD in my collection can remember where I left off – even after a year or two!! Why can’t Blu-Ray? I honestly don’t care what the reason is – this is a massive fail.

Blu-Ray Annoyance #2 – Blu-Ray’s have VERY inconsistent sound -The explosions (etc) are very loud on most Blu-Rays. And the dialog is painfully low. I have to constantly see-saw the volume level, unless I want to wake up Maryellen (I don’t). This happens regardless of equipment used and/or sound settings. Again, massive fail.

Blu-Ray Annoyance #3 – Too much pre-movie crap- DVD’s used to do this as well, but Blu-Ray’s have taken it to an entirely new level. Can I please just watch the friggen movie????

I can’t believe that untold millions were spent on making Blu-Ray the chosen format of the future, and they missed/ignored these painfully simple things. Things that an inferior technology handled with ease. It’s a marketing/design goof that I would have pointed out in an afternoon.

Posted in General Marketing, Movies | No Comments »

One income only…. why???

December 10th, 2009

Just a quick thought that walked through my mind today.

Like most of you, I have my circle of people / families that I know well, etc. And while finances are usually not something that is outwardly discussed, it’s pretty easy to discern who is doing well and who isn’t.

Well, I noticed something today – almost all of the families I personally know that are struggling are one-income families.

Now, I’m sure some of them are that way by choice (“we’ll do with less so someone is home w/ the kids”). And that’s fine. But most that I know really aren’t like this. The non-working person would work if the perfect storm of hours / pay / benefits / commute / easy job / etc etc appeared. But that usually doesn’t happen. And the family struggles financially as a result.

I’m not going to criticize such, because this is a touchy area for a lot of people. But let’s just say I don’t understand people who don’t/won’t/can’t work. Really – I just don’t get it.

Now, just to be clear, I’m not talking about that person who lost their job two months ago and is still looking. I’m talking about that person who could/should go work, and for whatever reasons, never really seems to get it together and just go earn a living. I suspect we all know people like this in our lives.

I apologize for this being a somewhat incomplete thought without a satisfying conclusion, but I just wanted to let it out today.

Posted in Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff, Misc / Personal Stuff, Success | No Comments »

Bad Dates and Such

December 7th, 2009

For anyone hoping that I was going to spill details of a date gone bad, well…. let’s say I never had a date go bad.

Regardless, this little essay does indeed involve dates – calendar dates and similar. It’s mostly directed at websites, but the lesson learned can be applied to almost any business.

In very simple terms, if you are going to “date” anything, you’d better make sure you are dedicated enough to stay on top of it. There is no more certain way to say “I don’t give a @#$%” than having Mother’s Day stuff still up on Father’s Day.

Or still having your “Winter Blowout” on April 9th.

Or having a dated news item on your home page that is six months old.

Or posting the date you updated your blog, and the last update was four months ago.

Seriously – what would you think if you came to my blog, and the last entry was written four months ago? Would you wonder what happened? It may seem trivial, but it’s a big negative.

Because it essentially says you let the little details slip.

The same goes for brick and mortar businesses. How many times have you seen one that keeps sale prices up after a sale is over? Or has the big sign outside advertising last week’s bargain?

In fact, I’ll go out on a limb and say that “most” things with dates end up just like what I describe above. They get neglected, then forgotten. Most people and companies are great starters. But there are very few finishers.

Be a finisher. Take the Mother’s Day stuff down the day after Mother’s Day. Post to your blog regularly. Your quarterly newsletter should come out four times a year, not three. And your “recent news” needs to be…. well…. recent.

Neglecting updates is a killer. It really is. No matter how nice a website is, if people see “old” things on the front page, or they see a blog that was last updated last season, it puts a tiny sliver of negativity in their heads. And that’s something no website (or business) wants. This is partially why I don’t recommend that companies put “company news” right on the homepage, because after a short burst of updates, that’s the first thing to get neglected. I’d rather not know any of your news than know that your last noteworthy thing happened at 2008′s Spud Show.

It’s on my whiteboard next to me right now: “12/21 – 1/4 – VACATION (don’t be too lazy, though – change the websites dates.)”

Yes, it really says that (except that I don’t write in italics). If you have dates on your website, put changing them on your planner right now.

Posted in Copywriting, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff, Websites and Web Marketing | No Comments »

R U Doing it 2?

December 5th, 2009

I heard a talk recently by some higher up in a marketing company about the loss of communication skills (or skillz) by the younger sect, because they use U instead of “you”, etc. He probably mentioned 10 examples or so.

That would be fine and all if the company’s brochure didn’t have ”B2B” in big letters, right on the first page.

Oops.

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