Archive for August, 2010

Dan Bio

August 24th, 2010

I posted this on my Facebook profile – thought it would be neat to post here:

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Hey there!

Let’s see… I’m 44, and have been married to my wife Maryellen since 1999. No kids, which has its benefits (I don’t hate kids or anything, but personally, I like being childfree.)

We got married in Vegas a month after meeting (that was astonishingly fun), and have a nice little house in Kingston NY that we share with our dog and cat. I gotta tell ya, life is pretty good around here these days.

Professionally, I’ve been a self-employed writer for about a decade. I generally write business and sales copy for companies, but I’m also an author (have written two books), a business/marketing consultant, an internet sales expert, etc etc. I know there’s another place for work stuff here, but really, my work is an essential part of the “about me” thing (at least for me it is – I really like working and what I do). See my websites for more info if you are so inclined.

In the past, I’ve held lots of interesting and varied jobs, from marketing to computer stuff to sales to retail management, and a few others that aren’t worth mentioning. I got fired from many of them – I don’t take micromanagement-type BS from idiots well at all, and generally prefer to be left alone and do things my way. But I learned a lot in my eclectic career – I can build, fix, market, sell, program, write, rewire, give a killer presentation to 100 people, and play a decent game of chess as well.

If you knew me in the past, I’m prettymuch the same guy now – maybe a tad heavier, and a little quieter (essentially, I’d rather hang on my deck than go to the bar – the drinks and music are better here, and I have a “no assholes” policy that is strictly enforced :)

Anyway, thanks for stopping by and reading this far. Hope things are good for you as well. Life is meant to be enjoyed – too many people lose sight of that.

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

How to spot a fake testimonial

August 15th, 2010

Testimonials can be a very effective marketing tool. Kind words from happy customers go a long way in making potential clients feel good about your product, service, or company.

In fact, they are so useful, that many people cheat when it comes to testimonials.

I have to let the cat out of the bag here – very early in my writing career, I’d write “fake” testimonials for customers if they asked.

Being young, dumb, and broke, at one time, I’d write just about anything if you paid me to. And trust me, some people paid me to write testimonials. And sign them something like “Debbie K from KY” or “John J and Family, NY”. Or “Joe’s Pizza, NJ”

Notice the one common thread? Nothing verifiable. No “real” last names. No actual towns. No website links. Lots of  “Dan F from NY”. But no “Dan Furman, Kingston, NY”

So, here’s some general advice on spotting a fake testimonial:

1 - No real last names. Or all the last names are amazingly common. In this age of the internet, pictures are even meaningless.

2 - No real cities. Or only big cities. Or all testimonials come from towns in the same 4 states (trust me, coming up with different sounding cities and towns is more work than most fake testimonial people want to do.) Obviously, a local business is exempt from this rule.

3 - No website links. This is the biggie. There should be a few testimonials with real, working website links.

I have a lot of testimonials on my website. Most have a link, all but one have a last name (the one requested it not be used, but I’m sure in the face of all the other proof I supply, I can be cut some slack there.)

Trust me – 15 testimonials and not one link to a business prettymuch means all the testimonials are fake (the only exception here is if the end users are completely non-business consumers, and even then, it’s very unlikely that not one of them owns a business.)

And, of course, it goes without saying that “Joe G, Alabama” really doesn’t think all that much of the product. In fact, “Joe” is the writer’s father’s name, and “G” represents his childhood friend’s nickname (Goober.) 

It took me a long time to build up the testimonials I have. And I’m proud of them. Anyone who has real testimonials will tell you the same. That’s why I want to tell you how to spot the fake ones.

And no, I don’t write them anymore. It’s just not fair to the people who earned them.

<sarcasm> And now that my conscience is clean,  let me get back to this term paper I’m writing for some rich kid. </sarcasm>

Posted in Copywriting, General Marketing, Success, Websites and Web Marketing | 2 Comments »

“contest” type hiring/freelance sites

August 3rd, 2010

On a message forum the other day, a company proudly stated how they used a site called 99designs (or something like that) to get a logo made. The way the site worked was you put up your project, how much you were willing to pay (in this case, about $200), and designers the world over would submit designs – you pick the winner, and he or she gets the spoils.

Are you @#$%ing kidding me? What’s next… ”Dance for the money, lowly freelancer – I SAID DANCE”

To start, that’s not really a contest. That’s prettymuch slavery.

Secondly, the only designers that will do this are really low on the totem pole – the company was so happy that they had “182 designs to choose from”… except that all 182 kind of sucked. They would have been better off had they hired someone competent for $50-$75 an hour and worked with them – I’m pretty sure a competent designer could come up w/ a nice logo in a few hours time.

Here’s how I replied to them:

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 Not nuts about any of the logos (I see you chose one, so this is after the fact.). They all seem a bit amateurish, really. Like someone got ahold of Corel Draw and played with fonts and colors.

Personally, I think you could have done better finding a decent designer in the $50-$75 an hour range – the cost would likely have been pretty close to what you ultimately paid. Ok, maaaybe it costs you 4-5 hours time – we’re not talking bank-breaking money here.

To comment on the other area of the thread – cost / hiring / paying people / etc… I’m not for “contest” sites like that, and I do not think it’s a good business practice. Let me tell you why: I assume that whatever you are going to do you will be charging more than the buck-something you were so proud to get people to work for you for. (“We are 2 hours away from having to make our choice and there are currently 182 designs for an average of $1.16 per design!! Not a single designer in the world would be willing to work for that output. Overall, we feel this has been a good experience and investment on our part.”)

So essentially, you want stuff done for you cheap – like slave wage cheap. But you are certainly not going to be willing to work as cheap yourself, are you? Why, may I ask? You expect others to.

It’s a double standard that has no place in business. You simply don’t value the professional efforts of others. My .02 anyway.

Now, I’m not saying you can’t start on a shoestring or a budget or hire based on price. But sites like that border on exploitation. But to a certain mindset, exploitation is ok, I suppose. But it doesn’t speak volumes for your character as a business.

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anyway, that’s my thoughts on the issue. Not a fan.

Posted in General Marketing, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff, Websites and Web Marketing | 2 Comments »