Archive for September, 2010

Still here

September 20th, 2010

Still working on the new website, but just wanted to post to say “I’m still here”. So let me gripe a bit.

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is how many people think I’m just dying to “bargain”. The old “I have no money now, but…”  

Listen, if you truly have no money, you need to concentrate on other things, like groceries. Unless, of course, the “I have no money” really means “I have no money to pay you, so please work for free and I’ll hit ya back someday”.

Or someone who says to me “can you break your fee up into payments?”. To which I always answer “yes – I take credit cards. That way, you can take as long as you want to pay”. To which they usually say “oh…”

Or, lastly, someone who says “I can’t afford that much, because I had to pay the SEO guy / Web Designer / Printer / etc, so can you reduce your fee?” Ummm…. let me see if I get this straight – *I* should reduce *my* fee so someone I never met gets their whole fee? Why didn’t you ask THEM to reduce their fee so you could have enough left over to pay Dan?

This is just a small sampling of clients, mind you – most people are just fine. But it is funny how many of us entrepreneurs can relate to the above, because we hear it a LOT.

Posted in Copywriting, General Marketing, Home Business / Entrepreneural Stuff | 2 Comments »

Yikes (Google changes)

September 10th, 2010

So Google changes their search to provide “instant” results as you type. This is going to be HUGE, and it’s going to sting a lot of people. Likely me included. Until we adapt, at least.

One big problem I see here is negative keywords in adwords. For example, I do “business writing”, then minus a few keywords, like “tips” (because I don’t want to pay for a visitor who is just looking for “business writing tips”). But my ad starts showing up before the searcher gets to even write “tips” – thus, showing this person my ad. That’s not going to be good (at least on the surface.)

Second, many advertisers counted on “long” keyphrases, like “NY hotel upper west side” – but now, most searchers will stop after typing “NY Hotel” because Google will give “NY Hotel” results right after “NY Hotel” was typed, making it very possible that the rest of the phrase won’t get typed out.

This is going to outright destroy some businesses that relied on towns and such in their online keyword advertising. I don’t know what it’ll do to me yet, but I’ll find a way to adapt. I suspect it’ll raise my ad budget some (as I didn’t rely on location stuff, but I did do well with a few “longer” phrases). But some businesses might not be so lucky. And others will probably flourish.  

Such is the nature of the internet. You gotta stay sharp.

Anmyway, I’m off to tweak adwords some, and then work some more on the new site.

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

The first day of school

September 1st, 2010

I’d like to take a moment to address the kids out there…

I know sometimes life can seem tough, and it seems like the first day of school comes far too quickly. And I know it seems like school lasts FOREVER… well, I’m here to tell you that you are right – it *does* last forever (and ever.) And your teacher this year…? Mean. REAL mean.

Just some encouragement as you board the bus for the first of 180 school days. :)

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New site is moving along. Saving up the better blog posts for it.

Posted in Fun Stuff | 1 Comment »