MarketingSherpa article summing upnew CAN-SPAM rules, coming into effect July 7. Yes, I read all this boring stuff!

Just say No!

As I run out of space on the page of my to do list to add more items, I see the wisdom of this article about saying no with grace. It's written by the ArtBizCoach, Alyson Standfield.

Here are some nice articles to read on a summer Sunday morning.

Live for the Journey, not the Destination

11 Questions to Kickstart your Dream

HowTo: Make a page on MySpace!

There is no sure-fire way to increase traffic to your website, but there are a number of small, easy and inexpensive things you can do. One thing is setting up a page for your business on MySpace.com to drive traffic to your business’s website and increase the number of sites linking in to yours. There are many social networking sites out there, but MySpace.com is one of the oldest and most populous, so it can’t hurt to put your banner up there.

Having a presence on MySpace.com can help, first by brining direct traffic and second by increasing your rank in search results as you get more traffic and links in to your website. Plus, a page on MySpace.com is like a second web page, and having another web presence is basically like having a second business location in real life; it’s more likely that people will come across your business. Just make sure your MySpace.com page is a reflection of your business website and not something totally different! Finally, by getting on MySpace.com and connecting up with other southern Illinois people and businesses, we can start to develop a critical mass that will get harder and harder for people to miss in cyberspace!

Follow these steps and you’ll be up and running on MySpace.com in no time:

1. Go to http://www.myspace.com.
2. Click on “Sign Up” and fill in the required information.
3. Choose your MySpace.com URL: try to pick something that is similar to your business name or web address and is easy for people to spell and remember.
4. Confirm your email address: you will get an email in the email box you specify in order to be able to do things like add friends, post bulletins and blogs, and more.
5. Find, add and invite your friends: start with http://www.myspace.com/sispecialties.
6. Promote your MySpace.com URL: put it on your website, your business card, etc.
7. Join SITourPreneurs Group: http://groups.myspace.com/sitourpreneurs.

Setting up a page on MySpace.com is just one of the many things you can do to improve your web presence. Other options include:

• Write a weblog: Weblogs are easy to set up and update. Webpages that are frequently updated will get people coming back to your site and improve your search rankings. Also, if you write about something interesting enough, other websites will link to the articles you post and additionally increase traffic.
• Email newsletter: Sometimes it takes time to build up a relationship with potential customers before they will purchase your product or service. Plus, it’s phenomenally important to keep up relationships with existing customers. An email newsletter is an easy and inexpensive way to keep in contact with potential and existing customers. Just make sure to get permission to send people your emails!
• Cross-linking: find other sites like yours or complementary to yours and ask them to link back to your site. Make your own ‘links’ page on your website to add your ‘partner’ links to your webpage.

For more information, contact Innucopia!

Ah, life is interesting isn't it? I can't believe it's been two months since I posted to this blog. OK for today, I recommend reading this article about kick-butt viral marketing campaigns. There's got to be some good ideas in there that could be adapted to just about any business.

Google's productivity apps will outpace behemoth Microsoft Office? Everything's and everyone's moving toward free? That's what some are saying. I've gotta go, I've been meaning to set up my business email accounts on my Gmail so I can check them from anywhere instead of Outlook.

My economics teacher in high school told us the first day of class that if we could come up with something that was truly free, he would give you an automatic A in the class. No one ever got an A this way. No matter what you said he had a comeback. No one could get him.

I'm still a believer in that basic premise: nothing is free. Ever since "New Rules for the New Economy"'s "Follow the Free" rule I've been there in business as well. There's a blog post about it today that discusses the more technical side of this nothing is free issue.

However we are somewhat moving in that direction. I met with someone at a local tourism bureau this week and he was telling me about how a local web design firm wanted to charge their non-profit organization tens of thousands of dollars for a new website. All they need to be able to do is keep the content somewhat updated, get lots of content they have in printed brochures online, and list some events and coupons. Thirty GranD??? I mean I can't believe what I'm hearing. No, no no. No longer to small non-profit organizations and new businesses need to get ripped off by firms charging tens of thousands of dollars for a website, then charging again when they want to make updates to the text. There are things like Joomla, which can be combined with other things like Google's Calendars and Picasa. Voila! All "free." O except you have to get it all installed and up and running and looking the way you want it. That's where the hook is. No matter what, someone's time is going in there. But still, we're talking hours, maybe a couple days as opposed to weeks or months or months of time. Some organizations might need flashy websites for their target groups, but for most small businesses and organizations on a budget, a well organized and up-to-date website is what's important.

At any rate I would recommend to anyone building a new website or doing an update, consider something like Joomla. You can use free templates, or buy your own template (look and feel) for cheap (something like $40 I've seen), have someone spend a couple days setting it up and transferring over your existing content. Once it's up and running you'll always be able to go in and update it, as simply as going in and writing a word document. Excellent.

I've been reading some interesting articles lately about the effects of the recession on jobs. Here are some tips for making yourself indispensable at your job so you'll improve your chances of keeping it through a recession. Here's another one about the best economic sectors to be in or thinking about moving towards with a coming recession. I guess it's only later in life that one starts to understand the wisdom of one's mother; my mom is a nurse at Caterpillar and I just can't imagine a much safer place to be. Cheers to Mom!

In terms of jobs my mom and I are on the opposite ends of the spectrum. She with her stable job and steady paycheck, me with my unpredictable job working from gig to gig. A friend of mine was contending recently that what I have isn't a real job, since the paycheck isn't steady and predictable. So I started wondering what it is that constitutes a real job. How is that defined these days, is there such a thing, or is it going the way of the dodo considering, among other things, the many ways that the world is getting flatter? I personally think we're moving more and more towards people having to reinvent themselves and find their own niche. The majority of people are going to need to learn to constantly educate themselves, keep up with economic and technological trends, and take risks to get their name out there in order to survive.

Southern Illinois business leaders are taking aim at the future; here's the ambitious plan neatly arranged on 17 slides. I think it's a great effort, and by coincidence I read this article this morning. People all over the world appreciate beauty and care in presentation. A lot of people around here understand how to appeal to a global audience and you can tell by their focus on the details (two small examples: Blue Sky Vineyard and Back 2 Basics). If SI is going to be successful they are going to need to help everyone around here understand and embrace that. I think the biggest hurdle will be getting people who have lived here to change. But at any rate, considering my new position as corporate sales for Arts & More Gallery, and my continued efforts to get southern Illinois on the map, I hope to do my part to beautify SI for all the new KBE workers, retirees, and tourism traffic.

I have been talking to a lot of people here in Carbondale about what it takes to be successful around here. This region presents a lot of obstacles for businesses, given the wide distances that separate everyone, the slow penetration of the internet, the sometimes less than visionary people in positions of power, and the general demographics. Simple things take longer to do here. For two and a half years I have lived here and watched people struggle along and fight against all the forces, be they the rising gas prices or falling sleet, that they cannot control. Everyone plugs along and works twice as hard to get the same results that are more easily attainable in more 'progressed' regions. It's not just here, basically anywhere somewhat rural without a significant economic advantage and all ducks in a row in terms of community and governmental support and vision is suffering.

So the bottom line that most everyone realizes or figures out is that to make it here, you have make it happen, and sometimes you have to reinvent yourself, and you have to work hard. Also, you have to get your face out in front of people, or they don't trust you.

A lot of people have less employment opportunity and this is magnified as the economy weakens. I read articles about how more people than ever are interested in voting in the upcoming elections because they're hoping some politician somewhere can help them. The fact is, like everyone in southern Illinois has already learned a long time ago, we are on our own and we're going to have to reinvent ourselves to survive. I have been trying to do that ever since the end of Starlab back in 2001, which ruined me forever for a normal 9-5 job interest (because it was such an incredible job). I hope I can help people who want to make the same changes and help them take control of their lives, and possibly make the learning curve a bit shorter for them.

I met someone last week I'm very happy to report who has been here plugging along for years and is making it work, Cavanaugh Gray with his Entrepreneur Cafe. He's been doing the Young Entprepreneurs Program since 1996 and he sees now that more and more non-youth need the same kind of assistance and inspiration. So we'll hopefully be putting our heads together on some projects, casting the nets a bit wider, and drawing on the extra strength that comes in numbers.

I'm checking my MediaPost "Search Insider" subscription email this morning and I come across this article about SEO-ers whose main goals are to become famous, as opposed to more sensible albeit boring goals such as providing a good quality product or service. I felt my stomach grumble as memories surfaced of an experience in the last year where I believe I was burned by just such an organization, although it was with a pay-per-click adversiting service firm. But I believe the same type of bravado-seeking exists in both areas, since it's all somewhat new and uncharted territory.

So, at the time I did extensive research to find a pay-per-click advertising organization for my current employer, an ecommerce company, whose current pay-per-click advertising, although clearly not running at top efficiency, was the main source of traffic for their website, so certainly of core importance. We did not have the resources or expertise internally to handle the needed improvements, although I had personally handled a few PPC campaigns in the past and knew the basic ropes, so I could speak intelligently enough on the subject. I contacted references, I read the trade opinions, I scoured company websites, compared pricing, and spent hours on the phone with their sales people. In the end I picked a big glossy Inc500 company, the CEO a reknowned 'expert' in the field, that was whopping the charts getting big clients and doing great things. They gave us a great deal and I really liked my contact, who seemed to know how important it all was to us, got to the point and knew her stuff.

Our campaign started fantastically; something like 4-500% return on investment the first month. WOW! Things were looking good. Then my contact informed me she was leaving the company to spend more time with her kids, which of course I can understand. Unfortunately I took an instant distrust to the guy that took over in her place; one of those types that likes to hear themselves talk. (I am the type of person who wants to get the business done and get busy working; time is money, or time is with my family. And I have very little patience for anyone who does not appreciate this.) Well, they subsequently tanked our click ads and our internet ranking went down the drain, and it was a very painful thing to endure. This was just over the span of a couple of months, but it was devastating to the little company, and didn't make me look good. Of course there were other things at play such as a decrease in consumer spending, general economic downturn, competitor moves, my own distractions, but I can't discount the role this service provider played. But, as the old saying goes, if it doesn't kill you it only makes you stronger. That's what my guru tells me to chant whenenver I start to think of this experience, haha.

Part of the problem was that this company charged us based on a percentage of our spend. That clearly means that they're not going to be spending as much time on your account than the higher spenders, but of course they're not telling you that; supposedly they've got someone on your account every day. At the time all of the firms I talked to charged this way. When I got around to trying to switch, they had already figured out the problem and unfairness about that pricing scheme, and wanted a minimum monthly budget for said services. Made sense to me. We did have a sizable monthly spend, but probably just on the high end of the little guys.

So I learned sevaral other things from this experience, regarding the outsourcing of your core marketing activities such as PPC that I can share. First, just because the CEO is a gargantuan expert doesn't mean everyone in the company is! It's probably hard for these companies to find people with solid experience, since it's a relatively new field. Ask your sales person and everyone who will be working on your project what their actual experience and results have been. Second, make sure you trust who you're talking to at the company. Trust your intuition and get that person off your team immediately if you don't like them. If you don't feel right about it there's probably a good reason for that. Third, determine ahead of time what is your maximum drop allowance. E.g. if numbers are dropping after a week, or month, you give the service provider another week, or month, to boost up the numbers or they're out. Make sure everyone who needs to know at your company and theirs knows this ahead of time, and don't let your provider determine this for you. Fourth, have a plan in place whenever you make a big change like this that will support any drop in traffic from your normal levels of clicks. Perhaps ramp up some of your other tried and true marketing/advertising activities concurrently. Finally, at least for the first few months, make sure someone is checking on your account every day (or other time period acceptable to you) and not just blowing pleasantries in your ears. If your team members are all working on several projects, some that may be more high-profile than yours, you have to make sure they're not going to let yours fall through the cracks.

These things are probably obvious to the big marketers at the big firms but when you're running a small business with a hundred things to manage, you might miss it.

This blog is quickly becoming an extention of my own personal attempts to maintain a balance between my work and the rest of my life. This is something essential that a lot of people may miss because life goes so fast. I have had the luck to always appreciate how fast especially the good times go, after having the privilege to experience, honestly, so many weddings of my close family and friends early on. Those wedding weekends always fly. So by the time I was half way through those I was always reminding everyone not to forget that it was going to be over before they know it. I'm sure I was very annoying.

Also, I got to live in Europe for seven years, and experience a completely different culture. People would always ask me what was different to live there, and I would always have to say there is not any one big thing, but every single thing is a little bit different. Those difference, combined, are large and most people don't realize or appreciate that, again probably because life moves so fast and who has seven years to sit and think about it? But one thing that was different was just how people take time to sit and be with friends and family even if just for a cup of coffee, and to have those nice vacations and the freedom to stay home if you were sick. Honestly, things like not having to worry about health care does in fact give you more space in your brain to think about other things.

So today I got on this site and started watching some of these videos. There is a series with Harvard lecturer Tal Ben-Shaher, and in one he is talking about 5 steps to happiness, although he was put on the spot and he only gave four. The first was to simplify, don't try to do everything, learn how to say no. The second was the mind-body connection, keep your body happy with exercise and it will feed your mind. Third was don't fear painful emotions, because if you don't feel or express those you are either a psychopath or dead. Fourth, appreciate what you have. Appreciation is good because it means giving thanks, but also leads to growth because it gives us direction. Good stuff!

I have recently had two different people, artists, tell me that they could not update their website without paying their web developer, so they weren't doing it or they were having to cough up the dough. There are solutions for this nowadays. You can get a content management system installed on your website from the very start. If you already have a site and need to switch to something that you can manage and easily update without having to know anything about html, consider something like LightCMS or have your developer consider it. Set up something simple that you can easily go in and edit. Up to date, relevant and useful information is more important to people with limited time and attention span who become more and more familiar with the way the web works than flashiness.

More useful information for today: How not to be annoying.

What is that old saying, something about how inactivity breeds wickedness or something like that? Anyway we have been stuck inside, unable to even get out of our driveway due to a debilitating ice storm, most of last week. It's amazing how you take something like being able to get out of your house for granted. At the same time I was fighting a bout with the flu during which I couldn't breathe through my nose for almost two weeks. Another thing we almost always take for granted.

Luckily I have learned a thing or two in life, enough to know never to take time with people you love for granted. And do everything to love your work or at least do a good job at it so you can feel good about it. I've been thinking about all this but now I've gotten the kick to write it down after a friend forwarded me this link, a video presentation about how to live your life, among other things. Well worth watching.

In the meantime I have decided on an additional course of action for my business. I'll not only be beautifying southern Illinois with presentable online presences, but also by supplying art to walls. I've been getting more and more involved with art ever since I moved to southern Illinois, and things are just kind of falling into place. More later.

For a little Monday-boost, here's a great article by Max Kalehoff which discusses quotes from Einstein and how they apply not only to the world of science, but to business, marketing, and sometimes life in general. Inspiring!

OK I just want to start to see if I can have some fun here. Any business like Innucopia, that is: an independent contractor or business that has to depend on businesses and individuals that need their services, knows how thankless it is when you're trying to get started and looking for contracts, or once a main contract runs out and you have to start all over if you haven't been careful. So if you can't get contracts you start thinking that you better find a job until you can line up some contracts, and job searching is about as rewarding as searching for contracts.

I can tell you all out there that it's about ten times worse when you're working somewhere like southern Illinois, with a chronically depressed economy that depends on the local university and the always-struggling but lovely tourism industry, regardless of your past experience or credentials. Of course it's always possible that I'm just too picky (can't take the insurance sales opportunity) or don't have the right credentials (don't have a nursing degree or commercial drivers license). Looking for a job and contracts in a place like this is very challenging, and I ran across this video today that kind of sums up some of my feelings about it. I'm definitely going to check out simplyhired.com and I'll let you know how it goes. As long as I'm talking about this today I might as well include this ConsumerResearch.org link which talks about some job search sites. This was not my idea originally either, about the southern Illinois business scene I mean, my previous contractor and one of the smartest guys I know warned me about how it is around here. He moved to Oregon last year.

I've done elance, probably not as vehemently as I could, but it's cut throat out there, you've gotta bid $100 for jobs that will probably take you a week if you want to win the bid. Maybe I'm not understanding it correclty. I've already been on Monster for years, and I have had very few contacts there. Craigslist looks like a haven for the scheisters, I can find enough of that everywhere else. I search the local newspaper and community sites. LinkedIn.com is nice but most of my contacts there are from Belgium or Seattle or somewhere distant. Doesn't mean that won't be helpful someday; my lovely and brilliant friend Caterina Saraceno recommended me on there a few days ago so we'll see if that makes any waves. I canvas everyone I know or have met over the years. I get my website link in my emails, I'm starting to blog again. This is a full time job, but I technically have no job.:)

I have been here before, and I just have a feeling that I'm not the only one in this boat. So I'm going to start writing about my expeirences just in case they might be useful for anyone else. If anyone else knows of a blog like this or wants to share experiences or just tell me to quit whining, please let me know.

I have also been reading for years about outsoucing, so many jobs going overseas and wondering what everyone was going to do. How can a middle class person survive these days; unless you're able to have two incomes to cover costs it seems impossible to have a comfortable life to me, I mean unless you're a student or a single living the good free life I suppose. Or you have to have a job on the side to make some extra income. Everyone I know talks about it or does this. Most people are going to have to reinvent themselves and make their own way as far as I can tell.

So I guess I'm going to try and help some people along as I help myself. I've got a girlfriend that wants to start an online gift basket business, and some friends I just sat with last night who are going to be opening another lodging establishment here locally. It seems I can be of some service to them because I have been teaching myself about html and web design, online and email marketing for the past five years and I can wade through the mumbo jumbo and be straight about the real solutions they've got. I'm not someone who believes you've got to spend thousands on a website if you're a small or just starting out business. There are so many things you can do to make a good website these days on the cheap and still good quality. Of course once you get the website built there are lots of other things to do, SEO, getting reciprocal links, etc., etc....Here we go!

I was swallowed up by a client in 2007 but now Innucopia's back. Check out the new "Tools" page on my website that includes helpful links to affordable and efficient business services.

I've added some info on innucopia.com about the new Addemar 2 here. It's impossible to really impart the full signifcance of the changes. In short, the new Addemar 2 in on par with the best email marketing offerings available in the US, and it's got a style (due to its European influence) that's often lacking from its American counterparts. Email marketing is not dead, it's not going away, and in order to get on top of the crop, email marketers will need an edge to set them apart in the crowded email box. Enter Addemar 2.

It's a great improvement over the previous version, and I know that the folks in Belgium aren't done yet. I have to say hats off to them! I'm really looking forward to see what they come up with next. Stay tuned for some screen shots from the new version.

The new year is here. I've emerged from the abyss (wonderful abyss that is) that is my family holiday, and I'm back in full swing. Lots of great things planned for this year, including

• The launch of an upgraded Addemar version for my existing customers,
  
• A new Addemar Agency version for web, media and communication businesses, and
  
• Lots of new activity on southernillinoisspecialties.com, a new Innucopia service for craftspeople, artists and specialty business owners in southern Illinois.

Stay tuned! Cheers to a successful year for all!

Just when I thought I knew everything, now they say maybe what you know isn't true! Nice post today on MediaPost's Email Insider.

Don't Believe Everything You Hear
by David Baker, Monday, November 20, 2006

The moral of this urban legend is, use best practices, studies, and guidance from the experts as a starting point, but don't consider their advice to be absolute. You need to adjust your e-mail for your target audience and for what you want to achieve. Most importantly, test, test, and test some more.