Archive for the ‘Marketing Experiences’ Category
Wednesday, April 16th, 2008 |
Best Buy has really outdone themselves in the customer service arena. I received in the mail a $50 gift card and a letter from Best Buy. Please see the photo of the letter below. In the letter they state that they know I purchased a HD-DVD player and since Toshiba will no longer be producing HD DVD players the stuidos will not be releasing any more movies in the HD DVD format. Blu-ray technology beat HD DVD.
They go on to write, “…you have purchase a HD DVD player and as a result we are sening you a Best Buy gift card to treat yourself.” Additionally they end with this bit of good news, “If you are interested in trading in your HD DVD player and HD DVDs, you can visit BestBuyTradeIn.com where we accept HD DVD hardware…for addtional Best Buy gift cards base on its market value.”
Well, kudos to Best Buy and be safe in the knowledge that you have a customer for life. Like I needed another reason to not visit Circuit City. So if you were like me and bet on the wrong horse and bought a HD DVD player from Best Buy you may be receiving a gift card in the mail.
When Best Buy writes, “We truly appreciate you as a customer,” I believe them.
Posted in Marketing Experiences, Shopping Experiences, Technology Experiences | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 12th, 2007 |
From my experience public speaking is one of the most difficult things you can do, much less prepare for. I am the founder and president of a company which requires me to speak to people on a weekly basis. Of course I am usually speaking to a smaller number of people, maybe two to five at a time.
There are rare occasions when I must speak to more and then there is usually a podium, a stage and a presentation involved. I can speak effortlessly and intelligently to two to five people. But when it grows to 20 or more, well then I get nervous. Luckily for me it passes quickly and after five minutes I’m into the flow and all goes well. Still, it helps to do some things ahead of time to make the journey from nervous stutterer to polished speaker. Here are some things I’ve learned that may help you if you are ever called on to speak in front of a group of people.
Make Notes
Everyone losses their train of thought sometimes and making notes can save you from that awkward pause as you stare into the ceiling trying to remember what the heck you were saying. Notes can keep you on task and remind you of important points to make. Don’t read from your note cards, but don’t be afraid to look at them if you need help. And be sure you have practiced with them…many times.
Practice, Practice, Practice
I practice my presentations at least a dozen times. Considering my presentations, with Powerpoint slides, last over an hour that is a lot of my time. But I’m ready and confident when I’m on stage and that makes it worthwhile. Practice with an audience of family or friends if you have to, but be sure you get an honest critique at some point.
Expect The Worst
Most likely things will go smooth, but imagine what might go wrong and be ready when it does. It is entirely wrong to try and avoid thinking about what could go wrong, how else will you prepare for it, if you ignore the possibility. This way, if it happens, you ar ready. Finally, if yo think about what could go wrong I think you will see that, in reality, it won’t be the end of the world.
Get Relaxed
Sure, I know what you are thinking. How can I relax, I’ve got to speak in front of X number of people. What I mean is get rid of other sources of stress. Be sure to get plenty of sleep. Have your clothes picked out ahead of time. If traveling, make sure all the arrangements have been made. Do something your enjoy the day or night before, watch a comedy or whatever relaxes you.
Body Language
Nothing says I don’t know what I’m doing than having your head down, shoulders slumped and poor posture. Keep your head up, chin level with the floor and for the love of Pete, SMILE! (more…)
Posted in Business Experiences, Marketing Experiences | 1 Comment »
Saturday, August 11th, 2007 |
From my experience using the Squidoo web site as a money-making online tool isn’t the best use of your time. Instead, setting up a blog of your own, with Google’s Adsense, that you host is a much better idea. But, Squidoo is easy to set up and kind of fun. It offers a community feel to it and you can rank rather quickly with it for less competitive terms in the search engines.
I have two lenses, what Squidoo calls your page, and they were a blast to create and I do add to them occasionally. The real fun for me is trying to rank my lens in the top 100. I have reached 128 but that is my personal best so far. There are over 200,000 lenses at this time. It is also personally rewarding when someone ranks or votes for you lens which you can do by visiting my Smoothie Lens and my Jean Grey-Phoenix Lens.
But I just don’t see any decent money coming from this, but my smoothie recipe blog brings in over $350 $650 per month, with little to no effort through Google Adwords. I’ll update this if I see any change or increase in my $0.00 earnings from either of my Squidoo lenses. The real use for Squidoo is using the lenses to direct traffic to your main site such as my smoothie lens to my smoothie recipe site and providing quality one-way links that the search engines will follow and reward you with higher listings in the search results.
From the Squidoo About Page:
Squidoo’s goal as a platform is to bring the power of recommendation to search. Squidoo’s goal as a co-op is to pay as much money as we can to our lensmasters and to charity. And Squidoo’s goal as a community is to have fun along the way, and meet new ideas and the people behind them.
Read more about Squidoo at The SquidLens.
I hope this helps in your decision of creating a lens and what to do with it.
I have included a YouTube video on Making Money with Squidoo.
Update 10/12/07: Well, my 2nd full month netted $11.40. I did manage to make the Jean Grey lens the #4 ranked lens overall so even having a highly ranked lens in the Squidoo ranking system won’t help, you’ll need lots of visitors to help with that.
Update 11/14/07: I earned $98.58 this month. I worked to keep it going pretty well this month.
Update 12/15/07: Earnings dipped to $48.06 for Squidoo, but I didn’t spend any time on it. So literally, money for nothing.
Update 1/12/09: I didn’t even look at the lenses hardly and my earnings went to $24.32, but I also noticed traffic dropped from Google. I do believe they are penalizing all Squidoo lenses now. We’ll see.
Posted in Internet Experiences, Marketing Experiences | 1 Comment »
