Marketing

10 posts

Secret To Twitter Marketing

Read “A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet” at WSJ

Print “A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet” as a PDF and save it where you can find it again.

Research, research and research some more.

Read “A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet” at WSJ again.

Plan, plan and plan some more.

Read “A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet” at WSJ the third time.

If you didn’t learn anything new after the third read, execute your plan.

Otherwise, revise your plan, then execute your plan.

Read “A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet” at WSJ for extra motivation.

Work, work and work some more.

Read “A Start-Up’s Tale, Tweet by Tweet” at WSJ for additional motivation.

Continue working, enjoy and measure.

Disclaimer: I’m on my second reading.

Want To Start A Big Rumor

I ran across this item today in the comments to a news item. You gotta email, share or retweet this… could be the beginning of the next viral Internet revolution of over 50s.

From ViewPoint News:

The Council On Economic Common Sense, a Main Street think tank, issued a brief press release earlier today highlighting recommendations it said it has submitted to the Obama Administration for review and implementation. The CECS said it is convinced the economy would make a full recovery within thirty days after complete implementation of its recommendations. Thus far, the Obama Administration has refused to say if it has reviewed or even received anything from the CECS.

The following is summary of the economic actions the CECS is recommending;

There are about 40 million people over 50 in the work force. Pay them $1 million apiece severance for early retirement with the following stipulations:

1) They MUST retire. Forty million job openings – Unemployment fixed.

2) They MUST buy a new American CAR. Forty million cars ordered – Auto Industry fixed.

3) They MUST either buy a house or pay off their mortgage – Housing Crisis fixed.

Could it really be this easy? Would these recommendations, if implemented, provide the rapid and enduring economic recovery America is desperate for? Would the banksters and Wall Street permit the Congress to act decisively and in the best interest of Main Street?

Stay tuned to Viewpoint News for updates to this developing story.

In my fervent quest for knowledge, I search "Council On Economic Common Sense" to learn more!

search

 

 

 

Isn’t Internet comedy a hoot. On another note, I would like to introduce you to Google Scholar.

Google Scholar

 

Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research.”

Paying It Forward With WordPress MU

If you arrived here from pumprecord.com, you are at the right place. Please read on. Several months ago, WordPress MU, most famous for being the power behind wordpress.com and a host of other premium websites on the web, became my software choice for a multi user, multi site product offering designed for me to give back something to an industry that I grew up in.

wpmu

I love the WordPress “Freemium” model used to capture an amazingly large user base at wordpress.com, so much so that I used the model for pumprecord.com, a multi user site devoted to offering free web space to owners and managers of concrete pumping equipment. The intention was to provide a mechanism to store documents

My value proposition although simple and clearly stated on the main page of the site, apparently was no match for the current state of the construction industry in the US and other parts of the world.

“pumprecord.com makes insurance, sales and equipment records easily available to your present and future customers by providing a Secure Documents Site, where your customers can download your documents. Not only is our service free, but you also control the look, feel, location and security of your unique site. If you were to add secure document sharing to your own website, you would spend thousands of dollars on new website development and increased hosting charges.

My motivation for building the enterprise was to promote safety and transparency in the concrete pumping industry. I was hopeful to gain enough advertising income to cover the investment of time and resources into the project. However, I had no illusions about the difficulty of obtaining advertisers.

I’m thankful for the the support of  Todd Bullis, the pioneer of the “webification” of concrete pumping, who graciously offered to provide some exposure for pumprecord.com early on. To be fair, there was quite a bit of interest, primarily from the UK and Australia; but, I did not anticipate the terrible toll that the economic crisis was and still is taking on the very people that might use pumprecord.com

So, I’m reallocating my resources. However, if you found your way here from pumprecord.com. please know that the offer still stands. I am interested in helping out anyone that wants to make their records available online to their customers and potential customers, without charge. Just contact me and we can talk.

If you are considering a similar endeavor, look no further than WordPress MU. It operated flawlessly. I would not hesitate to use WordPress MU in my next multi site project. And now a screenshot for old times sake.

prsmall

Sept 09 Network Solutions Coupon Codes Free Money

If you plan to purchase anything from Network Solutions, use these coupon codes for free money

NEW September 2009 Coupons

Offer Coupon Code Start Date Expiration Date Link ID
20% off new nsBusinessSpace™, all-inclusive solutions for small business websites BCXXX03131 9/1/2009 9/30/2009 10437015
$100 off any $500 new purchase online GCXXX03129 9/1/2009 9/30/2009 10649743

Extended September 2009 Coupons

Offer Coupon Code Expiration Date Link ID
$25 off any $150 new purchase online GCXXX02978 9/30/2009 10605895
$50 off any $250 new purchase online GCXXX02902 9/30/2009 10489768
20% off new domains (.com, .net, .org, .biz, .info, .name, and .us) PCXXX02980 9/30/2009 10616492

Domain Name Property Rights

It’s happened again. Hardly a week goes by that I do not hear or read about issues surrounding domain name ownership; issues that can seriously impact any business.

Items 9 and 10 on my Business Computing Basics page depends upon domain name ownership:

8 – Evaluate your company’s Internet marketing identity. Confirm that you completely control your email, website and domain names.

9 – Bulletproof your Email messaging systems.

I can’t stress these two items enough. If you are concerned, check WHOIS, the recognized Internet services used to confirm domain name ownership.

Web site building companies commonly register domain names for the web sites they build in their names instead of the company purchasing the web site’s name. When the time comes for change, the unknowing company finds itself not owning their own domain name and at the complete mercy of the web site building company.

The result can be as easy as a clean, quick transfer of ownership or an ugly drawn out court case or sloppy arbitration, and everything in between.

So, check WHOIS, determine that the Registrant is you. If not, take action to transfer registration to you using Network Solutions, the original domain name registrar!

To We Or Not To We

You might take note that the United States has 20,392,068 single-person businesses, courtesy of smallbiztrends.com 78% of all US business is “I” business not “We” business.

I’m sure you’ve heard about the virtual PBX, web based small business software that allows for a as well as other premium corporate type telephone services. Companies like RingCentral.com pioneered the marketing presentation that allows a single person to appear to be a large business, at least from the telephone perspective.

If a virtual PBX system with voicemail and Internet Fax interests you, try it free today. You will be impressed when your friends have the ability to press 1 for the sales department, press 2 for accounting and press 3 for customer service, all ending up in your voice mail.

It’s no different on the Internet. I’m certain that half of the 20,392,068 single-person businesses have websites speaking about how “we” can get the job done. You most certainly have been to web sites that pump up their online presence with “we are the oldest in the business” or “our customer service is second to none” and “we stand ready to serve you”. What Are We? We are generally one person.

Embrace the fact that as one person, you can get the job done. Write your website in first person. Tell me what makes “you” different. Tell me that “I” can get the job done. When I call you, tell me that “you” need me to leave a message, because you are busy earning your portion of $951 billion dollars a year generated by single person business! I’m trying as hard as I can to earn my portion.

The Blind Linking The Blind

What’s in a phrase?

For years, I’ve been thinking about creating a word, combination of words or a phrase that I might call my own, in the context of the Internet world and Internet marketing. I’ve finally found one. I’ve used my phrase in all of the search engines and discovered “no hits”.

So why am I consumed by this seemingly trivial exercise? Next to a key word rich domain name, a key word rich tag line or phrase rapidly becomes the strongest tool in your Internet marketing toolbox.

“The Blind Linking the Blind” is my next experiment in Internet marketing. Lets see how fast we can push this phrase into distribution as a tool to understand SEO, Social Networking and Blogging.

Today, no hits, tomorrow, the World!

UPDATE: Jan 19 Google indexed “The Blind Linking the Blind” From zero to one results and its mine!

Managing My Internet Identity

This should make you nervous.

Lately, I’ve read many articles about branding and reputation. Now, more than ever, potential business, employment and personal contacts go to the Internet for information about me, Les Murphy.

This article on eWeek’s Career Site stated that over 80% of recruiters will put a potential contact’s name in Google to search for information about me before they will initiate contact.

We’ve all heard about the horrors of allowing unfortunate pictures and content to be posted on Facebook or other social networking sites, as well as confusion about people with the same name.

So, I thought I would pro actively do something about any potential conflict. I set up lesmurphy.com to point to my business website. You are now reading the results of my effort to clear up some things about my online Internet identity.

Last I looked, a search on Google for “Les Murphy” resulted in this site listed above the fold close to my LinkedIn Profile.

This particular Les Murphy is a native Texan, living in Montgomery Texas, a small rather historical rural community in Montgomery County, one hour north of downtown Houston, in Southeast Texas.

I am not my father (God rest his soul), with whom I share my name; or Les Murphy of Les Murphy Motors, northeast of Melbourne, Australia, on the road to Wagga Wagga; or the highly acclaimed CTO of Shunra; or the infamous murderer from New South Wales.

There you have it. I am a computer systems engineer and business systems consultant with a very unique and cost effective perspective on business systems.

Thanks for allowing me to clear up some things!

Resume

Thanks for your effort to find this page. If you’re interested in my consulting, partnering or employment situations, I would be honored to provide you with a resume and extensive references. Please use my contact form to get in touch.