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Lexington’s Bluegrass Region
Archive for March, 2009
Lexington’s Bluegrass Region
Friday, March 20th, 2009 by jarodDomain names and gift ideas
Thursday, March 19th, 2009 by jarodI don’t want to get deep here - just brief and to the point - hehe.
There is a huge learning curve for me sometimes. I find that I overlook important factors and as a result miss things all the times. But I catch on quicker then the hammer of a pistol.
Purchasing a domain name is important but I am not covering that now. Keeping your domain is better. If you or someone you know has a registered domain name but have not really pursued anything with a website or otherwise you might consider dropping the annoying annual registration fee. DO NOT. Hold onto your domain name, in fact if you don’t have plans or you are too busy do do anything with a domain name let someone else.
Let me clarify what I mean by “let someone else”, let your kid nephew, cousin, or brother - who is near graduation from tech school for design, etc, build a website, manage a community or just show videos - whatever - as a project. Random idea I know.
Why?
As a gift because you love and care for them.
This type of project is right up their alley. In fact this could add or begin a portfolio for them that will directly tie them to accounts they may close -with all that ambition they got from your side of the family - and income generated. Trust me, a family member that invests in another family members financial future by increasing skills is a pretty darn cool family person or people. That said I should mention that this investment is as little as a one time $120 payment.
What?
I promise this is a soft sell and I don’t intend to make any money from this idea - it’s just a random idea.
The what is a year of hosting for that domain. $120 these days
*unlimited storage
*drag and drop web site builder
*FTP account
*web file management
*supports every type of multimedia application
*e-commerce features
*unl email accounts
*unl register additional domains sharing host
*bulletin board (message forum)
*world class tech support
*our customer support
*consulting w/ me for 2 sessions (avg 45 - 60 min)
Trust me - when I started getting into web stuff and away from hardware I learned that there are unlimited toys and tools available - many out of the box with hosting like this.
I bought my first domain a few years back and learned from scratch. Built www.jarodemerson.com (pseudo) with basic HTML, then applied tables and graphics which I learned as I went. Next came understanding CSS and lastly was taking advantage of the world wide web with it’s w3c validated css styles, commands, semantic html and templates. WOW - what a trip. Imagine what I’ve learned since those days.
Looking back - best $120 investment ever.
Ok - so great idea but after you get started and purchase hosting what then? If basic skills don’t come naturally I am happy to provide crash courses on any related subject and give more resources and tools than ten people would know what to do with - but I’ll explain and teach what little I actually know of the vast structure we call the web.
I should update my linkedin sometime… I used to teach computer classes on desktop functions, basic computer skills and computer software use. Teaching is fun and the teacher learns much too. Favorite class given was on WMM, Windows Movie Maker. Chances are you have it - it’s great for beginners on video…
Anyways, there you have it.
You could actually get hosting for less than 120$ but not much. The cheapest I’ve found it is $70.00 here Obviously if you buy it right out you don’t get Green Thumb but the learning process is fairly straightforward with a little research and a few calls to tech support. But seriously $100 for crash course and 1yr hosting is awesome!
Purchase hosting for the domain and give them the hosting as a gift - love.
In other news regarding domain names - the value of a domain name with a website hosted on it increases every year. Just like a piece of real estate a domain name and website can hold value and be bought and sold on “the market”.
Someday I will talk specifically about this practice, but for now I have wore as many caps as I can today.
*night
continuity - when its lacking things don’t work
Thursday, March 19th, 2009 by jarodI’ll start with a story of my own from present time. 1991 was the year my Honda Civic RT4WD became a compact automobile driving on the roads of America. Since then and a few owners later the relic of economy car past still leaves its mark. I love this little car. It’s fun if you can accept driving a beater, if not, no fun.
I’ve accepted it because unbeknown to many, the car after my own heart is being meticulously reassembled in the home garage. My other Honda, 1990 CRX has been down since last fall. It will pride itself with a little body work and frame alignment mid summer and I hope to have enough in the budget to get the colors I need.
So the topic comes into play about now. Continuity is vital for many things we rely on. Everything from our nervous system to our computers to our automobiles, things require continuity to work properly. Case and point if the electrical system on your car doesn’t have continuity, you don’t have a car.
Yes, I’m having this problem now. I’m savvy with many things and I know my cars pretty well. I change my own oil because I like to be close to the working parts of a car, but I don’t like complicated things going wrong. Brakes, swap out an alternator - no sweat, tracking down the culprit in the electrical system of an old Honda - shut up.
Troubleshooting a problem is nothing new to me. I’ve been troubleshooting problems with electronics like computers and stereos for years. These days I work more with email or website problems, but the moment one of our cars acts out the sleeves get rolled up and I get my hands dirty.
My problem with the electrical system is that it is not charging the battery at a solid 12 amps so it will take a fully charged battery months to slowly drain but it does, and when it does everything stops working and my car won’t run. I expound on this matter because it is analogous with the type of marketing services Green Thumb has to offer.
Internet Marketing requires continuity to be most effective. The issue here is many people won’t understand that and as a result will fail to see how Social Media can provide a more cost effective strategy over traditional methods and other types of Internet Marketing. As an example look at a blog; it requires direct human intervention to complete the circuit and be effective.
Test this by creating a new blog. Now what - you have to post articles - you have to do it consistently - you must engage with others in the blogosphere - otherwise it will sit and do nothing for you. Furthermore take into consideration that if you manage a blog with say, the popular Twitter and Facebook you now have to be directly involved with all three - consistently. Now you are looking at a lot of your time being spent keeping up with ONE SINGLE FORM OF MARKETING. Not effective.
If you took a little extra time to troubleshoot this lack of continuity you would see that you must complete the circuit with as little involvement as possible. While you spend your time posting content to all the mediums everyone else is moving forward and your time is wrapped up with being directly involved consistently, being engaged will be neglected.
Social Media is a soft sell - you must engage. So create solid continuity with your blog, Twitter and Facebook so you can focus on being more engaged. I’ll say that there are actually quite a few methods of creating this continuity and to keep it simple I will define this continuity with Social Media.
Continuity applied to Social Media -
Syndication of your content across multiple Social arenas with direct feedback from them all to one source, i.e. one email inbox will keep track of all your Social activities, allow you to keep up with certain groups and/or individuals while allowing you to update your own content across the multiple arenas from one source like a blog.
I’ve mentioned this a few times in conversation and in previous posts. Call it “plugging yourself in”. Accomplishing this is quite the task. Green Thumb has been working meticulously to accomplish continuity with three of it’s long term clients and itself.
I would like to see who is interested in learning more about how we are doing this. We are beginning a video series that we’ll offer for free in the upcoming weeks. The topic will be Internet Marketing and how to create continuity across everything from your website to your blog to the many social networks. Later today I plan to give more information about these videos. I would love some feedback.
Link to the car profiles
1991 Honda Civic RT4WD
1990 Honda CRX
LexTreks: Old Kentucky Chocolate
Monday, March 16th, 2009 by jarodLexTreks: Old Kentucky Chocolate Looking for that perfect Valentines Day gift, or need a fix chocolate fix? Head over to Old Kentucky Chocolates for the perfect treat.
LexTreks: Lexington’s Downtown Arts Center
Monday, March 16th, 2009 by jarodLexTreks: Lexington's Downtown Arts Center A look at the Downtown Arts Center and neighboring Alfalfa Restaurant. From: LexKyCVB Views: 102 1 ratings Time: 04:30 More in Travel & Events
Google LBC - why haven’t you already?
Friday, March 13th, 2009 by jarodI am following up with a few contacts and I stumble onto a business card with the web address in bold type. I visit the site and the first thing I look at it the title and meta description tag. If you don’t know what I am talking about I’ll show you.
So I always assess a web site by its title and meta description tag. If it looks amazing great - but if it is not set up with the basic on site optimization it will be hard to get the most out of it.
I didn’t get on here to rant about titles and such but rather another aspect of internet marketing that too many people don’t take advantage of.
Google Local Business Center
If you haven’t signed up DO IT NOW. Visit www.google.com and click on Business Solutions just beneath the search bar. On the left side you will see Local Business Center.
If you already have a listing good for you. Is it optimized? We will get into optimization later but for now, please complete the profile the best you can. If you already have a listing and you didn’t set it up, you can claim your business by finding the listing in goolge and selecting the edit link then claim this business.
No joke, this is free and it can really go a long way. I will say this though. If you live outside New Circle Road and you are in a competitve niche getting the A-J listing will be near impossible. So dominate the organic results. More on that later. But for now, please do yourself a huge favor and take advantage of this free service.
For those of you with a little extra cash and not a lot of free time - listen in. There are dozens and dozens of other directory listings you can setup to get the best coverage. In fact Google pulls data from other listings and syndicates that content right into their business center. If you didn’t fill the form for Google but have done advertising in the Yellowpages - chances are they submitted your info to Yellowpages and Google found it.
Online Reputation Managment is a service Green Thumb Marketing is currently testing as a Beta release. We sell a lot of this and we currently have a spring promo for this service. It is a $299 setup and $10 or $100 year to maintain your online rep. We post physical reviews and also work to drive traffic by updating the 23 listings monthly. www.findmelexington.com
If you have a website and are interested in ORM with Find Me Lexington it would greatly benefit you. Otherwise take the advice - it’s free.
16 year old sister Alyssa on Facebook
Friday, March 13th, 2009 by DustinAfter a long week off on vacation in the Florida Keys and more importantly the Dry Tortugas, it was nice to come back and speak at this month’s ISBO. Thank you Kathie Stamps. Most of the attendees stayed over an hour after our talk was over asking questions. Look’s like we are on to something…
Social Media is beyond all the rave these days. I love hearing the term getting thrown around these days like it is a fad. Far from it. Social Media is here to stay. It is the new way people look for things on the internet. It’s not the next great thing that will pass, it is just an evolution of what is already happening.
I think the rise of social media comes from the youth. What are the young kids doing? I like to take a look at what my 16 year old sister is doing for guidance. It’s kinda funny. Not only does she now speak German better then her older brother. (She is studying for a year in Stuttgart Germany, I only had 6 months in Berlin) But she now is my guiding light for where I see the internet heading.
Here’s why….. SHE HAS NEVER LIVED WITHOUT IT.
I remember the days of waiting for my AOL to log on with the old modem. Then I would have to watch how long I was on because we were paying by the minute!
Sister Alyssa has never had to do that.
Her generation doesn’t check there email nearly as often at their Facebook. Yep. It’s all Facebook. Makes sense, it’s easier and she can see what everyone is doing everywhere.
What about Videos? That’s all she uploads. Why bother with writing a message that needs to be proof read, or more importantly read by others. PEOPLE ARE LAZY.
They want videos on their site or Facebook. Show me the good time or funny scene on a video, not in a paragraph. And it’s easier to do then ever.
People stay 70% longer on a website if there is a video on it. Get a video people. Your customers respond better videos, they can hear and see the emotion and the product.
So your probably asking, “Alright, where is your video then Dustin?”
Coming sooner then you think…
Here the kicker of how fast things are changing…Facebook is already on its way out! People are finding chinks in its armor. Want Proof?
“CEO Mark Zuckerberg is only 24 years old and has this Palo Alto company valuation at around $3.75 billion (down from $15 billion). “
Rant about a startup and finance
Friday, March 13th, 2009 by jarodI recently learned that the founders of Google financed their efforts almost entirely through using credit cards. Thanks to an article by Anne Field about great 7 great ways to finance a startup. It isn’t recent news but it appeared as one of those signals confirming that things are working. There has been a lot of sacrifice and though I haven’t taken any major debt I have been on a slim budget.
We recently decided to use our credit card to pay for marketing expenses. Chase bank gave us premier checking accounts along with our business account but there was a catch. It was only free if we had the card and we used it.
It was easy enough and all we have to do is pay the balance off each month. Our interest rate won’t kick in for a while but it isn’t a good idea to start bad habits. From personal experience with debt consolidation I know that paying off the balance means not taking to big a bite. We didn’t put our entire month of expenses on it, just enough that we knew we would have it covered.
Working alongside Dustin in debt settlement teaches you a lot about people and their bad habits with spending. We have had many clients successfuly complete our settlement program but there are those who drop out due to financial problems. Times are tough, every one feels the heat.
Our decision was made in favor of low spending over high balance and minimum payments. Looking forward though, I fear I’ll face getting a loan or some kind of venture to push our startup out there. What then - take on debt to move business out onto the board.
The point I guess - keep it simple and run with it, kick butt. Frugality is obtainable and we don’t have to spend large dollars to get business. If we get to critical mass and go live with a big contract or something - cool. That would mean we have much more cash flow and debt is no problem to throw money at. Otherwise keep spending minimal.
Business Lexington Media Metamorphosis Rant
Friday, March 13th, 2009 by DustinSusan Baniak’s article about the Media Metamorphosis in Business Lexington was eye opening…..
NO Wait… No it wasn’t. It stated the facts that the younger generations have already known. She just put some number to it
FACT: “Lexington Herald-Leader had a 21.7 million loss in the fourth quarter of 2008 with classifieds and retail plummeting 36% and 10% respectively for the past year.”
Retail dropped 10%. I wonder why? We’ll for starters you have to pay for the newspaper. Then you have to open it up and look at all the ads. Who still looks at the news paper ads? A certain demographic does. But you better be darn sure that people you are trying to sell to does. The number of those people is shrinking by the day.
Classifieds down 36%….No wonders here. Craigslist. Put it this way. I love old 80’s BMW’S. I found a dead 87 red bmw that I want to restore on Craigslist and it’s only an hour away. It was a free search and it was quick. (Now if only the guy will come down on the price!)
So where is it going?
TV?
Doubt it. Anyone with any respect for their own personal time doesn’t watch the idiot box. Those who do are moving more and more to TIVO or DVR. Bye Bye commercial interruptions.
Yellow Pages?
They make too many of them. Windstream, Verizon, Yellowbook. Which one is which? People then spend the money and are locked into a contract. Then the only calls they get are from people selling them something not wanting to buy.
Oh and this drives the point home that phone books are dead…why do you think they are trying to sell people websites now.
Radio?
Internet Marketing has now taken over the Market share of Radio. Yep look it up.
Here is the question…Are you spending your marketing dollars on a media that it rotting on the vine? Or are you developing a cumulative marketing effort online?
