Courtesy Goes Along Way
My wife Lindsey obviously “gets it.”
(Source: Leezy Lindsey)
I run this joint. Don’t know where to start? Let me show you around:
My wife Lindsey obviously “gets it.”
(Source: Leezy Lindsey)
Busy Nothings writes: “Do you want to know the ten companies that eschew the “Christmas” word? Best Buy, Dell, Kroger, Lowe’s, Office Max, Penney’s, Sears, Staples, Target, and Walgreens.”
Find the companies that aren’t afraid to offend anyone, because virtually no one gets offended. Whether you celebrate Christmas or not, and with all due respect, MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
On a side note, one of the blogs I write for has a large international readership. I recently posted an article related to Christmas shopping, and several international readers commented on how silly Americans look with this whole “Christmas/Holiday” debate. Many laugh at the entire ordeal and poke fun while sarcastically correcting their use of Christmas. Take it for what it’s worth.
(Source: Busy Nothings)
I have felt extremely inadequate on many occasions in my life. Usually the feeling arises from undertaking a new endeavor like a job or new project. Still to this day, when something new comes up that is slightly unexpected or challenging, these feelings return. I, for one, encourage them. Here’s why:
Feeling inadequate is what moves individuals forward. In many cases, it can cause a person to actually be more mindful, precise, and careful with what they are doing. I would be more concerned about not feeling inadequate while engaging in something new as this could result in complacency and/or lack of passion.
So if you’re involved in a new business venture, career, school program, or even parenthood, embrace the inadequacy. You’ll be better off because of it, and you’ll learn faster. That’s a Smooth Harold guarantee.
An anonymous slashdot reader writes “Google’s advertising sales vice president, Tim Armstrong, said this week in an interview that 2005 was the turning point for online ads. Older businesses went from trying out the internet as an advertising venue to investing full-on.” From the article: “‘The experimenting and testing phase begun in the 1990s has ended. Corporate ad buyers are investing now,’ he said. Jupiter Research estimates the U.S. online advertising market will grow 28 percent over last year, to $11.9 billion in 2005, moving to $13.6 billion in 2006 and $15.1 billion in 2007.”
Now’s the time ladies and gents.
(Source: Slashdot)
The dot com bubble was based on hype, but the premise behind that hype was legitimate. At $38 per monthly site visitor (the average for recent deals) good site traffic is worth good money. I’ve recently started running ads on some sites of mine that have very little traffic, but I’m amazed at the little money I make of them. Once traffic grows exponentially, which it does, decent traffic can explode into great traffic, which equals healthy ad revenues.
Here’s a great article on monetizing web traffic: High Traffic Monetization [Business 2.0]
This post is a follow up to The Crazy World of Domain Real Estate from a few days back. Here’s some helpful hints for those wanting to get into the domain name game and strike it rich (or die trying).
There you have it! Good luck brokers…
(Source: Business 2.0)
This one is very relaxing and very cinematic. Great use of filters and with the Peter Pan ending, it’s one great music video. At least someone is making forward progress with the medium.
[via Don Loper]
A very cool thing for one of my favorite websites.
Happy Thanksgiving to all you SH readers out there. Some things I’m thankful for on this day of thanks (In no particular order, sort of):
May the turkey be juicy, and may you kick off the holiday season with a bang!
(see also, Wikipedia)
I’ve been a Business 2.0 subscriber for over a year now, and it is by far the best business magazine out there for entrepreneurs and for soaking up new ideas, remotivation techniques, and entertaining news bits. Other than being the best business magazine, it’s also the cheapest. You can pick up 12 issues for a cool $6.99. This months issues along has a half dozen great articles. Usually I might find 1-2 articles I like in other magazines. This one is filled with them month in and month out.
I don’t pitch a lot of products like this, but the writing, information, and presentation of this printed mag is top notch.
What do you do to stay young at heart? I’m not talking about some boring adult answer, I’m talking about something you do that makes you feel like a kid that might make you embarrassed to talk about.
I for one play video games. I’ve recently been playing Mario Kart for the Nintendo DS. It’s a great little game that let’s you race anyone in the world via a wifi connection. It’s fast, it’s easy, and it’s fun. I also enjoy watching baseball. Sure lot’s of adults do this too, but it reminds me of my childhood, so I watch it faithfully, without all the silly baseball cards.
So what do you do?
With the rise of identity theft, it is now legal to get (3) free credit reports per year, one with each of the major credit bureaus. Never pay for a credit report again and know what’s on your report.
Business 2.0 has an insightful article on “Domainers” and “type-in” traffic. A domainer is an individual that buys up domain names, and then monetizes them by referring the type-in traffic to advertisers. A type-in is simply someone that manually types in a desired search phrase directly into a URL.com rather than going through a search engine. Type-ins are said to make up about 15% of internet search.
From the article: “I have one laptop, no employees, and no product whatsoever — none! This is magic. Magic, he claims, that’s earning him $2 million a year.”
(Source: Business 2.0)
AOL’s got problems. Even with the huge boost in ad revenues by purchasing Weblogs Inc (who I write for), the online service can’t stop people from heading to the exits. They have lost more than 300 subscribers per hour over the last three months. You have to be doing something wrong to loose than many customers per hour.
(Source: Light Reading)
Many of you know I’m big on blogging. I started last April and have never looked back. At the time, I was reading a lot of business books, articles, and magazine editorials, and was soaking up a lot of good information. Smooth Harold then become my breeding ground for thoughts, ideas, understandings, and everything else I care about.
Blogging has really become the networking of the 21st century, at least for me that is. It has provided me with opportunities I’d never dreamed possible. I’ve closed business deals by blogging. Just recently I landed a multi-phase consulting project with a local company. One partner found my site through a comment I made on another business blog and liked what I had to say about disruptive technology. The rest is history.
I’ve even recently been hired by Weblogs Inc. (an AOL company) as a freelance writer which has always been a dream of mine. It will give me the opportunity to become a better writer and work under a great editor and writing team. Very exciting times.
You don’t have to start a blog to benefit from them. Just read them! It takes time to update a blog, and it takes timely updates to keep people coming back. So if you can’t do that then at least post comments on other sites/blogs that link back to your website or email. If people like what you have to say, they will trust, like, contact, and want to associate themselves with you. It takes time, but it pays to blog.
Say hello to Google Analytics. Say goodbye to Site Meter.
Lindsey, Sadie, and I went to the mall this evening. Though our family already has a cell plan, {sarcasm}I couldn’t imagine how difficult it would be to find a cell carrier kiosk in the mall. They should really think about adding more kiosks.{/sarcasm}
Seriously, I tend to exaggerate but I kid you not; there must have been 12 different cell phone stores and kiosks at Provo Towne Center. Are people really buying this many cell plans at the mall? And who goes to the mall to buy a plan anyway?
And don’t even get me started on wearing a shirt and tie to sell a phone…
If you don’t already know, here’s a great definition of what the old technology packaged as new is. AJAX enables advanced features like drag ‘n drop, dropdown menus and faster performance capabilities in website databases.
I’m really excited about the things my company has starting doing with this technology and the client sites we apply it to. It’s the next step to take web applications even further and far superior than the always sticky Flash.
As if Google Maps wasn’t cool enough, you can now play online Risk via the mapping service. This is made possible by Google’s maps API (Application Program Interface) that is just a fancy way to say programming framework.
Very clever indeed and one great classic boardgame. Maybe even better than Axis & Allies.
(Source: Risk via Google Maps)
JPigford writes “The Apple Blog makes claim that Apple sabotaged the success of the ROKR so as to sway public opinion of MP3 cell phones in general…ultimately to drive more sales to the iPod. By mandating a 100 song limit on the ROKR and having the product flop, Apple was able to put a bad taste in the mouths of consumers so that not only do they drive more iPod sales, but they keep competitors from fighting back with their own MP3 phones.”
Are you buying?
(Source: Slashdot)
The following (2) articles offer a very pragmatic approach to:
Have at it.
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies are more superstitious than South American culture. You’ve heard them all but here’s a first person experience to debunk some of the most famous ones:
It’s getting ever so difficult to stay ahead of the game so here’s the real truth on search engine optimization: have many sites, most importantly respectable ones link to your site via articles or a reference. If you have descriptive page content that cuts through marketing jargon, you’ll be off to a good start. Remember, it takes time to build a credible business in the real world. The same holds true for building a credible website.
Forbes has a nifty little Email Time Capsule that will let you send an self addressed email at a 1-20 year interval. I guess we’ll still be using email in 2025…
Note to self: Remember that you got through the tough times as an entrepreneur, that your first daughter was born this year, and you’re wife is the best thing that ever happened to you.
(Source: Forbes)
Naming consultants, free of charge. You’re welcome.
(via Igor)
1946: Voted his country’s best all-around school athlete, Fidel Castro from the University of Havana, tries out for a place on the Washington Senators baseball team. The twenty-year old left handed baseball pitcher is turned down, which leaves him free to follow another career path…
(Source: The Left-Hander’s Calendar)
This post goes out to all you designers and/or people with an eye for fashion. Need a new color scheme for a website, brochure, poster, or living room? Color blend it for some wizard like assistance in color matching.
(Source: Color Blender)
The guy who invented Ctrl + Alt + Del explains how and why. This is a very funny clip about the cultural icon that is the 3 button shortcut for dealing with finicky PC’s. The guy’s one-liner at the end is probably the wittiest thing ever said about computers.
I’m a big advocate for Wikipedia and use it all the time. It’s fast, accurate, and the most comprehensive encyclopedia in the world. It may also be coming to print for those in developing countries where high-speed internet is not readily available.
This is great news for information junkies and the open source community. Power in numbers is a great thing.
(Source: Yahoo!)
I don’t know why it’s fun to monitor the search, er, I mean advertising giant but here goes. First off, it’s rumored the company will take on traditional advertising companies that have made Madison Avenue famous. The NY Times reported that Google has plans to replace “creative salesmanship with cold number-crunching” for both print and TV ads.
Second off, they will start hiring programmers to work on OpenOffice.org, the open source and FREE response to Microsoft Office. While Google has supported open source initiatives in the past, the is the first time they’ll start hiring programmers to work on a public project.
If you haven’t already realized, Google is in the advertising not search business. Advertising is all about traffic, and by building the best search engine in the world, Google can guarantee the best online traffic in the world.
(Source: CNET)
It’s a great day to be a witch, vampire, ghost, or nerdy Star Wars dude. Even better, listen to Seinfeld’s classic Halloween skit of what it was like to trick or treat as a kid.
Get candy. Get candy. Get candy.
Google is preparing to release an online consumer database. The system will allow any user to create they’re own public database including descriptions of a party planning service, articles or current events for a website, selling a car, and whatever else you can think of.
This should be major cause of concern for the always popular craigslist.org and eBay. Google is getting even closer to indexing everybit of information they can get their grubby digital hands on. It should be interesting to find out more about this service.
As a young boy, I used to dream about being a shoe designer for Nike. Something about “tennashoes” always fascinated me. I loved sports and I guess I really believed or wanted to believe that my kicks could help improve my athletic performance. So I drew shoes.
I entertained and acted upon that dream from grade school to my late middle-school years. I would seclude myself in the corner of my shared room and draw shoe mockups with only a pencil. I must have gone through dozens of notebooks. Finally, when I was about 11 or 12 and through my own initiative, I decided to look up Nike’s corporate address and send them my work.
Straight from arguably the best business publication in existence, Business 2.0 has a nice little article on what goes into naming and renaming companies. A great company name can never compensate for an excellent product and company management though.
From the article: “Whatever the reason for the renaming, engineering a successful name change is hard work, and it can cost a bundle. Many companies enlist the expertise of a branding agency — a service that usually costs between $30,000 and $150,000.”
I’ll rant on branding agencies later.
(Source: Business 2.0)
Griffio has been building AJAX functionality into our sites and databases over the past several months. It’s powerful stuff. It’s also arguably the biggest challenge for Microsoft, even more so than Google. Google, however, are very big proponents of AJAX development along with Snapfish, Flickr, Writley and the list goes on. If you’re not sure what it is, it’s basically a way to make web programs behave more like desktop programs. That is, more powerful programs running on a website.
From the article: “Web developers are beginning to push its limits in terms of creative uses and new applications.” It should be interesting to see how far AJAX can go and what challenges to MS it can bring. Web development tools just keep getting better.
(Source: Wired)
How can you do that as an entrepreneur? Easy. Get an advisory board. From the WSJ article: “These advisers, of course, aren’t to be confused with a board of directors, which bears a fiduciary duty and legal responsibility. Rather, these are advisers, generally unpaid, who have agreed to be associated with your business. The experience they bring can be the key to your growth. They can offer you gritty business advice, such as who to go to for a particular legal problem or a good source for some bit of inventory.”
We have yet to formed an advisory board for my company, but it’s sounding like it couldn’t be a better time. Any SH readers out there worked with an advisory board?
(Source: WSF)
Although I grew up on the goodness that is 2% milk, my wife and I switched to 1% early in our marriage. However, we’ve recently discovered Skim Delight also known as Skim Supreme that is basically skim milk with the same thickening ingredient used in ice cream (no not lard). It has the consistency of whole milk but the low fatness of skim. In this the beginning of my struggles to stay fit while enjoying good food, bring it on!
What do all the SH readers drink out there?
While Google makes the best search engine around, their customer service department sure is lacking. I’ve sent several emails regarding my AdWords and News Source questions to which I always get the following response:
“We are unable to provide specific information at this time.”
That’s all they ever say. Sure they have to share financial data now that they’re public, but I guess they still don’t want to share helpful information with their customers. Maybe I could try that with my company’s customer service department: “Why isn’t my database working?” to which I would reply: “I’m sorry, we’re unable to provide specific information at this time…” Brilliant!
I used to think Google might be able to overcame the casualties of becoming a huge corporation. It’s looking like I was wrong.
If you haven’t been able to tell from previous posts, I love baseball. I guess I like it for several reasons but the one that is most fascinating, is that a team is never down and out in a game. In football and basketball, which I also enjoy, you can pretty much tell when a team is beyond winning.
That’s not the case in baseball. Last night Lindsey and I were watching the National League Championship Series between the Cardinals and Astros. The Astros were up 4-2 in the 9th inning with one out away from getting to the world series. It looked like it was all in the Astros favor, until a couple of batters got on base, to which Albert Pujols knocked them in on a monster home run.
It’s never to late to come out on top in baseball. You can always come back, no matter how late in the game. I find that inspiring in my personal and professional life as well. Never give up.
The rich sure don’t do much to help out. Chevy is donating a measly $1000 to charity for every postseason baseball game played this fall. That’s about a whopping $25,000 from a corporation that makes billions. How generous of you Chevy…
Also, the sports world doesn’t seem to do much for philanthropy either. When Hurricane Katrina hit, Dion Sanders proposed that all NBA, MLB, NFL players each donate a wimpy $1000 each. That’s like me donating less than a penny to charity. Way to go guys…
And don’t even get me started on celebrities. Save a tree and fly my own private jet across the world while burning through tons of natural resources. Sponsor groups to solicit donations rather than giving to them. To be fair, there are those that are very generous in giving, but it’s sad to say that a vast majority don’t share that conviction. It’s just insanely ironic that those with money make up less than 10% of charitable donations.
It’s good to have the little people in the world, and I hope to always be a little person in that regard.
I loves me some cheddar, especially sharp. Though my wife and I both grew up on mild, we decided to try sharp early into our marriage and have never looked back. We’ve even ventured as far as extra sharp but it tends to crumble a bit so we stick with the sharp.
If you like a little bite and some extra flavor in your cheese, sharp is the only way to go. Which version of cheddar do you prefer?
What is it with being easy? Are we so obsessed with the idea that we miss out on some of the finer things in life? Here are some behaviors I think we’ve adapted because of our infatuation with making everything easy:
I’m not asking to make things more difficult ’cause I do believe in better living through technology. But not at the expense of the little things we might be missing out on because of our fear of difficulty or putting in overtime. Little things that add up to an enjoyable life. Little things our grandparents enjoyed. Little things that fill our lives with meaning.
Has easy gone too far? What’s missing from this list?
Apple announced a video iPod yesterday. C’mon now. Who wants portable video? Sure, the company has the best portable MP3 around by far, but this move is just cocky and presumptuous. Explain to me how you can multi-task while watching a downloaded tv show on a 2 inch screen? It just doesn’t make sense. Music, however, does.
Even more convincing, CNN ran a poll today asking if people would buy an iPod for video. An astounding 82% said they would not. Did Apple do any market research? It’s looks like they didn’t. And who was buying iPods for photos? No one.
Would you buy an iPod for video?
Funny how something gets repackaged and then becomes a fad. Prediction: podcasts are going nowhere. Maddox put it best when he said:
“Podcast: Someone had the revolutionary idea of taking a compressed audio file and putting it online. Yeah, doesn’t sound so sexy when I describe it for what it is, does it? It would have been a great idea if streaming audio wasn’t already around for over a decade before the word “podcast” entered the lexicon.
Podcasting: It’s snob for “streaming audio.”
(Source: Best Page in the Universe)
About A Boy is one of my favorite movies. But its message is even better and applies to all aspects of life: You need backup.
Backup as in friends, family, colleagues, associates, and coworkers. Basically surrounding yourself with people you like and appreciate. If you do so it can make life that more enjoyable. It can mean finding a great job (via networking) or landing a new account for a growing company. It can mean staying sane when the tough gets going. It can mean having a blast with others. The more the merrier.
Backup is what it’s all about. If you have good backup, everything will work out. You can’t live life alone and enjoy it to its fullest.
FC: “Although sales of self-help books have doubled in the past four years, mental illness, obesity, drug addiction, and alcoholism are very much on the rise. Is the craziness fueling the literature or vice versa? Comedian George Carlin captured it when he said, “If you’re looking for self-help, why would you read a book written by somebody else? That’s not self-help, that’s help! There’s no such thing as self-help. If you did it yourself, you didn’t need help.”
Self help you make me money. To be fair though, coaching has it’s place and can help. Think of how beneficial a personal training can be for fitness. But to the point it’s gotten, it’s a little overboard.
(Source: Fast Company)
This picture really captures the overall feeling in the house of us new parents right now. Lindsey and I are slowly getting more sleep but I think this is one of my favorite/artistic baby shots as of yet.
I’ll get back to more regularly scheduled postings once the baby novelty starts to wear off (if it ever does).
Lindsey and I became the proud parents of Sadie Anne Snow yesterday, October, 4, 2005 at 6:09 pm. From our window, it rained all day long but just after her birth the sun broke out across the Mountains. It was a very special time.
This is our first born child and I’m happy to report that baby and mom are recovering nicely. She was a whopping 9 lbs and 20 inches long. Here’s the little rascal in all her new-born glory along with some other pics:
Less than 3 hours old…
Three’s company!
Taking a nap with momma.
The work-a-holic! Many thanks to you Lindsey. You were great and I love you!
Run a good business, and your brand will follow.
Branding Companies, like self help gurus, are very big business. They’re basically the same though. Like personal coaches help insecure individuals, Brand companies do the same for insecure CEO’s. They’re selling point: “we’ll help your company and customer’s know who you are.” Whatever that means… Could you be anymore vague in a making a buck?
Fast Company writes: “Consider that some of the most successful brands do little overt “branding” to achieve their status. Chelsea Milling Co. hasn’t changed the packaging on its well-known Jiffy mix boxes in more than 50 years. Though the company has never advertised, it dominates the muffin-mix category with a 55% market share by unit sales. Betty Crocker and Pillsbury have spent decades and untold millions trying to catch up.”
Not Convinced?
The article continues by saying that In-N-Out Burger dominates burger sales in comparison with McDonald’s. Yet the company spends almost nothing in advertising. McDonald’s spent an estimated $1.5 billion on branding efforts last year alone, producing little more than one day’s worth of sales more per store than In-N-Out. “Have you ever met anyone who’s had an In-N-Out Burger who doesn’t believe it’s one of the best burgers they’ve ever had? Meanwhile, just who, exactly, is really ‘lovin’ it.'”
If you build good products and/or offer competent services, you’ll have a strong brand. Instead of paying someone to tell you who your are, work hard in serving your customers and they’ll do it for free. Think of your brand like your own personal character. You can’t buy one. It takes work to get one.
(Source: Fast Company)
Who ranks the worst when it comes to customer service? Well according to a recent Fast Company survey, Wal-mart, Cingular, and Sprint PCS are the top three offenders. How much longer can wireless companies keep treating it’s customers poorly? Oh I know. When VoIP and other new technologies make them get their act together.
Until then, here’s to crappy cell phone service!
(Source: Fast Company)