This piece is really two pieces, one on the theoretical mistake of imitating success, and the other on the practical approach of breaking from the herd. Part 1: First, an example – one of the common questions I get about the new internet marketing (e.g. social media marketing) is this: “I haven’t seen anyone doing [...]
Back in the mid 1990s, it was quite common to hear people say “I just have no need for e-mail” and “I believe in doing everything face to face.” The verbal emphasis on the “e” in “e-mail” was one of rolling the eyes or sometimes derision. A bit later, it was common to hear the [...]
Personally, I rarely publish prices for services, because I think it encourages price shopping, and creates a climate where I can’t add value, and so I can’t compete. That’s bad for the client, because they always get nickel and dimed with mediocrity. With pure price shopping, I’m competing even with unscrupulous and dishonest service providers [...]
Rule of Work: Brand Everything You’d think this would be a well-worn platitude – a friend, like an old ball glove. But no, I still see businesses that aren’t branding everything they touch. Corporations do it – badly, I might add (except for Apple and Google which, frankly, just get it). But it’s almost as [...]
If you’re not getting a lot of traffic, and you’ve invested in a solid, reasonably attractive, well-organized design, and basic search engine optimization, the problem is most likely that your site is static, not dynamic. In other words, it’s the same furniture arrangement each time – the content never changes, so it’s not going to [...]
You’re a billion dollar firm putting out a web site to position your company before the entire English-speaking public. Your marketing people are armed with formidable demographic research that, after weeks of culling and analysis, is oriented into a dozen “models” – virtual consumers that will be users of your web site. Another 25% of [...]
Those who sell you on the idea of purely automated marketing (or marketing without involvement and work) are drawing on the same neurotic belief that convinces you of the possibility of exercise without effort or income without activity. True, there are marketing tools that automate some of the processes involved, but even reasonably adept spammers [...]
Daniel writes prolifically about subjects ranging from work to social justice, does literary writing, and is Marketing Director of Free Agent Source. Daniel founded JobHacker (formerly the Rules of Work) blog when the bottom fell out of the mortgage market, and the US economy started its death rattle.
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