As blogs and blogging become more mainstream, the question of whether employment could be an end result was certain to arise.
Many bloggers are very good writers. Many are improving as writers thanks to the continued practice gained through regular blog posts. While a blogger may not have the benefit of an editor's opinion, the writer is not hampered by one either.
The possibility of blog writers become part of the mainstream media is a strong one. The media has a constant need of solid wordsmiths in politics, crime, sports, human interest, and business. Note the hint.
Fellow blogger Tristam Bielecki at Blogopoly addresses many of the same topics you read here. He usually does them from a different approach than me, but that's a story for another day. What is the story for today is his thoughts on blogs for jobs.
Tristam says:
"Everyone has felt like this at one time - and a lot of people get asked the question "what is your knowledge of this industry?" which is often difficult to demonstrate in an interview....I mentioned my Internet Marketing Blog on my Resume once and was impressed to have an interviewer once remark that they are an avid reader of my blog and they brought it to the meeting to show to the other interviewer."
Tristam has interest in his blog from the world of business.
Other bloggers have designs on vaulting from their blog to the sports pages. Talented and widely read baseball blogger Aaron Gleeman has already drawn notice for his indepth baseball analysis. Writing assignments from other internet baseball sites have been flowing in his direction.
Another baseball blogger, Will Carroll has also written about moving from blog stream to mainstream. His column on the topic has drawn equally interesting comments from his readers on the same subject.
The blogosphere wide discussion on whether bloggers will become print media pundits and columnists is heating up.
Perhaps some more blog authors will be seen in the daily newspapers and newstand magazines.
Those future wide circulation columnists may be sitting on your own blogrolls as we speak.
The future may be in the keyboards of the bloggers.
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Monday, February 9, 2004
Blog business: Relationship marketing
Relationship marketing.
You've often heard the term used, but were never really certain what it meant. It does sound kind of touchy feely, doesn't it? Really all it means, however, is building good long term customer relations.
To turn your present marketing system into relationship marketing, you have to change your outlook somewhat. Traditionally, marketers have located their target market segments, made their offer, and made the sales. It's always been a single step process.
Relationship marketing looks at customers and clients over a longer term. It takes into account the lifetime value of a customer. Many experts think it costs anywhere from six to ten times as much, to find a new customer, than to sell to an existing one. With those financial realities in mind, the approach makes some sense, and some real dollars.
Relationship marketing is based on the idea, that people prefer to do business with people, they know and like. After all, it's easier to buy from a friend, than from someone you've never heard of before. The focus is on a multi-step marketing system that works for the lifetime of the customer.
It's said that people need to hear an offer about seven times before they buy. That concept certainly works against the single step marketing method.
That is where a business blog can be really helpful.
As you write your daily blog entries, your readers get to know you and your business on a more personal level. Your blog begins that all important relationship with your prospects and current customers. As they read about your daily business activities, your problem solving ideas, your business advice, and your various products, they begin to think of themselves as a part of the company.
They are!
The prospects for your products and services begin to turn into customers over time. Since they already know about you and your organization, it naturally follows that they will buy from you.
Your existing customers will remain loyal to your business, through the regular personal contact of your blog. Your customers will not only stay loyal, but they will often bring tons of valuable referral business to your company. Happy customers are your best marketing friends.
By creating a business blog, you can develop strong bonds with your existing and future customers. Instead of treating them as numbers, you have formed a long term relationship with them. Their purchases, of your products and services, are a natural response to your blog entries. It is certainly not a one step sales system!
Creating a relationship with your customers and clients doesn't just pay off financially for your company. It is also rewarding personally for you; and for them.
Start your blog and build those long term relationships.
You'll be glad you decided on a blog for your relationship marketing!
You've often heard the term used, but were never really certain what it meant. It does sound kind of touchy feely, doesn't it? Really all it means, however, is building good long term customer relations.
To turn your present marketing system into relationship marketing, you have to change your outlook somewhat. Traditionally, marketers have located their target market segments, made their offer, and made the sales. It's always been a single step process.
Relationship marketing looks at customers and clients over a longer term. It takes into account the lifetime value of a customer. Many experts think it costs anywhere from six to ten times as much, to find a new customer, than to sell to an existing one. With those financial realities in mind, the approach makes some sense, and some real dollars.
Relationship marketing is based on the idea, that people prefer to do business with people, they know and like. After all, it's easier to buy from a friend, than from someone you've never heard of before. The focus is on a multi-step marketing system that works for the lifetime of the customer.
It's said that people need to hear an offer about seven times before they buy. That concept certainly works against the single step marketing method.
That is where a business blog can be really helpful.
As you write your daily blog entries, your readers get to know you and your business on a more personal level. Your blog begins that all important relationship with your prospects and current customers. As they read about your daily business activities, your problem solving ideas, your business advice, and your various products, they begin to think of themselves as a part of the company.
They are!
The prospects for your products and services begin to turn into customers over time. Since they already know about you and your organization, it naturally follows that they will buy from you.
Your existing customers will remain loyal to your business, through the regular personal contact of your blog. Your customers will not only stay loyal, but they will often bring tons of valuable referral business to your company. Happy customers are your best marketing friends.
By creating a business blog, you can develop strong bonds with your existing and future customers. Instead of treating them as numbers, you have formed a long term relationship with them. Their purchases, of your products and services, are a natural response to your blog entries. It is certainly not a one step sales system!
Creating a relationship with your customers and clients doesn't just pay off financially for your company. It is also rewarding personally for you; and for them.
Start your blog and build those long term relationships.
You'll be glad you decided on a blog for your relationship marketing!
Sunday, February 8, 2004
Carnival of the Capitalists selects my post
Again this week, the prestigious Carnival of the Capitalists is featuring another of my blog posts.
This week, as usual, a different blog is hosting Carnival of the Capitalists. We find the Carnival has set up its tent at political blog The Trommetter Times.
Well known for serious study of religion, politics, and informed opinion, The Trommetter Times is a highly regarded blog. It is a privilege to have an article selected by blogger Jason Trommetter.
Regular readers of my roller derby blog, known as Wayne's Derby World, will recognize the themes from my roller derby posts over there.
Be sure to read the many great articles and blogs presented at Carnival of the Capitalists.
I always learn a lot from them.
I'm sure you will too.
This week, as usual, a different blog is hosting Carnival of the Capitalists. We find the Carnival has set up its tent at political blog The Trommetter Times.
Well known for serious study of religion, politics, and informed opinion, The Trommetter Times is a highly regarded blog. It is a privilege to have an article selected by blogger Jason Trommetter.
Regular readers of my roller derby blog, known as Wayne's Derby World, will recognize the themes from my roller derby posts over there.
Be sure to read the many great articles and blogs presented at Carnival of the Capitalists.
I always learn a lot from them.
I'm sure you will too.
Saturday, February 7, 2004
Equity Financing: A Case Study
I was talking with some friends of mine the other day, and it struck me that they knew little about roller derby at all.
That came as a surprise to me, as they were all fans of the Rock-n-Rollergames show from the late 1980s. Because they never received TNN (now the Spike Network) during the RollerJam years, they had forgotten that the banked track sport even existed.
They had even less knowledge of the newer all female leagues, that are springing up all over North America, whether skated on flat track or bank.
I gave them all a crash course in recent roller derby history.
They were all quite enthused about the sport's revival, but skeptical about whether the sport could ever become popular again.
One of my friends is involved in high risk venture capital finance. His company lends to, and takes equity stakes (part ownership) in, various higher risk business ventures. Their clients include companies that are long on ideas and talent, but are very short of cash and....well....just about everything else.
He was not certain if they could justify the financing for a roller derby startup league.
With the unscientific sample that day, of many former roller derby fans, he saw some serious stumbling blocks. It seemed to him that the sport needed a lot higher profile created, with the general public, before any league would be seriously considered by any investors.
If past casual roller derby fans were unaware that the sport still existed, there was a long way to go, if a league wanted to build a fan base. He saw the current roller derby fan base as just slightly above non-existant. He said that would be the position the investors would take from the start.
The onus would be, on the league owners and management, to prove a fan base existed now, or become viable in the vary near future.
The roller derby fan base, from the venture capitalist standpoint, would be considered zero.
He thought locally popular leagues (that would include the Texas, Cayman Islands, and Arizona all female leagues) would find some nice niche markets. He did not see much growth potential, from an investor point of view. He felt the leagues might do very well financially, as small businesses, but attracting large scale funding would not likely happen.
I told him that the all female leagues were bootstrap type operations, who financed themselves, through fundraisers and their own cash flow. He said that was probably going to be the only way to finance and operate roller derby leagues for a long time.
Since his company which operates in all of North America, looked only at high risk investments, he had a sense of which industries would be good investments. He believed the sport of roller derby was even too high risk for them. Other high risk investors would likely think the same way. The main strike against roller derby, in his opinion, was limited pre-existing market.
That information is bad news for potential roller derby leagueowners (or other high risk industry entrants) who are chasing the elusive "investors".
I have never been a fan of the investor concept, so it was not earth shattering news for me.
I have said for a long time, that investor led roller derby leagues are not the way to go, for new owners.
In fact, I am not sold on the concept of investor equity financing for entrepreneurs in any industry, due to the loss of ownership control. For new business owners, who consider high risk venture capital, being prepared to compromise and even sacrifice their vision is necessary.
While many business owners may be tempted by the opportunity for startup equity capital, they must be ready to potentially lose control of their own business and ideas.
While I don't entirely agree with everything my friend said about equity venture capital, he does make some good points. Roller derby's fan base has been seriously eroded, and will take a long time to rebuild. I have said that myself, more than once.
Perhaps other investors might not be so pessimistic about funding roller derby startups. On the other hand, they just might be even less optimistic.
In any case, the best way to start a roller derby league, or a business startup, is probably to fund it yourself. Using the business's own cash flow, coupled with some really creative money raising techniques, is probably a better route to success.
While the all female roller derby leagues may have found a few great methods of league funding, they haven't found them all. There are many more creative techniques for getting money for a league. The all women's leagues have probably only scratched the financing surface.
We always have to keep in mind, that what works for one business, will not necessarily work for all startup businesses.
To say that "you should copy the all female leagues as they have all the answers", is not good business advice. Every business, and roller derby is a business too, has different financial needs, goals, markets, and management teams. They have found one business model, among an infinite number of business possiblities.
There are as many ways to get money as there are people with league startup concepts.
On the other hand, the investor route to league financing is not the answer.
That came as a surprise to me, as they were all fans of the Rock-n-Rollergames show from the late 1980s. Because they never received TNN (now the Spike Network) during the RollerJam years, they had forgotten that the banked track sport even existed.
They had even less knowledge of the newer all female leagues, that are springing up all over North America, whether skated on flat track or bank.
I gave them all a crash course in recent roller derby history.
They were all quite enthused about the sport's revival, but skeptical about whether the sport could ever become popular again.
One of my friends is involved in high risk venture capital finance. His company lends to, and takes equity stakes (part ownership) in, various higher risk business ventures. Their clients include companies that are long on ideas and talent, but are very short of cash and....well....just about everything else.
He was not certain if they could justify the financing for a roller derby startup league.
With the unscientific sample that day, of many former roller derby fans, he saw some serious stumbling blocks. It seemed to him that the sport needed a lot higher profile created, with the general public, before any league would be seriously considered by any investors.
If past casual roller derby fans were unaware that the sport still existed, there was a long way to go, if a league wanted to build a fan base. He saw the current roller derby fan base as just slightly above non-existant. He said that would be the position the investors would take from the start.
The onus would be, on the league owners and management, to prove a fan base existed now, or become viable in the vary near future.
The roller derby fan base, from the venture capitalist standpoint, would be considered zero.
He thought locally popular leagues (that would include the Texas, Cayman Islands, and Arizona all female leagues) would find some nice niche markets. He did not see much growth potential, from an investor point of view. He felt the leagues might do very well financially, as small businesses, but attracting large scale funding would not likely happen.
I told him that the all female leagues were bootstrap type operations, who financed themselves, through fundraisers and their own cash flow. He said that was probably going to be the only way to finance and operate roller derby leagues for a long time.
Since his company which operates in all of North America, looked only at high risk investments, he had a sense of which industries would be good investments. He believed the sport of roller derby was even too high risk for them. Other high risk investors would likely think the same way. The main strike against roller derby, in his opinion, was limited pre-existing market.
That information is bad news for potential roller derby leagueowners (or other high risk industry entrants) who are chasing the elusive "investors".
I have never been a fan of the investor concept, so it was not earth shattering news for me.
I have said for a long time, that investor led roller derby leagues are not the way to go, for new owners.
In fact, I am not sold on the concept of investor equity financing for entrepreneurs in any industry, due to the loss of ownership control. For new business owners, who consider high risk venture capital, being prepared to compromise and even sacrifice their vision is necessary.
While many business owners may be tempted by the opportunity for startup equity capital, they must be ready to potentially lose control of their own business and ideas.
While I don't entirely agree with everything my friend said about equity venture capital, he does make some good points. Roller derby's fan base has been seriously eroded, and will take a long time to rebuild. I have said that myself, more than once.
Perhaps other investors might not be so pessimistic about funding roller derby startups. On the other hand, they just might be even less optimistic.
In any case, the best way to start a roller derby league, or a business startup, is probably to fund it yourself. Using the business's own cash flow, coupled with some really creative money raising techniques, is probably a better route to success.
While the all female roller derby leagues may have found a few great methods of league funding, they haven't found them all. There are many more creative techniques for getting money for a league. The all women's leagues have probably only scratched the financing surface.
We always have to keep in mind, that what works for one business, will not necessarily work for all startup businesses.
To say that "you should copy the all female leagues as they have all the answers", is not good business advice. Every business, and roller derby is a business too, has different financial needs, goals, markets, and management teams. They have found one business model, among an infinite number of business possiblities.
There are as many ways to get money as there are people with league startup concepts.
On the other hand, the investor route to league financing is not the answer.
Friday, February 6, 2004
Google PageRank Questions and Answers
Q. What is Google PageRank?
A. Google PageRank (one word) is the measure of the relative importance of a web page on the internet. The numbers rank from 0 to 10. The higher the number, the better the PageRank.
Q. Is the PageRank (PR) number for the entire site?
A. PageRank is determined for each individual web page, as every page on your blog has a different PR. The blog home page is likely to have the highest PR as it will have the most sites linking to it.
Q. How is PageRank determined?
A. PageRank is calculated based on your incoming links. The higher the PR of your incoming links, and the fewer there are on a page, the more PR is passed to your blog page.
Q. How does my PageRank increase?
A. PageRank increases in a geometric manner similar to the earthquake Richter Scale. For example, it is harder to go from a PR4 to a PR5, than it was to reach the PR4 from a PR3. In a similar fashion, it's even harder to get to a PR 6, than it was to get to PR5 from PR4, and so on up. Each level requires increasingly more high value incoming links than did the previous level.
Q. How can I find out my Google PageRank?
A. It is displayed in increasing amounts of green on a guage on the Google Toolbar. The Google toolbar can be downloaded for a PC at http://toolbar.google.com and it also displays backlinks and works as a pop-up blocker. There is no Google Toolbar available for a Mac.
Q. How soon do the backlinks and PageRank show up on my Google Toolbar?
A. It often takes two full monthly updates for all of your incoming links to be discovered, counted, calculated and displayed as backlinks.
Q. Do all of my backlinks get displayed?
A. Google only shows the backlinks it has found and calculated for your pages that have a PR4 or higher. All links are included in the tabulation, however.
Q. Do low level PageRanks help my blog's PR?
A. All incoming links count towards your total, but lower level PRs (0-3) don't count a lot immediately. They will add more PR later, however, as their own PR's increase.
Q. Should I exchange links with low value PageRanks?
A. PageRank should not be your primary concern for link exchanges. Benefits to your readers, of discovering new and interesting blogs and websites should be your first concern. The PR is simply an added bonus, and the PR may rise over time. A PR2 could soon be a PR7.
Q. Are 60 outgoing links to other blogs too many?
A. No, as Google is only concerned with pages of over 100 outgoing links that it considers to be link farms. Your blog is not a problem.
Q. Can my PageRank go down?
A. Yes it can, if you lose some important links, that are no longer linking to your blog. PR loss can also occur if some of your linking partners also experience a drop in their own PR.
Q. Is it important to have good PageRank?
A. Yes, as PageRank is part of the Google algorithm that determines where your blog will appear in the search engine results. Higher PR pages, especially for competitive keywords, will usually be listed higher. Keep in mind that relevant on page content of your blog is even more important.
A. Google PageRank (one word) is the measure of the relative importance of a web page on the internet. The numbers rank from 0 to 10. The higher the number, the better the PageRank.
Q. Is the PageRank (PR) number for the entire site?
A. PageRank is determined for each individual web page, as every page on your blog has a different PR. The blog home page is likely to have the highest PR as it will have the most sites linking to it.
Q. How is PageRank determined?
A. PageRank is calculated based on your incoming links. The higher the PR of your incoming links, and the fewer there are on a page, the more PR is passed to your blog page.
Q. How does my PageRank increase?
A. PageRank increases in a geometric manner similar to the earthquake Richter Scale. For example, it is harder to go from a PR4 to a PR5, than it was to reach the PR4 from a PR3. In a similar fashion, it's even harder to get to a PR 6, than it was to get to PR5 from PR4, and so on up. Each level requires increasingly more high value incoming links than did the previous level.
Q. How can I find out my Google PageRank?
A. It is displayed in increasing amounts of green on a guage on the Google Toolbar. The Google toolbar can be downloaded for a PC at http://toolbar.google.com and it also displays backlinks and works as a pop-up blocker. There is no Google Toolbar available for a Mac.
Q. How soon do the backlinks and PageRank show up on my Google Toolbar?
A. It often takes two full monthly updates for all of your incoming links to be discovered, counted, calculated and displayed as backlinks.
Q. Do all of my backlinks get displayed?
A. Google only shows the backlinks it has found and calculated for your pages that have a PR4 or higher. All links are included in the tabulation, however.
Q. Do low level PageRanks help my blog's PR?
A. All incoming links count towards your total, but lower level PRs (0-3) don't count a lot immediately. They will add more PR later, however, as their own PR's increase.
Q. Should I exchange links with low value PageRanks?
A. PageRank should not be your primary concern for link exchanges. Benefits to your readers, of discovering new and interesting blogs and websites should be your first concern. The PR is simply an added bonus, and the PR may rise over time. A PR2 could soon be a PR7.
Q. Are 60 outgoing links to other blogs too many?
A. No, as Google is only concerned with pages of over 100 outgoing links that it considers to be link farms. Your blog is not a problem.
Q. Can my PageRank go down?
A. Yes it can, if you lose some important links, that are no longer linking to your blog. PR loss can also occur if some of your linking partners also experience a drop in their own PR.
Q. Is it important to have good PageRank?
A. Yes, as PageRank is part of the Google algorithm that determines where your blog will appear in the search engine results. Higher PR pages, especially for competitive keywords, will usually be listed higher. Keep in mind that relevant on page content of your blog is even more important.
Thursday, February 5, 2004
High search engine rankings: Trend catching
High search engine rankings Google, Yahoo, AOL, MSN, Inktomi, and other search engines can be achieved by spotting a trend and holding on tight.
The relatively new and unknown Melon Blog was able to do exactly that, by catching a wave.
By posting an entry on the much talked about Janet Jackson overexposure during the Super Bowl halftime show, Melon Blog was able to gain some top Google rankings.
The heavily searched terms were for various combinations of Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Super Bowl, halftime, and of course, the infamous partially jewellery covered nipple. Those words were some of the most searched terms in the various search engines for the past week.
Because of the unexpected catching of a search trend, a relatively unknown blog was able to find itself atop the search engine results.
What can we discover from this phenomenon?
For one thing, the power of blogs within the search engines is underlined, in red, double.
Blogs score well in the search engines because of the freshness (pun cheerfully intended) of the content. Blogs can be posted within a matter of minutes of a major event occurring. That immediacy translates well into the search engines.
Blogs are crawled regularly by the internet spiders (computer program robots sent out to read the coding on web pages). Many are crawled on a daily basis, and their content entered into the search engine data base almost immediately, for discovery by web surfers.
The Janet Jackson underclad appearance also shows us how blogs can grab a fast rise (love those puns!) in the search engine rankings. By spotting trends early and often, bloggers can post a quick impression entry, and wait for the spiders to crawl and index it.
While the blip on the search engine radar may be short lived, another media event is always following in hot pursuit. Celebrity media keeps the stories in front of the public. Bloggers can use those stories to maintain constant top rankings, for literally millions of potential visitors.
The heavy visitor traffic flows will evaporate as quickly as the hot news story, but another is always on the way.
In a few cases, some of the visitors to the blog may even return, but that is not the point of wave catching. This is a volume traffic concept, not a return visitor idea.
It's all easy come, easy go.
Until the next fad and trendy item arrives.
if you are so inclined, spot some trends and fads. Blog about them.
Watch your visitor traffic counter spin out of control.
Then, find the next wave.
The relatively new and unknown Melon Blog was able to do exactly that, by catching a wave.
By posting an entry on the much talked about Janet Jackson overexposure during the Super Bowl halftime show, Melon Blog was able to gain some top Google rankings.
The heavily searched terms were for various combinations of Janet Jackson, Justin Timberlake, Super Bowl, halftime, and of course, the infamous partially jewellery covered nipple. Those words were some of the most searched terms in the various search engines for the past week.
Because of the unexpected catching of a search trend, a relatively unknown blog was able to find itself atop the search engine results.
What can we discover from this phenomenon?
For one thing, the power of blogs within the search engines is underlined, in red, double.
Blogs score well in the search engines because of the freshness (pun cheerfully intended) of the content. Blogs can be posted within a matter of minutes of a major event occurring. That immediacy translates well into the search engines.
Blogs are crawled regularly by the internet spiders (computer program robots sent out to read the coding on web pages). Many are crawled on a daily basis, and their content entered into the search engine data base almost immediately, for discovery by web surfers.
The Janet Jackson underclad appearance also shows us how blogs can grab a fast rise (love those puns!) in the search engine rankings. By spotting trends early and often, bloggers can post a quick impression entry, and wait for the spiders to crawl and index it.
While the blip on the search engine radar may be short lived, another media event is always following in hot pursuit. Celebrity media keeps the stories in front of the public. Bloggers can use those stories to maintain constant top rankings, for literally millions of potential visitors.
The heavy visitor traffic flows will evaporate as quickly as the hot news story, but another is always on the way.
In a few cases, some of the visitors to the blog may even return, but that is not the point of wave catching. This is a volume traffic concept, not a return visitor idea.
It's all easy come, easy go.
Until the next fad and trendy item arrives.
if you are so inclined, spot some trends and fads. Blog about them.
Watch your visitor traffic counter spin out of control.
Then, find the next wave.
Wednesday, February 4, 2004
Fired Up
The always thoughtful David St. Lawrence has a tremendous post discussing the unpleasantries of being fired from your job.
David writes from personal experience, and having been fired myself in the past, I fully understand his feelings and his point of view. I know where he's coming from.
I was fired, for doing my job too well, and being a perceived threat to the status quo. After all, new ideas are what I do best, resulting in turnarounds of bad situations. The problem with that is twofold.
One is what do you do for an encore, as the explosive increases in revenue and profits during the turnaround period, are virtually impossible to sustain. Based on percentages, instead of as absolutes, used with very bad statistical understanding, and you find yourself explaining numbers.
I know. I did that. No one cared to understand that growth was still happening in larger dollar terms. The percentages, of course, were smaller.
Bad news for me.
Rule to remember:
Emotions will always trump the most rational explanations and numbers, especially when someone has painted a huge bullseye on the back of your suit jacket.
The other problem is struggling branch offices, will get their feet placed to the fire, to get their sales and profits up to the new standard. The employer didn't get blamed for the new higher standards. I did. I became a marked man.
Rule to remember: Upset the status quo and the old boys network at your own peril. I did and soon discovered profits were less important than the status quo, especially if the numbers can be falsely portrayed as an illusion.
I took my firing on my feet without an emotional outburst. In fact, I didn't really mind losing my job, as I had created something good that I was proud of, and really was wanting a new challenge.
I was far more concerned with what was going to happen to my sales staff.
The best two of them, named Krista and Shereen, were soon gone.
Shereen was fired for what was termed "insubordination". Translated, that means understanding the stupidity of the newly installed counterproductive system, and saying so. After all, Shereen and Krista had full authority, working with me to present their ideas for testing. There was none of that input requested by the new regime. They got orders. Not answers.
Shereen is now a manager herself in another company.
My best sales rep Krista soon left, after her pay structure was redone, into one of the most disincentive packages I have ever seen. She was too good for what they wanted her to do. I was happy to see her leave.
She became a very good manager herself too.
Firing wasn't so bad for me.
I work for myself and much prefer it.
David writes from personal experience, and having been fired myself in the past, I fully understand his feelings and his point of view. I know where he's coming from.
I was fired, for doing my job too well, and being a perceived threat to the status quo. After all, new ideas are what I do best, resulting in turnarounds of bad situations. The problem with that is twofold.
One is what do you do for an encore, as the explosive increases in revenue and profits during the turnaround period, are virtually impossible to sustain. Based on percentages, instead of as absolutes, used with very bad statistical understanding, and you find yourself explaining numbers.
I know. I did that. No one cared to understand that growth was still happening in larger dollar terms. The percentages, of course, were smaller.
Bad news for me.
Rule to remember:
Emotions will always trump the most rational explanations and numbers, especially when someone has painted a huge bullseye on the back of your suit jacket.
The other problem is struggling branch offices, will get their feet placed to the fire, to get their sales and profits up to the new standard. The employer didn't get blamed for the new higher standards. I did. I became a marked man.
Rule to remember: Upset the status quo and the old boys network at your own peril. I did and soon discovered profits were less important than the status quo, especially if the numbers can be falsely portrayed as an illusion.
I took my firing on my feet without an emotional outburst. In fact, I didn't really mind losing my job, as I had created something good that I was proud of, and really was wanting a new challenge.
I was far more concerned with what was going to happen to my sales staff.
The best two of them, named Krista and Shereen, were soon gone.
Shereen was fired for what was termed "insubordination". Translated, that means understanding the stupidity of the newly installed counterproductive system, and saying so. After all, Shereen and Krista had full authority, working with me to present their ideas for testing. There was none of that input requested by the new regime. They got orders. Not answers.
Shereen is now a manager herself in another company.
My best sales rep Krista soon left, after her pay structure was redone, into one of the most disincentive packages I have ever seen. She was too good for what they wanted her to do. I was happy to see her leave.
She became a very good manager herself too.
Firing wasn't so bad for me.
I work for myself and much prefer it.
Tuesday, February 3, 2004
Incoming Links: Three Ideas For More
Incoming links are a good thing.
We know that.
They mean more visitors to your blog from the linking blog. The links boost your Google PageRank (the measure of importance of your blog on the internet). Links give your blog a much needed boost in the search engines.
Okay, you give.
You want to get more links.
But how?
1. Check the link exchange requests in the popular blog message board forums like Blogger Forum and Blogger Talk.
Each of those blog forums has a busy link exchange section. Many good blogs are more than willing to happily swap links with yours. Don't worry about their current PageRank, however. Many are brand new blogs, but with the way some of them are rapidly adding incoming links, they will have very strong PageRanks. Fast.
2. Check the blogrolls and links lists of your favourite blogs. Many of the blogs on those lists are active traders themselves. If you like some of them, add them to your own list of links.
Following that inclusion first, contact them by e-mail and request a link to your blog. Since they will notice that you have already linked to their blog, many will happily link back to your blog. Your courtesy, of linking to them first, will go along way. Politeness counts.
3. Post good intelligent comments on other blogs. By intelligent comments, I mean posts that are on the blog post's topic. By taking part in discussions, in a polite and helpful manner, you will gain the respect of that blog's owner and regular visitors. As a result, many will add your blog to their lists without asking for a link in return.
In the same way that interesting and quality content adds numerous incoming links to your blog, polite and useful comments will do the same thing.
Use these ideas this week, and you will be sure to add at least one more incoming link.
Almost guaranteed.
We know that.
They mean more visitors to your blog from the linking blog. The links boost your Google PageRank (the measure of importance of your blog on the internet). Links give your blog a much needed boost in the search engines.
Okay, you give.
You want to get more links.
But how?
1. Check the link exchange requests in the popular blog message board forums like Blogger Forum and Blogger Talk.
Each of those blog forums has a busy link exchange section. Many good blogs are more than willing to happily swap links with yours. Don't worry about their current PageRank, however. Many are brand new blogs, but with the way some of them are rapidly adding incoming links, they will have very strong PageRanks. Fast.
2. Check the blogrolls and links lists of your favourite blogs. Many of the blogs on those lists are active traders themselves. If you like some of them, add them to your own list of links.
Following that inclusion first, contact them by e-mail and request a link to your blog. Since they will notice that you have already linked to their blog, many will happily link back to your blog. Your courtesy, of linking to them first, will go along way. Politeness counts.
3. Post good intelligent comments on other blogs. By intelligent comments, I mean posts that are on the blog post's topic. By taking part in discussions, in a polite and helpful manner, you will gain the respect of that blog's owner and regular visitors. As a result, many will add your blog to their lists without asking for a link in return.
In the same way that interesting and quality content adds numerous incoming links to your blog, polite and useful comments will do the same thing.
Use these ideas this week, and you will be sure to add at least one more incoming link.
Almost guaranteed.
Monday, February 2, 2004
Search Engines Like Blog Titles
Titles for your blog posts?
Of course you have them.
Do you know how important titles are to search engines?
Google and the fast rising Inktomi (possibly becoming the main source for Yahoo searches) like blog post titles. They key on them, in fact.
When you post a title for your latest blog entry, and you aren't inclined to use a pun, joke, or similar type label, consider one with your chosen keywords. As you know, keywords are the terms people place in the search box, when they are searching for information.
Since titles are prominently placed on the page, and often in bold, titles carry extra weight in the various internet search engines.
Optimizing for Inktomi, in particular, places strong emphasis on bolded print titles. Inktomi also likes high placement of those bolded words on the page. If you want future high rankings in Yahoo searches, that bold lettering may be a policy to adopt.
Titles are also important for RSS feeders.
The blog post title is how the various RSS feed services list and search their blog databases. Good informative labelling, of your blog entries, can help you get a boost in the RSS feed community as well.
RSS feeds are searched by keywords too. People look for interesting posts by entering search terms. Make certain your blog is included, by using those sought after keywords.
Make sure your title reflects the keywords you are optimizing for in RSS feeds. Search engine benefits will follow along naturally.
Think good titles for your blog posts.
Titles aren't just for books anymore.
Of course you have them.
Do you know how important titles are to search engines?
Google and the fast rising Inktomi (possibly becoming the main source for Yahoo searches) like blog post titles. They key on them, in fact.
When you post a title for your latest blog entry, and you aren't inclined to use a pun, joke, or similar type label, consider one with your chosen keywords. As you know, keywords are the terms people place in the search box, when they are searching for information.
Since titles are prominently placed on the page, and often in bold, titles carry extra weight in the various internet search engines.
Optimizing for Inktomi, in particular, places strong emphasis on bolded print titles. Inktomi also likes high placement of those bolded words on the page. If you want future high rankings in Yahoo searches, that bold lettering may be a policy to adopt.
Titles are also important for RSS feeders.
The blog post title is how the various RSS feed services list and search their blog databases. Good informative labelling, of your blog entries, can help you get a boost in the RSS feed community as well.
RSS feeds are searched by keywords too. People look for interesting posts by entering search terms. Make certain your blog is included, by using those sought after keywords.
Make sure your title reflects the keywords you are optimizing for in RSS feeds. Search engine benefits will follow along naturally.
Think good titles for your blog posts.
Titles aren't just for books anymore.
Sunday, February 1, 2004
Carnival of the Capitalists again
Once again, I have an article included in the prestigious Carnival of the Capitalists.
This week's edition is hosted by Steve Verdon at Deinonychus antirrhopus. I didn't make that blog name up. Steve did.
As always, there are many absolutely brilliant articles on taxes, international economics, business and marketing, business blogs, business and monetary theory, investing, and political economy.
I consider it a real privilege to have my A sad tale of a business that could have been included among the selected columns.
The selected articles are thoughtful and extremely well written. While you may not always agree with the writer's approach and opinions, they do make you think.
Scoot on over to Carnival of the Capitalists and read your hearts out.
This week's edition is hosted by Steve Verdon at Deinonychus antirrhopus. I didn't make that blog name up. Steve did.
As always, there are many absolutely brilliant articles on taxes, international economics, business and marketing, business blogs, business and monetary theory, investing, and political economy.
I consider it a real privilege to have my A sad tale of a business that could have been included among the selected columns.
The selected articles are thoughtful and extremely well written. While you may not always agree with the writer's approach and opinions, they do make you think.
Scoot on over to Carnival of the Capitalists and read your hearts out.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)