C’mon, dare me – say I shouldn’t buy it.

 
Something curious happened to me the other day.  We were having connectivity issues and, in talking to the Comcast (my isp) guy, he mentioned cable ‘insurance’.  Basic idea is this – if there’s a problem with your internet and they send a tech out to your address, one of two things will happen:

a) the tech will find out the problem is their fault and fix it free of charge
or
b) the tech will find out the problem is your fault and you pay a $50 service fee.

However, there’s an insurance policy.  So, if I have the insurance in place and the tech comes to my place of business and finds out the bad connection is my fault, I’m not charged the $50 – it’s free. 

Long story short, the tech/salesperson on the phone told me he didn’t think I needed the insurance.  Contrary to what I would have assumed should happen, this instantly piqued my interest.  Here was a guy specifically telling me NOT to buy the insurance, so I stopped, hesitated, then proceeded to weigh the cost (which was low) and benefits of the insurance and ended up buying the insurance plan.

I later thought about this peculiar transaction.  If the sales guy had given me the ’sell’, told me about all the benefits of having insurance, etc etc, I undoubtedly would have said no.  Is this because I hate to be pitched?  Possibly.  But more than likely, the ‘pitch’ itself is what devalues the service.  If you have to ’sell’ me on the product, it’s probably a piece of crap.  However, as in the case of the cable insurance I purchased, the fact that I was told NOT to buy the product opened me up to wanting to really scrutinize the offer.  Something that, had I been given a regular sales presentation, never would have happened.

I’m so numb, so jaded by sales pitches, that someone has to literally tell me, “Don’t buy my product“, to get me to take a look at their offer. 

The lesson here is this.  If you’re trying to sell people something, they’re wise to your ways.  This is old news, yes.  There’s talk everywhere of banner blindness, drops in ad effectiveness, etc, etc and this scares a lot of people.  It shouldn’t though.  If anything, I believe it’s a good thing.  It means that those individuals and companies that shoot straight, tell it like it is and whose mission is to simply and completely meet the needs of their customers/traffic/audience, win.  Do that and do it well, and your sales will reach heights that no amount of fluffing could achieve.

Image courtesy of PA Pundits

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How to Get Tasty: the 2 things you NEED to get HOT on Del.icio.us

Last week our blog made it on to the del.icio.us Hotlist with its third post.  We saw subscribers double, 325 people bookmarked us and traffic jumped by about 5,000 hits or so.  Not an insane amount of traffic but, all-in-all, it was a nice little bump. So, how’d I do it? 

You’ll find you have more control over social media sites than you might think… 

Image courtesy of VintageIP.

The article that made it.

The post that’s responsible is What’s My Name #$%&*?. In a nutshell, it details the naming process (of products, businesses, etc) and some unique naming strategies / tools.

How long did it take to write?

I’m neither an author nor a genius, so I’m a slow writer.  Though I didn’t time myself, my guess would be that What’s My Name #$%&*? took me about 8 hours to write. 

The 2 (and ONLY 2) rules I followed…

Rule #1 – Create value (or try).

This one is talked about a lot in marketing circles.  The proverbial ‘build it and they will come’ approach.  It’s both the most obvious and the easiest to overlook piece of creation.  Why?  Because creating something of value can be a pain in the ass.  Especially, if you’re not getting directly paid for it.  However, this is THE deal with social media sites.  You MUST create something of value to get noticed.  And it must be free.

What is value?  Big question.  For our purposes here though, we’ll define value as anything that your readers want or can use.  Your article/post/site can have:

- informational value
- emotional value
- entertainment value
etc

You’ll actually find that most of what people value will fall into a fairly small set of easily targeted categories.  Bottom line, create something that has value to your reader and your message will get fully ingested, bookmarked and passed around.

Rule #2 – Let people know.

As with any marketing campaign, it’s all about who sees your message.  The new blogger can write post after post of golden information and if no one sees it, they’re sunk. 

So, lets say you’re a new blogger and you don’t have an email list to alert or an existing traffic source to help “get the word out” about your new blog.  (This is where just about everyone starts.)  What should you do?

You have one, very powerful tool at your disposal.  Email.  Caroline Middlebrook made mention of this idea over on her blog also.  Email may be your only way of communicating with people about what you have to offer, so USE IT. 

The process is comprised of three steps. 

A) Figure out what kind of readers and what kind of websites would be interested in your blog and your specific post. 

If your blog covers do-it-yourself home improvement and the post you’re promoting is about flooring, your ‘target market’ is going to be people interested in DIY and flooring in particular.  See our article about segmentation and targeting for some good strategies on this.

B) Make a list of the influential names and websites in this niche and collect their contact info.

Using the DIY example above, look up keywords/phrases in Google such as “how to install floors”, “do it yourself flooring”, etc and make a list of other blogs and websites that both cover your topic AND have sizeable readerships.  You want to target ‘influential’ individuals here, who, if they mention your article on their site, will send some traffic.

C) Email them and say hi.  Introduce yourself, tell them about your article and why they should be interested.

Be personal.  No form emails.  Craft a specific email for each and every person you’re contacting.  It’s more than a promo email you’re writing, it’s the beginning of a relationship.

The Outcome.

Not every article you write or piece of info/entertainment you offer is going to be a slam dunk.  Some you think are destined for greatness will bomb.  Others you don’t give a second thought to may run to the top of digg, del.icio.us, etc.  It’s a numbers game.  But if played right, the numbers can be turned very much in your favor.

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Babies and software.

It’s been a nutty few weeks and I apologize for the lack of posts.  I suppose I do have a couple good excuse though – a software and a baby.

 We’re wrapping up the final stages of our new affiliate shopping system – StoreStacker.  Our developers have absolutely outdone themselves – the software is, in a word, rockin’.  More details en route, as we get closer to launch.  I don’t want to ruin any surprises…

 Secondly, my wife and I had our first child a few weeks ago.  She weighs in at approximately 6 lbs, 11 oz, has a towering stature of 1 and a half feet tall.  She’s about to sneeze in this one…

And here’s my wife, Abbie, a couple of days after giving birth.  She’s a champ…

Also, we had a thought and would like to get some feedback on it.  The idea is to turn this blog into a venue for marketing questions and answers.  So, instead of a commentary on whatever takes our fancy, you can take the wheel and get the answers YOU want.  Have a question about blogging?  No problem.  Questions about links, SEO, or traffic acquisition?  Fire away.  So, this is the general idea.  User-directed commentary, if you will.

Let me know what you think and email me here.  If feedback is positive, we’ll see about starting it up.

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