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My Relationship With Apple Is Like My Relationship With The Republican Party.

Scott Converse has a wonderful post up titled Is Apple a Republican? After reading it, I pondered my relationship with Apple and realized that it is just like my relationship with the Republican Party - there are some things that theoretically appeal to me, but endless deal breakers that push me away and head fakes that leave me cynical.

If you are a long time reader of this blog, you know that every six months or so I try again. I go to the Apple store and buy whatever shiny new Mac toy there is. A G5 - yeah. A MacBook Pro. Sure. An iPhone - definitely. A MacBook Air. Yeah, this will be the one. After tens of thousands of dollars spent on Apple products, the only three I am using today are my Apple 30" Cinema Displays (I love them), my G5 in my office (which I'm running Vista on), and my iPhone 3G (which has now lasted three weeks notwithstanding the endless dropped calls and lack of Outlook Task synchronization.)

The Republicans promise me smaller government. Oops. Better fiscal policy (e.g. no deficits) - double oops. Distribution of power to state and local government. Um, yeah. Equality for all. Patriot act, immigration policy, wars, anyone. The list goes on. I've always described myself as "conservative fiscal policy, liberal social policy" where theoretically a "moderate Republican approach" would work for me.

Wrong. The big deal breaker for me is abortion. I couldn't ever vote for a pro-life president. Stay with me, you'll get the Apple analogy soon. There are plenty of others - war, immigration, protectionism, religion - but I still fantasize about that enlightened "conservative fiscal policy, liberal social policy."

Ironically, my friends the Democrats have always had the liberal social policy down and now appear to have a much better handle on the conservative fiscal policy side of it. I was a Reagan youth, but have voted Democrat ever since. And while many think I'm a hard core Democrat, I'm actually an Independent.

About the time I voted for Reagan, I had an original Mac. My first computer was an Apple II. I even had an Apple III for a while. My Mac had one floppy drive and 128k. I loved it even though it was basically useless. When I got my first IBM PC (two floppy disk drives, 64k) and started writing software on it (and making money with it) I became a PC / Microsoft user. My Apple fantasies continued unabated - every few years I'd buy another one and end up discarding it after a few weeks to go back to my PC. There were always "deal breakers."

The deal breaker for me with Apple for the past few years has been Microsoft Exchange support. Entourage 2004 was so inadequate that it never became an option for me and Entourage 2008 disappointed me so much that I punted. I don't really want to run Entourage - I want native Exchange support in all the Mac products. ActiveSync anyone?

I tried with the first iPhone - I really wanted to like it - but it just didn't get there for me. Remarkably, after resisting for many years, Apple finally licensed ActiveSync and integrated it into the iPhone 2.0 software. Voila - I dumped my Dash and am still using my iPhone 3G several weeks later.

But - Apple forgot one thing. Tasks. Apple syncs Mail and Calendar with Exchange, but not Tasks. For anyone that is a hard core Outlook user (like me) that manages to a zero inbox, Tasks are important. It's kind of like being pro-choice but being against birth control. Weird. Limiting. And intensely frustrating.

Third party apps are starting to appear that try to sync Tasks, but they are all weak. KeyTasks from Chapura seems to come the closest so far, but it's not server side sync (with Exchange) - you have to have a client side agent running. And of course, it doesn't have categories ("Category support coming soon.")

Theoretically wonderful, but always comes up short with a deal breaker. We didn't even get into religion yet, but ponder that as you think about the Cult of Mac vs. the PC / Microsoft.

I definitely have too much politics on the brain. I can't wait until 2009.

(08/28/08 09:01 AM)

Satirical 'Onion' Debuts the 'Decider'. Tongue-in-cheek news source The Onion has launched a local site that provides event listings and restaurant information for Chicago — in essence, a rival to CitySearch, MediaBuyerPlanner writes....

(08/27/08 09:00 PM)

mtvU Unveils 25 Local Sites for College Students. mtvU has launched a set of 25 localized websites geared to students at individual US colleges. The sites allow users to search for local entertainment listings, including restaurants, nightlife,...

(08/26/08 09:01 PM)

Local Online Media Offer Significant Ad Advantage. Consumers trust advertising on local newspaper, magazine and television websites, and are very likely to take action after viewing ads on these sites, according to the "Local Online Media: From...

(08/26/08 09:01 AM)

10 Business and Money Things To Do Before You Die. Dave Freeman, co-author of the bestselling travel book 100 Things To Do Before You Die, just died in a freak accident in his own home. He was 47 years old. Nonetheless, reports say he lived his life to the fullest, traveling to exotic locales when he wasn’t busy with his job as an ad executive. [...] (08/26/08 09:00 AM)

CrowdFire Concert Catalyzes Human Media Mashup. Five dozen bands played to thousands at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park this past weekend (Aug. 22-24). And the three-day event was well-documented - not by local cable...

(08/25/08 09:01 AM)

Steepest Declines in U.S. Ad Sales in Five-Plus Years: Bernstein. A slump in local newspaper and television advertising is spreading to national categories, helping speed a Q2 decline in ad revenue in the U.S. of 1.5 percent, according to Sanford C. Bernstein &...

(08/21/08 09:01 PM)

Niche Delivery Service. Springwise: Nashville residents looking for Swedish design at low prices don’t have access to a local IKEA; the nearest blue-and-green big box is in Atlanta. So two friends decided to bring IKEA to Tennessee by taking orders from customers and driving down to Atlanta to pick up the goods. Customers submit their orders on Modernash.com, listing [...]

(08/21/08 09:00 PM)

3 Simple Ways to Keep Customers Happy. I posted a while back about the amazing customer service I received at a local furniture store. You may recall how impressed I was with their personal service and attention to the finer details, such as having a plate of warm cookies and a vacuous TV show available to bribe my children into temporary [...] (08/20/08 09:00 AM)

Industry Buzz & Snippets: 8/19/08. Ad Networks and Analytics: MySQL is a sleeper hit in the online ad space. Real estate site Zillow launched Showcase Ads, an ad platform that enables local advertisers, lenders and brokers to build...

(08/19/08 09:01 AM)

OurTown.com Is Looking For Local Editors In Your Town. If you’ve ever wished for the chance to write for a living, maybe even create your own magazine, then you might find some interest in OurTown.com and their local editor opportunity. Although they are still currently in Beta, it won’t be much longer before they get out of that stage and start advertising globally. OurTown.com [...]
(08/18/08 09:00 PM)

Local Ads Appear on Live Search Maps. Microsoft's Live Search Maps now boasts local ad support, reports the Virtual Earth Blog. Programs include: Highlighted Listings, which enables companies to dangle their logos in front of users. When...

(08/15/08 09:00 AM)

Don Pablo Brings The Cafe Into Your Home. Each brand of coffee brings something different in taste or style. Burke Brand Coffee offers it’s own style and special traits that those big box coffees don’t. Many of us only ever think about coffee as what we find in our local café or what we purchase in the coffee isle of our local store. [...]
(08/13/08 09:00 PM)

Sunflower Farmer’s Market Builds Success off Defectors. They just built a Sunflower Farmers Market where the old Asian furniture place used to be, off Arapahoe Road and Folsom. Since you probably have no idea where I’m talking about, let me elaborate. Both these roads are located in Boulder, CO, a small city whose local Whole Foods is the busiest grocery store in [...] (07/30/08 09:01 PM)

???When the government buys up empty homes, it???s only helping lenders and speculators, not the people who need help.???.

President Bush has continually expressed his opposition to a housing bill that proposes to include $4 billion in grants for local governments to buy and refurbish foreclosed properties.

(07/25/08 09:01 PM)

Win Local Search With Local Content. Local search, the act of showing up on page one when surfers type in phrases that hint they are looking for a local business, requires much of the same focus as any type of optimization - only localized. Here’s what I mean. Winning the search game takes 3 things (yes, SEO folks will tell you it’s [...]
(07/21/08 09:01 AM)

Small business growth through investing.

Since launching MarketingSavant (my social media/digital marketing consulting company) earlier this year, I've been looking at a number of ways to grow the business, outside of hiring people. By growing the business I mean simply the cash base or revenues from the organization. I was caught off guard when another local consulting business owner asked me "so, what's your exit strategy?" Wow, I just kicked this thing off, what do you mean "exit strategy". Of course, I know exactly what he means, but I'd never really given it that much thought. When you're an entrepreneur or an intrepreneuer (someone with an entrepreneurial spirit inside the corporation), you need to have your own exit strategy. For me, I've chosen to pursue an 'education in investing' strategy to help grow my cash reserves while I grow the business. Yes, I know, the market isn't exactly doing well, but that's precisely the time to get in. I look at the stocks and funds that I'm investing in now and thinking back to when I graduated college in 1999... if I had invested even a modest sum then, I'd be doing quite well now. Which brings us to the one thing that I think investing and marketing have in common (I'm sure there are others...but this one is really important... Faith in the future. As marketers, we're always marketing to the future, with faith in that marketing campaign and it's ability to deliver future value. As investors, we're buying stocks and funds with faith in the company's ability to grow into the future. Marketers and investors unite! Doom and gloom does not serve you...it's the faith in the future that keeps both of us afloat and in business. [Inspired by Kevin's post on 'cracks in the retirement nest egg']
(07/08/08 09:00 AM)

Boulder Naked Bike Ride.

Hey - if the Boulder Daily Camera (our local paper) can put this up on their web site, so can I.

Gotta love this place.

(06/17/08 09:00 PM)

Workweek.

Is "workweek" one word or two? I think it used to be two, but has now morphed into one. Or maybe not. Anyway, there's a lot going on out here in proposal land. Over the weekend I finished up revising the Corporate Experience section of my law firm client's resubmission and e-mailed it to her. Due to the nature of that resubmission, my client ended up with over 400 pages that had to be scanned and put on a CD to send off to the government. She also needed to reproduce the entire proposal and submit a hard copy to accompany the CDs. It took her all weekend to get everything together and then, of course, the scanner broke down. I could have told her this would happen.

I'm now preparing the technical section of a DOD proposal for a long-time client. Much of it is similar to a proposal I helped prepare for her late last year, so I can recyle parts of it. But I still need to do some background research and gather information on the local market for a couple of categories of healthcare specialists. My client doesn't like to do this research, and neither do I. But I'm doing it anyway.

Then on Monday, re-compete #3 arrived. Oh joy. It is due at the end of May, so we have six weeks to work on it. My client sent me the RFP, which I haven't read yet. I did open the file, but when I saw that the RFP was over 125 pages, I closed it up without actually looking at it. Maybe I'll read it today. My client and I have been playing telephone tag, so we haven't talked about the proposal yet. But this assignment will keep me pretty busy for the next month and a half.

Then maybe I can take a little vacation.

(04/16/08 09:00 AM)

Government Grants and Free Money.

With the economy in bad shape like it is these days, many people are experiencing financial hardships. As a result, the scammers are out in force, advertising their books and CDs that promise free money from the government for everything from paying your bills to getting out of debt, and more.

I'm getting a boatload of emails from people who want me to help them write a letter to apply for a government free money grant. Many others write to say that they need the right form to apply for a grant or that they have written a proposal but don't know which government agency to send it to.

If you need help, you may be eligible for various types of government benefit programs, which are often called grants. Most of these programs are administered at the state and local levels. You don't need a special book to find them, and you don't need to write a letter or a proposal to apply. But you will probably have to meet certain income or other types of requirements, and you'll need to be realistic -- despite what the scammers and books tell you, the government is not going to give you a handful of free money to pay off your credit card bills.

Below is a list of categories of benefits and assistance offered by the government. You'll find this listing along with links to specific programs in your state as well as federal agency programs and other resources. Just click on the link to go to the website.

clipped from www.govbenefits.gov

Select categories of interest.

Select categories of interest. (Check all that apply)

Career Development Assistance Child care/Child support

Counsel/Counseling Disability assistance

Disaster relief Education/Training

Energy Assistance Food/Nutrition

Grants/Scholarships/Fellowships Healthcare

Housing Insurance

Living Assistance Loan/Loan repayment

Medicaid/Medicare Social Security

Tax Assistance Veterans-Active Duty

Volunteer opportunities

(04/14/08 09:00 AM)

Private Bid Notification Services.

In addition to the government's bid notification services from FedBizOpps and Grants.gov, there are many private firms that provide these types of services. You can find some of these firms by doing a Google search on phrases such as "find RFPs" and "bid notification."

Although you have to pay for it, there are several advantages to using a private bid notification service:

Many of these services can also provide you with information on solicitations issued by state and local governments. While more and more state and local governments are putting their bid opportunities on the Internet, not all of them have geared up to do this.
Since FedBizOpps and Grants.gov may not cover all all bureaus and departments within each federal agency, you may be able to get access to these bureaus' bid opportunities via a private service rather than having to search for them by going to individual websites.
If you are interested in seeing bid opportunities at two or three levels -- federal, state and/or local -- you can may be able to receive these opportunities via daily e-mails or through online access. This can be a real time-saver.

One of the private serices that has been around for a long time is Bidnet (see clip below), which offers customizable packages to meet your specific needs and interests. However, since Bidnet is only one of many private services, it will probably be worth your while to research and compare these services with respect to their prices and offerings.

clipped from bidnet.com

With BidNet, you will have access to Government Bids from thousands of Federal, State and Local agencies, and see bid opportunities you won't find anywhere else. Our diverse network of agencies will give you the competitive intelligence needed to compete effectively for the nation's largest buyer of goods and services - governments across the nation and right in your hometown.

(04/02/08 09:02 AM)

Mystery Solved!.

The other day, I wrote about some of the top websites that refer people to my site. One of those sites is the US House of Representatives, which has been sending people to my Guestbook page for quite some time. Well, yesterday I decided to try to find out where on the House site the link to my own site is listed.

It took me only a few seconds to find it using Google. I searched for "US House of Representatives government grants" and the first site listed on the search results was this one: Federal Funds Express - a site I'd never seen before. But apparently a lot of other people have.

Federal Funds Express may be a good place to start looking for government grants and other sources of funds, but it's not really an in-depth resource. However, there are some good links on the site (including mine, of course), which in turn can lead to other good resources. Links are listed under the following categories:

How to get and manage grants
Federal charitable and corporate sources of grants
Resources to help small businesses
State and local government funding, data resources and disaster assistance
Educational resources for students, schools and colleges
Property, surplus, donated and unclaimed
Family issues: health, housing and consumer protection

The website hasn't been updated since October 2007, but you may still find some good sources of information there. I checked a few of the links, but didn't have time to check them all.

I'm thinking about sending an e-mail to the Webmaster asking him or her to direct people to a page on my site other than my guestbook. But maybe it would be best to leave it as is.

(03/20/08 09:01 AM)

My 1997 Home Page & Resume...still alive!. Maybe with the new baby I'm in a nostalgic mood to share this with you... I was going through some old files on my computer tonight and found a local version of my personal home page I built in 1995 and abandoned in 1997. I clicked on one of the links and it went live! It's still at http://users.aol.com/samdecker. I have no idea why this is still live...I lost my free "SamDecker" AOL account in 2000. My home page simply featured my online resume and list of links live, but it's an interesting trip back in history, with an animated gif and .gif photo of myself (everything was .gif back then!). You can see some early Internet links, many of which are not live anymore. I don't call out some of those college accomplishments on my resume any more, but you can see my entrepreneurial roots! Also, as an aside, you can see my first corporate web site I built (with the technical skills of Raines Cohen). Here you can see the 1996 version of the User Group Connection web site. And if you want to see what I looked like with hair in 1995, here you go: Before: And after... If anyone tries to sell you something with these before and after pictures, don't buy it (as if I have to tell you)! (03/09/08 09:00 AM)

Weather Watching and More.

I'm supposed to go to Virginia early this afternoon to meet with one of my re-compete clients who is in town for some other business. But here in the Washington, DC area, they are calling for bad weather -- some snow and possibly an ice storm. Right now, at 5 AM, it seems to be sleeting. No way am I going to travel with ice on the roads. So I'll be watching the weather closely to see how things go. I suspect that I'll be staying in today and talking with my client by phone.

I also have to start work on one of the other re-compete proposals that is due on the 28th. I've put it off because it is very similar to the prior proposal that I worked on three years ago. But still, there will be some changes. This particular proposal is for food services for a local government agency -- operating a cafeteria and coffee bar, and providing as-needed catering services for special functions. It is kind of interesting because, as part of the proposal, my client has to submit a detailed menu and prices for each of these services.

I've been doing work for this client for a number of years. She's a wonderful client except for one thing -- she doesn't use a computer or e-mail. Instead, she comes to my office to bring me RFPs, review and pick-up the proposals I've prepared for her, and drop off or discuss anything else needed for the proposals. It would just be so much easier if we could e-mail things back and forth. But she has no time or interest in learning how to use a computer, so this is the way things have worked for the past five years or so. On the other hand, when she comes to my office, she often brings yummy food that she's made.

I'm hoping for some bulgogi when I see her next week.

(03/01/08 09:01 AM)

Weather Watching and More.

I'm hoping for some bulgogi when I see her next week.

(02/22/08 09:01 AM)

Free Help With Government Contracting.

Are you an entrepreneur? If you are, you can get FREE assistance to help you learn about government contracting and how to sell your products and services to this huge market. My guest blogger, Kurtis Clark, gives you the scoop.

Most small businesses don’t realize the tremendous opportunities there are to contract with Federal, State, and local government entities. Although selling to the government can be more challenging than selling to the general public or even to other businesses the sheer size of this market justifies at least looking into the potential. Last year, all levels of government combined purchased a staggering amount of goods and services. Experts estimate that figure to be over $1 trillion. Where can you find assistance to help you break into the complex world of selling to the government? Several excellent sources of free assistance are available.

The Small Business Development Center program (SBDC) is a nationwide network of independent centers funded in part by the U.S. SBA. They have counselors who can help business owners complete application and registration forms and deal with the bureaucratic process. Counselors usually know local agency procedures, which agencies are preparing for large construction projects, and may even know many of the persons responsible for local government purchasing. All SBDC’s offer free consulting services and low-cost training classes. Most SBDC offices host annual or bi-annual government contracting seminars often in conjunction with government procurement experts free of charge. Check with your local SBDC for upcoming seminars in your area. For a listing of local SBDC offices visit the SBA website.

One of these experts and another excellent source of assistance are Procurement Technical Assistance Centers or PTAC’s. They are located throughout the country, with many of the larger states having multiple offices. These Centers are funded by the Department of Defense but most offer assistance on state, local and federal procurement opportunities. Several excellent websites for Federal procurement information are Business.Gov and FedBizOpps. Also check our Deborah’s small business page for excellent information on programs for disadvantaged-, minority-, women-, and veteran-owned business procurement opportunities.

Kurtis Clark is the Director of the Alliance Small Business Development Center, one of 5 SBDC’s in the U/C Merced Regional SBDC network. The network serves a 15-county area in Central California and last year assisted over 3,000 business entrepreneurs.

(02/21/08 09:01 PM)

It's Done.
I finished my book proposal. Actually, it's not totally "my" proposal, since the book (if it ever comes about) will be written by me and a long-time colleague and friend. So we worked on it together and sent it off yesterday. We thought it looked pretty good, but what do we know? Neither of us has ever written a book proposal. It will be interesting to see what happens. I suspect it will be a while before we hear anything

This is a really busy time of year for us proposal people. The government's fiscal year ends on September 30, so agencies are often in a rush to spend their money. Thus, the release of many RFPs. I am getting numerous e-mails every day from people who need proposal help and, as usual, they are waiting until the last minute to get that help. I am already swamped with work, so I'm taking on very few new projects. In addition, I'm still waiting for three RFPs from two clients that I've committed time to. Plus, in a couple of weeks I'll be starting on the next phase of my workplan project. In the middle of all this, I'll be taking a few days off to go to Maine with my husband who will be attending a conference there. Lobster!!

Yesterday, a client who I haven't heard from for about 5 years called. In fact, she called four times. I wasn't answering the phone because I was working on the book proposal and didn't want to be interrupted. But she left messages. Apparently she needs a proposal done for a local government agency here in Maryland -- pretty much the same kind of thing that I've helped her with before. But she is somewhat difficult to work with, and with my current workload I don't know if I will really have the time. Still, I hate saying "no" to existing clients, although I'm not sure I would consider her an existing client after a gap of 5 years.

I just need to have more hours in a day.
(02/21/08 09:01 PM)

Social Media for Small Business? Try Online Review Sites.
Last week a posted an article on the Perfect Patients blog on "Getting Your Practice In To Online Review Sites." This Tuesday during a presentation to the Milwaukee AMA I was asked about some of the quickest and easiest ways that small business customers can deploy social media (and leverage the power of their customers to help market their business).

Try asking your customers to review you online. Huh? How? What?

It's pretty straightforward. Here's a _ action plan.

1. Find out which websites that list local businesses in your area have review capability. This is easily done by searching for something like "cityname profession" such as "Green Bay Chiropractor". That will give a good look at what directories rank well for your city. (you'll usually see their results on page 1 or 2 of the results) For our local Green Bay, Wisconsin market, the breakdown looks like this:

Google Local

Yahoo Local

Switchboard.com (user reviews sourced from Judy's Book and Insider Pages)

Judy's Book

Insider Pages

Superpages.com (Verizon's yellow & whitepages site)

Citysearch.com (Green Bay version linked to)

2. Make up simple cards (postcard or index card size) with the URLs of the most popular review sites on one side an a couple quick points of instruction (like...visit the site, look for the "review" link, post your comments, save) to keep at your counter and to send out with all bills, statements, invoices and the like.

3. Link to the review sites (and perhaps mention a glowing review, with permission of course) in your e-newsletters that you send to customers.

4. Enjoy the positive word of mouth and energy that comes from having a great online reputation and a bushel full of great reviews!

(11/16/07 09:01 PM)

Prioritize Like a P&L. Today I was having lunch with a friend who is VP of Marketing for a local startup. Small budget, lots to do...how to prioritize? In my experience, when you're trying to grow revenue as fast as possible with little time, money and resources, it's important to think about the after-launch resources a program will take. Think about any program or initiative as an ongoing P&L. The best projects will have sustaining value, like a business that has sustaining profits. In fact, you should first think about the projects that have a clear and direct impact on revenue or cost savings. Can you answer the question: "This program/initiative will have an impact on our bottom line because..." The biggest mistake in selecting programs is the costs of sustainment. Usually things get set in motion that take human capital as part of the processes. The ideal projects are those that are set in motion, sustian and/or grow in impact over time and require little resources to sustain. Many projects I've launched that risked failure and often got orphaned are those that required ongoing program management time and processes. If it was part of an existing process it was easier to absorb. Creating new processes, owners, measures, reporting, etc. and sustaining all of this is an investment – COGS and Opex in a P&L. Sometimes it's worth it...but most of the time we underestimate the cost of sustainment. So, look for the projects that can 'blossom' on their own. For example, customer created... (10/19/07 09:00 PM)

Got Local Video Ads?.
I think this is pretty big news for local and small business. With the advent of Superpages local business video ad offering, which, accoding to their press release and a follow up conversation posted by Greg Sterling, is going to offer production in the sub-$1000 range, while also seeking video syndication on other sites (not sure what your rights are to the video yet, can you put your own, Superpages produced video on YouTube, etc?) this breaks down most every barrier that any small business formerly had with doing video ads and video on the web.

Image Cred: Superpages

Who else is doing this:
TurnHere
Yellowbook

Newspapers beating TV stations at the online video ad game (Seeking Alpha)
[via: ClickZ]

(10/18/07 09:01 PM)

It's 2007, do you know where you local Internet listing is?.
Being involved in a business that deals in what I call 'intensely local' websites (many of our customers pull from a radius of less than 20 miles, some have business jurisdictions that are fractions of that). When you look at the accuracy of your average Google Local or Superpages search, it's not bad, but I'm amazed on a daily basis how many businesses simply haven't taken advantage of putting their URL, or even correcting their business information in Google or any of the other online directories.
Imagine my surprise when I was doing some research for an upcoming seminar, trying to highlight our local Internet prowess, only to find out that our own Chamber of Commerce has one major flaw with it's Google Local listing... It's LINKED TO ANOTHER WEBSITE! Now, it's not all bad, at least the link goes to the local newspaper, and the chamber listing does show up in the organic search as the first listing (one would hope that it should), but nonetheless, the URL is wrong in the listing.
Don't bother contacting them, I already have. However, it will be interesting to see how long it takes them to correct it. This reminds me of a presentation I saw recently over at MarketingProfs where Stephan Spencer and Brian Klais of NetConcepts mentioned a local hospital which has some material that was commented out which said something like "Jack designed this website with a swiss-army knife and a pack of gum" or something like that... The point is, you can't put your 'stuff' out on the Internet and then go on vacation.
ACTION ITEM: Go Google yourself. Then, check the local directories. If anything about your information is incorrect or incomplete, get it corrected. If your URL is not listed, but it could be, get it in there...
> Google Local
> Superpages.com
> Yellowpages.com
> Yahoo Local
> Your listing on websites in your local area...

(10/03/07 09:00 PM)

Mindblowing numbers on Internet Video.
I was speaking with some folks this morning at a local Green Bay college about the growth of video and their thoughts about YouTube, vlogs (video blogs) and the like. (they've even started to put St. Norbert College Videos on YouTube) It's not coincidence then that this report from ComScore shows that we're all but consumed with Internet Video!

Some of the more interesting data points:
> Fox Interactive (Fox News) ranked second for most video streams with 680 million, following the top ranked Google/YouTube with a combined 1.8 billion streams.
> 2.5 minutes is the average duration of an Internet Video Stream - keep this in mind when developing your videos
> Nearly three out of four (74.3 percent) U.S. Internet users streamed video online.
> The average online video viewer consumed more than two videos per day!

This online video space is far, far more pervasive than I once thought.

The whole Fox stat blows me a way too. I often watch videos from Fox after the fact, but I know that when I do catch the broadcasts, they're incessantly pimping the online follow through videos. Great strategy on their part! It's paying off.

[ref ComScore via Paul Kedrosky]

P.S. I didn't see St. Norbert listed, but for some time, YouTube has had a schools channel. Way cool!

(10/03/07 09:00 PM)

Traveling. I'm working on a very exciting global hospitality project and working in Zurich, Dubai and London for a few weeks. Today I got to escape for a couple hours and take the train to Lucerne (or Luzern as the locals... (09/22/07 09:01 PM)

Lessons from a Navy Seal. Last night we had an ex-Navy Seal and local entrepreneur / investor over for dinner. I've known him for a few years now...we've had a few lunches to talk business...but this was a chance to get to know each others' families. Ironically he never told me he was a Navy Seal. Serendipitously I recently found out through a web search. I was looking for 'extreme fitness' (a la Navy Seal training) in Austin and saw his name on a web site. I admired his humility, which underscored his integrity. In contrast, I know many people who constantly name drop and talk about their achievements, connections and background in the first paragraph of meeting them. Which approach, in the long run, do you think earns more respect and admiration? I asked him which was harder, Seal training or performing missions he did in Vietnam? He said training was a lot harder. Seal training dropout rate is 75%. His BUDS training in San Diego in the late 60's was nearly the same as it is today. Hell week is grueling, and trainees spend hours sitting in 55 degree water -- swimming, diving, and sitting. He said the most memorable lesson from training taught him that his body could do things far beyond he expected. That reminded me and inspired me that anyone can rise above a challenge and push further than they expected of themself. It also reminded me of my favorite quote, perhaps drilled into me by my father, who teaches... (07/29/07 09:00 AM)

Yahoo's SmartAds Offer Better Targeting. Yahoo is slowly but surely trying to make its display ads just as relevant and targeted as Google's search ads. It is beginning to test what it calls SmartAds, graphical Web ads that can be customized in an automated fashion to the demographics of the audience most likely to see them. Cnet gives this example:For instance, instead of just seeing a generic ad for a Toyota Prius, a woman in San Francisco who conducts research on hybrid cars on Yahoo Autos could be served an ad for a local San Francisco dealer, along with information on the types of Priuses in stock and their purchase price. The ad, which is configured on the fly, could also feature a background color targeted for women in her age range, as well as a Golden Gate Bridge logo.In order for this to work, however, the advertiser must provide all the different variations and permutations of the ad it might want to show That could get complicated. Will Toyota have to prepare iconic logos for every city—the Gateway Arch for St. Louis, the Sears Tower for Chicago—as well as different colors and copy for each demographic slice it is targeting? A typical Google AdWords campaign can involve hundreds of thousands of different keywords. There is a practical limit to what an ad agency can gin up for one campaign. Still, even if advertisers come up with just 5 or 10 different combinations of the same online ad, in theory it should be more effective... (07/02/07 09:01 PM)

Notes on "The Likeability Factor" (Tim Sanders at Austin Texchange). Last week I became president of Texchange, a local association of Technology entrepreneurs and executives. At our June event we had Tim Sanders, formerly of Broadcast.com, Yahoo, author of Love: The Killer App, and more recently The Likeability Factor. He spoke to a June audience of 130 entrepreneurs and shared some sobering statistics, research, and recommendations. Thanks to Josh Toub at BluefishGroup and Secretary of Techange, I can share these notes for you. [Note: if you are an Austin-based technology entrepreneur or in a Austin-based startup, email me to join]. Biology behind increased importance of emotion in business and everyday life The amygdala (part of brain in charge of emotion) has grown ~1% in the lat 35 years Makes liking the people you do business with much more important than it once was EVP When Tim evaluates a company to invest in or do business with, he evaluates three things: What is the emotional value proposition What is the emotional cost of ownership What is the emotional compensation plan Did research at Yahoo about the essance of loyalty--it's all about emotional attraction In life, the likability factor is almost always the tie break Every presidential election since 1976 has been won by the likability factor. What is likability? Not about charimsa Not about being popular It's about reciprocity, not attraction Emotional Attraction (EA) Leadership An emotionally attractive salesperson will gross 40% more than a neutral person 3 benefits: Reduced risk Doctors who smile are much less likely to get sued... (06/18/07 09:03 PM)

Website value. A kind reader astutely pointed out that there are issues with one of my old articles that I linked to - some of the content of the article is missing, which makes it very odd. Sadly, it was one of my favorite articles: "If your website doesn't add value, rethink it" (link to article). Although it is a bit dated (Jan, 2004), and it was written at very high level (published in the local business... (04/06/07 09:01 AM)

Free Help With Government Contracting.
Are you an entrepreneur? If you are, you can get FREE assistance to help you learn about government contracting and how to sell your products and services to this huge market. My guest blogger, Kurtis Clark, gives you the scoop.

Most small businesses don’t realize the tremendous opportunities there are to contract with Federal, State, and local government entities. Although selling to the government can be more challenging than selling to the general public or even to other businesses the sheer size of this market justifies at least looking into the potential. Last year, all levels of government combined purchased a staggering amount of goods and services. Experts estimate that figure to be over $1 trillion. Where can you find assistance to help you break into the complex world of selling to the government? Several excellent sources of free assistance are available.

The Small Business Development Center program (SBDC) is a nationwide network of independent centers funded in part by the U.S. SBA. They have counselors who can help business owners complete application and registration forms and deal with the bureaucratic process. Counselors usually know local agency procedures, which agencies are preparing for large construction projects, and may even know many of the persons responsible for local government purchasing. All SBDC’s offer free consulting services and low-cost training classes. Most SBDC offices host annual or bi-annual government contracting seminars often in conjunction with government procurement experts free of charge. Check with your local SBDC for upcoming seminars in your area. For a listing of local SBDC offices visit the SBA website.

One of these experts and another excellent source of assistance are Procurement Technical Assistance Centers or PTAC’s. They are located throughout the country, with many of the larger states having multiple offices. These Centers are funded by the Department of Defense but most offer assistance on state, local and federal procurement opportunities. Several excellent websites for Federal procurement information are Business.Gov and FedBizOpps. Also check our Deborah’s small business page for excellent information on programs for disadvantaged-, minority-, women-, and veteran-owned business procurement opportunities.

Kurtis Clark is the Director of the Alliance Small Business Development Center, one of 5 SBDC’s in the U/C Merced Regional SBDC network. The network serves a 15-county area in Central California and last year assisted over 3,000 business entrepreneurs.

(12/12/06 08:42 AM)

How do I know which federal, state, or local employment laws apply to my employees?. Employment laws can come from federal, state, or local sources and it can often be confusing to figure out which ones apply to your workforce. The answer depends on factors such as how many people you ...
(08/28/06 09:02 PM)

Fridays Contract Management News and Comment (25th August 2006). Hansen wins big software contract (The Sacramento Bee) Buoyed by a resurgence in state and local government spending on technology projects, Hansen Information Technologies announced Thursday that it has won its largest deal ever -- a $21.1 million contract to provide a software management system to San Antonio's water utility. Raytheon Awarded ... (08/25/06 09:03 AM)

Why are we discussing this now?. So, I started my morning with a dozen ears of local corn from the farmer's market, waiting to be cooked. I did a google search and was delighted (okay, stunned) to find this lens as the fourth site listed. A... (08/13/06 09:03 AM)

Remember your RSS feed. My secretary won passes to a local fair by visiting our local WZZM-TV website, noticing the contest, and entering.

I've been subscribed to their RSS feed for maybe a year. Had no idea the contest was being offered.

Lesson: If you have an RSS feed, make sure you are feeding worthwhile (and promotional) content to the subscribers, assuming that they aren't otherwise going to go to the website.

Now she gets to go see Tesla in concert and I don't. Darn. (No, not really.)

(UPDATE: Larry, click on the link for a sample on Tesla's splash page...sounds like Aerosmith to me. My musical tastes BTW are: 80s pop/new wave, mash-ups, and blues.) (07/29/06 02:28 PM)

Used CD's vs. iTunes. I don't buy digital music. I have iTunes installed for my iPod, but have not purchased a single song from the iTunes store. I love the idea, love Apples's implementation, but I still won't buy music that way. I've been buying used CD's for a couple of years now, mostly from a local store that always has a great selection. But over the last year or so I've been buying more and more used cd's... (07/29/06 02:28 PM)