Spaces on the Wall

We're Not Cheap

We stay away from price hounds and discount service shoppers like 3rd period French. Namely, because we know our service is good and our output is even better. Period.

What a surprise when iPhone dropped their price. The club just got a little bigger and the bragging rights much smaller. With all their mega market research and price point testing, Apple took they easy road and slashed prices. This move totally cheapens the product. Not a good move to sell more widgets.

Best Tattoo Artist In Chicago

That would have to be Larry Brogan. I found him doing a Google search for the best tattoo artist in chicago. Larry doesn't advertise much. Almost all his clients are word of mouth, he's always booked up and very selective on what type of work he takes on. Larry has been doing this for 15 years. Oh, and he does amazing custom tattoo art work by the way.

So how does he stay successful? Because he is damn good at what he does. He wins awards. Proudly displaying his well deserved trophies, magazine covers, and first place ribbons. When a prospect walks in with an idea (like I did), they're already sold the moment they walk into his shop. They know he's got it.

It also helps that Google thinks so highly of him.

When A Deal Goes South

My partners tell me to keep quiet on this, but it just doesn't seem right.

So here's how it goes. A competing investor grouped contacted me about 6 weeks ago to purchase our brand new web property that deals with rating and reviewing your job. We knew we we're on to something, since we just launched the site in late December of 2006. We told them that we've only begun, and that we're eager to roll out our marketing / technology plans ASAP. Didn't matter. They knew we had a terrific idea, were first to market and knew our marketplace much better then they did (and they knew it). After brief negations, we agreed to sell the the site for a low six figures.

What happens next is a warning to all of those who deal with USMLE World. After 6 weeks of paperwork, attorney reviews, deliverables and planning, on the last day of before signing, these jerks decide to back out of the deal. Had we not protected ourselves with language that clearly states our protection and rights, I feel we could have been been in a very bad situation. Their excuse was that they were not sure they could make an immediate ROI on the site. That's bull shit. They knew that this was a brand new startup property going into the deal. I think they just didn't have the money and wanted to steal our source and code (After all, they were our competition). You live and learn I suppose, but I know now to stay away from these bozos.

David Rocci

Here's a freebie. David Rocci recently contacted me because he wanted to improve his online reputation. I feel for the guy because he got dealt a bad deal. Jill Maltezos had pretty much the same problem. I know Jill and she's a good person. But the search engines feel otherwise. These people will have to protect their good name, and will be accountable for deeds they do. Fine. But what if one is accused of things that never actually happened? If enough helens agree, does that make it true? After all, up until a year ago, we all believed Pluto was a planet. That's pretty much how search engines evaluate trust today.

Look for reputation management to be a big buzzword in the coming months. Everyone googles everyone, and as I learned guest speaking at Northwestern University, the kids call it stalking! But not the kind of stalking you or I would think of. It's a totally acceptable classroom practice and much to my surprise, pretty commonplace. It's meta-data for the real world I suppose.

26.2 Miles

When in a funk, do something remarkable. I mean something totally out of character it sparks the mind into the great void.

A friend of mine has the right idea. She’s never run a marathon in her life. But she’s training for a 26.2 mile marathon in Maui of all places. When she first told me this, I thought this was a sign of a nervous breakdown. Actually, it’s something positive.

When companies, employees, businesses and personal lives suffer from a downward spiral, the way out is to break out and do something different. Burger King comes to mind. 4 years ago Burger King had a problem. Here’s a company that followed everything that McDonalds did. Burger King had an awakening (and a change of leadership thank goodness), went counter-culture, created unsafe marketing messages, put free wifi in their restaurants and gave us new flavors.

They did something so out of character (and out of industry standards), that now they get the proper respect and attention they deserve. And so can you, once you run that marathon.

Bad Reputations

What if you had done something so bad the whole world knew about it? If I googled your name and your dirty past popped up, how could you get rid of it? Is it true what google says about you? It must be if enough 3rd party sources say pretty much the same thing right? Maybe its your google twin? Busted!

If you’ve got a bad reputation, then perhaps you deserve that the whole world know your dirty little secret. No matter if you try to bury those results to page 7 or 8, it’s still there waiting to haunt you.

Nobody can hide from their past anymore. Maybe that’s a good thing? Maybe this sort of public recall will educate others to stay away from bad guys.

Nightline tonight

Keith Scherer, a great client of mine, and an outstanding military defense attorney, and will be featured on this evening's episode of Nightline. Wow.

The site I created for him has received some great exposure on Yahoo, Google, and MSN. It's about time that he finally game the mass media scene. All kidding aside, I'm very happy to see when my clients take my advice, because this is exactly the sort of thing that happens when you put your trust in me.

Congratulations to you Keith. Onward and upward!

So it happened...

Why did it take so long to think solo? Perhaps I was just too busy, but that's always a good excuse. Fact is, I'm about to wonder about a ton of things and have it questioned before my very eyes.

Game on smarties.