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Thank You all,

Chad

It is that exciting time of year again. The trees are changing, there is an amazing fragrance in the air, the birds are back and their vocal chords are louder then ever, my convertible top is already down, my dog is in a better mood and so are my wife, neighbors and even clients. In my front yard, the beautiful white weeping cherry reminds me of the latest snowstorm already long time forgotten, while my gorgeous sour crab apple trees scream: “spring is here.”

I love each season with the changes it brings. Some anticipated and planned while others a surprise or a new challenge. Life is great and especially the journey.

(Click on images to enlarge):

My weeping cherry tree

My crab apple trees

My dog, Noodles

What a great world we live in today.  Especially as our electrical grid is improving almost daily.

Note: I was going to actually post this topic during that ride but decided it was time to enjoy the view and a conversation with a beautiful lady in the car.

“These people represent the finest talent in the profession,” noted Alan Weiss, Ph.D. who conducts this college. “They are the best of the best in terms of methodology, integrity, client satisfaction, and contributions to the profession. And they are highly innovative.”

As both a college presenter and a participant, I was fortunate to be among 12 of world-class consultants and got to spend three intense days working on challenging case studies, role-plays and group exercises. On day two, we were given a couple of real-life critical business challenges by the management of the Ritz Carlton. It was fascinating and a tremendous learning experience to witness how we applied our knowledge, problem solving abilities and experiences and worked as a strong team to solve these challenges while present the solution to the delight of the Ritz’s management.

My presentation, “Advanced Internet and Technologies Made Simple” focused on practical technologies to help consultants in their business. I started with a short video of one of our clients from Australia, Michael Harrison. Last year, prior to becoming a client, I received an email from Michael inquiring about our services. After a brief email exchange we started a Skype session which instantaneously allowed us to be connected between the US and Australia while clearly hearing and seeing each other. I demonstrated this technology to the group and asked Michael to record a brief introduction. Here it is:

I demonstrated the ease of using the Flip Video to record workshops and testimonials and immediately making them available on the web, such as in this demonstration. Thank you Libby Wagner, Dr. Guido Quelle, Kim Wilkerson, Phil Symchych and Katherine Radeka for the permission to use this.

Click here to download my presentation converted to pdf document (9.47MB)

Dr. Alan Weiss brilliantly shared with us many exciting concepts. Among them:

1. The importance of focusing on media pipeline just as we are on our prospect pipeline.


2. How to reduce labor intensiveness.


3. The need to constantly develop new intellectual property.


4. Why we need to get our of our comfort zone.


5. Importance of process over content.

On the last day, we had the honor and rare chance of seeing Walt Mossberg, the technology columnist for the Wall Street Journal. He delivered a fascinating 90 minutes presentation. Among the many topics he discussed was the analogy of the Internet to an Electrical grid. Similar to our electricity where you just plug in such devices while some are always connected, the same is with the Internet. Although we have made some tremendous progress, within a few years, EVERYTHING will be ON the Internet. Meaning, you will not have to say: “Are you online?” or “Let’s connect” since the Internet will always be on and for all the devices and gadget we will be using.

Finally, some awesome sunset pictures I took. Life is Good!

1. Diversity – being able to quickly decide which products and services to embrace and release to market and which to discard while offering the right range of their customers’ needs.


2. Management – the human factor of making the proper decision, leading the company and creating strong relationships with customers.


3. Technology – The best and most successful distributors where using advance technologies while constantly looking for the next best solutions to embrace. I found the opposite to be true. The ones complaining about the economy, suppliers and their customers’ loyalty were the ones to use antiquated technologies and way of thinking.


4. Serendipity – Or what many referred to as luck and being at the right place at the right time. It was interesting that the majority or all of the most successful companies did not talk much about luck but their ability to take control and influence their future.


5. Locality – For many, being local helped them focus and develop strong relationships with their customers. I found the majority who held such belief to be smaller organization size as well as revenues and profits.


6. Customer service – They ALL claimed that the key was customer service yet many complained about lack of customers ‘and vendors’ loyalty.

What are the keys to your success?

After my speech and before dinner, we all assembled in Alan’s suite and got to brainstorm and discuss some great topics, while hearing some great stories over red wine. I pulled out my flip video, shot some great ones and uploaded them to YouTube and Alan’s blog. Here is a great sample about asking for referrals:

To see the rest, check out the following links. You are sure to enjoy them, I promise:

Click here for the boom box story.

Click here for seven more videos.

Click here for the frog story.

The first VM was a garbled message from a prospective client interested in talking with me about our solutions. The message was probably recorded using his cell phone making it almost impossible to recognize the complete phone number. Luckily I was able to make sense of the company name and after a quick Google search, I found them on the web as I was able to match the web phone number with the incomplete phone number left on the voicemail. Since I return all calls within 24 hours (unless they are clearly telemarketer calls) I called his company. Their main message stated that they are closed for the holidays. I left a brief message, letting them know who I am and explaining that I am returning their call. I left my phone number and email address twice, and suggested my availability to connect. Finally, I made the recommendations that they check the calendar, as I believe the holidays are over by now. I figured if they don’t have a sense of humor, it would not be a good match anyways.

The second VM was from a company specializing in training and documentation. I was not sure if this was a sales call or an interested prospect so I called her back, got her on the phone yet she barely remembered who I was, This sure made me feel really special. She then immediately jumped into her sales pitch telling me how long they’ve been in business, the type of products they sell, the awards they won and more blah, blah, blah. I was waiting for a question or two but quickly lost my patience when she started her third paragraph. I stopped her and said: “Not Interested.” Meekly she replied: “oh ok” and hung up the phone.

The third VM was from a sales trainer who luckily left a clear phone number and company name. I found his company on the web (where would I be without my Google?) and I quickly realized what his main focus was. Unfortunately I was unable to find any clients’ testimonials on his site or whom he had a chance to work with. When returning his call he immediately gave me his value proposition (good but a bit too long) and told me that he works with technology companies JUST like mine although would not name any of them. And I was born yesterday, I thought to myself. He asked me if I read all the marketing material he sent me. I told him that I have no idea what he is talking about as they all end up in the garbage. He then suggested he would stop by my office to introduce himself so we can talk about my business and what projects I may have in the works. I quickly and politely explained to him that I have no need for his services and do not meet with people who cold call me. He realized that I was getting ready to hang up the phone when he said: “look for me, I will be famous one day.” I hung up the phone and thought to myself, dreams are one thing but illusion and desperation are another.

My favorite was a call I received today in my office. It went like this:
Him: Mr. Barr?
Me: Yes
Him: This is not a sales call.
Me: (silence, although thinking … yeah right)
Him: We are in your neighborhood tomorrow morning and would like to stop by and introduce ourselves.
Me: Not interested (click)

How many of such calls or voice mails do you get and is it possible that you or your staff are making such calls and leaving similar voice mails?

1. Today is Thursday, March 27. In the morning I will be out of the office visiting with a client and in the afternoon I am traveling to another client …


2. Please stop and listen carefully as these menu options may have changed …


3. This call may be monitored for quality control …

When I call and get a voice mail, I simply want to leave a brief message and in the fastest way possible. I know that since I got the voice mail this person is either out of the office, away from their desk or on another call. I do not need to be told the day it is – I have my own calendar, or what this person’s schedule is – I truly don’t care, or learn new menu options – I have other more interesting things to learn, or the fact that my voice may be recorded.

My favorite message would probably be: “I am out, leave a message now.” But since we all want to probably sound professional and polite, here is mine: “Hi, This is Chad at extension 112. Please leave your message and I will get back with you as soon as I can. Thank You.”

The only reason I record my extension is to make it easier for the caller to get a hold of me next time they call.

Since I am already on this topic, when leaving messages why not make them pithy and succinct?

I am proud to announce that my blog made it into the social media category of this site. See screen capture below and click on image to enlarge:

I hear people complaining about the strength of the dollar weakening in comparison to other world currencies especially when the media is reaching for our attention with the stories and news of recession. So how do you leverage these economic challenges to benefit your company?

1. Expand your market – We get more inquiries and new business than ever before from place such as Canada, Europe, Australia, South Africa and Asia. I do not know if this is because of the exciting work we do and our marketing gravity, perhaps serendipity or the weak dollar. What is apparent to me is the fact that organizations and entrepreneurs outside the US are reaching out for help and expertise and a way to get better return from their own currency. Seize these opportunities, branch out and go global.


2. Help change your customers’ perception – In his blog entry Marketing in a recession, author Seth Godin writes about how in good times people buy because they feel they deserve it or just want it. Yet in tougher times they buy from a defensive position to avoid trouble or seize the opportunity. Change your marketing message to help your customers better understand why they need your products and services now.


3. Better use of technologies – Whether you are a large organization or a single entrepreneur, smartly using technologies enables you to deliver your expertise to your clients to help their business, build stronger relationships while allowing technologies to perform the work they should. So instead of receiving orders via phone, fax or a non-integrated web site and having to manually key them into your computer system, why not completely integrate them with your system through the Internet to automatically receive them in your warehouse or your receivable department? Instead of shipping hard copy books and CDs why not send them digitally as eBooks or an MP3 downloads. Instead of having to travel and visit your clients for meeting and training, why not use the Internet to conduct online live meetings and even archive them for future views?


4. Improve your web site – In his blog entry Progression in a recession, Dr. Alan Weiss talks about the importance of changing your web site to broadly describe your services and the importance of technology to reach out overseas prospects and partners.

Your web site and the Internet are both critical tools in helping you market your company, announce new products and services, deliver new offerings and reach global customers. So rather than listen to the negative news (how else would they get your attention) and act scared and indecisive, why not make a bold move, seize the great opportunities around you and make a positive difference for you and your customers’ success.

Testimonial from Terry Schmidt of www.ManagementPro.com:

Testimonial from Lisa Broesch of www.inblissconsulting.com:

Testimonial from Don Yaeger of www.donyaeger.com:

Testimonial from Sara LaForest of LaForest Consulting:

Slides show presentation:

| View | Upload your own

Click here to download slides presentation. (pdf 23.22MB)

Click here to download article handout. (pdf 561kb)

Note: Video testimonials were taken with my Flip Video camera

1. You are wasting my time navigating your site, thus aggravating me.


2. You are telling me that you are unable to meet your own deadlines and finish your commitments.


3. Marketing your own company is not a priority for you.


4. The methods you and your Webmaster are using are amateurish.


5. There is a good chance these pages will never change.

Here are my recommendations:

1. Finish developing all the content necessary for all pages on your site and only then should you launch your site.


2. Eliminate all pages from your site that content is not ready yet.


3. If you can commit and guarantee that the pages or your entire site will be available on a certain date, it is ok to announce the following: “Thank you for visiting this page, please check back on xx/xx/xx when this page will be launched.”

The examples below not only illustrate my points above, but they also demonstrate business negligence. These pages have been there for over a year. I suggest they either take the page or site down or complete writing the content.

(click on images to enlarge):

How easy is it to contact you by phone or email or even get your address?

Take a look at the examples below or visit our web site for an effective example.

(click on images to enlarge):

Enjoy,

Chad

Make sure your web master does the following: When developing the navigation for your site, all available links within your own site should open in the same browser window. Opening your own site in multiple browser windows is not only a poor design error but also irritating to the visitor. However, if you decide that you must link to other sites from your own web site, make sure you open up the link in a separate browser window while keeping your site open in the current window. This logic will enable the user to visit the new site, and when closing that window or tab they will be returned to your site which is still open. Otherwise, they are gone and probably will not be back.

Click here for an example of a hyperlink to another browser session and click here for an example of a hyperlink in the same browser window. (You will have to press the go back arrow to return to this page.)

Here are three ideas that have been instrumental in impacting mine:

1. Opportunities are all around us, we just have to learn to pay better attention to them.


2. If you don’t ask the answer is always NO.


3. When serendipity takes place, I seize the opportunity to create additional serendipity.

When was the last time you or your web development partner decided to test your site to make sure it properly displays and works through the major web browsers and even some older browsers? If you think this may not be a big issue, you should read the rest of this post.

We always attempt to take advantage of the latest in programming languages that is available to us when developing web sites for our clients. We also focus on the latest and greatest in browser technology. I come to realize that this might create serious challenges with individuals using older technologies who are not quick to upgrade their software and Internet browsers.

Below are three screen-capture examples from David Newman’s blog. Notice the books on the right hand side displaying properly in Microsoft Internet Explorer browser (click on images to enlarge):

In the next display using the Mac Safari browser, notice that only four books are showing on the right hand side and several are actually missing:

Below is the example using the Firefox browser, which happens to be my default and favorite browser. Notice that the books are displaying diagonally from right to left and are actually distorting the text of the post:

Here is an interesting chart showing that the most popular browsers are Microsoft IE7, IE6 and Firefox (which is constantly gaining popularity.)

Which brings me to my final point and recommendation that you test your web site(s) using these top browsers as well as Safari. Or you too may be surprised that what you intended to be shown is not correctly shown.

As I write on this quite often, blogs are a powerful tool to enable you to rapidly publish content about you and your company. If done well, they can add tremendous credibility for your organization and create an online dialog between you and your customers. However, I would also like to caution you that if in the wrong hands, blogs might become a competitive advantage for your competitors.

We use Constant Contact as our email distribution engine when electronically delivering our clients’ newsletters and ours. We find it easy to use, extremely stable and it generates good successful results. While reviewing newsletter services available from other companies, I came across an interesting company by the name of iContact. When visiting their blog, I was surprised to read their own post from 1/22/08 and 1/28/08 reporting serious issues with their products and how they fixed it. As an Internet and software development company, I do believe in taking action, communicating with customers and being responsible when software defects are discovered. However, I do not find this public open admission to be a good business practice. It’s one thing to contact and notify the customers affected, let them know of the issues and how you have taken care of it now and for the future. It’s another to openly broadcast this message on your blog, scare away potential new customers or even existing ones and give your competitors great research ammunition to use against you.

(Screens capture from iContact blog. click on images to enlarge):

(Click on image to enlarge)

What intrigued me further was the fact that each carton had huge letters and fonts displaying on each: “Smoking Kills”, yet you would think they were giving them away.
What is it about human nature that:

1. Even when individuals have clear and factual evidence that prove they may be in danger or possibly even death, they still elect to do it?


2. Even when organizations and leaders have been proven that there is a “better way”, they elect to either not do anything or select the more economical non-proven way?

(click on images to enlarge)

1. If you think you are giving too much of it away, you are on the right track.


2. Your clients will wonder if this is how much “free” advice you give them prior to becoming a client, how much would you then be giving them after they become a client.


3. It helps me to constantly push the envelope and re-invent with new ideas so I do not become otherwise stagnant.

My strong position remains that it is intrusive, poor business practice and unethical to add “strangers” to your list without their permission. When I get such obnoxious emails I view these individuals as desperate spammers, poor business people whom I would never do business with.

Checkout the following irritating example. Without my permission, I was placed on this email newsletter from someone (monica@monicawofford.com) whom I’ve never met before. Below is the newsletter that opened up in my email (click on images to enlarge):

I immediately realized that this has no value for me, so I paged down to the bottom of the email to look for the unsubscribe option. There, all the way at the bottom of the page I noticed the “Update e-mail preferences” option:

When I clicked on it I realized a serious problem with this person’s logic. The email address embedded into the preferences option was not my own but their generic newsletter1@contagiousconferences.com address which would not allow me to unsubscribe. Here is what this screen looked like:

Now I started to get irritated. But quickly thinking on my feet, I realized I could simply reply to her original newsletter email and tell her to unsubscribe me. So I did, and within seconds of sending my email I got an email reply from her server (see below):

Apparently and in order to reduce the spam she receives, she decided to use this SpamArrest software (intrusive and I would NEVER
recommend it) which forces a first time user (such as me) to click on the link and request her permission to accept the email. Now I was livid. First, this confirmed that we were complete strangers who never exchanged emails before. Second, this demonstrated the hypocrisy of her trying to protect herself from the spamming techniques she was using on others.

I did click on the link to make sure she hopefully gets my email. The screen bellow did confirm that my email was hopefully sent.

Smirking, I looked at the screen pondering how better this world would be if these amateurs were arrested by the spam police.

I met him about six years ago and have worked closely with him ever since. His impact on my business and my life has been absolutely remarkable. Several years ago I approached Alan with the idea of implementing and building an online community to attract his followers and allow them to better stay connected with him and each other. The result was Alan’s Forums, a unique and special type of online community attracting the best of global consulting minds. I’ve been also fortunate to work with him on many other exciting projects both on the receiving and giving end including the development and implementation of his terrific blog www.ContrarianConsulting.com.

During the podcast interview we discussed many questions such as:
What are the three most common mistakes consultants make?
What do the most successful ones do?
How to stand out in the crowd?
How do you keep reinventing yourself and increasing your creative output?
How to leverage Requests for Proposals?
What kind of role does serendipity play with strategy?
What should we do differently or more of in times of a recession?
What are the five secrets of living a fulfilling life?

And we even discussed the topic of retirement and living and leaving his legacy.

I know you will enjoy this podcast, will find it fascinating and Thank You! Alan.

Click below for podcast to start

That story actually serves multiple purposes, depending on which point I
am making.

World wide, about 100 Million transactions per day, 50 Billion transaction per year are being screeened online
for fraud, using a Neural Network model (in combination with business
rules). The market leader is Falcon, owned by Fair Isaac, formerly HNC.

Learning points:

1 – Because of the huge volume, the learning is remarkably precise.
Conversely, you need sufficient volume to tease out the signal from the
noise.

2 – You need the “feedback recording” of events in order to make such data
capture a sustainable organisatiopnal activity: credit card companies
“know” when they hit a false positive (they call, and then pass the transaction),
the false negatives are claimed (disputed) after the client receives their
statements. These data are fed back in to the application ot make it
“adaptive”

3 – There are costs for false positives (spoiled surpises, like yours – that’s what everybody expects if you tell the story right which makes it
so much better), and false negatives, fraudylent transations that were
accepted. If you put those in the equation, you get “better” models, that
is, better tuned to the business needs. (another example of asymetric mis
classification costs I always use is credit cards: when accepted +$200
profit, when defaulting -$5000 write-off, therefore you cannot afford to
err very often).

Below is the screen capture of the home page. Notice the “Fast Forum Access” option on the right hand side to enable you to click on in order to access the online community forum. So far so good. (Click on images to enlarge):

When entering the first forum page (screen capture below) notice the very few number of posts at the top right of the screen. Not only are there meager 13 posts, they are all from three years ago and showing no activity since. This alone should have been a strong enough reason to realize this strategy is not working and to either research it further or take the forum down and remove any reference to it on the web site.

When paging down (next screen below) I was amazed to see 5826 registered users. Something did not add up for me. How could you have thousands of users with so few posts?

I scrolled back to the top (screen capture below) and clicked on “Memberlist” and then sort by “Joined Date” in “Descending” order. When I clicked on the “Sort” button, the amazing devastating answer became clear to me. This forum registration page is being spammed by despicable porn sites and similar other web sites. Just reviewing the “Username” is enough to tell the story, but when clicking on the “Website” option … oh my!

I have tried contacting the owner of this site a couple of times in the past 2 years. I emailed her to contact me immediately and stated that I have some critical information about her sites that is potentially harming her reputation. No reply from her yet.

What are you thinking of?

“You sure have a great taste” said the lovely sales lady, commenting on the gorgeous bracelet I was looking at.

“Thank you” I said.
“For a special lady I assume?” she asked.
“My beautiful wife of course” I said.
“Would you like me to check on the price for this?” She asked.
“Why not, it couldn’t hurt” I said.
“$18,000!” she said.
“EIGHTEEN THOUSAND?” I yelled. (Oh, did it hurt)

Probably noticing the nice Hublot watch I was wearing she continued: “May I show you something else?”
“Ok” I said.
She pulled out this beautiful watch that I immediately fell in love with. How did she know? And she even told me that it looked great on me. (Yes, it was a man’s watch and I believed her)

Unknowingly, several minutes later, the phone rang at my home in the US and it was 5 AM. My wife, still sleeping, answered and heard a friendly gentleman voice.
“Mrs. Barr?” he asked.
“Yes, and who is this?” she asked.
“This is John from the fraud department at MBNA. I just wanted to make sure you knew that a large purchase was just made overseas with your husband’s personal credit card.” He said.
“Where was it?” asked my wife.
“At the Tel Aviv airport in Israel.” He answered.
“Oh, that is fine said my wife. It is my husband I am sure buying me a surprise present.”
“I am so sorry.” He said. “I just ruined the surprise your husband was planning on for you.”

Several hours later, I was greeted by my wife, who came to pick me up at the Cleveland airport. With a huge smile she asked: “How was your trip and did you buy anything special?” I replied: “Great, and I got myself a little present at the airport. So do you like my new watch?”

It was a quite ride home that day.

(Note: Please see the note from my colleague Tom Breur from Holland regarding this story)

I encourage you to check out her new web site and explore this very smart individual with a great commitment, passion and energy to her clients and her business. Click here to view her new site.

(Click image to enlarge)

Site Objectives:
1. Strong and clear Value Proposition
2. Provocative questions to engage visitors
3. In your face, clean design and clear navigation
4. Calls to action on all pages
5. Testimonials and client results for credibility
6. Big Blocks to promote main products and services
7. Passive income products
8. Visitor registration to electronic newsletters
9. Less is more. Reduced text on home page

So what are some simple and basic ideas of marketing your blog?
1. Include it in your email signature file.
2. Print it on your business card.
3. Verbally mention it in your discussions and presentations.
4. Mention it when writing your articles.
5. Leverage in your emails especially using my idea above of driving direct value to your current and future clients.

This prospect is not a dear new client.

This is one of the topics I study, track, research, write about, consult others and help develop. So let me share my bias with you.

I am writing an article for my blog with the title of: “The slow death of blogs” and please don’t misunderstand me, blogs are a powerful business tools and are here to stay and evolve. I am referring to individuals that were convinced by someone or thought it is a good idea to start a blog. But they rarely post on it. Not only is it a poor reflection on them but it is also a sad underutilization and a waste of this powerful tool. Their blogs are doomed by google and more importantly by their possible readers and will eventually close down – It’s only a matter of time. Unfortunately, some are members of this forum and some I personally reached out to and recommended they start posting on their own blog. Well guess what, they did for a short while and then stopped. They may get their last minute of fame and get featured in my article.

So if you are thinking of starting a blog here are some pointers:

1. Minimum 3 posts per week but if you missed a week here and there, not a big deal.


2. Length of each post from one sentence to an article length (1.5 page) although I recommend you keep it short and with bullet points. Write effectively and don’t over think this point.


3. You can always break your posts into sections or to be continued which may create anticipation.


4. The key is INTERESTING and VALUABLE stuff. But you already knew that I am sure.


5. The other key is that there is much more to putting together a successful blog than just starting to blog.


6. A blog is a tool for rapid publishing giving 100% of the control to the author of the blog enabling you to basically fire your web master (well not quite but almost.)


7. Finally, the power in creating a rich experience for the user is by combining text, images, audio Podcasts and videos on your blog. See Alan Weiss for a great example of a fascinating blog. Mine is another of course.

There are other members on the forum that have interesting blogs. Ed Poll, Aviv Shahar, Dan Coughlin, Pam Harper and Michael Harrison among others.

Here are some articles I wrote that you may find of value before you make your final decision:

Blogging in the new year
How to make your blog posts more interesting
The importance of web site evolution
How to improve your marketing exposure

(Click image to enlarge)

Some time ago, Dan started a new blog by the name of: Cool Book of the Day, which actually is a great idea, allowing authors to feature their books. However, I have two key issues with this blog:

The first is Dan’s decision to use Google ads in an attempt to possibly make money. Please look at the first two screen shots (click on the images to enlarge) and tell me how are ads about losing belly fat, quitting your job, and pushing hard the love button, help in establish strong business credibility about the book, the author or Dan’s blog. I believe it ruins everyone’s credibility. Realize that the two screen are capturing the same identical blog page but demonstrate how Google controls changing these ads at different times.

(First google ad)

(Same screen a couple of seconds later with a different google ad)

I read blogs using a blog reader, which allows me to review multiple blogs instantaneously to quickly pick and choose the entry I may be interested in reading. It also saves me the time it would otherwise take to visit each blog in order to check if any of them has anything new to read. The concept has been there for a while and it uses RSS technology, but that is for another article. The reader I happen to use is the popular Google reader. Take a look at the screen shot below, which shows the same identical blog above through my Google Reader. Notice that it does NOT show the Google Ads. This is a huge consideration if you are thinking of utilizing Google Ads in your blog.

(Same screen of above blog page displayed in Google Reader

The second issue I have is more about the content. It seems to me that the author of each book had to simply answer several questions about their book rather than Dan interviewing them and writing his own review. But that would probably take some work.

Finally, his blog uses the Amazon affiliate program. This means that you are able to click on a book, which will then take you directly to the proper Amazon page. If you are then interested in ordering it online, the blog owner (most likely Dan) will earn some dollars. I do not have a key issue with this concept since I do the same on my own blog. The difference is that I believe you need to have a disclaimer about this in order to create credibility. Mine is at the bottom of the “About Chad Barr” page, which states that I will donate 100% of the affiliate program income to my favorite charities.

This article is intended to demonstrate how some decisions have the potential to ruin your credibility utilizing the wrong Internet tools and concepts.

An oversight? Perhaps. But if you are not paying attention to important requests that affect proper communication and project success, you are increasing the chances of communication breakdowns and failures. I realize we all may suffer from dementia at times but the fact from my experience is that this situation is ubiquitously common.

The exception to this rule is when someone, erroneously or not, decides to include me and other recipients in their distribution list. Unless the content contains an error that needs to be pointed out, or all recipients need to know that I should not be included in future email updates, I simply hit the “reply” (to sender only) and ask the sender to keep me out (opt-out) of their distribution list.

Since I hopefully got you reading this far and since I know you would agree with me that we all get tremendous amount of emails and spam let me also suggest the following:

1. Reduce the number of emails you are sending and replying to.


2. Keep your email pithy.


3. No email jokes please. Let me share with you that I either delete them without reading or reply to sender with a request to stop sending them to me. This is an example where I choose not to hit “reply all” since I want to reduce the chances of others I do not know on the distribution list deciding to become my “friend” and add me to their distribution list.


4. Which brings me to the last point. When sending an email to people who do not know each other and unless previously agreed by all as expected, use the blind copy (bcc) option when sending your email. This way you are not revealing email addresses of people who would rather remain anonymous. I am one of these people.

Did I follow my rule number 2 of being pithy? Well, this is not an email and you decide.

This was my rant for the day and I do feel better now … I think.

Progress of Music and Technology

The picture above pretty much resembles my LP vinyl records collection I had growing up at my parents’ home. Mine contained roughly 4000 LPs that I managed to purchase and collect from the hard-earned money I made playing my music gigs back then. To make sure my records sounded great, I even purchased a Dual model turntable, which served me well for quite a few years. It was 1972, I was sixteen back then and life was good. Then came the digital CDs, my first Sony Walkman player among the many other players I purchased. As technology advanced, I had to re-invest in this digital revolution and replace the old with the new.

Today, it is my iPod that holds thousands of songs, audio books and movies. This one tiny device, that fits in my pocket, replaces my walls covered with vinyl records, cassettes and CDs as well as the various players: turntable, cassette player, reel tape and walkman I used to own.

I still remember the days when going to the music store and listening to the new records while having to signal to the store clerk, controlling the music, to skip the selection to the next song. Today, at my leisure, I visit my favorite iTunes online store. There, I can instantly listen to and watch excerpts of songs, movies and audio books and immediately purchase, download and listen to the ones I want.

Life is great.

Let me illustrate this progress through pictures:

I still remember this radio at my grandparents home when growing up

Then my first Reel-to-reel tape recorder

And my turntable

With my cassette player

With the thousands of cassettes

And thousands of music CDs

And thousands of vinyl LPs

Replaced with this awesome iPod

And my iTunes where I purchase, download and organize my music

And listen to it all using this outstanding Bose headset

In my quest to constantly improve our clients’ web sites and develop better and new successful Internet strategies for their business, I come across and review many web sites on a daily basis.

To illustrate and discuss the “good, bad and ugly” techniques used by others, and us, I am starting a new blog category today. “How to improve your web site effectiveness” will be devoted exactly for that purpose, discussions and illustrations of such practices, both good and bad. Please realize this category will reflect my personal bias and opinion, which you are welcome to disagree with. I would really like to hear your opinion and your sharing of other sites and concepts you think are bad practice or helpful.

This following site: www.singletongroup.com used to be a consultant web site and had all the basic elements of such a site. Recently it was changed to the following page:

(click image to enlarge)

Please realize that this page is the entire site now. There are no other sub pages to navigate. My assessment:

1. If this person is on vacation and it is their way of communicating such message, I see it as a poor sense of humor that would turn off customers.


2. If this person’s server was hacked (high jacked by someone else) I hope for their sake they recognize this soon.


3. If they decided to retire, I believe there are better ways of announcing it. But then again, they may not care.

I love a good sense of humor and I believe you can easily leverage it in your writing and professional web site development. However, this is definitely not such an example. Watch out what message your site conveys.

When logging on to their site th