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Email Real Estate Scam – Captain Kent Brian is BACK!

April 9, 2011 By Leave a Comment
NATO Regional Command South, Afghanistan insignia

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Internet Marketing Scam for Entertainment

Internet marketing comes in many forms. This is an email I got from a gentlemen calling himself Captain Kent Brian. His English is quite entertaining. I often read the letters out loud in my office to share the laughs. It is something you can do for your family too. At a gathering, share some of the more outrageous emails to educate your family on the various tactics people use. Good food and wine are recommended.

Here is the letter:

Good day I write back to you concerning what I wish to discuss with you. I implore you to take your time to go through it carefully as the decision you make will go off a long way to determine our future and continued existence. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Kent Brian, a member of NATO-ISAF Task Force and Provincial Reconstruction Troops in Southern Afghanistan.

I have a very confidential proposal for you. It was in my search for a secured business listing that I came in contact with you and I wish I can confide in you to get this business completed.

Based on the United States legislative and executive decision of pulling our troop out of here by the End of the year I have decided to contact you for this business opportunity and relationship. I want to inform you that I have in my possession the sum of USD 10.5 million, which I got from crude oil deals in Afghanistan. I deposited this money with a Red Cross Agent informing him that i am making contact for the real owner of the money and it is under my power to approve whoever comes forth for the money.

I want to invest the money in a good business as soon as my service here ends, anyway you will advise me on that since I am not into business. I am solely interested in making a life for my two daughters and therefore I shall require the service of a person who is trustworthy and sincere. I am going to make you the beneficiary of the money and allowing you to invest for my Kids in the event anything happens to me here. I am an America and an intelligent officer, so I have a 100% authentic means of transferring the money through diplomatic courier service. I just need your acceptance and all is done.

Where we are now we can only communicate through our military communication facilities that are secured so nobody can monitor our emails, then I can explain in details to you. I will only reach you through email, because our calls might be monitored, I just have to be sure whom I am dealing with.

I need someone I could deal with on trust, so that is why I contacted you to work with me as the receiving partner in your country. If you accept, I will put you forward as the beneficiary of the funds and transfer the money to you because as a uniformed person I cannot be parading such an amount so I need to present someone as the beneficiary.

I am writing from a fresh email account so if you are not interested do not reply to this email and please delete this message. If you are interested, then let me know so we can proceed as time is very important to me. I wait for your contact details so we can move into action. In less than 5 days, the money should have been in your position and I will come over for my money when my service here expires. I will give to you 30% of the sum and 70% is for me because I know that nothing goes for nothing, I hope I am been fair to you for your assistance as my receiving partner. If you are interested in handling this life changing and promising transaction of mine, please reply me immediately.

Regards
Brian

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Filed Under: Email Scams, Emotive Marketing, internet marketing Tagged With: , , , , , , ,

Business blogging is the hub of your social media campaign

March 7, 2011 By Leave a Comment

chickenegg

Everyone wants to jump into social media with Facebook. I have seen some large companies put all their eggs into Facebook without the assistance of a business blog. Social media has been around the web far longer than Facebook. My saying is, “Social media networks come and go, but your business blog is forever.” 

One question that gets asked a lot by new clients is “Should we start with a blog or should I start with building social media profiles?”

Some social media experts say this is a bad idea because a blog is worthless without a network to read it. They argue you’ll get more eyes by guest blogging on a bigger website. They’ll say that you need to develop relationships with “influentials” or “A-List” bloggers.

And they are right…

I do agree you need to work on building a social media network. I do agree you should guest blog. I can’t agree more that it takes a lot of time to get serious blog traffic.

That said, I disagree with putting off blogging [Read more...]

Filed Under: Online Marketing, Online Reputation Management, social media, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Branding Yourself: Using Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself, and Que BizTech

December 24, 2010 By Leave a Comment

My business partner Erik just finished his new book, “Branding Yourself: Using Social Media to Invent or Reinvent Yourself, and Que BizTech” (Pearson Education).

It is an excellent guide on how to use online social media for branding yourself online. You can also pruchase it on Amazon.

Erik is an excellent writer. You can also read his Laughing Stalk Blog where he posts his weekly humor columns for several local newspapers in Indiana.

Paul is the President of Professional Blog Service. PBS works with clients making strategic investments into blogging, social media and search engine optimization.

Filed Under: internet marketing, Internet Public Relations, Online Behavior, Online Marketing, Online Reputation Management Tagged With: , ,

At the Top Networking Strategy Session – Erik Deckers Speaks

April 27, 2010 By 3 Comments

Last week on Thursday April 22, 2010, Erik Deckers participated in the Strategy Session called Mistakes Small Business Makes in their marketing.  Erik was responsible to talk about “The 3 Mistakes Companies Make with Their Blogging and Social Media.  He will discuss the following:

  1. Ignoring Social Media
  2. Broadcasting, Not Conversing
  3. Abandoning the Plan

I think he did a pretty good job.

Check it out:

Filed Under: Blog Marketing, internet marketing, Internet Public Relations, marketing Tagged With: , , , , ,

Cool Pandora Software for Mac

August 17, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I found this great Pandora Software for the Mac.  It’s called PandoraJam.

You can get it here.

In a nutshell, it allows you to stream Pandora through your Airport Express.  It costs only $15.  It’s for Mac OSX.

I love Pandora for several reasons:

  1. It introduces me to music I would otherwise not hear.
  2. It allows me to be lazy and let someone else pick my music based on my tastes.
  3. It still gives me music based on my moods.

Yesterday, I was feeling a bit like Liszt, Ferenc.  I was introduced to a whole new genre of music I would otherwise never had heard.

It is yet another example of how the Internet allows users to customize their experience to suite their individual personality or explore new things.

I love it!

Filed Under: internet marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: , , ,

Time for Dungy to go? I think its time for Kravitz to go

January 5, 2009 By 2 Comments

This post is a little different.  Part sports, marketing, and social commentary.

I woke up this morning and begrudgingly decided to read Kravitz.

Why does Bob Kravitz think that Dungy needs to go?  “It’s the best thing for the Colts, who have gone about as far as they can with Dungy and his staff.”

Making the playoffs 8 straight years is not good enough.  Winning a Super Bowl is not good enough.  Being one of the most successful coaches in the modern era of salary caps is not good enough?  Coming back from a rough start, injuries and finishing the season 11-4 and making the playoffs was not good enough?

When I moved to this town back in the mid-90s, the Colts were mediocre.  I believe one season I was here, we went 2-13, or something like that.  Prior to that time, the Colts were always a mediocre club.  Now, we have a winning coach, a winning management, and Bob Kravitz says, “It’s the best thing for the Colts, who have gone about as far as they can with Dungy and his staff.”

If you read his article more closely, the simple truth is Bob Kravitz does not like Tony Dungy’s style.  We live in a results driven world today.  Yet here in Indianapolis, the results do not matter, it’s your style that matters.  See, a lot of people do not like Tony Dungy’s calm, intelligent approach to the game.  They do not respect his integrity, humility, and excellence on the field.

Kravitz also seems to mocking Dungy for wanting to work with young men.  “It’s either Football or working with young men – which one Tony?”  Make your mind up.  This one just struck me the wrong way.  Is there no honor in wanting to help others?  Sports is entertainment.  Helping people is real life Kravitz.

What I read in the article is Kravitz wants Bobby Knight to coach the Colts.  See, if Dungy had thrown his headset at a player, or got into their face and yelled at them, somehow that was going to motivate them more.  (Which is another blog  post, the impact of Boddy Knight on Indiana business leadership).

Kravitz has years of experience motivating large roster of players, making selections, and working within a salary cap.  In other words, Kravitz has no credibility.  He is not an expert.  He is simply a sports writer.

It’s time Kravitz and others like him need to go.  There was a time in this country when respect was given to those who have earned it.  People earned respect for their substance, not their style.  Tony Dungy is a man of substance.

I’d rather my kid follow the example of Tony Dungy, then a Bob Kravitz.

The sad thing is the damn article that Kravitz wrote probably got some traffic, so he did his job for the Indy Star and Gannet.  I am sure they got the page views and the ad revenue at the expense of trashing Tony Dungy.  If you read between the lines, it is exactly what he did.

Filed Under: internet marketing Tagged With: , ,

Buzzwords – what do they really mean?

November 24, 2008 By Leave a Comment

We live in a buzzword world.

Everything that even smells of something new gets a buzzword. I have visions of smartly dressed people with stylish glasses and fancy haircuts going, “let’s give a name.” Then we come up with a sample like this:

3-6-3 Rule
A Ton Of Money
Accounting Noise
Acquisition Indigestion
Across The Board
Active Box
Activity Based Budgeting – ABB
Affluenza
After The Bell
Agency Cross
Agflation
Air Pocket Stock
Alligator Property
Alligator Spread
Alternative Energy ETF
Alternative Investment
And Interest
Angel Bond
Angelina Jolie Stock Index
Ankle Biter
Anonymous Trading
Antitrust
Arbitrageur
Aspirin Count Theory
Sourced from www.investopedia.com/categories/buzzwords.asp

What usually happens is a small segment of the population actually understands what it means. People in the know sound really smart because they can repeat the buzzword and sound really intelligent. The Internet has spawned all kinds of them. Example: “It is important that your GUI design captures the eyeballs. Make sure that you employ search engine optimization (SEO), pay per click (PPC), and Web Analytics. ” The genius ones use a lot of them in many sentences. (Wow, he’s smart, he is buzzword compliant). And people buy it all the time. (I guess that why they work).

I will be the first to admit that I loved buzzwords too. I used to sit around with my collegues who dressed nicely and play the buzzword game too. I was a buzzword expert too. I would do it in front of clients and feel really good about myself.

There is one constant in human evolution. Human interactions have not really changed. Despite all this technology introduced into our lives, we as a species still function pretty much the same way. While we may not feed each other to lions, we find new ways to be cruel just the same. And our fears and desires are pretty simple too. We can still be made to fear and sex will always sell.

So, what is all this social media hype about anyways? What’s all this Internet stuff with My Space, Facebook, Linkedin, and Plaxo about? Well, the reality is human evolution in buying has gone from the bazaar to the store, to the electronic store. Buying and selling is still done on emotions. Doing it on the Internet is no different. Now we have to either visually or through words impact people’s emotional reaction to buying from us. Just like we did when people stood in front of our table at the bazaar. There is no buzzword to describe this. Businesses just need to learn how to sell in this new market. It is old fashion buying and selling that is going on today.

Cold calling is dead. People no longer pick up the phone and talk because caller ID says I don’t have time for people I do not know. So, they are changing from having the world come to them to opting into the world of their choosing. People are quorom sensing beings. They will naturally gravitate towards those people that have similar interest and become part of a community. Instead of going down to the Church Hall, they may now choose to join the forum on under water basket weaving because there are not many people at church who are into under water basket weaving.

Business professionals globally are also trying to connect with potential colleagues with like interests. They no longer pick up the phone and listen to sales people. Instead they pick and choose what information interests them or could help them. The challenge today is learning how to generate the information they would be interested in reading. Or, creating an environments that gives them the option to participate. Again, it is old fashion buying and selling.

In the end, humans have not changed. We are still creatures of habit. We still gravitate towards shared interest. The only difference is that we do it in a different environment today. So, if you peal off all the buzzwords and narrow down the basic human behavior we see today, success is simply watching how humans behave in their new environments. If you observe the Internet from this perspective, you will see that nothing has really changed, only the location where people congregate has.

Filed Under: Blog Marketing, eCommerce, internet marketing, marketing, Social Media Marketing Tagged With: ,

eCommerce Checklist

October 14, 2008 By Leave a Comment

We have come across many clients that have purchased eCommerce platforms for the wrong reasons. The only reason to select an eCommerce platform is for merchandising and marketing. After all, it is your company’s business online. Most important, you need to make sure that you “Rent the building, NOT THE STORE”.

What does this mean? Well, we have had several clients select a hosted solution for the eCommerce. It is a Store Rental situation. While there are perceived lower costs with low monthly fees. The hosted solutions own your business. The contracts are all one-sided. They charge high rates for custom development or changes. They may not have the right features needed to properly market your sites.

We have a client that gets charged $185 an hour for changes. Adding tracking code to the site is considered development. It takes a week to get into their development queue. They act like the big company IT department, when it should be a 5 minute job. It is a rip-off. They are controlling my client’s business.

So, what do we recommend? There are numerous options to choose from out there. The most important thing is that any eCommerce must have excellent marketing and merchandising features. eCommerce is a retail operation and retail centric is what it should be.

eCommerce should be able to do the following:

These are recommendations for companies planning on aggressively selling their products online with hundreds or thousands of items.

Marketing Features:

1. Title pages
2. Page descriptions
3. Meta data
4. Search engine friendly urls
5. Track on-site searches
6. Support affiliate marketing
7. Alternative tags for images
8. Catalog creation
9. Coupons and specials
10. Affinity program management
11. Discounts and specials

Hosting:

Be wary of hosted solutions that do not allow for changes on the site, or access to the site. Any eCommerce solution should be controlled by you, not the vendor. Vendors can hold you hostage by requiring all changes to go through them. This should be an immediate deal breaker. You will regret it the day your site goes live.

We also recommend Linux as the platform to host. It supports Search Engine Friendly urls. It generally provides a more secure platform. Most important, your site does not go down because of a mandatory Windows update.

Here are the platforms we generally work and recommend:

1. X-Cart – www.x-cart.com

X-Cart is a full featured eCommerce platform that is very affordable. Most of our clients are on this platform and have found their sites generate healthy sales. The most important features in X-Cart are its SEO capabilities. It has search engine friendly urls, cataloging and all our clients find their products are indexed in Google. It is a marketing machine. All clients find their shopping cart conversions to be above average at 20%-25%.

X-Cart also has a reporting package called Sales and Stats. 2 features that make it excellent.

1. Real-time reporting – online CRM tool
2. Chat support
3. Click to call support

You can actually watch visitors go through the process on your site. It helps identify where visitors may be getting hung up and allows you take action. It also gives you individual information on visitors. What pages they have visited. What they have purchased. It is simply and excellent online CRM tool to help provide a superior customer experience.

Also, it is released as an open source software package, so clients have access to the software.

2. ZenCart

Zen Cart is an open source shopping cart that also has many of the features of X-Cart. It too is based on marketing. We have a client using it because his parts management system interfaces with Zencart beautifully. With good SEO, he is able to get his parts database indexed online.

There are some newer Open Source carts that give you some Web 2.0 features and should also be considered. They include:

1. Magento
2. Freeway

Both provide most of the marketing features listed above and the software is free. The cost is having someone implement it, which would have to paid, even with commercial software.

eCommerce is about sales. If the shopping cart platform you are using does not assist in sales through effective SEO, merchandising, and support, don’t buy it. OWN THE STORE, rent the building. It is your business, take control. Learn how to sell online and merchandise. Make sure the platform you have can help you.

Filed Under: eCommerce Tagged With: , , ,

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