Two Thoughts for Today : 1. Be True To Yourself 2. Be What You Say You Are To Others.
Most people only hear the first one. Their is a level of authenticity in life that we all need to adhere to. This goes for digitally and in real life. It can help alleviate stress, build trust, and turn commodities into experiences.
Some great data on social media timing. Of course their are strategies you can work with on getting your blog post or content out to your particular audience. But this chart provides some good guidelines.
Too funny.
So this SEO guy walks into a bar, grill, pub, public house, Irish bar, bartender, drinks, beer, wine, liquor…
Going to Borders made me think about branding and how deeply discounted coupons are so bad for your brand. As consumers, we love coupons, and getting a 30-40% off on a book is a great deal. The problem with these deeper discounts, as Borders offers, is that consumers lose the desire to pay full price for the book they always wanted. At first this deal seems too good to be true. It creates this sense of urgency where you need to go into the store to take advantage. Sales for the store are up and every thing seems great. But then that scarcity runs out. Borders, for example, runs one of these deeper discounted coupons on any item every week. For the past couple weeks, while Borders has been scrambling to stay alive, I’ve received a coupon pretty much every day. The scarcity ran out and I pretty much ignored them. Worse (for Borders) I pretty much expect that their is a coupon that I am entitled to at the store that is deeply discounted. So the perception to consumers is that these books are overpriced.
Don’t get me wrong, an occasional slightly discounted coupon can be a great way to spark interest in your goods. But for myself, and as I am sure other consumers, as these deeper discounts become more regular, we no longer pay full price for books. Borders has made books such a commodoty and a deeply discounted one. In fact we won’t shop until we get the illustrious 40% Off coupon. Borders would likely see better profits with more targeted, slightly less discounted coupons.
This last weekend, I went to the closing sale of the local Bozeman Borders where they had only taken 20% off most items. The place was hysterically packed with people. Funny that this is the most people I have seen in the store ever, including Christmas. Ironically the regular store coupon (which is actually 33% off) this week. Had the store remained open, this coupon would be valid and a far better deal. At the end of the day It’s still hard to believe that the Bozeman Borders is closing, but yet it’s becoming fairly apparent as to why.
Wishing the employees the best and your store will be missed.
Great quote and article on Conan O’Brien’s his childhood goals and his own personal brand.
[Conan] O’Brien sits back in his office, guitar in hand, trying to make sense of his personal and digital evolution. First he thinks it through as a performer: “The Beatles were trying to be the Everly Brothers, and they couldn’t quite pull it off. Elvis really wanted to sound like Dean Martin. But, you know, by failing …” He stops and starts again. “You have an image in your head of this iconic person. For me, it might have been Johnny Carson, where you grow up with him, and you think, ‘Well, that’s who I need to be’ — to realize that feeling I had when I was 8, sitting in my parents’ house and watching him. And then things happen, and you think, ‘Oh, my God, I didn’t — that fell apart.’ But it’s the failure to be that person or to completely follow through on what he did that leads you to something that’s much better.”
via CNN Fortune
As a gentleman who occasionally needs to edit code, type regex into form fields that are inheritently short. I found this tight little application from the fine folks at HogsBay Software quite handy. For $4.99 you get a handy dandy text helper-that until you use, you probably didn’t know you needed it. Need to add some quick html to a blog post? QuickCursor is perfect for that. Need to make a Regular Expression in Google Analytics that is longer than the form field allows? QuickCursor is good for that. I found myself liking to use it with Espresso although it works with TextMate and TextWrangler. It also works great for quickly removing extra characters from Microsoft Word documents when inserting into blog posts. Highly recommended for anyone who loiters between the marketing, design and programming world.
I hope everyone had a wonderful and Merry Christmas season this year. We went up to Fairmont and spent some time with family and friends soaking at the Hot Springs and then went to my parents house in Billings, MT where Rachelle and I got to go see Tron Legacy on a date night while the Grandparents watched Hazel.
Overall 2010 has been a fantastic year for friends, family and clients – whom most if not all are included in the friends and family note above. We had Hazel, Rachelle and I got our marriage recognized by the church and I was able to do a little bit of fly fishing along the way. Hazel is now crawling and has cut a couple teeth. We are now looking at the next phase with crawling. Friends were right when they told me once you have one phase figured out, they switch it up on you. We are now in the process of baby-proofing the house to make sure we are kid-safe.
For 2011 I am looking forward to another year of exciting business and family opportunities. This year Rachelle and I are working ever so hard to achieve our dream of finally paying off our student loans. It’s a small thing, but at the same time a large weight on our shoulders. I should also have some exciting business news later this year. Hazel is crawling, standing up and acting like she wants to walk already. She is amazes me every day and am so thankful for her and my beautiful wife.
New Year Resolutions are great. I started one in October that I am now doing a 40 day challenge, every 40 days. This was inspired by others online that I have seen and thought it was a great idea. The premise behind this is that “it takes 30 days of doing something consistently to build a habit”. I liked the idea of 40 days, due to the biblical sense, not to mention that I think I need the extra 10 days as sometimes it doesn’t sink in fully. We’ll see how it goes but I am already on my 3rd challenge. First one was: No excess sweets for 40 days. Second one was to drink a liter of water every morning. And the third one which is proving to be the most difficult is to do 10 pushups and 10 sit-ups every day. I am currently taking ideas for my next 40 day challenge, so feel free to comment below or send me a note if you have an idea.
I hope that everyone has a Merry Christmas and the Happiest of New Years. Thank you to all of my clients and business partners for allowing me to serve you. You are truly a blessing and am thankful for all that you trust me with.
Merry, Merry
Drew Schug
Their’s an old saying in many businesses. Work always seems to take twice as long as you think it will. So plan for the appropriate amount of time it should take and then double that amount of time.
This past weekend, I bought and assembled the “Friday Afternoon Desk”. Meaning that whoever put the package together did it while drinking heavily malted beverages on a Friday afternoon while anxious to get off of work for the weekend.
I made 2 trips back to the store for missing parts and one part that was not only the wrong part but looked like it went to a different desk completely. Another part looked like it was manufactured upside down and sideways. I sometimes look at the parts and realize I am holding it a wrong way or need to flip it a certain way. This one had both me, my wife and the store returns department scratching our heads in disbelief. It also came with 2 instruction manuals… which were helpful but both seemed “not quite right”.
The desk ended up being completed Sunday and am actually quite happy with how it turned out. I only wish it would have taken the four hours I planned it to take.
Update : Photo per request.
I’ve noticed Google giving geo-targeted based results for sometime and I’m sure it is documented further on other blogs out there. But did I miss something when I was out for two days last week? This may not be new to some but today in my google side navigation for search results I discovered the ability to use a “Custom Location” in the Sidebar. For most regular users this may not mean much but for businesses and search marketers this ability allows you the ability to find out how well you are ranking in location specific searches without traveling to that location. I have a number of clients who’s products and services need to be found outside of the Bozeman, Montana area even though they don’t necessarily have a physical location there.
This is both good and bad news for search marketers and business owners. While you may feel you are doing good on certain keyword terms for specific locations, it might merely mean that you are only doing good from your current location. If I want to do well for “web designers” in Bozeman Montana I better have a location in Bozeman. Alas I am actually located in Belgrade so my best bet is usually word of mouth through friends and other socialites.
The good news is now we know for certain that a search for your specific keywords will garner different results in different locations. Google’s addition of this shows their commitment to the location aware as well as giving businesses the ability to find out how they are doing for other locations. The bad news is you may not be doing as well for your keyword terms for the specific areas that you would like to rank higher for. But at least now you know.
How does localized search impact your business? Does this affect how will you spend your marketing budget?
Found the full Steve Jobs D8 interview over on Kevin Rose’s blogg (via WSJ All Things Digital). Truly worth the watch for any entrepreneur, designer or business owner.
