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, [...]

Last week I lamented what some may call ‘blogger burnout’ or writer’s block, or a mid-life crisis. Or I called it ’settled in’. Blogging has become familiar and unmotivating (and ditto for what my posts actually say, at least to me).
I’ve pondered this and come up with a list of things that keep us [...]

Perhaps you’ve heard of Google’s mantra, “do no evil”. I was concerned that their going-public would shift the focus of their company towards profiteering, if not evil. As it turns out, they seem to have been too clumsy (and blessed by Wall Street) to be digging for profits.
Staying squarely in the ‘no evil’ category, the [...]

Globalspec has tried games as a way to promote their website, so you know that ThomasNet has to try it…ThomasNet is sponsoring the “MikeMan” game, which is actually a promotion vehicle for ESPN-Radio’s morning show.
Thomas gets ‘brand recognition’, especially with their famous green color. But the game is just a Pac-man knock off. One that [...]

What better to do when you feel down (see yesterday’s post) than to find a proverbial ‘dog to kick’…must mean its time for Dave to anoint a new Marketing Nitwit.
The nitwit today is Thales Components with this lug of a website.

It is nearly all graphics which makes it look so 1997. The “latest news” is [...]

I was talking with someone at church on Sunday who recently started a new job. This job is part of a start-up company that is beginning to manufacture its own products. He relayed how exciting it was and how much dedication it was demanding. For someone who has held hourly labor type jobs previously, I [...]

Back in 2004 I posted a couple times about ‘black-hat SEO company’ Traffic Power (later First Place or 1P). I thought I would do a quick refresher, since they are still out there. My last post about them has garnered 19 comments with warnings and tails-of-woe.
FYI: SEO means ’search engine optimization’ and black-hat means [...]

When brainstorming, you are supposed to leave all the ‘yea buts’ out and just hammer on making a list of ideas. I agree. But once an idea is being moved forward, all bets are off. And I feel a little guilty about that.
You see, myself and and someone from our finance department were asked to [...]

One of the features I enjoy in trade publications is ‘from the floor’ trade show reports. Us marketers certainly aren’t there for technical discovery, but I think even the engineers at a show are looking to feel ‘the vibe’ at the show. And publications should deliver that vibe for those who can’t make it.
Here is [...]

Dana VanDen Heuvel links to a Business Week article titled: Five Words to Never Use in an Ad. Hmm, interesting…what are those words?

Quality
Value
Service
Caring
Integrity

(I already wrote about the problem with the word quality earlier this year.)
Why not use them?The author of the article, Steve McKee, says “Using common words that have become empty cliches is a [...]