Misc. – Page 12 – Chris Schweppe | (877) 638-0827

February 28, 2011

New York Times Says Blogging is Dying. Oh, OK.

So, the New York Times put out a story saying blogging is waning because the youth of America is turning to Facebook and Twitter.

The idea of blogs going the way of the dinosaurs is just as ridiculous as the newspapers starting to make a profit again off print. Sorry, couldn’t resist ; ) In another textbook example of why newspaper companies are losing money, among others, is because there’s too many times they report on subjects they know nothing about.

If people at the New York Times were really as smart as people think they are, the story should have been titled “Email Wanes as the Young Drift to Facebook.” First of all, Facebook dwarfs Twitter in traffic. Twitter shouldn’t even be part of the discussion next to Facebook. Facebook has close to 150 million users who use the site at least once a month in the US. Twitter has close to 16 million.

The 2nd main part the NY Times is missing is that the youth are using Facebook over email. Not blogging. Teenagers and college age people are not using email as much to communicate because they are on Facebook way more. Not true for people over age 30, but for the under 30’s, yes. The Under 30’s were never using blogs to communicate. Blogs are for people who want content. Knowledge. Facebook and Twitter can give you a headline or a link but that’s about it. It’s not that complicated to understand.

Facebook and Twitter are used for communication. People go to Facebook to see how their friends are doing. But if they want information on how to do something like get on the 1st page of Google, you’re not going to be able to articulate it in 240-140 characters.

February 28, 2011

Netflix Has A Real Big Problem With Amazon

Amazon is starting to get into Netflix’s business of offering online streaming of select TV shows and movies. No big deal, right? Only a matter of time before Netflix would have some serious competition. But actually, Netflix does have a really big problem on it’s hands.

Paid Content is reporting that Netflix outsources a huge portion of its operations to a division of Amazon called Amazon Web Services. AWS became a Netflix vendor in 2009, and has taken on an increasingly larger role in managing the “majority of our computing,” according to the 10-K SEC filing Netflix submitted.

The filing also states, “Given this, along with the fact that we cannot easily switch our AWS operations to another cloud provider, any disruption of or interference with our use of AWS would impact our operations and our business would be adversely impacted.” Doesn’t sound good on Netflix’s end.

68.2% of U.S. Internet Users Watch Video Online

68.2% or 158.1 million people in the United States will watch online video at least once a month according to Emarketer. It’s another sign that online video is something small business needs to start taking a close look at.

2 Screen Cell Phone! Sweet!

Sprint has a brand new “dual-screen” phone coming out called the Echo. It also folds over into a tablet like the ipad. Pretty innovative stuff from Sprint. Here’s hoping other manufacturers follow suit. There’s probably many multi-tasking opportunities to be had!

Are You Ready For Internet Metering???

Yes, there wasn’t a typo in the subject title. Metering, not marketing. Metering, as in paying for internet based on consumption. Sounds great, right?! : )

As of right now there some muckity mucks in washington, more specifically the FCC, are toying around with the idea of having internet service providers charge based on how much content you download on the internet. Like, under a certain plan, you’d have a 20 GB limit per month. Doesn’t sound too bad until you think of the file size of online video (a high-def movie online can take up to 2-3 GB). So the basic premise is the more online video or music or other files you download or play, the more your internet will cost.

For those reading this, skeptical that something like this would take place, you need to look no further than north of the border. That’s right, this experiment has just been tried in Canada and boy, was it not pretty. The Calgary Herald reports that there have been over 220,000 signatures on a petition to reverse the internet metering. The article mentions a graphic designer who does freelance work professionally having to download large files everyday for his customers, finding his internet bill $34 higher than usual.

In the defense of the service providers, they’re in a scrambling sort of mode right now. Things were fine for them back when watching video online was a rarity, but now that video streaming has gone mainstream, they have a problem with dramatically higher bandwidth costs. And how do you charge more for the higher cost when you have a chunk of people who watch a ton of video versus those who use the internet sparingly. That’s the root of the problem.

Call me captain obvious, but my conclusion is that people loathe bills that have different prices every month for reasons beyond their understanding. I’m hoping that the service providers can take an average and charge a fair, fixed monthly price, without the government getting involved.

Yes, They’re Going To Shop Around

Now, before i really get going on this post, I’m going preface by saying that i know nothing about cars. I have no clue how to change the oil. I know almost absolutely nothing about science. If you asked me what a proton or neutron was, I’d give you a look similar to a deer in the headlights. So…. I’m not a car guy. I’m not a scientist.

Another bit of information that’s come to my attention is that not all small business owners are salesmen.

The last few months, I’ve been more and more surprised by how some of our clients react to the phone call leads that we’ve been sending them. And the thing it always comes back to is our client’s disdain for the fact that the people we’re marketing to shop around. Mostly, i think this comes because the vast, vast majority of small business’ revenue comes from referrals and “word of mouth”. Or maybe it’s something else. Whatever the case, entrepreneurs need to be prepared to sell when people call. Or at least hire a professional sales rep who can’t handle the calls.

Talking with one of our web designers earlier, he was telling me about his experience looking for locksmiths. He needed to get a couple keys made. The first company he called quoted him $100 for the job and to the web designer, that was surprising, so he said thanks and called the next locksmith he could find hoping that there would be someone else out there with a better price. And sure enough on call #4 he found someone that was willing to do it for $70.

My main point is that if 10 calls come in from people you have no relationship with and they’re interested in your service, there are some companies out there that convert 7 sales out of the 10 calls. For entrepreneurs that are hoping to just get 1 or 2 sales out of 10 calls, maybe it’s time to think about your sales strategy and if there’s anyway you can improve what you or your sales rep is saying to increase sales. The only thing that’s more valuable than receiving more leads is converting more of the leads you already have into sales.

Internet Marketing Doesn’t Work

Every now and then I’ll hear someone tell me that that not interested in doing any kind of internet marketing because “it doesn’t work.” Anytime i hear this, it makes me sad. And it’s not because I’m a greedy capitalist trying to make a buck. ; ) I want to set the record straight for both fellow marketers and small business owners alike. I wanted to offer the 4 main reasons from my experience marketers and clients can’t find the same page.

BAD INFORMATION: I can’t tell you how many times i’ll be speaking with a client who has gotten bad information from a friend and or family member. The client becomes convinced the sky is blue and then someone like me comes along and tries to inform them that the sky is actually in fact red. It’s a difficult situation. All I am is the lowly web sales guy who’s only agenda is to sell our service. How is my word going to be more trust worthy than someone the owner knows and trusts.

BAD EXPERIENCE: This one is also tough to overcome. I’ve talked to many clients over the years who’ve worked with a free lance guy who does great in the beginning. Very giving with their time, usually low rates. And then the day comes when they’re gone and never to be heard from again. For a lot of these entrepreneurs, they’ve paid deposits and their projects aren’t finished yet. Free lance workers usually do this when either A) they thought they knew how to do the project and then find out they have no clue what to do, B) they thought the project wouldn’t be that much work, charged a low price and low and behold it turns into being a heck of a lot more work than they thought and decide it’s not worth it anymore, and C) they have another job or school or lots of other projects and they procrastinate and procrastinate and it really never gets done. To me, THE worst thing you can do as a professional is take someones money, not finish the work, and ignore the customer’s calls. The small business owner who’s been through this can have a hard time getting the bad taste out of their mouth. And rightfully so.

UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS: In marketing, expectations are everything. A campaign with super high expectations, that produces decent results, can be viewed as a failure. When we first rolled out social media marketing, I talked to a client one month after he had agreed to give it a try and he tells me , Chris, I want to cancel because it’s not doing anything. I tried to remind him that i told him the previous month it takes 3-6 months for the social campaign to produce results but for whatever reason, he was convinced that it should only take 4 weeks for his facebook page to bear fruit. There are some internet marketing services that can produce overnight results like pay per click and email marketing, but others like search engine optimization, social media, and reputation management take time. A lot of time. Entrepreneurs need to look at these services as investments that will be great for their company down the road.

THE ECONOMY IS BAD: This is something that is beyond anyone’s control at this point. The root of the problem with the economy is that when a marketer’s client’s customers don’t have as much money, there’s going to be a lot less conversions per lead. Sometimes business owners lose sight of this and blame the strategy. Sometimes marketers get upset because they’re doing exactly what they’re supposed to and the client is still not happy. The economy being what it is, makes things tough on everyone and I think it’s essential to keep perspective in mind when trying to determine if a marketing strategy is working or not.

Ultimately, it’s important for marketers and small business owners to be on the same page. When a marketing company, such as Customwave, can deliver leads and drum up business for entrepreneurs, everyone wins. In my opinion, if i was running an auto repair shop or sign manufacturer or any other small business looking to market online, i’d invest in both long term and short term solutions.

I’d keep in mind in the short term that the amount of sales I get from leads won’t be as high as it usually is because people simply don’t have as much money. But i’d really focus on the long term solutions because the economy will turn around sooner or later and there will be less competition in the market. And when demand starts really picking up again, there’s going to be a real opportunity to pick up a good chunk of market share. I truly believe that it’ll all be worth it to be ready when that happens.

Internet Marketing Grows 15.9% In Q4 2010 Compared To Q4 2009

Just wanted to pass along these numbers not to brag that our industry is doing OK during the recession. It’s informative because in this economy, if people are increasing their internet marketing budgets, it means they’re getting value out of it. I really believe that we’ve only scratched the surface of what the internet can do marketing wise. It’s easy to forget that websites really became mainstream back in 1995 and marketers have been trying to figure out best practices since.

The yellow pages wasn’t created overnight after the telephone was invented. The best of internet marketing is probably still a ways away.

Why I Started This Blog

For those who don’t know me well, i can be pretty blunt. Some would even say it’s one of my flaws. I just wanted to set the record straight on why i’m taking valuable time out of my day to blog about internet marketing.

Here’s reason #1: TO MAKE MORE MONEY. Yes, I did just say that. Again, if anyone who blogs says they don’t do it to make more money is fibbing. On this blog, you’ll always get my honest take. As a matter of fact, there’s a pretty good chance that whenever I blog, it’ll make some people mad. And that’s great! Because opinions are supposed to be polarizing.

Now, there are other reasons I’m blogging besides wanting to make more glorious profits. There’s a lot of information out there. Tons! Where do you even start?? And how do you even find the time to read it all?? And then there’s bloggers who write about junk because there’s nothing else to write about.

Here, i’ll blog 6 times a week only on the most important stuff that does matter. And in risking people thinking i’m arrogant, I’ll say that if i’m not blogging about it, it’s not important. Cheers : )