k – Page 570 – client k

How Information Spreads

Left The Box
has a great post on how information spreads
and how we, marketers, can HELP
information spread.

We spread information
because it makes us feel important
and because it is easy to spread
(remember the first rule of marketing
– people are lazy).

What makes it easy to spread?

“The content should be easily read or viewed,
and have the ability to be quickly passed along.”

“The lighter the content,
the more likely it is to spread along.
Give consumers sound bites
or summaries
they can easily share
with their friends.”

That’s why those chain letter emails
are so popular.
One click
and they are forwarded
to hundreds.

Love To Love

There’s a reason why
I write romance.
I love love.
I use that emotion
to describe anything I enjoy.

Most great marketers I know
love love also.

Look at this post by
Chris Brogan.
He uses the word ‘love’
11 times
in a 263 word post.
Yes, the post is about the power of praise
but here he is,
a guy,
sprouting off about love.

Seth Godin, in a 220 word post
about the first ten supporters
uses love 3 times.

Why?

Because powerful people use powerful words
and love is one of the most powerful words
in existence.
If it scares you to use it,
question why.

How Long A Vacation Should I Take?

Many companies are telling employees
to use up vacation now
while sales and other activity
is lower.

A loved one took them at face value.
He had a lot of vacation
(because he is key to the team
and works around the clock).
He decided to take 3 weeks.

On my advice,
he trimmed that to 2.

Why?

Because 3 weeks is unusual.
Others comment on it.
It is a ‘must-be-nice’ type of vacation.
Managers round it up to a month.
Tasks can’t wait for a month.
Replacement staff are trained.

In other words,
you are replaced.

NOT what you want in
this type of environment
(or ever).

If you’re playing the corporate game,
keep your vacation to 2 weeks or less.

Link Exchanges – Don’t Ask

Most bloggers,
myself included,
get a request a day
for a ‘link exchange.’

This is the internet equivalent
of a stranger walking up to you
and asking for your wallet.

Only the insane say yes.

My readers are important to me
(if they weren’t,
would I blog every day for the past 5 years?).
I’m not going to hand them over to you
blindly.

As Pamela Slim from
Escape From Cubicle Nation
states
““Link exchange” is a thing of the past.
Before someone knows
if they want to share you and your ideas
with their audience,
they want to get to know and trust you.”

Blogging is about building relationships.
Business is about building relationships.
Don’t ask for the ‘sale’ on the first meet.

The Four Day Work Week

A popular cost saving ‘trick’ for companies
is to cut an employee’s hours and pay
by 20%.
In other words, the 4 day work week.

The employee has a choice,
go somewhere else
or deal with the decreases.

For a regular employee,
this is close to a disaster.
For the entrepreneurial employee,
this is the equivalent of a lottery win.

You now have the stability of full time employment
(usually with the health plan)
but paired with the flexibility
to start up a business.
3 days to work on your own business,
4 days to work on someone else’s.

Don’t squander it!

Oh, and ask for the Wednesday off
so you are only two days away
from your own business.

The Hypocrite Sensor

I was on a prominant writing site today
hosted by an author
outspoken about copyright infringement
and eBook pirates.

There was post after post
of ‘borrowed’ photos.
Photos she should have asked permission
and likely should have paid royalties
to use.

Your customers are smart.
When they’re asked to pay for something
the requester steals for free,
they cry hypocrite.

Either you stand for something
or you don’t.

Working For Free

In his awesome free eBook
279 Days to Overnight Success
Chris Guillebreau (The Art Of Non-Conformity)
addresses how most entrepreneurs and artists
start by working for free.

“Several people all said
that they were insane
to work for free
when first starting their business.
When I read those
comments, I thought,
“Am I missing something here?
I thought everyone
works for free
when they are starting something new.
That’s the whole
point of risk and reward.”

Working for free may be insane in the outside world,
but with most small
businesses it is actually quite normal.”

Not only normal, required.
Start ups mean long hours
with only the hope of getting paid.

That’s why advising a recently laid off employee
with no savings
to start her own business
might not be the best idea.

Building A Business Vs Building A Personal Brand

Some writers wonder
why my core writing site is
BusinessRomance.com,
rather than KimberChin.com
(though both URLs go to the same place).

Easy answer.
I’m building a business,
not a personal brand.

Kimber Chin is my writing name.
I don’t plan to ever sell it.
I may, some day, sell BusinessRomance.com
(likely not for decades but…).
Anyone can run BusinessRomance.com.
Only I can be Kimber Chin, the romance writer.

John Jantsch at Duct Tape Marketing
has a post
discussing this difference
in more detail.

Sample Quality

I’m working on
a 40 page free read
to help promote
my February 2010 release.

The feedback from test readers
is
‘Why give this away?
I’d buy it.”

That’s the point.

Samples should AT LEAST
be as good as the full priced product.
They have to be
in order to wow prospects
into making a purchase.

Don’t skimp on quality.
Sample the best.

The Information You Ask

One of my favorite forums
won’t let me post.
Why?
Because it now requires more user information.
Information like birth date
(including month and day)
and address.

For an online forum.

I’ll likely make up something
(make myself 100 years old)
but it bothers me.
They don’t NEED that information.
Why do they ask it?

It especially irritates me
that they’re holding my account hostage
until I supply it.

Having
users, readers, customers
is a privilege.
Don’t abuse it
or you’ll lose them.
They have choice.