Entries from February 2010 ↓

The word genius gets thrown around way too often these days. Genius is a word that should be reserved for the truly exceptional, the rarest of works or thoughts.

And yet, a couple of weeks ago I finished reading a book, that without a doubt in my mind, was a masterpiece, penned by a genius. That book was Infinite Jest by David Foster Wallace (Amazon affiliate link). I’ll admit to never having read anything by Wallace before, and to really not knowing anything about him other than maybe his name. As such, perhaps tackling a 1000 page book, with 100 pages of end notes (that yes, you MUST read) was not the ideal introduction to his work. This, especially when you consider that I’m not a huge fan ofne of my favourite novels, and it obsessed me during the time that I read it in a way that was unl long novels, and I’m a sucker for the brevity of Hemingway. Nonetheless, this has become oike any other novel.

This isn’t a book review, so why am I telling you this? Because I’m not interested so much in the book itself, but in the way people respond to genius. At various times, to various works, I’ve responded to genius in one of two ways.

The first was to be inspired. This is generally what happens to me when I witness something that I consider genius in a field other than writing. It inspires me to head to my desk and start playing with words and crafting stories. It’s an emotional response to the positive feeling I get from observing the work.

The second way I’ve responded to genius, and this, generally, is for pieces of writing, is to get mildly depressed. Unlike the first response, where the positive feeling I got inspired me, this appreciation of the greatness of a piece of writing makes me feel inadequate in comparison. “I’ll never be able to write like that.” This is a childish response, but again, it is emotional and not rational. Nonetheless, it leads to a dent in confidence, and a writer with no confidence will have a hard time putting words to a page.

So, in order to avoid these two extremes, I’m searching for a 3rd alternative, and I may have accidentally stumbled upon it while reading Infinite Jest. You can either accept that genius is innate, or you can believe that it can be achieved through hard work. I choose to believe the latter because it means there’s hope that one day I might produce something that might be considered genius. When faced with two options, might as well go with the one that gives you hope.

This means that the logical response to a great work is actually to study it to find out what makes it so great so that you can learn from it. Unlike, the two previous responses, this isn’t emotional; it’s a rational response. Also, it doesn’t necessarily preclude the first two responses. Nonetheless, if faced with the option of being in awe of something and then being entirely incapable of producing my own work, or taking some kind of action that might allow me to benefit from that awe, I think I’ll go with option B.

Normally, I don’t re-read books. My general feeling towards re-reading is, “There’s too many other great ones out there to re-read the ones I already know.” However,t at some point soon, I’m going to be re-reading Infinite Jest, this time as a student. David Foster Wallace may have left us, but he did leave great material for us to learn from, and I intend to do so.

How do you respond to works of genius? Do they inspire? Depress? Neither? Drop a note in the comments, and let’s talk about it.

I read a lot of blogs.  Too many blogs.  I read so many blogs that I’ve cut out most mainstream media in favour of blogs.  Because I read so many blogs, I am very ruthless about what other information sources I consume.  As a result, until recently, I had a strict “no newsletter” policy.  I tried to keep my inbox pristine.

I’m not alone in this kind of thinking.  Many people have a hard time digesting e-mail newsletters.  it’s one thing to visit someone’s blog daily, it’s another to give them permission to deliver something into your personal inbox.  Besides, what’s the point?  If you have a blog, why would you need a newsletter?  Why can’t you just say everything on your blog?

Before blogs, there were…

Before blogs became one of the biggest forms of publishing on the web, the web was rampant with ezines.  Ezines served a similar purpose to blogs in that they were a medium to convey content, but they had more in common with their offline counterparts. They were more editorialized, often organized around set publishing schedules, and were generally collaborative, as opposed to individual, endeavours.

One of the earliest books I read on freelance copywriting as a business advised leveraging the internet to find clients.  A website was the main focus of the internet marketing campaign, but more important was the newsletter.  The newsletter was a regularly scheduled release of information that would be given away for free to anyone who wanted to sign up for it.

When blogging became all the rage, I decided that blogging combined the best of ezines and newsletters, and could probably replace both media.

I was wrong.

The purpose of a blog

There are any number of reasons to start a blog, but for a small business owner, the primary reasons to start a blog are to create content that will attract visitors to your site, whether through search rankings, or through social channels.  Blogs also help to build trust, and they demonstrate a level of expertise.

The purpose of a newsletter

At first, I thought the purpose of a newsletter was identical to that of a blog.  That’s where I was wrong.

If you create a newsletter with the same goals as a blog, you can probably have a relatively successful newsletter, based on readership and subscriber base.  However, that’s a waste of a newsletter, because a newsletter is first and foremost a prospecting and lead generation tool.

Because of the more personal nature of a newsletter, the reader invites you into his inbox, the relationship between the creator of a newsletter and the creator of a blog is generally much closer.  These are the publisher’s biggest fans, his tribe.

Running a blog and a newsletter

The fine line that needs to be walked of course, is for those who have both blogs and newsletters.  It is easy for the two to become redundant.  After all, to the reader, in the end, what you’re doing is creating free content.

The best way to avoid this is to create each with the knowledge in mind of who the audience is.  A blog’s audience is large and wide. Anyone should be able to stop by your blog, read and browse. The content should appeal to all, and should be written for all.  Meanwhile, subscribers to your newsletter already know who you are, and they like you enough that they’ve decided to let you into their inboxes.  As such, this is a place where you should be writing to a smaller, closer audience, an audience that you should be engaging in a dialogue with.  This is your inner circle, and they should be treated with the respected that that commands.

Oftentimes, I point to Chris Brogan as an example of a guy who does a lot well on the web, and I learned about Chris through his blog.  I became an avid reader, and devoured everything he wrote.  One day, he came straight out on his blog and asked me (okay, everyone) to subscribe to his newsletter if they felt so inclined.  He promised different content, and a different feel.  And y’know what?  Chris delivers in his newsletter.  He gives subscribers to his newsletters unique content, addresses them colloquially and even gives them early heads up on his upcoming projects.  Sometimes he encourages them to share the word, other times he asks that they keep the news their little secret.

If you want an example of how to run a blog and a newsletter properly, visit Chris’ blog, and then subscribe to his newsletter.

Getting the most out of your newsletter

Now that you’ve decided to create a newsletter, and have an idea of how to differentiate it from your blog, how do you actually pull a benefit from it?

First, and foremost, never forget that your number one goal is to provide valuable content.  If your newsletter degenerates into pointless rants, or constant sales pitches, you’ll lose subscribers faster than you sucker in new ones (and yes, if that’s all the content you offer, you are suckering them in).

The next thing to remember about a newsletter is that it is a leads generation tool, as such, there is a certain amount of selling that you should be doing, and that’s okay, because newsletter subscribers, when they subscribe are expecting a certain amount of sales pitch.  People don’t necessarily mind being sold to, as long as they know it’s coming, and it’s something they’re interested in.  So, in addition to your content, sprinkle in some offers, or news about upcoming projects, or products.

Use your newsletter as a prospecting tool.  These are the people most likely to purchase from you, but at the same time, be careful how you position this.  Remember, these people have trusted you with their contact information, and trust is easily lost when you oversell.

The true secret to a great newsletter is managing the balance between offering great value, and earning trust, and also prospecting for leads in a way that’s acceptable and unobtrusive.

Do you have a newsletter?  Do you have a blog?  How do you balance the two?

“Traditional advertising is dying.”

In my line of work, I hear that line a lot.

I work for the Yellow Pages Group of Canada, a company that is associated with one of the most traditional forms of advertising you can think of. I also happen to work on the online side of the business, specifically in relation to online performance marketing products, such as search engine marketing. In other words, the industry that’s killing traditional advertising.

Traditional advertising refers not only to yellow pages directories, but print newspaper advertising, radio broadcast advertising, and some push it as far as broadcast television advertising.

I have seen all the numbers.  I have read all of the reports.  Internet advertising is still a growing business.  In fact the amount of time consumers spend on the internet is still vastly disproportionate to the amount of money businesses are spending online.

That tells me two things:

• First, that if internet advertising is a growing business, and there is a finite amount of marketing dollars in the market, by definition, other forms of advertising will take a hit.
• Second, there’s still a lot of types of advertising out there that businesses are spending money on. And if they’re spending money on it, it means it’s working to some degree.

One of the things I’ve noticed in the past couple of years of working in the industry is that internet marketers seem to have an endless bag of reports and numbers that they can pull from to justify just about every single argument they can make.  The scariest part about these numbers and reports are that most of them are created by groups that have a vested interest in making money online.  What else would we expect them to say?

In defense of the fact that traditional advertising is dying, and that web advertising is gaining ground, someone pointed out to me the other day that after decades of advertising during the Super Bowl, Pepsi decided to instead do a Facebook marketing campaign.

Fair. Pepsi was absent from the Super Bowl. But do you know who did advertise during the Super Bowl for the first time ever? Google.  Google has also been using print and billboard advertising to market its various apps and its Nexus One phone.  They’ve also used billboard advertising to advertise their search engine outside of North America, where they generally tend to have a lower share of the search market.

So, Google, the ultimate symbol of internet advertising does traditional advertising. They must know something, that the other internet marketers don’t…

Yes, traditional advertising will decline, simply because online advertising will continue to grow. However, it will not disappear, and the simple reason is that it’s still effective.  Yes, we spend a lot of our time in front of glowing screens, but we also do a lot of other things during our day that aren’t connected to the internet, and until we abandon them to live our lives entirely virtually, there will be a use for traditional advertising.

Let me put this another way. Internet marketers spend their lives on the internet, so they sometimes forget that other people – normal people – have slightly healthier, more balanced lives.  People read.  People listen to the radio.  People watch TV.  Believe it or not, people flip through phone books.  People drive by billboards on their way to work.  People go to sporting events.  People live outside of the web.

Traditional advertising is still alive because it’s still effective.

Whether we’re talking about actual ad blocking software (Full disclosure, I myself use the Firefox extension AdBlock Plus on my home computer), or we’re talking about a general blindness to display advertising, one thing seems certain, display advertising is not as effective as it once was.  As the general population becomes more web savvy, fewer people are clicking on those whack-a-mole-style banners.

Furthermore, users have gotten used to the constant bombardment of ads, and in order to cope they have developed an immunity.  When you walk by a section of town where every inch of wall space is covered in promotional posters, those posters become a part of the scenery and lose their effectiveness as advertisements.

Bouncing Back

The case against display advertising seemed pretty damning a year ago, but it would appear that things are turning around.  Display advertising appears to be bouncing back, and continuing to grow.  With growth particularly in industries like the automotive industry, display seems poised to re-establish itself as a mainstay in any marketing mix.

There’s no doubt that the economic conditions of the past two years have hurt display advertising, as advertisers seek only the highest ROI marketing. But with a recovering economy, display is once again becoming an option, and with good reason.

Display Advertising Works Differently than Search

Before the rise of search marketing, display advertising was the only way to drive traffic that would convert to a website.  Search, and in particular the more recent advancements led by Google to improve the relevance of search, made conversion to sales the biggest strength of search marketing, and made display look lame in comparison.

However, the strength of display is not in clicks to conversions, but rather in branding and reach.  A comScore report from not too long ago demonstrated that despite a lack of clicks, display advertising can have a significant positive impact on:

• visits to the advertiser’s website
• likelihood of conducting a search for the brand or product
• likelihood of purchasing the brand or product online
• likelihood of purchasing the brand or product in physical retail locations

The reason for this is quite simply that the reach of display ads is typically greater than that of search.  This means that display advertising is best used to create awareness of the brand or product, and to prompt a user to conduct a search query, or otherwise seek more information. Meanwhile, search is best used when that user is closer to the point of purchase.

In other words, the best results are obtained when display is used in conjunction with search.  In marketing circles this is conventional wisdom, but the love affair with search has caused some to lose sight of this.  However, both logic and empirical evidence suggest that a multi-pronged marketing approach is the best way to go.

The evolution of marketing is not about forgoing one form of advertising for another.  The evolution of marketing is about serving the right advertising to the right audience.  Whether it be search, display, banner, or other, it doesn’t matter, as long as it’s relevant to the user.  If advertising is relevant, it will be effective.

Oftentimes, when I talk to people about internet marketing, if they’re listening, they quickly come to a sudden realization.  “It seems like you’re giving away a lot of stuff for free.”

It’s true.  The internet has created a culture of free.  On the web, craftsmen demonstrate how to perform tasks that they would normally charge for.  Accountants and lawyers dole out advice that once upon a time they billed for.  Software makers give away their products.  Writers publish their writing publicly, without even the modest advances that they would get in print.  Artists post their work for all to see, free of charge.

“If you’re giving everything away for free, how do you make any money?”  That’s a question that a lot of people have struggled with on the web.

There seems to be two main approaches to dealing with “free.”  The first is to reject the notion of free altogether.  If you create something of value, you should be compensated for it.  While I agree with that argument, notionally, in the long run, it’s doomed to failure.  The internet has created this culture of free, and like it or not, it’s going to continue.  There will always be a group that’s doing exactly what you’re doing, but for free. That group will get bigger, and if you’re the only guy in the field who’s charging, how good do you think your chances of surviving in the long run are?

The alternative is to embrace “free” and find ways to still make money while doing so.

The Freemium Model

The Freemium model – popularized by Chris Anderson, the founder and editor of Wired magazine – is possibly the most popular business model among web start-ups.  The idea is simple.  You offer a product or service for free, but you also offer a premium version of that same product or service for a fee. On the web, you find feature charts on any website where you can download an application.  The feature chart outlines what features come with the free package, and then shows you the additional features you get when you purchase the basic package.  Then more features you get by buying the Plus package.  Finally, even more features you get purchasing Gold package.

The freenium model has been shown to work when the right balance is struck between what to offer for free, and what to charge for.  If you lock too much up behind a pay wall, then you’ll never get the traffic necessary to start rolling.  If you give too much away, all your resources will be devoted to creating free products, and you’ll be bleeding money.

The Other Kind of Free

The alternative is to offer a substantial amount of content for free, but then to offer a different, but related product for sale.  Content sites will often do this by selling merchandise.  This can also be viewed as the “expert” model, because it often involves creating a reputation for yourself as an expert by giving away advice, and then creating products that you can sell based on the strength of your reputation as an expert.

In order for this free model to work, there are a few key points to recall.

First, recall that “free” is a numbers game.  Never will 100% of your website’s visitors (who mainly come for the free stuff) buy your products.  Instead, the idea is you reach a wide audience with your free content, and a certain percentage of those will be interned in purchasing from you. The goal is to convert as many visitors into paying customers as possible.

Second, remember that even those that aren’t buying from you, are still valuable.  The people who don’t buy, may still lead others to your enterprise. These secondary connections can be more valuable than if the visitor had just purchased from you and gone on his merry way.

Third, despite talking about doing stuff for “free,” recall that what you’re doing is still marketing. You’ll need tight copy that reminds your readers/fans/followers/tribespeople what the benefit is to them of purchasing your product.

Finally, if you’re going to follow this tactic, be sure to make it clear from the outset that you’re going to be selling something.  The most important thing you have is the trust relationship between you and your visitors. Part of trust is transparency and honesty. If you have visitors that are used to getting free stuff and you suddenly hit them with heavy-handed sales pitches out of left field, they’ll annoyed, frustrated, and abandon you.

The “Thank You” economy

As far as I know, Gary Vee is the one who coined the term the “Thank You” economy.  Gary for years has created and hosted a web TV show, 5 days a week, reviewing wines.  He also answers every e-mail he receives, and spends hours every day actively interacting with his hundreds of thousands of twitter followers.  He does all this for no charge.

Gary coined the “Thank You Economy” to explain what he gets out of it.  Gary accepts that what he’s doing is free, and that the vast majority of the people who watch his show, or read his blog, or take advantage of his wine recommendations will never give him any money.  However, there is that portion of his followers, his fans, his tribe, that will thank him for all he’s done, and when he does a paid product, they will thank him by purchasing it.

Gary proved the effectiveness of this method when his first book came out late last year and became a best-seller (Amazon affiliate link) as soon as it went on the market.

Thank you.