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Issue 3 of Personal Branding Magzine is scheduled to be released Friday, February 1. There is a sample
of the Issue 3 available.
Issue three includes interviews with:
Gina
Bianchini (Ning)
Gina Trapani (Lifehacker)
David Weekly (pbwiki)
Om
Malik (GigaOm)
Matt Mullenweg (Wordpress)
Mark Frauenfelder
(Boing Boing).
If you're interested in contributing to future issues of Personal Branding Magazine, you can learn more here.
I recently heard about Yoonew, a company that essentially runs an open market for sporting
event tickets.
How Yoonew Works
At Yoonew, fans can bet that their team will make it to the championship game. (i.e. the Super Bowl, Final Four, World Series, etc.).
If the team that the fan bets on make it to the championship, the fan receives a ticket (or many tickets, depending on the bet) to that sporting event for the price that they locked in earlier in the season. If the team doesn't make it, the fan loses the initial amount.
Yoonew uses the losers' money to purchase tickets for winning bidders --and brings in revenue through transaction fees.
The company claims they've never failed to deliver a ticket to a winning bidder.
Why Yoonew is interesting
Yoonew allows fanatics with extra cash (and a knack for gambling) the opportunity to get tickets for well under face value.
With Super Bowl XLII this week, and tickets reselling for $4,300 on average, Yoonew seems to have found a niche that will certainly be around for a while.
More on Yoonew
Read more about Yoonew at TechCrunch, The Boston Herald and Fast Company.
I am thinking about print ads -- specifically using white space in print ads.
White space is critically important, especially in a cluttered world.
Here is a good paragraph I found on NetMechanic summarizing proper and improper white space.
A page with too little white space makes visitors feel uncomfortable because the page seems cluttered and hard to read. Visitors quickly get overwhelmed and move on to a more welcoming site. In contrast, pages with too much white space seem empty, as if there's not enough content to fill the page. Visitors may wonder: "why bother with this?" and go somewhere else.
Reminder
As you'll see below, white space doesn't have to be white.
Example
The company that comes to mind for me, in terms of properly using white space in advertising, is Apple. Apple's print and TV ads are often loaded with white space to allow people to focus on the product's design and the message.
Below are some examples of Apple's ads featuring a good use of white space.
My SEO e-book is now ready for downloading, viewing and sharing. (see below)
The e-book is 18 pages.
It provides straightforward advice for entrepreneurs new to search engine optimization. It may also be of great benefit to those in marketing, public relations or advertising as well.
It features an example of a page that is properly optimized for the search term "sore throat". Using the example, I point out certain aspects of search results as well as the underlying code that corresponds to the optimization advice.
The e-book also features resources that will allow for quicker implementation.
While improving on-page SEO items alone does not guarantee higher search rankings, the advice lays the foundation for proper search engine optimization of your site.
The book is free of charge. In return, I just ask that you do one of two things.
1. If you read the book, please provide feedback via e-mail or through this survey.
2. If you learn something new about SEO from the book, pass it on to a friend.
Download
We Have a Web site. Now What? Part 1. SEO-E-book PDF (791.4K)
Reminder
I will be working on the second part of the series that will focus on off-page SEO items such as PageRank, inbound and outbound links, and visitor behavior. If you'd like to be notified when it's released, send me an e-mail.
If you're into monitoring trends and awareness, then you may already know about these tools. If not, then they're an easy way to get a quick snapshot of industry and product trends.
Google Adwords Keyword Tool - Shows CPC, advertising competition, and search data for the past month and on average.
Google Trends - Provides search information, geographic information and related news stories for keywords.
Submit Express Keyword Suggestion Tool - This tool uses Wordtracker and KeywordDiscovery to suggest keywords and provides data about the number of search queries per related keyword.
I am working on free SEO e-book titled, "We have a Web site. Now What?".
The book will be the first of a two-part series. The first edition is dedicated to on-page SEO.
It will contain easy-to-understand SEO advice for small businesses and entrepreneurs that are new to online marketing.
It will also feature an example of a properly optimized page.
The e-book will be free to download on my blog and should be ready by this weekend.
Here is a report I found from Advertising Age related to SEO and search marketing. The report came
out in November, 2007, but the information is useful nonetheless.
Some interesting findings from the report:
Web-based Search
Mobile Search
Last night I watched a show called, "Most Unique McDonald's" on the Travel Channel.
The show consists of a guided tour with tour guide Peter Holden, a McDonald's fanatic, who claims to have visited nearly 12,000 McDonald's restaurants across the world.
From a McDonald's on 42nd and Broadway with theater lighting and movie trailers shown on 60 video screens , to a McDonald's that is architecturally shaped like an actual Happy Meal in Dallas, TX. (see image on the right). 
Most McDonald's I've seen have been run of the mill fast food restaurants. However, these franchisees set out to break the mold. Rather than building just another fast food stop, they've created destinations.
Here are some fun facts from the show 
- The arches were originally part of the restaurant's building structure and not meant to be part of the logo. (see right, click to enlarge).
- There are nearly six hundred McDonald's locations in New York City.
- Willard Scott was the original Ronald McDonald.
If you'd like to watch the "Most Unique McDonald's" for yourself, here is the complete TV schedule.
The Takeaway
Tell an authentic story and differentiate yourself. PR opportunities will come and people will talk about you, like Peter Holden.
A hot marketing topic is creating communities for customers and users. Whether it is through a blog, social network or user group, communities allow people to connect with people of similar interests and share information amongst one another.
Currently, I am working on a project to create an Autodesk user group in the Twin Cities.
This project had me thinking about what it takes to create a a community?
At its core, communities are basically made up of the following things:
With these factors in mind, I think it's essential for a group to have a web site or social network group to facilitate information sharing. Also, a web site can help attract new members.
Rather than creating a website dedicated to the user group, I am thinking about using either Ning or Meetup.
Ning is great because you can post videos and pull videos from YouTube and Google. Also, Ning has
forums which would be good to facilitate discussions.
Meetup is good because it has a calendar, it allows users to post files and it can host polls.
I'm leaning toward Meetup because it seems to facilitate offline activities more than Ning.
If you've used either Ning or Meetup and have a recommendation, let me know.
Also, if you're an Autodesk user in the Twin Cities and are interested in joining a user group, send me an e-mail. If you have a friend that might be interested, feel free to let them know as well.
At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Comcast announced its plans to release a device called
"AnyPlay", a portable DVD/CD Player that will allow users to record and playback up to 60 hours of footage from cable TV using DVR technology via a docking station of sorts.
(see right for a picture of the AnyPlay from CNet, click to enlarge)
The device is being co-developed by both Panasonic and Comcast.
More on the AnyPlay device from CNet and Reuters.
PC World has Comcast's chief executive Brian Roberts quoted as saying,
"The era of closed cable is over and the era of open cable is here."
Talk about a (great) shift in mindset.
After Verizon announced its plans to open its networks to other cell phones later this year there is a definite shift in thinking taking place amongst executives at cable and cellular companies.
Rethinking your strategy, leveraging your assets and trying to serve your customers better is a great way to get ahead of the competition.
More of the same is usually a losing strategy.
Every organization has a front line. Whether it's a receptionist, salespeople on the retail floor, bank tellers or customer service over the phone, every company has people that are the customer's first point of contact.
Front line employees have it tough. They are constantly interacting with strangers, solving problems, fielding random questions, etc.
The main thing with front line employees is making sure they understand that they're the customer's first impression of the company. Whether it's a good, bad or mediocre first impression is in their hands.
When there is so many choices of where to buy average products, having a great front line makes a big difference.
Search Engine Watch has a great article about Presidential candidates' web sites and how they're not properly configured to maximize search engine rankings.
My Take
Do members of your web team have SEO experience?
Do they get input from people in marketing, public relations, advertising, sales, customer service? If not, you may end up with an aesthetically pleasing Web site that does little to drive business.
Design is only one part of launching a Web site.
Take down the silos and create cross-functional teams. You'll be amazed by the creativity and problem solving that can take place when people with different skill sets get together.
2008 will be a change-filled year.
The markets that I plan to watch closely are home video (rentals and sales), cell phones and real estate.
Questions about the home video market
Which format will win, HD-DVD or Blu-Ray?
How will Blockbuster and Netflix perform with more competition for video rentals from Apple and Amazon.
Quetions about the Cell Phone Market
Will Google launch a cell phone?
Will more companies follow Verizon Wireless move to open its network to other cell phones?
How much growth will there be in mobile advertising and mobile video?
Questions about the Real Estate Market
Will real estate prices rebound?
Will fixed-rate mortgage rates remain low ?
Will YOY home sales begin to rise?
Also, who will be the next American President?
With so many questions yet to be answered, 2008 should be an interesting year.
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