Category Archives: Marketing

General marketing comments, ideas, etc.

Commentary

It is time for 2013…More sharing…More Awakening…

Happy New Year 2013
Happy New Year 2013 (Photo credit: Mark Kens)

The year that was, 2012, has left me changed in more ways than I ever would have believed. I have shared of myself on this blog and on my YouTube channel in ways that I never imaged and the response has been incredible. From the questions and comments that people have been sending me, it looks like 2013 will deliver new avenues to explore and share.

I am looking forward to writing and creating videos sharing more of myself and my world. I do have requests to explore more of my INTJ-ness and what it was like growing up with that personality. Some of you want to know what it is like have Fi as a tertiary function and I look forward to sharing it with you.

Writing of the YouTube channel, I have found several videos that I shot near the end of 2011 that I neglected to publish. Many of them are about marketing: what it is, how to do it and why. These are quite informative and need to be shared. These videos were created in response to questions and answers are overdue.

Yes, 2013 does hold some scariness. The United States Congress seems hell bent on never producing no budget and Obama continues to show he has no leadership skills. Too many Americans are voting for free stuff, with no regard from where the money will come to give out so much crap. America is heading to the same place as Greece, if they do not wake up.

David Icke continues to make more sense with his presentations and connecting events. The overlords of the masses are very scared of him. More and more people are waking up, though far too many are asleep. The year 2013 is shaping to be a pivotal year. So much momentum was cared into 2012 it looked to be a breakout year. Alas, the Republican leadership scammed Romney upon the people and the overlords were able to get their fraud in-line for Obama’s re-election. None of the fraud will be investigated and no one will do jail time for breaking various election laws. Their fraud actions show how scared they are of the people. After all, the people cannot be trusted to elect the correct leaders.

So, here we come, 2013. Are you ready for us? This year, more people will wake up. More people will take control of their destiny and refuse to rely on the Government for their livelihood. More people will start a business and more people will find Freedom. And above all, more people learn the meaning of Liberty and how it was stolen from them. They will demand it back.

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Marketing

The iPhone Sucks

Image representing iPhone as depicted in Crunc...
Image via CrunchBase

The iPhone was a great revolution. It not only had a touch screen and allowed applications, but it also had a real Safari browser. The fanboys went nuts! Safari on a phone! A phone based on OS X! Awesome!

The applause started to die down once people tried to use websites with the browser on the iPhone. It was annoying. The users had to pinch and scroll to see the images and click the links. Website were getting wider as the screens people used were becoming higher resolution. The real estate was vast and designers used every inch. The user experience with the smart phones sucked. That meant stores were losing customers; losing money.

Along came the web based application. It held the data it required local and talked to the store’s server via web services. Now the application could be native and so could the user experience. A customer can download the application from the App Store for free, use it to determine their purchase and send the order to the server securely.

The restaurant chain Chipotle has a great website. Visitors can get food information and create an order. Trying to use it on an iPhone is terrible, but they have an app in the App Store. Once downloaded, customers see a similar experience as the website, but one tailored to the iPhone. Android users also have an application made for their phone. Once the order has been created, the customer can pay for it and send it to a local store based on their location. Makes it very easy for the customer and that means more sales.

Other companies also have their own applications. ProFlowers and 1800Flowers are among them. What about your site? Getting your site mobile ready is easier than you think. Visit and order today.

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Commentary

Bryon as Anime

This blog is nice, though it has needed a more personal touch for far too long. Using

Beer vendor
Beer vendor (Photo credit: BrainMuffin)

WordPress is a good start and adding a touch of your personality is a good way to place your mark on the Internet. And so, it is my turn.

While it is true I can help businesses in Cincinnati to have a better mobile presence, what and who I am for this blog has been a long unanswered question. I also like to make beer, am on Ski Patrol at nearby Perfect North Slopes, take pretty good pictures and like to help people better their lives. Answering who Bryon Lape is and how he should present himself on the Internet gets, well…sticky.

What should I concentrate on in this blog? Go all beer, all the time? Write endlessly about Photographer? Make every post sound like a marketing article? Well, yes, all of it and then some.

I’ve asked my daughter to draw me as an Anime. I want to personalize here. Capture who I am. Perhaps draw me with a camera about my neck and a beer in my hand. Why not? I want to express myself in this blog and help people succeed in their business.

I want visitors to return and find good information. Want to know about making better homebrew? There will be articles on that. Discuss and share techniques for photography? Absolutely! It is either that or have five different blogs covering all the topics I want to share. Ugh.

No, I’m not saying I’m an expert in all that. I am saying it is time to share. It is time to help each other. For Bryon Lape, those areas are beer, photography, Internet marketing, mobile app development and sex. Oh wait, that’s not right. But hey. We can talk about Spricket24 then.

So, more stuff, more beer, more boobs and more fun. Or something along those lines.

Cheers!

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Commentary

Are You Voiceless?

Do you feel like you are speaking into a dark hole? Like your marketing efforts are only appreciated by ghosts and crickets? You are not alone.

Many of us feel like we speak, but no one hears our voices. The end result is feeling voiceless in the world. Which is worse? Be able to speak, though not heard or not being able to speak? Is there really a worse? Are not both results the same? No responses. No leads. No customers. No sales.

Pulling from the weeds

Marketing is about placement and message. Where you say is as important as what you say. Writing great copy for the wrong audience will not succeed. First, define your audience and know where they. Pull yourself out of the weeds and into the fairway of success. Do not spend your time and efforts with those known to not buy what you sell. Get out of the tall grass.

Once your audience is defined, now develop marketing to meet their pain or in pull them into their pleasure. Spend your time with them. Get to know them. Build a relationship.

Plotting a new course

There are so many expressions for finding success, they seem like cliches: start with the end in mind, know what you want and get it, define the end and plan backward. All of them have two things in common: a clearly defined goal and a way to get there. Clarity of goal and path are a must. One must know exactly what one wants and how to get there. A poorly defined goal will lead to a poor path.

Suppose you are in charge of building a bridge across a river. They only given requirements is that it must join two particular roads. Is that enough to start building? No? Why not? Why do people start a business with a less defined goal?

To build such a bridge, there are many factors to consider: length, structure weight and strength, type of bridge, building materials, design, function, etc. Scale models of various bridges will be built. Sight lines with the surrounding geography will be considered. Plans have to be approved. Bids for construction have to be made. All of that before one scoop of dirt is moved.

Do not set out into the world of business without defining your goals as clearly. Know your send. Make your plan. Start moving.

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Business, Marketing

Legacy Is Rocking

Are you at Legacy? No? Why?

Legacy is the third session in a three part series of training events. The series is named AFL for Action, Freedom and Legacy. It is the place where all the parts come together. It is where the picture becomes complete.

Legacy is a mastermind for Pro U members lead by the Loyal 9 and Team Rashkin held in the Loyal 9 headquarters in Hasbrouck, New Jersey. It is not for the timid. It is for the serious.

Pro U is about community. It is about every member helping every other. It is more than a business opportunity. It is entry into a training and mentoring culture. Do the work and it will lead to more.

It will lead to more opportunity elsewhere. It will lead to creating your own voice, your own business. It will create a new journey for you. It will make the future you want possible.

The opportunity is not a consumable. The product is not a one use and dispose. It is a new way of thinking about yourself. It is a way for you to get the training and direction you need to have your own business. Not one selling Pro U to others. One selling your services to other businesses. You will become a marketer, dedicated to helping others. You will become a leader.

Legacy is rocking. Are you here?

Marketing

SMILE with Sincerity

The motto for 5 Point Management is SMILE. This is an acronym that reminds us everyday why we are here and what we are about. SMILE starts with Sincerity.

When you are dealing with people, whether for a business transaction or meeting for the first time, it is very important that they believe you are sincere. When you are not, they will wonder what you want from them, what you want to sell them or if they are being scammed. Sincerity goes a very long way to convey to them you truly care for them as a person.

Sincerity is more than a warm smile or a good handshake. Sincerity must come from within. It must come from deep. It must be a part of who you are. It cannot be faked. Doing so will come across as empty, shallow, manipulative, condescending. It turns people off and they will most likely stop listening, no matter what you are saying.

Make sincerity a part of your being. Breath it. Learn it. Live it.

Internet Marketing

Search Engine Optimization – It Moves

The beginning

Search Engine Optimization. What is it? Does it work? How can it be used? Where is it? Why does it keep changing? Is SEO a verb or noun? What about? What about? What about???

In the early days of the web, search engine optimization was nearly unheard of. Websites were grouped by audience or subject. Business sites over here. Research sites over there. Government sites on the shelf below. Yahoo felt more like a library or a book store than a search engine. Ideas for indexing content was in its infancy and WAIS databases were king. The most used protocol was Z39.50, not e-mail, ftp, telnet, gopher or web. Times were about to change.

The Middle

Along came Alta Vista and the proverbial genie was out of the bottle. Now someone did not have to look through a endless sea of categories for a website, but could now enter words and phrases. Ask Jeeves allow the user to take the next step and ask in a question form: “What is the color blue?”, “Why is the sky blue?”, “How is beer made?”. The web and Internet were becoming synonyms, even though the Internet is more than the web. People were getting dial up accounts in large numbers. The web was growing exponentially. Thousands of sites were being added each day. How could a business be heard in all that noise?

By studying the algorithms of the search engines, content started to be created that took advantage of it. Pages did not necessarily have to be human readable. All it had to be was consumed by the spiders and seen as optimized by the search engine. When a page is optimized for say “the best home business” or “make money now stuffing envelopes”, it gets pushed to the top of the page. A business’ voice is heard the best and loudest. They get more traffic, others get less.

As pages become flooded with keywords to create better search engine optimization, the spammers took over. Site after site of pure gibberish was created. The charlatans started to win. The snake oil salesmen gave everyone a bad name. Something had to give. It did.

Panda Me

The largest search engine, Google, changed their algorithm. Panda went live and search engine optimization changed overnight. Content became king again. Real content. Not machine gibberish. Articles started to become relevant again. Blogs mattered. The sun came out.

Google continues to change their algorithm. Search engine optimization has become both an Art and a Science. Good content, good social awareness and backlinking all play their part in making sites rank higher. Sure, the spammers will now hire armies of writers to earn their top spots again, however, their efforts and expenses will greatly increase. In the meantime, actual individuals will be able to have their voices heard.

Learn to move with search engine optimization or get left behind. Know what the changes mean. Create your content to adhere to the new standards. Be heard. Be seen.

Bryon Lape can also be read on HubPages. A longer form article entitled SEO: the moving target can be found there. Read. Comment. Share. Together we grow.

Commentary

Landing that Job

The resume dance

In many areas of work, there are jobs to be had. There are jobs advertised. There are openings. For each opening, there are many, many resumes. They are all grouped together. They get piled. They all get reviewed. Why do some result in a call while others get ignored?

What is it about one resume that gets attention over another? Is it the experience listed? The education of the person? Surely it is the typeface and the margins. The paper quality?

It is none of those.

Tell your story

Your resume is not just words on a page. Your resume is your avatar. It is presenting you before a potential boss. If it is just a string on skills and experience and nothing more, it will get the attention of no one. That style of resume will get ignored, no matter the typeface or the fancy paper upon which it is printed. This will be made worse when it is either submitted electronically where it may be converted to standard characters.

Your resume needs to tell your story. The reader should be able to get an idea of who you are, where you have been and why you have gone on that journey. The reader must feel they know who you are after reading it and why you will be able to help them. Don’t let them guess.

It is not, however, a creative writing exercise. It needs to tell a story, but not in a narrative form. Have your skills forward, your experience next and your education. Treat the submission of your resume not as a push to an anonymous person. Treat it as it is, a press release of yourself to your new boss. Don’t click and shoot. Be personal.

Commentary, Commentary

You Are Your Brand, Not Your Opportunity

A New Business

It is seen quite often. Someone starts a new on-line business. They are enthusiastic. They are ready to go. Ready to rock. They place ads everywhere. They send e-mails to every list they can find. All of them tout this brand new thing-a-majig. All fail.

Why?

It is the classic misunderstanding of what kind of business they are in. They believe they are in an Internet business. They believe they are in a Marketing business. They believe they are in everything but what they are.

Imagine you have applied to manage a new restaurant opening down the street. It doesn’t mater what kind of restaurant it is. If it help you, suppose it is a McDonald’s. The owner asks you about your experience. They ask what you like about their company. They are quite impressed. They have one more question, “As the manager of this restaurant, what kind of business are you in?” You answer, “the restaurant business.” The owner looks sad. They sigh, shake your hand and thank you for your time.

You leave knowing you did not get the job. You cannot understand why.

Your Actual Business

It doesn’t matter if you are a manager of a restaurant or if you started the latest and smoking hot Internet business. All of these are in the same business.

“Wait!” you exclaim. “They sell food and I see widgets. They are not the same business.”

Yes they are. You are concentrating on the what and not the why. You are not looking at what the course business is. Why you are in business. Why you believe you will be successful. Why is the core, the heart, the very center of your business.

All of these business are in the People business. As a manager, you are mostly in the business of empowering and leading your workers. They in turn are your direct link to the customer. They are the face and the attitude of your business.

As an owner of an Internet business, you are all of those. You are the manager. You are the face. You are the heart. You are your brand. What you are selling is not your brand. What you are selling is not your business. You are your business. And you are in the People Business. Say hello.

Marketing

Give me the Pain

Pain!

It is a word that itself is harsh. It has many facets. It has many ways. Physical. Emotional. Psychological. Pain is all there.

Pain can drive some to do good, others to to evil. Pan can bring about change; it can bring about disaster. It can create. It can destroy. Pain can push or it can be pushed. Pain gives energy. Pain takes it.

How one responds to pain is based on many factors. It is a result of who one is. Different is everyone’s results. Different is everyone’s pain. What one may see as easy to handle, another will fold under the same. Pain is individualized. Pain is personal. Pain is forceful.

Physical pain may come from an injury. It may come from worn parts. It may come with old age. The mind may overcome it. The mind may be subdued by it.

Emotional pain may come from the hurtful words of a loved on. It may come as a result of seeing others in pain. It may come from a love lost, never to return. Emotional pain may also lead to physical pain. It may cause illness. It may cause despair. It may so overwhelm a body that it cannot move. Speak. Dream.

Pain Management

Some may turn to medication to manage their pain. Medication may cause dependency, addiction. Others will turn to physical therapy. The get stretched. They get prodded. They yearn to be free of the pain. The pain never fully leaves. The mind begins to accept it. The mind becomes ruled by it. Pain wins. Pain is king.

Where are you with your pain? Does it rule you? Do you rule it? Do you look forward to the pain as a hurdle to be overcome? Do you run from pain?