As many of my regular readers know, privacy is a big issue for me. As such, I wanted to send you a bit of info about the RFID chips and cards that are quickly being adopted as a “marketing” technique and as an “inventory” technique. Currently touted as an “improved bar code” these little gems aren’t at all like bar codes. They aren’t the same for every identical item as barcodes are, and they transmit (electromagnetically) information about themselves, and YOU, also unlike traditional barcodes.

To learn a bit more about these invasive things…Visit: http://www.spychips.com/what-is-rfid.html. And you may want to follow a few of the links on this thorough site to learn more about what your grocery “saver club” cards and other newer technologies are really doing to your privacy.

Makes me glad I’ve gone “organic” to avoid most of the tracking and privacy destroying tactics of these so-called marketing experts. Marketing should not be confused with these tactics.

Ethics should be observed before monetary gain, IMHO. Call me old fashioned. (It’s ok, I don’t mind.)

I’ve been watching the trends online lately, the sites that are, conceptually, “hot” and those that are getting hotter, and why.

It’s pretty easy to discern — people want to make the digital world their own. If they can customize their own experience online and off with the newest technology gizmos and gadgets, they are happy. My own Treo habit is an example, but it’s only ONE example.

Websites like Flickr and Wikipedia, for example. PalmGear, Audible and Amazon — with their user/buyer ratings and “my lists” options. It’s becoming a closer-knit online world where we can all be heard, solo or in choir. Blogs have overrun the idea of an “expert” opinion being the one that the masses trust on products, services and even daily news. (more…)

More women under the age of 45 have college degrees than men, according to a new report by The Media Audit (International Demographic, Inc.).

The trend has been growing rapidly, and the figures show how quickly the less educated gender of a few decades ago has become the more educated gender of today. There is an even bigger margin between the genders in minority groups, according to the report.

This will affect the spending power of target markets for many advertisers and will, in a short time, even shift the focus of advertising targeting itself, IMHO. (more…)

As the competition increases for marketshare on the world-wide-web, the local folks are carving out their own piece of this pie. How about your website? Does it compete on the local level? It should.I’m working on an article right now for one of the Real Estate glossy mags on the impact of local search betas and why this matters to real estate agents, brokers and Realtors.

In case you had any question, it DOES matter. The local results are topping national ones at a quick clip. Some engines, like Google, are tracking IP addresses to serve up local content on top of other less-targeted results. (more…)

One of the first steps my real estate clients take is bundling up every single scrap of marketing literature, materials and what-not that they currently use, or have used in the past — and they send it to me to review.

Usually their business cards, letterhead, brochures and other marketing pieces are cluttered with a slew of phone numbers. So many, in fact, it’s a point of distraction.

Why make your clients and your potential clients work to reach you? Why shouldn’t making the decision to call you be decision enough? Why must they then decide if they want to visit you on the web, email you, call you at home, dial the “main number,” dial the direct line, call your cell, send a fax or punch in your pager number? (more…)

I just got off the phone with a real estate client. She doubted, a few weeks ago, that narrowing her market would help her. Now, she’s a believer.

Most folks — especially real estate professionals and small business owners — have the same reservations. But, today, having narrowed her focus, she’s overwhelmed with the variety of ways she can make the most of this single focus.

As predicted, it’s expanding underneath her. (more…)

Although the trip was wonderful, it’s really great to be back home, where I belong.

Now, I’m getting back down to business and reviewing my own website, doing some updates and preparing to do the most dreaded task on my list… ordering new business cards. You would think in my line of business, that designing new business cards would be no big deal, but I agonize over it. (more…)

If you aren’t using your email sig line to market your business and promote your interests, you are missing a huge opportunity.

How many emails do you send out a day? How many in a month? THAT is how many opportunities you are losing to promote! (more…)

Just last week, my blog was coming up on the first page of Google for, of all things, “mean things to say” as a search term… and even before I could determine if I was happy to be at number three on Google or merely alarmed to be “made famous” for that particular phrase… it was gone…Marketing on the web is always a challenge – ALWAYS. But the changes going on at the big boy search engines right now are making those of us who keep an eye on such things, nuts. NUTS I tell you! (more…)

While cruizin’ along across the Internet recently, I found an example of a whole new breed of advertising — it is to television and online advertising what blogs are to newspapers and online articles. It’s personal — plus, it’s super-polished.

George Masters, a high school teacher in California, has developed a cool little retro “commercial” for the new IPod mini — and this little “fansite” piece is quite clean, crisp, cool and … well… better than most of the commercially produced stuff I’ve seen lately.

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Lucky is doing what you love for a living, being surrounded by people who not only support you in doing what you love, but who also forgive you when you become tunnel-visioned and consumed with it.I went to my one onsite client’s office today where I do a monthly series of diagnostics, tests and updates — check out the functionality of their network, each computer on the network, and address any questions, concerns or issues that they may be experiencing.

I work in the office on the farm nearly every day, and this once a month trip out reconnects me with the real world. I guess that, and the fact that I adore the clients, are the reasons I don’t give up that contract, even though it’s not my area of specialization. Besides, it forces me to stay on top of the hardware and software end of technology advances and helps me to work more efficiently in my own “virtual” office and advise other clients on technology solutions.

But when I’m there, I realize how lucky I am. My normal daily commute is across the floor. My work clothes are the denim dresses I throw on after a quick shower and running a brush through my hair. Yes, many days I even work barefoot (gasp!) or in sandals or tennis shoes. I still object to the “bunny slippers” cliche for most home office inhabitants. I used to think that I needed to dress like I did for regular office work to feel “professional” enough to project that over the phone and in e-mail. That was when I was still struggling for clients. I was still proving myself TO myself.

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Keyword density is just part of the SE equation, and the SEs are just a portion of any online marketing push… but this is the one that makes a writer crazy… As a writer, with my eye turned toward the marketing value of text (both on the web and off), the SE race is almost enough to drive me back to merely journaling in private.

Yes, content is king. Thank goodness. The writer in me glows and basks in the warmth of that fact. However, with the SEs still being basically primitive – they are easily fooled. Even sites that ARE perfectly well-written, full of valuable information and a joy to read often fall below those that stuff and spam the SEs. If you follow the current “guidelines” – and one must remember that SEO is still more “art” than “science” – you often end up with stilted sounding text that no longer flows from a textual perspective.

Writers are taught to write descriptive sentences that do NOT repeat the same words, or even variations on the same words. We know to use a thesaurus. We cringe if the same word is used in two sentences that “touch” each other. So, as you might imagine, writing for the SEs puts a serious cramp in all that. As an internet marketer AND writer, some things must be compromised and others must be completely relearned… (more…)