Today On My Birthday
Let’s see, I woke up at 8:30AM, that’s unusual by itself as I’m normally up much earlier. I obviously had to clean up because I was about to venture out among the people. I have to admit though, I was dang tired and I didn’t really want to go anywhere, but was very happy I did.
My first stop was at a great little coffee shop, Clayburn Gourmet Gallery, had a London Fog and a nice visit with Kimberly (she owns the business). I then paid a visit to my church, said Hi and visited a short while. From there I made my way to a local restaurant called the Greek Island, I met a long time friend for lunch, Richard Lindfield. He had the lamb and I had schnitzel, well something like it. I had to eat and run, I felt bad because I really wanted to spend more time with Richard, but a funeral was next on my agenda.
Here I am at Central Heights Church for a memorial service, or funeral, for Leslie Buhler. Leslie (a man) spend his youth in the mission fields of India, he was born in 1924. You’re asking yourself how I know him, a story then….
In 1993 Lisa & I moved our family to Abbotsford from Penticton, B.C, we were taken to a church by our Pastor at the time, the church is called Central Heights. One of the very first few people we met were the Buhler’s, Leslie’s oldest son Tim became my very first Bible Study leader. And with all good bible study groups, you get taken in, looked after, and cared for. We were immediately grafted into the Buhler family, we attend all the Buhler family functions, Leslie was a fun man to be around, his stories were amazing. I have met many great men in my life, Leslie I am proud to say is one of the greatest. He was a man if integrity, I can’t say that about many people, but if you look up the word in the dictionary, you’ll see his picture. Oh and he wrote a book of his life in India, can’t wait to read it.
That’s the short version of the story, of we came to know Leslie Buhler. Attending his memorial was more like a family reunion, we knew almost everyone there, the place was packed….it should be, it’s a big family now! The food was interesting, yep….India….everywhere you saw food from India. I’m not huge fan, but there was fruit : )
After visiting with the family and sharing stories, Lisa & I headed home. Once we got home, and it’s normal for us, she goes upstairs and I head to my office : ) After checking mail, voice mail, and so on….there were lots of Happy Birthday wishes for me on all the Social Networks, and I’m grateful. Lisa informed me there is a Birthday present for me on the kitchen table, I was curious and surprised actually. I went upstairs to find a bag filled with the usual stuffing, in it was season 1 & 2 of Downton Abby! First I laughed out loud, then I asked, are sure this is for me? You see, just the night before we were talking about the show and how we could never find on any channel, I suggested we should buy the DVD for Christmas. Obviously a last minute shopper : )
It’s 5PM now, Lisa is teaching piano to 5 or 6 kids, then at 7:30PM we’ll figure out what’s for supper…maybe after supper we’ll watch Downton Abbey : ) We are planning an evening out later in the week to celebrate in a more formal way, but good just lying low at home with my Lisa.
So that’s been my day, one I won’t forget because Leslie Buhler & I are celebrating a day of victory!
The Future Of Business – When Paper Advances Technology – Intellipaper
Recently a Tweet with a link was sent my way, it was from friend, so I checked it out. I love innovation, I really do, I also love it even more when someone does something with a product or commodity that’s been around before I was born. We all know about paper, we all know how valuable it is and has been, but have you considered the possibility of inserting paper into your computer to get information? I know!
Just watch the video:
The Future Of Business – Will Ad Networks Replace Radio, Television & Newspapers?
When considering what a business of the future looks like, I had to wonder what might happen to traditional ways of marketing, branding and advertising. Some of it’s obvious, but some of it not so much. As a business owner, would you know where to look to leverage Ad Networks online? Internet Marketers have had the inside track on them, but that’s another change taking place. Ad Networks are becoming more and more mainstream, can you name a few?
When thinking about these networks, you can’t help wonder the impact they have, or will have, on traditional modes like Radio, Television, and Newspaper. Will it even reach the Direct Mail way of acquiring customers. The short answer is, yes. I’m not suggesting traditional methods will disappear entirely, but the revenue generated will make a shift to the Internet.
One problem with preventing Radio, TV & Print from disappearing entirely is a thing called NET Neutrality, but that’s another problem for another day, I’m merely mentioning it because it will at some point protect media from extinction. Traditional modes will and are moving to digital subscription models to prevent the declining revenues, as a matter of survival. On October 18, 2012, editor Tina Brown announced that Newsweek would cease print publication with the December 31, 2012 issue and transition to an all-digital format, to be called Newsweek Global. These kinds of moves are not new, but they are becoming more and more common place.
If and when this happens on a much bigger scale, what does that mean for advertising? It means, Ad agencies will have to learn a new way of marketing traditional businesses. If 60% of all commerce is moving online, that should tell you one thing…that’s where the people are and you better find a means to connect with them. Why? Because they aren’t watching TV, reading Newspapers, and listening to the Radio the way they used to. They are doing these things online, over 2.4 billion of them as of this writing, and another 3 billion coming!
Marketing, Advertising online do things different, ad networks monitor similar metrics, but they are digital now. Sure there are free ways of advertising, ad networks are digital forms of a traditional method of generating revenue online. Media buys online are not that different than offline, but they are different. How? You don’t need an ad agency to handle it for you for one, it’s actually a simple process. As business owner you can do it yourself, there’s a small learning curve, you will need to learn some of the lingo, maneuver a mouse, and fill in some blanks. I’m over simplifying of course, but you can buy media online yourself.
Keep in mind, these ad networks are setup for you to advertise, or publish, they sound like the same thing, but they are two different trains of thought on the Internet.
To help you get educated on ad networks, I’m going to list a few here for you to investigate, there are hundreds of them online so this is just sampling. Most of these are traffic generators, and we all need traffic, PPC is a digital way of getting access that you couldn’t get out of a traditional ad agency.
1.) ZEDO – www.zedo.com
ZEDO Ad Network is a traffic source for Advertisers and Affiliates who want to reach specific audience segments at the top of the impression chain.
2.) AdMarketplace – www.admarketplace.com
The adMarketplace Pay Per Click advertising platform delivers Search Engine performance across large content networks.
3.) Chitika – www.chitika.com
700 Million monthly search impressions, they have been around for some time.
4.) Adoori – www.adoori.com
Adoori’s network covers more than 250 countries, a massive reach with reasonable rates.
If you haven’t investigated online ad networks, now is the time to start, eventually you will end up using one for your business. Why? Probably because Radio, TV & Newspapers are failing you and your customer base has gone online looking for you, are you there?
This subject matter runs long and deep, and I’m merely poking a stick at it, I couldn’t possibly cover every aspect of it. But if current trends continue, online ad networks will over take traditional modes of advertising. It’s conceivable that one day, they will replace them entirely, but probably not in my life-time : )
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The Future Of Business – Everyone Will Be An Afilliate Of Something Pt. 2
The past few weeks I have spent considerable time looking forward, what does the business of the future look like? I’ve repeatedly told you it’s primarily two things, Social & Mobile. That would be the description equal to a hundred years ago, if I said Social & Mobile are the bricks & mortar of the future business, the mechanics if you will. But what will be happening within these two massive worlds, it simple really, commerce.
I wrote a year ago (August 11th, 2011) that everyone will be an affiliate of something, imagine that, you an Internet Marketer! The term congers up all kinds of emotions deep from within, but try to get past it, the world of commerce is going there at a rapid pace.
I’ve shared with you time and time again that OB3 Networks is connecting the world by putting up dishes in space that will provide Internet access to the third world countries, it’s being rolled out as we speak. Now add every smartphone developer going into a frenzy trying to beat everyone to the new marketplace. Once this endeavor is done, the other 3 Billion people will have Internet access, and soon they will have a smartphone loaded with things to buy, will it be your products & services? Imagine, over 5 Billion people on the Internet buying goods & services on a hand-held device!
So now the term Internet Marketer has a different ring to it, a smartphone ring. But there is a lot to learn about who they are and how to reach them, it’s called market research. Internet Markers of yesterday like to withhold some of the secrets, oh sure you can get the secrets for a price, but they almost always hold something back. It’s the nature of the business. All the power to them, but soon, the secrets will change, and you will won’t have to pay for some of them, it will be integrated into the new commerce landscape.
I challenge you to learn more about market research, in fact, start with your business, find out how the digital world sees your business, you will be shocked. What does Google think about you, have wondered what people use to search for your site, what keywords they use in that search. Do those keywords describe your business the way you want to be perceived? I thought this site would be one bring keywords like Futurist, foresight, building a better business and so on. I was wrong!
SEARCH
Try this quick exercise:
Open up Google in a browser, type Google keyword tool, click on the 1st or second link, the Adwords links.
Then, on the left hand side, uncheck Broad, and then check Exact.
In the second dialog box on the right, put your sites URL
Then hit SEARCH!
You will find below a list of keywords that people have been using to find your site, are they keywords that describe your site? You will be surprised that the keywords do not match how you feel about your site, or what you thought they should be. You will now be able to target your keywords better knowing what Google thinks about your site.
The Internet is a weird and yet predictable family member, your business will use the game changer on some level, you won’t be able to avoid it. You will find your business being drawn to the dark side called Affiliate Marketing, you will either sell your products through the many ad networks or you will sell someone’s products & services for a commission. There it is, we will all become commission sales people / businesses, from out office, from out patio, on our vacations, we will do business wherever we happen to be. This isn’t news, not NEW news, many have been doing this for years, we merely mocked them, looked down on them, we avoided them, we avoided the business model.
You can run but you can’t hide, this open & free business model will catchup to you, and you will find yourself trying to figure out how to adopt it. I truly believe this business model will be the most common one used in the future, once we get passed old ways of thinking, once we accept the truth…..the Industrial Age is DEAD!
I’m not advocating or putting down Internet Marketers, like most businesses, there are good people, and you will always here about the bad ones. It’s almost always people that are the problem, motive tends to speak louder than anything you can say. Affiliate Marketing is one major player in the business of the future, we won’t be able to rely on just revenue source here online, there’s too many people.
How do you feel about business going in this direction, how will your business leverage it? Eventually, you will be an Affiliate of something, it will become part of your DNA in every online business.
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- The Future Of Business – Flick The Switch! (owengreaves.com)
The Future Of Business – The Missing Link
Recently I was speaking to a group of 35 business owners / entrepreneurs, I asked how many of them had a Blog, the answer was staggering. Only 4 had Blogs, it actually caused my knees to buckle, they chuckled, but there was no other way to describe that I was shocked. The weird thing was, they were hoping to learn more about Social Media! To me Social Media would second or 3rd on my list of things to learn or take care of, a website might be a portal, but a Blog is far better for developing a community around your business.
I rarely teach how to use Social Media, I show you how I use it, there is a difference. Social Networks can no longer be ignored, that’s where the people are, and they want to learn more about you. If you don’t have a place to send them to after you have started building a relationship with them on Twitter and FaceBook, you may have found the missing link.
You need a home base, that should be your Blog, your Blog should be a connector to your business, a vehicle to increase your conversion rates, a GPS for your business if you will. You could just have a Blog for your business, there’s good flexibility that way, WordPress makes your life easy from that perspective.
This Blog is dedicated to teaching you a new to think about business, how business is changing, how you should adopt the many new ways of talking to your customers, and so much more. If you’re not reading this Blog as a resource to help you, you’re probably going to find out to late, the tidal wave will have wiped you out. There is a huge tidal wave of change, a tidal wave of new consumers coming, don’t wait, start learning now.
Of the many things I help you with, check my Work With Me Page.
It could very well be, the missing link you’re looking for in your business, is not Social Media, it’s making sure you have a Blog!
If you need a Blog, you need WordPress, you need web-hosting, make one stop for all three, Billyhost.com
