10e20 Blog

Mobile web usage is on a steep curve northward and everyone from major corporations and small companies continue to push mobile device web usage for good reason - more eyeballs with more time on websites will yield better sales and hopefully better revenues. In a recent study Comscore points out that 30 million Americans accessed the Internet from a mobile device in January 2007.

There is nothing more convenient than traveling and being able to find what you need while on your mobile device or to get your personal chores or business affairs in order on your mobile while you are commuting from place to place. For and end-user, mobile web access is a great convenience and a big time saver. For a business owner, it is the difference between gaining or losing a sale or enriching that ever so valuable client relationship to extract more lifetime revenue. For major corporations, it’s about retaining existing relationships in increasingly competitive business environments. In an economy dominated by services, to be competitive, you must offer better services, and mobile web is one way companies are reaching out.

I heard about this neat viral thing that Verizon was doing where you could create your own movie starring yourself on the Internet. This seemed pretty cool to me and I figured I’d give it a try. I had a blast last summer with the Scissor Sisters music video going around that you could insert yourself into. (don’t try it because it doesn’t seem to work anymore)

At first I thought that it would be a cut out of my head on top of some moving parts, but then I saw that these movies take about 24 hours to generate.

So why is Verizon doing this? Well luckily they answer that question right on their website:

“The Power of Verizon Broadband”. I am about to be entertained in ways that I’ve never dreamed possible. Totally cool. Seems like fun. I will definitely give it a shot.

E-mail marketing can be one of the most effective sales and relationship building tools in your marketing arsenal. In this post, I’d like to stress the points of:

1. Why in-house email marketing is important

2. Effectively using your in-house list

3. Building your existing list on a consistent basis

Why proper e-mail marketing is so important

Since my company is mainly focused on organic search engine optimization and social media marketing, it’s rare that I address e-mail marketing; there can be such a negative stigma to it. But, like an RSS reader, receiving opt-in emails is an effective time management technique for consumers and end-users and can be a truly effective content delivery format for marketers. In an increasingly clutter filled world, I believe more and more people will rely on their opt-in emails to make key purchasing decisions and as such, thought it important to begin to dig a bit deeper into how email can be used more effectively as a marketing tool. So what are some of the reasons it’s important?

Six months ago when President Bush signed the Port Security Bill he mentioned it as being an effort to strengthen the nation’s borders from being vulnerable to terrorist attacks. What he failed to touch on was a particular clause in it that would bludgeon a multi-billion dollar industry. How is it possible that a business which was earning $12 billion annually can plummet almost 50% in one-half year? Welcome to the American world of online gambling.

In case you didn’t know, the law bans Internet gambling. It prohibits online poker sites and other betting companies from “knowingly accepting” money from U.S.-based customers. Credit card companies and other payment providers are now prohibited from processing online gambling transactions.

Editor’s note: I would like to introduce a new author to 10e20 – Kayla. Kayla is a highschool junior in New York working for 10e20 part-time on projects with a teen target market. She will be contributing from time to time here at 10e20.com to give you a teen’s perspective on things online. I got so much out of my friend Dean’s guest blogger Jessica that I wanted to continue the conversation…

Many teens today are very particular about the websites that they use. From what the website is selling, to the cursors that are being used on them. It is all very important. Usually when I am searching the web for either research papers or just on my free time checking out new stuff, I look at the site as a whole first instead of reading the first sentence or looking at the first thing I see. If there is not a lot of colors and everything is pretty much letters and a blank/boring background, I won’t stay on that page even if it is informative. For example:

It never ceases to amaze me when someone tells me that they don’t need a website for their business. The next time someone says that to you, mention these 4 things:

1. The Internet is the first place a person will go to get information on your company. People are online daily for tasks such as banking, shopping, emailing and so on. Many people prefer to read websites at work - it looks like they’re working when in fact they may be researching a product and/or service that they require. This is the face of your business and the first impression your company conveys. If a user doesn’t like what they see, they’re onto the next site.

Chris Garrett said something really insightful yesterday: “It is a lot easier to damage a brand than it is to build one.” And so, with last week’s JetBlue cancellations that were largely a result of poor weather conditions, a lot of speculation began about the ability for JetBlue to return to normalcy and live up to its mantra: “to bring humanity back to air travel.”

Every business makes mistakes. Every business has to occasionally deal with damage control and reinstate the public’s faith. Some businesses will refuse to acknowledge defeat and ignore their most outrageous errors, while hoping that their customers will continue to be loyal to them (note: in such cases where the company doesn’t sufficiently address these issues, they usually aren’t). Others will live up to their mistakes and make apologies that the public, and everyone will notice.

A different perspective from someone you trust can be the difference between ranking at #11 and or at #1. It can mean the difference between $10,000 and $100,000. I try to work with my staff a lot but I can only offer one opinion and perspective - my own. So something I am trying to do more and more is open them up to different opinions and expertise. Through conferences, seminars, blogs, forums, etc but nothing beats sitting down in a room and being able to share the knowledge of an expert you trust.

I’ve always enjoyed Michael Gray’s (aka Graywolf) blog and his posts at Threadwatch and I have got to know him better because we are both involved in Internet Marketers of New York. So when a new project recently came up I called him up to get his thoughts on a few things and asked him to come in to brainstorm with me. And then spend the rest of the day here with the 10e20 folks to answer questions, brainstorm and pick his brain a bit.

OnStartups has an interesting article about “startup marketing,” but when I read it, I began thinking — it really just for startup marketing? Not necessarily. These consistent issues can plague even older businesses who may want to reconsider how they present their websites. I’ve analyzed the article and have offered my commentary on how these points can be applied to today’s older business websites.

1) Most startups have a marketing problem. Generally, this would be considered to be true, but even older business have marketing issues. A lot of Internet Marketers are approached by established companies who want to improve their returns by marketing online. Perhaps it is about going social, or perhaps it is about getting better results in the SERPs. But it is not necessarily a startup who has a marketing problem.

“If winning isn’t everything, why do they keep score?”- Vince Lombardi

“If you’re keeping score, win.”- Red Auerbach

Teamwork and Success. The two terms truly go hand in hand. It’s important to realize that these two qualities are just as important in the work world as they are on the playing field. When Red Auerbach recently passed away, it got me thinking about the legend behind the man. What made him so successful in comparison to his peers? How was he able to be involved in 16 championships in his first 30 years? Why was he so sharp in orchestrating trades that by the 1980s other NBA teams didn’t want to ever make a deal with the Celtics in fear that Red saw something no one else did?