SEO Term: Organic Event Horizon Defined
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) suffers from a common problem. Activity is infinite while time and resources are not. Every SEO choice made is always a Sophie's choice - a choice between two equally needed alternatives. Any choice is bad, yet choices must be made. This is why we created a new SEO definition.
We look at our "event horizon" those terms poised just outside of the promised land for low hanging fruit, fruit we can harvest without a ladder. Any term living on pages 3 to 10 are inside of the organic SEO event horizon. Event Horizon is a physics term describing the lip of a black hole, the vast black patio before infinite expansion (happens in the hole). I don't know what infinite expansion is but it seems like it might hurt.
In physics avoiding descent into a nasty black hole with its infinite expansion and never ending dog barking (I made that up) is a good idea. In organic SEO you WANT to move toward page one, toward the hole. Moving away, walking drink in hand toward infinite quiet of organic space that lives out beyond page 10 is undesirable. There is no infinite expansion past page ten, but traffic declines. Traffic, as we know, is a modern proxy for money.
When you have terms inside of an organic event horizon write content to help move them toward page one. Watch momentum inside Google's organic event horizon. Is your keyword floating out away from page one or sucking its way to page one (sucking is better here). There are several tools. I like Wordvision by LifeTips. Wordvision quickly describes momentum with green or red arrows. Green wins and red is pain now and pain later if not halted. The tool helps your KDA (keyword density analysis). Web site optimization can make you feel dumb, dumber and dumbest. Every now and again you catch a break. Google throws you a freebie.
The Google Gods always seem to know just when to take this action. The day BEFORE you don robes and vow to aimlessly travel the chaotic earth like Kung Fu Google throws you a bone. New terms just moved into your organic search event horizon. If you are anything like me, you put down your backpack, fire up a word processor and write. You write because you are lucky today. Your hair looks good. Your weight is down. Google loves you. The heroin of such a moment is hard to describe to uninitiated. Standing outside any cult all activities inside look stupid, strange and spiteful. "No," we fully addicted insist, "it is beautiful soon we will be on page one." Shaking your head slowly you remember a summer's day throwing a ball with your dog.
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Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Organic Event Horizon - New SEO Term
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Martin's Live Your Dream With My Money Contest
**** Contest Suspended ****
I didn't get any great business ideas I felt I had to fund. My original thinking still holds: it is worth betting everything to create magic. I just didn't see the magic. If you contemplated entering thanks and best of luck. I would have had a hard time funding a start up and my planned bicycle ride across the country in September 2010. I've decided to focus on a life long dream of getting to Santa Monica on a bicycle. If you have great ideas I wish you nothing but the bes of luck.
Marty
Live Your Dream with My Money Contest
Dreams are Tricky Things
Thirty year ago I graduated from college into a nasty recession (1980). My future was uncertain. No one was hiring. If, as a newly minted college graduate with a BA in Psychology, I knew then what I know now I would have started a company. I was broke and starting companies wasn’t something my father did. I never really understood what my father did. He worked on Wall Street. He tried to tell me several times. It always sounded complicated and like he could tell me but then he would have to kill me. Your first job, your first life, is a throw away. You don’t know what you don’t know. You don’t know yourself.
Your second life, if you are lucky enough to be granted such a privilege, you live for yourself. After fifty-two years and several careers I know what I didn’t know. I like to build things. This is why I love my job as a Director of E-Commerce. Everyday there is something to build. Today, for example, we built a Subway Art campaign. Tomorrow we will build something new, something different.
Thirty years go by in a blink. I’ve learned to act on what I am thinking or feeling NOW. Now is what we have. Now, this moment, is all that is guaranteed. Last week, while tweeting advice to graduating seniors, I heard “Take your own advice,” in my head. It was more like, "put up or shut up", but you understand what made me decide to give away a substantial portion of my savings (such as they are after last year LOL).
Live Your Dream Contest
When you reach a certain age, for me it was turning fifty, something shifts. You are more interested in helping others. You think differently. You look for causes and people to serve. Would I live my life differently given the chance? Up until last Friday "yes" would have been the answer. Then I got an idea.
Putting My Money Where My Mouth Is
It was time, I decided, to step up. It was time to create the Martin Stimulus Package (lol). Time to put up or shut up. I decided to risk $100,000 to help someone or several someones create their dream.
Are You Rich?
No I am not rich. This idea may seem crazy. I look at my choice differently. Even if I lose this money, every dime of it, it will be spent in a cause I believe in, a meaningful quest. Life, at its core, is about such quests.
Life is Short
If thirty years can disappear so easily so can the next ten or twenty. There is also the ever-looming truck. You know the one. The truck that comes flying at you without warning or care and changes everything. Best to live dreams the moment you have them is what I’m thinking. One of my dreams is to build another company. No time like the present.
How do I get my hands on your money?
There is no free lunch. You’ll need to create a business plan. Even if you don’t win my contest writing a plan is a necessary evil. I’ve started businesses with plans and without. With is better. How many times in your life can you write something that will earn $100,000? This is one of those times. Here is the format I have in mind. Feel free to modify:
Executive Summary
I. The Business
A. Business and Market Description
B. Marketing: Business’s Unique Selling Proposition
C. Competition: Strengths and Weaknesses
D. Blue Ocean: Where is the opportunity and why aren’t other
sharks already swimming there?
E. How will your company change the world?
F. Management Team (Bios, Resumes, Personal Capital Involved if any)
G. Board of Directors (Bios, Resumes, Personal Capital Involved if any)
II. Financial Data
A. How will $100,000 be used? Last?
B. What are total capital requirements of your business idea?
C. Breakeven analysis: when will business breakeven?
Pro-forma income projections (profit and loss statements)
(month by month detail for 1st year, quarterly in out years, years 2 and 3)
Pro-forma cash flow
D. Exit strategy
III. Strategy and Key Milestones
A. Describe Company’s “Crossing the Chasm” strategy.
B. Define 3 Go / No Go milestones.
B. Define 5 key business milestones.
C. Describe relationships between milestones, time and money.
For example: If strategic alliance A can’t be achieved by date (D1) alliances with
B, C and D must be in place by date (D2).
D. Who achieves what by when?
Who Can Enter?
Anyone who wants to start living his or her dream now.
Special attention will be paid and extra credit may be granted to college students, recent college graduates, ex-military or current military, BarCampers, currently laid off or unemployed, members of families hurt by wall street scams and FOM (friends of Martin). If you fit into one of these groups, please be sure to let us know.
How Can I Enter?
Send your business plan to martinsellingzoe(at)aol(dot)com. Expect a receipt within 48 hours. If you don't get a receipt resend.
What are you looking for?
We probably see many of the same trends such as:
- Mobil
- Green
- Wisdom of Crowds
- Infinite Inventory
- Move to digital goods and away from “hard” goods
- Social networks and connection
- Meme creation
- Death of "push" and "interruption" media
- Attention economy, attention as a new currency
- Time compression (not much time between major innovations)
- Time stress (not enough time to get everything done)
- Increases in spiritual searching and searches,
- Health care and issues related to living longer, eating better and staying fit
- Fifty is the new thirty
- Ability to know almost anything instantly even as understanding what it means seems harder
- About 100 other trends (share yours and this list will grow)
a. How far can the plan get on $100,000?
b. Will a second funding round be needed and how soon?
c. How much second round capital will be needed and who are most likely sources?
d. How will the world be better a year after the company is launched? Five years?
Who are "we"?
I believe in the “Wisdom of Crowds” (also a great book), so four trusted friends will help determine ten finalists. Our plan is to have a face-to-face meeting with each finalist in September.
Deadline
Labor Day September 7th is the last day for business plans. We will announce the winning plan by October 1st.
Legalese
Martin’s Live Your Dream With My Money contest is void where prohibited. I am not risking my 401K to steal you idea. Quite the opposite. I realize you don’t know me from Adam, so here are some links to help you understand who I am.
Martin's LinkedIn Profile
Martin's Twitter Feed
Martin's Facebook
Ethics, generosity and support are important. If, after getting to know me, you would like references I will share several brutally honest friends. If, after checking me out, you decide to send your business plan to Sand Hill Road instead no problem. In fact, if you send an idea that is more appropriate for silicone valley venture capitalists I will tell you it is more than my little contest can support. Every plan will get feedback from me and finalist will receive notes from my friends (all much more successful entrepreneurs than moi).
Trust is the most important foundation for any business relationship. I am putting up 100,000 reasons you can trust me. I will learn to trust you from your plan and our interaction. Your idea and business will always be yours. When I shopped my last idea to angel investors their first action was to replace the original management team (me in other words). I will never work like that.
I have no plans to leave my day job. Won’t be able to afford until I am about 100 years old. Good news is I love my job. My role in the company created with my money is to be determined. Access to my friends is free and available when needed.
Ideas
Ideas have value when others are involved. We can’t create ANYTHING alone anymore. At Found Objects I met people every day who had “million dollar” gift idea. Ideas in your head are worth nothing. Even great world changing ideas can be stopped by a million things. If you can’t trust sharing your idea without lawyers and non-disclosure agreements please don’t send your plan. My receipt email constitutes a mutual non-disclosure agreement. I agree only to share with my four friends and they agree to not discuss your idea with anyone else.
We are working on four ideas right now (two Mobil, one social and one web). If your plan in anyway conflicts with anything we are working on we will stop reading and discuss the potential conflict with you. Together we will make a determination about if you plan can stay in the competition or if we should refer your plan to friends. Your ideas are safe with us.
Thanks
Thanks for reading such a long post. I hope you are already living your dream. If you aren’t and there is ever anything I can do to help please reach out, please let me know. My life, I’ve found, means the most when others are being helped. This “non-zero effect” is why life has meaning.
My story and I'm sticking to it :). M
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Monday, April 27, 2009
$100,000 Recession Business Plan Contest
**** Contest Suspended ****
I didn't get any great business ideas I felt I had to fund. My original thinking still holds: it is worth betting everything to create magic. I just didn't see the magic. If you contemplated entering thanks and best of luck. I would have had a hard time funding a start up and my planned bicycle ride across the country in September 2010. I've decided to focus on a life long dream of getting to Santa Monica on a bicycle. If you have great ideas I wish you nothing but the bes of luck.
Marty
Live Your Dream With My Money Contest
I updated several features of this post. Follow the link above to see the most recent version of my $100,000 business plan contest.
Win Martin’s Life Savings
I listened to my advice the other day. This is always a dangerous thing to do. There was something in my Tweet to new college graduates. “Create something great,” I urged “recession graduates.” “No jobs = no risk,” I encouraged explaining that I graduated in a recession (1980) and would do things differently. If I knew then what I know now, as the saying goes, I would have started a company.
Something you don’t understand at graduation is how hard it can be to recast yourself. It is not impossible, but we tend to keep doing the thing we were doing. When I was at Vassar I heard an interesting statistic. The head of Vassar’s career development office explained that we would probably change professions several times. Knowing how to do a particular thing, she explained, was not as important as knowing how to BE.
I’ve lived this truth. I changed my profession at M&M/Mars when I moved from sales to information technology. I changed again when entrepreneurship called and we created Found Objects (and FoundObjects.com). From sales to IT and from IT to marketing online adds up o three “profession” changes along with five job changes (more about Martin (Marty) Smith on LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/martysmith1980vc ).
Changing professions is not easy as it sounds. Some die is cast in an unchangeable way. I won’t become a medical doctor or follow my father to Wall Street. Those and many other ships have permanently sailed. As I exhorted students to create something, start a company and be courageous I realized something. I was telling graduating seniors to do as I say and not as I’m doing. I have to put up or shut up. I have to put my money on the line to help recession graduates find their creative, “start something” future.
Who can apply?
Five groups may apply for Martin’s $100,000 award:
- Recent college graduates (2005 to 2009).
- Ex-military
- Currently laid off or unemployed
- Family lost money to Bernie Madoff
- FOM (friends of Martin)
How do I apply?
Email business plan to martinsellingzoe(at)aol(dot)com before Labor Day (Monday September 7th). Expect a confirmation within 48 hours. If you don’t receive a confirmation after two days, please email me and confirm receipt.
Recession Business Plan Deadline: Monday September 7th (Labor Day)
Business Plan Outline
Here is information we need:
Executive Summary
I. The Business
A. Business and Market Description
B. Marketing: Business’s Unique Selling Proposition
C. Competition: Strengths and Weaknesses
D. Blue Ocean: Where is the opportunity and why aren’t other
sharks already swimming there?
E. How will your company change the world?
F. Management Team (Bios, Resumes, Personal Capital Involved)
G. Board of Directors (Bios, Resumes, Personal Capital Involved…this can be a “dream team”
if there is some reasonable chance they would sign on)
II. Financial Data
A. How will $100,000 be used? Last?
B. What are total capital requirements of your business idea?
C. Breakeven analysis: when will business breakeven?
Pro-forma income projections (profit and loss statements)
(month by month detail for 1st year, quarterly in out years, years 2 and 3)
Pro-forma cash flow
D. Exit strategy
III. Strategy and Key Milestones
A. Describe Company’s “Crossing the Chasm” strategy.
B. Define 3 Go / No Go milestones.
B. Define 5 key business milestones.
C. Describe relationships between milestones, time and money.
For example: If strategic alliance A can’t be achieved by date (D1) alliances with
B, C and D must be in place by date (D2).
D. Who achieves what by when?
What do you want?
Martin’s $100,000 Business Plan Award is a loan. The winning company will carry the loan on its books at prime plus two points. Repayment strategies will be discussed and documented before funds transfer.
Are you leaving your day job as Director of E-Commerce?
No, can hardly afford to do that now can I :).
Who owns my idea/company?
Everyone has ideas. I learned this at Found Objects. Each day someone would tell us they had a, “million dollar” gift idea. Ideas are abundant. Successful execution of an idea is rare. An idea in your head is worth nothing. An idea in the world may be worth something someday. Ideas have to leave your head to be worth anything. Once ideas exit your grey matter life’s friction shapes them. If you believe your ideas are so ingenious, so unique everyone is trying to steal them please DO NOT apply. I have no idea what if any participation (beyond money) I will want or can afford. These details will need to be discussed and negotiated.
What else do you get
The winner of Martin $100,000 Recession Business Plan Award receives access to my network of friends, vendors and providers. If your business needs programmers, Internet service providers (ISP’s), graphic design work or hardware we’ve got that and more in my FOM network.
What if we need more money?
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. It is important for your business plan to accurately describe cash requirements by time. Second round financing right now, well let’s just say “good luck with that”, so positive cash flow as soon as possible is critical.
Who will win?
I have no idea. We may get 2 goofystupid ideas and a dog, and, if that is the case, my life savings will stay in the inflation ravaged CD they are in.
How do we know you have the money?
My banker’s email will be shared with 10 finalists.
What do I get when I win?
Ah, confidence that is good ☺. The contest is about the right to have a conversation about how we can work together. We will meet with as many of the ten finalists as possible evaluating if we can work together. Our work product from these conversations will be a ranked list. We may make offers to several people / companies on this list or we may offer all the award to a single company. We'll keep going until all the money is gone and a new company or companies are borne.
Timing
Application deadline is Labor Day (September 7th) and awards will be final by October 1st.
Legalese
Sending a business plan constitutes a mutual non-disclosure agreement. I have an “advisory” group of 3 friends. My confirmation of your plan is an agreement to share your idea ONLY with those 3 friends. We always have three to five things in the works. If your plan is even close to anything we are already working on we will stop reading and explain we have a potential conflict. We’ll discuss the conflict and decide if your plan stays in the contest or if we need to exclude it. This contest is void where prohibited and in lieu of lengthy hard to read terms and conditions everyone agrees to BE NICE, BE ETHICAL and act like a human being.
We will insist you have a lawyer review our offer should we make one, but let's keep lawyers on the bench as long as humanly possible.
Thursday, April 23, 2009
iFrame Humping - New SEO Term
iFrame Humping Defined
My friend Jeff created a funny term to describe an unfunny situation. After an expensive engagement with a large SEO (search engine optimization) firm (firm name withheld to protect ME), our IT Director Jeff described their approach as "iFrame Humping us." My mind could almost grasp the idea he created, but I asked for a definition of iFrame Humping:
iFrame Humping Definition
When a SEO firm runs out of real fixes they get a little desperate. Search Engine Optimization firms often work on a reverse profit model. They spend more than they make at first knowing they plan to lay off an account and glide on previous recommendations. They cut costs to make profit after the first quarter of an engagement. Search Engine firms "iFrame Hump" by making recommendations that are baseless, not really related to acute problems. iFrame humps are related to a SEO firm's need to increase profits by lowering active optimization work being performed. iFrame humps may apply to a variety of goofystupid SEO suggestions. iFrame humps extends beyond its namesake (iFrames). The term applies to a variety of recommendations meant to mask instead of fix SEO problems.
Also: iFramed Humped (past tense), iFrame Humper (firm that iFrame Humps), iFrame Humping, iFrame humps, iFrame humpee (firm who was iFramed humped)
I won't share who iFramed humped our company as he would sue ScentTrail Marketing in a heart beat. If your company is evaluating SEO firms send martinsellingzoe(at)aol(dot)com an email. I will share the large SEO firm who "iFramed Humped" us.
How to evaluate SEO firms may be a good future post on ScentTrail Marketing. No one WANTS to be iFramed humped after all (lol) :).
Martin
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Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Connection Generation
Connection Generation Book
Iggy Pintado's new book has to be great. He gets it. His call for "connection stories" on the complete and engaging site he set up to promote Connection Generation is smart, very smart. Iggy is no dummy. Visit just a few of his sites and see if you don't agree:
Connection Generation (book promotion site)
Share Your Connection Story (part of book promotion site)
Iggy Pintado
Connects Thoughts Blog
Monday, April 20, 2009
Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia
Ritz-Carlton President Simon Cooper
It can’t be a good time to be Simon Cooper. Mr. Cooper is President and Chief Operating Officer of the Ritz Carlton chain of “luxury” hotels. I spent a few days at the Ritz-Carlton’s renovated bank property in Philadelphia. Easter 2009 was a special weekend. I was traveling to Philadelphia to see Cezanne and Beyond at The Philadelphia Museum of Art marking the return of the museum rat (me) to an actual museum. Over ten years ago a stay at the Ritz-Carlton in Washington was rewarding, gracious and comforting. Easter weekend at the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia was not.
Ten years of Internet based room arbitrage has not been kind to the Ritz-Carlton luxury business model. Ten years ago I remember an expensive room. Each night at the Ritz-Carlton Washington in 1999 cost twice as much as a night in a "good" hotel. The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia’s room was less expensive than what I paid in DC ten years ago. The price of everything but the room was sky high. This "cafeteria style" billing has hurt Ritz-Carlton's front line troops. Their morale was lousy. Certain issues such as $9.95 per day for Internet connection is a fight they are tired of fighting. Web connection is provided by a vendor. Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia staff didn’t understand how it worked, if it was working or what to do if it was down (it was). Here is what I wrote after many frustrating attempts to connect:
Here is the note I sat down and wrote to Simon Cooper (couldn't get online but Word still worked):
Next problem was getting online. I refuse to pay $9.95 a day for Internet connection. It is galling and unacceptable. I live online. Charging what would add up to $3600 a year for connection to LIFE is insulting and usury. I called the front desk. Access from the lobby, I was informed, was free otherwise pony up $9.95. I hit a nerve because the person on the other end of the phone was angry. “Have others complained about this charge,” I asked. “No, not at all,” I was told. I used my iPhone to logon to Ritz-Carlton’s corporate site and let them know I wasn’t happy.
Friday morning I went to the lobby to hook up their "free" network. No luck. After thirty minutes working with James the Concierge still no luck. The Front Desk Manager, came out and told me she would give me a pass code FOR THE DAY. She did that by tossing a piece of paper at me, turning her back and letting good guy James explain. I can match the clear and apparent anger by Ritz staff
To: Simon F. Cooper, President and Chief Operating Officer Ritz-Carlton
The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia seemed old in more ways than its beautifully restored bank building. Once my original post idea, discuss the renovation of a 1903 building, was killed by lack of access I started making notes about hotels. As even casual readers of ScentTrail know I like mind experiments. Thursday night I fell asleep thinking about hotels and what travelers need from them…..
Hotel ExpectationsOnce we understand expectations we can matrix a hotel’s features and measure them against expectations. When I worked at NutraSweet we used Boston Consulting Group (BCG) to help with strategy. They were a good group of smart guys who taught me ANYTHING can be matrixed or gridded and you see things you don’t see in any other way. Here is Martin’s Hotel Measurement Matrix:
- Piece of home away from home.
- Office - Office amenities away from the office
- Mall - Mall-like features (food, gym, movies, retail)
- Spa (active pampering)
Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia Problems & Solutions
Internet Access = Free
The Ritz-Carlton is not making money on charging for Internet access. Yes your P&L carries profits in the "Internet Access" column, but charging for something free in every Panera (and soon free everywhere) in a luxury hotel is tripping over $100 bills to pick up nickels. It is stupid and unsustainable. Create a new suite of "connected" rooms with WiFi and charge more if you must, but stop charging absurdly high fees. Fees that would pay for six or seven years of high speed access at home is beyond the pale and prime negative blog material (as you can read). Not a good idea to mess with bloggers. We are connected and support each other. In a moment a thought can go around the world several times. Best to CATER to bloggers and other "early adopters" who can HELP you (if treated right).
Free Stuff In Snack Bar
Charging $5 for a small soda and $10 for nuts is getting old. Yes, you have a captive audience, but why take FULL advantage when every consumer products goods company on the planet would give free samples for every room (in a heart beat). Add the free samples and I bet your average snack bar bill goes up. Have to have a $5.00 soda to wash down the new TrueNorth nut snack I just tried. Will your customers feel better about paying such captive prices if they get a few freebies? I think so. Eveyone wins.
$35.00 Breakfast is Over Too
The chef at the Philadelphia Ritz-Carlton is talented; almost didn't mind paying $35 for eggs Benedict, almost. Once the cost of anything gets too far above market, remember that was $35 for just ME, it would have been a $100 breakfast if I was still married, any company seems predatory. I never cook, ever, but I get to eat 3 meals out at home for what the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia charged me for one breakfast. 3x is too far gone.
$15 for a movie is Over
Why do I pay Time Warner, not a company known for its largess, $3.95 for the same movie you charge $15.00? BTW, I had three movies on my laptop. I carry a cable to connect laptop to large screen tv. How much longer is $15 per movie sustainable? Do you really want to push the envelope on this? $15 movies may look good on the P&L too, but same problem. You throw away $100 for every dollar you make on this in anger, lost bookings and bad word-of-mouth. Bring the prices of your entertainment in line with On Demand cable and you make much more money and no one writes about just how badly they felt about paying more to see a movie in one of your rooms than at a theater.
Staff Training
Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia has a training problem. The Bell Captain likes to talk on his cell phone, the Front Desk Manager was distracted and mean, the concierge and the desk attendant who checked me in cared. Everyone else was marking time on Easter weekend. Housekeeping and electricians were the best ambassadors in the hotel. Just about everyone else needs a refresher in what it means to be a Ritz-Carlton employee. Passion for service, commitment to outstanding service and able to SOLVE problems, any problem, comes to mind when you say Ritz-Carlton.
Better Work Out Room
A high end hotel has to have the best exercise machines money can buy and plenty of them. The Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia falls short on this key criteria.
Ritz-Carlton Club
I would join your tribe if you offered me a way in. I see, from your email today, you are starting email campaigns. I found great content with the Ritz-Carlton name on it in Philadelphia including a great in-room magazine. Taking those great stories and sending them to me in an email is a good idea, so is a Twitter feed and Facebook group. Ask me to join your club, give you feedback and receive special offers and discounts. Soon you will have enough digital value your customers will PAY you for membership. Keep value coming and they will renew every year. Customers pay you to help create positive word-of-mouth. Has to be better than this rant right?
Final Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia Thoughts
I was disappointed on Easter at the Ritz-Carlton Philadelphia, but still believe in the Ritz-Carlton brand. Simon Cooper sent me an email today (irony). He let me know Ritz-Carlton is about to send emails on a regular basis. Welcome, Mr. Cooper to the party that never ends. Soon tools of my trade: blogs, twitter, Facebook and web sites will be the Ritz-Carlton's tools. Once Ritz-Carlton embraces, incorporates and welcomes the future your luxury hotel chain will be back on track.
Best of luck,
Martin
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Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Adventures of Page Rank Man
Adventures of Page Rank Man: Simi Valley
After spending a week in Simi Valley, California with Bruce Clay two truths struck me: I don’t want to get stuck in a elevator with the rapacious Mr. Clay and Google PageRank is the most misunderstood precious metal on the planet. PageRank is:
Mathematical PageRanks (out of 100) for a simple network (PageRanks reported by Google are rescaled logarithmically). Page C has a higher PageRank than Page E, even though it has fewer links to it: the link it has is much higher valued. A web surfer who chooses a random link on every page (but with 15% likelihood jumps to a random page on the whole web) is going to be on Page E for 8.1% of the time. (The 15% likelihood of jumping to an arbitrary page corresponds to a damping factor of 85%.) Without damping, all web surfers would eventually end up on Pages A, B, or C, and all other pages would have PageRank zero. Page A is assumed to link to all pages in the web, because it has no outgoing links. (Ref: Wikipedia)
How to make such an abstract concept concrete? I called on my “Made To Stick” ideas purchasing an Incredible Hulk doll from Target. Next I pasted a triangular PR Hulk’s chest. PageRank Man was born and used in a presentation with my team and our techies. A reader wrote in asking about the ongoing battles of PageRank Man. Here is the latest:
Martin’s Page Rank Rule
Never write a series of interlocking rules if you want to be understood. A year after I wrote complex rules we’ve yet to implement. On the other hand, confusing people does have benefits. We (humans) can’t stand confusion. We must understand. Like cats following a switch they know you hold. We must be able to organize confusion into some recognizable order, some pattern. Time is the problem. Simple, clear, easy to understand beats confusion in a race every time as the year long delay of of “Martin’s No Follow” rules proves. Here is how I helped a member of our tech squad understand my No Follow philosophy the other day:
Only apply PageRank where you want rank and there is rarely more than 10 pages on a site where you want rank.....Martin's PageRank Rule
I could see the light bulb go off above his head. PageRank Man meet Occam’s razor. “We are,” I explained, “prone to bleed PageRank all over our site. This means we don’t mint gold bars we create gold dust and blow it all over our shoes,” I said mixing metaphors (a trait those around me are used too). “So this is not invading Russia in the winter,” one of my meeting mates quipped bringing up another favorite Martin metaphor. “No,” I said trying to stop the now out of control analogy train.
PageRank Man is a crossing guard. He directs where rank lands. If you are linking to something other than the 10 maybe 15 pages you want ranked then “no follow” the link. This is a “rel no follow” and any techie can explain how to write the code. No following links produces several benefits. One benefit - it bottles up rank inside the page, the “from” page. Think of this as preserving rank by not letting it “bleed out”. You can see where this is going. On any page there is NEVER more than X links where rank flows (x being the number of pages you are trying to rank). If X => 16 you are delusional.
I can hear the “my site has rank on 100 pages,” person out there. Yes sites can rank for hundreds of terms, but you get there by restricting PageRank (PR). Once you build up “expertise points” Google will start dumping all kinds of terms in your direction. This reminds me of a Zen parable:
A Zen master and his students sit at a table after a large meal. “Master,” an eager student asks, “how do I follow you?” “Wash the dishes,” was the master’s only reply.
Word Tracker Koans Soon….
Related Links
Evolution of E-Commerce
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Thank You Emails
Martin's 3 Letters
Back in the day when I sold sweetener to companies such as Hienz, Kraft and Dannon I wrote a lot of letters. Every letter I wrote fit into one of three categories. I discovered this off hand one day when looking across an entire year's communication. Every letter, in the end, was....
Thank You Note
You Are Right Notes
You Are Welcome
Art of Thank You Notes (especially for non-profits)
Thank you notes are an art, an art that doesn't translate all that well to email. Couple of days ago I donated to Lisa Nigro's Inspirations Cafe. Not-for-profits need to use language to include and inspire in every donor communication (especially in this economy). After my donation to Inspirations I am, "Broke again naturally," so I sat down and rewrote Inspirations thank you email. This is incredibly presumptuous, but Lisa made me a believer. I want to help any way I can. Maybe rewriting a less than inspirational email well help as much and money (hope so).
TO: Lisa Nigro, Inspirations
FROM: Martin Smith, ScentTrail Marketing
RE: Notes on Thank You Email
Lisa,
I’ve worked for non-profits before (in the arts), and see a common tendency. The work is so “all-in” it creates a tornado. This powerful funnel can make it hard to see the horizon. You hunker down and do the work and that is as it should be.
There is another work you are doing. This second work is recruiting an extended tribe of supporters, word-of-mouth proponents and donors. I don’t live in Chicago. I used too, but my current North Carolina location means I join Inspiration Corporation through words. You paint vision in ways that allow me to see and join.
Your web site is exceptionally well designed. Clean lines and simple truths are too often obscured online with needless bells and whistles. Your designers are gifted. I experienced and learned to love your energy and Inspirations Corporation through your site. I easily found and used your “Donate Now” button.
Your corresponding thank you letter needs work. I work on web sites and consistency is important. Humans are pattern recognition machines. We look for tiny disruptions, small inconsistencies. Your thank you email misses the mark. It doesn’t make klaxons go off or anything, but it didn’t reinforce what can be a hard thing to do – give money to others even as your own supply may be at risk (and whose isn’t these days). Your story, told so well by you and Helen Hunt in your video on TrueNorth, is emotionally rich. It sets a high standard. Every interaction must match that high bar. Your thank you email is fine, but not inspirational. Inside your current thank you email is another one, a currently hidden one, that matches your story, passion and charm. I’ve shared some editing ideas below. My ideas are still not all the way there, but may be closer (see what you think).
Three quick things:
• Thanking people for money should always come from a person.
• Don’t talk to yourself about yourself – include me (the donor) - as much as possible
• Ask me for more – people who are giving WANT to be asked for more (just be sure to give me non-money responses like joining your email newsletter).
I was confused by printed vs. electronic communication when I donated. You may want to clearly state when newsletters are electronic or printed (as I suspect you have both). Organization of my donation summary, name of billing corporation (what appears on my card) and their legalese seems too flat (everything is equal). You may not have control of portions controlled by your processor, but see if you can push the obnoxious boilerplate legalese to a place somewhere less in the mix (see my notes).
Hope these thoughts help. If not hope my presumption is not rude. I just want to help and, not living in Chicago, writing is one way I may be able too contribute. Another is including information about Inspirations in my blog (http://scentTrail.blogspot.com ) and Twitter (ScentTrail). Thanks again and great job.
Martin Smith
*** Current Inspiration Corporation Email Thank You Sent After My Donation ***
Thank you for your support of Inspiration Corporation! With the help of generous donors like you, in the past year Inspiration Corporation served more than 27,000 meals to guests, alumni and visitors from the community. We helped31 program participants find permanent housing, and provided free voice mail for nearly 2,000 individuals. We provided employment-preparation and culinarytraining to more than 200 graduates, helped 30 participants enroll in further training and education, and placed more than 100 graduates into good jobs. These individuals all have the strength to improve their lives. They could not
move toward self-sufficiency without your support.
[ followed by a summary and legalese ]
*** Martin’s suggestions for New Thank You Email ***
Thanks for your inspirational donation!
Your financial support means someone moved closer to self-sufficiency today. Donors helped serve 27,000+ meals to guests, alumni and community visitors in the past year. Donations helped Inspiration Corporation find permanent housing for 31 program participants while achieving other important goals:
• Voice mail for 2,000 (helps with job searches)
• Employment-preparation and culinary training for 200+
• 100 permanent jobs.
Together, we create the world we want. Everyone at Inspiration Corporation appreciates your achievements. We are thankful for your desire to help. We hope this is only our first chance to interact. Rest assured, your information is secure and private. We only communicate with donors based on schedules they select and never share information. Sign up for Inspirations! our newsletter, consider volunteering or donating again in a friend’s name.
Thanks,
Lisa Nigro
Inspiration Corporation
[put Lisa’s email here or someone’s]
House Keeping Notes
Your helpful donation is processed by Groundspring, Inc, a non-profit donor advised fund. Groundspring.org will appear on your credit card.
Summary of Your Donation
[ summary would go here ]
Groundspring.org Legalese
[ put legalese here but try to make it less slap in the face boilerplate legal BS if at all possible ]
Thank You Note Summary
My note is a tad over-the-top and schmaltzy on purpose. It is always easy to tone down language. Much harder to ratchet up. I still see my Inspirations note as out of step with the brand and web site. If I have a major nit to pick with the site it is a tad sealed. Non-profits must create community. All too often non-profits speak to themselves about themselves. I've been there and done that. Grant writing, building relationships with donors and creating something GREAT with little CASH quickly becomes all consuming.
People care about what is important to them. People give when you connect, on some level, with what is important to them. Non-profits may speak to their vision. It is important to share results and vision. Inspirations current thank you tells me about their results but I don't feel included. They are working hard and doing fine on their own thank you very much. You see the problem. Self sufficiency is important. No one wants to be the only donor to a charity. We donate, at least in part, to join a tribe of other donors. We donate to join the club.
Non-profits are NonZero creations, but you see the rub. Non-profits must be self sufficient on one hand and need help on the other. If this sounds like a mutually exclusive rub you are almost right. All non-profits have a sweet spot between dependence and independence. Inspirations thank you email was a tad on the independent side of the scale (for me). I didn't see a way in. I couldn't understand how to help further, but I wanted too.
Hope my random non-profit thank you notes help. Yes, presumptuous is m middle name but in a good way :).
Martin
Related Links:
Monday, April 13, 2009
TrueNorth: Creating A Brand with Purpose
Frito Lay Gets It Right
All detergent (Read my All detergent = Not Viral post) tried to manipulate social media. They failed. Regan Ebert (VP), Michelle Rule (MKT Director) and Keven McKeon (Creative Director) created something NonZero great for TrueNorth Nut Snack:
"We wanted this brand to be a brand with purpose."
Regan Ebert, VP Marketing
"TrueNorth is on a mission to find the most inspiring stories out there."
Michelle Rule, Director of Marketing
We wanted to invite people across America to tell us their inspiration story then we would share those stories across America during the Oscars."
Kevin McKeon, Creative Director
Strawberry Frog
Link to Inspiration Cafe
"The magic of the Inspiration Cafe is someone is waiting for you. Someone will miss you if you don't come into the cafe. Someone is waiting for you. Someone wants to love you. I would describe myself as an ordinary girl with an extraordinary spirit," Lisa Nigro
Lisa, a beautiful Chicago policewoman, started delivery sandwiches out of a little red wagon. From humble beginnings came big things. Her simple ideas - treat people the way you want to be treated, share love and passion easily and well, care - have spread. Frito Lay received several thousand "TrueNorth Stories" and selected Lisa's cafe to "win" kudos, a little money and a huge pat on the back. I add a big pat and a little money. I just made a donation here: http://www.inspirationcorp.org. and hope you will do the same.
Lisa, a quick personal note. I've been trying to create BIG things to help others and failing miserably. You've helped me to recalibrate, I will see what I can do with a red wagon and some sandwiches (metaphorically speaking). What you said in Ms. Hunt's behind-the-scenes about being expected struck hard. Its truth is so eloquent and beautiful I couldn't breathe for a second. If you ever need any help with anything please reach out (martinsellingzoe(at)aol). I am an old marketing dog who would drop everything to be of any service possible to the Inspiration Cafe. I don't know you, but I owe you a great debt for reminding me to start, start small, start with a little red wagon, always a little red wagon :).
Thanks, Martin.
Donate to The Inspiration Cafe
Frito Lay TrueNorth Site
Strawberry Frog Agency
Great Job and Small Nits
Regan, this web presence, competition and execution is superb, but next time make it easier for bloggers to support you with embedded links and RSS. Let others help sherpa and you reach the summit faster. GREAT JOB!!! I know JUST how hard it is to be simple, true, helpful, warm, friendly online. Too often we over think. You guys didn't. Your idea - find what is inspirational, tell the story and TrueNorth becomes inspirational - is valid ONLY when executed so well. GREAT to hear you received over 2,000 TrueNorth inspiration stories. That stat alone is a sign of hope in the world. Keep up your inspirational marketing. I will be sure to try your "nut snack" soon.
Thanks to you and your team.
Martin
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Wednesday, April 8, 2009
The Chasm's Tail
The Chasm’s Tail
I don’t remember where the idea struck. A good idea nestles in your head like it has been there always. Have you ever felt like that? This idea nested right in. I was mashing up visual symbols. I do these “Mind Hacks” as a challenge. The question is always the same. Where is the pattern? Where is the symmetry? 
On this particular day I was thinking of two influential books: Crossing the Chasm by Geoffrey Moore and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Moore discusses something I know to be true – the product adoption lifecycle. I’ve experienced the product development life cycle in all of its bell curve glory. Moore’s point is there is a chasm between early adopters and the vast breadbasket of acceptance, the middle of the bell curve. I remember pitching Barnes and Noble Buyer Carol Panque Magnetic Poetry Kit. “Carol,” I pleaded, “we are selling Magnetic Poetry Kit like hot cakes in every museum store from here to eternity.” Barnes and Noble buyers could care less about museum stores. They know many products can’t make it across the chasm. Many products will never be accepted. Or many products will never be accepted at levels necessary to return Barnes and Noble’s investment. Moore teaches not to pitch conservative middle of the bell curve companies on data from early adopters and visionaries. They can’t relate and they are smart. They know one out of a hundred products brewed in the left of the bell curve might make it to the top. Anderson points out in a digital world with low inventory distribution and carry costs products don't have to sell millions pay their much lower rent. In fact, when we add up sales from our ever longer tail it is worth more than our most popular products....combined. Markets, like all things, head to entropy. They fall apart. Important to make money while markets fall apart since informing your boss that all markets head toward entropy is sure to you fired :).
Anderson’s Long Tail is a way of stating a Pareto distribution. Pareto distributions are familiar to any Brand Manager, salesman or marketer as the better-known name “the 80/20 Rule”. Early in any marketer’s education we’re taught 20% of products do 80% of the business. Pareto distributions are repeatable fractals. They are ALWAYS in any distribution, but they are particularly in any SALES distribution. Anderson’s short head with long sweeping tail paints a Pareto distribution. One of the coolest things I’ve ever seen is no matter how slim I cut our current sales figures there is always a head and tail. Sometimes the head is short and tail long. Other times and in other categories produces the opposite (longer head and shorter tail), but there is ALWAYS a long tail. Anderson’s point is in a limited shelf space world we artificially cut the tail. Tail length was shortened due to shelf space limitations not demand. Once products are digital they take advantage of cheap storage media, inexpensive communications costs forming Infinite Inventory companies (such as Amazon). Selling every widget on the planet is not only possible it is necessary for survival.
The other day I saw a slight similarity. There was a tiny blip of something I couldn’t quite grasp then I saw it. These two curves are about THE SAME THING. Moore’s product adoption life cycle is Anderson’s long tail and vice versa. I hope, from my example, you can see it too. All products start at A. In Moore’s chasm universe they move toward the chasm and acceptance. In Anderson’s long tail momentum builds pulling products (or ideas) toward the “head” and up and out of the tail. A becomes B when it is past chasms and is firmly out of the tail. B is a nice place to be. You have recognition, wide acceptance and are making lots of coin (if that is what you are after). Life is good.
Guess what happens not long after Life Is Good? If you guessed regression to the mean you’ve seen this movie before. There is a “jinx” about Sports Illustrated. You DO NOT want the cover of the magazine. The cover is a jinx. Once you are on it you are sure to stumble. This is a perfect example of “serendipitous logic”, or the incorrect assignment of credit to where it seemed correctly assigned but was, in point of fact, simply chance. Sports Illustrated picks people just after the height of personal bell curves. Stumbling after being on the cover is simply life’s most brutal truth – regression to the mean.
You can’t stay in the head or top of the bell curve. This truth is an example of an even larger truth. Life is not fair. Products are born; fight for awareness and acceptance and they “die” back. Some die out. Smart ones find ways to stretch and slow regression to the mean. Some really smart ones find ways back into the head. A loyal tribe may never completely vanishe. The company hangs in, continues to improve and serve loyal customers. One day they find a new spin or a new tribe and as quick as you snap your fingers they have another day in the sun, another march up the tail, another climb up the bell.
Marketers tend to think of their work as qualitative, as math. In fact, marketing is always alchemy mixing art, since and humanity. Another post needs to think about how Google effects Pareto distributions (I think it shortens head and elongates tail just as digital shelf space does but not sure). Simon Schama is discussing Van Gogh’s 80/20 rule. How, you ask, can art have a Pareto distribution, a repeatable fractal? Surely art is organic. Art is life. Yes, Art is life, but art is also, at least in the case of Van Gogh, money. Everyone knows the irony of Vincent’s inability to sell two paintings in his tortured life. Not such a problem these days. Add up all Van Gogh nascent money, assign it to his paintings and graph it and guess what. 20% of Vincent’s paintings have made 80% of money VV never saw. Vincent’s Pareto distribution.
Related Posts:
Martin's Long Tail
Infinite Inventory
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Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Martin's Long Tail
Martin's Long Tail At Lunch and Learn
Last Friday I presented Martin's Long Tail at our company's first "Lunch and Learn". Lunch and Learn are lunch meetings where someone who works in a specialized field helps others who don't work in the same area understand what they are doing. Martin's Long Tail discusses how Moore's Law, Metcalf's Law and Wired Editor Chris Andserson's Long Tail influence web Marketing.
See Martin's Long Tail on Slide Share or play slide show below.
Sunday, April 5, 2009
All Detergent = Not Viral
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Museum Rat Returns
Cezanne and Beyond
Heading to Philadelphia in five days to visit an old friend. Is it strange to call The Philadelphia Museum of Art an old friend? I love this museum. Its Marcel Duchamp collection alone would move it to my top five. I love the museum itself, the Greek-Revival columns and towering edifice proclaim greatness. It is so LARGE and IN CHARGE in a turn of the century way you could never duplicate now.
It may seem strange to lead this post with Picasso's The Dream, 1932. The point of Cezanne and Beyond is to tie Cezanne's innovations to other artists. Innovation fascinates me. Art intrigues me and any show that swings from Cezanne to Ellsworth Kelly has my attention.
I lean more to Frank Gehry than Greek-Revival, but Philadelphia's museum is an exception. I love the impossible number of stairs to get to the front door. Note the surreal way they used the stairs in their Dali show (below). Stairs made famous by Sylvester Stallone for their workout value in Rocky are humbling. Once your breath comes back, you enter the museum quietly. Humble is how you should enter one of the largest museums in the United States. Humble is how I will enter for my fifth time (or so) next weekend to learn how a banker's son, Paul Cezanne, changed art history.
Martin
(a.k.a. the Museum Rat)
Note surreal use of stairs for Dali show.
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