This week we look at a recent NPR analysis of how the Washington Post became profitable after Jeff Bezos acquired them. It was as simple as applying the unifying principles behind the 4 pillars of Amazon success and leveraging the Be Like Amazon: Even a Lemonade Stand Can Do It flywheel. I am publishing these weekly over on my Facebook author page.
Jeffrey and I built our business on content. When we first started our agency in 1998, we had zero capital (even rent & grocery money was tough). What we did have, for those of you who really know us, was lots of opinions. So we started writing, first in discussion lists (remember i-sales, etc.), then our own newsletter and then ClickZ. We started blogging before it was even called blogging or even thought of as content marketing. All these years,…
Do you publish content or have a blog? It seems everyone has one today. In the last year or so, many more companies have been in touch, asking us how to improve blog conversions. That could be from blog to actual leads or customers, blog to blog subscribers, blog commenting and sharing increasing, etc. Having recently published on my blog how Jeffrey and I helped Marketo increase their blog visitors to subscribers by 10x, I was asked to present more information…
It is the best of times and the worst of times for some businesses. Many look at the world and see the opportunities of being data rich, customer centric, and nimble while others imagine they can bring their old school thinking to the new media, always-on connected customer. They sit cross-fingered hoping that putting lipstick on their pig will improve their results. Let’s explore two publishers making news recently and learn how one is failing while the other has become…
Is your corporate metabolism a bit sluggish? Are you dragged down by the weight of meeting-itis? Do you need more energy and resources to respond to the ever-increasing demands of your customers? Well I wish I could tell you about the next magical black box, with the persuasive infomercial that promises you miraculous gains without any of the hard work required. If you bought any of these gimmicks before and are tired of their sugar-coated promises and lackluster results, then maybe…
No one knows exactly when the first advertisement was published on a printing press. We do know: In 1609, a British newspaper published an ad for migration opportunities to America. For hundreds of years, ads and print went hand and hand. Then came the Internet. AT&T was the first to pay HotWired to display the first ever online ad; a 468 x 60 banner that came to life on October 25, 1994. Do you remember the days of explosive CPMs?…
In the space of a few weeks I’ve had my material “ripped off” twice. One instance was OK by me, but one instance was not. The differences open up important questions at the forefront of the new rules involving content, sharing, social media, and copyrights. Today, ideas spread quickly. Volumes of great information are shared through Webinars, e-books, and social media tools like Twitter, Facebook, and SlideShare. Tracing an idea, insight, or fact back to its original source can be…
This week marks the 15th anniversary of my good friend Dr. Ralph Wilson’s newsletter, Web Marketing Today. Dr. Wilson’s newsletter was among the first newsletters I subscribed to in the mid nineties that got me started on my path to understanding what was happening on the internet. To this day I still open and read almost every newsletter I get from WilsonWeb.com. Dr. Wilson’s first business venture back in 1995 was designing and building websites for small and medium businesses,…