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Archive for January, 2008
January 28th, 2008 by Lani Voivod
Buried deep, deep, deep down in my inbox, I found an email from Sir Kevin Skarritt (Chief Nut at Acorn Creative) containing what appears to be the ultimate one-stop resource for killer mind-mapping resources (more than 30 links in all!), kindly shared by Mashable.com.
If you’re not familiar with mindmapping, it’s VERY cool. Whether you do it with a fancy online tool or with good, old-fashioned paper and pen, it’s a way to:
- Organize your thoughts visually
- “Imitate” the brains non-linear approach to considering problems (and opportunities)
- Share information in a more powerful way
- Capture ideas quickly and constructively
- Summarize, consolidate, and present concepts efficiently and effectively
- BRAINSTORM - by yourself, or with groups!!!
Here are a couple of visual examples:
If you want to know more about mind-mapping and how you could use it in your own life and business, check out this good article, Mindmapping for the Quick-Witted, by self-declared “mindmapping enthusiast” Dr. Vj Mariaraj, or see what Wikipedia has to say about it.
Bottom line: It’s FUN, it’s EFFECTIVE, and it’s a great tool for BRAINSTORMING!
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January 28th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
I got a ping in my email the other day, telling me we’d gotten a new message on our Audio Acrobat line. And when I listened to it, I understood why I’ve been feeling a little crazy recently…but not nearly as much as my dear wife and business partner, since she’s on the receiving end of this so much more than I am.
The receiving end of what, you ask? Take your next 2 minutes and 33 seconds to find out.
Posted in Entrepreneur Diaries | No Comments »
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January 26th, 2008 by Lani Voivod
In his blog post on January 7th, good friend and social networking thought leader Kevin Skarritt flagged an all-important list for me, hubby Allen, and anyone else in the trenches of the Internet Marketing Revolution. This list is Tamar Weinberg’s “Best Internet Marketing Blog Posts of 2007,” which is a super-rad collection of Tamar’s “favorite timeless posts of 2007, complete with descriptions about each blog post (which more than quadrupled the workload for me this time around, especially because I tripled the amount of links, but I had fun!).”
This amazing, exhaustive, well-though-out list has earned Tamar more than 180 comments and trackbacks (which means more attention to her site by people AND search engines!), not to mention the GRATITUDE of peers, bloggers, and professionals in the internet marketing community who love the idea of a fully-loaded resource of information and inspiration like this, all in one place.
What a fab way to “A-Ha Yourself!” - take the initiative to collect, order, and share information you know will help you and countless others down the road. Smart, efficient, considerate, pragmatic…basically, ultra keen all around.
Did I mention the list contains more than 250 well-considered and laser-summarized links to top-notch articles and resources around the World Wide Web? Here are the categories Tamar covered:
- Social Media Sites: General
- Facebook
- Digg
- Reddit
- StumbleUpon
- LinkedIn
- Twitter
- Mixx
- del.icio.us
- Sphinn
- Social Media and Social Media Marketing
- General Internet Marketing
- Viral Strategies
- Link Resources
- Blogging: General
- Blogging: Inspiration
- Blogging: Promotion
- Content Generation
- Reputation Management
- Video Articles
- BusinessSearch Engine Optimization
- Search Engine Stuff
- Web Development
- Search Marketing Tools
- Paid Search
- Recommended Books
- Affiliate Sites
- Domaining
- And finally, Techipedia’s Best Posts for 2007
Look, I’m exhausted just PASTING the names of the categories. Tamar’s devotion to sharing the articles within these categories - AND commenting about each one! - is truly a feat of Herculean proportions. If I’m lucky and honest, I’ll get around to scanning a dozen or so of the articles she recommends. Still, the fact that they’re all in one place - and now I’ve got ‘em on OUR blog for super easy reference! - this makes me so happy I could spit like a teething llama.
(Oh, and what a great example of the power of ARTICLE MARKETING, eh? Each one of these authors is now being celebrated as a “best of 2007″ expert by an industry insider. Bingo!)
Insight + Action = Success
Thank you, Tamar!
Posted in How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Insight + Action | No Comments »
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on Saturday, January 26th, 2008 at 2:33 am and is filed under How do you "A-Ha Yourself"?, Insight + Action.
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January 25th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
 You know those funny signboard pictures that get forwarded around via email forever?
Well, I just emailed the photo at right to my father-in-law, who’s bound to send it to four dozen people - many of whom like to forward emails out to four dozen other people. So if you happen to get it in your email, you’ll know where it came from.
For the record, this is just one convenience store on state road NH 107. On the same road are a couple of gas stations with mini-marts inside, there’s another convenience store half a block up at the next turn, plus two full-on grocery stores AND two pharmacies within a five-minute drive.
But…
Out of all of them, the Case ‘n Keg is the only one with a signboard. And they make good use of it. In case you didn’t recognize it, that’s Content Marketing right there, and they’ve made me a fan (and a regular customer) with this and other related signs “Save Water, Drink Beer” was the last one - not as logical as the current one, perhaps, but still enough to put a smile on your face.
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on Friday, January 25th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Mood Boosters.
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January 25th, 2008 by Lani Voivod
 I like Mike Levy.
I don’t know this guy. In fact, I just “met” him here at my kitchen table, while I was drinking my coffee, breastfeeding my 3-and-a-1/2-month-old baby boy, scanning my email, and thinking about my day. You know, the usual.
But from this brainstorming article I just read - combined with a hasty scoot over to his own company’s homepage - I can tell he’s a guy with a signature style, a can-do spirit, and a deeply rooted reverence for the power of brainstorming.
Mike advocates “private thinking campaigns” as a way to make business brainstorming sessions far more productive and successful than what they become when a group of people show up assuming someone else has done the preliminary brain work. Or worse, when they think an hour of cross-yapping is supposed to give birth to the one single shining idea that’ll then be shoved into the turn-key marketing system and expected to perform by a certain date and time, or else its plug is pulled forever.
Now, don’t get me wrong, one single shining idea CAN be born in a typical corporate petri-dish brainstorming session (”The Petri Dish Method,” I call it)…IF the planets are properly aligned, or else the room is filled with consummate brainstorming pros who know how to play, trust, focus, jibe, bounce off each other, loosen up, accept-and-add, and go along for wild-toad ride that is a kick-butt brainstorming session. (*Or, if a good, strong, seasoned brainstorming coach like myself or Mike comes in and leads the team to brainstorming victory. ;-)*)
But Mike knows and respects the real rules of the game. Which is to say, creativity can be fluffed and optimized, but it plays by its own rules - NOT those of the linear-thinking majority.
As the owner of a company that champions brainstorms - and as the “Chief Scribbler” of the Wild Quills Blog, and thus an active champion of writing and creativity and its power to transform lives - I know Mike’s recommendations work.
Laying the groundwork. Clarifying your goal(s).
Setting your intention(s). Voicing expectations. Using a timer.
Obeying the rules of “free writing.” Riffing off your writing’s “center of gravity.”
These tools work. They may sound simplistic, but they’re not. They take commitment, discipline, belief, trust, and the ability to LET GO and TRUST THE PROCESS.
So thanks, Mike. I enjoyed our time together this morning. And if you don’t mind, I’m going to paste an excerpt from your article, including your rules of free writing.
Whatever the goal, fix it firmly in mind, and start the timer. You now have seven minutes to talk to yourself about the goal.
Delve into it any way you see fit. If you want to write about your company’s history in pursuing the goal, great. If you want to write about the people involved in reaching it, do it. If you want to talk about your dreams or fears surrounding it, here’s your chance.
The only thing you must be sure to do is obey the simple rules of free writing:
-
Write quickly (without slowing or stopping for any reason)
-
Write honestly (no one but you will see what you’ve written)
-
Write discursively (our best thinking often comes indirectly)
-
Write without worrying about style, punctuation, or grammar
And with screaming baby on my lap, I say to you and the world at large: PEACE OUT!
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January 24th, 2008 by Allen Voivod
Last year, I wrote a post about the power of testimonials. It was related to the fact that we’d given a testimonial to Alexandria “The Ezine Queen” Brown for her Online Success Blueprint in a Box.
As a result of that testimonial, I got invited to share the spotlight with a few other businesses on a preview call to her list for the live version of the workshop she gave in November 2007. Not bad, eh?
 Well, I’m bringing it up again because, about this time two years ago, Lani and I bought the “In a Box” version of the late 2005 live workshop. And true to form, Ms. Brown is now releasing an updated version of the Blueprint, recorded live at the November 2007 workshop. (You’ll see our testimonial about it between 1/3 and 1/2 way down the page at that Blueprint link.)
There’s a historical reason why she only releases 147 copies of the boxed version each year, but for the life of me, I can’t remember why. Regardless, it’s out there, and the last I heard, about 35% of them had already been snatched up (about 50 or so of the 147).
So I’d be remiss if I didn’t share the news with you. Ali’s one part of our Holy Trinity - Adam Urbanski and Melanie Benson Strick are the other two - who helped us get where we are today, and we highly recommend the Blueprint in a Box if you’re thinking about building your own online empire.
Get your copy right here, but if you’re gonna do it, it’d better be soon!
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on Thursday, January 24th, 2008 at 5:13 pm and is filed under Dances With Gurus.
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January 23rd, 2008 by Allen Voivod
Talk about getting in under the wire! Joe Pulizzi and Junta42 just announced their inaugural list of the Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs - and wonder of wonders, The “A-Ha!” Blog came in at #42!
(Pulizzi must be a Douglas Adams fan - he picked the number 42 because of its significance in Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series - more on that from Wikipedia).
 I want to say a special thank you to Patsi Krakoff, one half of the dynamic Blog Squad, who nominated us for the award. Her Writing on the Web blog ranked in at #25, so she’s no slouch herself! 
Here’s the full press release with more information:
Junta42-The Social Bookmarking Site Dedicated to Content Marketers-Celebrates Its Launch by Announcing The Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs
-Honors go to Millward Brown’s ‘Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis,’ David Meerman Scott’s ‘Web Ink Now,” ‘Copyblogger’ and Others -
Cleveland, OH (PRWEB) January 23, 2008 - Junta42, a “digg-like” social bookmarking site focusing on content marketing, custom publishing and branded content, celebrated its launch by announcing the “Junta42 Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs“. The list, which was composed by comparing several blogs’ relation to content marketing, their post length/depth, regularity/frequency, overall content value and Google page rank, includes some of the best known marketing blogs, as well as up-and-comers on the verge of being discovered by the marketing community.
Junta42’s mission is to help businesses learn how to create better content, thus maximizing their overall communications initiatives. To do so, Junta42 has created a framework of content marketing articles, white papers, tutorials and case studies-all of which it makes available via various modes of content marketing (video, podcasts, social media applications, etc). Junta42’s Top Content Marketing Blogs list is a natural extension of its overarching goal of exposing great content.
“The Top 42 Content Marketing Blogs is an invaluable list for any marketing professional who needs to learn how their business can attract and retain customers by producing great content,” stated Joe Pulizzi, founder and chief content officer for Junta42. “While some of the Top 42 do not focus entirely on content marketing or custom publishing, all of them, in some way, help teach marketers how to create, distribute and market content through diverse forms of media.”
The top five blogs include:
- Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis, Millward Brown’s Chief Global Analyist
- Web Ink Now from Successful Author and Speaker David Meerman Scott
- Conversation Agent from Valeria Maltoni, a Leading Author and Marketing Thought Leader
- Marketing Interactions from Ardath Albee, Founder of the Marketing Consultancy of the Same Name
- Buzz Marketing for Technology from Paul Dunay, Director of Global Field and Interactive Marketing for BearingPoint
Other top blogs include Copyblogger by Brian Clark (#7), Seth Godin (#37) and Guy Kawasaki (#59).
The full list is available at: http://www.junta42.com/top_42_content_marketing_blogs.
For more information about Junta42 or The Junta42 Top Marketing Blogs, please contact Pam Kozelka at pam [at] zsquaredmedia.com or refer to the selection criteria and ranking system. To learn more about the custom content revolution, see Junta42’s video series on educating marketing professionals about the power of content, as well as its content marketing resource center.
About Junta42
Junta42 is the leading media site dedicated to everything content marketing and custom publishing. As of its official January 2008 launch, Junta42 boasts an archive of over 1,000 of the best content marketing articles on the Web from approximately 250 marketing-focused media sites, blogs, and businesses. Presented as a social bookmarking vehicle, the site is dedicated to marketing professionals who want to attract customers through valuable and relevant content creation and distribution. In Spring 2008, Junta42 is launching the “eHarmony of business content” called Junta42 Match–a service that will match businesses who need turnkey content with expert custom publishers and content providers.
Junta42 is a division of Z Squared Media, LLC.
And here’s the full list (with thanks to Michael Stelzner - #23 on the list - from whose blog I grabbed a nicely formatted and pre-linked version). Our recommendation - use your Google Homepage, or your RSS feed aggregator (Google Reader does it, and it’s built into Firefox) to keep track of these valuable blogs, and check ‘em out over the course of the next few weeks. Heck, that’s what I’ll be doing as soon as I finish this post!
1. Straight Talk with Nigel Hollis
2. Web Ink Now
3. Conversation Agent
4. Marketing Interactions
5. Buzz Marketing for Technology
6. ContentMarketingToday
7. Copyblogger
8. Web Strategy by Jeremiah
9. Daily Fix
10. Influential Marketing Blog
11. Logic+Emotion
12. CK’s Blog
13. Rexblog
14. BeTuitive
15. Consumer Generated Media
16. Diva Marketing Blog
17. The Origin of Brands
18. The Viral Garden
19. What’s Next
20. Bernaise Source
21. Drew’s Marketing Minute
22. Made to Stick
23. Writing White Papers
24. Greg Verdino’s Marketing Blog
25. Writing on the Web
26. Joe Wikert’s Publishing 2020
27. AttentionMax
28. Brand Autopsy
29. Branding & Marketing
30. Eat Media Blog
31. Passion2Publish
32. Think Tank - King Fish Media
33. The Lonely Marketer
34. Custom Publishing Council Blog
35. ExperienceCurve
36. Marketing Whims
37. Seth’s Blog
38. THINKing
39. Inspire Action
40. Pandemic Blog
41. Relevant and Valued
42. The A-Ha! Blog
Posted in All About Content, Press 'n Such | 1 Comment »
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January 22nd, 2008 by Lani and Allen
By Lani & Allen Voivod, aka “The Content Lovers” of Epiphanies, Inc.
If you’re a small business owner, you know that cash flow is the number one killer of small and microbusinesses. We owners are time-crunched, and the tasks we choose to do at the beginning of a day rarely match up with the list of things we actually did at the end of the day.
Considering this triple whammy, it’s no surprise the idea of marketing planning tends to get a big “Why bother?” out of people.
One of our new clients, Fox Hill Remodeling in Nashua, NH, has a lot going for it. They had a great year financially and project-wise in 2007. They’re about to launch a new “3-Week Kitchen” concept that blows the doors off average renovation project timeframes. And they’ll be appearing at five home shows this year, whereas in past years they only did one.
They understand the importance of how marketing boosts a business’ success. But when it comes to marketing planning, they raised a question we hear from a lot of other businesses, too:
“Why should I spend money on a plan, when I could just spend it on the marketing itself?”
That question touches all the core issues we flagged in that first paragraph. Owners want to spend their money wisely, they don’t have time to waste, and they know what happens to the best-laid plans of mice and men.
But…
Without a good solid plan in place to guide, track, automate, and oversee the next 12 months of your marketing efforts, how will you make sure:
• The money you spend on one-off marketing efforts serves the Big Picture success of your business?
• You’ve got something – more sales, more clients, more revenue, a better reputation, more respect in your field or community, increased brand awareness, etc. – to show for your marketing efforts and investments?
• Your business has a stronger, more consistent and more solid foundation, online and off?
• You’ve increased ways and incentives for people to “take the next step” with you – whether that means spending money, investing time and energy, recommending you to their friends and associates, or simply thinking of you next time they need your particular product, service, or expertise?
• You stay competitive, creative, focused, and realistic about what you can do with the budget and resources you have?
The simple answer? You can’t, and you won’t.
Ouch. Not good, for your business OR your bottom line.
Still, when cash flow is everything, it’s hard to justify spending thousands of dollars just to have someone give you yet another to-do list you:
a) Can’t see the value of
b) Don’t think you have the time, money, or resources to implement, or
c) Fear won’t produce results
More than anything, then, you need to know what separates a waste-of-time marketing plan from a customized, focused, professionally-crafted marketing plan designed specifically around your business’s short and long term success.
A customized, focused, professionally-crafted marketing plan:
• Begins with your end goals in mind.
• Develops everything around your core message, mission, and vision.
• Aims to communicate with your distinct target market, using their language, solving their unique problems, and highlighting the benefits only you can deliver to them.
• Makes the most of your marketing budget, helping you track the impact and effectiveness of marketing campaigns and outreach efforts.
• Is solid enough to weather any storms, yet flexible enough to seize opportunities when they come along.
• Delivers results.(!)
Odds are, you wouldn’t trust a home builder who chucked a bunch of wood and nails in a pile and told you he could build your dream home from scratch based on nothing but whims and instincts. Why, then, do so many business owners trust their reputations, growth, and revenue-generating opportunities to accidental marketing?
While there may not be any guarantees in life – especially when it comes to marketing – there are ways to exponentially increase the chances of quantifiable, measurable success with the right strategic plan in place.
So, if you’ve never before invested in a plan to streamline your marketing, boost your bottom line, rev-up your reputation, and produce measurable results, this would be a great time to give it a try.
After all, what do you have to lose except the nagging feeling that you could’ve done better this year and the years to follow, if only you had set a plan in place to make it happen?
WANNA USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR EZINE OR WEBSITE?
Please do! Just kindly include this blurb with it:
(c) 2008 Epiphanies, Inc. As the “Content Lovers” of Epiphanies, Inc., Lani & Allen Voivod help lifestyle entrepreneurs and million-dollar small businesses ‘A-Ha Themselves!’ in fun, innovative, and profitable ways. For FREE articles, tips, and strategies designed to catapult your content and electrify your business, sign up for their ezine, ‘The Inciter,’ at EpiphaniesInc.com!
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