When I wrote my post on phone books, I didn’t expect to get some passionate responses in the comments area. I didn’t expect anyone to be so excited about phone books to argue passionately about the benefits of phone books.

One point really struck me as interesting by "kenc". He said, among other things, "The nearly $18 billion that companies spend on print and online YP speaks for itself."

His point, is that since people spend so much on advertising, it must be successful for them.

To that, I respond, "Huh?"

It reminds me of Cosmo Kramer in Seinfeld. In Episode #822, "The Summer of George," Jerry asked Kramer why the producers wanted Kramer to fire Raquel Welch. His response was:

Because they’re terrified of her. I heard from someone that when they cut one of her lines, she climbed up the rope on side of the stage and started dropping lights on peoples heads. Story like that has got to be true.

"A Story Like That Has To Be True!"

Just because businesses spend $18 million on an advertising medium doesn’t mean a darn thing. Business leaders waste money for a variety of reason. Not the least of which is because a skilled salesman showed them a stat that had to be true.

I am sure that some people see success. I would imagine that there are some companies that see success because of phone book advertising… and those are the stats that are bandied about. I tend to think that for the masses, it is a waste of money. In fact, even for those that are successful, I bet there are far better ways to spend those dollars.

Give me some proof other than conjecture and anecdotal evidence and I might change my mind.

So, I was doing a little maintenance on LinkedIn and saw this fancy little ad for Microsoft Vista Ultimate.

Of course, I had to click on the ad because I was curious to know what spin Microsoft was going to put on Windows Vista now trying to prove to public at large that Vista is a "stellar" product. Just because I use it, that doesn’t mean that I think it is a great product.

Funny thing happened when I clicked through. I ended up at their Small Business Center Site and see this error message:

So, in order to see this at it’s best, I have to download a piece of software that isn’t even a final release, wait for it to install and then restart my browser? Oh, and I couldn’t see the whole error in FireFox… only if I logged in with Internet Explorer. On FireFox, I wouldn’t have any idea what to do.

Of course, in small print at the bottom, I can see in HTML, but I bet most people that would end up here would click the big install button.

So, here is the best part… I decided to install the update to see what I would get… to see why it was so much better in a technology that is not in final release and requires me to take a minute or so of my time to install.

When I installed, it told me to restart my browser. I did. Opened it to my normal home page. No way of knowing (unless I copied it for this blog) where the page is.

So, the brilliance of all this is:

1. Pay for click through to your site.
2. Tell people to install your software.
3. Tell them to leave.
4. Don’t provide a way to get them back.

By the way, it is not worth the install or the time spent viewing the videos because they don’t tell you anything that you can’t already do, more easily on your Mac.

I find it fascinating how often I.T. is assigned to the task of building a website. For the uninitiated, this may seem like a logical thing to do. After all, a website is technology and requires programming and stuff, right?

Wrong.

A very small part of a website is programming. A very small part of a website is technology. Oh, it might take a lot of work. It might be a requirement for the site to function properly, but I.T. should really not have a say in what the customer sees… the face or the marketing aspect of the site.

In my opinion, here are the top five components of a website… in order of importance.

1. Graphical Presentation - all the pretty pictures. All the pretty buttons. This is the first thing someone sees. This is the first thing that can turn them away.
2. User interface - This tells people where to go. What do they do next, etc. this may be second to the graphical presentation, but it is a very close second.
3. Content - Well, you need to content to put on the buttons and graphics, but there is also core site content. People will see pictures and captions of pictures before they ever see this. The may not even read this.
4. Social aspects - Blogs, forums and support features. If you don’t have the core content or pretty graphics, this won’t matter. It especially won’t matter if people don’t know how to get there from the user interface.
5. Programming - programming comes last. Of course, there may be programming required to accomplish any of the above, it is last for one very important reason. If you don’t have the above figured out, programming doesn’t matter. If your designer doesn’t create graphics, your programmers can’t install it. If you don’t know what you want the user interface to look like, your programmers can’t build it. If you don’t have your content written, your programmers can paste it in.

So, get I.T. out of the website design and put marketing on it. Either get it done with an in house marketing team to do it or outsource it. Either way, don’t depend on I.T. to build you a great website. Oh, they might be able to pull it off, but those types of I.T. people aren’t nearly as common… besides, even if they could, should I.T. really be setting your marketing direction?

I have a few servers hosting my client accounts. I spend a bit of time on occasion with technical support. I prefer the live chat option because I can ask a question and easily do other things while waiting for the answer instead of having to worry about listening… I get to communicate in my time.

I find it interesting on their live chat they have  "Real Photo" (look in the bottom right corner of the pictures). I decided to take a screen shot of the last four that I found… notice the names.

Either they are quadruplets or it isn’t really a "Real Photo."

I am betting they aren’t quads. In fact, I have noticed at least four or five other names with the same picture (since I communicate with them often, I notice these things).

Here’s a thought… if you are going to use real pictures, use real pictures.

Okay… so this is really a shameless plug, but I figure I have a large enough audience here that hopefully it will get some traction.

You may notice from my signature line that I maintain the news at OfficeProductNews.net. I have been maintaining this feed for a few months now… pretty tedious work because no one has standardized how this industry publishes information. My growing readership there shows that I am doing something right…

But, I need your help.

I am looking for opinion pieces or news pieces from companies that are related to copiers, printers and document management. I would love to publish your content and provide links back to your blog, company site or wherever.

You can take a look at the post titled Publish your News, Opinions and Case Studies for Free On Office Product News for more information.

If you know of anyone who would like to post there, please don’t hesitate to forward this message on.

It is an easy way to get a link back and get your message out there as often as you like.

I was looking at some cell phone plans today. What is wrong with this?

I love the line that says, “Whether you have one employee or thousands, T-Mobile as plans that suit your business needs.”

Still don’t see the problem?

They only have three choices. What if I have an employee that only needs 100 minutes? What if I have an employee that needs 1000 minutes?

More than that, why wouldn’t I just just choose the unlimited individual plan for $99.99?

Here’s a clue… if you boast that you have a plan for any need, you better have more than three… you better be flexible in your offerings.

Businesses who blog can take a few different approaches to how the blog can be presented. If you are going to follow a business’ blog, what type of posts would get you to continue to follow that blog?

Option 1 (Fact Based Information):

An informational blog that provides keys bits of information relating to products and services they sell.

Option 2 (Industry Opinions):

An informational blog that provides opinion on topics surrounding their industry and topics that might interest their target market but not necessarily be related to products they sell.

Option 3 (One Big Sales Pitch):

Every post relates to a product they sell with a call to action like "click here to learn more about this product."

Option 4 (A Little of This… A little of That):

A general opinion blog from someone in the company. Wouldn’t be too unlike a blog you would find on MySpace… just random thoughts and personal commentary.

…

So, what do you think? Which is the best option for a business blog?

I mentioned that Justin Foster gave me some very pointed and successful tips to building my personal brand. His marketing agency, Tricycle Brand Management Team is putting on a seminar on how to brand yourself effectively.

Take a look at the details of the event coming up here.

If you are in sales or an entrepreneur that wants to get noticed, I highly recommend it. If you are in Boise doing business, I think it will be worth it.

I am going to be there because I figure there is always someone else that can know me.

Companies who can’t or are unwilling to practice business in a way that allows for a cleaner environment are allowed to purchase carbon credits. Basically, if I emit 100 tons of carbon and am willing to buy 100 tons worth of credits, then I really have a net carbon footprint of zero… now I can advertise that I am a “green” company.

It is really interesting to me that at least 20% of the UN’s Carbon Credits may in fact be bogus. Does it really come as a surprise that the UN would have a program that isn’t actually all that it claims to be?

Now, the UN is trying to change the way Carbon Credits are handled. So, businesses can’t buy credits if the UN thinks there isn’t enough validation in the way wind farms or solar plants or tree planters do things. (I can’t see what could possibly go wrong.)

Still, companies claim that because they buy these credits, it makes up for their poor environmental policies.

(the video might take a moment to load)

I am a fan of big business… I want my little business to become a big business. I am all for profit and capitalism. But, let’s not fool ourselves into thinking that it is okay for us to destroy the environment on our end of the world if we buy a bunch of solar power plants somewhere else in the world.

Did you notice that the bag for Sunchips is not bio-degradable?

Please read “Going Green is Marketing Ploy” Part 1 and Part 2.

In one way, I really hate April. Yesterday, April 22, was Earth Day. The day that people get together and "focus" on the Earth. The real issue that I see is that so many companies get together and pretend to really care about the environment.

As you may know, I maintain a news source for the copier and printer industry. I have been amazed at how many "green" news releases have come out this month when the rest of the year, very little is heard. Everyone seems to think that.

Going green is a way to market products to a different audience. The vocal minority that care enough about this dictate the marketing needs. If it was really important to them, they would do it with no marketing dollars. They would make it a quiet cause… or a cause that wouldn’t net them any gain.

ADD Sidenote: I wonder if they make a greater profit on their own coffee or if they do this because they are so concerned about the environment…

Don’t get me wrong. I love planting trees. I hate wasting water. I try to be efficient. I do hate recycling, though. But, it is one thing to be concerned about the environment and a whole other thing to sell your products based on that… it minimizes your credibility quite a bit.

The question I have… which may never get answered…. if companies maintained the same "green" practices they claim they do but not advertise it, would it make a difference on their bottom line? If it did, should that be an indicator that people don’t really care about the environment but care that people say they care about the environment? If they really cared, wouldn’t they just dump those advertising dollars in to more "green" ventures?

Don’t forget to read part one of Going Green Is a Marketing Ploy.