Out of the many different business models on the web the community based model is one that has grown to epic proportions over the last few years. From social networking sites to free software offers this model is virtually every place you look on the web. This model, according to Michael Rappa, in its pure form allows people/companies to offer up useful products, services or sites to the masses for free in the hopes that their “good will” gesture will come back to them.

The business model stems from the very attributes that have made the Internet so great, providing and receiving information for Free. You may be thinking, “How is this a business model if the provider doesn’t charge anything?” What do people/companies really stand to get from these seemingly self-less gestures? Read the rest of this entry »

At LevelTen, Project Coordinators wear a multitude of hats. The role is never exclusively defined because it bleeds into several areas. Because it is a mixture of so many aspects of the web business, it is important to follow best practices to make things a little less hectic. Whether discussing deadlines with clients or typing meeting notes, there are several items Project Coordinators should keep in mind when doing their job. Read the rest of this entry »

One of the absolute first things that I learned in building long term customer relationships is that keeping existing clients is far easier and more beneficial then having to find new ones. However, here comes the tricky part. Keeping them and keeping them happy is not always as easy as we would like for it to be. One of the key factors in keeping clients is to have a planned approach to provide excellent customer service, consistent communication, clear and concise goals that are addressed and thoughtfulness, showing them that you appreciate there business. Gaining new clients is exciting! This usually means more money, opportunity and challenge; however forgetting about your exiting clients can be detrimental and remembering them is just as important if not more important in cultivating a long term relationship for years to come. Loyalty definitely has a place in this world!

New relationships

Making wins is always exciting,having won a new client, which took hard work and determination, you now need to ensure they are hooked and keep coming back. You must ensure you make an impact right from the beginning and just because you’ve been awarded the work doesn’t mean that it’s time to relax.

I’ve found the easiest way to ensure you provide consistent and quality service from the start is by developing a checklist. This helps me quickly establish a workable partnership with new clients that covers all the items I need for my new business relationship. Read the rest of this entry »

Alright! I never had a childhood dream to become a magician, but the internet has changed many things in my life. Here is the wonderfulness that is Vector Magic. And boy, is it a doozy. Read the rest of this entry »

“Great leaders go forward without stopping, remain firm without tiring, and remain enthusiastic while growing.”
Reed Markham, American Educator

Sometimes I come across these quotes which will change the way I look at the day. I may scribble it down on my notepad and forget about it when I turn the page the next day. I like this one because it is simple and straightforward. No frills, no bullshit. It’s honest. Without discipline you have nothing. Without drive you have nothing. So, what drives you? I keep asking myself that over and over. And what I’ve come to realize is that it’s changing all the time. My drive today may not drive me tomorrow. Maybe I should rephrase the question. What drives you today? A business, too, has a drive. It can be the vision statement or mission statement written down to reiterate the foundation and future of the company. Or the employees who look at that vision statement like it’s a daily motivational quote. I think it’s the employees who keep the business focused, and innovative, through the good times and bad. You cannot rely on a vision statement, but you CAN rely on the people behind it. There are the leaders and the followers, the innovative and the traditional. Whatever your role in an organization, it doesn’t go without saying – without the followers, there would be no leaders, and without the traditional, we would not have the innovative. The environment around you will mold you into the role destined for you. Forcing your role in a company when you have not even defined it can be destructive but also critical for growth. Failure is expected. Without failure, success will not be as rewarding to you. So, I remind you to look at what is driving you today? Make up your own quote or borrow one from a few of the many quotes I have jotted down in the past:

“The trouble is, if you don’t risk anything, you risk even more.”
Erica Jong

“Knowledge has to be improved, challenged, and increased constantly, or it vanishes.”
Peter Drucker

“The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say “I”. And that’s not because they have trained themselves not to say “I”. They don’t think “I”. They think “we”; they think “team”. They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don’t sidestep it, but “we” gets the credit … This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done.”
Peter Drucker

I have mentioned this site in a previous blog post, but I think it is such an amazingly helpful tool that it deserves its own post. HTML Playground, is the best site I have found for those who don’t have a programming background and need to know basic HTML. For Internet Marketers like myself, this site is extremely helpful for the times we need to create an extra content page for a website or when we need to move an image to a different page location.

The Playground is extremely user friendly. Simply select any of the HTML tags listed, and the Playground provides a description of how the tag is used, the attributes associated with the tag, an example of the code, and an example of the result. Users can also play with the sample code to customize the end result to their liking. Playing with the HTML code in this area is of course easier than repeatedly tweaking the HTML code and uploading the page through the FTP.

So if you are new to HTML, play around on this site to gain a better understanding.

Lucky me! According to the Global Rich List, I am in the TOP 0.66% of the richest people in the world! That fact alone was enough to make me rethink my gift giving this year. Instead of sending your friends a bottle of wine or a scented candle, why not make a donation in their name to their favorite cause. The following organizations have all received four star ratings from Charity Navigator, America’s premier independent charity evaluator:

Mentor and Inspire Children
Have a friend that loves kids? Make a real difference in children’s lives by supporting these programs that empower children with art, music, literature, and mentoring.

First Book
First Book is a national nonprofit organization with a single mission: to give children from low-income families the opportunity to read and own their first new books. First Book works with existing community-based tutoring, mentoring, and family literacy programs nationwide, offering them the opportunity to select their own free books. Read the Charity Navigator Review

Big Brothers Big Sisters
Big Brothers Big Sisters mentors children, ages 6-18, in communities across the country. Their mission is to help children reach their potential through professionally supported, one-to-one relationships with mentors that have a measurable impact on youth. Read the Charity Navigator Review
Read the rest of this entry »

On Tuesday, December 4, Tom McCracken, president of LevelTen, concluded his three-part series lecture on Synergy Online Marketing. This final installment of the seminars was held at the Iron Cactus in Downtown Dallas with a beautiful view of the festive Pegasus Plaza.

“Process of Illumination,” enlightened attendees on the process of Synergy Online Marketing by showing how to implement a successful plan. Tom educated us on the planning for marketing through audience, competative, and keyword analysis, as well as site audits and marketing mix. Other important factors in planning are budgets and goals - proper preparedness can increase your likeliness to have a larger return on your investment.
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Every morning when I get up, I spend a little “me time” going over my To-Do list for the day and reading a few articles that I think will help me do a better job as well as inform my clients. Today I was amazed to read about a stealthing marketing initiative that took place by a major advertiser that is on the cusp of something out of Twilight Zone. A&E, is promoting a new show called Paranormal State where some speakers that looked like hypersonic sound beams, a device which uses your skull as a speaker—that is, transmits soundwaves that resonate against whatever surface they hit. So, when the sound hits your head, it sounds like it’s coming form inside your brain, creepy!! So if times weren’t bad enough, now we have major television shows subliminally sending messages into your head as you walk down the street. Am i the only one that sees something very, very wrong about this?

A blogger at GAWKER shares his personal experience:

“Walking westward on Prince St. between Mulberry and Mott Streets, I heard a woman’s voice in my head whispering, “Who’s there? Who’s there?” Not like I “heard” a woman’s voice like when I wear flared jeans with skinny shoes and I “hear” a woman’s voice in my head say, “Wait, you’ve got to be kidding?” but like an actual woman’s voice in my head. This usually means I’ve had a psychotic break. The billboard says 73% of Americans believe and I’m assuming that that means 73% of Americans believe in ghosts. So if that’s true, why try to convert the skeptical/not crazy 27% by beaming voices into their heads? That’s just greedy. Also it leads to a lingering sense of serious mental violation. How soon will it be until in addition to the Do Not Call list, we’ll have a Do Not Beam Commercial Messages Into My Head list?”

There are certain areas that should just not be forced upon people that are walking down the street.

Google Experimental, a new division of Google Labs, is currently testing the idea of letting the user delete and add sites listed in his/her personalized search results using Digg-style features.

If you choose to participate in this experiment, extra functionally will be added to your personalized search results page. If you like a site listing, you can bump its rank to the top by hitting an up arrow button. If you dislike a site, or it does not seem relevant to your query, you can delete it from your personalized results.
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