- March 20, 2019 -

I am probably up there with the most grammar and spelling challenged persons on the planet.

But I can still appreciate these woops from brand names - see if you can spot 'em:

H&M Spelling Oops...not too "smart."

Miller makes a billboard-sized spelling blunder.

McDonalds...awkward.

Turns out that Coke makes four times fewer writing mistakes than Pepsi in its posts on LinkedIn. And General Motors makes two-and-a-half more writing mistakes than Ford.

And it turns out that being a perfectionist in grammar and syntax doesn’t amount to much more than a hill of beans when it [...]

- February 28, 2019 -

I'm sick of my kitchen.

It's over thirty years old. There's nothing wrong with it - it's just outdated and needs an upgrade.

So I brought in one guy. He wanted to rip out drywall, change the whole flow of the kitchen. Great ideas. At the tune of...well, lots of zeros.

I'm visual guy. I need to see a blueprint and some idea of what the finished product would look like.

It's been two months...nada, zip from guy #1.

On to guy #2. A cabinet maker who came with excellent recommendations. He even traveled across the state just to talk with [...]

- January 17, 2019 -

It was a simpler time.

...John McEnroe was still winning Wimbledons.

...Angelina Jolie was still kissing her brother.

...a gallon of gas still rang in at under a buck.

...Russell Crowe brought back the Caesar.

...Frank Kern, Eben Pagan, Andy Jenkins, Jeff Walker and Mike Filsaime hadn't even conceived of "The Syndicate" yet.

Speaking of which...according to Syndicate member Frank Kern, "Have you ever noticed that all the people in the Internet Marketing world are promoting each other? I mean, we're not psychic. It's not like, 'Oh, I suddenly realize he's having a launch today, I have to nail it'. We all [...]

- January 9, 2019 -

One of my buddies was asking me the other day how to market their work when they are a "Jack of all trades."

Been there. Done that. It'll drive you to drink, smoke or whatever your vice of choice is.

My answer:

FOCUS

Focus on the offer that will get one RESULT for them.

Not so much on all you do to GET that result.

Focus on the offer itself.

You need to have a hyper-irresistible offer based on the results you get for them.

Those results may be but are not limited to...

+ More money

+ Faster sales

+ Lower costs

+ More free time

+ Less [...]

- December 18, 2018 -

Pokémon GO.

Cool mobile reboot for the digital age of the original Nintendo Game Boy sensation.

So what does Pokémon GO have to do with marketing?

All shall be revealed...

I've always been a firm believer in direct mail marketing. Cut my teeth on it over 25 years ago (thanks, Dan Kennedy) and continue to use it primarily with our property investment biz.

But I don't only do direct mail marketing. Just dropped 2K in Facebook Lead Ads recently.

Can't say the same for a lot of business owners I talk to...quite a few only rely on Facebook.

I feel a Paul Simon [...]

- December 13, 2018 -

Toll roads.

Nobody likes paying to drive on them, but sometimes they're the only option.

If you've been getting my Contrarian emails for a while, you know that Cheryl has "issues" with traffic violations.

Lots of issues.

Just when I think we've got the speeding problem under control, she finds a new way to be cited.

Most recently, not paying the toll after getting off the Pa Turnpike.

(In her defense, I've done the same thing at the same spot - but let's keep that between you and me.)

What happens is that you get a nasty Violation Notice that makes it sound [...]

- December 5, 2018 -

About ten years ago, Google shut down my Adwords account without any warning. Total wipe-out.

Suddenly my traffic evaporated...POOF.

Just like that. And just like a ton of other Internet marketers.

So I scrambled to get more traffic from other places until I got my account back in good standing…and got certified with Google Adwords as an expert.

Being out of the loop has never been a place I like to be.

But…the #1 most important thing I did (has nothing to do with Adwords) was to do a far better job of using my existing email list.

That major tweak worked [...]

- November 27, 2018 -

First there's Black Friday.

Then comes Cyber Monday hot on its heels.

...except some evidently don't know their days of the week because I'm still getting emails today with subject lines like this: [ENDS AT MIDNIGHT] Art, Our Cyber Monday Sale Ends Tonight!

It's Tuesday, people!

Oh, by the way...I hope you had a happy Thanksgiving!

The highlight at the Basmajian house was my 86-year-old mother doing spot-on impersonations from My Cousin Vinny...accents and all.

...my 5'2" sweet mother.

...doing Vinny Gambino.

You get the idea 🙂

Back to Black Friday and Cyber Monday.

One is all about retail and the other is all online...right?

Actually, there's [...]

- November 5, 2018 -

If Madonna really wanted to make a comeback, she'd be singin' this tune:

'Cause we are living in a "digital" world And I am a "digital" girl.

Whether you like it or not...you're a digital marketer in a digital world.

And it's not going away anytime soon unless the world at large collectively goes on a permanent media fast and...

...ditches cell phones

...and goes back to dial ups and faxes

...smashes computers

...and goes back to paper and pencil and metal file cabinets

Which to be honest, sounds kinda nice.

But in the meantime, to kick off your week...here's a Greatest Hits List of the [...]

- October 31, 2018 -

Bonus points if you knew that the 1981 movie is a remake of the 1946 black and white film with Lana Turner.

No...I've never watched the '46 version. I'm no spring chicken but I'm not quite that old, people.

And no...we're not chatting about the Postal Service today.

We're talkin' email delivery...currently one of the hottest topics.

There's a lot of blame flying around:

...Infusionsoft has crappy email deliverability.

...Mail Chimp has better Open rates.

...my list is telling me my emails end up in their Spam boxes.

...what the heck? How hard can it be to get a darn email into an inbox?

Well, [...]