Saturday, January 6, 2007

Zeroed in on a Web host.

After some serious searching, I've decided to give my money to HostMonster. At first, BlueHost looked good, but a blog entry from a guy who researched the two found out they are the same - except HostMonster is bigger, faster and with newer equipment for less money. A no-brainer.
     It’s $6.95/mo. if you sign up for the two year package. Okay, it’s all payable in advance, but there’s no contract and you can receive a pro-rated refund if you decide it isn’t for you. Plus, you not only get unlimited domains for free (no fee, yearly or otherwise, as long as you're with them), they have a blocking feature that prevents the nosy from finding out who owns your domain. There’s a ton of features available, so check ‘em out at the link below V.
     CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP FOR HostMonster.COM NOW, and I'll pick up some change for recommending them. Also, feel free to give feedback if you're already using them. UPDATE: I've been using them for a while now, and I've got no complaints. Customer service has been good. When I had questions about certain things not working, they "intuited" I had been playing around with settings better left untouched.

Friday, January 5, 2007

This blog is MONETIZED!: Update...

So, I'm checking my bank account online when I come across this line:

01/04/2007 ACH CREDIT GOOGLE ADSENSE REVENUE SH $0.64

Now, as it turns out, that money was to verify the payout account. Their haven't been any REAL clickthroughs yet. So, to help that along, I'll be putting up some affiliate links that I've researched.

More soon.

Wednesday, January 3, 2007

Where's the beef?

The late Sarah Peller, (in)famous for the line in the title, nailed it. When you want something of substance, you ask for it.

I just posted a blog entry over at eBay - you'll probably see it in my eBay blog links on the left. In it, I was asking for feedback (but avoid using that word in eBay blogs - you get a lot of comments about EBAY feedback, which is a touchy subject to many) on two listings I am testing through Sunday.

The silence was deafening. IMNSHO, most bloggers over there are social animals, beggars for bids or compleat lunatics. The notion that I would ask a marketing question to a bunch of marketers and buyers and get NOTHING is telling.

Perhaps postcards2go will notice and respond to that and this.

[Sigh]

Another customer service tale.

After a busy, productive day with much good feedback from others online, I drop by the corner market just before work. I chat with the counterman, who's the spitting image of a guy who is the most miserable person I've known in quite a while. As I turn to leave, Bill, the counterman asks, "You have a minute?"

My default response, when asked this is, to silently start counting down: 59, 58, 57, until I reach 0 and cut 'em off in midsentence. Bill reaches into his pocket and says, "You made a purchase a few weeks ago." He pulls out his wallet. "You forgot your change." He handed me a five dollar bill.

This made my day. Talk about each employee being a "brand manager"! And his name! Oh, the irony/synchronicity!

Monday, January 1, 2007

ARRGH! I forgot I'm choosing my own fonts to display Web pages! The horror! The Horror!

Gee, I thought I had "tweaked" the look of my background, link colors and fonts. Then I noticed the blog title font didn't change when I switched it to Georgia, just to see how it looked. I had forgotten that I used the "impose my will upon all Web pages" checkbox in my browser.

Being a former letterpress printer, I'm very conscious about font selection, appearance and "typotecture". The font I "force" upon all Web pages is Franklin Gothic Book (18 pt., for technical reasons which have to do with how Web designers can really screw up typesetting). When I switched off the Franklin Gothic Book and saw how I was being *actually* displayed, I was amused/horrified. The closest to my favorite font was, allegedly, according to the Fonts menu in Windows, Trebuchet. That's the font I had chose for most of the layout.

ARRGH! Wrong! It looked awkward, adolescent, stringy! Arial to the rescue, since I can't import my font (at this point, anyway - I've got too much else to do and worry about). Trebuchet as the sub head to the Blog Title. That's it. Heh, the default was the best, for the most part.

Yet another chore for the punchlists of 2007 - wrestle creative control over Web pages, blogs, etc.

The "Theory of Everything" T-Shirt slogan.

Physicists are striving to quantify the four forces of physics, a "Theory of Everything". Without boring you to tears, they want a single equation to explain gravity, electromagnetism, and a couple of subatomic forces you can look up yourself: Strong & Weak. One noted scientist explained that it would be an equation you could fit on a t-shirt.

Self-branding is about the same thing, without the clipboard and lab coat. One strives to sum up everything in a pithy, well written sentence. Or two. The trick is to understand what the strongest brands have that I don't - yet. And, no, it ain't a slogan. It's congruency.

Coming up with that slogan means you are committing to it. Choose wisely - the less congruent you are with it (and it with you), the weaker your brand will be. Contrariwise, selecting the perfect slogan in advance (cart-before-the-horse methodology) means you will grow towards each other in an organic, meaningful way. There's no guaranteeing you won't outgrow each other. Hope that it's you that's doing the outgrowing!

Already tried and rejected by me, as Vince Runza Online:

It's the customer, stupid.
I'm not for everyone, but that can be good!
Always Busy (saw this one chiseled into the facade of a building in Downtown Scranton)
Good Products, Good Service
Bootstrap entrepreneurship
It's not work if you love doing it. It's even better if you get paid for it!

Okay, it's a work in progress. Feedback? Smart-alecky responses welcome!

Sunday, December 31, 2006

Happy New Year.

Traditions are a good thing. Despite the floccinaucinihilipilification (sorry, it's the perfect word) of those that figure January 1 is just another number, I find a positive value in holidays, special days and National Pickle Week (yes, that actually exists).

I remember seeing a cable access show hosted by a rabbi. Being a lapsed Catholic, I'm fascinated by all takes on religion. The import of this episode was the real value of Jewish holidays. Being forward-looking is a key to being happy and well-adjusted. All those holidays (which many Jews can't even spell) are designed to create a healthy sense of anticipation.

New Year's Day can really bum out those who have nothing to look forward to, aside from a few broken resolutions. By contrast, I'm actually impatient to get past this day. I've got a helluva lot to do! Let's do this!

[pop] A toast! Happy New Year!

Love,
Vince