December 2007

The following posts were written in December 2007.

Sunday, December 30, 2007, 10:37pm

Are Personal Brands Portable?

Sure we have email on our BlackBerry or iPhone, business cards in our pocket, and a website hosted on a server somewhere, but is our personal brand truly portable?  In other words, can we really carry around and promote our personal brand while away from the office or a computer?

Some people are already starting to innovate in this field and others are working hard to spread the word.  I’m finding that this topic interests me.

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Sunday, December 30, 2007, 2:56pm

Turn Customers into Evangelists

Guy Kawasaki lists this as one of “8 Ways to ‘Bring It’” in his article for Entrepreneur.com.  He says:

There are few things that drive a competitor crazier than an unpaid, thunderlizard group of customers who become evangelists for a company. Create a great product or service, put it out there (”let a hundred flowers blossom”), see who falls in love with it, open up your arms to them (they will come running to you), and then take care of them. It’s that simple.

This is exactly what elevated Apple to its current position in the computer and portable device markets.  If you spend more time (and possibly money) to put out a quality product, you’ll save much more in advertising dollars by relying on your customers to spread the word.

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Sunday, December 30, 2007, 9:41am

Becoming a Personal Coach

Small Business Trends has a good post on the Top Ten Opportunities in 2008 for Personal Businesses, #4 of which is “Business and Personal Coaching”.  This is a very interesting (and lucrative) opportunity for those with knowledge of a particular industry, marketing gurus, and other entrepreneurial spirits.  Some personal coaches charge $200+/hour and get it without negotiation - it all has to do with your reputation in the area.  Business Week remarks that blogs are a fantastic way to build exactly that kind of reputation, and with a successful blog you could catapult your career into whatever direction you’d like.  Powerful stuff, no?

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Saturday, December 29, 2007, 11:03pm

Will FrostWire Replace LimeWire?

A new, open source alternative to LimeWire called FrostWire just launched and looks promising.  It looks virtually identical to LimeWire and functions the same as well, minus the annoying nag screens asking you to upgrade to the “Pro” version.  I’m assuming that the creators will make money via advertising on their website as well as revenue from the toolbar that you can optionally install with the main application.  Since my last post discussed using software as a promotional tool, I figured I’d mention an example of the same business model.

If you’re already using LimeWire and like the idea of using an open source alternative, give FrostWire a shot (legally, of course…).

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Saturday, December 29, 2007, 10:04pm

Using Software to Promote Your Website

Most people tend to think of a website promoting a product, not a product promoting a website.  However, when online advertising is at an all-time high and still on the rise, it’s a better time than ever to discuss the idea of a software title promoting a website.  This is exactly what I did with AudioGizmo Ringtone Creator, a one-trick application that creates MP3 ringtones for mobile phones that support them.

In the Fall of 2005, there were very few inexpensive applications that created ringtones and uploaded them to a cell phone via a mobile web browser.  Therefore, I felt the best way to break into the market was to create a product that was simple and easy to use, and that cost less than $10.  I figured that most people interested in creating their own ringtones were younger and, in general, had less money.  Generally the purchases were going to be made by Mom or Dad on behalf of their children, their thinking probably something like “instead of paying $1.99 per ringtone and facing the “please, please, please!” each time a new ringtone comes out, why not just buy them something they can use to create their own?”.  Fortunately for me, this is exactly what happened. (more…)

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