The Weakest Link

Going Green Has Moved From Idealism To Smart Business

Erik Johnels — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 18:27:27 +0000

In the past, companies have gone green as part of both an ideology and to send a message about their community responsibility. It’s mostly been considered an expense attributed to Marketing and Public Relations. In the past, the cost of being green has been prohibitive to many small companies. Today it is becoming the exact opposite; [...]

Your New Career 1 – Did You Forget About That Hobby?

Erik Johnels — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 15:58:57 +0000

Think your hobby can’t be turned into a business? Think again! Don’t forget to subscribe to get more of these ideas. 1. The Model Aviator Tommy was a fairly disillusioned call-center operator. He hated frustrated customers almost as much as he hated the company policies that prohibited him from actually helping them. His weekend hobby was to fly model helicopters, [...]

Google KNOL –Opportunity Kicks Down the Door

Erik Johnels — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:28:12 +0000

Today Google launched their KNOL (Short for Knowledge) service. A user contributed knowledge base that can take a huge bite out of for instance Wikipedia. But KNOL has a much more interesting aspect. It is a showcase service for authors, and it has more in common with for instance Digg and Propeller than it does with [...]

The Clickthrough Rate Experiment

Erik Johnels — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 04:14:10 +0000

Click through rates are about as hard to get solid facts on as the Roswell incident. Since Google Adsense prohibit anyone from revealing their CTR. Finding out if you are doing something right or wrong is hard if not impossible when you are starting out. No one can (or wants to) share. And the web is [...]

Five Things Businesswomen Need to Know

Erik Johnels — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 02:05:29 +0000

Alright, so I’m going to lose more than a few PC points here, but i keep seeing the same problems over and over, and applying the same solutions over and over seems to work fine. (I’m using that as proof positive I’m on to something. ) So take it or leave it as you please. [...]

8 Reasons to Quit Your Job and Start a Business

Erik Johnels — Sun, 27 Jul 2008 19:05:40 +0000

The thought has been there… That day when your boss had a bad date the evening before and your supervisor yet again proved that they have no clue what they are doing. That nagging thought that you could do something for yourself. Something that’s what you want. How you want it. Drop that incredible [...]

Online Promotions Will Not Kill Advertising

Erik Johnels — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 19:32:56 +0000

In “The Extinction of Dinosaur Marketers,” I discussed the problems of bringing the old school of hardcore sales and pushy advertising into the new online marketplace. We are starting to see a new trend blooming that is showing exactly this problem. This morning I read an article by Neal Levitt, who is discussing the shift [...]

How To Leverage Social Media Networks

Erik Johnels — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:01:29 +0000

We know that social networks like Digg, Reddit, and Stumble are great for gross traffic, but often send quick stop visitors who don’t convert well to ad-clicks and sales. But how are Social Network users at converting to other social networks? Will a Digger Stumble your post and vice versa? Many do use more than one [...]

Powdered Baby Anyone? – Lost In Translation

Erik Johnels — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 17:28:34 +0000

Marketing professionals sometimes get it wrong. And sometimes get it VERY wrong. Here are some examples of what can happen when local talent isn’t used to verify the international meaning of words and images. Gerber- Your Choice for Ground Baby The Healthy looking Caucasian Baby on the Gerber Baby Formula packages didn’t do well in Africa. It [...]

Obama the Terrorist’s Wife Carrying Bush’s Lovechild

Erik Johnels — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:16:26 +0000

101 Reasons Digg is Burying Itself and 7 Ways To Get Front Paged — So you want to know why your posts aren’t making Digg’s front page? I’m guessing it’s because you wrote something original, it had quality, and you didn’t lie or put a number in the headline. Content is King Crap To be big on Digg, you should forget quality, [...]