I really hate to use the phrase “economic downturn” because it probably feeds the fear frenzy, but it’s probably appropriate … and frankly, will probably get more attention than if I didn’t use it!

Anyway, let’s get to the point of this post …

First, you should know that I’m a bootstrapping kind of entrepreneur and marketer. That’s a long way around saying I’m a cheapskate! But I learned my cheapskate mindset from my entrepreneurial grandfather, who built two very successful businesses, so I don’t really ever apologize for it. I think it’s actually a strength for starting a company. (But maybe not growing one! The jury’s still out on that one.)

Anyway, I built my first business around this core passion (bootstrapping) combined with what I found was one of the easiest ways businesses could leverage technology for marketing: their websites.

By and large, most small businesses have terrible websites. Or for better or worse, they don’t even have one.

The majority I’ve seen are ineffective, cut-and-paste online brochures that merely tell people how to call them or find their fax number.

Before I get into some ways you can use your website to actually do something for your business, let me give you some of my biases as they related to business websites:

• I think they should be affordable
  
• I think they should be effective
• I think they should be attractive

If you examine all three of those, you’ll see why we started iThemes I think. OK, now for the meat.

Here are a couple of ways you can relatively easily use your website to boost your bottomline: Read More→

Here are some links to posts that we’ve done at iThemes highlighting some tips and ideas for business web design:

• 5 Tips for Making the Most of Your Business Website
• 3 Tips to Improve Your Online Writing
• Local Search is What Matters
• 5 Tips For Writing Headlines That Work
• What Is SEO and Why Do I Care?
• 5 Reasons to Build Your Own Business Website

I’ve mentioned before that every freelancer as well as small business website should have a contact form on their website. If you’re using WordPress, there are two great free contact form plugins you could start using today.

Actual contact forms are FAR superior to the the old mailto email links, where you click on an email address and it opens up your email software.

Read More→

After drooling over The Flip digital video camera, I went out and got one …. and in my excitement to use it, I started thinking about all the different ways to use it ….

Here are just a couple of productive uses for The Flip:

1. Virtual Home Tours — Real estate agents could do a quick walk around a house with The Flip in hand, talking about the various features of the property.
2. Video Blogging – I plan to do some of this, if I don’t get overly camera shy, but like Darren does, you could talk briefly about your ideas and quickly get them up on your blog.
3. Man-On-The-Street Interviews – This could go for any other quick “on-the-spot” interview, like I’ve seen done in the past at conferences. Please the red record button and start asking questions.
4. Puppies and Kiddos – We don’t have kids, so I added in the puppies here, but as I’ve mentioned before, most events I’ve wanted to record are relatively short — say 5 minutes max — like my beautiful nieces and nephew running around and dragging me along for the ride.
5. Spot News – Weather is the category that comes immediately to mind here — tornadoes, hurricanes, flooding, etc. — but also other “spot” news like, well, you can fill in that blank here.
6. Just Broadcast Yourself — With the handy YouTube upload feature included, you can broadcast you, your stupid human tricks and stunts and whatever else you want.

I’m sure there are a dozen more uses, but do you have more to suggest that I missed?

For the past two weeks or so I’ve been using Twitter … or at least attempting to figure it out.

Today, I saw a “Watch a Video” link on the Twitter home page and clicked on it. It was a neat video explanation of what Twitter is (it’s below too) ….

Then I found Common Craft, the producers of the video, and was even more inspired. Their home page is such an effective tool for a first-time guest like me, and I assume a prospective client. It tells all:

Our product is explanation. We use video and paper to make complex ideas easy to understand. We present subjects “in plain English” using short, unique and understandable videos in a format we call Paperworks.

Now that’s an effective way to say you really know what you’re doing! A fine example of Educational Marketing … or Explanational Marketing.

I’ve been watching with great anticipation Apple’s Steve Jobs’ keynote presentation at Macworld 2008. (I got back into the Mac family a few weeks ago with a MacBook Pro laptop and iPhone.)

I confess though …. I don’t know if I’ve seen one of these presentations before … but, because I’m excited about being a Mac guy again, I have been listening and watching to it here and there as I work tonight.

One of the things that impressed me is how he introduced the new MacBook Air — the world’s thinnest notebook.

It was an amazing marketing presentation …

Here’s what he did and how I really love the way he sold this product: Read More→