I realize almost every business owner knows they should have a strategy but, unfortunately, it’s too easy to skip important parts that can have a serious impact on the final direction you follow.

In helping you with your strategy, I was fortunate enough to snag a 34-minute phone interview with marketing guru, Jay Kerness.

A quick background about Jay.

Jay is a veteran marketing and advertising executive. He is also President and cofounder of J Street Consulting, a leading strategic consulting firm in Washington, DC.

Jay received his MBA from Harvard University and has over 20 years experience marketing national brands like General Motors, Keebler, MCI, Lockheed Martin, and many others. His agency background includes Leo Burnett Advertising, Arnold Communications and Rainmaker Interactive.

So without further adieu, here’s the interview (embedded flash video).

Olympic Marketing Series
Part 1: Strategy to Success

I look forward to hearing your feedback and any questions you may have.

Also, if you subscribe to our email newsletter, you can download Part 1 in all it’s media formats including; m4v, flv, mp3, 3g, and a PDF transcript of the entire interview.

The newsletter is free, delivered straight to your inbox, and you can easily unsubscribe at any time. So go ahead and subscribe now.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

Just as we’re five minutes from launching the Olympic Marketing Series, good ‘ol Murphy decides to come for a visit.

You know Murphy, as in Murphy’s law? We’ll we got a heapful of love from him today.

Seems WordPress 2.6 has a bit of a bug in it — changes your permalink structure so none of your pages (except the home page) show up.

A big, fat, 404 error.

For those of you running into the same issue, here’s how to fix your WordPres 2.6 upgrade 404 issues.

Thanks for your patience, we’ll be launching the OMS shortly.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

Athletes from all over the world having been training for a minimum of fours year — some their whole life — for a chance to prove their mettle and bring home the Gold.

It’s truly going to be an exciting time.

I’m a huge fan and support the Olympics. Not as an official sponsor but as a citizen of the world who respects the perseverance, dedication, and sacrifice it takes to achieve a goal.

Although I have come to terms that I will never pole vault 18 feet, I have dedicated the last 16 years to learning the art, strategy and marketing of the advertising and design world. And it is within these realms I am proud to announce we will be launching the Olympic Marketing Series on Thursday, August 7 (after I’ve watched the open ceremonies).

The Olympic Marketing Series

The Olympic Marketing Series promises to be a powerful sequence of marketing and advertising information and creative tips to help YOUR business.

Currently, this is looking to be a 10 part series presented in a variety of formats; text, PDF, audio, and video.

We will be providing inside information covering a range of topics from strategy, domain names, and branding to email marketing, business marketing materials, websites, business blogs, traffic generation and much more.

Preliminary Series Outline

• Part I: Strategy to Success
• Part II: Domain Name Enlightenment
• Part III: Working Your Location
• Part IV: The ID, The Ego, and the Super Logo
• Part V: Calling All Cards
• Part VI: Creating Killer Marketing Materials
• Part VII: Spinning Your Own Web
• Part VIII: Pinging Your Business
• Part IX: Relationship Marketing
• Part X: Essential Offline Advertising Tips

A Special Surprise

With the launch of the Olympic Marketing Series, I have a special surprise.

A leading strategy and marketing consultant has agreed to kick off the series with an interview. I’m really excited to have this person on-board as the interview promises to be filled with great information.

The interview will be posted here in streaming audio format. It’s a definite “don’t miss”.

And, if you’re a subscriber to our email newsletter, you will also get access to download a free (PDF) transcript of the entire interview plus the mp3 recording.

If you haven’t subscribed to our newsletter, you can do so here. It’s free and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Thanks.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

Earth Hour is about taking a stand against the greatest threat our planet has ever faced — global warming.

(Embedded Video)

With the simple act of turning off your lights for one hour on March 29, 2008, you can take part in an event that is sweeping the globe.

And just how much of an impact can turning off your lights for a mere 60 minutes have? Consider this;

Earth Hour: March 31 2007. For one hour, Sydney, Australia made a powerful statement about the greatest contributor to global warming — coal-fired electricity — by turning off its lights. Over 2.2 million Sydney residents and over 2,100 businesses switched off, leading to a 10.2% energy reduction across the city.

In 2008, 24 global cities will participate in Earth Hour at 8pm on March 29. And as of this writing, over 206,000 people and 15,000 businesses have also signed on to do their part.

(Embedded Video)

There are many ways to get involved, from spreading the word or holding your own Earth Hour event, to making Earth Hour part of your everyday life at home and at work.

1. Sign up for Earth Hour 2008
2. Get involved and create a bigger, better Earth Hour
3. Reduce your impact on climate change
4. Learn how to organize Earth Hour in your town or local community. Download the PDF
5. Buy an Earth Hour T-shirt to show your support

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

Even more importantly, proper email etiquette can save you (and all your recipients) a whole bunch of time. According to an August 2006 report by Information Mapping, Inc., 65% of U.S. employees spend 1-3 hours reading email on an average workday. One to three hours! And another 12% spend more than three hours. That’s huge. Like up to half of their day huge. I can’t even imagine what that equals in actual dollars paid by employers.

65% of U.S. employees spend 1-3 hours reading email on an average workday. And another 12% spend more than three hours.

Email Etiquette: Top ten essential email practices employees should follow on a daily basis.

1. DON’T TYPE IN ALL CAPS
   This is the equivalent of screaming at someone. If you need to emphasize something, keep capitalization to ONLY the word you need emphasize. Other than that, it’s just plain rude.
2. Don’t mark all emails as High Priority (!!)
   This option is meant to be used ONLY when something is really, really, really important. If you mark all your email as high priority, it’s essentially the same as crying wolf and pretty soon, even emails that really are important will be dismissed entirely. Also, if your correspondence is so important that it necessitates an high priority designation, then by all means, just pick up the phone and call the person.
3. Unless requested, don’t send attachments
   They’re large. They’re annoying. And I really don’t need to have my system crashed from some renegade virus. If you really think your recipient should see something, simply send them a link. That way, they can decide if they want to see it and when.

Special tip about sending large files and presentations.

Even with a fast Internet connection, large attachments can bog down your email software. You have to wait for the file to download, it fills up disc space (albeit hard drive space is cheap), and every time you need to refer back to the email , you again have to wait for the file to load — very annoying. Why not make life easier for everyone instead by using a free file transfer service like YouSendIt.com?

It’s fast, reliable, and free. And best of all, instead of sending the actual file, your recipients receive a link to download the file at their convenience.

YouSendIt offers a free Internet based service that allows you to send files up to 2MG. And with the paid version, you can send files up to 2GB. The service is reliable and really easy to use. Simply add an email address and attached your file. YouSendIt will then send your intended recipient(s) an email with link to download the file — and holds the file for up to 7 days (more with the paid service).

4. Don’t reply to an email to simply say “Thank you”
   Yes, it’s nice to thank someone for something they did, but reading email already takes up way too much of our time and we don’t need to waste even more by having to read 50 emails that say “thanks”. A simple solution is to wait until your next correspondence with the person and let them know of your appreciation then.
5. Don’t forward jokes
   Similar to #3, don’t forward jokes or other humorous material unless they either A) requested them, or B) You verified from your intended that they actually want to receive them. Personally, I find this almost more annoying than anything else.
6. Take full advantage of the Subject line
   If your email to, or response of, is going to be really short (e.g. 1 p.m. meeting canceled till next Tuesday) then simply put that message in the Subject line followed by “// EOM” (End of Message) and leave the actual email body blank. This is the fastest way to communicate short messages while saving everyone’s time from not having to open and close the email.

On the same subject, if you don’t need the recipient to respond or reply to your email, end your subject line with, “// NRR””meaning, No Reply Required.

Note: “EOM” and “NRR” are two standard email practices we created which has saved our company huge amounts of time and energy.

7. Spell check your email
   Poor grammar and typographical simply make you look unprofessional. And if you’re sending business information, this could kill any chances of getting a raise or promotion.
8. Keep messages short and to the point
   As mentioned in #6, it’s important to keep your correspondence focused. Avoid going off on a tangent or moving onto a different subject. After you’ve written your email, go back and re-read it. As you do so, delete any and all words that don’t add to value or help clarify your point. As a general rule of thumb, we found that most people can completely delete the first full sentence. Remember, you’re not writing a novel so don’t feel inclined to “build up” to your point.
9. Double check the email address in the “To” field
   Last thing you want, is to send information to the wrong person. This happens even more frequently when the person your sending an email to has the same first or last name of another person. Check the name twice, hit send once.
10. Refrain from the “Reply to All” syndrome
    Think about your message and who it really effects. You don’t need to unnecessarily include everyone and their brother as a recipient. I know it might be easier and faster to hit “Reply to All” instead of adding individual email addresses, but it’s just plain lazy and people hate getting email about business projects they’re either not involved in, or the message simply doesn’t apply to them.

Bottom line; think twice, even three or four time’s, about what you’re sending, how you’re saying it, and who’s going to see it before you hit the “end” button. Email etiquette is more than just being nice, it’s about being considerate of other people and their time. And by following the above listed email practices, you should start to see a dramatic increase in productivity.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

The problem comes when the writer either spends too much time tweaking the headline or simply gets too close to the story to read their shortened headlines with a truly fresh and unbiased perspective. And these final, edited headlines can create some unexpected results.

The Year’s 15 Best Actual News Headlines

Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Expert Says

Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers

Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over

Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant

War Dims Hope for Peace

If Strike Isn’t Settled Quickly, It May Last Awhile

Cold Wave Linked to Temperatures

Enfield (London) Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide

Red Tape Holds Up New Bridges

Man Struck By Lightning: Faces Battery Charge

New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group

Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half

Hospitals are Sued by 7 Foot Doctors

And the winner is…

Typhoon Rips Through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead

The above headline examples are leads for some very serious stories, yet the importance is not only lost, but resulted in some very funny headlines — a consequence I’m sure that neither the writer or newspaper editor intended.

One of the best ways to avoid having your story turned into something other than intended — outside paying a professional proofreader — is to have an objective third party review your copy and then give you their “unprofessional” opinion.

I can tell you from personal experience that this tip alone has saved me from turning in work I thought was really great — only to find out that it was only “really great” in my own head. I was simply too close to the project to be objective. And when the receptionist looks up at you with a truly confused look in their eyes, you know it’s time to rethink what you’re writing.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

The day is now.

A time for every person to take a moment out of their busy day and think about the world in which we live — and what we can all do to help improve our environment.

Interestingly enough, if you’re reading this, you’re already helping.

The Internet is not only the hub of the digital information age but is also a clean, renewable energy source. And not in a way most people consider an energy source because, let’s face it, the Internet isn’t going to propel your car, light your bedroom, or cook your diner. But it will supply you with a never-ending supply of information and inspiration that can fuel your creativity.

Creativity that inspires change. Actions that create hope.

As a business owner, you hope to succeed. In fact, it’s your primary goal or else you wouldn’t have started it in the first place. You work the long hours, you pay your dues, and you market your products and/or services to your prospective customers. But if customers don’t know you exist, your business won’t either. And this is where the Internet can not only help you succeed by keeping more green in your pocket, it helps keep our environment green too.

I received a phone call his morning from a potential client who asked if I could send them some printed brochure design samples. Not an unusual request, I get hundreds of these every year. And my answer, hundreds of times a year, is the same. Which generally prompts a conversation that goes something like this.

Kristof Creative: “I’m sorry. I can’t. We don’t have any.”

Potential Client: “Oh, when do you think you’ll have some more?”

KC: “Never.”

PC: “Huh?”

KC: “We don’t print additional samples of our work because it’s environmentally unfriendly.”

PC: “Really? How so?”

KC: “Trees have to be clear cut. Trees have to be transported to the paper mill. Paper mill has waste by-product (as do almost all industries). Paper needs to be shipped to printer. Printer uses inks and chemicals and produces waste from trimmed brochures and printing blankets. Brochures have to be mailed (sometimes in envelopes, sometimes not). Brochure sare read and then, the majority of time, are thrown away.

PC: “Okay. So how can I get some samples of your work for the Board to review?”

KC: “I’d be more than happy to send you a PDF file customized to your exact requirements.”

And that pretty much ends that conversation. Potential client is happy and I just saved a few bucks and helped save a tree — okay, maybe just a big branch.

Just to be clear, I have nothing against paper, paper makers, or any business or industry that uses paper because I use paper all the time — only that I try to be smart about how and when I use them. Which is my recommendation to every entrepreneur, business owner, and marketing director; Think before you print.

Ask yourself; do you really need to mail a printed brochure, product catalog or sales sheet to your customer? Or would a color PDF meet their needs?

Yes, you need to promote your business.

Yes, you need to communicate information about your products and services.

No, you don’t always have to design and print a 4-panel, 11 x 17 full bleed sales brochure to do it.

Instead, use the Internet to your advantage. Your designer should be more than capable of creating a beautiful non-bleed brochure that can be exported to PDF and emailed or printed in-house on an as-needed basis.

The other beautiful thing about PDFs (brochures or any other marketing materials) is that you can customize each one specifically for the person you’re sending it to. Additionally, if you need to thrown away an older version, you won’t be adding to the local landfill.

The same goes for your business letterhead. Instead of spending hundreds of dollars on a ream of printed letterhead, have your stationary converted into a digital template. It will look the same, you’ll still be able to print color versions in-house as needed, and you’ll be able to create PDFs on the fly that can them be emailed to your customers.

As for your business cards, go ahead and print zillions of them. And don’t be afraid to spend some extra cash on the design, paper, and printing to make them really great. Business cards are an invaluable and highly underrated sales tool.

Here’s a few other simple ways you can also use the Internet to help save the environment.

• Do some research online before buying a book. You might not only find the information you were looking for without having to buy a book, you might find a review that leads you to buy a different book than the one you started out to get.
• Whenever possible, try to create and email PDFs instead of mailing printed business letters.
• Adjust your computer monitor energy settings down so it “goes to sleep” or automatically turns off after a set amount of time (I set mine to five minutes).
• Subscribe to the Observing Polarity newsletter so you can automatically received marketing tips via email.

Thanks for stopping by.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

And change is what will happen on Blog Action Day.

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment.

Blog Action Day Promotional Video

There is nothing more powerful than collaboration — individuals working together toward a common goal. And together, we will change the world.

Please join us.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

Ever since Steve Jobs flashed that sleek, innovative, make you IT staff mouth’s water gadget, the hype has been building. And building.

Apple has done a great job of releasing just enough information, online videos, and TV commercials to keep the heart racing and the wanting growing. And now I’m five minutes away to achieving tech-gadget nirvana.

Flashback to one week ago. In the kitchen, my wife rolls her eyes at me once again as I talk about buying the iPhone. Okay, I’m a closet geek, she’s not, so I understand the response. But then music rains down from the heavens as she states seven, wonderful magic words, “You know you get a discount, right?”

OMG! She’s right. We have a business plan discount (with AT&T) through her work that gives us 50% OFF all phones. FIFTY PERCENT OFF!

I could almost cry.

Granted, the discount only applies if you order over the phone through AT&T, but fifty percent off is fifty percent off! My brain heaves into overdrive thinking about how I can now get two iPhones for the price of one. This is too good to be true. Then I think, “This really must be too god to be true.”

Ten digits later, I’m talking with AT&T customer service. They verify the info, I do get fifty percent off, but since they aren’t selling them yet, I’m told I can get the discount in-store. Sweet!

But wait. This wouldn’t be the first time I was ever given disinformation, so I call the local corporate store directly and ask them the same questions. Lo and behold it’s actually true.

Flash forward, four hours ago.

Too many reports about the truly cool-aid induced camping out overnight. But given that I live a little bit further out, I figure I have a better than average chance of getting my iPhone tonight without subjecting my body to the cold, hard cement.

Just to be safe, I called the store to get a live status update. One hour before the official launch and, although there are people waiting in line, there is only about ten. Great news.

Then it happens.

Being the Boy Scout that I was, I ask one more time about my business discount. I can feel the blood running out of my ears when she says, “No, they’re not allowing the discounts for the iPhone.” And, (like that wasn’t bad enough) I will also no longer get a discount on my phone plan.

No discount? Those greedy %(*)(*#^&* !

Pain is now shooting down my left arm and a thought suddenly flashes through my mind that I don’t have 9-1-1 programmed into speed dial.

I think the long silence either alarmed her that I was dead or that she was wishing she was wearing a flack jacket to protect herself from the flood of expletives she thought were about to be loaded upon her.

Having been the messenger myself too many times to count, I’ve learned to politely disagree, smile, and try to be as nice as possible as messengers can be great allies. This was one of those times.

8:15pm

I call the store and the status is 20+ people, busy, but not crazy. All the press releases and reports state that the AT&T stores will be open till midnight. Don’t believe the press. I’m told they’re closing at 10pm. I wasn’t given a reason, just that light are out at ten.

9:30pm

The Beetles “ONE”, Track 10, “HELP” kicks in just as I’m rolling into the strip mall.

Minus the no discount, life is good.

A warm, friendly smile greets me with the requisite, “Good evening. How can I help you?”. Being that it’s been a frenzy build up of TV spots featuring slick integration of Pirates of the Caribbean, sushi, and Google maps, not to mention the 10 foot iPhone banner beside me, I revert with “I’ll give you one guess and it has 8 GB.”

She’s not smiling anymore.

At this point, I fear a severe case of P.T.S.D. is keeping me from even repeating what came out of her mouth next. But I’ll cowboy up.

“We’re sold out.”

Although my inner geek-laden child was lying in a fetal position weeping for it’s mother board, I somehow remained standing.

“Sold out? You’re kidding, right?” She must be kidding.

I’m now told that they sold out after an hour and a half.

Okay, maybe I underestimated living in an outer rural area. Had the hype grown so out of proportion that even the non-technophiles had to have one and beat me there? I guess so. I then decided to ask how many iPhones the store was given.

Break out the trauma dressings, this wound is going deep.

She tells me, now get this, 20. The store was shipped only 20 iPhones. You have got to be kidding me? One hundred, okay. Fifty, tough but I can handle it. But 20? TWENTY IPHONES?

I chuckle to myself as her words take truth.

That has to be one of the biggest marketing blunders I have ever heard. Apple builds up the iPhone release to the point where people are camping outside the stores and they only ship 20 phones.

From the Apple marketing side, I can just see the spin. Tomorrow morning, newspapers all across this great country will be reporting about the most successful product launch of out time, “Apple iPhone sells out everywhere!”

Well duh!

When you only ship twenty phones, of course you’re going to sell out. And let’s not even talk about how the hype has launched the price of iPhones on eBay into the stratosphere.

The AT&T representative was nice enough to suggest that I can buy one from them now. But when I asked about when I would actually get it, she couldn’t tell me. The best she could offer was, “We don’t know. They’ll ship whenever they have them ready.”

The drive home was quiet. Not even my favorite tunes could perk me up. But I’m not so much upset about not getting an iPhone as I am about how I feel like I’ve been had.

Apple dropped the preverbal carrot in front of me and pulled it away at every chance. Now all that’s left are wilted stems and a 2-4 week shipping date if you order online. Of course, that carrot also has an asterix of “Quantities are limited online. iPhone is also available at Apple retail and AT&T stores.” Which, as we all know, means, “you’ll get it when you get it”.

The bottom line is that Apple did a great job promoting the iPhone but then completely blew it on delivery, or lack thereof. Either Apple purposely planned to limit the number of iPhones released in order to A) make their stated release date (after already being delayed) B) To pull in enough pre-order cash to cover unforeseen or last minute production changes (such as switching to a glass screen) or C) They just blundered the whole premier release.

Whatever the reason, there will be a lot of unhappy people. Unhappy to the point where, once the hype has washed off, they’ll just decide it’s not worth the money — and you can count me number one.

For me, iPhone, that number is no longer in service.

The calmer, logical mind has prevailed and I’ve decided to wait this one out. My life will be just fine with the phone I have now. And in another few months, the prices will drop and I bet there will be some nice competitors to ponder over.

The iPhone fiasco just goes to show the importance of delivering on the services and products you offer your customers.

The public has become so jaded by the lack of service and delivering on promises that they’re actually happy when they get even the simplest of service that should have come as standard. And when you make an effort to deliver more than you said you would, your business will grow in leaps and bounds. iGuaranteed.

Update: Sure enough. Yesterday (Sept. 5, 2007), Apple announced a significant price drop for the iPhone — down from $599 to $399. Looks like the only thing the early birds ate was $200.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

According to Postini, the amount of e-mail spam is continuing to grow at unprecedented rates, actually setting a record level in December 2006 by accounting for nearly 94% of all electronic mail on the Internet.

Also, according to a (Dec. 2006) MessageLabs report, the average annual rate of spam in 2006 was 63.4%

The types of Spam most frequently received by U.S. Email users was

• 97.4% Medication
• 9.67% Shopping
• 96.1% Body enhancement
• 94.7% Pornography
• 88.2% Gambling

Considering that the first piece of unsolicited bulk email was sent in 1978, it’s apparent that spam has become more than a nuisance — it’s down-right out of control and it’s going to take more than a little bit of effort to sidetrack it.

Ten Quick Tips to Help Stop Spam and Keep Your Email Inbox Clear of Junk Mail

1. Don’t post your email address anywhere on your website.

And I mean nowhere! Not visible on the page or embedded into the website programming. Nowhere.

Why?: Because there exists an evil little Internet varmint called Spam Bots, Spam Script, Email Spiders, and Email harvesters. Essentially, they’re small programs that scour websites looking for email addresses. Once found, they collect and send back the information to the Spammer. A perfect example how good programming can be used for evil purposes.

What this means, is that if your email address is displayed anywhere on a website (outside a secure environment which can be identified by the leading “https” of a website URL) it will be sucked from the site and you will eventually start receiving unsolicited emails (Spam) trying to sell you just about anything and everything under sun.

Solution: Place a contact form on your website instead

Using a website form is a simple and way way to help fend off spammers while still allowing customers to contact you. The reason is because the information submitted through a form is sent to, and processed by, a script on your server which then sends the information to an email address specified by you. The spammer never sees the email address.

You don’t need anything fancy. Just a simple contact form for users to fill out and submit. Some basic form fields are;

• Name
• Email Address
• Phone Number
• Comments or Questions

This gives you and the user just enough information to make contact and continue the discussion either on- or off-line. And don’t worry if you’re not a website programmer because there are some web-based services such as WUFOO you can use to easily add form functionality to your website.

In the end, one way or another, your email address will still fall into the wrong hands. All it takes is one person unwittingly downloading a virus into their system which then accesses your email address from their address book — which gets your email address back into the hands of a spammer.

As it stands, even using the above suggestion, I still have to change my email address at least once a year. That said, it is still one of the easiest ways to stop spam from being sent to you.

2. Have separate emails accounts specifically for non-business use

You should have, at a minimum, three separate email address. One strictly for business, one for personal use (friends, family, etc.) and one for online shopping. And if you don’t have your own website, you can easily get free email accounts through Google, Yahoo!, and MSN.

3. Use a disposable email address for quick registrations

Seems everyone loves to shop and browse online. Problem is, you don’t want to provide your email address to someone every time you want to download a free product sample or informational PDF. For situations such as this, the easy solution is to use a disposable email address.

What is a disposable email address you ask?

As the name implies, it’s a very temporary email address that is assigned by a (free) online service such as SpamScams.net. From their website;

Hate spam? SpamScams.net — the ultimate spam email archive — provides you with disposable e-mail addresses. Any e-mails sent to the assigned address will show up automatically on the web page. You can read them, click on links, and even reply to them. The e-mail address will expire after 15 minutes. It’s a great way to help avoid spam, scams, and email phishing schemes.

It’s a perfect solution for those times you want to keep your information to yourself. Best of all, no knowledge of programming is needed — anyone can use it.

Contactify allows you to create your own personal contact form so you never have to reveal your email address — even a disposable one. This is not only a great idea but they now allow you to add a form to your own website with a simple piece of code. To see how it works, contact me through my Contactify form.

For a other similar services, TipMonkeys has put together a nice list.

And another Top 20 temporary and Disposable email Services

4. Use email forwarding

For the more programming adept, simply create an email forward for each vendor you use. Name the forwarder accordingly.

For example, if you’re buying something from Blish, create an forward name “blish@yourdomain.com” have the forward redirect to your other (real) email address. In this manner, it will be easy to track where, if any, spam is coming from. If you do start getting Spammed, simply delete the forward. No fuss, no muss, and you don’t have to go through the hassle of deleting and setting up brand new email accounts.

5. Use spam filters

The majority of email clients (software) includes the ability to setup filters that will automatically perform certain tasks. Such as; automatically deleting any email with a subject of “CONGRATULATIONS YOU WIN”, or “Buy Cheap Cial1s”.

If you don’t already know how to set up and use Spam Filters, click on HELP in the main menu of your email software.

6. Don’t buy anything offered in Spam email

When you buy products from these slime balls, you’re just supporting their spammy cause. Remember, if no one bought their products, they would have no reason to spam you. Unfortunately, there’s always one person who actually buys into their con.

And the most important thing to remember, above all else, NEVER, EVER believe or reply to an email promising you huge amounts of money if you help them access it, either through legal fees, bribes, or purchasing an expensive magical solution that turns colored paper into cash. Your first clue will be that these spammers and scammers are located in Nigeria. When it comes to Spam email, Nigeria = Bad.

7. Report all Spam email

The U.S. Government has been kind enough to provide an email address just for this purpose. Please use it. spam@uce.gov

8. Get your name off email lists

How your name got on an email list in the first place is anyone’s guess. More than likely, you ordered something online and unwittingly gave your permission to either receive email from them or subscribed to their newsletter. In any case, you now have the ability to have your name removed from email lists.

Get your name off E-mail Lists

9. Carefully read privacy notices

Do you have a credit card? How about a cable TV account? If you do, then at some point, they’ll send you a privacy notice — usually stuffed into the envelope along with your bill and twenty other pieces of extraneous “buy this” advertisements.

What you may have missed in reading the fine print on panel 12 is a statement that allows them to provide your information to other “associated” third parties. This means that unless you specifically call or write to them (usually within 30 days) and specifically request to have your information kept private, your lack of a response gives them your permission to share your information — including your email address.

You can now say hello to even more spam and more junk mail.

10. Set your Default address to “:fail:” or “:blackhole:”

For the technical, website administration inclined, this is simply a matter of configuring your server to only accept emails sent to valid email accounts. All others will either be bounced back to the sender as non-deliverable (:fail:) or simple deleted (:blackhole:).

Pros: A large percentage of spam is sent to fictitious email addresses, such as “joesales@yourdomain.com” so they will be handled appropriately per your settings.

Cons: If one of your clients/customers accidentally sends you an email in which your name was misspelled, you’ll never receive it. Then again, if you made sure your client’s have your phone number and you make the effort to keep in contact, they can also contact you the old fashion way.

Conclusion

In conclusion, let me just state for the record that I really hate spam.

Loathe it.

Perhaps I’m just preaching to the choir. But unless we can all work together to stop spam, it’s just going to get worse, and worse, and worse. In fact, spam is already consuming so much bandwidth at the resent moment, I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few more years a new Internet needed to be create just so we can conduct business. A little extreme? Maybe? but something must be done, and hopefully the above tips can help you keep your day a little bit more sane, your business a little more stress free, and your email a little bit more effective.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

1. Your online content is who you are. How you represent yourself or your business online is the distinguishing difference (or Unique Selling Point) between you and your competitors. It’s what helps customers find you, buy from you, and keep coming back to your website.

2. Google frowns on duplicate content and therefore are subjected to lower standings within the search engines. The lower your site lists within the Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) the less traffic you get — which can result in reduced income and brand equity. This is the core power behind optimizing your website for greater search engine friendliness.

3. It’s your intellectual Property. You need to protect it.

There are two ways to go about this. Actually, there are more, but these are the two of the easiest and most affordable.

A. Use an online copyright service such as c-Site offered by Domain-Blaster.com. This copyright service will cost you $19.95 (plus the mandatory $45 filing fee) for their standard application process, or you can select to pay $73.95 for their Express Application (which includes the mandatory $45 filing fee). On the plus side, the Express Application service provides a live person who will review your work and application (within 24 hours). This way, you’ll avoid any problems that can cost you months of lost time by having to re-apply because you made a mistake — which I am personally aware of (more on that later). Bottom line: Both services do exactly what they promise.

B. Do it yourself, which is what this article is about. And hopefully, I can save you some time and headaches along the way.

Before getting into the six steps, I should mention that there are three core elements of your website (Literary Works) that can be copyrighted. There are are a few more, but theses three cover the majority of cases.

1. The content
   The original material you created (text, graphics, etc.)
2. Web site HTML code
   The actual HTML code you wrote to create your site
3. Web site screen displays
   This refers to the art or design of the actual page — what you see on the screen. This can be akin to creating an illustration or painting. You designed the artwork, so it can also be protected.This has come more into play over the past few years with the advent of CSS and Blog platforms. I have read way too many instances where someone really liked a website design, so they swiped and used the CSS files for their own site. I hate to be the bearer of bad news folks, but that’s just a major No-No. Or as my three year old daughter likes to say,”Swiper, no swiping!“

Website Copyright in Six Easy Steps:

DISCLAIMER: I am not a lawyer. I am not licensed to give legal advice. I make no claims or guarantee’s that by following the below steps that your application will be accepted and approved by the Copyright Office. The information is simply provided as an example of how easy it is to submit a copyright registration application — much easier then people tend to think. In fact, it can be accomplished in six easy steps.

Step 1. Add A Copyright Notice To Your Website

Make sure there’s a copyright notice displayed on your site. Simple enough. Just add a line of text to the bottom of each web page “© Copyright 2007 Your Business Name” (Change the year as required). You may see some sites also add “All rights reserved.” but I’ve seen nothing that indicates it’s required to protect your site or for filing the application form.

Also note that many sites use templates or Server Side Includes to automatically add a footer to their site that includes the copyright notice. If you have a website that is constantly updated or has new content added on a regular basis, I would personally recommend against that — or at least having a single template or Include. A problem arises that when you update your copyright notice text to reflect a new year, the notice is applied to all pages — not just pages added in the new corresponding year. That means that pages added in earlier years (say 2006) will display a notice for year 2007.

One workaround to this (and I’m sure there are many others) is to create separate templates or Includes that contain different copyright years.

A second, and perhaps easier, method would be to manually add a copyright line as the last line of text on each page as you create it. This way, your notice is always correct. Of course, if you’re using a blog platform, your posts will automatically contain the exact date and time that the post was created so you could modify the template to add “© Copyright” preceding the posted date. Yes, you could easily fudge the date, but that would be unethical, wouldn’t it? The important thing is that no matter how you go about adding the Copyright notice; just make sure you add one.

Step 2. Print Out Web Site Pages

Print out physical copies of each web page that’s to be copyrighted.

TIP: If you’re using CSS to construct/display your site (if you’re not, you should be) you may run into a problem of background images either not displaying and/or not printing when you select to print each page. This is specially true if you have style sheets set for printing. If you are only copyrighting the original text of your site, this won’t be an issue. If however, the visual presentation of the site (images, layout, color schemes, etc.) is to be included as part of your copyright application, then you will need to use a work-around. I find the following options work really well, but you may choose to use whatever process or tools work best for you.

Paparazzi! is a small utility for Mac OS X that makes screenshots of web-pages. It’s easy to use, fast, and best of all, it’s FREE. It will also name each screen shot with the exact URL — an nice added touch so you and the copyright office can easily identify each page. Download Paparazzi!

Use any other utility you may have to grab a screen shot of each page and them save the image to your local hard drive. Open and print each screenshot in an application like Preview, GraphicConverter, ImageWell, or Xee. You can select to print the screenshot to fit the paper (full screenshot on a single 8.5 x 11 paper, or have it print full size onto multiple pages). I selected the later in order to keep the content at 100% size. I then stapled each set of pages together so the copyright office wouldn’t get confused if they dropped the stack. Be forewarned, if you have a large website, the stack can get quite large.

Step 3. Download the Copyright Form:

Go to www.copyright.gov/forms/formtxi.pdf to download copyright form “FORM TX”. Additional forms and explanations can be found here: http://www.copyright.gov/forms/

Step 4. Complete the Form:

There are only nine parts to the form, and four of them are for entering your address and signature. A brief explanation and screenshots of each form section are shown below. (Click on images for a larger view)

Please note that copyright form “FORM TX” can be used to register a variety of different copyrights — not just websites. The following sections are based specifically on how I completed the form in order to register a copyright for KristofCreative.com. If you have any questions, PLEASE refer to the directions as described on the first few pages of the PDF. It gives detailed, line-by-line instructions for each section.

Copyright Form TX: Section 1:

Write (in black ink — and that goes for all sections) the name of the domain where your content is displayed. This should obviously be your own domain. Do not use YourDomainName.com — this is for example purposes only. For the purposes of this article I used blue text to make it easier to distinguish between the form content and what I added.

Copyright Form TX: Section 2:

A) Write in the full name of the Author (the person who created the material). For most website owners, the author will be yourself so write in your full name and check the “No” box in the “work made for hire” section.

Next, under “Nature of Authorship”, describe the material created for which you’re requesting a copyright. In simple terms, tell them what you want copyrighted. I my case, I added, “All text and graphics” — which covers both the actual text and individual graphics.

B) If the content was NOT “work made for hire”, leave section B and C blank.

If you happened to pay someone else (work made for hire) to create the material, you’re in luck, you are still the owner/author so you will write your full name again in part B (Name of Author) but leave the Dates of Birth and Death blank. Yes, your name will now be in two places.

Next add the year of your birth. If you’re still alive, like I was (wait, I still am) leave the “Year Died” part blank.

Copyright Form TX: Section 3:

If there is one section that can throw you, this is it.

It can either be really easy, or it can tax your brain if you think about it too hard.

I can personally attest to this because it just so happens to be the one section I made a mistake on and cost me months of lost time in receiving my copyright. But follow along and I’ll do my best to explain it as simple as possible.

A) Enter the year in which the work was first published. In my particular case, I entered 1995. * Don’t fudge the dates! There are ways to revel the truth.

B) Enter the date and nation of first publication.
If you have a static site with content that’s never changed, the year should be the same as you listed in part A.

As you can see, the dates I entered were different. This, in and of itself, isn’t wrong. Just that I failed to complete section 6, which is used to clarify why there are different dates. More on that later.

As for listing a Nation? I left it blank. Since we are talking about a website (published on the Internet and available worldwide) there really isn’t a particular Nation to list as the location of publication. Also, the Copyright office never made any comments regarding it, or requiring me to add one.

With me so far? Good.

An important note about listing multiple copyright years on your website, e.g., 2001-2007.

The first year is the year in which the material was first created/published. The second year basically refers to the year in which material was updated, or revised. Meaning your website contains material published and/or revised between 2001-2007. In the words of the Copyright Office,

“… indicates this is a revised version of a published website.”

And this is where it can get a little confusing.

When I initially submitted my application, I listed 1995 in part A (the year in which much of the content was initially published - albeit, on a different domain) and 2005 in part B (the year in which the newest material was created/published to the website). And this is how I lost over three months in getting issued a formal copyright — after already waiting four months. Arrgh!

You can review the official copyright letter I received for more detailed information, but it basically works like this.

If my new work (2005) contained material previously published, then my claim needed to be limited to that year (2005). In which case, I needed to complete Section 6 (see below).

But, if I wanted to register the version published earlier (1995) then I needed to submit a copy of the work as it was published on that date.

Given the fact that I had already lost four month and I was swamped with work, I opted for the former — knowing I was going to submit applications for all earlier content at a later date when I had more time to gather the copies. Please read the special copyright tip about this at the bottom of the post.

Copyright Form TX: Section 4:

This one is really hard — try not to break a sweat. Um, write in your name, address, zip code.

Copyright Form TX: Section 5:

Another tough one. If you’re like most people reading this, your material has never been registered so check the “No” box.

Copyright Form TX: Section 6:

If your content has never been published before, or the material has never been revised, you can skip this section.

If you have multiple copyright years listed (see section 3) you will need to complete this section. For further details, please see full text of the official letter I received from the copyright office regarding this exact issue.

A) In my case, I wrote, “Previously published version of website.”

B) The options the Copyright Office gave me were; “New text”, “Revised text”, “New artwork”, “New photographs”, or “New compilation”. And they were very specific about “Use only the terms that apply“. As you can see, I opted for “Revised Text”.

Copyright Form TX: Section 7:

A) If you register for copyrights on an on-going basis, you can create a deposit account with the Copyright Office and they will deduct fees as they’re incurred. At the time, this wasn’t true for me so I left it blank.

B) Write in your name, address, etc. PLUS a daytime phone number and Fax number if you have one. Just make sure it’s clearly legible otherwise the Copyright Office won’t be able to contact you with any questions. And surprisingly enough, they actually did call me.

Copyright Form TX: Section 8:

If you are the author, check the box “Author”. Otherwise, check the box appropriate for your situation.
PRINT your name and the date.
Sign your name again on the dotted line.

Copyright Form TX: Section 9:

Another really tough one.
This is the part of the form that will be used to mail you your official copyright registration — so make sure you PRINT your information clearly.

Step 5. Backup Website Pages

Archive your site or pages to be copyrighted to a (cross-platform) CD-ROM. This should include each coded page and all associated images. Also include all screenshots created in Step 2.

Step 6. Mail Your Application

Included in your package should be:

1. Completed Form TX
2. Printed copies of each page of your site
3. Cross-platform CD-ROM
4. Application fee

Congratulations! You’ve just completed the six easy steps to copyright your website.

Conclusion:

Copyrighting your website is definitely not a fast process. But as you can see, it is pretty straight forward and easy to complete. And for the small amount of money, it’s well worth your time — not to mention that it’s imperative to have proof of copyright in order to protect your intellectual property should legal proceedings take place. AND it’s required for inclusion in any DMCA notice.

Bottom line: I look at it like this. If it was worth your time to create it, then it’s worth your time to protect it.

Best of luck with your application.

Website Copyright Registration Tips:

Copyright Registration Tip #1:

If youre site, or compilation of pages, being submitted for copyright is fairly large (like mine always seems to be) be prepared to send a very, very large package. Then take the extra step to have it mailed by either Priority or Express mail — preferably with a signed receipt. Believe me, you don’t want to find out months later that your package was lost and you have to go through the whole process all over again.

Copyright Registration Tip #2:

Make a duplicate copy of ALL items in your package! If you don’t have a copy machine, you can scan the documents into PDF format. I personally love and highly recommend YEP.

Copyright Registration Tip #3:

Given the nature of SEO, website owners tend to tweak their content on an on-going basis. And, in some cases, their website layout. In which case, I highly recommend you apply for a new copyright every year to cover any new or revised material.

Per the Copyright Office,

“… there is no blanket copyright registration covering future revisions and additions to a work that are published on different dates. A registration will cover only the new copyrightable authorship first published on the date given on the application.”

Obtaining a new copyright every year, for work published in that year, will protect your work more thoroughly on a year-by-year basis. If you have a Blog, it’s simply a matter of going back into the archives for the previous year and printing copies of each original post. Then submit a new application for just that year. Believe me, it is well worth the time and effort.

Copyright Information Resources:

• U.S. Copyright Office (USCO)
• World Intellectual Property Organization
• CopyScape
• Plagiarism Today
• What is Copyright Protection?
• Google DMCA
• McLane - Intellectual Property Practice Group

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

Is there something significant about your business? Where it’s located, the signage you use, or any other interesting visual element that people can use as a landmark?

When someone gives you directions to a location, they will almost always include a visual landmark that helps you identify where you are and where you need to be. In my neighbor hood, for example, we always tell friends to look for the long, white ranch-style fence. It’s the key visual landmark that lets them know where to turn.

The same is true with businesses. Smaller stores and businesses will give you a landmark to look for when giving directions.

For example; The other day an auto parts store was giving me directions to their store and the sales person told me that they were across the street from Starbucks. This tells me one of two things; A) Either he thought I was a coffee drinker or B) There was nothing remarkable about their location, building, or store signage that would make it easy for me to find them.

That’s a shame — and a wasted opportunity for them to help them increase brand awareness and increase sales with free advertising.

Here’s an example that could have worked, if the business owner or marketing manager had given it a bit more forethought.

Down in the business district, there’s a Verizon store set slightly back off the street in a mini strip mall with about four other shops. In order to get the attention of passing motorists, they setup this strange tubular balloon outside in the parking lot. It’s really tall and has a weird face and stringy hair at the top. It’s so tall, that the weight of the tube causes it to periodically fall over — but an attached fan puffs it back up pretty quick.

The end result is this “character” that appears to bend over, and jump back up. Like I said, it’s really strange. On the plus side, it does get your attention and I’ve heard people use it as a landmark for giving directions. But here’s the down side; When people reference it, they tend to call it “that flippy black balloon thingy”. Why? Because there’s no identifiable logo or other text on it. If the store owner had placed a Verizon logo on it, people would be able to call it “that Verizon flippy… “. And although no one would probably ever know what it’s really called, they would say over and over again, “Verizon“. And that’s just free advertising.

So think about your store front, the colors, your signage, and ask yourself if there’s anything unique, or different that stands out that would give people a reason to use your store or brand as a landmark. It’s an opportunity to help expand brand awareness while giving people something memorable to remember about your business and where it’s located.

And that’s just smart marketing.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

A couple quick things to point out before we begin.

The information listed below was written as a guide to quickly walk you through the process of creating broadcast title card graphics. It’s based on the premise that you have, at least, a fair amount of experience using PhotoShop so it doesn’t cover every single action.

Creating TV art cards doesn’t require any fancy plug-ins, actions, or filters. Although I used Adobe PhotoShop CS to created the graphics displayed below, the process is pretty straight forward and uses some basic features that have been around since, at least PS 5 or 6.

The difference between creating standard title cards vs. those with an Alpha mask (or channel) is that the title cards with the Alpha mask will allow the masked graphic to overlay other images or footage. e.g. the client’s logo superimposed over a product. So if all you need is a standard art card, you can follow the same steps outlined below — but skipping steps four and five.

How To Create A Broadcast Title Art Card with Alpha Mask

1. Create a new PhotoShop document
   Select: File > New >
   From the “Preset” drop-down menu, select “NTSC D1 Square Pix, 720 x 540 (with guides)” which will create the following document.
   
2. Place your .EPS graphic of choice into the new document
   Select: File > Place
   
3. Scale graphic as required for your needs
   TIP: It’s better to make the graphic a bit bigger than you need, rather than smaller, as you can always scale it down in AVID without image quality loss.
   After scaling the Placed graphic, add any other additional text or graphics required for shameless self promotion.
   
4. Load Selection
   Select: Select > Load Selection (make sure the layer in which the graphic was placed is still highlighted)
   This will cause the graphic to be surrounded by the ever popular “marching ants”.
   
5. Save Selection
   Select: Select > Save Selection (This creates an Alpha channel)
   The dialog box will prompt you to give the new Channel a name. I used “graphic” but you can name it anything you want. Select “OK”
   
6. SAVE AS
   Select: File > Save As >
   From the “Format” drop-down menu, select “PICT File”. Make sure the “Alpha Channels” box is checked.
   

Click: “Save”
From the subsequent “PICT File Options” dialog box, select “OK”.

7. Import into AVID
   Import with inverted alpha channel. This is a preset you can select for the import function

And there you have it, you’re good to go. You now have a crisp. clean graphic with a masked background to overlay over other graphics, etc.

© Kristof Creative, Inc.: Visit Observing Polarity. The official positive influence of inside-out thinking.

Client’s are not professionally versed in the technology and understanding that Search Engine Marketing (SEM) professionals are. After-all, that’s all we do, day-in and day-out.

When speaking with clients, listen to what they say, and how they describe things. Many times you will hear a client say something like…

I’m not sure how to describe it but I want…

This is the primer your ears should be tuned into because the next words they speak can be a gold mine in learning about new search keywords and phrases that can be bring you more traffic and customers.

Because clients don’t know industry specific vernacular, they’ll use common words / phrases (some of them quite strange to describe their needs). These will also be the keywords and phrasing they will also use when doing an Internet search.

Now, you might be thinking that since your client is already just that, a client, why would this matter now — after the fact. Well, it’s important because if one person has said it, then others will have also said it, or they will in the future. The quote I like to keep in mind is one by Ralph Waldo Emerson who said;

To believe your own thought, to believe that what is true for you in your private heart is true for all men, — that is genius.

Meaning, no one is an island. If one person thinks something, then more than likely others will think it too.

As an example, during a preliminary interview with a potential client, the client kept repeating the same phrase.

We already have a website, but it needs refreshed. We would like a refreshed design.

In the world of web-design, when the majority of programmers hear the word “refresh”, they immediately think “page refresh” (the time it takes a full page to reload into the browser) which has nothing to do with updating a website design. But as I mentioned earlier, the majority of clients aren’t immersed in our world of web design so they will use words that make sense to them. In this case, the client did a search using the phrase “refreshed website design“. A quick search for “refresh website” will display a ton of results for “automated refresh scripts” and “how to refresh website with templates” which wasn’t what the client wanted. Using the search phrase “refresh website design” displayed results more closer to their goal but still require more digging because by page three, the results turned to websites offering “website templates” or web design service companies with the word “Refresh” in their name.

If you take this one step further and conduct a search using “refreshed website” you will discover a return of about 1.27 million results. The first page of which are from businesses who have posted stories or forum comments announcing their “refreshed website design” or asking other users to look at their “refreshed website”. Yet, not one of the top ten results were from a company offering “Refreshed website design services”. Gold I tell you, GOLD!

By the time you read this, however, we will have posted our own targeted web page for the following keyword phrases;

• “refreshed website” (currently listed 1 of 1.27 million),
• “refreshed website design” (currently listed 1 of 1.65 million)
• “refresh web design” (currently listed 4 of 3 million).

After all, I see nothing wrong with taking advantage of of our own learning. See screen shots below.

Results for “refreshed web design”

Results for “refreshed website design”

Results for “refreshed website”

The above keyword phrases are only a few of th