All theories of selling tell us that making the client feel some sort of ownership of the service or product will be the difference between repeat business and a lack of product or service loyalty.

If an avatar gets the client one step closer to the business owner’s inner circle, that is exactly where we want the client to be.

Once the client is in the inner circle, in the know, feels as though he or she knows what’s really going on, he or she becomes business family. Those types of clients are worth ten of those who drift in and are gone before you can say Jackie Robinson.

I’d always wondered how I could replace my thumbnail photo with an avatar. The 12 online applications that you link to are great for the job. Thanks.

I will consult with Brian and see where we can go from there.

We agree with your philosophy that marketing should be fun.

As a matter of fact, our business bible is a book entitled, Business as a Game.

It has helped us keep the right attitude on those days when the business seems to be slow.

I tell you this because I wanted to let you know that pretty much any straight man will at least give me a second look.

I am attracted to geeks. I love their ideas, their sharp perceptions regarding life in general.

Whether they have abs or not, I don’t care very much.

I am interested in their health of course, and if abs indicate that they are taking care of themselves, that is important.

I am not immediately attracted to body builders, and I will tell you why.

If you have ever been to a body builders’ contest and have gone back stage, the smell would gag a horse.

In their efforts to remove all liquid from the muscle tissue before the show, so that their definition will be good, they stop taking liquids many days before.

Most of them therefore by the time of the show are very constipated and are giving off gases you wouldn’t believe.

Looking at all those muscles and smelling all that gas cured me of the romance relating to abs for life.

I certainly would not discriminate against a guy if he had good musculature, but again, only if that came with a keen mind and sensitive spirit.

Call me square, but that’s the way it is.

I’ve seen it repeated over and over that business owners underestimate the very real costs of professional web development services, and any attempt to save money by using low cost providers is always regretted.

Unfortunately good web development just isn’t cheap, and that’s because when it’s done properly, it’s a time consuming task and a highly skilled task. So basically fairly high hourly rates x lots and lots and lots of hours :)

Pay cheap, pay twice.

Its nice to see you post again! Personally I believe that the era of social media is coming. It is like a bandwagon for marketers, we can always ride on it to tap on its advantage.

There must be a reason why 400 million of users are using twitter (and steadily growing by the day!). I believe that new-age media (mainly the internet) is fast becoming the norm as compared to traditional media such as newspapers and that twitter and facebook happens to be 1 of the top marketing tool for social media.

There are many other social media tools and links like myspace, digg (another interesting social community), delicious and many more.