It has been almost one year since I posted anything here at Frank Thinking. I kind of hated to let it rot on the vine but getting hit by that pharma virus which turned my search results into the seediest of online drug outlets was a bit much for me to handle.

In case you haven’t made the switch, I have moved to another site which, I will admit, I don’t blog on much either.

Most of my time is taken up as managing editor of Marketing Pilgrim. I can also still be found writing at the Biznology blog.

If you are seeing this and care even a little bit, I say thank you.

Take care.

A little over two months ago is when I last posted here at Frank Thinking.

It’s not that I don’t care about the blog any more. It is however a matter of time. Time that I have precious little of (that and a rather unpleasant encounter with unsavory net types but that’s for an offline discussion another day).

So to update you, here is where I spend most of my time doing things online:

Managing Editor of Marketing Pilgrim Internet Marketing Blog

Business Development for Trackur which is a leading social media monitoring tool. Contact me at frank AT trackur DOT com if you have questions.

Consulting, training and online marketing education services for businesses through Local Basix

I do plan to post back here from time to time so please don’t abandon this area too quickly. In fact, I would love to get ideas and content from guest bloggers for Frank Thinking. If you are interested please contact me at freed AT frankthinking DOT com. That would be cool.

Thanks for being there for me. You are too cool.

Hello it’s me.

It’s been a while hasn’t it?

Why? Well, I’ll be honest. I got a little tired of the whole Frank Thinking thing. I have spent several years posting here with VERY moderate success and it has been wearing on me for a little bit so I stepped away. I also got frustrated because the blog got hacked and many of my indexed Google pages were hijacked to be used for pharmaceutical spam. That has been a long process to try to recover from that one and honestly left me a little fed up. I don’t get people who are so heartless as to step on someone’s work like that but hey, the world is full of people of all stripes and the Internet space has creeps around every corner so I guess it’s just the way it is.

Also, this blog has not really been about what I do for a living. What I have done in the meantime is create a site and a business called Local Basix. This business centers around local Internet marketing basics for businesses of all sizes. It’s what my consulting business is about and it is more focused. If you go there it is also in its infancy so if the presentation needs some polish I have an excuse of sorts .

So am I abandoning Frank Thinking About Internet Marketing? Nah. I will just be posting things here that don’t fit anywhere else in my work with Marketing Pilgrim (I am managing editor), Trackur (business development) and Local Basix (consulting, training, education services). I will still be contributing to Mike Moran’s Biznology blog on most Fridays as well.

Thanks for your support. I would really appreciate it if you followed my more focused Internet marketing efforts at the other places that I hang out. Heck, there’s only so many hours in a day right?

Take it easy and may God bless you.

I think we are at an impasse of sorts these days.

There is a tremendous push and desire to get the SMB (small and medium business) market more involved in the online space. Of course, it would be fun to think that it is because there is great concern for the SMB community but that’s not the case. There is a lot of potential business there so there’s money to be made. Hey, it’s called capitalism.

There is only one thing getting in the way of this truly happening and I’ll call it the Great Geek Canyon. This great divide between SMB and technology is wide, deep and a huge river runs through it. Getting from one side (where the geeks run free) to the other (where the SMB lives) requires something that few have been able to provide. Maybe no one has yet actually.

It’s called communication. It’s talking to the SMB (particularly those 40 years old and above) in a language that uses primarily regular English words and limited acronyms. It’s a language that is direct, open and accessible to all.

It’s language that never uses the term ‘title tag’. It’s a language that never uses the term ‘social media marketing’. It’s a language that would never use the term ‘location based service’. It’s a simple language that people still use when they do that trite rite of the past; shake hands.

Do you bridge the gap between geek and business? If not you may just be speaking a foreign language so you better brush up your geek to English translation. Otherwise, you may have nothing to talk about.

I know we all get these messages somewhere but I just figured I’d share one that pretty much says it all.

Phil Garcia
philgarcia.231@gmail.com

Message:
At no cost to you, we’ll get you to the top of Google within 48
hours. My company specializes in traffic building and sales
maximization for businesses like yours. Over 800 clients. Click here
for more information.

So let me get this straight. It’s free and top rankings in Google within 48 hours? Must be a great company. But wait. Phil is using a gmail address. Did your other 800 clients believe this actual ‘pitch’?

Fortunately, the link wasn’t even live so people might not get suckered on this one.

I really wish the Internet (at least the side that is the Internet industry) wasn’t so seedy but it is. I guess then it’s just a better chance for those of us with some sense of decency (notice I avoided implying that we are perfect or better and don’t screw up because that would be even worse than what ol’ Phil did here) to make an impact.

Stay clean and work clean. It’s easier to sleep at night.

The video is very funny. There is one section with F-bombs though.

It makes the point but at the same time it wasn’t necessary but, hey, it’s the Internet so enjoy.

I have so many things that have been on my mind lately but most have stayed there and it’s getting pretty cluttered up there in such a limited space. So lucky you! I have decided to rant a little and just see if I clean out some of these toys in the attic.

Twitter is turning into a cesspool – There is a lot of really good stuff happening on Twitter. But along side of it and actually threatening to overtake it is the sheer amount of junk in it. We gripe about Google and content farms? How many twitter accounts can have thousand of followers and never tweeted once? Whenever I hear of Twitter bragging about growth or number of accounts I immediately discount their number by 50%. I have tried to grow my following organically without the use of any automated tools. It’s been a long, slow process but I like it better. It’s frustrating to see Twitter allow these crap accounts to linger. Build a freakin’ filter and clean up your shop, Twitter!

Bad thinking – Just read a post that said if Charlie Sheen can use Twitter effectively so can your business. You’re kidding right? How many Main Street USA businesses have TV show celeb status and then bat shit crazy behavior to leverage social media? None. Also, acting crazy to get social media ‘air time’ is not a long term play. Hate to state the obvious but ……..

SXSW dud – There is virtually no real news coming out of SXSW. Sure there are the obligatory self-important check-ins etc and bragging about who someone one is standing next to but who really cares? The biggest news is how Google’s social network Circles isn’t really anything at all. When the big news is that something isn’t real then you gotta think that something is missing from event. I suspect it’s logic and reason.

Salesmanship trumps service – I wrote about this one over at Marketing Pilgrim today. The true genius of Groupon seems to be aggressive sales closers. Just like any other good Internet sales organization, once the deal is closed the sales team moves on to the next sucker kill deal. What about the deal being delivered as sold (notice I didn’t say promised because they are two VERY different things)? The sales side says “Who cares?” and the operations side said “Who told them this?” and the customer asked “What the heck just happened?”. Nice model for billion dollar valuations, huh?

Hollow trumps everything – Because we are trying to do too much too fast we now pass around empty ‘news’ tidbits that are the equivalent of nutrition’s empty calories. We get filled up on junk, say we did our job of staying informed but never did anything to nourish ourselves. We see what this kind of ‘eating’ has done to our country (overweight kids) and soon we will see what this does to our minds. Garbage in, garbage out.

SMB’s are well intentioned but ……. – If you are small business owner and you are looking for free information, please go read an e- book. Enough said.

There’s more but for now I feel a little better. Maybe you do too but I’ll never know unless you say something in the comments, follow me on Twitter or comment over at Marketing Pilgrim. Come one, come all!