Archive for November, 2008

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thursday, November 27th, 2008

Another year is almost done!  Thanksgiving is here and it is time to eat!  For a big guy like me, this is always a fun time of year, well maybe not for the turkey?  Do we ever stop and think about the poor creature millions of us consumer every November 24th?

Here is what eNature has to say about the Wild Turkey:

Although the Wild Turkey was well known to American Indians and widely used by them as food, certain tribes considered these birds stupid and cowardly and did not eat them for fear of acquiring these characteristics. By the end of the 19th century, the Wild Turkey had been hunted almost to extinction in much of its original range. Now, with protection, restocking programs, and the return of the mature forests favored by turkeys, this species is making a marked comeback. It is now common in areas where it was totally absent a few decades ago. Turkeys are swift runners and quite wary. They often roost over water because of the added protection that this location offers. They are polygamous, and the male gobbles and struts with tail fanned to attract and hold his harem.

The Turkey is only one of only two domesticated birds that originated in the New World.  The Muscovy Duck is the other.

In 2006, the USDA estimated that there were 262 million Turkey’s raised in the US and about 1/6th of them were consumed on November 24th.  Each year PETA and several vegetarian organizations speak out against this American tradition and this year is no different.  Here is a link to the GoVeg.com site’s Top 10 Reasons Not to Eat Turkeys.  While I support the rights of Americans to protest, this is one message I will NOT take to heart.  Instead, I plan on taking the turkey to stomach again this year!  Not being cruel, just exercising my rights as an American citizen to EAT what I want.  Darn I drifted political again…sorry.

On this Thanksgiving Day, Kay and I wish all of you a Happy Thanksgiving!

Ed & Kay Bejarana

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New Christmas Themes

Monday, November 24th, 2008

In case you have not noticed, I upgraded our website theme for the holidays.  Too bad I don’t have a version that is devoted to Thanksgiving.

I’ve been hard at work configuring a new website for business.  PortlandBusinessCommunity.com is an online networking sit for the Portland Metropolitan Business Owner.  The idea is to help bring small business owners in the area together online to discuss news of the day, business ideas, and local stuff.  There are tens of thousands of business owners in Portland that are online, but they don’t have a place where they can express their business thoughts without paying membership dues.

I’m a  member in the East Portland and Gresham Chamber of Commerce.  Both groups have lots of good people and I attend weekly.  Face-to-face marketing will never be totally erased from the marketing plans because we all also enjoy being around other people.  But best case scenario, I introduce myself to about 150 people (between the two organizations) per week.  There are maybe 15 or 20 new faces among in the 150.  So marketing at the chamber is more an effort of keeping my business name out there in public.

The are 1.9 million people living in Portland Metro.  I don’t know the exact number, but lets assume 1.2 million are adults.  Per the Pew Study group, 87% of American adult use the internet daily and 60% of them visit online networking sites.  That means there are over 626 thousand local American adults online that live with-in a 60 miles radius of where I live and work.  If a quarter of them own their own business and only 10% of them participate in my new business forum, then we could have over 15 thousand members.  To be a wildly successful blog site, I need only about 15% of the 15 thousand or 2250 members.

With traffic comes advertising revenue options plus internet links.  More links equals increased search engine visibility and thus more traffic to my business websites.  The big benefit to ALL the members of the PortlandBusinessCommunity.com site is they ALL receive more traffic to their business websites because we are all part of a large online community; but first I need to find the traffic.

Building traffic is a question of finding like minded people with similar goals and ambitions.  Owners of small business all are seeking more business and if they have an internet presence, they are already primed for such a community.  Add in the local nature of the communication medium and now our members are talking with other potential customers.  The last piece of the puzzle is price.

On the price equation, there are two parts; time and money.  To eliminate one side of this challenge I’ve made membership FREE.  In the end the goal is to gain traffic and establish online relationships with local business people, no sense charging admission for the privilege.  Time is one element that I can not eliminate.  Most people consider themselves to be bad at writing.  Because business blogging is primarily a writing task, it may be hard to convince many to participate.

BusinessBlogging.net exists to help people learn how to use blogging to promote their business, but time is an immovable force.  The first few articles takes between an hour and two hours to write.  Actually, that depends on the age of the writer.  People between 25 and 35 years old can write a blog article in about ten or fifteen minutes, but that is because they’ve been doing it for years already.  The trick is getting past the first few articles and finding your voice.  Once you have it in your mind how the medium works, then it is as easy to use to promote your business as talking to people at the Chamber events: actually easier!

Talking to people face-to-face is a two way conversation.  Thoughts get side tracked, conversations get interrupted, and people have their own agenda that prevents you from getting out what you want to say.  None of these distractions exist in the online world.  You can type what you want to say, put it out for others to read and comment on and volla!  You have a marketing message and a conversation.

My challenge will be convincing enough people to give the idea a try.  I know the process will work.  If you are reading this, then you know blogging works too.  Please share your comments on this topic.  What would help get people involved in writing blog articles?

Thanks,

Ed
Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

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Technology and our lives

Thursday, November 20th, 2008

In a recent blog posting on blog.wired.com, they wrote about Five Gadgets That Were Killed by the Cell Phone.  I think there are few other things cell phones have killed that going back a few years we all relied on for our daily lives.

First is the now never visible public pay phone.  Remember the days of landing at the airport and rushing the pay phones?  Or how about driving around the block looking for a phone booth?  Sure you can still find a few, but most have gone the way of the doe-doe bird.

How about the calculator?  Especially in school, I was never far from my TI-85.  Now my cell phone can do all the same formulas and send eMail!  Take that TI.

How about the bicycle?  My grandsons pick up the phone and IM their friends to see if they are home or if they want to get together and play video games.  In my youth, I had to get on my bike and ride over to my friends house and knock on the door.

Gone are the days of writing a letter to your girl friend.  Now we send encrypted text messages and sign with funny multi-character dohickies ;-)

Lets us not forget the handheld game device.  I use to have this really cool football game.  You maneuvered your quarterback (a read dot) by rapidly pressing one of the four arrow buttons.  You could run or pass.  For hail mary passes, the red dot would scroll along several screens before merging with a red dash (your wide receiver).  Oh, gone are the good ‘ole days.

Holding hands with your girl friend and talking.  Now kids sit with their regular friends and talk on the phone with their girl friends.  When I was Wesley’s age, you couldn’t pry me away from my girl friend.  You never would have caught me hanging with the boys and my girlfriend.

Cell phones have changed our lives.  Some of the changes have been for the good, many for the bad.  Keeping up with society means adopting new technologies.  While only 35% of people over the age of 65+ use the internet, 65% of the same age group have used a cell phone for an emergency situation.  Cell phones has become integrated into our lives.  While I miss my TI-85, my iPhone is much smaller, lighter and I can surf the internet.

Ed
BusinessBlogging.net

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Letting Go

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

He said think positive, look to things you are passionate about to overcome writers block. That is easier to say than do. I have to lay off two employees today because business is slow.  How can I even think about business blogging today?  Wait….that is the self-talk Ed was talking about.  He said it would prevent me from doing the right things to grow my business.  I am trying to talk myself out of working on the business.  I am not going to let this business slow-down be the end of me.  I’ll write an article as soon as I get to the office and before I tell Paul and Jose that I have to let them go.

8:20 am – Arrival at the office.

Look at my desk.  My goodness, that receptionist has been busy.  I only took one day off.  Why didn’t anyone call me about Mr Rhodes?

8:45 am

I need to write the business blog article, but I wanted to talk to Paul and Jose before 9am.

9:15 am

“Everyone, gather around for a minute.  We all know times are tough, but I had to let Paul and Jose go.”

I hate losing good people.  Paul and Jose were both good workers, but someone had to go otherwise I would not have made payroll next week.  All I need to do is get three or four more new accounts and I can hire them back.  I am going to write that article and new customers are going to find me.

10:25 am

“What do you mean the copy machine broke down?  I am trying to write a business…never mind, I’m coming.”

11:15 am

Darn, the article.  A little after eleven.  I’ll never finish before lunch.  I’ll wait and get a fresh start immediately after lunch.

12:42 pm

Ring, ring.  “Hello?  Yes Michael.  No I’m eating.  What?  Where are you?  I’ll be right there.”

2:55 pm

Ring, ring.  It’s the office.  “Hello?”

“Hi Bill.  Mr Rhodes called for you again.  He said nobody came by to fix the sprinkler system again today.”
“Call him back for me please and tell him I am on my way.  Thanks.”

4:30 pm

I am exhausted.  I would have sent Paul and Jose to fix the sprinklers, but tough economy means I’ve got to pick up the slack.  Oh, darn…  the article.  4:30… I’ve got the kids’ soccer game this afternoon.  I’ll outline my article at the game and slam it out tomorrow.

9:45 pm – conversation with Bill’s wife

“Ed said I would have very good reasons why I didn’t write an article.  All I did today was lay two people off and put out fires.”

“Well Bill,”  said Bill’s wife Mary, “How long did Ed say it would take to write an article?”

“He said at first it would take upwards of an hour, but over time I will get faster.  I’m just worried that if today is an example of how motivated I am, I may never get this business blogging thing off the ground.”

“Honey, you can only do what you can do.  Eventually marketing your business will be the most important thing on your plate and then you’ll take the necessary time.”

“You’re right!  The problem is me.  I’m not prioritizing writing high enough.  I’m letting all the distractions of work creep into my life because I don’t really want to write in the first place.  I would rather dig up a broken sprinkler pipe than market and build my business.  Maybe that is why I had to let Paul and Jose go.”

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

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Bail out or salvage operation?

Monday, November 17th, 2008

When a ship is taking on water, the first thing you do is seal the compartment with the hole.  If your row boat is taking on water, then you start bailing.  Which analogy better describes the American economy?  A row boat with a leak or a ship taking on water?

Even in deep waters a sunken ship can be salvaged.  To hear the political experts talk about the American auto industry one can conclude the sky will fall if one fails.  Are these the same political experts that felt Freddy and Fanny were “solid moving forward” just six months ago?  If so, I think I’d rather have a second opinion.

The big argument for bailing out the be three American auto giants is one in ten jobs are impacted by the auto industry.  Please correct me if I’m not mistaken, but there are more than three auto makers building cars in the United States.  GM is positioned to collapsed and Ford possibly declare bankruptcy.  I remember when K-Mart filed bankruptcy some 15 years ago…Isn’t K-Mart still around?  Yup, drove by an open Kmart yesterday.

Lets stop bailing out the stupid.  GM’s ship is sunk.  Let it sink and allow capitalism to salvage the wreckage.  Building cars will not go way of the doedoe bird or the dinosaur (not yet anyway).  What’s next, are we going to save all the home builders because new home starts are off?  How about medical schools because student enrollment is way down?  How about the food industry because people have cut way back on eating out?  Where do we stop?

Those who lean towards socialism believe industry failure is permanent.  Capitalists believe where there is a void, some enterprising entrepreneur will fill the gap–provided greed is not legislated away!

Let’s hold on to our money, stop borrowing beyond our means and enjoy a modest life style for a while.  Yes, lots of people will lose their jobs, but in time, those who want work will find new jobs.  I believe in the ideals of America.  While I’d rather make hundreds of thousands of dollars a year, I can live on very little if need be.  Proping up failing companies only delays the inevitable.  If GM is going to sink, then it is because there business model has too many holes.  If the government becomes a partial owner in the company (as is being proposed by congress) what will be done to FIX the hole currently sinking GM?  The government doesn’t have a very good track record at fixing things that are broken, unless it happen to be a real hole in a real ship.

Ed Bejarana

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Staying ahead of the curve

Thursday, November 13th, 2008

Over the past ten months I’ve been working on a new internet marketing approach that uses blog technology.  The concept is to build a coordinated series of postings are written for different audiences and all link back to the same websites (BusinessBlogging.net and ZenithExhibits.com).

I had a choice between a half a dozen different blogging platforms, but I settled with WordPress.  I believe WordPress is the future of blogging, plus they have a very large user base and development team.  Here is a link to the October stats published by WordPress.

Counting hosted and non-hosted WordPress blog sites, there were over 1.8 BILLION page views in the month of October 2008.  WordPress has gained popularity by using free hosting with massive amounts of power to spare.  Here is a link to the features page, describing the offering.

I use WordPress for my customer sites because I am able to create a multi-user environment where I can perform administrative tasks without having to log in using my clients user account.  Internet security is very important.

If you are looking to get into the world of blogging, check out WordPress.com.

Happy Blogging!

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

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Simple Sally – Tracking success on her Business Blog Site

Tuesday, November 11th, 2008

On Monday morning my phone rang, I answered and heard Simple Sally’s voice.

“Hi Ed, I have some concerns about blog site performance.  Can we meet?”

I said, “Sure, can you tell me the particulars of your concerns so I can do my research in advance of our meeting?”

“We are getting a good number of visitors to our blog site, but more than half are coming from my company website, we were expecting to get more traffic from the search engines.  We’d like your opinion as to what is happening.”

We set up a meeting time and I started my research.

Looking at the Google Analytics for the blog, sixty percent of the blog traffic was originating from Sally’s company website.  On the surface it would seem the blog site wasn’t performing, but when I looked at the company website’s Analytics account I found the answer.  I made a few notes, printed a few charts and got ready for my meeting with Sally the next day.

“Sally, I am very happy to report that your blog site is performing great.  At this point in time I would suggest we keep the same blog strategy.”

“But we are not gaining high search engine visibility for our blogsite.”  Sally replied.  “Less the 30% of our blog traffic is coming from the search engines, isn’t there something more we can do to capture traffic?”

“Because of the customer focused emphasis, search engine visibility for the blog site will take some time.  You have, however, experienced a significant increase in web traffic and search engine visibility for your main web site.”

I pulled out a chart to highlight landing page visits on Sally’s main website.  “You see here Sally, this chart shows your blog organization page on the main company website is receiving the third highest number of visits.  You organized the blog page on your main site to reference specific articles on your blog site that are helpful to your customers.  Article titles are keyword rich search phrases and because of the reciprocal link, your website has received a much higher relevancy rating.”

I continued, “We want people to find your company blog site on the search engines, but we also want your main website to become more popular because of the extra links.  We have accomplished part two of our goal.”

Sally smiled.  “I was so focused on the blog site performance and justifying the expense to my bosses that I forgot to look at the main website performance.  I see here that web traffic has increased significantly.  Should we be concerned that visitors are leaving our main website to go to the blog site?”

“We need to keep track of the “Bounce Rate“, “Pages Views“, and “Pages/Visit”.  These numbers help us see if visitors are arriving on the blog site and reading more than one article.  A high bounce rate means visitors are immediately leaving the site.  That would be bad, considering most of the traffic originated from the main company website.”

“What is considered a high bounce rate?”

“There is no hard and fast rule.  A bounce rate lower than 50% would be preferable, but for blogs, it is not uncommon to see 70% bounce rate.  Visitors browsing the internet often leave sites with lots of text just because they don’t feel like reading.”

Ed Bejarana
BusinessBlogging.net
a division of Zenith Exhibits, Inc.

To learn more about how we can help you get started business blogging, please call (503) 709-1454.

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