I
love live interviews, don't you? That’s why I've decided to
launch the Coaching Excellence Series with Guy Kawasaki, John Battelle,
and Michael Gerber.
I visited with Lesa King, editor of the Graphic Reporter, author the Lynda.com training series - Graphic Secrets for Business Professionals and chief evangelist for iStockphoto for a recent edition of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast.
Lesa gave the Duct Tape Marketing Coach network a guided tour of iStockphoto at my annual gathering of coaches. For those of you who may not know about iStockphoto, you simply must. If you use images, illustrations and video clips in your marketing, this is a gold mine. Great, royalty free stock photos, that are easy to find and inexpensive.
iStockphoto is also a big supporter of Duct Tape Marketing and is offering my readers 10 free credits (good for 5-10 stock photos)
Just send Lesa an email at lesa@iStockphoto.com and ask her for the special Duct Tape 10 code.
Featured Article
Content is a verb, content
is a strategy
.
If content is king, and it is, then what, really, is content these days? On the web, it’s simply not enough to write hard hitting sales copy and call it content. Content, content that educates and builds trust, has become much more active than that and requires a strategic view to be truly effective. To compete in the content is king world small business marketers must consider creating, aggregating and filtering the following forms of content:
Written content (blogs, articles, static web pages, RSS feeds and news updates)
Spoken content (podcasts, testimonials, case studies, core messages, press releases)
Video content (tutorials, case studies, testimonials, customer generated, company story, demos and stunning images) The bar has been raised and your prospects expect to find information in the format they want. They expect to be able to consume this content in many ways, including on a mobile device like an iPhone. You can’t afford to sit this out. And, guess what, Google, Yahoo and MSN think so much of the mixed media content strategy they have all begun some form of what is being called Universal Search. Now when a surfer goes to a search engine looking for content they may find local directory results, images and video mixed into the organic results. If you aren’t producing these types of content you may find it tougher to compete. For a great primer on Universal Search look no further than this post from Lee Odden at TopRank. Here are some resources to
help you get started creating various forms of content creation. Blogs
WordPress - I don't have much to add
to this one - use it. (Add the Akismet, Share This and Related content
plugins) RSS
Feedburner - another great Swiss
Army knife kind of tool Podcast
PodPress plugin
for WordPress Audio
Garage Band for Mac,
Audacity for PC - Audio editing software Video - This is not
a tutorial, just some resources tips. This is a big category but technology
is making it much more affordable.
DV Camera with microphone jack Teleseminars
Conference Calls Unlimited
- great service for teleconferencing Featured Resource #3 -
Thinking of starting a business?
In fact, the folks at Intuit just made it an even better time to start a new venture with a national campaign aimed at helping aspiring entrepreneurs get into to business now. The highlight of the campaign is a $50,000 grant awarded to one lucky start-up. Enter the “Just Start” Contest Aspiring business owners can enter the “Just Start” contest by submitting a letter or video to www.IWillJustStart.com,
or by visiting one of the local “Just Start” events in four major cities.
Entrants will describe their business dream, what they need to do to make it
happen and how they would use Intuit’s “Just Start” business grant to get
started. Experience the “Just Start” Feeling Budding entrepreneurs can experience “Just Start” in four busy commuter hubs across the country. At each “Just Start” Lounge, they can enter the contest by sharing their business dreams on video. They can also draw inspiration from local entrepreneurs, obtain expert advice from local business experts and get a free copy of QuickBooks Simple Start. Cities include:
Seattle – Oct. 24-25, Westlake Center.
Chicago – Nov. 1-2, Union Station. (I will
be there, come by and say hi)
New York – Nov. 7-8, Grand Central Station.
Boston – Nov. 13-14, South Station. Visit the I will just start
page to get a feel for the types of entries. Scrolling through some of the video entries is a great way to get fired up about your dream. The contest entries are due by December 15th and the winners will be announced in January 2008. I have been asked to judge the entries, along with Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends
and Ramon Ray of Smallbiztechnology.com.
We will review the submissions and select five
semi-finalists. Those entries will be posted on the site in mid-January, when
visitors can view and vote for their favorite. Featured
Reading
In this guide she tackles issues
that many women face when trying to start and grow a business but this is a
great bit of advice for any business owner.
Featured Listening
This is one of those albums that
is called a return to their roots by some and safe by others.
I for one like this mellow sound
more than some of the experimental paths.
Google Reader or
Bloglines - read all your blogs in
one place
Google News Alerts - create
searches based on key terms and get alerts when those terms show up in the
news
MySyndicaat - mash several feeds
together to display custom feeds.
LibSyn - stream and archive audio files
Conference Calls Unlimited
- host and record telephone interviews
Snowball USB mic from Blue
Audio Acrobat - simple way to
record and publish audio on your site
Remote microphone from Radio Shack
iMovie for mac or
Adobe Premier Elements
for PC - video editing software
YouTube,
BrightCove,
Yahoo Video,
VideoEgg,
Blip.tv - great options for hosting and streaming your video
GoToMeeting - web based interface
for virtual meetings
Related article -
Simple
RSS Tricks - ways to create content
. ~ ~ ~
John Jantsch is a
veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of
Duct
Tape Marketing: The World's Most Practical Small Business
Marketing Guide published by Thomas Nelson.
He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing
system. You can find more information by visiting http://www.ducttapemarketing.com
You may reprint this article in its entirety if
you attribute the article to John Jantsch and include the information
about the author above.
I hear from lots of folks kind of, sort of, maybe wishing, they could start their own business. To them I say, Just Start! There has never been a better time to start a business, period.
The Girls' Guide to Building a
Million-Dollar Business
- Susan
Wilson Solovic
Susan Solovic is the founder of SBTV.com (Small Business Television) and
successful girl in her own right.
Sky Blue Sky - Wilco
What would you call Wilco, alt-country, rock, alt-rock. I think the alt
tag works for these guys.
