eMarketing: The micro-business needs to speak out more!

Posted At : January 27, 2009 7:08 PM | Posted By : Blaine Bradbury
Related Categories: eMarketing

We all know the internet is a powerful tool. Do we? Or are we suspicious?

Overheard: So and so made a ton of money... and it all started with a simple blog!

Thoughts: Did that really happen? Was it luck? They must've just had the right product. My concept is not so unique. The market is flooded with people like me. How will people find me. The internet won't give me those results.

Aren't these the same fears that every business owner has in REAL life outside the internet? I think so.

The World Wide Web is not a fake place. It is not magical. It is not imaginary. The content out there is sitting in physical files on physical storage devices in physical offices run by ordinary people. It is not trickery that gets your business identified on the internet. It is action. Action you are probably already taking offline if you have had any success.

The micro-business and the small business alike almost always finds success due to its personal reach, community ties, and the ability to give customers something that large cluttered scary corporate towers do not do so well. They speak. They do business when picking up their dry cleaning and talking to the person behind the counter. Also at the local diner, coffee shop, print shop, supply store, etc. The small business has a voice which is much more obvious, usually because it comes from people who are highly available without communication constraints.

The Web allows... no... feeds off of this type of communication and openness. Search engines, fellow surfers, and every kind of information source on the web knows its life depends on the most accessible and relevant data available. Small and Large businesses are equalized on the web in this manner. One voice is not any louder than the other. Unless someone is not talking. We must speak to the Web, and it will listen, because it must.

This category [eMarketing] will stay most relevant to the small business, though I will certainly spout off about many broader topics as they seem relevant. E-mail campaigning, lead capture, quick eStrategy tips will be just a few common themes... and of course my own voice :)

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Values: What is a developer worth?

Posted At : January 27, 2009 3:24 PM | Posted By : Blaine Bradbury
Related Categories: Values

Much like the anecdotal lessons most of us were taught at home and in elementary school, we should share our toys. Over the course of my career, I have watched many developers and technical people define themselves by the work they have accomplished. While this definition can be productive and serve many useful purposes, there is also a common trap of perspective. We should not draw our value from the work! Definition by content is philosophically consistent with the products a web developer builds, but valuation of that content is something that requires context and information... and even then, it is subjective. In this way, when a developer sees his own value as being synonymous with the knowledge he possesses or the code he has generated (or worse, simply has access to), the flow of information can sometimes become more important than the work. To make matters worse, we are usually defined by others in part by our own presentation. If we believe our value is a characterization of our code, our customers and colleagues might eventually see us within these same limits. We would put ourselves in a box.

I have come to believe strongly in some core values and tenants which I personally and professionally evangelize. I define my own value by analyzing my efforts and results in context to these values.

I will keep this category [Values] oriented toward discussions of these philosophies and hopefully some relevant experiences and practical usages.

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