Mark Murnahan's SEO and Social Media Marketing Blog

Is GM Bailout Like Giving a Fish?

I do not support the mentality of a free-for-all “bailout” as has been so commonly sought these days. This comes down to the old “if you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day” mentality. Whether a loan is appropriate, I do not know. I wish I had the right information and know-how to form a fact-based opinion on this. Maybe I am not that smart, and maybe it is above my pay scale. Read on and I will give you some opinion and insight to my opinion. Don’t get me wrong. I struggle right along witht the best of them. I lost millions of dollars in 2008.

I learned a long time ago that I have been able to perform much better with the understanding that when I fail to achieve my requirement of sustaining an income, there is nobody around to save me. I believe this to be among the most valuable business lessons I ever learned.

In my youth, I had parents with some money. They could have bailed me out and made life a lot easier for me on many occasions. I think this was in the back of my mind for a while as I grew my first couple companies. I never let those thoughts take over, but when I was 17 years old and off on my own and running a marketing company along with three to four jobs to support it, I suppose it was easier to think that if I failed, there would always be a warm bed and something to eat back at Mom and Dad’s place.

I have failed like GM, only worse. I remember some really hard times when I was all alone with nothing in the cupboard. I am not here to pluck your heart strings, so I will not get too far into the details, but I will say that there were times when I lost a lot of weight without trying.

I was not lucky, and I did not have huge windfalls. I took on as many as five jobs at a time and I developed my product better. This is the part that GM neglected. Jimmy Carter begged for cutting dependency on overseas oil 30 years ago, but GM had enough money back then to ignore the market. Over the following decades, there have been many indications of GM weakness, but they did not hear the call. It is not just about gasoline … it is about many other business and marketing strategies that have hurt them. They made a bed over decades, and allowed ignorance and arrogance lead them.

I believe that it is time for GM to do what I did in the face of catastrophic failure … work harder and work smarter. If their plans and ideas have failed, there is a reason.

As I write this, I would like to note that just in the past three years I have purchased two Hummer H2, three Corvettes, and one Escalade for a total of about $325,000. This makes the contents of my garage predominently GM in origin. I am certain some of you readers have sent some dollars their way, too. Yes, I am a fan of GM products, but what did they do with all of that money?

Author Mark Murnahan is the Chairman and CEO of YourNew.com, Inc. and provides SEO consulting services to companies and non-profit organizations. Mark Murnahan may be reached toll free at 866-A-Web-Guy (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) for consultation.

Increase Business Online in 60 Seconds?

Perhaps you have seen ads with headlines like “Increase Business Online in 60 Seconds” and you know in an instant that it is another scam (at least I do). That sounds silly, right? They are usually pushing some miracle cure for your business, but those of us participating in the real world know that nothing comes from nothing.

I belong to a face-to-face business networking group in my hometown of Topeka, Kansas. I will attend our weekly meeting in about three hours, and visit with 25 area business people and their guests. The group is a chapter of BNI, and it is based on sharing a mutual business ideology that what comes around goes around. It is a good place to build business relationships and receive qualified referral business from fellow members.

Within this group, there is only allowed one person from each profession, and I am the Internet guy. Each week, we have a 90 minute meeting, and as a portion of the meeting, each member is given the floor for a 60 second brief on their business and any target audience they are seeking. Each week, I am tasked with creating 60 seconds worth of valuable information to market my business to the group and their potential referral base.

When you are forced to condense your business to just 60 seconds, it can really help you to be creative. However, a marketing fact that many people never grasp or act upon is that brief moment in time where you actually have a person’s full attention. it only lasts a moment, and average Internet users will offer you less time if you do not grab their attention quickly.

I am still not sure what I will say in my 60 seconds this morning, but I am pretty certain that it will make the points as follows:

We are all aware of the Internet, and its broad reach.
Most of us know that the Internet is the best marketing method available.
I am here to help them and their peers with custom Website development, Internet marketing, ecommerce, etcetera.

I will wing it. I am a man of words, and I have been a member (and the current Vice President) of the group long enough that I can always recycle some good material from the past.

The point I want to make here is that you only have a short time to deliver your message. Internet users will not give you much time to make a quick point. Be sure that you deliver it to them right, and right now. This actually makes it possible to Increase business online in 60 seconds. If there was fine print, it would have to mention that, although you are actually increasing your business online in 60 seconds, it will take you some time to prepare for that minute. It should also say that this is best implemented with the help of an Internet marketing professional, like me. 🙂

Relationships and Internet Marketing

Relationships come in many types. The relationship we are sharing as author and reader may seem to be very casual and even a bit superficial. I want to explain how and why it matters.

Since statistical data tells me that it would be nearly impossible in my lifetime to even shake hands with all of my readers, I always find it important to try and reach out in my, can I say, “authorly” way. We will probably never do business together, and for now I am just another guy on the Internet. Of course, I welcome your business, so don’t get me wrong. I just want you to know that I am not selling you anything more than some thoughts right now. So just relax and hear me out about relationships and the Internet, and how it all ties together to make you more successful and happy.

I have noticed for some time that each time my wife is pregnant I see a dramatic increase in new business. It has puzzled me for years exactly why this happens. I have always had my ideas on this. Of course, there is a lot that probably comes down to instinct. Doing all the right things just somehow sinks in and I find myself making better judgments, thinking more clearly, and most importantly developing better relationships. I know that having a new baby may be a little too extreme for increasing your business, but there are substitutes to help you emphasize building better relationships.

I find the relationships I build on the Internet to be absolutely crucial to my success. Just consider our new relationship as an example, you and me. Perhaps if I give you valuable information that helps you, and if I help you to feel good about me and my knowledge, you may become a regular reader. Eventually, if you grow comfortable with our relationship, you may call on me for advice or to hire my services. Notice how this is a process. By the time you call me, you will have many opportunities to know me on your terms. You can read hundreds of articles that I have authored, learn of my background, and know just who you are dealing with. It all comes back to the same reasons why social networking Websites have had such amazing success. People are there to actually interact with other people, and not just some corporate giant or sketchy small business. They are building relationships, right here on the Internet.

I hope that I do not insult you if I group you with “most people”, but in many respects, we are all “most people”. What I know about most people is that they want to feel good about the people in their lives. We can say that this does not apply to “those people on the Internet”, but let’s face it … it matters. In case you have not heard, Facebook has over 120,000,000 users in under five years of business. It has been built on relationships. Social networking sites are some of the most successful Internet businesses ever created, and that should teach us all some lessons. “Those Internet people” are you and me. The Internet is where I communicate with many friends, and it is even where I met my wife about eight years and two-going-on-three three kids ago, so you cannot convince me that what I am telling you is false.

People want to know real people. To set a picture for you, it is 6:00am and I am sitting in my kitchen where I just happened to plop down my laptop to make this entry. I have been working since early yesterday morning, and I have a meeting with a new client in just a few hours. As I thought about my morning meeting, it really hit me why this meeting feels different than so many others, and it inspired me to write you this blog entry.

In a short time, I will meet with somebody with whom I have already laid the groundwork of a personal relationship. He is a fellow member of a business networking group where we have both been members for some time. I see him every Thursday morning, and we have a mutual friendship and respect. You may be thinking that it would be great if every meeting could be so relaxed as this. The good news is that they can. It all starts with a relationship, because behind every business person is the person. Be certain that you express this in your business.

Image Copyright Infringement and Enforcement

Image Copyright Infringement and Enforcement on the Internet may be more important to you than you thought. Copyright enforcement is far more advanced and prevalent than in years past. Companies managing the rights of image owners have technology and copyright laws on their side. They use software to scan thousands of Web pages looking for copyright infringement, and the software is better than ever before. It can recognize unlicensed images and alert rights managers to unauthorized use. If you are caught, it will cost you big.

Did you break copyright law?

This topic came up recently when I received a call asking for my knowledge in the area of image copyright. The caller had just received a letter and a phone call from a well known company that manages and enforces the rights of image owners. They demanded immediate payment, claiming the unlicensed use of copyrighted images. Like many people, he did not really know where to turn, and he never thought he had done anything wrong. He hired a Web developer to produce the Website, and never gave much thought to the graphics on the site or whether he should have kept a license agreement and receipt on file as proof of the right to use the images. Now he is scrambling to get his hands on documentation of his rights to use the images.

Where did your graphics originate?

There are many people who believe that since they found the image on Google Images or on some other Website, the image is free for the taking. This is very seldom the case, and you do not want to find out the hard way. A lot of people will remember the big lawsuits over music copyright infringement that cost Napster and others millions of dollars. Now that the technology is catching up images may be the next wave.

Who is responsible for copyright infringement?

Obviously, the first question is “who pays for this?” The answer is “whomever owns the Website”. This may come as a shock to many people, but it is something to be considered whenever you interview a Web developer or hire a graphic design firm. Whether it is a completely custom Website, or a pre-designed template, it is the responsibility of the Website owner to know whether they have the legal right to display the images. In the case of my caller, the copyright infringement claim was for many times what he paid for the Website development.

Dr. Pepper Website Hosting Lesson

When the Dr. Pepper Website, drpepper.com went down on 23 November 2008, many people questioned the company’s intent. Most of the top ten searches on Google led to sites questioning the intent of the company.

In this article, I address the importance of planning ahead and avoiding Web hosting disaster such as what happened to the Dr. Pepper Website, drpepper.com, when the company needed it most.

Following extensive promotions by Dr. Pepper offering a free can of their Dr. Pepper drink if Axl Rose released the album “Chinese Democracy” in 2008, the company intent was questioned. The likely truth is that their Website was too busy to answer the call, but this did not stop the bad press the company received.

The Dr. Pepper’s Website crash is an example of how errors in traffic forecasting and insufficient server and bandwidth resources can come between a company and their customers. Although in some cases, this is very expensive to avoid, requiring additional server and bandwidth cost, it makes this author wonder how the guy in the hot seat is dealing with his stress.