Archive for the 'Business' Category

Advice for Real Estate Agents from Seth Godin

Published by chuckbutt on February 25, 2008 in Business. 0 Comments

Seth Godin’s BlogThere’s a reason that Seth Godin is a marketing guru, and that’s because he’s thinking ahead, and positioning marketing for upcoming conditions instead of reacting to what is happening now. And his latest post is another kick upside the head for real estate agents who are concerned about a housing market that’s in a stall.

His advice to real estate agents is first, they should quit. The current marketing conditions are making it very difficult for real estate professionals to do things according to the status quo. If you want to make it this way, you may as well start looking for another profession because things aren’t going to get any easier for you.

Plan B, on the other hand, is to take advantage of the extraordinary opportunities available to those who want to build a long-term asset and forge a link with their community. Basically, it’s time to become THE expert in what you do, micro-specializing in some niche aspect of the real estate market. Become THE single-best real estate agent agent for condos in your area, or specialize in selling single family homes for large families. Know everything about that market, and do everything you can to be recognized as THE man (or woman) to talk to about it.

There’s a lot of other good advice for real estate agents, but this post also makes me think about how this can be applied to any business. Right now, the cost of doing business is going down quickly, making product and service costs lower as well. People have access to all kinds of competitive information, and impressions and opinions about your business are shared quickly via email and Internet review sites. Right now, business is transparent. Everyone knows about your profit margins, the costs of goods, and how much your competitors are charging.

So why not take the chance to become THE expert or de facto provider in a specialized niche in any business. Become THE kitchen remodeling specialist, offering tools for prospects to help them come up with ideas. Become THE small dog grooming specialist, offering tips and hints to keep your dog in good shape between groomings. And always - ALWAYS - provide information and expertise that allows people to understand the depth of your knowledge and exactly what your business is about.

Take a quick couple of minutes and check out this post and see how you can apply it to your business.

This is Why Seth Godin is a God (or demi-God)

Published by chuckbutt on October 11, 2007 in Business and SciTech. 0 Comments

Seth Godin’s BlogI just read a great post on Seth Godin’s blog about making an eBay business exceptional.  The posting is about thinking outside the box with an eBay business, or any business for that matter, and making the entire business an experience for your customers and prospects.  It’s all about communication, and exceptional attention to doing the things that make the customers bond to you and your business, allowing you to create higher value for your products.

In almost all of his posts, you’ll find something that will make you scream, “Damn, that’s absolutely right.  You’re a God, Seth Godin!”  He takes the essence of Web 2.0 or the social economy, or whatever you want to call it and distills it down into concepts that you can actually use in your business, no matter if you’re a sole proprieter or working for a Fortune 500 company.

If you’re at all interested in how the new Internet economy will affect your business (and it will, no matter what you do), you owe it to yourself to put Seth’s RSS feed into your RSS reader.  And if you don’t know what an RSS reader is, then shame on you!

Chuck “I’m Seth’s biggest fan” Smith

Scott Andrew - Great Web 2.0 Music Marketing

Published by chuckbutt on October 4, 2007 in Business, Entertainment, Family and Friends and Fun Stuff. 2 Comments

Scott Andrew (www.scottandrew.com), a guy who I’ve been listening to for a while, is getting ready to record his first studio album. How do I know Scott? Well, I found him while searching for Creative Commons music. I liked what I heard at his website, downloaded some music, and even used it in a couple of my YouTube videos, including a music video of his song, Dark Corners.He’s done a great job of getting the word out about his music, and now he has an audience built up and waiting for his first studio album. So, instead of trying to secure a deal with a record label, he’s decided to have his community of loyal fans help finance his album in return for some goodies. And, being a loyal member of the community, I’ve decided to help Scott out by becoming a “Pirate Kitteh” believer in his new album.

Pirate Kitteh!What a great idea! Instead of begging for money, and instead of giving up all the creative control to a record label, Scott is doing it on his own with the help of people who are invested in his success. Who doesn’t want to be part of the next big thing or just be part of another person’s success. I know I do (hence, I’m a Pirate Kitteh). There’s a lot of bands out there who could borrow this strategy for their own work. But, the trick is getting the loyal followers first.

So, in order to see if there were some other “believers” out there, I’m posting my video, “Tax Time Happy Music Fun Dance” that features Scott’s song, American Thing.

Enjoy the song, and if you dig the music, think about becoming part of the team for Scott’s new album.

Chuck

Linking Photos for Virtual Tours

Published by chuckbutt on June 4, 2007 in Business, Fun Stuff and SciTech. 0 Comments

Andy Grant from afgrant.com sent me a link to a video about Photosynth - a new tool from Microsoft’s Blaise Aguera y Arcas - that hyperlinks photos from across the Internet to allow virtual tours with rich relevance for different places.  Sounds confusing, but think of it this way…

This software will search photo sharing sites for photos tagged with the same place names.  For example, in this YouTube video, it pastes together a bunch of photos of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to give a virtual tour of the site from a ton of different angles and perspectives.  Check out the video first:

Next, here’s a link to Blaise speaking at the TED conference on the same software.  This video is a bit longer, but it has some very interesting ideas on how this could be used for advertising or marketing.

Tax Time Happy Music Fun Dance

Published by chuckbutt on April 5, 2007 in Business, Entertainment, Fun Stuff and Politics and Law. 1 Comment

I finished all the crap I needed to do to get my taxes done by my accountant last night. So I celebrated by doing a little dance:

You can find out more about the song, “American Things” by Scott Andrew, at Scott’s website at www.scottandrew.com.

Playing with Revver.com

Published by chuckbutt on March 12, 2007 in Business and Entertainment. 0 Comments

There’s a video site called Revver.com that allows you to share in the ad revenue created by people viewing content and then some advertising. There’s a pretty fair split of revenue - 40% to the content creator, 20% for the sharer, and 40% to Revver.com. I’m guessing if it’s viewed on the Revver.com site without someone “sharing” it, Revver gets the 20%.

Still, this is a great way to make money for your work. If you have some interesting videos, or videos that have hot chicks in them, you can do very well on Revver. I know of someone who has made $1,000s posting videos.

Here’s a video I posted on the Revver.com website:

If you’re interested in making a few bucks, you should check it out and start posting!

Chuck

Web 4 - A Vision for the Future

Published by chuckbutt on January 19, 2007 in Business and SciTech. 0 Comments

I just read this post on Seth Godin’s blog.  It’s all about Web 4, or at least Seth’s vision of what Web 4 could be.  Now I’ve been talking about Web 2.0 over the past few months with some of my friends and family.  But Web 4 goes beyond the social networking aspects of Web 2.0 and brings the Internet and converged service to a whole new level.

Imagine (if you will) a world where your phone knows where you are, and has the intelligence (or at least the ability) to tell you that there is a sale on your favorite brand of coffee at the little boutique you are about to pass.  Or, that one of your friends is at the movie theater you are about to walk in to.  Or, your search engine learns about your habits, and introduces you to other people with similar tastes.

Bits and pieces of this are already happening.  And it’s just a matter of time before a lot more of the puzzle is ready to go.  The pace of technological innovation is accelerating, and a lot of it is due to people opening up and sharing information so that others can build on their work, instead of keeping all the innovation to themselves.

Check out Seth’s blog, and be prepared to have a rather pleasant awakening.

Later,
Chuck