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Articles from ONEQUARTLOW.COM BLOG

Google Morality? 2007-09-14 13:17:36 Marketing VOX is reporting Google in the news yet again.  Big shock.  Also not terribly shocking is the avenue Google’s attempting to carve out in the international landscape.  Google will attempt to take a moral tack on the internet piracy debate, demanding that new international laws be passed to protect personal information.  Some suggest that this is terribly overdue. Early this year EU officials conducted a privacy probe, concerned about how long Google keeps users’ personal information. A compromise was reached in mid-June, with Google agreeing to hold search data for only 18 months. Remember Google Vs Bush a year or so again?  One may argue this to be a logical result of that landmark court case. In an interview with the Financial Times, Peter Fleischer of Google’s global privacy counsel divulged, “Privacy laws have not kept up with the reality of the internet and technology, where we have vast amounts of information and every time a credit card i ... Google

Round-Up Time 2007-09-07 13:02:19 Every year at this time the same stupid slogan can be heard over and over again everywhere this dude goes LET ‘ER BUCK!!!! Yes the beautiful time every year when this little podunk town swells to three times her size with Round-Up feverish Cowboy types who chew, spit and chase four-legged critters around a screaming arena….check that….That’s normal… Round-up brings terrorists…ahh tourists…sorry, and all types of income to the City of Pendleton.  Some small mom and pop stores in this little burg garner as much as 40% of their yearly revenue during these few days in mid September when obviously the relative income earning ability in this town probably swells exponentially to that of the population swell. Ahh businesses throughout Pendleton only hope to stay afloat until the idiots, errrr there I go again… from afar come in and bale them out for the other 11 months. By all accounts a wonderful little burg, Pendletonians usually fal ...

More Evidence Content Is King 2007-09-03 11:12:40 A while back I talked about content and whether or not it was really “king.”  The evidence continues to mount.  Today, SiteProNews posted in their blog some findings and studies.   What I think all this continues to show us is a continual, gradual trending change of some significance.  Although we’ve categorized some of these things in nice little compartments, the reality is they tend to all go hand in hand.  For example, as I think the above blog points out, email marketing and content are connected.  We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto! ...

September’s Traffic Exchange Top 10 Live 2007-08-31 15:02:11 Welcome to September folks!  Hard to believe Labor Day’s here, kids are either already back in school or heading there shortly, and the NFL kicks off this upcoming week.  I guess the summer is nearly a memory now.  Oh well. I wanted to take a bit of time to explain the Top 10 Traffic Exchange Rankings this month.  This month I did something completely different.  Instead of surfing some 100+ exchanges a little bit each, I picked out a few dozen and hammered them hard. A couple of things to note. 1)  Did I test em all (yeah right)…NO 2)  Did I test them all equally (I tried to be close, but again probably not) 3)  What criteria did I focus on?     A. Traffic Delivery (what constitutes this)?         1. Ease of credit accumulation         2. Hits delivered (speed, amount)     B. Reach (there’s lots of competing definitions here)         1. Actual trackable/documentable hits         2. Time, visit paths, including multiple pa ...

Black Holes & E-Mail 2007-08-27 16:20:54 More and more folks these days are eschewing e-mail marketing in exchange for a less problematic mode of communicating with would be customers. I’m here to tell you that e-mail marketing is not dead, but one does need to take precautions and be smart about it. Today I’m giving you a gift. Call it the gift of knowledge. This download is a white paper (only a few pages long) that does a very good job of explaining the do’s and Hell No’s of e-mail marketing. You’ll need Adobe to read it as it’s in a PDF format, but it’s well worth it if you’re contemplating your e-mail marketing future. It is much easier and safer for folks to come to you (ie your blog or newsletter subscription) but sometimes sending out that dratted e-mail is still a necessity. One of the things I try to encourage is an oft known little saying which goes a little like this, “never say never.” It’s kind of like those jeans you had back in the day& ... Amp

My 12 Step Program 2007-08-24 10:28:01 I’ve talked openly about at least one of my vices in life, have admitted it, sought help and live with it daily.  It’s not pretty, fun or something of which I’m proud.  It’s life.  However, therapy brings out subsurface issues and in a way serves to twist the knife a little deeper reminiscent of the Black Crowes tune Addiction.  True to the song, the pain does bring a smile to my face. What is this evil thing?  I’m blogtommy, and I’m a blogoholic. Aside from some fleeting references to blogging and what it may or may not mean for your on or off line business, it struck me recently as I was in the 34th minute of my 50 minute hour that I hadn’t really said why blogging was such a good thing.  So today, with a little help from my friends, I thought I’d scratch that off the list. Blogging is a form of self-promotion that is probably second to none available on the web.  Most of us who have spent any money on advertising, probably concu ...

Newsletter Or Snoozeletter? 2007-08-21 20:07:29 Admittedly, I tend to sometimes over look some pretty basic, yet useful information that I should include in the topics covered here.  As a Blogaholic, I tend to forget that many folks don’t do the blog thing yet still need a place to practice safe s%^%…eerrr…. to get their message out.  In the off line business world the issue of newsletters and publications is huge, though becoming less so with all the options becoming available online.  Here are 7 surefire important elements one should incorporate or at least consider prior to publishing their first newsletter.  Having published one for a while, there are many other things to consider as well, but this is a good template for starting.  Speaking of templates!!  As Always, Don’t be a Dipstick! ...

“Suckzone” 2007-08-20 18:41:51 At the risk of setting off p.o.r.n. filters and the attractant that follow such things, don’t let the ominous sounding title scare ya.  Today I stumbled across a couple of articles that really made me think.  Although I seriously debated just adding the links without any prose or set-up, I also know that there are fewer link clickers than readers, so I thought I best preface it some.  Let me profess to admit a couple of things as it relates to business and marketing trends, fads etc…I think in general there is far too much crap out there.  This blurs, muddies and otherwise confuses people more than it detracts from profitable pursuits by companies who produce good products.  Before ya go all “American Way” on me, I’m not begrudging anyone from throwing their hat in the mix and attempting to make it in some business niche.  That IS the American way.  However, before ya go and throw good money after bad schemes and scams, take a look around the block ...

“Sell Before You Sow” 2007-08-17 12:44:34 In doing some local research through my Search Big Daddy Local portal, I noticed that one of the business associations already buying into SBD’s education fund raising idea was the local Oregon Wheat Grower’s League. Seemed interesting how some Farm tips can be some pretty good internet marketing fodder as well. Here’s one that I particularly liked. Sell before you sow! Don’t plant one seed until you know who your customers will be. Match your sales volume to the market-plan ahead and anticipate what you can sell to your outlets. There’s nothing worse than producing a crop, only to find out that you can’t sell it. Market analysis not only helps determine if your prospective enterprise can be profitable, but also determines how you will promote and market your product. Is it me or do our Local Farmers have some pretty decent marketing skills? Although we’ve certainly spent some time on planning your business, it seems to me that sometimes w ...

More Chicks! 2007-08-13 12:39:42 Is it me or has the world tilted or something?  A few days ago I did a post about the purchasing power of women, and now this.  I’m  beginning to think that God is a girl. ...

Dead End 2007-08-11 14:44:23 Today let’s talk.  I mean really talk.  One single solitary email struck me today and starts this conversation.  Ya see, the email’s address line said “No REPLY.”  I thought about that for a minute.  How Rude?!?!!! There are some gurus and such out there who say developing an autoresponder system wherein it’s a ONE WAY street is the only way to go.  The argument has merit in a very basic, kind of me first and only way.  The reality here is this doesn’t work.  It may work for the short term, but it doesn’t have marathon legs.  Any business, partnership, or whatever you can name that involves more than one person has to have more than this.  Communication is a two way street.  I don’t necessarily subscribe to the “customer is never wrong” philosophy, but they have a voice and business types need to allow them to use it.  So, think long and hard before making your “communication” street one way.  It may ...

“Back To School” 2007-08-09 17:59:17 BACK TO SCHOOL TIME!! The Search BigDaddy School Sponsor Program is really kicking into full gear right now.  I just signed up and have sponsored my first school.  Although my take is to keep this about the local area and about the kids, there really aren’t any limits to what the astute person could do in this program.  You’ve undoubtedly heard all the lines before about how “this is the program of all programs,” etc…so I’m going to spare you the details.  However, I would highly encourage you to check it out nonetheless.  This is a project like none that I’ve ever experienced in the “on-line community.”  Sign up first for your free Search Big Daddy Account by clicking on the banner to the left.  Once you’ve done that, head to my Big Daddy Blog and check out the school sponsor program.  I see folks purchasing 10 or more schools already and expect that this trend will only get bigger.  The beauty here is once you&rsq ...

“Respect and Reputation” 2007-08-07 22:36:35 Clearly one of the tricks or tasks we ought to discuss whether you are primarily working an on-line business or a more traditional brick and mortar type is something that gets discussed in many different ways using different “buzz” words.  Some call it “branding” while others refer to it as creating a reputation or building a business relationship through trust.  I’m not sure what this “it” should be called or if it’s even important to distinguish a buzz word that is most fitting, but we all know “it” when we see “it” experience “it” and live “it.”  This “it” defines you as a business and entity.  I call “it” business integrity and reputation.   You create it, foster it, and promote it.  This in essence is your calling card.  It’s how you want your business to appear to others and in most cases, it’s built over time, has some personality changes, t ...

E Bay Of Pigs GOOGLED! 2007-08-06 19:08:28 I don’t usually pimp out other blogs too much, but Search BigDaddy has a very interesting article on the war going on between E-bay of pigs and Google.   As you can probably tell, I’m rooting for Google to kick the paypunks into the next galaxy if at all possible.  After years of having a Pay punk account, this past week I got limited by the goons running the show.  I don’t much use the “service” and  believe there are much better processors out there, but found it almost hilarious why they limited  my account.  One of their geeks with apparently way too much time on his hands, found a site  that  they called “mine” that was a  kind of  pyramid scheme site.  I had and still have ZERO administrative control over the site without any ability to even access it.  I’m not entirely certain how old this program is either or even if it’s still running.  However, as a result of me “operating” this site with their p ...

TAXED!!!! 2007-08-05 12:04:03 Well it took a little longer than I anticipated but the House on Saturday finally approved a 16 Billion dollar tax bill on oil companies. Whereas this may have people thinking “it’s about time,” don’t be too quick to celebrate. Although this bill does address some issues and moves us in the right direction, it still ignores some core Republican agenda items that may very well spurn a Presidential Veto should it get to Bush’s desk. Although the Oval office has hinted at a possible veto, the tone of the language coming from the President’s office is actually rather muted. Typically, this tone has lead to some of the few compromises during this President’s tenure. However, I have a difficult time believing that an administration this tied to big oil will sit idly by and let this bill live, but I guess we shall see. In any event, chalk up a little victory for the environment, at least for now. ...