Category: Marketing
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Why Google Search Sucks And A Tribute To Neil Gaiman
Google grants access to information kings didn’t have 50 years before. I have consumed so much content, books, podcasts, movies, articles, songs, and possibly the Ph.D. thesis of a woman from Chesapeake. I cannot remember it all. Like most, I’ll occasionally use Google to find a specific but only half-recalled crumb of content. Increasingly I…
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5 Pieces of Etiquette for Startups Approaching Advisors
We’re coming upon the end of the year and a lot of people are planning to take the next steps toward starting a company. I can’t back that with statistics, but as a guy running a marketing agency, I’ve been having a lot of meetings with startup founders who would like help and advice. I…
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My Writing About Musk Isn’t About Musk
It seems like I’ve been writing a lot about Elon Musk. Objectively I, and most other writers have been. I cannot speak for others, but for me Musk is just an object lesson in the bad part of startup land. I’ve been around startups since I was a teenager. I’ve seen so many gallons of…
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Learning From History To Avoid Learning From Failure Is Good
“I didn’t fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps.” Was said by Thomas Edison after a reporter asked him How did it feel to fail 1,000 times [when inventing the lightbulb]?” I really think failure is needed to further knowledge. But not every failure pushes the limits of human understanding.…
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The 1xftrv9efs of Covid19 – Google Test
Hey all, as you may have experienced Google Search as gotten worse over time. It’s hard to find specific articles from smaller websites now even when you search for very unique titles. This post will serve as an example. At the time of writing, most of the (seven) results for “The 1xftrv9efs of Covid19 –…
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Is Online Ads Management A ‘High Demand’ Skill?’
Every “learn that high demand skill [online ads]” course is bull shit. How do I know? Because I’ve run an absolutely obscene amount of digital ads, and I just had to explain to a VP of marketing that advertising online is actually still relevant. I’ve been managing client ads since 2013, and I’ve run well…
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Is Link Building A Waste Of Time In 2020?
“Link building is a waste of time for SEO” – At least, that is the claim made by an “SEO expert” on LinkedIn. But is link building a waste of time for better search ranking in 2020? Absolutely not. When Google started, they set themselves apart from other search engines by using off-site factors to…
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Why I Stopped Calling Myself A Consultant
When someone asked what my job was, I used to tell them I was a “Consultant”. This was an accurate title. I worked with companies, largely on digital marketing, video, and product planning. I’ve stopped using the title, however, and should have given it up sooner. A few years ago, a client told me I…
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Play Bigger, Book Review
In an older post, I claim most marketing books suck. I stand by this; Most marketing books are garbage, rehashing other, older books, written to convince big companies who can hire consultants, to hire the authors. In that post, I quote Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets — because it’s the…
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Most Marketing Books are Crap
Most marketing books are crap, and broadly speaking, most business books suck too. These books are mostly written by people selling consulting, or worse, some productized service. While I’m critical of most business books, I’m focusing this beating on marketing books only. Out of a sampling of books on marketing; it’s common to see a…
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Search Engine Usability — Stop Thinking of SEO
Search engine optimization is not just about bringing traffic to your site. Fundamentally you are helping to solve a usability problem for the search engine. Most marketers think of SEO the wrong way. Spend 15 minutes at a Digital marketing conference and you can hear dozens of people talking about SEO from the perspective of…
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Working With a Video Production Company in the World of YouTube?
I work mostly with small companies and start ups doing what we will abstractly call “marketing”. Most of the time, I end up doing online marketing and media production. My background is as a photographer, cinematographer and editor; so I tend to make original videos and photos big parts of a social and search marketing strategy.
