tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-87864126397058659182009-10-11T13:26:53.688-07:00Houston Web MarketingMarketing blog for Houston web marketing. Strategic marketing and sales promotions.WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.comBlogger24125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-29063689835629183602009-10-11T13:25:00.000-07:002009-10-11T13:26:53.699-07:00response to noisychannel on patentsI’m taking too long to get to the point I’m trying to get to, so I’ll say it now briefly.<br /><br />The practice of law in the United States is capitalistic; that is, whoever has more capital has more advantages. Legislation tends to be eventually distorted toward whoever can influence the legislators the most—so frequently it tends to be more capitalistic as well. Patent laws are less capitalistic than many if not most other commerce laws. The same startup person who complains about some laws suppressing him will be the suppressor when he ages and acquires capital. To change software patent laws “in practice”, ultimately means changing these societal characteristics, as I was eventually going to lead to with the examples on copyrights and trademarks. <br /><br />A patent doesn’t stop anyone from making a product or service. A programmer can program all he wants. What the patent does is to stop the programmer from making money on the programming. The art of making money is the art of business. Just because someone has programming or inventing skills doesn’t mean he should “deserve” money. As you can see, the inventor has less than a 2% chance of making money. <br /><br />Having said these, simply recognize that your friend is faced with a business problem, not a legislative or legalistic problem. The business problem is simply that a bully wants to use the law to beat him up. Assuming you are correct in the assessment that the bully-bluffer’s claims are overbroad or had prior-art—and neither you or I are lawyers--the solution is to stand up to the bully somehow. Of course, we need to be fair to both parties. Maybe the bully does have a point of view and of his numerous claims, some have merit.<br /><br />The point is that he remains a business bully—and needs to dealt with in a business bully response way--in order that your friend becomes a better business person in order to reap the business benefits of money. The answers here are all kinds of non-obvious negotiations methods in dealing with bullies (maybe we can patent these? :) ). If your friend’s team can’t come up with solutions here, his startup won’t be a “kickass” anyhow, because there will be much tougher business problems coming up.<br /><br />It’s unfortunate he’s a little unlucky and ran into an unusual business problem. But to be a successful business person, he should come up with a successful business answer. Additionally, did he do any prior art research before venturing?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-2906368983562918360?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-56629208027927393872009-10-09T10:30:00.001-07:002009-10-09T10:30:39.294-07:00response to noisychannel on patentsBefore returning to patents, let’s talk about intellectual property rights. <br /><br />Let’s talk about Facebook.com. My knowledge is that a couple of Harvard guys came up with the idea, didn’t protect it with patents or non-disclosure, revealed it to the founder of Facebook who took it. The rest is history.<br /><br />Now, let me ask, do the initial Harvard guys deserve anything?<br /><br />Let’s talk about Scabulous (sp). The copyright owner of Scrabble didn’t even have a single line of code, when a couple of Indian programmers came out with this hit.<br /><br />The question is… does Scrabble have copyright and trademark rights, when it hadn’t written a single line of online code, and actually deterred those who did?<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-5662920802792739387?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-42569522892341694162009-10-08T08:35:00.000-07:002009-10-08T08:36:42.204-07:00response to noisychannel on patentsSince few are objecting to that patents are DESIGNED to help individuals and small firms, I’d like to present some facts. Studies have shown that only 2% of patents issued recover their investment, and only 1% make significant returns. Yes indeed, 98% of all patents lose money.<br /><br />I have no idea why people here are so concerned about software patents. Hundreds of years of patent laws cover a lot of judicial principles. <br /><br />1. A user can license.<br />2. A software developer can write around the patent (smart!)<br />3. A user can ask the judge to set a license fee.<br />4. As patent fight costs start at $1 million each side, in the unlikely event it sues, the patent holder will likely lose money (98% do!)<br />5. The award in the event of a judgment against is generally related to the revenue the infringer made as a result of using the patent. It’s the attorneys’ fees that are costly—the rest is unearned profits anyhow.<br />6. A user should do a patent search prior to avoid these problems.<br /><br />Yes indeed hundreds of years of patent laws cover a lot of principles. In understanding that it is very costly and money-losing for the patent holder to sue, your friend should realize it is mostly likely a threat first—more likely even a bluff.<br /><br />http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/digital/e3i0d52172227325f28145910049b7db900?pn=1 This article describes patent litigation, but notice… “Firstborn (the ad agency) escaped unscathed after hiring a law firm that threatened to fight the suit, which subsequently did not materialize.”<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-4256952289234169416?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-44327244917240765442009-10-06T09:27:00.001-07:002009-10-06T09:27:31.376-07:00ResponseAgain, these are just my non-lawyer views.<br /><br />Copyrights and patents are both forms of intellectual property—the result of someone making an investment to create something. I guess people here still believe in hard work and contribution should result in reward? Whether one puts one’s work effort down in craft and then on paper, as in a patent, or on code, as in a software copyrights, both are work efforts. <br /><br />Most if not all ownerships are actually rights—a right to possess something. A person doesn’t really own a car until the State grants the right from others infringing on the car’s possession. Copyrights, trademarks, and patents all belong to intellectual property rights. They are very similar in that the ethical underpinnings are that these are the result of intellectual work efforts. The State is basically saying—to motivate your work efforts, we’ll give you certain rights. Very similar work-ethics-reward rights.<br /><br />Hence, if the argument is made that patent work efforts are worthless, by fair-effort-reward logic, it follows that copyright work efforts should also be worthless. Both are simply abstract rights of intellectual property efforts. There is no more tangible “theft” involved in copying code (no one took anything) than in copying idea (no one took anything).<br /><br />Patents have extended power of the idea; but so do copyrights. For example, a movie script based on a book doesn’t use the same words (and indeed a silent movie can use no words), yet must pay royalties to the author. And copyrights do restrict innovations. For example, my recollection is that Gone with the Wind has never had a sequel, because the copyright holder refuses; and even printings of sequels were suppressed, if I recall. Also, it’s my understanding that copyrights are used in look-touch-and-feel litigation, even though codes may be quite different. <br /><br />Fundamentally, both copyrights and patents are State’s motivation rewards for intellectual efforts and both have extended rights. So, if banish patents, it follows logically from ethics of work efforts and rewards, why not also banish copyrights?<br /><br />Regarding the core of the argument here—do patents harm or help individuals and small companies, in practice….<br /><br />Let’s first decide whether patents are DESIGNED to help individuals and small companies or not. Greg and I think they are designed this way. If we agree on this point, we can then discuss how and why in practice they work for or against small companies.<br /><br />P.S. I won’t be able to post as frequently because of pressing projects.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-4432724491724076544?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-44534171218886488602009-10-05T11:07:00.000-07:002009-10-05T11:08:20.961-07:00Further marketing responses on intellectual property rightshttp://thenoisychannel.com/2009/10/03/software-patents-a-personal-story/comment-page-1/#comment-4541<br /><br />Speaking of 20 year patents, let’s also talk about 99 year copyrights and unlimited time trademarks. I’m really disappointed at that there are individuals here who want to remove patents that protect individuals and small companies.<br /><br />If a developer doesn’t like software patents, the best thing he can do is to upload all his code with complete explanations to the web. This way, anyone trying to patent will run into an enormous wall of software developers’ prior art.<br /><br />And, it seems only fair, if inventors can’t have software patent rights, developers shouldn’t have software copyrights either. And no trademark rights, which means, anyone downloading the code should be able to put his name on it, and sell it. And no open source licensing copyright. I should be able to copy your code, call it my own. I guarantee I can always sell your code for a lower price such that it better benefits the public and other coders at a lower price. If the developer has employees, as for example Google, and the employee makes a copy of their code, I guess he owns another Google. (Goldman-Sachs just caught a developer stealing their financial market timing code—I guess that’s OK, according to postings here, because they shouldn’t have any copyrights either.) <br /><br />Programming skills are becoming cheaper, especially with international outsourcing. Your ideas, patents, copyrights, and trademarks may benefit you someday. Patents, copyrights, and trademarks are usually designed to help the smaller guys. Because they are rights, they can be used by larger firms too.<br /><br />But, the way some developers talk about them, they want to destroy the very few rights that individuals and smaller firms can use to fight against the larger firms.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-4453417121888648860?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-31753960711506562512009-10-04T09:29:00.000-07:002009-10-04T09:31:04.547-07:00Patents and Marketinghttp://thenoisychannel.com/2009/10/03/software-patents-a-personal-story/ <br /><br /><br />The initial example somewhat distorts what patents are about. Patents were historically developed to protect inventors and to encourage them to publicly publish an invention for copycats to license to produce more of, so that society as a whole benefit. <br /><br />The people wanting patent protection were the small guys, because, for thousands of years, large, well-funded companies would copy the small guy's invention, and trash the small guy's new company. After then a couple hundred years of legislations and judicial reviews, patent rights were created--to protect the small inventors.<br /><br />At start of the invention protection laws, most inventions were mechanical, and nowadays, there are complaints about software patents. But, the business situation remains same in software as in mechanical. Without the software patents, the big companies would simply take the small startups invention and completely wipe them out, very quickly. This still happens all the time. <br /><br />So, the initial example of the patent as a bully club against startups, should be reversed-- it is also the same, and sometimes the only possible, club the startup uses against the bullies.<br /><br />Doesn’t sound like a very impressive startup if the only thing it could come up with is a copycat idea. There are unlimited numbers of ideas—let the startup work on something more productive or license the invention. <br /><br />So the “bully” here wants to use the legal system. There’s a couple of other options the startup can do. It could ask to pay a license, which sounds very fair. Or it could simply breach the patent and see what the legal “bully” would do. The “bully” now has a problem. It costs starting a million dollars to launch a patent suit, and, if its patent is weak, it can easily lose the suit and pay the opposing sides attorney as well.<br /><br />If it wins the suit against the startup, it still will likely lose millions due to that it can’t collect. So, most likely, the “bully” is threatening rather than fully intending to go through with this.<br /><br />Suppose the patent is justified or the bully’s legal actions win, and subsequently, the startup is successful….<br /><br />Microsoft lost a few patent lawsuits recently. One, it clearly infringed on a University of California patent and paid $700 million plus. The second, it infringed on some kind of calendar function in Outlook, which Microsoft acknowledges. The judgment was initially as a percentage of Outlook, but this was overturned, as Microsoft pointed out that the calendar function was only a small part of Outlook. Even Microsoft as the infringer appreciates that the patent doesn’t destroy the product, and that Microsoft is willing to pay a “license-penalty” fee for the patent’s direct contribution.<br /><br />Microsoft is a good example of a bully who ran over small companies, subsequently got sued by those with patents, lost a few big ones and got tied up in the courts too long, and subsequently, Microsoft is a lot easier to deal with by the small companies with patents.<br /><br />So, as I see it, another option is to counter-threat with trying to invalidate the patent, and if the “bully” proceeds with legal action, then minimize legal costs (e.g. plead no contest), and ask the Judge to quickly decide and set a license fee. <br /><br />In summary, patents are legal clubs either way, and actually protect the smaller companies and startups better than harm them.<br /><br />Additional information,<br /><br />My recollection is that court-ordered patent royalties are typically 2 to 5% of their contribution to sales. This means, if a software feature contributed $100,000 in sales, the royalty is $2,000 to $5,000, not significant enough to destroy a product.<br /><br />I'm not a lawyer and am writing based on what I recall.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-3175396071150656251?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-9235885448820060452009-09-26T13:30:00.000-07:002009-09-26T13:32:42.784-07:00Branding and web change or reinforcementAdditionally, to answer the first question more directly--the web is simply a new media, and a very powerful one with usually the highest ROI ratio. So, the messaging of the brand and the website should be mutually influenced, because each utilized media type influences brand in a particular way. <br /><br />For example, car companies’ major budget expenditures on TV probably drives their highest promotions returns, and their websites probably don’t affect the brand much. But, in companies that don’t have large TV budgets, the web “branding” experience may be far more valuable and can and should affect the “brand” itself. <br /><br />In short, the website frequently can change the branding goals in addition to supporting the branding goals.<br /><br />Chen Sun, President<br />www.WebAndNet.com, USA<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-923588544882006045?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-48772708265360032482009-09-26T10:02:00.000-07:002009-09-26T10:04:43.496-07:00Branding and web questionDo you believe that the online presences for your company and brands (traditional web, or social media) are making the best use of your brand equity to drive loyalty among core customer/audience segments? <br /><br />What's the single biggest gap between your site experience and your brand messages? <br /><br />======<br /><br />Most websites are really simply advertisements. The value of their contribution to sales is to be measured by—in relationship to competitors’ advertisements. So a website has no branding value, except in relationship to competitors’ websites.<br /><br />Some websites are actually tools, usually a service tool to facilitate some aim toward sales. Again, their branding value is in relation to competitors’ tools.<br /><br />Relatively few websites are communities with tools. The community itself frequently has value due to its networking effect among the members. Here, the website itself has value, and this value can add or subtract from the brand.<br /><br />Some websites have promotional capabilities (e.g. SEO, email, good domain name), and this promotional capability (not necessarily the website itself) has value, and thereby affects the brand.<br /><br />This last factor—promotion capabilities--always affect brand, because competitors may have better promotional capabilities and search engines allow for brands to be advertised by competitors (e.g. competitors using brand names’ words in Google adwords). <br /><br />Traditional branding usually refers to “mindshare” or “as a value the buyer is willing to pay more for simply because of the name”. My opinion is that branding has diminished in value because search for information is much easier nowadays. In the past, branding was a stronger influencer on assurance of a certain quality, due buyers’ inability to search for competitive information as easily.<br /><br />So, in my opinion, branding is a lesser important factor with websites. Commercial websites investments should be thought about more in terms of capabilities and possibly networking effect. My opinion is that branding as a “promise” has lost perhaps 10 to 15% of its pricing value due to the web, and that discussions about branding and the web are frequently missing the new marketing growth areas with the web, which have more to do with web capabilities and promotions.<br /><br />Branding still has value and power, but I think the language of the web should be more about capabilities and promotions, as very few people actually consume HTML.<br /><br />Chen Sun,<br />www.WebAndNet.com<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-4877270826536003248?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-3881366724957492952009-07-20T09:10:00.000-07:002009-07-20T09:11:29.579-07:00medical marketingIf you look at the web as a way to make more income for your gastroenterology practice, you can make good money. If you look at the web as a way of using your gastroenterology marketing knowledge, you can make great money.<br /> <br />Here’s an example. Unfortunately, I can’t give a lot of details due to the confidential nature of customer’s web marketing analysis. I’m working with some attorneys whose business model is primarily Fortune 1000s presently—they’ve been growing at a rate of about 15% per year. They wanted the website to increase their sales—and would be very happy at a rate of 18% per year.<br /><br />I told them instead to utilize a subcategory of their workers to handle the smaller business they are currently referring out. Use a massive website to provides leads to this subcategory, set them up as a separate corporation, and then take a 30% ownership position. They are now beginning to see how they can attain a 25% sales rate increase instead of 15%. <br /><br />The answer here was strategic utilizing their knowledge of laws’ marketing and revising their marketing utilizing the website. The answer is not, get more Fortune 1000 customers using the website. <br /><br />The point of this is to say: though international patients are very profitable for your practice, the marketing means to attain them can be non-obvious. Your field is filled with opportunities; even with the limited knowledge I have, I have found highly profitable niches in gastroenterology that I can do. If you select the right niche, you can attain stellar returns.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-388136672495749295?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-91918664277902332682009-07-17T23:55:00.000-07:002009-07-17T23:56:38.740-07:00Review of "The X and Y of Buy: Sell More and Market Better by Knowing How the Sexes Shop" by Elizabeth PaceThis book is unlike any other of the numerous sales training book I’ve ever read. Most of these others are focused on the process of selling, and most of these were probably written at a time when, particularly the B2B sales were sold to men. Times have changed—women now make many B2B decisions, and had always made most of the B2C decisions. This book focuses on the likely (and frequently hidden or understood only to the matching gender salesperson) agendas of the buyers. <br /><br />The prior-history, sales processes types of books describe sales technique processes such as approach, find the hot button, present benefits, multiple close methods; and these are sales skills in process. But what are the buyers’ unstated goals and what are their preferred styles of buying? This is what Pace’s book answers well. If a seller understands what this books is teaching, and put together with the process methods of the other sales-training books, this will be a highly effective sales method.<br /><br />Most of the critical reviews I’ve read here complain that Pace is somewhat sexist or her quoted science isn’t right. Pace readily acknowledges 10% of women or 15 to 20% of men think like the other gender, and she then describes the hidden goals and general agendas and style of buying of the remaining 80% to 90%. Of the remaining 90%, there are always still more deviations, so Pace’s observations and recommendations have to be seen as generalizations. <br /><br />I feel that her observations and recommendations are very astute. It’s unimportant whether her biology-science views of gender differences are true or not, and it’s even less important whether some spheres of the brain are shown to light up with MRI or not. I think it’s very difficult for biology-science to make derive accurate results on these. What is important is that Pace is using these as a communications method for her ideas. As supporting communications (not necessarily scientific truth) evidence for her observations.<br /><br />Some of Pace’s observations: Women tend to buy based on the benefits to her relationships. Men tend to buy based the benefits to his hero status. <br />Women tend to buy based on solutions that solve all her relationships’ benefits. Men tend to buy based on solutions that answer their top pressing needs. Women tend to buy by conversing and building bonding-relationship first, and then think it over carefully before buying. Men are more task-oriented first, have different types of bonding relationships and carry less verbal conversations on bonding. Women tend to ask questions to build rapport and then use group-decision making processes. Men tend to ask questions to get factual information and then tend to use individual-contemplation decision making processes. Women’s sales cycles tend to be longer than men’s sales cycles, because her decisions (as it involves the group), are more complicated.<br /><br />These are all buyer variables that I never had understood, because unlike other selling technique books, none I’ve ever read focused on “how to read the mind”. Pace’s does. Yes, there are lots of flaws with this book, but for understanding what and how people buy—best I’ve ever read.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-9191866427790233268?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-44539839272936450912009-07-01T15:32:00.000-07:002009-07-01T15:33:06.133-07:00Book review-- Advanced Theory and Practice in Sports MarketingAdvanced Theory and Practice in Sport Marketing<br />By: Eric C. Schwarz, Jason D. Hunter <br /><br />The title of this book isn’t quite right. This is a general marketing survey book in sports marketing—covering most parts of sports marketing. It is a competently written book, but not an “Advanced” marketing type of book, as all that seem to be here are basic marketing principles, with a slight skew toward sports marketing. There are very few insights about sports marketing.<br /><br />I’m in marketing, but not sports marketing, and believe anyone already in sports marketing wouldn’t read this book, because it is boo basic. But, it’s a good introduction book to sports marketing for anyone wanting to know what its marketing people do. Too dry and lengthy for those for those who are in marketing wanting to know about sports marketing, and too much of a textbook for those who are simply curious about sports marketing.<br /><br />Chen Sun<br />www.WebAndNet.com<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-4453983927293645091?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-13866615883882477502009-05-16T10:10:00.001-07:002009-05-16T10:12:08.026-07:00instructions for novice Blogger users--using it for marketing and SEO purposesThis blog is built for search engine ranking. It’ll take me some time before I can put custom graphics to go with this.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Always publish—this blog works in non-standard ways. “Publish” puts the blog onto your website. <br />Please use its “labels” to target your audience. For example, endoscopic mucosal resection is not highly competitive of a word on the search engines, and if your blog writing is targeted at this, you can then add the label “endoscopic mucosal resection”, and chances are the blog will rank very well. Notice at the top search box the blog is searchable such that all subsequent endoscopic muscosal resections are easily searched for. <br />If you don’t want a generic term, don’t use it in the labels. For example, if you’re targeting researchers on Barrett’s you can use label Barrett’s, but if you label acid reflux, you may get a lot of acid reflux inquiries that you may not want. <br />Please do not change the Settings section, and in particular its Publication portion. The setting is designed to upload the blog to your website—if you change the setting to somewhere else, the won’t get search engine ranking benefits. <br />Be careful whether you want to set commentaries on—I turned these off. If the commentaries are turned on, you might end up asking a lot of questions from non-paying patients throughout the world. On the other hand, you may want commentaries from peer physicians. <br />The advantage of this blog software is that it search engine indexes very well. The disadvantage is that it lacks certain navigation features. But, I thought the search engine indexing is more valuable to make sure your message reaches peers easier. <br />The address at top of the blog isn’t seen by blog visitors. <br />After some experience with this blog, you may want to set up another blog for your peers to ask questions. This will enable you to provide information for physicians referrals, without a lot of patients’ commentaries intervention. <br />Next time we visit, I’ll describe to you other ways of utilizing the blog. <br />When starting, stay on the “Posting” tab, and stay away from the “Setting” and “Monetize” tabs. <br />Blog is not a webpage modification tool—it is an easy-to-use searchable, indexable note holder, in a sense. Our purpose is higher search engine rankings with it. <br />DO NOT REPOST materials. This is considered search engine spam and can destroy all the search engine effects forever. This means do not delete and repost, and it also means do not copy some work already on the web and post on yours, even if belongs to you. The blog should always be original writing unknown to Google. If you plan to put information on the blog and elsewhere found by Google, contact me first.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-1386661588388247750?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-62227120440053228512009-05-14T19:11:00.000-07:002009-05-14T19:12:06.376-07:00Instant TurnaroundInstant Turnaround!: Getting People Excited About Coming to Work and Working Hard<br />By: Harry Paul, Ross Reck <br /><br />I was surprised that I actually like this book. Usually small, motivational books like these, I consider junk. <br /><br />Anyhow, this is really a book about company culture, not really about turnaround. It tells through an easy-to-read story of how to motivate by being nice, being trustworthy. Getting employees to like going to work.<br /><br />This is a fun, fast read. It’s a fun read because it captures the essence of a positive-happy culture by telling an easy-to-read story.<br /><br />The problem with this type of book, typically written by consultants rather than management, is that it assumes all employees prefer to be productive and like their work and are trustworthy. These are factors that are ingrained within the individual well before their first day at work. And employees are wanting; which means some employees want more than others and are willing to take more. It’s not so easy.<br /><br />Basically, a leader will be able to motivate if he originally has staff that has potential and wants to be motivated. Alexander the Great wouldn’t have been, except he had a great army his father gave to him. Lou Gerstner (of IBM turnaround) wouldn’t have his turnaround in culture success, except, as he states in his book, he already had top people. Part of the hard part of how to do turnaround is knowing whether one has good staff to begin with and who to keep.<br /><br />Nevertheless, because this book is a charming read, it’s easy to remember its material, which is why I give it a 5 star.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-6222712044005322851?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-40649817942250953502009-05-12T11:17:00.001-07:002009-05-12T11:19:31.736-07:00Web coupons, used in strategic integrated marketingCoupons are one of the easiest ways to gain sales, primarily because coupons are easy to understand. But how do these work on the web? Coupons can be very effectie for small businesses with direct marketing force.<br /><br />WebAndNet's coupons' are text modifiable, emailable, and graphics changeable. Ask how these are different!<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-4064981794225095350?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-77516574849928476322009-05-06T19:25:00.000-07:002009-05-06T19:27:00.316-07:00Book Review Leadership Beyond Reason: How Great Leaders Succeed by Harnessing the Power of Their Values, Feelings, and Intuitionby Dr. John Townsend <br /><br />This is a strange book. I would title it as “Leaders’ Therapy Counseling 101, Without the Counselor”. The book doesn’t really have an underlying philosophy—it doesn’t really advocate a point of view, other than “know thyself” in non-reason ways. This non-philosophy feels like talking with a counselor—the counselor is usually very agreeable and understanding and non- judgmental (initially without a philosophy) and tries to get the patient to discover the truth himself. Standard non-fiction writing style doesn’t work well on these self-discovery questions. Plato’s style of dialogues with Socrates asking a lot of questions is the writing desirable.<br /><br />For example, the book starts with talking about values, but it doesn’t advocate any particular value, and instead goes through cases where a leader has to clarify his value. The problem is that whereas in counseling, the counselor uses many years of experience to ask questions and help the leader-patient define his values and resolve value conflicts, the book itself is very difficult for the reader himself to read through the approximately 30 pages of authors’ writing on values, to determine where the reader’s own value system is failing. Socratic questions writing would work better.<br /><br />The next section deals with thoughts. Thoughts are discussed by religion and philosophy leaders and can be very complicated. The author here reduces it to 30 pages with lots of case examples that are difficult to apply. Similarly for the sections on Emotions, Relationships, and Transformation.<br /><br />The challenge of this book: Value, Thought, Emotion, Relationship, and Transformation—can it be done in 180 pages? Can self-understanding be taught so briefly? Unlikely—a quality counselor is far better. Again, I think a title “Leaders’ Therapy Counseling 101, Without the Counselor” is appropriate. The one positive with this book is that its examples involve leaders, unlike many other psychology books that focus regular individuals. However, the topics this book covers are much better suited in and better reading in religion books such as Yoga Sutras of Patanjali or Bhagavad Gita or Buddhist introductory books.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-7751657484992847632?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-35080711649067466462009-05-05T07:39:00.000-07:002009-05-05T07:41:21.238-07:00best books on managementPlato's Republic, Sun Tzu's the Art of War. Yes, much of "The Art of War" is a book on management--how Sun Tzu describes how forces need to be controlled.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-3508071164906746646?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-75657438194725325782009-04-16T20:37:00.000-07:002009-04-16T20:40:11.930-07:00review of Body Language DVD by Richard MulveyA very good lecture on various applications of body language for business. Has a few anthropological explanations of body language, and also applies body language for sales and negotiations applications. Lacks a good theoritical explanation on body language.<br /><br />Chen Sun<br />www.WebAndNet.com<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-7565743819472532578?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-31621883309236632342009-04-12T11:45:00.000-07:002009-04-14T05:43:35.963-07:00Marketing book reviewBook review of <br /><br />Wired to Care: How Companies Prosper When They Create Widespread Empathy<br />By: Dev Patnaik <br /><br />In brief, the book says empathy and then care for fellow business-related human beings (customers and staff), will create a better company. In the first 2/3 of the book, there are highly-condensed marketing analysis of several Fortune 500 revivals because the company empathesized and cared about potential customers. In the second 1/3, the author describes how applying empathy and care as the Golden Rule (do unto others…) is useful also in the organization.<br /><br />There isn’t anything wrong with these themes, but frankly, one’s better off reading either ethics commentaries of the Bible for the Golden Rule or reading serious business marketing and organization books. Both will teach far more than this book’s advocacy of care and empathy.<br /><br />The type of customers the author is accustomed is consulting for are major very large corporations—somewhere it’s easier to be out-of-touch with buyers. So, if you’re one of these lost Fortune 500 companies and are yourself lost, this book to teach again Marketing 101 might help. <br /><br />Apparently, the author uses the material here for students at Stanford, (which the author continually reminds the reader of), and the book belongs as simply a treatise toward a very young audience—. Good for students.<br /><br />Even though this is a small book, I really don't like to read marketing books that are too wordy. The "case studies" used here are brief but still can be further condensed by 1/3 to 1/2, and the business principles the author is teach are obvious, said better in thousands of other books. Good inspiration book, bad analysis book.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-3162188330923663234?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-83038445390879946302009-04-06T21:44:00.001-07:002009-04-06T21:44:32.987-07:00where to buy camerasAdditionally, probably the best place for a beginner to buy cameras is Ritz Cameras locally. They once provided free classes (many) with camera purchase. Ritz have different names in different parts of the country.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-8303844539087994630?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-27414215357039180882009-04-06T21:35:00.000-07:002009-04-06T21:37:17.839-07:00Question on low cost cameraQuestion: wondering what's a reliable simple cheap(?) digital camera?<br /><br /><br />Nearly any name brand will do. My guess is an inexpensive HP will cost under $80. The Nikons are very nice, and likely under $130 now.If you are willing to get a great consumer camera, look for cameras classified as prosumer cameras. I have an outdated Fujifilm S9000(?) series, that I would guess an equivalent may cost under $290 now. These prosumer cameras will take far better photos than any small digital, and unless the photographer really knows what he's doing, will take better photos than most SLR cameras (which are complicated to use and start at $450).<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-2741421535703918088?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-48099632814291311202009-04-04T00:51:00.001-07:002009-04-04T00:51:50.733-07:00Business networkingBy encouraging local Business U. alumni throughout the world to sponsor local theMarketing networking events, this gives Business U. alumni a tremendous competitive networking advantage. Only a few people will ever figure out why Business U. alumni are friendly and networking actively. And it will be a rare individual who figures out, wishes to compete with, can get school’s support for such a networking strategy, and be able to overcome Business U.’s initial mover advantage. By keeping confidential this strategy, Business U. alumni can build a long-term competitive advantage in networking here.<br /><br />In increasing by a magnitude Business U. alumni’s networking, the alumni will better appreciate and support the school. If interested in learning how this works in detail, please ask someone to call. I can detail a strategy and a profile of Business U. alumni who would greatly appreciate this type of opportunity.<br /><br />Sincerely,<br /><a name="_MailAutoSig"> </a><br />Chen Sun, President<br /><a href="http://www.webandnet.com/">www.WebAndNet.com</a><br />a Web Inventions eNterprise, WINning Solutions<br />Direct: 713-771-1082<br />Mobile: 281-804-6246<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-4809963281429131120?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-11689511347928867932009-04-03T19:21:00.000-07:002009-04-03T19:22:50.598-07:00Online alumni marketingIn follow-up to our conversation in Houston regarding enhancing Business U. alumni’s intercollegiate networking, please visit and join <a href="http://www.thesquare.com/">www.theMarketing.com</a> (free), an online networking organization comprising of 38 of the world’s leading schools’ alumni, and also quickly review <a href="http://www.webandnet.com/events.php">www.webandnet.com/events.php</a> , my December ’04 theMarketing.com event. Evaluate theMarketing’s discussion forums, alumni search capabilities, dating services, employment section, and its local sponsored events, with three upcoming in Houston sponsored by an Business U. alumnus. This online intercollegiate alumni networking will enhance the value of Business U. alumni’s degree—resulting in greater contributions. <br /><br />The local networking events can be used for strategic advantage for any Business U. alum. Consider for example, Houston—suppose Business U. has 300 alumni and UH (with postgrads) has 3,000 alumni. Let’s suppose theMarketing.com Houston enables for 60,000 alumni to be contacted. This is accomplished by using theMarketing local events to invite the various schools’ local alumni liaison to relay the events’ invites to their alumni base. When UH alum joins theMarketing or its local events, he increases his alumni networking potential by 20X. When an Business U. alum joins, he increases his networking potential by 200X. Here lies the competitive advantage of networking for Business U. alumni.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-1168951134792886793?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-799089234930220502009-04-03T00:09:00.000-07:002009-04-03T00:14:25.968-07:00email signature marketingSee <a href="http://www.webandnet.com/">www.WebAndNet.com</a> for email marketing products. Below is a proposal written for an email signature, the update of which is a <a href="http://www.webandnet.com/">www.WebAndNet.com</a> invention.<br /><br /><br />Bruce Sales Manager<br />Houston Web Marketing<br /><br />Dear Bruce,<br /><br />Thank you for inviting me in to discuss Houston Web Marketing’s interest in a personal email signature marketing system. WebAndNet proposes the following:<br /><br />Custom build a sidebar and reply campaign signature set—designed to cross-sell Houston Web Marketing’s products and services and to achieve or enhance Houston Web Marketing’s branding and promotion goals.<br />Provide up to 5 signature set varieties for different products-services lines.<br />Modify up to 10 names and contacts information for one signature variety.<br />Train in-house administrator on how to modify signatures.<br />Campaign design consultation for best advertising results.<br />Class train users and provide manuals on signature transmission productivity methods.<br />Technical support for 90 days<br />Hosting for one year at no charge.<br /><br />$2,500<br /><br />All designs will provide consistent Houston Web Marketing branding while working in marketing campaign synergy. Subsequent year’s hosting is $20 per month.<br /><br />In addition, WebAndNet will offer to Houston Web Marketing the following:<br /><br />If Houston Web Marketing recommends WebAndNet to members of The Katy Sales Leads, Houston Web Marketing will receive $200 refund for each sale WebAndNet makes to The Katy Sales Leads members. Such payments will be made until the cumulative payments exceed the amount of this sale. Subsequently, WebAndNet will pay 4% of the first three complete sales for accepted referrals.<br /><br />If Houston Web Marketing chooses to do the marketing analysis by itself, and works with WebAndNet to supply graphics suitable for the signature’s clickable icons, WebAndNet will reduce the price by $250.<br /><br /><br />WebAndNet’s signatures have numerous advantages:<br /><br />High quality, custom-created designs to enhance or create the branding image, built by internationally book-published, award-winning web artist.<br />Marketing campaign oriented, with campaign graphics and text modifiable by your firms.<br />Automatically stretches to achieve best appearance at differing recipients monitors’ resolutions.<br />Hand crafted coding to best bypass filtering, reduce size, enhance speed and have clearest administrator documentation.<br />Complete training and support on how to handle filters.<br />Innovative campaign strategies.<br />Upcoming patent-pending technical features that will provide your firm with the world’s most advanced signatures.<br /><br />These signatures can be used repeatedly and indefinitely and provide an immediate advertising value. Customers and prospects infrequently reread a company’s static website; they may read 50 to 500 emails from that same company annually. Graphical signatures’ campaign selling and branding capabilities are generally vastly greater than static websites’.<br /><br />Lastly, WebAndNet has additional marketing innovations or inventions for the distribution reseller market, and I hope we can further work together on products to best Internet market Houston Web Marketing.<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-79908923493022050?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8786412639705865918.post-36875536135730008712009-03-30T02:10:00.000-07:002009-03-30T02:13:10.975-07:00What's the difference between search engine optimization and strategic web marketing?A brochure is being prepared on the differences between search engine optimization and strategic web marketing. Also, feel free to ask to receive a brochure on search engine marketing--this is different from search engine optimization.<br /><br />Thanks,<br />Chen Sun, President<div class="blogger-post-footer"><img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/8786412639705865918-3687553613573000871?l=www.webandnet.com%2Fmarketing%2FHouston-marketing.html'/></div>WebAndNet.comhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01926273556226746730noreply@blogger.com0