Archive for November, 2006


I’ve Got a Blog and I’m Not Afraid to Use It!

Friday, November 10th, 2006

Will that be the rallying cry of the unhappy consumer?

When we recently moved our new offices we decided that the water cooler we had for the past 5 years was showing its age. Also, the child-safety latch on the hot water had blown a spring and was no longer child resistant.

Poland Spring, that famous company from Maine but run from France, told us they’d replace it rather than fix it. They would do so on our regular delivery date, but that was no big deal.

When we got the new cooler it looked flimsier, but I didn’t really care. What I did care about is the hot water spout didn’t give out hot water. Was this some new, unbeatable child-resistant contraption?

We called up, and they told us they couldn’t replace it right away, but they could in a couple of days. Oh, well, that’s fine I guess. They brought a new water cooler in and we discovered that this one did have hot water.

What it lacked was cold water. I guess they got our order mixed up and brought us a water heater. It heated the water all the way up through the bottle on top. Great for tea, bad for drinking water.

We called them again. Again, they couldn’t bring by a cooler right away. I’m not sure why they think it’s OK to bring us not one but TWO defective products and then make us wait until it’s convenient for them to bring us a working model.

Well, today’s the day they’re supposed to be bringing the new cooler and we’re still waiting.

Hmmm…I see Crystal Spring Water is a locally owned company. (After all, local is the new organic.) Sure, their Web page isn’t so cool, but hey–we could help with that!

Attention Poland Spring: The clock is ticking….

Rich Brooks
Thirsty for Customer Service


Podcast Glossary: Podcast Related Terms

Wednesday, November 8th, 2006

You’ve heard of the blogosphere (the universe of blogs), splogs (spam blogs), and perhaps flogs (fake blogs). A while back someone coined podfading: the act of slowly letting your podcast fade by not updating it. (Guilty as charged.)

It seems as though someone is coining some clever new phrase every other day. Well, hell! I want to jump on that bandwagon.

Here are my entries into the Podcasting Glossary. I’m sure someone else came up with some of these earlier, so if you can show me proof, I’ll show them love (and links.)

Poddite – Member of the radio media who destroys podcasting equipment in a belief that such machinery would diminish employment.

Underpodder – A back up podcaster position ready to take over in case the lead podcaster is unable to fulfill their duties.

Podfellow - A friend in the podosphere.

Podunk – A small and uninfluential podcast.

Podball - A dance for podcasters.

Podacious - A recklessly bold podcast.

Podience - Listeners.

Podible - Anything that can be heard over a podcast.

Podio - The sound output of a podcast.

Podio Furniture - Deck chairs with speakers.

Pod-dit - A formal review of podcasting numbers.

Podacious – An outrageous claim delivered via a podcast.

Podition – A trial podcast.

Poditorium – Wherever you listen to your podcast when not using headphones.

Rich Brooks
Pod Man Out


The Importance of Play

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

In his latest email newsletter/article, Dr. Bob Brooks (my dad/client) writes about the importance of play in young children.

While this has nothing to do with Internet marketing or Web site design, as a parent it struck as extremely important. I’m concerned that we’re over-scheduling our children and not giving them enough free time to exercise their imaginations.

Plus, my daughter Maya is featured in the article.

If you’re a parent, teacher or caregiver for a child, please take ten minutes to read "To Appreciate the Influence of Play."

Other parenting and educational articles an an email sign up for dad’s Dr. Brooks’s newsletter are available at his site: http://www.drrobertbrooks.com.

Rich Brooks
Proud Son


Use Your Blog to Attract the Long Tail of Search

Tuesday, November 7th, 2006

It’s the first Tuesday in November and the entire country is talking about only one thing…the newest issue of flyte log, flyte’s Internet marketing ezine.

"What will Rich write this month?"
"What insights will he have to market my site better, or generate more leads online?"
"Will he like my new hair color?"
"What does he think of the Patriots’ chances now that they’ve dropped games to the two best(?) teams in the AFC?"

This month we talk about The Long Tail of searches, and how to take advantage of them on your blog. Blogs are the perfect vehicle to test out ideas and topics that may attract valuable prospects.

Read Use Your Blog to Attract the Long Tail of Search and start reaching out to your next customer. And if you haven’t yet, sign up for flyte log and never miss another issue.

Rich Brooks
Blog Marketer

P.S. Last month’s winner of the most effective call-to-action was Keli Etscorn of Bear Canyon SEO with "5 Simple changes that can make a big impact in your Web site traffic."

The decisions of the judges are final and cannot be overturned.


Can Search Engines Keep Politicians Honest?

Wednesday, November 1st, 2006

Stewart_1
Will Google and other search engines keep politicians honest?

While some might argue that this is even beyond the scope of technology, a recent article in the Financial Times quotes Google’s Eric Schmidt as saying:

He forecast that, within five years, “truth predictor” software would
“hold politicians to account”. Voters would be able to check the
probability that apparently factual statements by politicians were
actually correct, using programs that automatically compared claims
with historic data.

Chris Boggs from SE Roundtable says:

Pretty cool, and it’s highly likely that people with advanced search
skills are already performing this type of research, if they care to.

For the rest of us, there’s always Jon Stewart.

Rich Brooks
You Can’t Hide