the uncreative industry

In my last post, I spoke a little about email spam. One other thing that I have noticed about email marketers is that, on the whole, they are the least creative people I think I have seen in my life. Rather than come up with any ideas of their own, they simply regurgitate whatever they've seen from their competitors. The sales copy always looks the same. The same catch phrases that are used to sell get-rich-quick moneymaking schemes and bogus college degrees are also used to sell a diet pill. What gives?

I understand the concept behind "shotgun" marketing - that if you spray your message in a wide enough pattern, you're bound to hit something (or somebody). But even if you could get someone to actually read that spammy message, or god forbid actually open their crummy virus-infected attachment, do these marketers actually think that they're misspelled cookie-cutter copy is actually going to lead to conversions?

fighting the losing battle with spam

So I created a new email address for myself recently and my inbox was totally free from spam for a few weeks. Then, poof! - one client adds me to their "mailing list" and I suddenly start receiving sales pithes for Rolexes, Viagra and Fentraphen again. Now I could easily spend my days trying to create and tweak filters that scan my email for spam, but I find that this is a losing battle. It either becomes a weekly chore to add additional keywords and misspellings to the filter, or you end up going too vague and filtering out valid emails from customers. I could also depend on my ISP to do the filtering for me, but I have yet to discover an ISP that can successfully filter the bad from the good. The new year is a great time to switch emails. It's almost expected. I actually like to include the year in my email address. That way, if any of my contacts miss the message about my email address getting changed, they may guess the new one when they see that the year no longer matches the current year. Some might say that spammers would make the same assumption, but that would assume that email harvesters and spammers are physically viewing their email lists, which I seriously doubt.

In the end, I'm thinking that the best thing to do is to provide a specially filtered and forwarded email address for each client. It sounds like a lot of work, but it isn't really. You create a new address for each client when you first meet, and that's it. This would also make email filtering into folders a little easier.

the search for reclaimed material

It's official. We're going to be building our new house using as much reclaimed material as possible. We've been watching Craiglist and eBay like hawks, and I also keep my eye on local newspaper and forum classifieds, too. I've already picked up some old solid wood doors which should look fabulous once refinished. There are some great deals to be found, if you have the time to wait for the right things to surface (which we do). I also ran across a great site called HouseParter.com, which conveniently searches for reclaimed materials on both Craigslist and eBay at the same time. Although that may not sound like a big deal, what makes this site especially useful is the fact that it filters the results for you. If you've ever tried to search eBay for secondhand construction materials, you quickly find yourself sifting through hundreds if not thousands of search results, most of which are not applicable. This site somehow filters most out most of the bad matches. It also lets you designate that you only want matches near your zip code, which is especially helpful for items that can't be economically shipped. Check it out if you're ever in the market for reclaimed materials, secondhand doors and windows. Just don't bet against me on eBay!

surviving on $2.65 an hour?

I was recently perusing the local newspaper when I noticed a help wanted advertisement offering a "competitive" $7 an hour starting wage. Is that really competitive? With what? Illegal employment perhaps? "Perhaps it is competitive with the minimum wage," I found myself wondering. But are minimum wage rates still that low? I seem to remember them being somewhere in the $5 when I was a kid. Could they have only gone up a dollar or so over the last couple of decades?

I went ahead and did some quick searching, and came across this site from the US Department of Labor that details the minimum wage for each state. My assumption that the minimum is about $1 less than the advertised "competitive" wage was correct, as the minimum wage in Arkansas is about $6.25. I can't imagine trying to make a living off of such a ridiculously low amount of money these days. But when you look at the larger picture, Arkansas actually doesn't have it so bad.

If I lived in Kansas, I could be earning a whopping $2.65 an hour under their current minimum wage law. WOW! You're probably wondering if I typed that right. Well, let me assure you that I did. They actually expect laborers to survive by earning less than $3 an hour. Pretty sad, and it maybe one of the reasons why Kansas is best known for being one of those states with hundreds of miles of nothingness.

Some may also point at Louisiana, where they don't even have a minimum wage law. But in reality, this probably works out well in some cases, as the market would set the acceptable rate. At least the state didn't give its seal of approval on a wage rate that won't even buy you a lunch at Taco Bell.

gifts that you give for yourself

Everyone has heard the cheesy shopping line that talks about "the gift that keeps on giving." I generally equate this to a magazine subscription, but it's been used time and again for a number of products over the years.

I've also recently picked up on a new angle being pushed by marketers - gifts that you give someone else which are really gifts for yourself. While this gifting concept isn't new, marketers typically left it untouched over the years, aside from perhaps the granola bar marketing that states that "chewy stops the chatter". Some typical examples when it comes to Christmas shopping would be when you buy your wife a new piece of lingerie, or a nice set of cookware for the kitchen. Sure, it's a gift for her, but she'll be (hopefully) wearing that sexy new teddy for you, and if she can cook, you're bound to reap some benefits for gifting a new set of designer pots and pans. Granted, you could easily take the concept too far. For example, if you buy a housewife a new vacuum cleaner, you're probably asking for trouble.

Other uses of this gifting tactic include gifts from parents to their children that relieve the parents of child-induced noise and aggravation. We've already touched on the granola bar approach. iPods also come to mind, particularly for long roadtrips. My parents used this one with us, and it worked very well for our frequent trips to the beaches of Florida. You just need to make sure to stock up on batteries before you leave. It's not exactly a novel idea, but I would hope that by now American consumers would be past the whole "selfish" phase that got us into this economic mess, and that they might be reassessing what types of gifts are truly necessary and worthy of being called a "gift" for someone else. In fact, one might think that giving gifts during a recession is a rather ridiculous idea. Instead, wouldn't it make more sense to give the gift of time, especially when we're likely to be working more of it to pay our bills?

affiliate marketing 2008 review

When it comes to my affiliate marketing experiences in 2008, I have had much more success with high dollar items than I have had with low dollar items. Campaigns that push discount furniture, for example, don't result in too many sales, but the sales that do go through make me more in commission. I've heard of lots of affiliate marketers selecting a particular inexpensive product, building a search campaign for it, throwing $1000 at it, and walking away with several months income. That's a great story, but does it really work? And...if it doesn't work, you're out $1000.

I know that they say that you need to spend money to make money, but I never got into affiliate marketing because it was a high risk venture. There are ways to throw median amounts of cash into it, and to walk away with solid performing campaigns. In the last year that I have been running my campaigns, I have only made less than what I spent on my monthly advertising once. Every other month, I have come out ahead. I guess that's a good track record. Now if I could just get that revenue to stabilize a bit more...

giving thanks for a good month

Last month, business was good. Exceptionally good, in fact. Almost good enough to make up for the crappy performance I am seeing this month.

Internet revenue is like that. One month it will exceed your expectations, and the next you'll hit a dry spell - for no apparent reason. While this is all well and good for campaigns generating passive income, it becomes particularly disparaging when your active projects result in very little income.

At this point, my interest in taking on more web design work is waning. I am tired of dealing with people who do not know what they want. Perhaps it is my own fault for not getting concrete instruction from them in the first place. But as a recent client told me, "We just don't know what we want our new website to look like. But we know what we DON'T want." It drives me nuts to hear this.

I guess I have a funny way of giving thanks, eh? Some would say it sounds a little like complaining. ;)

recycling house character

I am so psyched. We recently picked up a vintage Victorian entry door from a secondhand store that was removed from an old 1885 property that was going through an extensive remodel. It has gorgeous woodwork details on the outside and although it is missing the glass, seems to be in good restorable shape. We plan on using it for our new home in the woods, if we can ever get our current house sold. The market isn't looking so great right now, and it has been several weeks since we had a showing. Of course, the real estate market tends to be slow this time of the year anyways, even without our current national economy in the toilet.

The door set me back $100, plus the cost of gas to drive 2 hours to pick it up, but according to the general contractor that we had working on our house, these types of doors routinely sell for much more. So I think we got a great deal on it. We'll probably have to replace the door hardware, or at the least have it re-keyed. I can't tell if the rust on the knob is only surface deep or if it warrants replacement. I'll know more when I have some time to start stripping the old finish off.

It just goes to show you, though. I could easily spend a few thousand dollars on a solid hardwood door if I were to purchase it brand new. Instead, I'm estimating that it will run me less than $200 to refinish it and equip it with new hardware. Plus, this will add a nice amount of historic character to the house!

the great art gestapo

Recently, the local historic district commission has started to place feelers in the community to see how the public would feel if they were to expand their reach to cover art in the community. Predictably, the art community is up-in-arms at the idea of having to channel public art through a governmental commission before it can be displayed. And rightfully so. Doesn't art fall under the realm of "freedom of speech" (which some might argue we have already lost so much of, anyways)?

While I doubt that this little idea will go anywhere, there's always the possibility that they are grooming the community to eventually accept the idea. After all, isn't a historic district doing virtually the same thing? Sure, they protect property values by enforcing a grand scheme across an entire neighborhood, but aren't they essentially stifling the creativity of architecture? It's definitely one of those "slippery slope" arguments, but one that needs to be addressed wherever it rears its ugly head, regardless of the possibility of it being passed into ordinance.