I swoosh I was that guy., Dave loved him.

Well, hello there pallys! This blog hasn’t been updated since 2010, but that’s OK for marketing purposes. No, it’s not really, but I’m not selling you anything.

My last blog post was titled “Happy New Year Dead Blog!” because I hadn’t updated it in a while. I gave some interesting predictions in 2010, off the top of my head, which I still think are kind of interesting now. However, therefore, please do note, since I have aggressively focused on eCommerce for the past three years, I think this blog may start to discuss what I’ve learned after processing thousands of orders (by myself) and what that entails to prospective eCommerce entrepreneurs. (Seems to be all the rage now.) Or you may just find a “Happy New Year Dead Blog Part Tres!” post next year.

Firstly, I’d like to point out for you dorks that I hadn’t updated the WordPress software for this blog in three years. I just now backed up the database (20 MB so at least I did blog a little) and I upgraded, and everything went fine! Although the Pacers told me a couple years ago that my site was blacklisted with their weirdo software, I am hoping you don’t get a virus from reading this right now. (I am not liable for any damage to your computer, software, or brain.)

So back to 2010… Here were my predictions of what would happen in the near future,  my commentary about my Amazing Kreskin predictions and what’s happening now:

  • Personalized search results are going to mess up SEO guys.
    I think this kind of came true, except that necessary Google updates messed up SEO guys far more than personalized search results. We saw major hits to SERPs due to Penguin and Panda Google updates, and it was the right thing to do. I have never put effort into getting backlinks, links on other sites, however you want to call it, and it looks like I was an Angel in Google’s eyes. None of my business sites have been penalized at all due to Google SEO updates. Just be yourself and talk about what’s important. If you’re good, Google will like you. And it really has worked for me for the past couple of decades!
  • Social Media ninjas are going to keep designing more websites to afford their throwing star habit.
    I think I was right on the money with this Amazing Kreskin prediction, and the Amazing Kreskin himself didn’t even whisper this into my ear. I’m not going to elaborate because it’s not worth the dumb argumentative comments from broke and defensive social media dudes. There is money to be made now with large corporations who don’t get it, are too afraid, or lazy to do it on their own, but even these big social media marketing companies are buying up other companies so they can be more relevant. You need to market everything to help someone, not just market a Twitter account.
  • More businesses will realize they need an eCommerce site to sell to the masses, or make it easier for their existing customers (or themselves.)
    This prediction was 100% dead on and I have experienced it first hand with all of the competition I have now. Anyone want to buy my crystal ball? I was all by myself in my niche with the eCommerce World three to five years ago and now it’s a rat race to try to take some of Amazon’s pie. And Amazon has a lot of pie. Sweet cherry pie.
  • People are hopefully going to start creating multiple Twitter accounts for their different businesses, ideas, hobbies, etc . . . so they don’t dilute their brands / main identity.
    I think I was right about this, too. I have lost count of the Twitter accounts I have for different eCommerce sites and brands, but I think even regular normal people have also done this so they can keep followers for their main twitter account, but also have a twitter account about their passion which they tweet about too much. I did the same thing four years ago.
  • I think 2010 may be the year for WordPress MU with normal WP install, but this seems kind of like the Mac Tablet rumors.
    I was ahead of the curve on this. Or in other words, I was wrong. I could spend a lot of time searching the Google to prove that I was right, but I think it happened a year or two later. However, I am still surprised that I had the hindsight to suggest WordPress and WordPress MU would be one and the same. They are now. And I’m surprised that I was so gung-ho about it back then that I still haven’t even found a good reason to now try out multiple WordPress websites with the same installation, but that’s for another blog post maybe next year, or three years after now.
  • Consumers will finally get sick of AT&T service and iPhone battery life and slowly migrate to new and better phones.
    Ugh, you dumb consumers! I didn’t take into account the grandfathering of unlimited data plans, which is the only reason I am still with AT&T. When Verizon announced that they would soon discontinue their unlimited data plans, I knew in my heart of hearts that I should switch to Verizon, but I still had a contract with AT&T and was too cheap at the time to make the bold move. I am still mad while I am typing this.
  • Due to all the fake money we have printed, there will be major inflation and President Obama will be known as the next Jimmy Carter.
    I also didn’t take into account the government’s master plan of being able to do anything they want, and take way too much tax money from me, but The Amazing Kreskin tells me this will still happen in the near future. And I surely believe him.
  • Mister Rogers Neighborhood will no longer be on the air after 2010, and our children will not be able to watch real television – and I’m not talking about Reality TV.
    Ding Ding Ding! PBS discontinued the Mister Rogers Neighborhood for nearly all markets in the USA except for the weekends, which I’m not sure they even do now. This is really sad, but to cheer you up, I suggest you check out Mister Rogers & Me.
  • The Indiana Pacers will let many contracts expire and start all over with the young guys.
    Of any and all points I predicted, this is the one I am most happy about. Your Indiana Pacers are currently 13-1 and probably headed to the NBA Finals. I am nearing my 200th Pacers Home Game in row, that means I haven’t missed a single home game in over four seasons, and those dumb games with Coach JOB makes it all worthwhile.
  • Andy Kaufman will finally announce that he is alive, tour the country and wrestle women. It will be phenomenal.
    I was so close with this. Just this month, nearly every news media outlet reported that Andy Kaufman may still be alive. I won’t elaborate on this, but because they reported it, he came back alive to you and your amigos and that’s all that Andy would’ve wanted.

Stay tuned next month for my 2014 predictions! I’m surely going to be right more than I’m wrong if history repeats itself. (And I just need to make one more phone call to my pally Kreskin.)

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kevin-hood-2010-predictions-andy-kaufman-wresltingThis blog just about died, but now I have the excuse to say “Happy New Year” and update my blog. For businesses or individuals looking for new blog ideas – there you go! Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Happy January… whatever you want to use. Just blog about it, make it interesting and add some keywords. You owe me $10,000.00.

So Happy New Year and welcome to 2010 (however you want to pronounce it) and a possible new decade (however you want to do the math.) What else can I blog about? Let’s give you some off the top of my head personal predictions for the next year(s)…

  • Personalized search results are going to mess up SEO guys.
  • Social Media ninjas are going to keep designing more websites to afford their throwing star habit.
  • More businesses will realize they need an eCommerce site to sell to the masses, or make it easier for their existing customers (or themselves.)
  • People are hopefully going to start creating multiple Twitter accounts for their different businesses, ideas, hobbies, etc . . . so they don’t dilute their brands / main identity.
  • I think 2010 may be the year for WordPress MU with normal WP install, but this seems kind of like the Mac Tablet rumors.
  • Consumers will finally get sick of AT&T service and iPhone battery life and slowly migrate to new and better phones.
  • Due to all the fake money we have printed, there will be major inflation and President Obama will be known as the next Jimmy Carter.
  • Mister Rogers Neighborhood will no longer be on the air after 2010, and our children will not be able to watch real television – and I’m not talking about Reality TV.
  • The Indiana Pacers will let many contracts expire and start all over with the young guys.
  • Andy Kaufman will finally announce that he is alive, tour the country and wrestle women. It will be phenomenal.

Here’s to 2010!

Internet Marketing Sales GuyI randomly found this on Craigslist and it is just too funny not to share. This is a good example of how you shouldn’t market on the Internet, or Indiana social media sites, but at the same time it’s avoiding a lot of potential messy clients. His customers know what they’re going to get and probably leave happy with the low expectations. Just a friendly reminder to not sell yourself TOO much.

One seriously no-talent photographer, mediocre gear, no corporate website, no references. Available for small events that you really don’t care to remember.

Are your expectations low enough?
Allow me to lower the bar a bit farther…

Never been to photography school.
Available whenever my real job doesn’t interfere…which is almost never.
Photoshop??!! You’ve obviously mistaken me for someone who…..
Never published. Never won an award. Never tried.
Not terribly fond of cats, kids or spiders.

Read the rest of this entry »

social-media-crazy-larsI’ve decided to say the heck with it. I’m going to go out on a limb, roll the dice and skate on thin ice . . . you should just get crazy with social media. Drink a couple of beers, follow a bunch of people even though you haven’t tweeted yet . . . and get crazy.

Just go for it. Trust me, this whole social media strategy stuff is just a big ole’ waste of time. All you need to do is sign up for Twitter, post only one Tweet proclaiming your presence (something like “Welcome world to my Twitter page!) . . . and you’re off to the social media races. Those people that you follow on Twitter check their emails, find out you have only one tweet and immediately follow you back for no reason. Social media is awesome!

Listen folks, I’m a social media ninja. Drink beer, tweet and repeat. Then bug your friends on Facebook about your business. It’s that easy!

(Note to sensitive social media types: </sarcasm>)

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Wordpress Blog Installation ErrorWordPress is all the rage these days. People have finally figured out that WordPress is not just for blogs, you can actually make a great website with it. WordPress is a CMS, and a good one at that.

Doug Karr recently added a few posts to his blog about website design, WordPress and money. He claims you can easily make a WordPress website yourself that looks good and works great. Don’t spend a bunch of money with a website design firm, just buy or download a free WordPress theme and away you go! You get your web$ite for nothing and the clicks for free . . .

I agree with Doug. Well, I’m biased because I’ve been using WordPress for five years, and I have made nice websites for businesses using WordPress. They look good, do great in search engines and clients can upgrade their website whenever they want (without being charged each time for a simple update.)

But, what is missing from this discussion? The knowledge and effort required to properly set up a web host, domain name, email accounts, WordPress site, training the client how to use it, and continual updates of the WordPress software and plugins. Let’s not forget having to possibly edit the WordPress theme code to make it compatible with the latest WordPress upgrades and internet browser software.

Granted, WordPress makes upgrades a lot easier now with one click updates. But do you feel comfortable backing up your database before the upgrade? If not, you could possibly lose everything. I’ve seen dumb WordPress mistakes from “professional new media agencies” with permalink structure, SEO, category names, URL choices, and bad WordPress themes . . . so even a lot of the “good guys” can’t do it right. And they charge a lot of mullah.

Do you want to do it right? Well, consider saving the hours of time it would take to learn the ins and outs of WordPress and hire someone with WordPress experience. Ask to see their portfolio and find out how many of their sites use WordPress. The more experience they have with WordPress, the more comfortable you will feel with the process and result. Then you can take over your website, have total control and hopefully rule the search engines . . . and get some clicks for free.

Indiana Discussion Website about PoliticsIf you’re one of the fortunate few following me on Twitter, you might have guessed I am up to something. I actually started this new “social media” website probably over two years ago on Ning, but wasn’t ready to promote it, and of course it died like a slug bug in some beer.

To give you a little history, four years ago I purchased a website called Indiana Barrister, but couldn’t stand the domain name. I spoke with my partner in crime Abdul, who is the sole contributor, but he had already been blogging for a while and liked the name. Honestly, I had to Google the word “barrister” to find out what it really meant. It turns out it’s another word for the wonderful term lawyer, which angry people also call Abdul. However, the website didn’t really focus on law, it covered politics and news from Indiana. I bought the domain names IndianaDiscussion.com and IndianaConversation.com, but Abdul wanted to keep the name.

He was up for a second site, so I planned to start up IndianaDiscussion.com on the brand new Ning.com platform. And I eventually did … I even have the header for the original site, but it’s not really worth looking at. So in less than 300 more words, why the heck am I re-starting another website and what challenges will I face?

Indiana Barrister is pretty popular. Based on Abdul’s blog posts, we get a lot of traffic and a ton of comments. In almost five years, we have nearly 24,000 comments and currently receive around 20,000 visitors a month. In 2009, Indiana Barrister was named one the of top political blogs in the country by The Washington Post. It’s a good site to launch off and start something bigger.

The visitors are engaged. Any blog post can get from 10, to 30, to 75 comments … the news Abdul provides definitely gets the community talking. However, their comments are kind of lost in a sea of a lot of comments. I wanted a way for them to feature their great comments; or better yet, be able to add their own blog posts, start discussions, etc.

What Challenges will I Face?

Read the rest of this entry »

TJ Ford tweet from July 14th 8:08 AM

TJ Ford tweet from July 14th 8:08 AM

I am a huge Indiana Pacers fan, so I’m going to focus on the NBA, but this applies to the NFL, NBL, ABL, NHL and any other three letter combination you can think of. Or for that matter, any famous person or business.

Twitter has changed the way we communicate.

Maybe it started before that with anonymous bulletin boards, MySpace, Facebook and the like. People were talking to their “friends” and no one ever thought any of their comments could become public to strangers. Hello Twitter…

I guess some people feel like their Twitter followers are their friends, so once they become comfortable with Twitter, they pretty much say whatever they want. That’s what you will see from some guys in the NBA and other professional sports leagues.

As a fan of the Indiana Pacers, my favorite example is probably Marquis Daniels, and he won’t be back next year so it doesn’t really tarnish my team’s reputation. He started using Twitter heavily this summer, and not for the good. Bad words, weird comments, no mention of basketball, and grammar that needs a built in “Marquis Daniels translator” plug-in to figure out what he is trying to say. It’s that bad, and makes him look even worse.

Dante Jones Tweet

Dahntay Jones Tweet

Another Pacers example is one of our newest players Dahntay Jones. Dahntay came from the Denver Nuggets to the Indiana Pacers this summer. The same week, he or supposedly his cousin, posted a long string of rap lyrics including the “n” word. At the end of the racially slurred lyric by Rick Ross, the message said: “the nuggets did me dirty.” When looking for his Twitter link, I noticed his most recent update says, “There’s nothing like 2johnny and cokes some smoke and my wife.” The reference to “smoke” is a little questionable.

Speaking of smoke, who could forget the biggest Twitter idiot of the month, or possibly year? Read the rest of this entry »

Business Blog SEO SkeletonMany businesses don’t feel a blog is worthwhile. Maybe because they hear about blogs on Oprah, or their significant other is always wasting time on the ESPN blog, mom blogs or Perez Hilton’s blog. Blogs could seem synonymous with The National Enquirer to some people, others just have no idea what a blog is, or how it could be used for business.

How about we not even call it a blog? Let’s call it a news page, or a news website about your product, services, and people behind the company. It can be much more than just a press release once a month. You can give your potential and current customers a better understanding of your company and why they should do business with you. A blog news page also offers the flexibility to add content to the website that doesn’t easily fit in the site map or main navigation.

Most importantly, you can improve search engine ranking for specific keyword phrases (products or services.) The more news posts or pages you add to your site, the better ranked your website will be in the search engines. Improved search engine ranking is connected to the increased-traffic-bone, which is connected to the higher-conversion-bone, which is connected to the get-more-leads bone, and then it is your job to connect that to the close-more-business-bone. And that’s how we play the blog game with businesses.

It’s called Sexy Bookmarks, or SexyBookmarks, and it is pretty fancy looking. Or sexy, but I didn’t want to go there. It has cool little tabs for each bookmarking or social media site you want to include, and they pop up and down in a slick-like manner to make your website look hot. There’s like, oh my gosh, like 30 different websites to choose from.

Do you want a hot, sexy WordPress blog or website? If you’re reading the homepage, click the “Read the rest of this entry” link to see what the WordPress plugin looks like in action. (Now your blog will look like mine, great.)

Read the rest of this entry »

My friends and I used to get the same question about once a week, “Show me one way that social media has got us business?!?” We would respond with some pretty good examples, and a few large sales we got directly from using social media sites. The next week we would get the same question. And the next week, and the week after that.

Here is a recent example from my Facebook friends on how to get business using social media. Maybe screenshots will make it easy to understand and remember.
social-media-business-facebook
How easy was that? A friend remembered that another friend did fence work, they used social media to make the connection, and then you have a lead and potential business.

So how did Chrissy remember that Rachel’s family builds fences? Maybe some of Rachel’s messages on Facebook used a creative way to remind her friends in need of a fence . . . here’s one:

Read the rest of this entry »

Skills

Technology, computers, IT, sales, marketing, website design, internet marketing, search engine conqueror, writing, community, humor and more.

  • daltonsbriefs: All very funny! I would add that 2010 will be the year that every unemployed person with a computer [...]
  • Ian Rhodes: Absolutely right Kevin - I've had the same conversations - the term 'blogging' is syn [...]
  • Kevin Hood : Kevin, I am the horse guy Kevin Hood wasn't aware of any competition between the two of us. [...]
  • Kati Davis: I've been suggesting to University's for a while that they use a blog format for their new [...]
  • Justin Harter: I best be getting myself busy with this new fangled-technique! [...]

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