Why Most Design Firms Won’t Do Spec Work
 by: Jeremy L. Knauff

It’s common for business owners to make unrealistic requests of design firms. Probably the most common is when they contact several design firms and ask them all to design something for them, whether it’s a logo, brochure or some other piece, with the intent that they will choose one of the designs if they like it. While it may seem like there is nothing wrong with this request, in reality, there is. Think about how this request would be taken in any other industry.

Potential home buyer: I want you to build me a house and I’m going to have three other builders do the same thing. After these homes are completed, if I like one I’ll purchase it.

Home builder: Uhhh…No.

Potential car buyer: I’m thinking about buying a car from either you or another car dealer with in a seventy mile radius. I’d like you to drop off one of each model of car that you have (the other car dealers will be doing the same) and after I’ve had a chance to drive all of them for a while I’ll decide if I want to buy one.

Car dealer: Uhhh…No.

Restaurant visitor: I don’t know what I want to eat, but I’ll know what I like when I taste it. I want you to make everything from your menu deliver it to my house. Keep in mind that the Chinese, Italian and Mexican restaurants will be delivering their food as well. After tasting everything, if I’m still hungry, I will choose a meal from one restaurant.

Restaurant owner: Uhhh…No.

The bottom line is that graphic design is a business. You wouldn’t run your business by handing out your product or service for free in hopes that someone might feel like paying for it and you shouldn’t expect a design firm or designer to do so. Some firms will do spec work, but they usually fall into one of two categories. They are either brand new firms with no experience trying to land their first clients, or they are huge firms that only work with clients that have multi-million dollar advertising budgets.

Like any other business, a graphic design firm has overhead. By working on spec, they are forced to raise their prices because unlike some businesses that sell a product, graphic designers can not take back their time and resell it. Many people take for granted the overhead that can be necessary to run a graphic design firm. Specialized software is required to do what we do, and depending on what is needed, can be an investment of several thousand dollars per employee — which must be updated on a regular basis. Additionally, a graphic design firm needs far more robust hardware than the average user. Our processing power, memory and storage capacity needs can me mind blowing and frequent upgrades are often necessary. Most firms employ highly skilled designers, whom must be paid accordingly. These designers have the talent and experience to develop marketing materials that deliver results quickly and efficiently. All of this allows us to provide our clients the best service at a reasonable price and in a timely manner.

content@wildfiremarketinggroup.com

The Pen Is Mightier Than Website Traffic
 by: Mike Burke

Although significant website traffic to your site can seem to be an uphill battle, once again the pen is the clear winner. Other than free search engine traffic, publishing articles remains as one of the few truly effective ways to get targeted traffic to your site.

If you haven’t already tried your hand at writing an article, it may seem like a pretty daunting task, especially if you don’t think you have the necessary skills. Anyone can write and submit an effective article and it’s easier than you may think.

There is a certain art to writing an article, however, but it doesn’t really require any special skills. You don’t need a degree to write an article and you don’t need to be a programmer to submit your articles to ezines, blogs or any other article distributor to have your article published.

The art of writing an article is in the plan.

If you expect to achieve any amount of success in anything you do, you need to have a well thought out plan and writing an article for publication is no exception. Fortunately, after you have developed your plan, the hard part will be done.

Here are some of the basic elements you should include in your plan to write an effective article:

The first step is to decide what you want to write about but, more importantly, decide what it is you know about your topic that the majority of your readers don’t already know. If you think you don’t know enough about your topic to write an article, do some research.

Albert Einstein once said that he didn’t clutter his mind with information he didn’t need but he knew where to find it if he needed it. There’s a wealth of information available and with a little homework, you’ll have more than enough information for your article in no time.

The next step is to make a list of the main points of your topic. Pick one you want to expand and focus your article around that point. It’s easy to get carried away and to try to pack too much information into a single article. Save the other main points of your topic for other articles.

The next step is to establish the sub-points, if any, of the main point you would like to convey to your readers. How can you further explain the point of your article? For example, what do you feel is important for your readers to know and what pitfalls should they avoid? Point out vulnerabilities and solutions.

The next step is to determine what you want your readers to get out of your article. Simply offering information will read like a text book and won’t be very interesting. Challenge your readers to think about what you’re saying and how they can put it to use in a way they haven’t thought of before — peak their interest.

The next step to decide the ‘color’ of your article. By ‘color’ I mean the style you would like your article to have. For example, your article could be formal, informal, humorous, serious, casual, general, personal — you get the idea.

Now that we’ve gone over the steps to create an article, now let’s put them in order and fill in the blanks.

#1) Decide what the main topic of your article will be.

#2) Establish the sub-points, if any, of your main topic.

#3) Determine what you want your readers to get out of your article.

#4) Pick a ‘color’ for your article — the style you would like to use.

#5) Create a rough draft of your article.

#6) Edit your article. (have someone read your article and offer suggestions)

#7) Check your grammar and spelling.

#8) Create a title for your article. (keep it simple and catchy)

#9) Create a ‘teaser’ for your article. (a ‘teaser’ is a short, 2 or 3 sentence description of the contents of your article)

#10) Create a ‘bio’. (a ‘bio’ is a short, 2 or 3 sentence description of who your are and your qualifications. Remember to put a link to your website in your ‘bio’)

#11) List 4 or 5 of the keywords that relate to your article. (some article distributors require them)

#12) Submit your article to article distributors. (that’s a topic for another article)

The hardest part of writing articles is actually writing and submitting your first one. The more articles you write, the easier and more enjoyable it gets.

So, go ahead — start writing and submitting articles and watch your website traffic skyrocket!

For more website traffic ideas visit http://www.starttheprofits.com

Event Marketing: Five Ways to Rally Your Support Team to Ultimate Success
 by: Dina Giolitto

One morning, you woke up and realized that you were creating an online marketing bonanza, and that by some miracle a group of people were following along with the plan. Not bad, for an ordinary human! But then just when you were getting comfortable with the idea, you found out that you still have to work for the respect. Suddenly a handful of your followers dropped out of the cheering section just like that… and still others began resisting your suggestions to move the agenda forward. So what do you do when morale is at an all-time low and the support network has begun to unravel and separate like so many lost sheep?

You’ve got to rally the team and fuel the plan with some high-octane morale-boosters and incentives to keep the momentum alive.

1. Manifest the Group Destiny.

One prosperity teacher who I know discourages her students from saying what they don’t wish to happen. I emphasize: start declaring what you’d like to happen, and it will come true. You don’t have to spew your affirmations directly at people, many find that a turnoff. But there are “indirect” ways to put a positive message out into the great beyond that will come back around with proof positive that your plan is going to take off and soar. Your team is listening and they will “catch” those good vibrations and naturally become a part of the story as you tell it. End result: cooperation, enthusiasm, success!

2. Match the Function with the Ability.

If you know that one of your group supporters is wildly creative but somewhat chaotic, then don’t assign her the task of managing the email drip campaign, save that for your Power Planner instead. Give your Creative One her moment of glory by having her write some articles or dream up a clever advertising pitch to alert your audience of the upcoming promotional extravaganza. Your team player will shine like the sun when you give her spirit a chance to dance in the limelight doing what she was meant to do.

3. Remember the Little Details.

Which teammate said what at the last meeting of the minds? To whom do you owe extra credit? Someone went the extra mile and told a few friends about your upcoming bonanza, who was that and how can you thank them? A good group leader has the ability to see both trees and forest - that means taking everyone into consideration, thinking holistically “for the good of the group,” yet remembering those little details that differentiate your participants and make them unique in the ways they can give to the cause.

4. Show Your Gratitude.

At certain points in your online promotional effort, you may find yourself drowning in work and generally feeling maxed out and taken for granted. Instead of directing the frustration at your support team, strive to be that bigger person. You don’t need someone to pat you and hand you a cookie because you’re a grown adult… and you answer to nobody but yourself. You own this dream plan, and miraculously, other people are following your star! Your participants have put aside their own priorities to make your vision their own. Nobody told them to do this, they did it because they believe in you… so remember to thank them profusely for the things both large and small that they bring to the table.

5. Don’t Have a Petty Party.

When tension is high, teammates may display subtle forms of resistance, and you may find this highly frustrating. Rather than dwell in another person’s passive aggression, attack the problem with an Insta-Fix and move ahead. That fix might just be “reinforcing your team member’s effectiveness” by reminding him of what he does best and then asking pleasantly if he can help you. Because ultimately, you need his help. Most people want to feel appreciated and needed. So if you genuinely value their contribution, then you should have no trouble clearing the static in your communication channel and propelling things along.

The power in numbers is clear when you sit back and survey the results of your group effort. Could you have made nearly as great a splash as a lone maverick? My guess is no. So fuel the group on, to the tune of a higher idealism, and then smile as your dreams are brought to life.

Want to witness event planning live in action? Please join me and my marketing friends for the First Annual Web Content Awareness Day, scheduled to launch on February 9, 2006 at http://WebContentAwarenessDay.com.

Sneak Peek: Visit the Countdown to Web Content Awareness Day Blog and learn how you can ride our wave of high web traffic!

Paste in this link:

http://wordfeeder.typepad.com/web_content_awareness_day/

Copyright 2006 Dina Giolitto. All rights reserved.