So it was a typical Friday, I was running thru my to do list while listening to a teleseminar on how to market your business with social marketing like facebook, mypace, etc. All was going well until my computer powered off by itself. When I restarted it I got the blue screen of death, some thing about “fatal errors, physical memory dump”, or something like that. It might as well have said “dude, you’re screwed”.

No need to panic right, a savy web guy like myself has all of his files backed up… or so I thought. I pulled out my mac laptop and plugged in my external hard drive and realized that I was backing up the shortcuts to my files not the files themselves. “what an idiot”!

At this point my computer smelled like it was burning from the inside out. I waited a while and turned it back on. This time windows loaded properly and I immediately began to back up my files. Of course, half way thru the back up the computer powered itself off.

So I realized that I only have a few minutes to backup as many files as I can before this thing blows. It was like an episode of 24, I was watching the little folders throw the pages back and forth saying, “come on, come on, you can do it”. Threw in about a dozen prayers, and it was a race against the clock.

My prayers were answered and I successfully backed up my files just seconds before the computer crashed.

Learn from my lesson, and back up your files right now. Especially your photos and personal documents. External hard drives range from $99-$499 or more but it will be the best couple hundred bucks you spend, I assure you of that.

Even external hard drives can crash or fail, to be on the safe side burn all your important photos and doc on to cd rom or dvd as well.

Go do it right now!

Keith

I have to admit I’m usually very positive, and have been for most of my life. When I was about 13 yrs old I wanted to be a Motivational Speaker. This morning however I just wasn’t feeling it, I’m not sure if I didn’t sleep well or if its just this bitter cold Chicago weather. Then, I got an email from a friend and business associate that included a touching “Must See Video” and I have to tell you that I watched it and it was exactly what I needed. Look out Tony Robbins, “I’m Back”!

Its about a ten minute video, but it was worth every minute. If you think you don’t have the time to watch something that may change your life forever, you got bigger problems:)

Hope you enjoy it, and please comment on the video after you have watched it.

Keith

Regardless of your current political views, you have to admit this upcoming election is going to be wild. I’m not going to ruffle feathers with this blog post but I want you to see this video of one of the best presidential speeches of all time, it’s a short video… just watch it.

On a serious note, let’s look at this video from a marketing standpoint. This video has had over 3 million views in youtube alone. Will Ferrel got to display his comedy and grow his name and reputation to millions of people for free. THAT IS AWESOME!

One of the things I’m developing now is a Viral Video Mastery program that you can use to promote your business.

Are you interested, please reply to this post and let me know what you would like to know about using video to make huge improvements to your business.

Your thoughts and opinions are always welcome..

Thanks,

Keith

What’s the deal with Valentine’s Day anyway? It is a total setup for guys to ultimately disappoint there girlfriend year after year. I have to say I’m pretty smooth, and I can usually pull of something descent. But it makes me sick that supermarkets and florists charge 4-5 times the regular amount for flowers on Valentine’s Day. Yes, I understand supply and demand, but let’s be real.

What If we were to charge you triple price for our marketing service during January because more people are looking to get fit? Ridiculous, right? So here’s an example of a company that actually gets it, and takes care of their customers.

So yesterday I stopped by Trader Joes for a couple groceries and they had a wide variety of roses at…. you won’t believe this, $9.99 per dozen. Some guy out there is saying, “SON Of a $%^&&, I just donated 4 pints of blood for a bouquet of crappy flowers”.

I almost bought 5-6 dozen since they were so cheap, but I didn’t. I’m smooth but I’m not that smooth.

So, Trader Joes got a customer for life, and my girlfriend got a couple dozen roses, some sweet snacks (organic of course) and a newly painted bedroom. And I didn’t have to cash out my 401k for a fake, hallmark holiday. (hope my girlfriend doesn’t see this:)

Moral of the story - it is ok to take advantage of your opportunities but not your customers…

Keith

This past holiday season you may have been emailed a pretty funny looking dancing elf with your face on it. It was a huge viral hit, tens of millions of people created their own elves and had a great laugh out of it. Most of my family and friends did it as well.

Let me ask you this, who started that? What brilliant company was behind that great viral concept?

You don’t know, do you?

Most people don’t and that is an absolute shame. The brains behind OfficeMax forgot that you can’t just have millions of people going to your site without branding your product or at least trying to promote something, anything…

These dancing elves were everywhere, they even made the morning news. Which means more (millions more) people saw it on tv and still didn’t get promoted to. Ouch! This is like paying for a super bowl commercial and forgetting to mention your company’s name.

Check this out! As a marketer, it hurts me to even watch this.

Not a single mention of OfficeMax. Be careful, as you can see even HUGE companies make HUGE mistakes…

Feel free to comment on this blog post..