To My Supercool New Readers
Hi. Welcome. It’s nice to have you. I’d like to tell you a secret.
I’m not a big fan of roundup posts.
I know this means I’m going to have to surrender my Web 2.0 card and I will no longer be invited to the blogging country club, but I usually go to a blog to read what the blogger has to say, not what the people he’s sucking up to have to say.
So here’s a roundup of IttyBiz. It’s Sunday and you probably are messing around on the internet to avoid thinking about tomorrow, so here’s a little list of some of our home business hidden gems:
“As a general rule, traditional marketing methods suck. You don’t need to know them. Yes, you need to know traditional marketing theory, because human psychology will never change. But methods? Out with the ark, people.”
—from Go Big Or Suck: A Guide To Being Unforgettable
“Get in the shoes of your target demographic. (This, by the way, is very different from getting in the pants of your target demographic. That’s a different blog post. In fact, that’s probably a different blog.)
Really think about them. Envision them as real, breathing individuals. What do they eat for breakfast? How old are they? Are they Democrats or Republicans? Do they like their jobs? Do they like their spouses? How many bedrooms are in their homes?
This is what you need to know. Until you know this, you don’t know them. Until you know them, you don’t know anything.”
—from Target Demographics: The Sequel
“Let me guess. You can’t afford it.
You’d really love to [work from home/spend time with your kids/give money to charity/adopt a child from China], you really would, but you just can’t afford it. If I hear that phrase one more time, I’m going to do something drastic.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you’re lying.”
—from Money For Entrepreneurs: Can You Afford It?
“Up until the birth of The Smallest Business Partner, my method of adding an extra four hours to my workday was to stay up an extra four hours. This is a great idea and I completely recommend it for people who have no more than one commitment in their life.
For the other 99.837% of us, I offer these tips.”
—from Time Management For Entrepreneurs: How To Get 4 More Hours In Your Day
“There’s a coffee shop in my neighborhood. It’s pretty famous around here. They’re considered a big deal.
Except they suck. Regular coffee costs two bucks. They are always out of something. At no point does anyone in their employ know what kind of bagels they have that day. I asked the owner if Viennese coffee was flavored, and he told me that it wasn’t — it was just regular coffee from Vietnam.
I have never been there without at least 5 people in line ahead of me. People love this place.”
—from before this blog even launched, back when I was only getting one comment a post, Brand Management At The Coffee Shop
EDITED: I actually wrote this post a few days ago, and in the meantime, I’ve come across two blog posts that are forcing me to go against my rounduppage dictates.
One, why have I not seen this blog before? Have I been living under a rock? Have I been too busy breeding? Here is a post that compares Digg to the Bay of Pigs. Please go read it immediately.
Next, I’m fairly new to Caroline Middleton’s blog. Normally I do not heart Make Money Online blogs because they make me want to throw up. Hers is pretty cool, though, and here is a personal post she wrote that honestly made me gasp. I thought I was the only one who wrote stuff like this on my business blog. Rock the fuck on, Caroline. You are my hero.
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Overwhelmed? Freaking out? Borderline hysterical? Click here to get your own micro-business marketing plan. It’s not scary, I promise.
Personally dreading doing a round-up post. Much better things to do on a Sunday. I just outlined an article about why getting Dugg is more headache then its worth. I’ll check out this one.
Check out my newly designed hawtness.
Hell yeah, I’m FEELING like a supercool new reader. This is the most entertaining anti-roundup roundup post ever.
The Go Big of Suck was a swift kick in the pants and exactly what I needed to hear.
Money for Entrepreneurs was powerful. Flour in baby bottle is potent imagery. No excuses after reading that article.
Hey, thanks.
The post from Caroline is going to make me walk around the house for the rest of the day a little more thankful for the things I do have in my life. I feel for her. And when stuff like that touches me, I can’t help but realize how damned lucky I am and how much stuff I take for granted. Raw posts like that remind me that one day, it might be me writing about something tragic. I only hope that I’ll receive the support that Caroline is - and I’m very glad she is. She needs that.
Now that I’ve managed to get myself all choked up, I think I’ll go spend some time with my kids. Because I’m lucky to have them.
Grrr… *hits subscribe to comments*
Great links, thanks. As always. Especially Caroline Middleton’s blog. That post was a mind blower. God I feel for her. But then I went and read some of her other posts. Good stuff! And I normally hate “Make Money…” blogs. Oh, and where is that blogging country club? I seemed to have misplaced my invite. :(
I just recently started reading Caroline’s blog too and really enjoy it. I haven’t read that post you referred to and her blog is down right now, so I’ll have to check it out in the morning. I just wanted to share something that makes her even cooler. I emailed her, and get this. She emailed me back! :)
That post got me reading Caro as well, she is pretty great.
Off and on I’ve been trying Caroline’s site all day.. can’t get to it.
Coincidentally, my site was down most of the day (first major trouble in ten years!), so I’ve been pretty stressed.. time to quit for the day.
Hey everybody! Thanks for clicking! I can’t get Caroline’s site either. Maybe she got Dugg… :-)
She got punkd by her hosting service but she is back now.
Hi Naomi,
we have much in common like the boxes of wine and the dumb customers.
Also, I enjoyed reading some of your posts after collapsing from exhaustion dealing with the aftermath of my attempts to seamlessly transfer my latest code to people that offered to beta test it.
Sometimes 9-5 can seem very easy in comparison, I am tempted back but I reward myself by taking Mondays off to go to the mountains and Ski and stuff.
Andy
[...] Namoi Dunford, I am not a big fan of roudups, and this is an obvious ruse to keep the blog fresh without publishing anything of any true [...]
Um…the excerpt from my blog entry above makes me look like a big jerk. Actually, I was referring to my own article, not this one, and just linking to this one. I may yet be a big jerk, but I wasn’t trying to be this time!