talkin' smack: unsolicited marketing advice

One Way You Might Be Turning Off Your Readers

Sean — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:27:34 +0000

The other day I bought two audiobooks by Robert Greene. The first book, The 48 Laws of Power, mildly assaulted my sense of right and wrong and what I think is acceptable behavior. The other one, The 33 Strategies of War, excited me and left me feeling inspired. On the way to work this morning it occurred [...]

Often Overlooked, Always More Profitable

Sean — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 07:04:15 +0000

I’m always amazed by internet marketers, teaching internet marketing, who miss the marketing boat. I unsubscribed to several marketing related membership sites today. I’d been with all of them for extended periods and, other than slow content production, I really didn’t have a problem with them. It is important to note I wasn’t leaving angry. There are several [...]

Redefining Continuity Programs

Sean — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 18:17:40 +0000

After the recent ‘Matt Bacak retirement offer’ fiasco, there has been a lot of discussion around the concepts of continuity programs vs. forced continuity vs. hidden forced continuity. I’ve noticed that many people – marketers included – have different ideas what each of those actually mean. The discussion usually starts with talking about the negatives of [...]

GEICO, Tony Blake, and Reducing Attrition.

Sean — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 03:53:22 +0000

It was 7PM when the phone rang. “Hello. May I speak to Sean Marler, please?” “Yeah, this is Sean.” “Mr. Marler, my name is Penny. I’m with GEIKO and, as a matter of courtesy, I’m calling to let you know your insurance lapsed on the 5th” “Really? But the payments are automated…” “Well, Mr. Marler, your policy was for a [...]

Anatomy of a Phucktard: Don’t be this guy.

Sean — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 03:26:29 +0000

I clicked on the “More Details” link and felt my stomach turn when I saw the landing page. Deception had reared its ugly head and was staring me down. A few days ago I was browsing through a few categories on Craigslist when I came across an interesting ad. Unlike most of the others, this one [...]

What Google taught me today… and how you can use it, too.

Sean — Wed, 07 Nov 2007 03:41:34 +0000

I’m not sure what happened. Everything was working fine. I took a nap, woke up, and logged back on and… Nothing. Gmail kept sending me back to the log-on page. WTF? Then, because I’m a persistent bastard, Gmail finally allowed me to log on… and then immediately kicked me off again. It gave me a message saying I’m already [...]

Bill Gates Can Kiss My Ass

Sean — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:30:54 +0000

I’m pissed. I’m aggravated. I’m completely inept at effectively manipulating CSS or any other code for that matter. A week or so ago I put together a blog for my father. No biggie, right? Yeah, well, all was fine until I started jacking with code. Everything was great - exactly what I wanted - in Firefox. But, [...]

An Apology

Sean — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 05:20:43 +0000

Last night, on a whim, I decided to check the SPAM folder for an email account I don’t monitor. I use the account frequently, but all of the mail is forwarded to another account - a very private account. Well, it turns out I had several blog comments awaiting moderation… in the SPAM folder. For those of [...]

This Happens When Good Companies Tell Little Lies…

Sean — Thu, 20 Sep 2007 05:21:10 +0000

The other day I was reading a post on a popular web design blog. While looking around the site I came across an endorsement for a hosting company. Because I’m interested in finding decent hosting for an upcoming site, I clicked on the link. This company was everything I was looking for - it was [...]

The Power of Collaborative Thinking

Sean — Thu, 13 Sep 2007 05:45:43 +0000

Last night I went to my monthly Mastermind meeting. Because the Mastermind concept is so powerful, and often misused, I thought I’d share our process and some of last night’s results with you. You don’t mind, do you? Great, I didn’t think so. Ok, lets get started then. One of our members, Cesar, owns a brick and mortar business. [...]