better business

What’s In A Name?

January 5, 2013 By Tim Aten 1 Comment

Language is no longer free, for time will allow the social forces at work on it to carry out their effects. This brings us back to the principle of continuity, which cancels freedom. But continuity necessarily implies change, varying degrees of shifts in the relationship between the signified and the signifier.

Ferdinand de Saussure Course in General Linguistics. 1916.

For decades The Pseudonym has been a tool to enhance, modify, and market the identity of a musician and quite prevalent in hip-hop and electronic music genres. The list is endless from KRS-One to Eminem and from Cybotron to Deadmau5. All these entities have real names, Lawrence Krisna Parker, Marshall Mathers, Juan Atkins and Joel Thomas Zimmerman respectively. To take from Saussure these MCs and DJs are breaking down and playing with the relationship between the signifier and signified, or what is the actual physical object (person) and the name we use to describe it. All good if you want to be a revolutionary change agent in the music world. If we wanted to go even deeper we could trace the start of all this to 1970s Jamaica and Zion Dub a la William Gibson’s Neuromancer.

What are the reasons for the Musician/DJ Pseudonym?

Conveys an identity and aspiration above oneself, shifts the focus to the music
Adds to musical and thematic narrative
Aspirational
Power
Anonymity
Leaves an impression, memorability, marketing
It’s what everyone else is doing

The Pseudonym continues to evolve in our connected culture.

We first saw it with the email address and then with the Twitter handle (a10 @ hogpath.com or @hogpath to use a personal example). When @aol email addresses came out almost twenty years ago there was a mad dash for people to claim their names and we saw the rise of numbers and nicknames like timaten73@aol.com or tim-aten-champ@aol.com. Often this was not by choice as someone’s common name was already taken like JoeSmith. We also had a generational gap with many youth emulating the DJs and MCs of their time with a new moniker and sticking with it. Looking back this has a lot to do with my name from that era – a10. It was the way my grandfather etched his name on tractors and chainsaws. I think as this practice evolved, as we had to come up with names, we were in some ways emulating these DJs, MCs, and artists trying to portray and emulate a higher self, something or someone we aspired to be. We (i) were trying to be cool. The nature of internet early days made this all to easy as anonymity was shielded by simple text and a network of crude websites and search engines that tried to crawl them.

Then Came The Social Networks

Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ have changed everything. As the internet and our networks mature hiding behind these pseudonyms becomes inauthentic and potentially lame. Personally I find it more work.

Of interest is Google’s somewhat firm stance on identity for it’s Google+ network –

Your profile and name must represent you as an individual.
Personal profiles on Google+ are meant to represent you, not someone or something else with which you are associated. Therefore, your name may not represent a family, business, avatar, gaming handle, or other group of people.

…aka Pseudonyms not aloud.

Most internet social media experts teach you to be authentic. Seth Godin. Gary Vaynerchuk. Guy Kawasaki. All of them will tell you to register a domain name in your name. Myself included duh…. this website, I see my colleagues and peers doing the same thing – Lians Jadan and Jake Sigal are some recent ones I’ve seen.

A shift and an evolution has happened, the pseudonym is beginning to lose some of its luster. Ironically as this has happened those who still do use the pseudonym on the net, aka Anonymous, their mystery and power continues to lure and intrigue us.

The Spirit of the Internet

October 18, 2012 By Tim Aten 4 Comments

Often when new initiatives come up or I find myself in an online marketing conundrum, in one of those gray SEO areas or online privacy situations, I begin with the question “Is this in the Spirit of the Internet?”

I was once asked to do some SEO work where money wasn’t really an object and ranking for certain phrases needed to be guaranteed. Red Flag – an SEO should NEVER guarantee a ranking. This job quickly plummeted me into researching all the black hat techniques. My coworker and I would joke by saying, “this isn’t in the spirit of the internet”. I’m grateful we turned the project down, this was pre-Panda Google update and the techniques we were contemplating would have been severely penalized.

Since then that phrase has been in the back of my head and here are some points that allude to the thinking. The Spirit moves me. I have a feeling I will be updating this list. Comments?

The Internet is a reflection of our individual minds and collective consciousness. It contains the capacity for heavenly grace as well as the dark revolting id. These forces are present. Educate yourself. Be aware. Be careful where you go. This applies for businesses and individuals.
Paradox abounds. There is no such thing as privacy. It still needs to be defended. Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
Community and social is not about YOU, it’s about YOUR CONTRIBUTION.
- It’s ok to lurk for research.
Provide value.
Ghost In The Shell.
Have a thick skin, almost blasé. Come to terms with griefers, wikileaks, and Anonymous.
Take disclaimers and privacy policies on your site seriously.
Cite your sources. Give outbound links.
Protect your Intellectual Property (IP).
The Spirit of the Internet is Net Neutrality. SOPA is not cool.
When getting technical with webservers, hosts, and domains being ELEGANT is your North Star. Don’t cut corners or manipulate things to make it appear like you’re something you’re not or somewhere you’re aren’t.
Ambient Awareness from the web spreads to the real world. (Arab Spring)
Wifi is like water.
“Don’t be evil”
Use the force. Don’t go to the Dark Side.
Spock is a Patron Saint.

Paid Search To Get The Gutter Cleaned

September 16, 2012 By Tim Aten 4 Comments

I needed my gutters cleaned and there was no way I was doing it with a ridiculous fear of heights, at least on ladders. (Disclaimer – I didn’t have plants growing like the photo.) A few years ago I had my garage roof done with a respectable local company so I called them up and they referred me to a company a few towns over that did siding and gutter cleaning. It was probably a company that employed 6-7 people with 2 or 3 secretaries in the office. The woman on the phone kind of sighed and said “Yeah, we do gutter cleaning but only when it’s convenient for us when we’re in the area. Same goes for the estimate, we’ll do an estimate when we’re in the area”. I think that was like two months ago, they’ve never come out or returned my phone call.

After a week of them not calling I took to the Google and searched “Ferndale Gutter Cleaning”. Screenshot below and this is where the story begins.

You see, going back even 10 years ago Google AdWords was in my opinion left to the aggressive and shady marketer selling V*agara (deliberately misspelled), people finders, car insurance, or large advertisers with large budgets with money to burn. Sure, there were clever and smart ways to use it, but to me it was largely noise and I consciously and ultimately unconsciously tuned it out. When searching for something I would immediately go to the top organic results. I remember when I was treading into the web design world one of the first questions we received after a site launch was “How come we’re not #1 on Google?” This seemingly innocent question we would laugh at as pretentious web designers set me on the path of Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I had to explain to our clients why they weren’t there and what they would need to do in order to get to #1. We also began to look at Search Engine Marketing (SEM) to compensate and appease them as they could now see their company on a Search Engine Results Page (SERPs).

After being in this business for some time now, people do click on these ads and with Google and Bing’s constantly evolving dashboards to run these campaigns they can be laser focused, efficient, and targeted. The industry is currently paying a lot of attention to Google+ and whether it can take on Facebook, if it’s even worthwhile, if people are using it, or if it’s necessary to have a page if you are a business. Bottom line is this – if you are a small business it’s imperative you use Google+ merely for the integration with Google Local. Obviously you need to be on Facebook and maybe Twitter, LinkedIn, Reddit, and other Social networks.

In my search for “Ferndale Gutter Cleaning” this company came up for gutter cleaning and window cleaning, Prestissimo. Being “IN” the business of Search Engine Marketing I took note of their #1 position in the Paid Results (#2 in screenshot) and then their address listing in the ad with an address very close to my house. I kind of smiled to myself and thought “this guy knows what he is doing”, sure I’ll give him a call.

A Shift in Paid Search Thought

Right then and there I noticed in the ten-year span my reaction to paid search campaigns had monumentally shifted. Before it was a signal for shady and sloppy dark sides of the internet and now it had become a signifier of a smart small business optimizing their ad dollars and who knew how to play the game. In a way it almost established a subtle form of trust in his business because I knew if he was #1 for such a long tail search he was serious about his business. How I went on to do business with Carl Scott of Prestissimo continued to impress me.

Pay attention business owners – what went on was textbook.

I went onto his website, he had a contact form, I filled it out explaining my problem. He called me in 15 minutes. Obviously his online contact form was feeding an email or text to his mobile device. He called me from the field.

Carl was professional and kind and we discussed how he had grown up in my neighborhood. He could come out and look at the gutters that day and nobody needed to be home. After he looked he called me back and gave me a fair price and gave some good advice/concerns about the status of my roof. I could tell he had done this a lot and was very careful to make sure I understood all the ramifications.

I think he came out two days later to clean the gutters. When he got there he was surprised to find that the gutter guards were drilled on and had to be taken off, he didn’t charge me extra, and he wrapped up all the gutter trash in garbage bags to the side of my house.

An Adwords click and two days later my gutters were cleaned and I have yet to meet Carl in person.

Also, when he left the invoice he left three business cards and on the back was a QR code. Carl is well on his way.

SEO Sidenote

The point of this post is to show and recognize how small business can effectively use digital marketing but it’s also my way of giving thanks and promoting Prestissimo Window Cleaning Company. I’ll share this article in my social circles but by linking to him here I give what they call “Link Love”. What Carl will get really excited about from an SEO standpoint is the following sentence-

In my search for “Ferndale Gutter Cleaning” this company came up for gutter cleaning and window cleaning, Prestissimo.

Some SEO Points about this sentence –

He won’t get “double SEO weight” because I gave him three links, two text and one for the image. Google will only index the first text link in this case.
I debated linking out to Prestissimo with the actual hyperlink under “Window Cleaning” because window cleaning seems to be the core of his business and currently ranks #5 in my results. The logic here is window cleaning would be affiliated with the name Prestissimo and could boost his ranking for this keyword phrase. Obviously he’s going to do fine for just the word “Prestissimo”. However, due to the Google Penguin Updates which is a link spam filter I erred on the side of caution. I could have linked out this way but with all things Google I always recommend to be as white hat and transparent as possible. Technology will always catch up to you.
Having not hyperlinked window cleaning, Google’s spider is smart enough to pick up the context of this sentence and see that Prestissimo is affiliated with window cleaning, gutter cleaning, and even Ferndale gutter cleaning which is in apostrophes. The proximity of words to the link plays a part.
Links, title file names, and alt tags are key signals for the search engine crawlers.
Also all links have the alt text “Window Cleaning and Gutter Cleaning” which helps further explain what the business is.
I also named the image for Prestissimo “Gutter-Cleaning.png” and also used the Alt Text “Prestissimo Gutter Cleaning”.

Many thanks for Prestissimo for the fine job on the gutter cleaning.

Lone Wolf, Family Owned Business, or Corporate Jock

September 7, 2012 By Tim Aten 2 Comments

I’m amazed and awed how fast the business world has evolved in the past five years. Some find frightening, others exhilarating. It’s a great time to be in business, especially if you understand digital, how networks work, and are disciplined to tenaciously learn and study, and seek out new technologies and ideas. As the kids are just getting back to school and others find themselves embarking to get the JAY O BEE here are some learnings I’ve picked up along as one looks to go into business.

The Entrepreneur

I learned more in one week in business on my own than I did in four years while getting my MBA. There is nothing more humbling and more eye-opening than coming home to your wife and telling her a large corporate client was lost due to a restructure and that this coming Friday there would be no paycheck, no income coming in. Stark reality is the best way to learn the bottom line, to learn a balance sheet, to learn cash flow, to learn about credit, to learn about the stomach and courage it takes to go out on one’s own. Having your own business has two sides, one fuels the ego with power and control and the other side does the same where it may humble you and force you to look at your priorities and goals. If you have the itch, do it, even if it doesn’t work you’ll be better off and the insights you gain, even in failure, will help you. In the end it makes you a better businessman or businesswoman.

A word of caution – be prepared, have a backup plan and make sure your spouse/family is behind you and supportive. It’s going to take a lot. And also be cautious going into business with family and friends. One of the best pieces of advice I received from a law professor is when choosing to go into business with family and friends immediately view the partnership in legal terms, ie have the paper trail necessary BEFORE going into business. If you are setting up a LLC, a S Corp, or have an informal agreement how profits will be shared, make sure you hire a neutral third-party (a lawyer) and have a written contract. If things get strange later on in the business relationship and the odds are it will, having a written agreement set up when everyone was feeling all optimistic and cheerful will be invaluable. Make sure it’s black and white and no gray area. Doing this will help ensure you keep your friendship or family relationships in tact. Be warned going into business with family and friends has the potential to make things go sour. If your partner feels otherwise about signing an agreement, or it feels awkward to discuss, I would highly recommend to second guess the maturity and acumen of that party and move on.

People will inspire you and people are going to let you down, even those that are close. I know one colleague who was in business for over ten years with his best friend and that friend was siphoning funds from the business all along. When protecting your name, or your assets, it’s best to be overtly cautious and defensive.

The Small Family Owned Business

Maybe the risk and insecurity of being on your own is not for you. You search and find a job with a small business. By small business I would venture to say somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 – 150 employees and $20 – $100 million in annual sales. In this situation stay extremely focused and shrewd. In a small business it’s very easy to drink the kool-aid without knowing it.

The first thing to figure out is if it’s the means or the end. Is the job an end, are you doing exactly what you want or what you went to school for? If that’s the case consider yourself extremely lucky. Or is the job a means where you can pick up skills and experience? The means can even be that it’s a low stress job with not many hours that enables you to live the lifestyle you want or gives you time to pursue other hobbies and interests. Figure this out early on, you’ll be much happier. Whatever path you’re in always be aware it’s the companies’ bottom line that matters. It really is like The Godfather at the end of the day “It’s nothing personal, it’s business.” If the profits aren’t there you could be cut.

It’s crucial in the small business you become invaluable. This will help you when cuts are necessary. Each business has its own culture and vibe but be warned, unless you have an equity stake you will never be allowed “in” and likely won’t be making important decisions. Time can race by in a small business. I was with one for eight years. Later, after I had moved on, I was in a job interview with a fairly prestigious executive recruiting firm for a fairly high level position. I received the best and most brutally honest comment I’ve ever received – “You obviously know what you’re talking about and are very passionate but at Company A you did the same thing for 8 years, I need to see more.” The comment rang and it was so true. Towards the end of my tenure at that company I confided with a friend about my frustration and he bluntly said, “Move on.” If you are not advancing in the small business it’s unlikely you ever will. Keep advancing.

The Big Corporation

This one has surprised me and where I’m currently at. My past two jobs have been with big companies. “Back in the day” I was your typical post modern college hipster looking to study and change the various ISMs. You get it. When I ride the corporate elevators I laugh to myself because I never imagined I’d be doing that. Initially the corporate realm invited me with its stability and intrigue to try something different and see what life was like on the other side. I’ve come to appreciate it. There’s not a lot of dead weight. I found in the Small Business world you find many extremely comfortable people who’ve been there for over 15 years and just collect the paycheck. Ironically, people tend to stay and businesses keep them, maybe it’s because of the legal and personal sensitivities of letting people go.

I’ve found the corporate realm can be perceived to be intense and cold. You’ll stick out if you under-perform, people will talk, and it’s almost like a self-censuring thing of the team. You’ll get weeded out. The corporation will look to get rid of the dead weight. Some can view this as heartless, others can view it as striving for innovation and new ideas. As long as you are thinking, trying, and not afraid to think for yourself you’re fine. To me it’s been like being a freshman at a big university. You’re thrown into a situation with no oversight, nobody to really hold your hand, and you have to navigate it on your own. If you can handle the responsibility it’s quite liberating. You can focus on the work. In the small business, in retrospect, be wary of all the hand holding and coddling, it can be a way of control.

Each company is totally different and what I say about the small business may apply to the large company and vice versa. This has been my experience. What are your thoughts?