Thor Schrock

We are within days of opening our new Service Center and we need another full-time technician to ensure our customers receive the service they expect.  You can apply online for the position on the Schrock Innovations website.

We are looking for a computer technician with insane customer service skills.  We understand those combinations are rare, so we are willing to pay accordingly to get the right addition to our staff.  The person filling this position will be expected to:

• Work one-on-one with customers in their homes to solve computer problems
• Computer Repair in our Lincoln Service Center
• Help Customers over the phone and through the Schrock Desk
• Assist Walk-in Customers
• Conduct Advanced Data Recovery Procedures on Failed Devices
• Go above and Beyond under all circumstances to ensure our promise of insane customer service

These are SOLID hours that we need filled, so rest assured that Schrock Innovations has work for you (and a good shot at OT in some cases too)

If this sounds interesting, apply now!  We are hiring this position this week!

Last week I mentioned that I was going back to revise some of my older blog posts to help them rank better for their key terms.

After adding much missing meta data, scrubbing for dead links and nofollowing ones placed for reference purposes, my traffic jumped 12%.  At the same time my bounce rate also jumped, and that had me a little concerned.

Why Link To Old Posts?

I decided to try to lower my bounce rate by linking between my old blog posts where it made sense to do so.  In this post for example, I linked back to an older post about what bounce rate is.

The idea is that visitors who come in on this post might click the bounce rate link to learn more about bounce rate means.

Because visitors move deeper into my blog by following the related links, my bounce rate *should* drop.

So far it appears to be working because Google Analytics is reporting a 4% drop in my bounce rate over the mast 4 days.

How I Did It

First, I would highly recommend that you set up a Google account and install Google Analytics on your website if you have not already done so.  Once installed you will have some pretty valuable data.

Take a look at the posts that are bringing in the most traffic on your website.  To rapidly drop your bounce rate, go through these posts again and link any appropriate keywords that pertain to other posts on your blog.

Continue doing this for each of the posts in the order that they rank in your Google Analytics incoming traffic report.

Page Rank Benefits

There are also some SERP and Page Rank benefits to linking to your old posts from your newer ones.

Remembering that Google ranks web pages and not websites, any link coming in from another page can help elevate the page rank and SERP of the target page.

By linking to your old blog posts you are reminding your visitors (and Google) that these old pages are still relevent.  Your visitors will reward you with more comments and Google may reward you with higher search engine placements for your pages.

Dancho Danchev posted on ZDNet yesterday about 21 websites that were successfully gaming Google Video and using the service as a delivery vehicle for malware.

The whole scheme is a simple black hat concept.  The attackers are using 21 domains to host pages containing YouTube video content.  When the Google bot comes to crawl the sites, it sees the videos and ranks them in the Google search results.

This is where the magic happens.

People do a Google Video search, and receive results.  The results displayed for a certain search query are dominated by the 21 websites, ensuring the visitor will hit one of the infected websites.

When users click through to one of the 21 domains, the website detects that the referrer was coming from Google Video, and based on that redirects the visitor to a porn site.  The visitor is then told their Adobe flash is out of date and they need to download an update to see the naked girls.

Some people install the "update" which is actually  a malware infection and literally infect themselves.

Only visitors coming from Google Video get attacked.

This is one of the best cloaked attacks in history because if you later tried to browse back to the same website through a direct link or a book mark, you would see the relevant and related YouTube videos that Google sees when it indexes the website.

Normally the "well poisoning" of certain search terms in Google results can be easily detected and removed.  The fact that the site authors were cloaking their content made it more difficult to discover and analyze.

I suspect we are going to be seeing a lot of infections in my computer repair service centers over the next few days.

I am seriously thinking about buying a Psystar Mac clone.  I am a little nervous about what might happen if they lose their case with Apple, but its still hard to justify spending $5,048 on a true Power Mac when I can get the same thing from PsyStar for $1,903.

The hardware is nearly identical, the software IS identical, so my experience should be almost the same as well, right?  Here are some of the PsyStar positives and negatives that are weighing on my decision.

Positives

1. Price, Price, Price.  Take a look at these two similarly equipped systems.  This is a comparison of a nicely equipped Power Macintosh Running OSX Leopard and a Psystar OpenPro.
   
   Psystar System: - $1,902.99
   • Mac OS X Leopard v10.5
   • 2.83GHz Core2Quad Q9550 Processor
   • Fast! 300GB 10,000RPM SATA2 Hard Drive
     
   • 20x DVD±RW DL Burner
   • GeForce 9500GT 512MB Graphics Card
   • Multimedia Keyboard and Optical Mouse
   • 3 Port Firewire 400 (Onboard)
   • 19" Widescreen Monitor (DVI)

   Apple Macintosh System - $5,048.00

   • Mac OS X Leopard v10.5
     
   • One 2.8GHZ Quad-Core Intel Xeon
   • 8GB (4x2GB)
   • 300GB 15,000-rpm SAS
   • NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT 512MB
   • One 16x SuperDrive
   • Apple Mighty Mouse
   • Apple Keyboard + User's Guide
   • Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel)

   As you can see, the components are nearly identical.  Apple has a slight edge on the hard drive speed and the monitor size, and Psystar has an edge in the graphics card.  No matter how you slice this one, I don't see $3,000 difference between these computers.

2. I believe in What PsyStar is Doing.  I think it is hypocritical to cheer for the Department of Justice busting up a Microsoft monopoly while decrying PsyStar for doing the same thing to apple.Think about it for a second.I am no lawyer, but Microsoft was basically telling hardware manufacturers if they want to sell Windows they would do certain things that created barriers for their competition.  How is Apple not doing the same thing now that they are on an Intel platform?
3. Psystar has shown constant improvement.  When Psystar started shipping clones they were using cases that were far cheaper than the ones they are using now (the Asus TA-210 versus the Antec P182).In addition, they have enabled the software update feature to pull software updates through their servers rather than directly through Apple's servers.  This means you get important security updates without the famous Apple brick that iPhone users have become very familiar with.Psystar systems now also ship with OSX Leopard restore media.  When Psystar started they did not ship the Leopard disks with the system, and required users to return ship their computers in the event of a hard drive crash or other problem that would require a complete reinstall.  Those days are now over.

   The improvements over time have all but invalidated Gizmodo's 7 Reasons Not to Buy a Psystar OSX Clone.

   It is interesting to note that I can't find a review or an "unboxing" online of a Psystar system that is not in a TA-210 Asus case.  No one has reviewed the newer models???

Negatives

1. No matter what you believe, Psystar is in an uphill battle.  They have scored great representation against Apple (a firm that has beaten Apple before) but there is the possibility that this company may not be in business in a few years.

   Court cases move VERY slowly, and I have no doubt that if I bought a Psystar OpenPro system with OSX today, my warranty would be expired before they were shut down.

   Honestly, if I only used the Psystar for a couple years that would justify the purchase, but that is something you have to think about.

2. Psystar is relatively untested.  While the company has been showing continuous improvement, they are a regional firm trying to migrate to a national company.

   Given the resources they are going to have to put toward legal defense, you have to wonder if they are going to be able to maintain quality support in the long term.

3. No Apple Flair.  You have to hand it to Apple.  They design awesome looking computers and devices.  Psystar is using PC hardware to replicate the functionality of an Apple Macintosh.  It doesn't look bad, but it doesn't look as smooth either.

   I wouldn't expect that to change until Psystar can shift some of its revenue from the legal department to the R&D department.

So Should I buy One?

I have to admit I am leaning toward buying the Psystar OpenPro Macintosh clone.  Its a great value, it is a functional equivalent, and I think I would get my money's worth.

With the new Schrock Innovations service center going up in Lincoln in the next few weeks it seems like I am signing one $7,000 check after another right now.  Once that pace slows a bit, I could use some additional video editing power under my hood :-)

In a bit of nostalgia, I wondered what my first post on my blog was about.  I dug back in time to read a post about Scott Richter that I could have sworn was not written in 1999.

As I thumbed through a couple of pages of posts I was stunned by my poor writing, misspellings, broken links, and utter lack of an understanding for SEO.

Most of my old posts probably didn't rank for anything organically as a result, so I decided to rework them a bit to at least have a shot at bringing new visitors in through the search engines.

The whole time I was working I was wondering if editing my old blog posts was some kind of blogging sin, or if it was innocent and made no difference to my readers.  Here are some of the changes I made.  Tell me what you think.

Corrected Misspellings

I can't imagine this is a big deal to anyone except my wounded pride.  My old posts were littered with simple misspelling from my pre-FireFox days when I did not enjoy instant spell checking in my browser.

Removed Dead Links

Again, probably not too controversial.  The links were in the posts in the first pace to provide context and support for my post.  If the links are dead, they can't do either.

Rel="nofollow" on Old Links

This is a little more on the edge.  The links in my blog posts were placed there for the convenience of my readers, not to influence search engines.

It is no mystery that Google penalizes website for too many outbound links, so I decided to rel="nofollow" links more than 1 year old in my blog to minimize my PR leak.

While the recipients of these links probably won't appreciate this, I don't think my readers will object to it either.

Added META Tags to Old Posts

I started my blog on the Nucleus platform and then migrated to WordPress.  Once on WP, I started using the All-in-One SEO Pack to better control my posts' ranking in the search engines.  My old posts had no title, description, or keyword meta tags, so I added them.

Again, this should have no impact on my readers, but it could impact other websites that are displaced in search results because of my effort.  Good or evil?

The Benefits of Re-Writing Old Blog Posts

By rewriting my old posts last week I have seen a 12% increase in organic visitors on my old content.  Because they are organic visitors, they also tend to bounce back out again.

As a result and I have seen a corresponding increase in my bounce rate, but I am going to try to compensate for that by cross linking my older posts where possible to draw readers deeper into my blog.

Questions of Page Rank impact will have to wait until a future update, and some readers may argue about the value of Google's PR metric at all.

So a Good Call or Revisionist History?

The editing I did on my older content is not making it any less valueable to my readers, and is boosting my traffic.  On my end it's a win.  What do you think?

Circuit City's announcement that all of their remaining electronics retail stores are closing exposes a fundamental but often overlooked lesson that all small business owners need to know and understand.

Before reading on, ask yourself a simple questions - does my business respond to the actions of our competitors, or do we make our competitors respond to us?

Best Buy's Changing Plans - Background

A massive Q3 2008 downturn in Best Buy's sales forced electronics retail giant to reassess their plans of placing new stores within 5 miles of Circuit City locations in an effort to grab more market share from their rivals.

Best Buy was aggressively working to choke off competition from Circuit City by saturating only the markets where Circuit City had a retail presence.

With Circuit City calling it quits, Best Buy is cutting their capital investments by 50%, scaling back new store openings domestically, while pressing on with its China expansion plans.

Lessons for a Small Business Owner

Understanding that most small business owners are not Best Buy, there are some valuable lessons that can be learned from Best Buy's need to radically change a long-term plan that made perfect sense just a month before.

There are only two ways a small business owner can run a business.  Either you respond to the actions of your competitors, or they respond to yours.

Best Buy was on the hunt to dominate their local marketplaces by driving Circuit City into extinction.  Circuit City was forced to respond to Best Buy's actions, and their final response was to retire from the field of battle.

Looking back at the decisions you have made for your business over the past two years, have you been making decisions because they were the right course for your business, or were you simply reacting to the decisions that your competitors made?

Why Responding to Others' Decisions Can Be Fatal

When you base your decisions off the actions of your competitors you are choosing to attack their strength.  If your competitor starts offering a service that you do not, chances are they have researched and invested the necessary resources required to offer that service on a long-term basis.

Don't rush to mimic them.  You have not done the research or set aside the resources that your competitors have.  Your competitor has a temporary strength over your company, and small businesses should never attack the strengths of their competitors.  Instead they should attack the weaknesses that those strengths create.

To bring this into perspective, imagine you are fighting a giant who is bigger, stronger, and more experienced than you are.  If you charge straight at the giant and try to win in a standard fight you will most definitely lose.

The same size and brawn elements that put you at a disadvantage also create a weakness in the giant.  He is slow and his motions are deliberate.  Because you are smaller and faster you should be able to dodge the giant's blows and inflict several small counter punches to key spots.  These wounds won't kill the giant, but they will eventually shake him and might even convince him to respond to your actions (this is the best possible outcome as explained below).

Real World Example of Attacking a Competitor's Weakness

I own a computer repair company in Nebraska.  We compete directly with Best Buy's Geek Squad.  They have a heavy marketing, manpower, and economies of scale advantage on their side.  There is literally no way that my company could ever hope to take them on head to head and drive them from our marketplace.

Instead, we elected to attack the Geek Squad's weaknesses that are created by their strengths.  We do the things that the they simply can't or won't do.  For example:

• We can take extra time to hire smart, skilled technicians
• We can expend resources to create personal relationships with our customers
• We can focus our marketing efforts on micro-niches in the local community
• We can shift in and out of product lines more quickly
• We CAN beat their prices SOME of the time
• We can compete as a service provider instead of a cost leader in bad economic times
• We can use the power of social proof

These might seem to be small advantages, but when you put them together you can create a 10-year old company with a following of thousands of extremely loyal customers just as I did.

You can use these advantages to hit your competition in ways that underscore the weaknesses they can't eliminate.  For them to eliminate their weaknesses they would have to abandon their strength as well.  Either way your company wins.

Schrock Innovations used this technique in a commercial we aired for just one week on local TV that underscored the fact that the Geek Squad will hire under-qualified technicians.  We also never miss an opportunity to illustrate how the company's size makes it HARDER for them to provide good service.

While these small wounds might have gone unnoticed by the Geek Squad gaint, the customers we take from them every day are my company's measure of success.

Yes, it Does Apply to Your Business Too

I am certain that some people reading this post will tell themselves "Thor doesn't know my industry," and that the information here simply doesn't apply as a result.

They would be wrong.

Every business has competition form somewhere.  It is the cornerstone of a capitalist economy.  TV competes with the Internet and radio stations compete with newspapers, etc...

The more quickly you can look at your competitions' weaknesses and begin to exploit them, the more quickly you will set your own business on a path to success over the long term.

Small businesses don't have the luxury of cutting 50% of their capital expenses because the circumstances on the field change.  We need to get it right the first time, and the only way to do that is to do what's best for your business in a way that attacks the weaknesses of your competition.

DLLs or Dynamic Link Libraries were introduced with the Microsoft Windows 95 operating system to ensure effective usage of system resources and disk space. These files comprise program executables that can be loaded and unloaded when required. There are hundreds of DLL files on your computer. Some of these are shipped with your Windows operating system and some are registered later when you install new software and device drivers.

With such a large amount of DLL files on a single computer, a very small issue can give rise to several DLL errors and put your PC in DLL hell. Let us have a look at some of the common causes of DLL errors and the steps you can take to resolve them.

Missing DLL errors, such as “Program_File_Name failed because MSVCR71.dll was not found.” are one of the most common DLL errors. These errors usually occur, if:

• You install a faulty software or device driver. If you downloaded the software or device driver generating DLL errors from the Internet they might be buggy. At times, the CD/DVD with which you performed the installation may be faulty, or your installation may be faulty. So, the first step to prevent DLL and other errors is to ensure that your setup files are intact to avoid any problems during installation.
• Outdated program files exist on the system. You need to update your operating system, applications and device drivers on a regular basis. If you do not do this, errors will happen. To update Windows, you may enable the Windows Automatic Update feature, and to update drivers, you may use the Device Manager utility.
• A newer version of the file reported missing was overwritten by an older version. Be careful while installing new software and avoid overwriting newer DLL file versions. If you do this by mistake, try to search for an updated version for your program and install it to try and resolve your DLL error. You may also try to search for and download the new DLL file version from an online DLL database library.
• Virus infections. Virus programs infect program executables and DLL files and prevent them from working normally. To fix problems due to virus infections, you must update your antivirus tool and perform a thorough full system scan to detect and repair these errors.
• Registry problems. All DLL files are registered in the Windows registry. So, if there is a problem with the DLL file entry, it may result in an error. Although you can manually fix registry problems using the regedit tool, it is recommended that you use a good registry tool to scan and repair incorrect DLL entries.

At times, you may have applications that may need to use different versions of the same DLL file. To enable this, some Windows operating systems support the use of the WinSxS folder (side-by-side cache) instead of the default C:\System32 folder. DLL errors, such as “This application has failed to start because MSVCR80.dll was not found. Re-installing the application might fix the problem.” may occur if there is a problem with a file in the WinSxS folder. Most of the time, you can resolve the error by reinstalling the application that is generating the error. If you are unable to do so, then you may have to contact the software manufacturer for a solution.

Errors such as “Xvidcore.dll not found” are generated if you do not have a software that is required to run a particular type of file. For example, the Xvidcore.dll error given here occurs when you try to play an XviD media file and you do not have XviD codec on the system. To resolve such errors, you will need to install the required codec or driver.

A few months back I started experimenting with Jeremy Schoemaker's Shoemoney Tools suite.  In particular I tested out the Related Blog Post tool. While the other tools in the set are invaluable, this one caused me some serious grief because I failed to fully understand what the tool did.

As a result of my lack of understanding, Akisment banned me from the WordPress comment system.  Anytime I attempted to leave a comment on another blog, it automatically went to their spam folder.  It even treated my own trackbacks to other posts on this blog as spam in my own spam folder!

It should be pointed out that the tool does come with a warning that reads "Be careful with this one," but I did not heed the warning.

What the Related Blog Posts Tool Does

To describe it in a word, its a trackback spam tool.  I am privy to some hush hush private tests that indicate links from trackback blog comments are not only indexed by Google, but have a net positive impact on the Page Rank of the page they point to (despite Google's denial).

The tool allows you to enter keywords from your blog post and then copy and paste a block of text links to the manual trackbacks field in your WordPress interface.  In essence, the tool allows you to send fake pings to blog posts that are related to yours (at least in the eyes of the search engines)

Inexplicable Drops and Blocked Comments

After using the tool for a couple days, I noticed that trackbacks from my own posts to my own blog were being reported as spam in my Dashboard.  In addition, comments I was making on other bloggers' sites were not appearing (presumably being caught up in the Akismet plugin's spam detection)

By this time I had figured out that the tool (at least the way I was using it) was ineffective in the short-run and incredibly detrimental to the growth of a legitimate blog in the long-run.

I stopped using the tool and figured it would just take time to gather enough manually approved comments from Akismet-enabled blogs to undo the damage I had done.

Blacklisted by Askimet

I behaved myself for months, dutifully posting legitimate, thoughtful comments on other blogs, and manually salvaging my own trackbacks on this blog.

I estimate that I sent about 400 to 600 trackbacks using the Related Blog Post tool.  To this day I am still working to get my blog off the Akismet blacklist.

Akismet and Google Sharing Spam Data?

While I have no concrete evidence to support my theory, it is at least possible that Google & others might be using the Akismet API to influence search results by determining what blogs are involved with spam-like activities.

Shortly after making the blacklist at Akismet, my PR on the home page of this blog dropped to a PR3 from a high PR4.  In addition, Google stripped the multiple listing search results form a search for "Thor Schrock" in Google.

This drop came at the same time as a dramatic increase in backlinks as well as direct and organic traffic to my blog, due primarily to Top Affiliate Challenge.  The increase was also pumping up my (some consider meaningless) Alexa ratings.  My Technorati authority also increased during this period.

While a drop in Google interest coupled with a Akismet blacklisting does not necessarily mean they two are related, I think there is at least a coorelation here that should be explored by experts more qualified than myself.

I first met Joel Comm on the set of The Next Internet Millionaire, and I have to confess, I knew nothing about him.  He was just some guy with a funny little goatee (we nicknamed it "The Comm" on the set).

Joel inspires me because he is the true essence of an entrepreneur.  He is always looking for opportunity and is always finding it in the cleverest places.

For those who are not in the iPhone world, Joel and his company have been making a killing selling the iFart application for the iPhone.  The app has been #1 in the iTunes store for almost 2 months now with no signs of letting up.  He is even getting a direct link from Apple.com!

In fact, Joel is working on a second iPhone application to create a new distribution channel for his online content.

Joel, when you read this I want you to know that you inspire me to continue using my talents, assets, and abilities to find success in unlikely places.  Congratulations and thank you for the inspiration!

My friend Steve from Podnutz.com called me up the other day because he heard that Schrock Innovations was about to launch a data recovery service center.

We did a phone interview about what goes into creating a data recovery center and how data recovery pricing structures work.  You can listen to the 53 minute interview here.

During the podcast we also discussed:

• How to recover data
• Different types of data recovery
• What equipment is needed for data recovery
• Some of the equipment and programs we have
• What to charge per job
• An affiliate program for data recovery services

The last item was literally mentioned in passing and was not a planned part of the interview.  But it turns out that little unplanned snippet is what is getting all of the attention.

We don't even have a door on our clean room yet and I have received calls and emails from Nebraska, Texas, Missouri, and Pennsylvania asking to enroll in the affiliate program once it is up and running.

What Kind of Affiliate Program?

I have been so wrapped up in getting the new Service Center launched that I have not worked out the details of the affiliate program.

We would like to sign up 50 or more affiliates in February.  To accomplish that we are thinking about paying commissions around 40% of the total recovery charge for every paying referral the affiliate sends us.  To give comparison, other recovery companies with affiliate programs pay between $25 and $100 per referral.

Based on our pricing structure, affiliates can expect to make between $240 and $800 per referral.  Considering that our data recovery center is charging less than 1/2 of what other similarly equipped centers charge, we should get off to a pretty good start.

If you are interested in becomming an affiliate, please send me an email at tschrock AT schrockinnovations.com and I will send you the details when they are hammered out.

What Equipment Does Schrock Have?

We have all of the following hardware as well as more than 20 different logical recovery programs.  Even when dealing with a physical failure, the software recovery programs are a MUST.

• Dead Drive Cloning System - this allows us to "see" drives that can not be seen in by the computer's BIOS and clone the data to a stable drive.  After the clone we use logical recovery software to extract the data to the destination drive.
• Multiple Platter Exchanger - This is a tool that allows us to conduct physical repairs on drives with multiple data platters.  You can't just open a drive, yank out the platters, and transplant them into a donor drive.  They need to stay in perfect alignment and this tool allows us to do that.
• Interactive Drive Firmware System - This allows us to individually turn on or off specific components of a sealed drive to determine what the problem is before we open it.  For example, if there is a head crash on platter 1 but platter 2 works fine, we can recover the data from platter 2 safely, then open the drive to replace the heads and recover platter 1.  We get as much as we can before we open a drive.
• Actuator Removal Tool - This allows us to safely remove the magnetized actuator from the interior of a hard drive.  While they can be removed without this tool, their strong magnetic field tends to make them jump around.  The last thing you need in an open hard drive is a magnetized jumping bean.
• Every Torx Driver Bit Known to Man - These are for the star head screws that are used on hard drives.  The only local store that carries these is Sears, and they only carry 2 sizes.  This set has more than 20 bits :-)
• Hard Drive Assembly Bench - This is another "nice to have" tool.  Its basiclly a wire frame that holds the hard drive up off the table securely.  Removing a spindle from a drive without the drive in a fixed position is FUN.  This bench increases the reliability of our recovery services by keeping everything in place at all times.

Anyone can do a Google search and see the massive assortment of data recovery programs out there.  We bought 20 programs that reviewers found most useful - and they were correct in most cases.

Thanks for the opportunity to be a part of PodNutz again, Steve!  I enjoyed it!

This is a continuation of my previous post about what I either accomplished, participated in, or had a strong involvement with in 2008.

The first post was targeted toward things that I accomplished as part of Schrock Innovations.  This post will be more focused toward personal and internet marketing accomplishments.

Again, this is not a post about bragging.  Sit down and honestly list the things that you accomplished on 2008 that were important to you and I bet your list is longer than you might imagine!

Formed our Second Company - CreativeUs, LLC - January 2008

After getting zapped by the tax man in 2007, Kim and I decided it would be wise to form a second company to channel our internet marketing efforts through.

CreativeUs, LLC now services two consistent online reputation management clients, generated a five figure internet marketing income in 2008 and continues to provide additional opportunities behind the scenes.

Won Joel Comm's Secret Classroom Affiliate Contest - January 2008

In December the final episode of The Next Internet Millionaire aired and the Joel Comm's DVD product launch was set to fly.  He recruited affiliates to help market the launch.  Given my recent interest in affiliate marketing and my belief in the product, I decided to join up.

After three weeks of intense online marketing efforts I managed to finish first in the affiliate contest, selling more than $30,000 in Secret Classroom DVD sets and add-ons.  I even bested some of the more established instructors on the show! I won a Macbook computer and an Amazon Kindle for finishing first, not to mention some cool cash commissions.

Officially Began My Affiliate Marketing Career - February 2008

After my experience on Next Internet Millionaire my eyes were completely opened to the world of online and affiliate marketing.

I immediately stopped doing anything much new with Google AdSense (and I am still making over $100 a month from it).  Instead I decided to use my expertise in technology, business, and brick and mortar marketing to define myself online and begin building a base of readership.

With readership comes advertising, and with advertising comes revenue opportunities.  These opportunities will allow me to do ever increasing things in 2009 with my blog that should feed back into my affiliate marketing success.

Top Affiliate Challenge - February through July 2008

The months of February through August were primarily dominated by the organization, funding, promotion, and execution of Top Affiliate Challenge.  The online show was molded in the spirit of the Next Internet Millionaire but focused instead on affiliate marketing.

The show met with mixed reviews online, but the experience was one of the most challenging I have ever undertaken.  In the two weeks the show was being taped I learned more about myself, my character, and diplomacy that I have learned in my life up to that point.

If you ask anyone who was there you will undoubtedly hear a lot of stories and opinions, but I think the universal positive that everyone will talk about was the awesome group of people who came together - both cast and crew - to make that show happen.

Launched a redesign of my Blog - June 2008

A month or so prior to the launch of Top Affiliate Challenge my blog was getting record amounts of traffic.  I decided it was time for a redesign.

Our Schrock designers were busy at work on a number of projects, so I outsourced the design to the guys at Unique Blog Designs.  I found out about them because they did Shoemoney's blog.  I know Shoe has exacting standards, so if they were good enough for him they were certainly good enough for me.

They did a great job on this design IMO.

Celebrated my 5th Wedding Anniversary - July 2008

Kim and I had our 5th wedding anniversary while on the set of Top Affiliate Challenge.  While every husband says nice things about his wife (or he should) I mean them deeply.  Without Kim I would be a shell of a person.

She is an inspiration to me every day.  She makes me realize that I am always capable of more in so many ways.  I only hope that I am the same inspiration to her.

At any rate, 5 years is a LONG time to put up with me, so you have to give her credit for that!

I Quit Drinking All-together - August 2008

I guess it all depends on the definition of "too much" but I believe I was drinking too much.  I would go weeks without a drink, but when I did decide to drink I would binge drink with the best of them.

While I didn't think my drinking was damaging my ability to function, it was taking a toll on those around me. I come from a family that drinks a LOT of booze - measured in gallons a week.  I have a personality of excesses - both positive and negative ones.  I had to decide if that was the path I wanted to follow as well.

It was time to call it quits.  I didn't join any 12 step programs or anything like that (statistics show that AA only works for a minority of drinkers who want to quit anyway).  I bought a book about people who realized drinking was hurting their lives and how they quit. I found it very inspirational, and I have been 100% alcohol free for almost 6 months.

Launched Second Adoption - October 2008

In October 2008 my wife and I decided to begin our second adoption.  Our son Jacob was adopted from birth from Hastings, NE and completely changed my outlook on life.  I know everyone says that, but wait until it happens to you and you will understand.

We choose to seek open adoption because Kim and I believe its best for the adopted child to know who his birth parents are, why they made the decision they made, and open the door to a relationship with them down the road.  I can't imagine looking at Jacob and not thinking "thank god for Alexis" in my mind.

The first time we spent nearly $20,000 on an agency.  While the Independent Adoption Center provided us with some valuable information, it was nothing we couldn't have learned form a book.  To be honest, I think they spend more of their money recruiting paying adoptive parents than they spend on finding birthmothers for those parents.

This time around we are going to avoid the agency.  We have a pretty unique plan put together that incorporates all of the things that helped us last time and none of the normal things that wasted our time and money initially.  Kim is actually writing a book about this process that will be published upon the success of our adoption.

If you know of a pregnant mother who is considering adoption and would also enjoy the benefits of an open adoption, please have her contact us through our open adoption website or directly by phone at 1-888-580-7228.

In addition to these major things, we also did a few other things that didn't really need detailed descriptions:

• Traveled to 5 Internet Marketing Conferences
• Went to Disney World
• Visited the Colorado Mountains
• Refurnished Our House
• Bought 2 Vehicles (and sold 2 old ones)
• Bought 2 iPhones
• Lost 25 pounds
• Had over $10,000 in Dental Work Done
• Gave More to Charity This Year than Ever
• Met Some Truly Amazing People

2008 was a crazy year.  But if 2009 pans out like we are planning it to it might make 2008 look like a cruise through the park.

I poked my head into our new computer repair service center yesterday to see how Krueger Development was progressing on the build out.

It was kind of surreal to walk through the door and see the design you drew on paper come to life in terms of drywall and studs.

All of the walls are erected and the doorways are prepped and ready for the doors which are on order.  The new data recovery center clean room is exactly as I had envisioned it.  You can actually imagine what the space will look like now when it is equipped and staffed.  Its truly amazing.

I have been shooting video at critical stages throughout the build out that will be integrated into a 10-year anniversary video we are producing that tracks the history of Schrock Innovations all the way back to the attic where it was started in 1999.

Everything is on course for our February launch date!

The phone book advertising jungle can be complex and expensive to navigate - especially if you are on a tight advertising budget.  There are a lot of factors that go into deciding if the yellow pages is right for your company, and if so, the right way to do it.

I have been buying yellow page advertisements for more than 10 years, and this post is an accumulation of everything I have learned in the process.  Hopefully it will help you buy the right ad at the right time to grow your business.

The Annual Contract

Before you can beat the system you have to understand it.  Advertising in the Yellow Pages is an annual commitment.  You are agreeing to pay a fixed amount each month for a total of 12 months because phone books are distributed annually.

Be certain that you can pay the advertising bill in slow months because many times the company that publishes the phone book has an agreement with your telephone provider to bill your for advertising and phone service on one bill.  If you fail to pay the cost of the advertisement, your phones may be shut off!

How the Salesman Hooks You

Yellow Pages sales people get you in the door by offering you a deeply discounted price for your ad - usually 50% off or more.  This allows you to purchase a pretty good sized advertisement at a reasonable price.

Enjoy the value while it lasts because this is usually the single best value you will ever get from your salesman - its the freebie to get you addicted.  It also makes it impossible to compare your advertising budget to your competitors because you have no idea what their discount is, so stop trying.

When your annual contract is approaching its end, another sales man (yellow page sales people tend to work regions, so you vary rarely have the same one from year to year) will approach you to renew your ad.

When it is time to renew, you might be shocked that the price for the exact same advertisement has gone up 20-30 percent.  When you confront the salesman he will tell you that they did not raise your price, they reduced your discount.

Sensing your mounting disagreement with the situation the salesman points out that if you increase the size of your ad, you will be able to maintain your discount.

After all of the numbers are crunched, you will be looking at a 5-10% increase in price for a larger ad that might give better results or a 30% increase to maintain the same size ad.  Taking the better value, you will probably spend 5-10 percent more than last year and if the salesman is a good one, you will be happy about it.

How Big Should You Go?

Aside from figuring out how much you can afford to spend every month, the next most powerful question is how large of an ad should you purchase?

The salesman will show you all sorts of statistics that the larger advertisements get more phone calls.  Remember that from the salesman's perspective the goal of your advertisement is to generate leads (phone calls).  How you convert those customers into profitability is completely up to you.

If you ask what your competitors are doing this year, the salesman will fall back on his strict ethical code of confidentiality (note sarcasm) and inform you that he can't divulge the activities of your competitors.

Although maintaining confidentiality is admirable, this man is here to get a sale.  He is paid on commission.  He wants the biggest sale possible.  If he can keep you guessing about your competitors you might just buy a bigger ad because you are afraid that one of them might out spend you - after all, bigger ads get more calls, right?

Remember that you are not trying to take over the world with your yellow pages ad.  Never buy the biggest ads (double truck, full page, covers, etc) unless the discount is 75% or greater.  The only time you see these discounts is at the 11th hour when they have unsold inventory and they need to close SOMEBODY in those spots.  If you see these, move quickly because your competitors see them too.

Creating an Advertising Pattern

I am convinced that the multi-year approach is essential for small businesses who are venturing into the yellow pages for the first time.  This approach lets you start small, track your results (more on this later) and then grow your ad in a planned way until that growth ceases to bring you a larger financial benefit.

The first step in this approach is to start with an advertisement you know you can afford.  Because you are not going to buy the biggest advertisement, you will have room to increase it next year while maintaining your discount.

Next year when the ad man comes knocking, let him hit you with his best deal, see if it is better than your existing plan, and then execute in the direction that makes the most sense to your organization.

Keep doing this until the cost of the ad would be too great for your company to bear.  When that happens, drop down to an in-column listing.  This is the absolute cheapest listing available (usually under $100).  While you will see a decline in new customers that year, take that opportunity to refine your existing customer mailing list.  Use SMS text messaging, email, and direct mail to market compelling offers to your existing customers to offset the decline in new customer leads.

In the year that follows, you have essentially reset the clock to start increasing your ads again every year at the maximum possible discount.  While it is defiantly better to have consistent advertising from year to year, the multi-year approach gives you the most cost-effective result until you can afford consistency.

Buy the Online Thing or Not?

Most yellow page companies have realized that a growing population of consumers uses the Internet to find local businesses.  In response, many of them have added an online version of their directory that turns up near the top of many Google search result pages.

If you are a company who sells high ticket items that customers buy every few years, then buy the online component.  It gets you one more placement in the search results for your company and increases the odds you will get the call.

If your company sells smaller, less expensive consumables that get re-purchased frequently, your money is better invested elsewhere.

What to Include in Your Ad

While this can vary greatly from industry to industry, here are some basics that I feel give customers all of the information they need to do business with you:

1. Your company name
2. Your logo
3. Your phone number
4. Hours of operation
5. Payment types accepted
6. Website URL
7. Address
8. A compelling offer

The first seven items are pretty elementary and may or may not apply to your business.  But number 8 is the single most important and forgotten item.

Remember that your yellow page advertisement is designed to generate leads.  If you don't have a compelling offer in your advertisement you are assuming a lot of things:

1. A customer is in need of your services
2. That customer has no relationships with other providers of similar services
3. That customer has no friends to refer him or her to a provider
4. That customer will use the yellow pages
5. That customer will randomly decide on your ad and call your number

Instead of relying on such an improbable scenario you can use a compelling offer to boost your odds of succes.  For example, if you are a plumber you might offer a "first visit free" coupon within your ad.  This accomplishes a number of stunning things:

• It assures that customers WILL call you instead of a competitor
• It generates word of mouth.  The customer you help will someday know someone who needs a plumber.  They are sure to mention your free offer
• It helps you build a customer list for future re-marketing efforts
• It steals customers and revenue from your competitors by taking their current customers

Obviously you need to formulate an offer that you can afford to give, allows you sufficient opportunity to up-sell other needed products or services, and most importantly is compelling to your target customer.

**note** Place a dotted line around your compelling offer to make it look like a coupon.  Studies show that a dotted line around an offer increases response rates by 25% because we are conditioned to look for coupons our whole lives.  If the yellow page doesn't make you remove it, try to slip the phrase "present coupon at time of purchase" in small font at the bottom of the coupon.  This forces customers to cut your coupon from the page and that destroys one of your competitors advertisements on the reverse of the page (6)

Tracking Your Advertising Dollars

You will never know how well the yellow pages is working for you unless you track your results.  You must ask your customers how they heard about you.  If your compelling offers are clippable coupons, this makes life very easy.

If not, make sure you charge for your compelling offer on every invoice and then coupon it off.  That way you can search in your invoicing program to see how many compelling offer discounts you have provided and that will tell you how many new customers you have generated.

There are other ways to track the results of yellow pages advertisements, and the most popular of these methods should be avoided at all costs.

DO NOT use a metered phone number if the yellow page company offers it.  A metered phone number is a special number that forwards callers to your real phone number.  The phone company then sends you a monthly report on the number of calls you received through the metered line.

This is a bad idea because at the end of the year you almost always lose your metered number.  That means that people who use the old phone book, or those who wrote down your metered phone number somewhere will get a disconnected message when they try to call you next year.

Additionally, if you did get a metered number you will notice that the summary page on your report shows you received a huge number of calls.  But if you mine down into the data, you will find that many of those calls are from repeat callers. Additionally, there is no way for you to measure IF those callers actually converted into customers, and if so, how much they were worth.

Is Yellow Page Advertising Worth It?

There is no answer to this question that works for every business.  To help you decide if it is right for you, add up all of the money you will spend over the year on the yellow pages.  IF you committed that money to some other advertising vehicle would it generate better results?

The Yellow Pages are great for some businesses and worthless to others.  If possible, get your hands on a the phone books from previous years and look at the progression of the advertisements in your industry.

Do advertisers who go big one year, go missing the next?  Are your competitors advertising consistently year after year (a sign of stability) or are they playing the system as suggested in this article?

I own a computer repair business and I can tell you that our yellow pages advertisement offered a free hour of computer repair labor to new customers and it brought in about 1,250 new customers ( in a market of 250,000 people) in 2008 at a cost of about $8.00 per converting customer.

You can't beat that cost in ANY medium.

On Christmas Eve an unexpected package arrived from "The DeVincenzi Kitchen" packed with all sorts of goodies.

It turns out that our friends at XY7.com were behind the unexpected carbohydrate infusion.

Thanks guys and kep the great offers coming!

I came across a video on ZDNet where Twitter CEO Evan Williams flatly states that the social users on Twitter don't excite him.

So what does excite him about Twitter?

The MARKETING potential of the service.  To all of the nose-raised snobs on who churn out 140 keystroke diatribes on maintaining the purity of Twitter I say - No one really cares what you are doing.

But according to Williams, Twitter users are excited by tweets about what the lunch special is today.

Some might say Williams is selling Twitter out, but I think he understands the income potential of the service and is working hard to show businesses and marketers that Twitter is an effective way to generate customer interest and revenue.

By the way, if you came here form the automatic tweet that went up on my Twitter acount, welcome and feel free to reply - even if Evan doesn't care :-)