October 29, 2009 By 4 Comments

Banking on Loyalty

The other weekend in Australia was one of our beloved sporting events, the Bathurst V8 Supercars. I have watched this race in all it’s guises since I was a child (yes I AM a closet rev-head). Way back when, different makes of cars used to go round the mountain course and then came a period when two men, in two different makes of cars changed the face of the race forever.

The nation divided itself behind the Aussie bloke, who drove a Holden, and the Canadian guy (that we all automatically assumed was American anyway) who drove a Ford. Kids grew up in families that were either Holden or Ford. Even though I have never owned a Holden (and have owned a Ford), my internal loyalties are always with Holden. Always!

In your business you might not be able to beat the top dog, leader, but you might be able to split the competition by creating a rivalry that makes people choose one camp or the other. Think about the great business rivalries you know and notice it’s not about who is better (though each camp will of course claim theirs is, because that is what loyalty is all about). There is a lifestyle that goes along with that brand/product that then appeals to a certain group of people.

Marketing Pepsi as the “taste of a generation” was not just some funky set of words thought up by an advertising exec, it’s a rallying cry to a certain bunch of people. The “I’m an Apple” ads didn’t just pick a younger looking guy to represent them in the ad, it was a calculated move to implant that Apple users are younger and cooler than Microsoft users.

What lifestyle do you want your brand/product to appeal to and how can you show your competitor appeals to the opposite type of people?

allison brocky

Filed Under: Me-anderings Tagged With: ,
October 28, 2009 By 13 Comments

Personal Branding Wankery

At the moment I am reading Crush It* by Gray Vaynerchuk. When I first opened it I thought that I would be done in about 5 minutes because it’s not exactly a thick tome. I really admire Gary Vee, so why is his book still sitting half read on my night stand when it should have been consumed in one day?

In short it’s my upbringing.  You see I am the product of working class parents in a country that frowns on being flamboyant, big headed, self loving, or self promoting. In the blue collar world of western Sydney you didn’t stick out like that or you would cop a good flogging (bashing).

Those neural pathways are hard to break.

So it is with reading Gary’s book. The points he makes are pretty self evident and I understand that those with colour and movement on the internet are going to do better than those who are grey and stationery. The whole concept of my personal branding though, makes me shudder.

I don’t know what I look like from the outside (and I should if I want to control my brand apparently). I have no real clue about what I want to look like anyway.  I know what I don’t want to be, that’s easy…. but what is the real Brand Allison? Is it going to totally screw up all of my business dealings because it’s not clear and consistent?

The more I think about personal branding the more I think I shouldn’t think about it at all. That thinking about it too much will actually encourage me to be something I am not.

I have always resisted being told I should mold myself on what is expected of me. Once in a women’s management course a discussion about how women should dress in the corporate environment came up.  How tied up  hair and pantyhose were expected. How fitting in would make for better acceptance of what you had to say. I was so mad and said so, the leader of the discussion was adamant that “that’s just how it is” and I retorted “it’s only like that because you let it be like that”. I hate the thought of having to change what I am so other people feel more comfortable. Can you see the irony of my insistence on being an individual, yet my resistance to personal branding? I sure can.

So that’s why the book is half-read and maybe won’t be finished for some time. Not because the book is bad, or it’s advice is wrong, or that Gary is advocating being something you are not,but because thinking about that stuff is just not for me…at this time. I apparently have a genuine “issue” with it.

What are your views on personal branding?

*Affilaite Link

Thanks to ProtoFlux for the image

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: , ,
October 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The Pod Life

You may remember last week when I called for volunteers for my new podcast project. I must say I got a good response without even pimping the idea amongst my friends and that gave me the impetus to move forward.

Here’s how you can contribute to this project. Think about a story from your life that revolves around the core topics of love, loss, courage or success (or combinations of). Write it down or get it straight in your mind, then hop on Skype and call the.pod.life and record the story as instructed. You can leave your details in the recording including your website, or send an email to details (at)  thepodlife dotcom. Attach a picture too if you like. Or you can remain anonymous, just say so in your recording.

As mentioned in the original post, the plan is to publish one story a day and have it available via a blog and on iTunes and other podcast directories.

Why not leave a story of your own right now, I would love to hear it…and so would everyone else.

podcast-icon

Filed Under: Projects Tagged With: , ,
October 23, 2009 By 1 Comment

Rainforest

mosquitoAfter watching Merlin Mann’s recent video on make-believe help I started thinking about the relationships, in particular on the internet, that are being used for survival. Merlin’s video was response to a satirical video he made yesterday about the sometimes ridiculous hacks that self-help type sites put up. For me the 30 odd minutes he uses to explain his point came down to two things

  • stated clearly – think about who is telling you how to be you
  • less clearly –  much of internet business is based on keeping people reliant on receiving information on who  to be/what to do

Merlin is particularly nice about how he describes this industry. He doesn’t condemn it outright, but it is clear that it troubles him, and troubles him a lot.

I can see where he is going, and I agree with his sentiment. Yet the conundrum that Merlin finds himself in (and me too) is there is no black and white answer for each of the world’s ills, no matter how much we want to say “this is the cure”. There is no magic bullet.The example of the butcher with 40 years experience is quite true, there is no substitute for actually doing the work.

Does that mean that helping people on the internet is a bad thing? The answer is no and yes.

Humans, business and the internet are like a rainforest to me. You have the predators that make their own way in life (entrepreneurs) who are out there killing and eating (and dying). Then you have the symbiotic relationships where one entity is supported by another, and gives back in their own way  (employees, networks) and finally the parasites who live off of the others but do not kill them as that would end their meal ticket (service industries such as self help).

Parasite has a negative connotation because it is seen as less of an effort to sup from the rest of the rainforest, than to go out and create your own mini system where you are top of the food chain. There is work involved in being a parasite though; sourcing your sustenance, getting to it, keeping it close by. In service industries this can be “creating a clientèle” , a fan base, your tribe. There is a niche and you fit right in there doing what you do.

In a perfect world one stop solutions would be available for every ill you will come up against; one haircut lasting for life, one inoculation for all diseases, one way to get motivated. There isn’t and there can’t be, so what is the next best thing? Offering the cure where there is a cure, and making sure the person purchasing your services are pre-qualified to ensure they take the cure.

This goes against what most of the continuity based programs out there in the “make money online” land. You must find the mark, hit them up for a program, ensure they stick around for as long as possible. You are the mosquito and if you take small enough sips the cash cow is never going to notice you are there (yes there are teachings that actually state how to do that). Or you find the mark, sell them a program, that leads up to selling another program, ad infinitum. The worst in the industry sell nothing but steps to get to the next program, not steps to get to the next level of expertise (which of course comes from experience and practice and no course).

Over at the SWBN we have struggled with how we can morally provide the best of services without being (or becoming) parasites ourselves. We could blame our clients not progressing on “human nature” and take their cash because they are stupid enough to give it to us, God knows the majority of programs out there do that and no wonder they are shit scared of the FTC ruling that says tell us how it really is. In the end we decided to take our coaching to a micro level. One person, one task, one focus. A “never want to see you here again with this problem” cure, that is financially less rewarding, but morally infinitely more so. I can hear the scoffing right now about “cash left on the table”, a term I have always despised, you can be grateful and happy with what you have, or you can bemoan what you left behind.

I know we will be happier being a cure, than being part of the problem.

Filed Under: Me-anderings Tagged With: , , , ,
October 21, 2009 By 1 Comment

Anatomy of an Internet Troll

troll

Do NOT feed the trolls

Firstly, by posting this I am absolutely doing the WRONG THING and I really am indulging a small pleasure by “fighting on the internet”. If this happens to you, remember hypocrite Allison and do NOT feed the trolls, do not engage, hit the spam button and ban the user.

The Story so far

You may remember recently a bit of hooha when I took apart a product that I had bought as part of a review. I pointed out the good and the bad, and warned people that some of what was being recommended went against the Twitter Terms of Service (TOS).  That product is no more, as it also violated Twitter trademarks and was blacklisted as spam by Twitter. People promoting the product were suspended or banned from Twitter.

Now behind the scenes (and sometimes in front) were some very strange events.  Firstly was the appearance of troll, though in internet terms it’s not truly a troll, but close enough for me to use that term. Like most trolls this troll is not too smart,  trolls feed on conflict and focus on that rather than being clever about how they create that conflict.

Ignorant Troll?

Our troll, and I feel like giving it an affectionate pat on its stupid head, first started posting its vitriol from a single IP address under various names. I guess the average internet user would not be too familiar with how IP addressing works, but different names/same IP within a short period of time is a dead giveaway someone is playing silly buggers.

A tip for the wise out there *taps nose*, use an online DNS Lookup service to see what ISP the troll is using. Our troll was using a TV based broadband service provided by the UK ISP Tiscali. A piddly tiny ISP that stood out like hat-pegs when the troll started also posting abusive comments on other blogs owned by  SWBN members. Easily fixed though with a report to their ISP and banning the entire ISP IP range from the blogs, no nonsense, go straight to jail, do not collect $200 (Monopoly game reference for anyone who didn’t understand that last bit).

Return of the troll

Things were quiet for a while until today, when “hello!” our troll popped back up, but with a new ISP… or should I say, using their other ISP. You see I noticed at the time our Tiscali troll was hanging around, there was a lurker reading comments but not commenting. You do notice these things when the same IP addresses are checking your blog 20-30 times a day. It was a Virgin IP address. So how do I know it’s the same troll? Because they are up to their same tricks, different name, same IP (see below). The internet is a huge place, and the chances of attracting two trolls from the same country posting in the same voice is about zero to none.

The nice thing about large ISPs is that they have abuse report facilities, if your troll is from an ISP with one of those then make sure you use it. Report every occurrence singly, and make sure you take screen shots of the offending comments.

Things get a little freaky

Remember the zero to none bit about our troll being a different person? Well that also fits in with what I had put together back when the Tiscali troll was posting and the Virgin account was watching. You see the catalyst for all of this was the product I reviewed, a product created by someone who supposedly never got involved with people who were negative against their product (an obvious lie when frivolous DMCA takedowns -legally sworn documents – were submitted by them). The troll and their cohorts at the time repeatedly posted comments to that effect, which is why , at the time, I pegged the Virgin lurker as the author of the Twitter product. Do you see where this is going?

Why would I link a deranged troll with the product author? To understand that is to have knowledge of one of the “backstory” events that I never made public (until now).

After it was made clear to the product author that they had no legal leg to stand on and that legal action was going to be taken that would have unfavourable consequences for them, they rescinded the DMCA claims. At that time I thought all was over, done and dusted; I was ready to move on and forget the whole thing.

The next day bought a whole new bag of crazy to the party.

Things get a lot freaky

It had become quite clear that whoever had been posting the trolling comments had some form of mental problem.  When I realised that, I stopped responding to their comments, removed all responses from them, and my angry friends who couldn’t believe the crap they were spouting, and banned them from the blog(s). Up until that time, even though other people were pointing out the connection between the Twitter product author and our deranged troll, I was unconvinced. The emails I received from the Twitter author, while emotionally manipulative, didn’t have the tang of insanity like our troll.

The email I received from the Twitter product author the day after their DMCA retraction changed all that.

The email said that overnight, their (the Twitter product author’s) car had been vandalised. Tyres slashed, windows smashed…. and the kicker…. painted along the side “don’t mess with the SWBN”….in pink paint no less.

I am sure your reaction is the same as mine was “WTF?!”

Warning, Warning!

Yep, alarm bells were clanging loud and clear in my head. The Twitter product author was clearly our friend the troll. I advised the author to go to the police and report it, which of course he refused to do saying that would mean “we had won”. I then advised them I was breaking off all communication and I placed their email address on my black list. One thing about trolls though, they hate being ignored, even worse they hate when communication is denied them. They always come back to the scene of the crime and that is where it all comes together with the Tiscali troll = twitter product author.

Now you know that, you can also factor in the machinations of the Twitter product author attempting to blame his Twitter accounts being banned on a young English pop star who he was also engaged in his shenanigans with. When he posted a fabricated email from her record company she called him out and he realised he was playing for higher stakes than just a court case with a woman on the internet. He removed his offending posts and comments quick smart.

Look there are other circumstantial things that point to this person being one and the same, and I am not the first to point them out. One huge giveaway is the naming convention this person uses. They just can’t help themselves trying to be “clever” with the naming (as mentioned in the last link). Dale Edwards? Avon Blake? Hannah Solo? Ashley Morgan? come on…This would all make a great movie (yes reality can be stranger than fiction!)  if it wasn’t so worrisome that this person does have a mental condition, and is a dangerous manipulator.

The end?

So that ends this tale (probably not), I do feel dirty in posting it, but also relieved too. I hope that the other people out there that have been harassed by this person know that they are not alone and that the stuff they say and do is part of their illness. Research shows that events like these are not unusual in the Twitter product author’s interaction with others. We should show compassion and pity this person, but never forget to look after yourself first.

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

Filed Under: Distractions Tagged With: , ,
October 18, 2009 By 1 Comment

Do You Love Your Writing?

First watch this

This video struck a chord with me when I realised that when I wrote words to sell, I didn’t love those words. I was too busy laying out each syllable like a body on a vivisectionist’s table, peering at the entrails to see what made it tick, and in doing so I had stripped anything pleasurable from it.  I was expecting my readers to be necrophiliacs, to obtain pleasure from what is essentially, dead.

There was a time when I reveled in the crafting of my writing. Putting together words and phrases so they fitted neatly; a game of Tetris with letters. That was back when the words were for marks and credits and distinctions, not for cash. When cash came to the party, the novelty was short lived. Deadlines and editors loomed and love turned to the desire to avoid the lash of these new masters.

So how to resuscitate the love of my writing? Can I do so with a single kiss of realisation; or as I suspect, labour over the body until my sweat and aching limbs bring it back to life? Will the effort be worth the reward?

/self-absorbed drivel

Filed Under: Me-anderings Tagged With: , ,
October 12, 2009 By 9 Comments

Volunteers Wanted

Image thanks to Carbonnyc

Image thanks to Carbonnyc

I have another side project running (Yes I know… another one) and I am looking for five minutes of your time to tell me a story from your life.  It can be anonymous or named but it will be recorded, or read aloud, for a podcast series.

The stories are to revolve around

Courage

Love

Loss

Success

They can be funny or sad, meaningful or throw-aways, secret or well known. They can be family history or yet to happen.  They must be short, as I said, under 5 minutes when spoken.

Got something you want to preserve for posterity? Some wisdom you would like to share with others? A story that has to be told?

drop me an email at podcast@reallylongurl.com so we can get together.

Filed Under: Projects
October 12, 2009 By 2 Comments

STFU and Listen

Put your hand up if you/ your product is designed to give a GREAT user experience?

Do you even know what your customers would think a great user experience would be?

Time to stop yelling at me that you product is going to change my life, try listening to what I ask for. Maybe even ask.

Humility is a sign of strength.

Filed Under: Me-anderings Tagged With:
October 7, 2009 By 1 Comment

FTC Declaration

After the announcement today that the FTC will require specific behaviour from American bloggers and Internet Marketers there will be a lot of declaration going on to make sure people are compliant before the December 1, 2009 deadline.

This blog of mine probably doesn’t come under FTC jurisdiction seeing as I am a British Subject living in Australia writing on a blog that is hosted in Europe. There are a lot of people asking out there whether they need to comply as they aren’t American, but their blog is hosted in America. They have American readers or customers, or American suppliers. There’s a lot to be explained by FTC lawyer types to non-Americans (don’t take anything I say as professional advice… or anyone else for that matter unless you are paying them for legal advice).

Even though I am pretty sure I don’t have to make a declaration, I still am going to. I believe in cleaning up the internet sales and marketing business, and while I know this FTC ruling will be used by numb-nuts like the twat who filed a DMCA copyright against the SWBN blog, in the long run I prefer the jerks out of the business that poison it for everyone.

Here goes

My blog contains affiliate links (SWBN owned) to Market Samurai which I was given a free copy as a beta tester. Keep that in mind when I tell you that Market Samurai is awesome (which it is :) )

My blog contains links to the Immediate Edge, a membership site I receive in exchange for blog moderation of the Thirty Day Challenge. Keep that in mind when you click on the affiliate link to the Immediate Edge, read my annual Immediate Edge review first.

Thanks to erin_johnson for this image

Thanks to erin_johnson for this image

Filed Under: Distractions Tagged With: , ,
October 5, 2009 By 4 Comments

Imagine If There Were No Followers

In a parallel universe Twitter still exists, but no one knows how many people follow them, nor how many people they follow.  What does the twitter stream look like?

People search the stream for people talking about subjects that interest them. If they find someone who is regularly talking about what they want to read about, they follow them. Tech geeks find other tech geeks, artists find artists, new mothers find other new mothers. People coalesce into niche groups.

Of course people don’t just stick to one subject of interest. You may be a young mother who is into American muscle cars, or a tech geek who knits, and you still follow your friends and family. Venn diagrams of following are interlinked in a large bubble matrix, intersecting and enveloping.

Note the lack of spammy/scammy/scummy products on how to grow followers. The products around here are all about how to produce better quality tweets that will catch the eye and hold the attention. 140 character copywriting courses. In this world people value the information and the source, rather than any numerical penis enlarger.

it's easy if you try

it’s easy if you try

Filed Under: Me-anderings
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