Well, you passed the first test, which was whether you would delete my posts, Darn !

*kicks dog*

But, more to the point about ‘blogging’.

The issue at hand relative to ‘marketing’  and ‘advertising’ utilizing ‘blogs’  more about guts and the ability to fundamentally change industry business models.

For example, the RIAA and the MPAA and all the various corporations that support these two organizations are being dragged kicking and screaming into this ‘new media’ (interactive) and in the process alienating the very core customer base that they are attempting to sell to.

Why ? Because they are not willing to let go of a business model. Not only are they not listening to the desires of their customers (well produced product, high quality, non DRM) they are actively suing and prosecuting grandmothers, children and college students.

It is not about CEOs blogging, or even CFOs, but about using the blog as a platform to listen to real world feedback of customers. The problem is, if you invite that feedback using a blog, you have to not only respond, but make changes. Creating a contract like that with the consumer strike fear deep into the heart of the spine of many C-level executives.

Dell has made a foray into the Wild West of the Blogging Web with it’s new blog: http://direct2dell.com/one2one/default.aspx And the result is that they are hearing what people want and responding.

That is the real issue here. Can the marketing community get their very masters to take a leap of faith and make the change

So I got an invite from Mike himself, the guy that founded TechDirt, with I though was very positive. To Wit:

Hi Kit,

Recently, you pre-registered to join the Techdirt Insight Community. Congratulations. The team here at Techdirt have reviewed your blog, believe you have insight that is valuable to the community and would like to cordially invite you to the the Techdirt Insight Community.

Simply put, the Techdirt Insight Community is a resource to connect enterprises with insightful people (such as yourself) to create ad-hoc think tanks to help resolve a variety of business issues.

There are already numerous open issues in the community, covering various industries, that we believe you can provide insight on immediately.

My response:

Hey Thanks for the invite Mike, I have been reading and influenced by your blog for a while now. Funny, I just fired off an email with a couple of links to your site from a friend on mine (ex boss, TMP Worldwide aka Monster) who is now a bigwig at http://www.sapient.com/ . The buzz is of course Web 2.0 and how to monetize it…Yikes !

Of course, the problem is not with the Ad Agencies per se, but more with their inability to pitch the real solutions (Dell’s new Blog) The traditional industry model has a hard time with the notion of actually ‘listening’ to the needs and desires of the customer (can you say Yellow pages)

Thanks, I appreciate, will register as soon as I get this ridiculous WiFi card to work with Ubuntu Linux.
Keep up the good work, and thanks for inviting me to your new ‘virtual’ team.

Kit,

Thanks. Glad you enjoy Techdirt (and that you tell others to read
it!). Please let me know if you have any feedback on the Techdirt Insight
Community…

Mike

So there you have it, more notes from the bleeding edge of the ether !

This estimate is based on content (images / text / prices) that is ready to be transferred from existing website as well as new products that have already been photographed and ready to sell. The concept behind this website is to make available to Jewelz (you) a tool set that can be used to put new content onto the site on a daily and /or weekly basis.

My primary focus on re-doing your website is something called search engine marketing(SEM), both paid (SEM) and natural (SEO). The attitude is to get found by Google, in the short run from paid search (Google Adwords) and the long run from Natural search (SEO).

The site will be built using Apache, MySQL, PHP, CSS and XML. We will either be using an open source product called Joomla, or WordPress, both referred to as CMS software. (Content management systems) depending on how many products you anticipate having on your site at any given time.

In addition I will be optimizing the site to get found by Google and Yahoo, MSN, Ask, etc. In order to drive search for the short term (the next 12 months or so) we need to build out a Google Adwords account.

As we discussed, this (Google Adwords) will enable you and your site to compete head to head, (depending on keyword competition and bidding) with some of the biggest players on the web. That being said, your site landing pages are going to be crafted to focus on products relative to the keywords being bid on in paid search. This means our primary focus in building your site centers around the idea of short attention span and the minimum mouse clicks from clicking on and Adwords text ad and the relevant products. (ie: Bracelets lands on a page of bracelets)

From our discussion I came away with the idea you understand that the interactivity of the new site should be built out starting from the landing pages first. This way we can focus on the primary use of your site, which is to give the customer a choice of relevant jewelry as soon as they hit the site.

As we discussed with Kim and yourself, the design for the look and feel of the site will closely follow what you have created with Kim. (Deep Red and Warm Gold) Where we diverge from your existing design will be the navigation and menu structure. Please send some links to sites where you respond to the interactivity / menu structure so that we have a common language going forward.

If we can agree on this as a starting point going forward it will help focus our efforts to get an effective sales and marketing tool for your beautiful products.

After this tasks have been finished and the site is live and integrated including 5 hours of tutorial time the job will be considered completed as defined by this estimate. After that time you have the choice to take over these tasks or engage us on a per hour fee ($50).

As we discussed the tools on the back end, or admin of the site are fairly simple to use with some orientation and practice. But I will be happy to do whatever is needed to help you keep your site updated going forward if this would be required.

I am excited for the opportunity to work with you and Kim on this project. A great deal of work has been done to get your site up and running the way it looks now, and using that look and feel will mean we have a solid starting point as to how you like you business to be perceived on the Internet.

Best

Kit Latham