To Brag or Not To Brag: Linking Your Blog On A Resume

As Bloggers, we love to toot our own horn as much as we possibly can.

In fact, as I am writing this post I am about 2 weeks from hitting 1 million pageviews (accomplished in less than 20 months) and am averaging between 25 and 30,000 pageviews weekly.

Toot, toot.

Because of this, my blog is ranked about 67,000 in the US for website popularity.  The average small-to-midsize business website is around 300,000-1mil.  The best website in my current industry is at 97,000.

My blog is getting WAY more traffic than the average business website, and I am in the Sales & Marketing business.  I can, mister employer, help take your digital presence to new heights.

I'm not necessarily looking for a new job, but I always like to be prepared in case 'the deal of a lifetime' falls into my lap.  Because of that, I spent part of this weekend redoing my resume.

As I put everything together, the thought of mentioning my blog popped in and out of my head at least a dozen times.

I want to get a job in Marketing, working with Social Media.  I can use my blog as proof of concept...

...but I swear a lot on my blog, and cover a lot of controversial (sometimes offensive) topics.

I was leaning toward leaving it off, when I had an empty space in my left header... I had no idea how to fill it, when the BLOG-thought shouted loudly in my head.

I ended up doing this:

The QR code links to a post where I talk about helping increase the intake of tips at a coffee shop by making the tip jar more fun.  It worked well, got a lot of positive feedback from commenters, and has been viewed over 15,000 times from search engines and word-of-mouth.

Creative, unorthodox marketing.  I specialize in bringing new concepts to the table (things they don't teach you in business school).

This example is a good ice-breaker, but if an employer hits the 'home' button on a day where I talk about sex, mormons, idiots or anything else offensive, I'm done for.

Feedback from twitter says 'don't do it.'

...but I am torn.  Most businesses don't understand Social Media Marketing, and SEO is an unknown abbreviation.  My blog proves I'm damn-good at marketing a brand (in this case, the Brand of Brandon) but the topics covered aren't exactly of a 'professional' nature...

What do you think?  Some people blog about business, some about their social life, some blog about anything and everything.  Would YOU list your blog on a resume, if you thought it showed off one of your unique skills?

Or are you like me, where maybe the writing isn't exactly work appropriate?

The Rise and Fall of The Villa Coffeehouse (and what small businesses can learn from them)

(Edit:  The owner of the Villa has seen this post and responded in a comment.  Be sure to read the entire conversation below to get the full story)


One of my more regular hangouts (when I'm actually in town) is The Villa Coffeehouse.  It's in 'historic' downtown Idaho Falls, and is an independently-owned business with a fantastic environment.

The Villa has been the subject of an early observations post and is where I do a lot of writing.

This means I have seen the flow of traffic over the last 18 months.  I talked to the old owner on a regular basis, and I chat with the new owners from time to time.

I'm considered a 'regular' and have helped them with business-building ideas from time to time.  Like any good entrepreneur, the first bit of advice is always free.

When the new ownership took over, there was a lot of excitement on both sides of the counter.  The customers were excited to see what new life would be injected into the business, and the baristas were hoping for more foot traffic (and more stability in their jobs).

Sadly, business looks on and off to me.  As I am writing this, I am one of 7 customers here, and it's still considered "lunch rush" time.  Traffic is stagnant because they're not drawing in the business.

Conversely, there is now only one barista that has been employed here for more than 60 days.  Three (of their core of four) have left in the last 2 weeks.

One moved to Boise.  Legitimate excuse to leave.

Another left because "it fucking sucks here" and she wants to go back to school.

The third left because financial ends were not being met, and getting a bump in pay wasn't going to happen.  She left for greener pastures, and I wish her well.

That leaves one girl who knows what she's doing, along with a bunch of coffee-newbs.  Customers are noticing this mass-exodus and are considering fleeing as well.  I can't wait to see what happens to this place in the next 3-6 months...

So...  what would I have done differently, and what would I recommend to small businesses everywhere?

Marketing:  It shouldn't be a scary word...

GREAT QUESTION!

First and foremost, I would make sure that there is enough personnel to handle the day-to-day business.

The Villa recently decided to open on Sundays, and are now open evenings on 4 nights (used to be 7-4 Mon-Sat).  This meant the business was open an additional 22(ish) hours, yet their employee count remained the same.

It's always better to have a 'spare' employee when you're working in the foodservice industry.  If one person calls in sick or quits unexpectedly, you can handle it without a spare.  If multiple employees do, you're screwed.

Secondly, if you're going to expand hours of operation, make sure you fill those hours.  On a recent Thursday, I was at The Villa from 3pm until closing at 8.  Besides the one barista working, I was the only one there.  No need to be open those extra hours if nobody is coming.

So let's fill the place, shall we?

Since over 60% of Americans go to Starbucks at least once a month, you are probably aware of the "hot in the morning, cold in the evening" promotion 'Da Bucks' has been doing lately.  Buy a hot coffee in the morning, get a discount on a cold drink in the evening.  It reminds people "Yes, we're open in the evening as well.  Come get a Frappuccino" and it works.  It's good for business.

Evening events at least once a month would be fantastic.  There is a lot of "hang out" space to utilize, so turn this place into a social hot-spot.

Lastly, know your surroundings.  It is 86 degrees outside right now.  Not a good time to be a coffee shop.  Promote iced drinks, italian sodas, blended drinks and the like.  Snowcone booths are open and doing well, which means extra competition.  Now is the time to focus on smoothies (and not soups or steamers).

As a small business owner, you need to be engaged in your business.  Make sure you grow or shrink based on traffic flow.  If business is slow, you need to shave off 'dead' hours or promote promote promote.  Marketing can't be a 4-letter word.  Most importantly, retain your good employees.  If you don't treat your employees right, another employer will.  One of the girls that left was the best latte maker of the bunch.  Without being too unreasonable, I would have tried to keep her if I could.  A coffee shop is only as good as their coffee, and their coffee is only as good as the baristas serving it.  $1-2 an hour more to keep someone who pulls perfect shot after perfect shot of espresso sounds like a bargain to me.

Good luck, Villa.  You still have my business while your doors remain open, but the empty echo in here is beginning to get on my nerves....  I hope to see this place packed to the gills with happy patrons soon!

Hey Wendy's: What the Hell?

As I am sure you've noticed from previous blog posts, I watch a good share of TV.

One thing that makes me laugh are when commercials contradict themselves.

The subject of this week's contradiction?  Wendy's.

Dave Thomas, founder of Wendy's, used to be featured in most commercials.  When Dave died in 2002, Wendy's started looking for other ways to spread the message.

Recently, however, the original Wendy (Dave's daughter) has started being featured on TV:

"Yes, I'm that Wendy" she says, and then talks about quality and care and...

...well, all the things you care about when you're ordering a Frosty at 2am, drunk off your ass...

At the same time, "Cool Wendy" started taking the spotlight in other Wendy's commercials.

Yes boys, the carpet does match the curtains...

Both sets of commercials are running parallel to each other, which just confuses the hell out of me.

Which one is the real Wendy?

Do they have a 'we care' Wendy, and then a 'let's party, I'm gonna take my top off' Wendy?

And, if so, who the fuck is THIS guy??

Hey, me too!  They call me Tyrone "Fire-crotch" Jones...

Can someone who works in Wendy's Marketing Department please help me out and explain this shit to me??

Pinterest - The Devolving of Social Media

Remember 10 years ago, when Myspace was the coolest new thing? Everyone wanted to be a part of "Tom's" network, and all the popular kids had a myspace page.

You could design your own layout.  Have a playlist of your favorite songs.  Make a bio/online resume, including pictures, words, videos, and more.

Then, as business started to notice, saying "we should probably market to this," myspace died.

What killed myspace?  Facebook.

Facebook offered a 'cleaner' interface.  Simply put, you can't design your own layout anymore.  You can't have music playing on your profile.  You post status updates, pictures, videos and links.  It was a dumbed-down version of myspace, and people LOVED it.

Simplification rules.  So how do you simplify Facebook?  Twitter.  It's facebook in 140 characters or less, and designed for mobility.

But... words are overrated, right?  Let's cut those out.  Enter Pinterest.

Pinterest is 'the next big thing,' especially with women.  You pin pictures you like (recipes, fashion, quotes, as long as they're in an image file) and you share with your friends.  For example, my ex wife is newly engaged and is planning a wedding.  She pins decorations, cakes, dresses, etc she likes, and her friends go "DAWWWWWW..."

That's pinterest in a nutshell.

And businesses are trying to find ways to capitalize.

As a blogger, my blog's continued success involves 'staying current with the times' and using social media trends help fuel blog traffic.  But pinterest?  It doesn't quite work for me.

You see, pinterest is for pictures, and this blog is more than pictures.  If I showed cute lolcat images or talked about skinny jeans on fat dudes, I'd have relevant pictures to pin.  My focus is more on the words instead of the pictures, and not the other way around.

Twitter?  I use it.  Stumbleupon?  Great for traffic.  But pinterest?  Sorry.  Not for me, not for my blog.  I only have one thing to say to pinterest:

Businesses who can use images and pinterest to their advantage may have found a great new marketing tool.  For those of us who use words, humor, sarcasm and wit, pictures DO say a thousand words, but not always in the right way.

Marketing Tips From The Muppets

Unless you live under a rock (or maybe in one of the countries ending in -stan) you are aware that a new Muppet movie is coming out in a few weeks.

I'm 30 years old.  Anyone plus-or-minus ten years of me has probably been influenced in their childhood by muppets.  From Sesame Street to The Muppet Show and beyond, Jim Henson's creations played a heavy role in late 20th century pop culture.

And they're making a comeback, 21st century style.

When a muppet movie was green-lighted, the PR team for this movie went to work.  The plot of the movie is "Are muppets relevant anymore?" with the main focus of showing this generation what muppets are all about.

How do you target this younger generation of movie goer?

The INTERNET!

In November 2009, they launched this video:

It was an instant hit, getting millions of views and being passed around Facebook pages galore.

Speaking of Facebook, the muppets are there as well.

Any major social media outlet has been infested with muppet-dom.  Even Miss Piggy, The Swedish Chef, and a host of other muppets are on twitter, tweeting regularly (and in character).

Interviews on late night talk shows, commercials galore, viral videos (you have to see The Pig With The Froggy Tattoo) and even guest appearances on WWE Monday Night Raw are making sure that everyone knows about this movie.

I mean, come on.  Beaker getting involved in a wrestling match, handing Santino Marella a concoction that helps him win the match.   When is the last time you saw Julia Roberts do this for one of HER movies?  What about Leo DiCaprio?

Again, the plot of the movie is "Are the muppets relevant anymore?"  They're marketing tactics are making sure they are.  Gen X'ers are loving every bit of it.  Gen Y'ers and the newest generation (Generation Internet?  iGeneration?) are getting a taste of what made the muppets hilarious in the 70's and 80's.  They are fuckin crazy, and will make you laugh in unconventional ways.

Businesses.  Entrepreneurs.  Learn from the muppets.  If you're going to market yourself, go all out, and get as unconventional (read: CRAZY) as possible.

Not ashamed to admit: I'm for sale

When I first started blogging, I was out of work and looking for fun ways to make a buck.  I found some information online saying "ROMG YOU CAN MAKE LIEK BAZILLIONS WITH ADSENSE AND BLOGS!1!!1!" so I tried it out.  I made a little bit (not bazillions) but adsense is a fickle friend.

So I looked around at other sources.  Most caused pop-ups or the "Congratulations!  Click here and win an iPad (and a ton of viruses)" messages.

So I finally gave up and said "Fuck it.  I'm doing my own thing."

And so far, I like being my own boss.

I'm sure you've seen the 'advertise here' buttons placed strategically around my blog.  You may have been so bold as to look at my advertising page.   Well, I'm happy to report that these are slowly but surely getting filled.  Hopefully I'll be adding some testimonials soon from happy customers (hint hint...).

I currently have 2 bloggers advertising on my site:

The first is Zombies Everywhere, an awesome site dedicated to the undead.  Here you can learn fun zombie facts, what to do if found in a gaggle of zombies, and what you need to do to prepare yourself for Z-Day (which is coming soon, you better go there and read up...).

The next blogger is a slight contrast from Z.E.  It is Beyond the Borderline Personality, a blog which discusses Borderline Personality Disorder, Passive-Aggressive behaviors, and, well, a lot.  Reading about the anxiety of getting a tattoo done coupled with the pride and confidence when the initial sitting was done is absolutely amazing.  This wordsmith paints pictures in your mind that will leave you breathless.

And since I follow both blogs, it's that extra little stamp of awesomeness.

Now, I can't guarantee results.  Z has been running an ad for nearly 2 weeks, so hopefully he has some kind words to share (dude, that's your cue).  Those in the blogging world know, however, that the key to growing your blog is marketing your site in as many ways as possible.

And that's exactly what I want to help you do.   Market yourself to an audience that you can tap.  I'm currently at 650 followers, 400-600 pageviews a day (depending on the post) and I've amassed about 5100 comments in only 5 1/2 months.  The interaction on this site is bumpin.

Scan it.  You know you want to.

Sizes available are 140x140 buttons, 280x100 rectangles, and one 480x60 banner on the header of the site.  For more information, please go to the advertising page and see what would work best for you.  QR codes, graphic ads, text, whatever you decide to do.

As always with marketing, the more you stand out, the more you're going to attract people.

And if you don't have a creative bone in your body, fret not.  I can help you design an ad (for a fee, of course), re-size graphics, or customize space to fit your needs.

After all... when whoring yourself out, the flexible whores tend to get more customers....

Marketing in Idaho - Why Facebook isn't in their vocabulary

As I mentioned in my very first post, Idaho feels like traveling back in time.  One medium that makes me feel like I'm still stuck in the 20th century is the marketing in this town.  You don't see a lot of new-thinking.  You don't see a lot of 'find us on facebook.'  What you do see a lot of are old-fashioned lettered signs, flyers left on cars, and ads in the local paper.

One of the more 'modern' companies in the area is a local car dealership (more on them in a post next week...).  They not only have a LARGE INFLATABLE DINOSAUR chilling in their car lot, but they have this billboard, talking about the dinosaur, mere feet away from the actual dealership and the actual dinosaur.

Giant inflatable animals selling cars?  How forward-thinking.  (pffffff...)

This dealership also tried a 'facebook giveaway' when I worked for them.  If you test drove a car, and liked them of Facebook, you could win a free 6-month lease on a new Chevy Camaro.  When they finally drew for the prize, they had about 150 facebook friends.  30 of those 50 were dealership employees.

There are 50,000 people in this town.  They advertised the crap out of that promotion.   And they only had 120 people enter?  Lame...

I know I've said it before, but this is a very conservative town.  Traditions, values and faith are BIG in Eastern Idaho.  This bank takes that idea and sells you on their services.

"They are the kind of bank you date.  We are the kind of bank you marry."

Ok, which one is the kind of bank I casually fool around with, when I'm in the mood?

I'm sorry, I don't want to be 'married' to my bank.  When I think of financial institutions, the term 'til death do us part' is not something I want in my head.  Also, if I decide to switch banks, I don't want you to get half my assets...

Between these companies and business names like Two Guys Plowing, I'm not sure if I would ever be successful as a freelance marketer in this town.  I'm too young, and don't think on the same wavelength as this community...

Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night

I'd like to share with you one of my favorite poems, by Dylan Thomas:


Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night.

Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

And you, my father, there on that sad height,
Curse, bless, me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light. 


While taken slightly out of context, I would like to say to you that I did not go gently into that good night.  I raged, and somehow was able to muster over 300 votes and win...


The Stunner.

Yes, with your help I was able to become the champion of Thank, Q For Common Sense's blogging tournament, beating other bloggers like EmDottie, Thoughts of a Randomista, Squatlo Rant, and ultimately Michelle at Mommy Confessions.


It was a long battle, especially against Miss Mommy.  She may only have 400 or so people following her with a google profile, but she has thousands of followers within her ranks, from Facebook Twitter and the like.  She was the true #1 seed, and I had to pester a lot of friends, family, coworkers, and followers into voting. 


For some reason, even though I have over 450 followers, I only seem to have about 30-50 'regulars.'  It was that other 400 or so that I had to bother, and bother I did.


Happily it paid off, but not without a lot of effort on my part.  The good news is, during the course of the tournament, a lot of the bloggers (Mommy, Q and I included) grew their numbers.  Even though I am the only one who walked away with the official Stunner, we all walked away reaping the rewards of this tournament.


If you have not been to Q's site, I recommend you do ASAP.  Not only to witness the chaos and the carnage first-hand, but because there were some damn-good blogs fighting in this tourney.  Not only that, but Quincy is a damn good blogger himself.  If anything, you can go there and find a good handful of other bloggers worth following and stalking.


But for now I go to sleep, and rest I will.  I'm going to take a decent break from marketing my blog, since I have been pushing it so frantically lately.  But don't worry, avid readers... I'll still be bitching and posting daily.


Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.