Following Mashable’s Advice On Marketing Your Small Business With No Budget

 

The steps in this post are pretty simple, no rocket science here. But, for giggles, I wanted to see how I stacked up against their HOW TO.

There are five pieces of advice given in the article; Become an Expert, Cultivate Super Users, Ensure People Can Find You on the Web, and Offer Ad-Funded Payment Options.

Become an Expert

This may be a good time to answer the frequently asked question about “What do you do?” The short answer is I build software. The long answer is, I’ve been in the technology industry for over 20 years. I’ve worked for large companies, and I’ve worked for boot strap startups. I have filled many different roles, and have a love hate relationship with many of them.

I can say I’m an expert in my field, and I know I can do a better job showing you. The article uses YouTube as an example of a place to show off your talents, and I have to agree. I don’t use YouTube in that manner, but I am going to try and make an effort to utilize it more. I can also stand to do more blogging. Services like Twitter and Facebook have pulled me away from blogging. So it’s my own fault.

You can always learn more here.

Cultivate Super Users

OK, so this piece of advice works well if you have a product, but what if you’re a freelancer? What if you don’t have a tangible product that others can gloat about?

I understand the person when a project is completed to a clients satisfaction they will be happy and tell a few people, but it’s nothing like a few million people gushing about your cool service or widget.

I’m trying to change that by doing less freelancing and more product development. Software and Information products. Something I can offer customers, which will allow me to cultivate super users.

Ensure People Can Find You on the Web

This isn’t a problem for me. Google my name or company and you’ll be directed to the right resource. Since I run a virtual company, I have no physical address. Maybe that is a con for freelancers?

Offer Ad-Funded Payment Options

Again, this is really a benefit for a company offering a product. I’m also not keen on this “buy something from someone else and get my widget for free”. I want to think my products have more value than that. Besides, I don’t have the marketing channel in place to manage this.

Wrap Up

Of all the advice this article lays out, the one thing of value to me was the Become an Expert, which isn’t really something earth shattering or new, it’s just a reality check.

There has to be something better than this. A good solid plan. Share with us your budget mindful marketing ideas.

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SMCSLC WordPress 3.0 Presentation Slides

Here are the slides I used in my WordPress 3.0 presentation last night for the Social Media Club of Salt Lake City (SMCSLC).

It was a great event, the audience was great, the other presenters (Dan Garfield @todaywasawesome) and panelists (Jake Spurlock @whyisjake) were awesome. It was a good WordPress night.

Thanks to Darin 'Doc' Berntson (@igobydoc) for putting the event together to coincide with the Eye Care for Kids charity concert after the club meeting. Doc really spends a lot of time promoting and supporting the charity. Take a few minutes to check it out.

View more presentations from Thom Allen.

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Cool Flickr Photos

I’ve been a Flickr member for several years, and have posted several thousand pictures during that time. Here are the top five photos and what they meant at the time I took them.

1. Ductster PDA. So far this photo has been viewed 3053 times. I took this very crappy photo of a note holder made of duct tape. Taken with a Windows Mobile phone. Very popular during my Hipster and DIY Getting Things Done phase.

2. Worlds Largest Diet Coke Can. So far this photo has been viewed 1521 times. I took this photo on a vacation trip to Yellowstone. I honestly can’t remember where it was taken, but I do know it was a gas station off the highway somewhere in Idaho I think. I’m a big Diet Coke fan, and thought this was the coolest picture.

3. 38 Special – Special Forces. So far this photo has been viewed 1420 times. It’s really a snap of album art. I love album art. It’s mostly a dead practice. Most artists today paste their picture on the front and call it good. A lot of musicians drew and painted their own album covers. It has a personal connection to the music.

4. Stewart-Haas Racing Logo. So far this photo has been viewed 851 times. This was a screen shot of the new Tony Stewart NASCAR racing team logo. I’m a huge fan of Tony, and I thought this was a great logo. I hope I never get in trouble for posting it.

5. Just A Geek. So far this photo has been viewed 453 times. I’m a big Wil Wheaton fan. I took a pic of his book after I got it from Amazon. It was a great book, and you should get a copy. He has several other great books. Wish there would have been a spin off of his Star Trek character Wes Crusher.

One picture that I really like is the one I took with Brandon Sanderson. Brandon is a Fantasy author who lives in Utah. He is also the author asked to finish Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series. This photo was taken after I interviewed Brandon (along with Jeff Norris, for iscifi.tv) at Life, the Universe & Everything writers symposium at BYU.

There you go, just a random post about some photos I’ve taken. Please head over to my Flickr page and see the rest. Let me know what you think.

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BuddyPress And The Missing Admin Bar: Solved!

I’ve been working on a few BuddyPress projects lately, using custom themes. Actually, I’ve used a great new plug-in, BuddyPress Template Pack by Andy Peatling to help with custom themes. While this great plug-in got me down the road (it basically turns your existing theme into a BuddyPress compatible theme), there were a few things missing. I wanted to share one I solved, and how.

Once I installed the theme and started working on it, I noticed that there was white space at the top of all my pages, enough room for the BuddyPress admin bar. So I knew it had something to be missing code that wasn’t displaying the admin bar. A quick search on the BuddyPress forum site and I found the solution: Make sure the wp_footer() reference is in your template file.

My theme needed a reference to wp_footer(). There was a reference to get_footer(), but that doesn’t help the admin bar. Once I added the reference, the bar shows up as desired. I call this code snippet in the custom theme where the footer should appear.

<?php
function custom_footer() { ?>
    <div id="custom_footer" class="accentBorders">Copyright &#169; 2010 All Rights Reserved.</div>
<?php
    wp_footer();
}
?>

Find more BuddyPress goodness at http://buddypress.org/support/topics/.

By the way, BuddyPress is a set of plug-ins that give your WordPress site the ability to create a community.

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New For PodCampSLC 2010

Today, PodCampSLC is excited to announce to new additions. Here are the new things happening with the event:

• New web site. Thanks to CrowdVine, we now have a new website for PodCampSLC. This site incorporates many of the social networking features you have grown to appreciate.


• New sponsors on board: PressDev, Mozy.com, eBay, Neumont University and SLUG Magazine. Please take some time to visit these companies, and we really appreciate the support.


• The schedule is really starting to come together. We are covering everything from audio and video recording, live streaming, social media, and a lot more.


• Phil Windley has agreed to hold the March CTO breakfast just before PodCamp.

Again, I really want to thank Tony and team at CrowdVine for the new site. We are working very closely with them to resolve any problems that may come up, so please be patient.

Please visit the new site and register today.

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