Marc’s Musings

Last weekend, I helped my parents set up their NetZero dial-up internet access. (It felt so 1990’s!)

The process went pretty smoothly…much to my mother’s irritation. (She’d spent 4 1/2 hours the night before trying to do it. Mom, you’ve gotta plug the phone cord into the laptop!)

But it also had example of the current (dismal) state of customer service.

NetZero noticed the program I was using was out of date and IE wasn’t loading properly. So they had a helpful screen showing me the link for the updated version and telling me how to install it.

But down at the bottom of the screen that shows up if you are having problems connecting to the internet, they said something like, “Need help? You can reach our free customer service by emailing us here at FabulousCustomerService@netzero.com.”

Sheesh. If I’m having trouble with the internet, how am I going to email!

It’s like when your internet connection is down so you call your ISP. Why do they have to point out that “most of the answers” to my questions are conveniently located at their website.

It doesn’t even feel better to yell, “If I could get to your website I wouldn’t be calling you right now!”

I sure am glad most of my life goes much more smoothly than this!

Kivi Miller tagged me on a meme passed on by Jeff Brooks.

I don’t usually play these. In fact, GMail knows to automatically delete forwarded emails.

But something about this intrigues me so here it goes.

Here is what I am supposed to do:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123.
3. Find the fifth sentence.
4. Post the next three sentences.
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.

The nearest book is Katya Andresen’s Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causes.

Here are the appropriate three sentences:

And it cost us nothing.

Q: What’s a favorite example of your work in forging unusual partnerships?

A: The Union of Operating Engineers wanted to improve minority recruitument for jobs in the field and to raise the profile of the union and its members in our community.

Delightfully out of context, isn’t it? She goes on to tell of a partnership with them and Head Start.

Robin Hood Marketing: Stealing Corporate Savvy to Sell Just Causesis one of the best books I’ve read in a while. And I read a lot of books! Katya knows marketing and this book can help all fundraisers do what they do even better.

Like Kivi I think I’ll tag a couple Twitterati.

• Chad Norman
• Lisa Downing

I’ll also tag:

• my wife Emily
• the book’s author Katya.
• and my guest on today’s Ask Without Fear radio show, Gayle Roberts.

Playing a bit more with marcsentme.com.

Now I’ve added istockphoto.com and Netflix.

The list of cool resources is growing, but only with tools I both use myself and find useful!

I’ve been experimenting with press releases.

PRWeb didn’t like my original recession proof fundraising press release. Apparently it wasn’t self-promotional enough. I hadn’t wanted a self-promotional release!

Well, the PRWeb approved press release is live and available at:
http://news.google.com/news?sourceid=navclient&hl=en&ned=&q=recession+proof+fundraising

It was #1 when I last checked!

I’ve been playing with Google AdWords and Facebook ads for my Fundraisingcoach.com site, my Ask Without Fear! book, the Vineyard Church of Waterville, and for the cool KVConnect group.

I just reconciled my January and February charges for both.

Let’s just say that Facebook is really expensive. 4x’s the Google AdWords.

I have seen increased activity on my sites and slightly better sales. But I wasn’t at all focused in my advertising. Like channeling people to buying stuff at Fundraisingcoach.com.

I’m much more focused now.

I bet I’d have had to pay lots more if I hired someone to teach me this!

(That’s what I’m telling myself anyway!)

Came across this quote while reading a Wired article on Pong.

Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.
–H. L. Mencken

It’s weird to think that Pong was created the year I was born!

Last Sunday, we had an brave soul give the sermon at the Vineyard Church of Waterville. I make it a point to not be in the pulpit every Sunday. It’s healthier for the group if others are being raised up.

Before Janice spoke, I gave everyone a primer on how to be a good listener. I even helped them loosen up their smiling muscles and the muscles that help the head move up and down in agreement. You can hear the warm up routine on the VCW podcast.

Today, I read a post by Seth Godin that reminds me of my warm up exercise. Go and read his post Always On (everybody markets). He points out that we’re always sending a message. “And more often than not, you get what you put in.”

I’ve wanted to write a “take charge of your life” blog post for a while now.

But to my great joy, Chris Brogan has done it even better than I would’ve.

Read his post: Take Responsibility and Fire THEY

I just realized people could have email upates of my blogs. What a convenient way to read a blog!