Early this fall, I downloaded a white paper from a website.  Frankly I don’t even remember the topic, it was just part of my continuing education.  As is typical, I had to give up some info–my contact info–in order to get the paper.  That, I’m used to.  Sometimes you get put on email lists, rarely anything more than that.

What followed was out of the norm and I’m wondering what you think, both of their tactics, and of my reaction.

Right before Thanksgiving I got a big cardboard box, delivered by Federal Express.  Inside a ton of paper and packaging were six little cookies, each on a fake “rose” stem.  About $2 worth of cookies, $15 worth of packaging and $20 or so for shipping.

I was offended.  As a longtime media buyer, I’ve gotten my share of holiday gifts, most of them small/trivial like this one, not the kind of gift that could be seen as a “bribe”.  But most of them weren’t as environmentally wasteful as this one.

Then came the hardcore prospecting.  Two emails in three days, followed by a phone call.  Not overly aggressive by any standard, yet it was bothersome, primarily because they kept referencing the cookies.    They didn’t say it like this, but the message was clear:  “Hey we sent you some cookies.  Now you owe us.  We want to give you a 30 minute demo.”

They did get my attention, I’ll give them that.  So I went to the website to get my own look at their product.  Frustratingly, there was no pricing provided whatsoever, just lots of verbiage about how wonderful the product is and plenty of opportunities to sign up for a demo.  I had to use Google search to find a forum where users of this type of software were debating the price-value relationship of this product.

Generally speaking, the reviews were positive.  But I learned that the product isn’t cheap, at least $2,000 per year, potentially much more, and probably not something I need.  It’s my opinion that sellers of packaged products like this one would save everyone time and trouble by publishing their pricing, or at least something like “starting at $xxx” so that prospects can decide for themselves if the price is in their ballpark.  Seems to me to be a good way to qualify prospects and not waste time with those who can’t or won’t pay the price.

Back to all those holiday gifts of Christmases past.  Not once can I recall a company using said gift as a transparent method of getting an audience with me.  Those gifts were just part of the holiday routine, and I considered them thank-you’s for whatever relationship had been built or hopefully would be built.

So i ask you:  is this just a new lean-and-mean business strategy?  Is it reasonable that I’m offended by a “guilting” strategy as practiced by this vendor?  Am I wrong to be offended by the  huge waste of paper/packing/shipping energy in relation to the paltry value of the gift?

Oh, by the way.  This company sells a public relations tool, and is not from Indy.  Perhaps you got cookies from them, too.

On Saturday, November 21, eBay users discovered that site’s search functionality–and other functions–were not working.  It took until late Sunday evening to iron out all of the bugs.

This morning, I got an email from eBay apologizing for sending out an email that promoted 50% discounted seller listing fees for November 23-25.  Apparently some sellers (not me) got that email in error.

Double whammy.  Site outage for all users plus the rescinding of discounts to sellers, many of whom (including me) are still smarting from eBay’s constant tinkering with the seller policies and listing guidelines.

eBay’s initial diagnosis was a spike in listings due to the holidays.  I’m skeptical about this, though, because they’ve suffered from declining sales  for the past year.

All in all, it makes me ask the question:  how’s your web site’s  infrastructure?  Do you know your server’s capacity?  What happens if business skyrockets?  How fast can you fix something that your users depend upon?

Most of you already are well-armed against the “phishers” who seek to steal your passwords and who knows what else by sending fake emails.

This week I’ve had a spate of plausible-looking ones, in two particular varieties.  Both were good enough to avoid the high security of my spam filter and also to make me look twice.

One purports to be from Microsoft (“The Microsoft Update Center”)  and attempts to get you to click on a link to download a critical Outlook update.  The other was to my personal email address and asks you to click a link to “apply new security settings.”  Since we all want to keep updated and safe, a busy person might not think carefully here.

Remember, for one, that Microsoft does not send emails to notify you of updates; instead they are sent via the web and the Windows operating system.

A good thing to do always if you get a possible spoof or hoaxed email:  place your cursor over the link and see what URL it points to.  Almost always, the early part of the string will be the “spoofed” sender, or who they want you to think it’s from, including the dot com suffix, but then it goes into a further, unfamiliar string of characters ending in another URL.  Never click on these links, for obvious reasons, unless you absolutely are familiar with the entire link.

Sorry if this is too basic  for some (who would fall for that!) , but I generally appreciate reminders of how to stay safe on the web, so I’m betting that some of you may as well.

I had a conversation earlier this week with a business owner who wanted to use the blog section of his new website, but was worried about whether he’d be able to blog enough.

How often did he think he needed to post? Three times per week, he’d been told. And he was pretty sure he wasn’t going to be able to keep that pace, so he was afraid to even start.

I assured him that while 3x per week is often suggested as the minimum threshold for obtaining maximum search position, it was hardly necessary in most cases, unless your goal is purely SEO.

My understanding of the 3x per week guideline is that is what it takes to get the most attention from Google. This is most important to bloggers who are trying to earn income from their blog, or from those who are blogging primarily to generate high page rank from search engines. Naturally, the competition for blogging at the pro level is fierce. If you’re trying to generate income via Google Adsense or via direct ad sales, you need lots of regular readers whose numbers can justify the ad prices on a blog. If your goal is purely to get Google’s attention, then the more posts, the merrier. No doubt.

Here, though, I’m thinking about the typical small business person who wants to communicate with prospects, cohorts and customers via a regularly updated website. Someone who wants to improve their online presence.

If you’re scoring me–and I doubt you are–you’ll note that my post frequency has settled in at 2-3 per month. Not as many as I would like, but in my mind, enough to let my readers know that I’m still here, still thinking about marketing, and working to make sure my web site stays relevant.

If I posted twice that much, would you have a different opinion about me?

The point is this: if you’re going to blog in support of your business, commit to doing it on some sort of regular basis. I think once a week is plenty. Even once a month is better than not doing it at all. And it will improve your page rank.

But if you post a few times and then stop altogether, that’s not good. A stopped blog is like a dead end road. Chances are you’ll never see that reader again.