I read with true sadness an article from NYTimes.com "These Businesses Lasted Decades. The Virus Closed Them for Good." "Nearly 3,000 small businesses in New York City have closed for good in the past four months, blaming falling revenue, vanished tourism and ballooning debt, especially for overdue rent. Some older businesses pointed to their failure to develop robust online commerce that might have carried them through the tough times."



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So here we go, just like a Delorean with 1.21 gigawatts of power -- into the future. BC and AC now have new meanings; Before and After Covid 19. And no one, absolutely no one, knows anything about what our future looks like. This is brand new territory. 

I’m going to be 73 next month and I haven’t seen anything like this. No event in my lifetime has had anywhere near the long-term effect on societies and economies that this does. Not the Civil Rights Movement that I experienced as a youn...

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Indeed. Who will save this amazing resource. Here's some background…

I subscribe to a few food newsletters. One of my favorites is Eater.com. If you’re a “foodie” you should subscribe, it’s usually chock full of interesting articles. This one https://www.eater.com/2020/7/8/21271246/food-timeline-lynne-olver blew me away.

So, when the headline “Who Will Save The Food Timeline” caught my attention I found this amazingly fascinating (if you’re a foodie!) resource, www.foodtimeline...

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So, so sweet. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b6IB0trJoJU



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A crisis reveals much about human nature as it changes aspects of how we live and conduct our daily routines.

Your business, and your customers’ businesses have been shut down for nearly four months now. Some, most or many of your customers are social distancing and don’t want to go into malls or stores. Some, probably many, of those retail stores won’t survive and many small retailers will not be able to reopen. 

But while retailers including J. Crew, JCPenney, and even Neiman Marcus hav...

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Once sailing enters your consciousness, it never leaves. It's stuck in there forever. You know how it feels, the wind on your face, the sun on your body, the oneness with the boat. Sailing takes you away, physically, metaphorically, spiritually. 

So when the America's Cup competition heats up, my heart quickens. Now, these are not my favorite boats, I'm much too much a traditionalist for these Grand Prix speed machines. While I love to watch them fly, I don't quite accept them as sailboats, no...
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A Weekly Update of Tips, Hacks. Articles, Tools and News You Can Use.

Total resources in my private compendium as of this date: 1978. If you are a client or student you have the link. I curate so that you don't have to!

I've added many resources to my curated compendium of links this week. My students and clients have the link. Some highlights of newly added items are:

Tools Of The Trade, Articles and White Papers:

• AddThis (www.addthis.com): AddThis launched a gorgeous new "state of the art" webs...

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Thought For The Week

“It takes a good and creative person to do something simply.”
                                    ...Dick Newick, Sailboat Design Visionary

 
Site of The Week

The Utne Reader - "Cure Ignorance"
Want to gain a fresh perspective? Read stories that matter? Feel optimistic about the future? It's all here! Utne Reader offers provocative writing from diverse perspectives, insightful analysis of art and media, down-to-earth news and in-depth coverage of eye-opening issues ...

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I hope you all had a wonderful Labor Day holiday. As we took last Monday off here's an expanded edition of the Monday Morning Digest.

Thought For The Week

The thought for this week is an Op Ed by Charles Blow of the New York Times. As we consider what to do in the face of Bashar Al-Assad's horrendous use of gas that killed more than 400 innocent children it's a poignant reminder that, in Mr. Blow's words that there  "are the millions of other children who die each year on this planet wi...
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I want to pay special attention to two articles this week. One is a short video that I hope you'll share with everyone you know: 

One Easy Thing All White People Could Do That Would Make The World A Better Place
A Safeway clerk screwed up big time, but these two women handled it perfectly. Further proof that one person can have a huge impact.
WATCH THIS VIDEO: http://www.upworthy.com/one-easy-thing-all-white-people-could-do-that-would-make-the-world-a-better-place-5

The other is a VERY val...

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Digital Inbound Marketing - They're Your Organization's Assets and You Must Build and Guard Them Dearly

Are the days of SEO service providers numbered? I think so and I'll explain why.

Two articles hit my inbox last week that I think help better explain why I think the end of SEO firms is in sight.  Why so I think this? Because clients of all kinds will soon realize (if they haven't already) that outsourcing their SEO, Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing is dangerous to the f...

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Thought For The Week

This is the inspirational memo Apple employees receive on their first day.

"There's work and there's your life's work.

The kind of work that has your fingerprints all over it. The kind of work that you'd never compromise on. That you'd sacrifice a weekend for. You can do that kind of work at Apple. People don't come here to play it safe. They come here to swim in the deep end.

They want their work to add up to something.

Something big. Something that couldn't happen ...

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Thought For The Week

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” – Mark Twain

 
Site of The Week

TED ED Lessons Worth Sharing
Create Lessons Worth Sharing around YouTube videos
http://ed.ted.com/



Eclectic Stuff From Around The Web. Some of it really crazy, some really useful, some just rea...

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Two Thoughts For This Week

There are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
                                                             ....Beverly Sills

Dig dig a little deeper in the well boys
Dig a little deeper in the well
If you want a good cool drink of water
You gotta dig a little deeper in the well.
                             .....The Oak Ridge Boys
 
Site of The Week

The Gates Notes
The personal website of Bill Gates - on which he shares his thoughts on many subjects and lists his extensive ...
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Thought For The Week

The words from Apple’s infamous “Here’s to the crazy ones” advertising campaign…

Here’s to the crazy ones. The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers. The round pegs in the square holes. The ones who see things differently. They’re not fond of rules. And they have no respect for the status quo. You can praise them, disagree with them, quote them, disbelieve them, glorify or vilify them. About the only thing you can’t do is ignore them. Because they chan...

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I'm in a unique position, I can take an "inside out" approach to Digital Marketing because of my unique background. I've been a CEO for the majority of my business career and understand the complexity of running an organization. As well, I've been doing this, meaning Digital Marketing, since the mid-90's. That's as long or longer as anyone.

I was a CEO over 30 years and have seen a whole lot of change and nothing is changing as rapidly as marketing today. Years ago there was usually no more ...

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Way too many organizations, although they know they need a Website, don't know what it means to establish an effective online presence that brings new leads and customers and effectively nurtures sales.

I can't count the number of times that I've consulted with organizations who have spent way too much money building a site and then wonder why no one can find it. The answer is a simple one, so many people don't understand the very basic principles of building an online presence. This is quit...

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One of the things that my father taught me was that your reputation was your most important asset. He taught me that the most important thing in life was to go to bed at night with the "knowingness" that you'd acted with integrity that day and every day. As important Dad taught me that you had to be able to look yourself in the mirror every morning and be proud of yourself.

I met a potential client the other day that inherited a legacy contract with a Web development company that actually he...

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I admit it - damn it,  I’m an Internet addict. I have been since I first encountered the Web. My name is Maurice Bretzfield.

I first saw the Internet during the late spring or early summer of 1994. It blew my mind and changed the trajectory of my life.

I read an article in the paper about a local philanthropist and how he had donated a computer and Internet connection to the local library and went off to see what this Internet thing that I’d been hearing about was all about. I was about 47 ...

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During the talks that I give I'm often asked "what is Inbound Marketing". Well, simply it's a combination of elements woven together into a system, a contextual marketing system, that is data-driven and produces superior ROI (Return on Investment). That's the short and easy answer.

I think that the term "Inbound Marketing" is misleading - and outdated. What we are really talking about here is "contextual marketing", a data-driven marketing system that turns traditional marketing on its hea...

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I attend a regular TEDx event here in New York City. We meet weekly, watch a TED talk and then discuss it among the group. It's an hour well spent and I invite you to join us at 5:30 on Friday evenings in a great space in Midtown  (contact me if you are interested in joining us).

A couple of years ago we watched a great talk, "The Mathematics of History", given by Google Fellow, Jean Baptiste-Michel. It was a fascinating glimpse into the future of data analysis and sparked a conversation ...

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I recently heard a joke about Microsoft.

Two men are flying in a balloon above Seattle - but the pilot is lost. Drifting over a building the pilot draws a sign and holds it up. The sign says “WHERE AM I?” in large letters.

People looking out of the buildings windows quickly respond to the pilot by holding up a sign that says

“YOU'RE IN A BALLOON!”

The pilot smiles, waves, takes a look at his map and steers a course to his destination.

After their safe landing the passenger asks the p...

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Video is now a key component of any data/content driven Inbound Marketing strategy.

Throughout 2012, video marketing for B2B businesses showed an upward trend in both effectiveness and popularity, and most industry observers expect this to continue into 2013 and beyond.

Here are a few relevant findings: 

Research firm and reviews publisher, Software Advice, recently found in their 2012 B2B Demand Generation Benchmark Survey that video was the second most popular type of content used ac...

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You've heard it, "on the Internet, content is king". But it bears repeating, "on the Internet, content is king" - because it is, it really, really is!

But, there is content and then there is effective content.  Your organization must create effective content - content that communicates in a meaningful way. This is content that is carefully crafted based on what you already know that your customer finds compelling and useful, and most important, content that they want from you.

Because cont...

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Define Your Purpose

Defining your purpose is an essential first step in the creation of a successful Inbound Marketing Strategy.

1.     A defined purpose will save you money, because you can create very specific, targeted content with simpler messages. Your content will be shorter and easier to digest, and you won’t need to spend money on creative ways to appeal to “everybody” all at once.

2.     With more crafted and targeted messages, you’re more likely to see a response that ...

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Inbound Marketing is not a marketing tactic, a channel or a technology - it’s a strategy.

It's not enough to “do” Inbound Marketing. To see great results organizations must commit to the model, optimize it continually, and pursue it relentlessly. The result is a vastly diminished cost of customer acquisition provable by measuring ROI.

The difference is that Inbound Marketing integrates business process and technology to drive higher-value lead generation through data-driven demand cr...

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Inbound-Outbound...Outbound-Inbound - It's All Marketing. What's the Difference?

Outbound Marketing and advertising, including digital outbound, has become highly ineffective and shows meager ROI. Because customers are fast forwarding through TV commercials, ignoring direct postal mail and are ignoring outbound email messages that don't compel them - they are ineffective and provide marketers with unacceptable return on time and cost invested in them.

Inbound Marketing fixes this by repla...

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