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September 03, 2005

Article Dashboard Review

I installed the Article Dashboard script that allows people to submit articles to your website. It has the earmarks for being a good quality program, but isn't ready for prime time yet. I mentioned a couple of bugs in the scripts which have been posted about to their support forum but a new update to the script yesterday did not address this issue. Where does this leave people who have installed the script?

I guess about the only thing one could do is a) hope that a future release fixes this problem. The scripts have been encoded with ioncube which stops you from trying to fix the problem yourself.

b) uninstall the script and look for something else

An email from the author, Patrick Stockwell, said:

Thank you for letting us know about your concerns and we will absolutely act upon them. This might take a few more days but we will release an upgrade as soon as it is available. This should be complete early to mid week.

I guess for now I will choose a) and wait and see. But I've already turned down a job installing it for someone. (he-he) I don't want to take the blame for installing a broken script.

The script will work if it is installed in the main "www" or "public_html" directory but it won't work when installed in a lower directory. So unless you want this script to be the first thing someone sees when coming to your website, you are better off choosing another article directory script, for now.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 07:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

September 01, 2005

The Mightiest Voice in Marketing

Do you know what the mightiest voice in marketing is? If you want to promote your own products and services the mightiest voice in marketing is someone else's. Most people won't believe them when you tell them how great you are. You will just come off sound like a braggart. Then if someone else tells a group about how great your product or service is it has the affect of raising your credibility.

Bob Serling's recent article titled "The Mightiest Voice in Marketing" goes on to say:

"Prospects are justifiably skeptical of anything you say about yourself. After all, they've been burned, probably more times than they care to admit, by people just like you who say all kinds of glowing things about themselves. So why should they believe you?"

He suggests the workaround is to let someone else tell your prospects about you, and to get permission to use this in your marketing material. And, do this this any time you can... Here is an example of a piece Bob is using:

Bob says "...that a satisfied customer can say things about you in a powerful way that you could never say about yourself without completely alienating your audience. And that is a mighty tool to have in your marketing arsenal."

Without a shred of doubt I can honestly say that a good majority of the work I get comes from referrals. I would expect if you can get an ad, like the above, in front of your prospects, you could have tons of work. The placement of this type of your ad in your marketing material needs to have some weight and priority too. Bob says:

"It always amazes me that so many people wait until the end of their marketing piece to roll out their testimonials. If you continue to make claim after claim in your marketing without countering your prospect's natural skepticism with undeniable proof, by the time you get to the end of your marketing piece, it's usually too late. What you've really done is built a wall of skepticism so high, that no proof can overcome this."

You can read the full article here. Please feel free to agree your comments on this type of marketing here.

Posted by Steve MacLellan at 10:15 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack