10 ways to increase traffic to your website | Free or under 100 dollars:

1. Have your own blog and an RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) that originated at your website (domain) – this makes you the source of the information – you can setup an account at hostgator.com for almost nothing that will allow you to install, for instance, WordPress, or any other open source (IE: free)  CMS (content management system) for free with the push of a button.
2. Let the world know the blog is there – this is very inexpensive: if you let the robots know that you want your pages indexed (use all-in-one SEO plug-in for WordPress)  you can be found under organic search, and there are several other things to do:
3. Submit the site to the top 50 or so search engines and directories – this is different from what it used to be: a robotic submission is not good enough: this stuff is free but somebody who understands the semantic web needs to do this manually and well to get traffic and good links.
4. Get into local search, Google places..These places, Like Bing local search and Google places, are still free (although I do not think it will stay that way for long) – it is important to fill out these profiles and ‘places’ well to create the best possible anchor text links back to your mother site (your blog)  you can pay $30 to do this at UBL.org, but I recommend that you have a professional help you maximize the way the data is submitted and maintained, the is the simplest, most effective free advertising available today.
5. Use video -  in the LA area, or if it can be done remotely or with staff actors, we do professionally edited video for as little as $300, and everyone can do video with their phone.  Google mixes video results in worth the regular results, and, if your video is optimized properly (META data) it will appear on key word searches with a thumbnail (huge!)  you can embed videos that are on YouTube in the pages or posts and on the front page of your website, even use the HD version we provide to inexpensive cable TV ads.  We have done several lately where the website video serves the purpose also for television advertising.  Any sustainable solution will include some video marketing.
6. Post to groups, forums, social media sites  – these sites get lost of traffic and have page rank.  By posting carefully split original posts from your blog (see above) with links to read the rest at your blog, you can build traffic and links to your website.  You can find these related, specifically niche groups all over the web, including but not limited to linkedin.com, Yahoo.com, Google.com, Live.com, facebook.com, biznik.com meetup.com and thousands of others: by joining the groups for free you often gain instant access to their entire mailing list, sometimes in the thousands, and/or a bulletin or idea board that reaches everyone.
7. Post partial posts as above on industry related blogs and magazines, post comments: “related article here” etc. to build traffic and links.
8. Hire someone to do some ‘spreading around’ on your behalf – we can have a good article , post, or partial article or contest, survey or other offer posted on the top 100 key-word-specific related sites .
9. Issue free press releases – there is a reason why every major PR firm or large company does this.  Of course nobody cares that some stranger got promoted: fortunately, thought, news organizations are always starved for news to print: by treating your press releases as news, they fill space, and you get free advertising.  There are definitely people who still read the newspaper, and some of them are good clients.
10. Join a Business  Barter Exchange – mine will start you off with a 1000 dollar line of credit – you may not have thought about this, but even if you never do one single barter transaction, joining the group is the least expensive, most cost effective way to reach thousands of businesses instantly: you can set your own rules, and only accepts a portion of the commissions on barter, for instance, but you still get the calls and the exposure.  There are actually people who buy and sell actual property completely on barter.  My group is MYTRADEAMERICA.com which is hooked into dobarter.com the worlds largest network of inter-connected barter brokers with common currency.  If you join MYTRADEAMERICA.com be sure to enter that you were referred by me, and your initiation fee will be $95 instead of the customary $295 (I do not need to make money off of barter LOL)

It has been my experience that the articles that feed me best are the ones like this with real and free information.  Please share your tips here.

1. Never give up on anybody – before my latest ten years as an Internet advertising consultant, I spent 15 years in fleet lease and Internet sales in a large automotive dealership.  In that time, and having sold over 2000 vehicles myself  (those are just  the ones who bought!), the story and the memory that stands out as teaching me the most of any lesson in my career is this one: like Real Estate, everyone drives, buys, owns cars or trucks. Like a real estate client, an auto client is a consumer – sometimes referred to as “John. Q. Public.”   ‘John’ does not know what cars (or real estate) are worth.  The marketplace, like real estate, is full of shysters and misinformation: John Q.  is apprehensive and does not know who to trust.  He is not very sophisticated, does not understand business or technology, and, in some cases, is not all that good at life in general.  But John Q., little as he likes it, must pick somebody to trust to buy cars and real estate, and he really does not know enough to do it well without help.  Enter the messed up, love-hate relationship our clients have with us, where they must trust our advice but they really don’t; they run everything we say by somebody less qualified to come up with unexpected ways for them to continue to doubt us even after they have signed, constantly challenging the truth we have told them.  John Q. is stressed, under pressure, difficult at best to deal with: so we must be psychologists, counselors, therapists, wizards…to maintain them?  Naw!  It is very simple: in my current business, and everything I have done in the past, I maintain an opt-in newsletter called The Rothman Letter.  It was called The Rothman Letter in the auto Business, it is called that now in IT.  Regardless of who they are, how the transaction went, or if I like or even remember them; every contact, every business card, every past client, referral, prospect…everybody gets added to the opt-in email I send out now, instead of the manually generated direct mail I once used.  I learned this lesson because many years ago I sat in front of a past client where the original transaction went so bad years before, that I actually remembered, and tried to hide when I recognized the client on the lot.  The client also recognized me, but not for the reason I thought, and he approached me:  “Hey, there you are Israel, bet you didn’t expect to see me again..”  He actually had no idea how surprised, because he did not remember the deal at all: all he remembered were my quarterly newsletters, with my daughters cartoon images to make sure people would recognize me.  A side note: the client woke up and remembered half way through the deal, and bought the car anyway.
2. ABC – In the classic sales film you should all see if you have not, Glenn Gary Glenn Ross, the famous “Coffee is for Closers’ scene includes the advice: Always Be Closing - If you think this simple and obvious think again: this is the single most important factor that defines “closers”, their mind is always on the close, they never miss a chance to close: every question, objection, remark or answer is a chance to close something, if not just the simple acknowledgment of what you have said: it is really so simple: after each statement, you trial close: this makes sense, right?  You understand this, don’t you?!  We are going to do business, aren’t we?!  You  are really liking this, aren’t you?!  Every time the client acknowledges ANYTHING that you ask them to acknowledge, emotionally you are becoming closer and they are more and more likely to follow through and buy; so simple yet so underutilized.  I have been doing this so long that it comes naturally in every conversation, without my thinking about it, IE:, I am what I do.
3. Always tell the truth – this one is less obvious, but just as important: I remember the cartoon magazines where everyone had two faces, the one they are holding up, and the real one behind the scenes.  This is actually very realistic: they are telling you that they trust and believe you, but the rule is: they will verify everything you say online or with somebody else; John will say you have a deal, then take everything you have told him and shop you and your reputation, and your competition overnight before you get the money he said that he sent today.  Tell the truth, know that John will verify it, tell him knowingly about things that you want him to research: and tell him that you know he will research and check and encourage him to: this presents confidence and you are taking away the need for the client to lie to you, which makes them trust you.  This will cause more closes, more referrals, and less friction later on.
4. Do not be afraid of loosing the client: this is the hardest one to learn, and one of the most important; there is such a thing as a bad client.  Like my business (website design and internet advertising) real estate creates a scenario where you are ‘joined at the hip’ or ‘married’ to a client for long periods of time, years in my business, at least months in yours.  John will buy another car, another house someday, he is a prospect for you in the future more if he just bought than if you had never met him, statistically speaking.  But you are also evaluating John.  You do not want his business, now, later, or ever if he is dishonest, is hiding something, is disloyal, tight, greedy…these are all things that will effect the outcome of your relationship, and you, the consultant or Realtor, will be blamed for results whether John listens or not.  My advice: tell John this: tell him that you are evaluating him at the same time he evaluates you.  Start the relationship on a mutually respectful level, or don’t start it.  I am downright skittish when it comes to this: if I suspect that a client may embody any of these despised traits, I confront him or her about it; and if they do not have the right answers, I TERMINATE THE RELATIONSHIP.  THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO ARE NOT WORTH DOING BUSINESS WITH.
5. High touch – whenever a consumer makes any major decision they will have post-sale melancholy feelings: know this, plan for it, make a follow up call when they least expect it to let them know that they still matter even though you already have a down payment   Stay in touch, call often: people need friends, not just vendors.

I sincerely hope these tips serve you as well as they have me.  This is the second recession I have survived in business, and, if not for these ‘rules of engagement’, I would not be here now.  What are your seasoned salesperson ‘rules of engagement’?  Will you share?

BTW, I have offered the training manual I used to build a huge, effective sales force when we had such a sales force (we are all virtual now); people who asked me for the  top ten objections and how to handle them from my manual were very pleased – it is free for the asking: mailto:israel@socialmediasystems.com

I have been watching the trends closely for 10 years and this is what I think:  trade shows are in decline: there is less and less attendance, and more and more competition from online competitors: according to this article from Chicagobusiness.com:

“…conventions and trade shows are sustaining double-digit declines in attendance this year, squeezing local hotels, restaurants and other businesses that cater to conventioneers.

With the recession forcing them to cut costs, companies are sending fewer employees to meetings at the South Side convention center or not showing up at all. The impact is rippling through the local economy, which has lost 17,900 hospitality-related jobs in the past year, a 5.2% drop, according to the Illinois Department of Employment Security…”

According to this article about the decline of large automated exhibitions:

“Large, central automation exhibitions used to be major events a couple of decades ago, attracting hundreds of thousands of attendees from all over the world. Today exhibitions are steadily declining because there are more effective ways to disseminate information and provide opportunities for customer and supplier networking.”

“..alas, those days have gone. Attendance at all the large automation exhibitions has declined to a fraction of former times. Attendance at the annual ISA exhibition has declined to about 15,000. The vendor to end-user ratio which used to be as much as 10 to 1 is more like 2:1 today and sometimes less (my estimates). Traffic is sparse, with forlorn exhibitors spending their time reviewing each others products and bemoaning hard times. To offset distance/travel problems, ISA came up with a solution – to have smaller, “local” shows. But this hasn’t worked – and the attendance at those is sparser.”

I agree with Jim Pinto in the above article he wrote for Automation.com, there is a mega trend away from large physical trade shows.

This is saddening to me, as I love trade shows, I love the energy, and it once was a viable way to sell products and services to, for instance, real estate executives.

However, realistically, the trend will continue; and those of us who once got most of our business from these shows must rethink our marketing plans.

Fortunately for me, I have always put all the business cars through a card scanner, and added them to my triple-opt-in newsletter, the Rothman letter:

Although it is not nearly as much fun as the trade shows that no longer cash-flow (as far as I know, I have not been to one for a while);  I have been able to replace my income from the trade shows by sending out a newsletter at least quarterly and often monthly.

Opt-in-email marketing is very effective, especially when you have over 9000 prospects that you have met in person opting-in to read whatever you send, and it is much less expensive than a trade show: even if you must still attend the shows, building this list as I have from the attendees is a great way to leverage the investment and make it pay all year long.

A word of caution, though: the stuff you send out must be useful and i do not recommend touching basis more that once per month.

Now that I can reach literally thousands of people on linked-in, Activerain, and Realtown groups ( to name a few of many), I can sell right from here, but it is not nearly as much fun in my opinion.

All of business becomes more exact and competitive all the time, making it more important that ever that you have:

• Good branding
• Good Graphics
• A clear knowledge of who your prospects are and where to find them
• A follow up system to maximize results
• Opt-in (permission based) marketing is the way to go

The branded links then look like this:

Notice that I was able to also insert the site navigation on every page of the branded pages!  The Ihomefinder.com  ‘back-end’  software is very robust, and, although there is some cost depending on if it is an individual agent, or, as is in this case, a managed team of agents; and some of the links may be redundant with WordPress, WordPress is very effective for SEO if setup properly, and I highly recommend this approach for a Real Estate website.

It requires a little knowledge of CSS and XHTML, but I was able to do this for Brian in about 30 minutes, and it is included in our bundled solution, here:

http://socialmediasystems.com/tech/

They not only rank on Google searches for whatever they write about in this niche market they know so much about: they also have greatly enhanced their business plan.  You see:  Qualaco, Inc. is a management consulting company with a niche specialty which addresses a huge, lucrative marketplace: there are many companies in aerospace, oil, Government Services, Defense contractors, Food services, Transportation and many other gigantic industries who are compelled to conduct quality control audits in order to maintain certifications necessary to conduct their businesses.  While these mandatory third party quality control audits have tremendous value for other areas of Human Resources and efficiency in manufacturing processes improvement, they are absolutely mandatory in order to maintain various government certifications.

We have not only allowed out wonderful efficiency expert consultants to reach their audience in a new way, without the usual very expensive process of calling on Government agencies and large corporations directly and breaking down doors so to speak.  We have also installed special plug ins into the WordPress blog we created for them, which allow them to set any number of special permissions providing access to client specific pages, where internal auditing and employee moral monitoring, and anonymous tips information can me collected and monitored all year long; also with special access to the management of clients to have constant information fed to them, and time and date stamped records to be maintained as a permanent record,  thereby turning a yearly service into an ongoing one, without almost no internal cost.  This has enhanced their ability to provide a value to their clients, and to operate profitably with minimum human man hours, their chief limiting factor because their knowledge and what they do is so very specialized that they cannot duplicate themselves.

What we have done putting them on top of Google was easy in this very specialized market, and it will pay off immensely: but it is also practical, and most people do not realize the many functions an automated website can perform including but not limited to collecting anonymous information, monitoring employee moral, creating private networks with limited access pages that can be used for data collection and dissemination, appointment setting, project management, opt-in pod-casting and the list goes on!

PS: They also already rank for the more Generic search:  ISO quality experts and many other combination searches

In Two and a half hours I have done all three of these sites from scratch using this theme, which also allows for different numbers of columns, different widget areas, and any other modification you like, with check boxes that activate built-in style sheet and a blank CSS that automatically overrides the others:

You can change sizes, numbers, and colors of sidebars, widgets, components with the checking of a box, wonderful time saver.

Here is another:  http://washingtonrealestateresources.com I just installed this for a client of several years to update his site and plugins.

This one, Dr. Hesu Whitten, clinical Kinesiologist and Chiropractor in Santa Barbara, CA:

Was completely re-designed by the good doctor himself, using the robust theme options.

Update: 12-24-2009, just upgraded another client to this theme:

My Los Angles Hardwood Flooring Contractor: http://kalleycontractors.com/

In 2010, when you consider SEO, SEM, SMO: don’t be stupid: the rules have changed again:

Beware outdated techniques and services: any methodology that is designed to bring an unworthy site up on the first page organic search results of Google and others, at best, will not work for long; at worst, these outdated, yet still widely offered services will get your website penalized, or even banned. Internet services and techniques, and the professors and self-proclaimed experts on the specific topics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) and Search Engine Marketing (SEM); and now Social Media Optimization (SMO) have always been purveyors and protectors of rapidly outdated skills sets: which is happening now at a much faster rate as the technology moves further into a parabolic curve of advancement.

Fortunatley, a new age is upon us: what we called an “I am a Realtor too!” website in 2001 (when most of our clients were Realtors, and we were able to create rankings for such sites by giving away free ads) simply cannot be ranked for any sustainable period of time if at all now: although many not-so-up-to-date sources of misinformation will tell you otherwise for long enough to get your money. Our free ads sites worked after until 2003, when the search engines decided that any number of links originating from one URL (website address) would be treated as only one link, and subsequently that a database address would be treated exactly the same as a unique domain. Link-farms (web-rings, etc) evolved and adapted with  social-bookmarking (Digg.com, Stumbleupon.com, Reddit.com) and user-generated, user-filtered content to compensate for subsequent changes to the algorithms determining that such contextual links needed to be from topic-specific authority sites to do any good, and now, as is always the case eventually, those sites have lost their relevancy because they became spam factories just as you started to learn about how well they worked for a little while. When Google decided that dynamic content was better that static content, and some rocket scientist decided that Blog sounded better than Weblog, or Newsgroup ( as we they were called  in the 80′s), the blogosphere erupted, and social networking sites  really came into their own.  Now we all have too many profiles that we never update or use, too many ‘free blogs’ to keep up with, and ‘Splogs’ (spam blogs designed to harvest spam and feed it to the search engines) don’t work anymore either for any length of time, because people like me (and you , I hope) report them to Google and get them banned.

When my second-round investors took over my free-ads company (it was Adsforfree.com, you probably remember: it had more advertisers than Yahoo classifieds at one time), they wanted to hide what we were doing, to try to trademark or patent something: they thought we had a ‘secret sauce’.  I tried to explain to them that what we do is a race: that protecting our methodology was like storing milk on a shelf at room temperature: worthless; but they would not listen and they put us out of business very quickly and spent over $600,000.00 of their own money doing it (Coracleinc.com) ouch!

So if you are still reading and wondering where this is all leading, here are some tips: the new way to do this, every time, on purpose, without breaking the search engines’ rules: from the guy who still, to this day, always ranks for whatever searches he desires , even when the competition has created literally hundreds of millions of documents to compete: (real life examples of this strategy follow below)

• Your site must have dynamic content: it must grow at least rate that the Internet and Google’s cache are growing
• You must use a CMS (content management system) to manage your website: you cannot maintain the dynamic, growing site required to meet Google’s criteria by manually editing pages, and You must be able to instantly change every page of you growing site when things change
• You must make a contribution: you can no longer manufacture spam to get rankings, you need to be a source of real information, the kind your target audience wants to read, see, watch to reach them, because Google can tell the difference, and so can we
• You must be the source of a constantly refreshed feed of topic specific, unique in all the world, human edited data: REAL CONTENT: for example this article, video, audio: all can be optimized now with META data that makes it searchable by Key Word Search: this is called RSS (Really Simple Syndication)
• You must have video on your website: this trend will continue: the website of the future will be navigated with ‘point and watch until you want to point again’, and not ‘point-and-click’ as before.

And now the good news: all of this change creating wonderful opportunities for you to be heard, by making a real and valuable contribution, no matter who you are:

Examples of SMO (Social Media Optimization

Enter  California Truckers and Contractors Insurance Resource:

While he really wants to rank for is  ‘california commercial auto insurance’ Google search: where he is competing with Huge insurance companies and gigantic government sites: Kevin Walheim has an ace in the hole: like ‘Jack’, he has magic beans: you see Kevin is actually an expert on the topic; instead of maintaining his ‘I am an insurance agent too’ site that every insurance guy has and never gets any business from: he has in his career targeted specifically companies that have 250 employees or more that have fleets of vehicles that need to be insured in California.   This has not just made Kevin THE  authority on California Insurance requirements for commercial fleets of vehicles, he will eventually rank for anything he writes about, including the above search and California Insurance requirements for truckers: which he already ranks for, and which targets his market exactly

Example 2:

Our most powerful offering in the beginning, and the least expensive is our $299 option, where we are able to absolutely guarantee almost overnight rankings because of the existing power of a multi-user online property that already exists: in this case, it is our 3net  superblog at http://socialmediasystems.com/blog/, Leon Russo has a sub-blog: http://socialmediasystems.com/leonspeaks/, although Leon only posted to the blog one time in August, that one post to this day ranks for the title line one on Google:

Greed and Excessive Executive Compensation Google Search

If he would post more, he would rank for anything on-topic that he would write about!

Examples Three and Four:  Spermcenter.com, Moviepals.org

Drupal, and/or Ruby-on-Rails

Every affinity group represents a niche target marketplace, where a custom application like these may become more valuable than the underlying client business!  Our approach is to plan the marketing, lead capture, community features, and any custom modules as a bundle before we do anything, so that it all goes together!

The race is on right now to see who will do this for every niche market on the planet!  END

About the author:
Israel Rothman is a well known author and speaker on these topics, an early pioneer in what has come to be called ‘Social Media Marketing’.

Everything you need to know to do what we do for our clients is here on our blog, for free.  However, when you reallize how deep this all goes to be done well in the first place, and maintained when things change, you may want to just pay us instead!

In a recent string at Realtown, a Realtor asked for feedback on Compass Internet Systems (an SEO spin-off from the failed Coracle after the takeover from the investors).

I am sharing the meat of my reply here because it is timely and relevant:

Right on Gwen, and Win: the goal of an SEO firm, and many old-fashioned web-design firms, is to create a dependent, when in reality, a successful effort works the SEO vendor out of a job immediately. That is the reason for the poor service: clients do not last, representatives burn out.

A far better solution (and much less expensive, BTW) is to automate and plan your web presence in such a way that you become independent of needing any consultant.

This can be done for less that $500, and if the CMS (content management system) is properly setup, the SEO effect is automatic,, and ongoing without further expense, except for hosting.

When the second round investors destroyed the company that Compass is actually a spin-off of, it was because they wanted to hide what we were doing, to somehow guard a trade secret, to trademark something.

I would liken this to protecting milk on the shelf at room temperature.

Internet marketing, and marketing in general, is not about megalomaniacs who want to find a way to make a un-Godly amount of money: it is not about protecting anything proprietary: because like milk at room temperature, any advantage is temporary on the Internet, if it is not of real value.

The basic concept of SEO is to help an undeserving website somehow excel over a more deserving one due to a technology gap. A much less expensive, more sustainable solution is to actually create a genuine online resource that ranks on Google because it should, because of it’s value: and we are heading quickly towards a time when nothing else will work, due to advancement in Google’s algorithms, and the gradual standardization of coding standards.

While it is often a much less popular approach amongst the greediest and laziest among you ( the ones that, for the most part, will not be here next year), our advice (mine) has always been much more old fashioned, in a way, although I actually invented much of what SEO vendors sell: we recommend designing an online resource of some kind, that targets a niche market (for a Realtor this can be a community blog, an affinity group niche informational site, a school guide…)

Such a resource in owned by you, travels with you from broker and firm to wherever your career takes you, and even has the potential to out value the underlying core business if you are successful.

When you add-in that it is also the most effective SEO model, and the most cost effective (as Win pointed out) method of marketing Real Estate, and establishing your brand or proper name as the source (what we call an ‘authority source’), the decision to use such an approach is a no-brainier, whether you do it by trusting a reliable vendor with a good reputation and excellent rankings of their own, or by learning to do it all yourself, which is free and doable, but, in the long run, even more expensive than outdated SEO services.

Think about how you found your vendor, or, did they find you?

I am Israel Rothman: Google me, or Google ‘social media website design’ or ‘Internet advertising consultant’ or ‘Realtor SEM’ or ‘Realtor SMO’

My clients call me on the phone and have already sold themselves: all I have to do is not screw it up.

I got three foreign clients last month, one in London, one in Australia, and one in Japan. Isn’t that they way you want your Real Estate business to work, as your own lead generator?

Check out Spermcenter.com (no it is legitimate, not that at all) as an example of an enterprise-level Drupal site launched yesterday, with custom search functions and real value. I will let you guess what the client does, and why this approach was used

I am Israel Rothman; no secrets: Google me, then call me.

As we did years ago  (you will notice that everything we said several years ago has come out to be true, and much of it still applies) we will sum it all up by reviewing all the pieces to a successful social media marketing (online marketing)  campaign: many things have changed in the last 6 years, and some have not: one thing that never changes is the need for competitive attention to detail, because one weak link breaks the chain: let us review: 

1. Just say it: lesson number one is to ‘just say it’; don’t beat around the bush; don’t mitigate your risk; don’t spare anyone’s feelings; just give us the straight ‘poop’, and we will reward you by wanting to see what you will say next.
2. Group Building – Opt-in  Build a following and increase lead capture using Social Media.
3. Use Social Media for local Farming
4. Use Video for Lead Capture
5. Become an authority – Reputation Management
6. Online Branding: image matters for Internet Advertising
7. Get numbers working for you on Social Networks
8. Recent Case study : The execution of a complete and integrated Social Media Marketing Campaign
9. Niche Marketing and Picking a Battle
10. Attention to detail, the final competitive edge!

Now the real guts of it all come together; any one of these things done right will help: but just as the best plans of a Real Estate transaction do not result in a sale or a commission unless every little nit picky detail of the transaction has been ‘put to bed’; you will not be as succesful as you could be, and you may not survive periods like the last two years, unless you get it all right!  Join the discusssion and debate with your comments on this whole series or any individual post in our group at Realtown.com:

Social Media Marketing   and or at our huge Activerain group: http://activerain.com/groups/WEB20 and/or below, by adding your comments (yes they are moderated, sorry spammers!) below!

According to this articel from http://www.agent-central.com/california-insurance-agents.htm:

• There are nearly 3 (2.9) Insurance agents for every 1000 residents in California (2005)
• There are over 36,135,000 residents!
• There are over 50,000 agents that broker Insurance

Often I ask new potential clients “who is your target customer”.  Since I am exclusive to my clients, the answer matters, because I do not want to exclusively represent a failure!

Often the answer is very broad: “Everyone who needs insurance”  LOL!

Let’s get real here, shall we?  A new recruit who wants to be all things to all people is not wanted by anyone.

In order to be succesful in any industry one muct pick a target market, and in one as competitive as Insurance or Real Estate (some say there are over 2.5 million active real estate agents in the US), one MUST specialize, and this applies to online marketing too, since searches for the broadest searches: “Insurance California”, or “Insurance LA California”, for instance, are almost impossible without a huge budget.

Here is an example of fighting what we like to call “a battle you can win” in this competitive industry:

See California Contactor Commercial Auto Insurance Blog:

“This knowledge resource is my gift to California Contractors: I am a commercial auto insurance specialist who helps contractors properly insure their service trucks and vans. I make sure they get the coverage they need for their industry at a much better price” reads Kevin’s tagline.

Kevin has been a very succesful Allstate Insurance broker in California in the LA area for many years.  This is because he has had the forsight to become an expert on one specific kind of customer that he can offer real benefits an cost savings to: building contractors and Real Estate brokers in Calfornia.

Kevin’s niche market  is lucrative for hom, because many contractors and Realtors in california have large fleets of company cars and trucks, which are driven by employees.   Many do not realize the differences in coverage and cost savings between actual commercial auto insurance and the existing policies they have, so Kevin can save them money.

Thus, Kevin can deal  always with a good client, someone who needs him, and someone he is qualified to service.

This is what I call good strategy!

“

• 31% of American adults—63 million people—say they know someone who has used a dating website.
• 26% of American adults—53 million people—say they know someone who has gone on a date with a person they met through a dating site.
• 15% of American adults—30 million people—say they know someone who has been in a long-term relationship or married someone he or she met online.

The table below lists the various dating-related activities included in our survey:

Since then, and in 2008 and the future, the growth has continued to explode.   My own 28 year old son met his wife online and was married within a few months after a breakup with another gal.

Most of us know somebody who met their spouse or significant other online.

If you are like me, a person who was married for over 28 years trying to get back into the game, traditional dating is not even palatable:  I am not good at it, the bars and nightclubs seem like meat-markets where only the most adept game players can score.  I can get dates with eligible women in droves online ( I am on Hotornot, Match, Horney Matches, Plenty of Fish, and a few others), but the dates do not go well.  I am considered young looking for my age, buff, atttractive, sexy…But ai m not succesful atthis game.

It never ceases to amaze me how many of the poeple who are succesful at dating are basically worthless dates: middle aged men who have no intention fo hooking up with anyone, just looking for conquests and sex.

On the other hand, I am safe (have not been with anybody else in over 29 years, no diseases), patient, respectful, not in any hurry, self sufficient…and I wil hook up and finally get dating eventually, but I am far from good at it.

An underlying trend is the fact that people’s families are all mixed up: according to divorcerate.org:

“The divorce rate in America for first marriage, vs second or third marriage
50% percent of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce, according to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri.”

According to enrichment journal on the divorce rate in America:
The divorce rate in America for first marriage is 41%
The divorce rate in America for second marriage is 60%
The divorce rate in America for third marriage is 73″

Notice that the likelihood of divorce increases for the second and third marriage; it makes one wonder whether it is the people involved who are ill suited for marriage, or if marriage simply does not succeed when failure is an option.

One thing is for sure online dating is clearly one solution that seems to be a growing trend in an increasingly mobile, less family oriented society.  It is also clear that people like me could do well to hone our skills when it comes to hooking up with unknown women.

THIS ARTICLE ALREADY RANKS FOR ONLINE DATING TRENDS AND BABY BOOMER DATING TRENDS ON GOOGLE!

Now I must get it to rank for online dating, a tall order, but totally doable with sufficient time and budget.

“

“New regional reports highlight variation in health care affordability, access, and quality

California’s sprawling size and the diversity of its regional health care systems result in care that is organized, delivered, and financed differently throughout the state.

As part of its continuing effort to explore this variation, the California HealthCare Foundation (CHCF) today published six regional market reports, providing a first-time, in-depth analysis of six distinct California health care economies. The goal is to better understand the market dynamics for each region studied (the San Francisco Bay Area, Sacramento, Fresno, Los Angeles, Riverside/San Bernardino, and San Diego). Topics include the supply and organization of hospitals, physicians, and other providers; and the accessibility of services for low-income residents — of particular importance during the economic downturn…”

The report goes on:

“San Francisco Bay Area

• The health care safety net in the Bay Area is relatively strong but faces growing challenges from the economic downturn. Safety-net providers see increasing demand for services, yet some face eroding funding support.
• Pressured by low reimbursement and recruitment difficulties, Bay Area physicians are increasingly finding independent practice untenable and are moving into medical groups or affiliating with hospital systems.

Sacramento

• Sacramento is dominated by powerful hospital systems with significant bargaining leverage over health plans. While they compete vigorously, the degree to which they also cooperate — in areas such as community benefits and research funding — contrasts sharply with many other communities. Most of Sacramento’s physicians practice in large groups that are exclusively aligned with one of the hospital systems.
• Sacramento’s stable delivery system for insured residents is in stark contrast to its weak and fragmented health care safety net. Sacramento County clinics and private nonprofit clinics are relatively small and financially fragile. Most area clinics have gone without direct federal funding because they lack federally qualified status. There is no designated county hospital.

Fresno

• Greater Fresno’s population has grown rapidly in the past decade. Area residents have lower income, education, and health insurance levels, and worse health status than average for California. The economic downturn is intensifying an already bleak situation.
• Fresno’s physician workforce is aging and there aren’t enough physicians to meet demand. Access to care for the low-income population is hampered by the shortages of health care professionals — nurses and dentists are also in short supply.
• HMOs have a limited and shrinking market presence. As in many other parts of California, PPO enrollment is growing.

Los Angeles

• Among the Los Angeles market’s hospitals, the gap is growing between the financially advantaged “haves” and the disadvantaged “have-nots.” The “haves” serve a predominantly affluent and insured population and enjoy leverage with health plans, while the “have-nots” serve largely Medi-Cal and uninsured patients. Some hospitals are operating in the red and their continued viability is uncertain.
• The Los Angeles health care safety net is well developed and relatively stable. The county operates three acute-care hospitals and many more health centers and clinics. The network of 42 independent community health centers plays a key role in providing care to lower-income residents.

Riverside/San Bernardino

• The Riverside/San Bernardino region encompasses a vast geographic area, creating significant health care access challenges for residents. Most of the region’s hospitals are concentrated near the major population centers. Hospitals in Riverside and San Bernardino are viewed as competitive, but some collaborate in an effort to keep patients from seeking their care in neighboring Los Angeles, Orange, and San Diego Counties.
• The region’s health care safety net is anchored by two county hospitals. Both counties maintain their own hospitals, which are major tertiary care centers as well as mainstays for the safety net, but differ in the way outpatient care is provided. In Riverside, the county is the key provider of primary care for low-income residents, but in San Bernardino primary care is mostly delivered by private organizations.

San Diego

• San Diego’s market is dominated by four large hospital systems. The area’s hospitals are moving to tighten affiliations with physicians — a move that strengthens already significant negotiating leverage with health plans. Historically, capitation — or fixed per-patient, per-month payments — has been the dominant payment method in San Diego, but some hospital systems have pushed to shift from capitation to fee-for-service payment.
• San Diego’s safety net is fragmented, and the county is widely perceived as having a weak commitment to health care for the low-income and uninsured. San Diego County operates the County Medical Services Program as part of its state-mandated responsibilities to provide indigent care, but restrictive eligibility requirements have held down enrollment. “

If you are dogmatically doing business with the same insurer without getting competitive quotes to make sure you are paying the right premiums for you current residency, you are making a mistake!

Get a secone opinion, get a free california health insurance quote: keep them honest

When Dave Pomah contacted me about out of the blue from London inquiring about our Reputation Management services I had no idea about the powerful story he had to tell: I just explained what we do, who we are, and what we charge for the service.  I gave him examples of what we had dome for the whistle blower for Enron when the people she blew the whistle on ganged up on her, and before the end of the day Dave was my new client.  The next day (this was just a couple of days ago) I read his questionnaire; what  compelling cause!

Dave and Jason Toal have a story to tell: help them fight back against racial harassment on a scale not imagined:

“I started as a full time professional firefighter in April 1990 and during that time up to now – I have experienced severe bullying,harassment and racism on the front line to the point that I had to take out a grievance on my employers in January 2005. I followed this up by writing a paper a few months later in May 2005 as follows:
http://fitting-in.com/c/pamah.htm

This has put me in the position of a whistle blower and have experienced pact mentality since. I had been offered temporary promotion but the pact mentality continues. My colleague – Jason Toal – went to work with the same firefighters that I had worked with and this is what has happened as follows:

In this article about a related case in the Marylebone Express’s online edition, a Firefighter won a case after :

“A black fireman had his helmet filled with urine and eggs and tomatoes put in his boots during a campaign of racist bullying at three fire stations including Paddington, a tribunal has heard.”

“I found this belittling and humiliating. I still had to borrow items from other firefighters – I felt let down and this was my opportunity to start afresh,” he said.

After explaining why he had no uniform, Mr Toal said he was verbally abused by his crew manager.

“He called me a ‘f****** lying c***’. He made it clear that he was aware of the claim I had previously brought against the brigade for race discrimination,” he said.

The pattern of oppression and abuse continues, resulting in this tragic event:

“Fireman who quit service with girlfriend in sexism row shoots her and then himself in front of his mother”

TO THE READER: A CALL TO ACTION:

It is essential that these stories are told, and made into a permanent record here, to protect future victoms from this pattern of racial abuse: please link-to, and reprint this article to further this cause,and to make this a permanent Internet record for victims to use to fight back with.

To learn more about what happened and what you can do to help, visit and participate at http://davepamah.org, share you similar stories, comment on this one, let your voice be heard and join the fight here:

http://davepamah.org

You can contact me, Dave Pamah, here: fightback@davepamah.org

Join the discussion for free here:

http://davepamah.org/wp-login.php

Of course, by the time you read this, Dave Pomah’s reputation will already be managed on Google, permanently, and he will have great leverage for the mediation that takes place Monday!

Israel Rothman, Social Media Marketing Agency Guru

Viral Video Production and Online Promotion

Viral Video Production, Distribution, and Marketiing can be done on a ridiculously low budget! If you accidentally get on top of digg, Youtube, Netscape or the like, you will get buried in hits!  Our video production partner, Moviepals Entertainment, utilizes collaborative film-making to create HD and web ready versions of custom videos for you on a tiny budget.  We have collaborated on very low budget projects that have been seen millions of times!  We can then distribute them online, on your website, on video sharing sites, on Youtube, Google Video, local TV: wherever your target customers can be found.

You get a Professional HD Video of either an event or a spokesperson Pitch visitors instantly in person at your website	Good for: Spicing up a text only website by adding professional video to your online look
Details and Specifications Up to 2 hours Pre-production Up to 2 hours Shooting Time (in our LA Studio) Up to 2 hours Post-production Actors Provided – You or one our Staff Actors Scene Locations Provided – Office Location, Wall Backdrop $349 – one time fee payable in advance

Professionally Shot HD Video of an event, spokesperson, interview, or created from scratch Advanced Branding Options and Improved Visuals More Studio time Distributed Online to Multiple Video Sharing Sites	Good for: Making a great first impression to your website visitors. Spicing up a text only website by adding professional video to your online look.
Details and Specifications Up to 5 hours Pre-production time Up to 5 hours Shooting Time (In our LA studio or on location within 50 miles) Up to 5 hours Post-production Actors Provided – You or up to 2 of our Staff Actors Scenes Locations Provided – Green Screen, Office Location, or Wall Backdrop or location that you provide. $889 – Payable ½ in advance, ½ upon completion and delivery

A creative video with actors, sets and a theme: Professionally Shot HD Video of a creative commercial or viral video, interview, or mini movie Even More Branding Options and Improved Visuals More Actors, More Locations, More Studio time Our creative staff will help improve your ideas by assisting int he creative process Distributed Online to Video Sharing Sites Put your video in our creative portfolio exposing it to additional thousands of viewers.	Good for: Creating a creative video designed to grow virally online and send your website permanent traffic. Impress your website audience with your creativity and generate ‘wow’ factor Enhance your brand image and social media marketing campaign
Details and Specifications Up to 10 hours pre-production Up to 10 hours Shooting Time (In our LA studio or on location within 50 miles) Up to 10 hours post-production ( video editing, graphics) Actors Provided – You or up to 2 of our Staff Actors and 1 casted actor(ess) Scene Locations Provided – Green Screen, Office Location, Wall Backdrop, Ocean Condo, Library, Conference Room, Pool, or location you provide.. $1749 – Payable ½ in advance, ½ upon completion and delivery

Professionally Shot HD Video of a series (at least 3 separate episodes) of a creative commercial or viral video, interview, or mini movie Even More Branding Options and Improved Visuals More Actors, More Locations, More Studio time Distributed Online to Video Sharing Sites Our creative staff will help hone your creativity with an idea / brainstorming session. Distributed Online to Video Sharing Sites Put your video in our creative portfolio exposing it to additional thousands of viewers. User generated or collaborative call to action – can use members of our collaborative filmmaking team.	Good for: Building an audience and subscriber base around your brand and marketing message. Attracting ongoing permanent traffic to your website. Launching a new idea / product / or service. Television Commercial Advertising Spots. Community Building projects, where your fans and audience can contribute to your marketing / advertising (user generated content collection).
Details and Specifications Up to 25 hours post-production Up to 25 hours Shooting Time (in our Studio or on location) Up to 25 hours pre-production Actors Provided – You or up to 2 of our Staff Actors and 2 casted actor(ess) Scene Locations Provided – Green Screen, Office Location, Wall Backdrop, Ocean Condo, Library, Conference Room, Pool, or location you provide. Choice of 2 collaborative talent sources from our screenwrtiting meetup, actors, audio and post productions (basically we’ll use more team members to improve the quality of the results, so for example we could bring on an outside screenwriter to give their creative input.) $3920 – – Payable ½ in advance, ½ upon completion and delivery

MoviePals video production services.

There are more people who watch videos online than there are people who search Google, and all of the other search engines combined!  According to the Ad Age Web Video Report in 2008, 12 billion videos are watched per month, while only 10.5 billion searches are conducted!

Video enables your visitors to get your message quickly and powerfully without making them read text or scroll.  People are inspired by what they experience; see, hear, read, and feel. People like and are affected by video: with video you can engage more of your audience’s senses. They will have the opportunity to hear, see, and feel your message.  A video never has a bad day, never gets one day older, and  can pitch your prospects while you sleep at night

Want more web traffic? By creating a video and making it available online, you can share your message with a broader audience. Your video will show up in search results with a thumbnail image, increasing click-through rates.  You can get your message to new potential customers – Our viral videos are designed to spread and reach vast audiences by entertaining, inspiring or awing your audience. Design your video to inspire the customers you want!  We can even even create a whole movie or series to target a specific demographic audience, with content that may or may not have anything to do with product or service to be sold, as long as it reaches the intended audience.

Don’t let your website get left behind! Put a video on your site today and announce it to the world! Bring traffic to your site and lay the foundation for ongoing web traffic for months and even years to come. Video is like blogging was 5 years ago: soon there will be even more video all over the web, and websites without video will look as old and boring as WEB 1.0 websites look to all of us now.

MoviePals Marketing has created and distributed online videos that have received millions of views and have received international attention from both the mainstream and independent media, and done so on tiny budgets, never before possible.  Our collaborative revenue sharing agreement lets the artists concentrate on what they are good at, and share in the revenues resulting from successful campaigns.

Get a custom viral video for your website or TV campaign for a one-time low fee.

What can my video be about?

Anything you want. We can also help you come up with an original video concept: just ask!

Why should I choose MoviePals to create my web video?

Think maximum creativity, with minimal cost:  MoviePals Open Cinema doesn’t just make advertisements; we create and distribute original videos including full length films by using the power of mass collaboration. We are not middle men. MoviePals has screenwriters, actors, and artists from all over the world working together with our full time staff ready to make your dream a reality for a fraction of the cost you would have guessed.

With MoviePals, most of your money goes directly to the artists involved. We have a studio in LA and pro HD equipment, keep our expenses at an absolute minimum, shoot with small crews, and use a fast paced results oriented filmmaking style that enables us to produce innovative exciting videos that have received international press and millions of views on a low budget quickly.

What specific video sharing sites do you distribute to?

This list changes from time to time to stay current, but we distribute to at least: YouTube, DailyMotion, Yahoo, Metacafe, Revver, Blip.tv, Veoh, Viddler, Break, and Stupid Videos

We have large, powerful web properties that enable us to gain instant placement and traffic: and we have a base of readers and subscribers to supply instant feedback.

What can I use my video for?

Anything you want including: websites presentations, YouTube viral advertising, television commercials, launch a new product or service, drive more traffic to your website, entertain your customers and reduce bounce rate, the list goes on…

How do MoviePals videos compare to videos from Videographers?

Videographers come in all shapes and sizes. From our market research they generally charge by the hour and usually cost more than MoviePals. Videographers may have limited creative capabilities and many are more like event camera operators (doing weddings, live events, etc). They may not be able to effectively cast actors, write scripts, advise on the creative direction of the project or do graphic design.  MoviePals is able to do all this and still be one of the least expensive video production services on the market.  We achieve this by cutting out the distribution ‘middle men’ and working directly with creators, keeping our expenses down, and using a fast paced results oriented filmmaking style that enables us to produce innovative exciting videos that have received international press and millions of views on a low budget. 

How do MoviePals videos compare to videos from top Ad Agencies ?

At the top end you have creative think tanks that design, brand and launch large advertising campaigns that include viral videos. To be completely honest a lot of these videos are totally awesome, but are so over priced they are not a good value for many customers. Top ad agencies use a large staff, expensive buildings, and a large team to design a campaign or creative idea. All of the actual work involved in the video production is hired out and is usually filmed with a Hollywood Model style of filmmaking and involves hiring a large staff of people at full guild prices (Director, Assistant Direct 1, Costume 1, Makeup 2). You can expect to pay $30,000 or more for a single video and even so there is no guarantee it will work.

Due to their large overhead, traditional hiring and filmmaking model, everything a top ad agency does for you, including anything they do extra including social media marketing or online distribution costs.  MoviePals could literally create a feature length movie or an entire year of episodes on what a single video from a top Ad Agency may cost.  If you are already using a high priced Ad Agency and you’re happy with them, why not give us a small portion of the budget you’re paying them and get some new creative ideas to work with!

How do MoviePals videos compare to videos from low and medium priced Ad Agencies?

Low priced at agencies are more reasonable and may come closer to our prices, but their quality is all over the map. We’ve seen lots of example of outdated ugly websites, old stock video and graphics with higher price tags. With MoviePals you’re actually getting a cutting edge video for the price of a mediocre one. MoviePals can afford to produce high quality videos on a null budget by keeping our expenses low and using an innovating results oriented filmmaking style that involves shooting with small crews and working directly with the talent (no middlemen).  We do the work ourselves, and we are very good at it.  Try us out you won’t be disappointed.

How do MoviePals videos compare to videos from local television stations:

Some of the worst advertising videos we’ve ever seen were produced by local television stations. I’m sure you’ve all seen car dealership ads with a guy in a cowboy hat screaming at the camera and cheesy 80s graphics layovers, or worse restaurant ads with maladjusted lighting and non matching background music. Television stations typically shoot on location in this price range and send out a single camera operator. MoviePals gives you a whole lot more. 

How do MoviePals videos compare to videos from independent filmmakers?

Usually there is a big disconnect between the artistic world of independent filmmakers and the commercial world of advertising. Most independent filmmakers are involved in their own creative endeavors and do not cross into the commercial advertising world. On the flip side of that, many of the video and advertising execs do not cross in the creative artistic filmmaking world. MoviePals creates and distributes its own original creative films and series. We love what we do and have a passion for storytelling from both the artistic and commercial side of it. With MoviePals you actually get an independent filmmaker and creative team of passionate artists for the price of a videographer. 

Why should I trust you with my brand?

You’ll have approval over the final script and product. At these prices you can’t really go wrong. Besides it’s for a viral video for the internet. You can have lots of these and try different things to see which one resonates best with your target audience.

Example Portfolio Pieces (these are not packages, they are provided to give more examples of our work for creative purposes and to illustrate what we’re capable of):

• Sizzle Reel – Combination of the projects we’ve done and an intro to our packages
• Jathia’s Wager – Original Open Source Sci-Fi Short Movie
• Your Computer is Killing You – Ongoing series on the side effects of our techy lifestyles

This is the year of social media – I can make my own video (s), find my own talent…

You can, but teams create quality content. You could build your own team, but at this price point unless you’re already a talented filmmaker, you’ll probably spend more time and money to produce a sub standard product. We LOVE working with creative people. Let us do the work for you.

What equipment and software do you use?

It depends on the job and we can use more or less equipment depending on your needs. Included in our package prices are Sony HDV Prosumer video Cameras, Pro Wireless and Boom Microphones, Filters, Softboxes, Green Screen. Software programs we use include: Adobe Photoshop, Premiere Pro, and After Effects.

What stock videos do you have available?

We have some stock video and photography archives which can be used with your packages without additional fees. When something very specific is required we can work with you to locate the perfect stock video on one of the large digital archives online including istockphoto and gettyimages.

What is the buying process?

• Step 1. Send an inquiry to info@socialmediasystems.com
• Step 2. We will send a link to an online form you can fill out in a few minutes.
• Step 3. We’ll confirm your purchase, answer any questions, setup a time frame for completion and send you an invoice and contract.

What is MoviePals’ Company History?

MoviePals began in 2006 as solomonrothman.com, a personal site for filmmaking projects. In 2008, it evolved into MoviePals.org, a collaborative filmmaking social media site. MoviePals has released original films that have been viewed millions of times and has received international press coverage. Links to articles, books, videos and other media which mentions MoviePals or Solomon Rothman can be found on http://www.moviepals.org/press .  MoviePals recently launched a marketing section devoted to offering quality video production services directly to the public at a fraction of the normal market price.

Have a question not answered here?

info@socialmediasystems.com

“Video content properly distributed and optimized can be a very effective way of building website traffic from video distribution and syndication sites like Youtube, and it will increase lead capture/sales for any website or business.”

Israel Rothman  Cell: 805-827-2450 Call me anytime!

Socially Conscious T-shirts – New Jacobs Clothing Line from Marc Jacobs Brother Paul

Paul Jacobs, Marc Jacobs younger brother, hopes to capitalize on the name: digg this if you like, here:  http://digg.com/arts_culture/Socially_Consciouse_T_shirts_New_Jacobs_Clothing_Line

MARC JACOBS YOUNGER BROTHER PAUL CARRIES on the LEGACY and LAUNCHES CANY CLOTHING, a SOCIALLY CONSCIOUS LINE of T-SHIRTS

Ventura, CA- June 12, 2009. Paul Jacobs of CANY Clothing is announcing the launch of their online store at http://canyclothing.com/. CANY is inspired by the belief that everyone has a voice and the right to be heard, regardless of age,sex,race, religion or sexual preference.

Paul Jacobs is the youngest of the three Jacobs children. At an early age, Paul and his sister were put into foster care when their single mother fell ill and was no longer able to take care of them. His oldest sibling Marc went to live with his Grandmother, who was unable to care for all three children at the time. Marc would eventually go on to become a fashion icon while Paul and his sister would finish out their childhood with an amazing family in foster care. Paul points to his diverse upbringing as the key factor in developing CANY and his belief that from coast to coast we are one country united not divided.

“Please join us on our journey to spread our message of peace, kindness, equality and love to all who will listen.”

Paul Jacobs – Marc Jacobs’ Younger Brother

http://canyclothing.com

Guest Star Video

An extremely innexpensive way to add a professionaly formatted video to your website:
• You get a Professional  HD Video of either an event or a spokesperson
• Spice up a text only website and/or add professional video to your online look
• You get up-to 2 hours studio time (In our LA studio )
• Includes up to 2 hours of pre and post production work (video editing, script writing, etc.)

Cost: $299 – one-time fee payable in advance

Specs:

You can be the actor, or we will ouse one of our Actors
Office Location or wall backdrop
*Additional actors, scene locations, and other services, special effects and features can be added-on, see add-ons

Cinematographer Video

A better way to add video to your website:
• Professionally Shot HD Video of an event, spokesperson, interview, or created from scratch
• Advanced Branding Options and Improved Visuals
• More Studio time
• Distributed Online to Multiple Video Sharing Sites
Good for:
• Making a great first impression to your website visitors
• Spicing up a text only website
• Adding professionalism to your online look
Details & Specifications:
• Up to 5 hours studio time (In our LA studio or on location within 50 miles)
• Up to 5 hours of pre and post production work (video editing, script writing etc)
• $689 – Payable ½ in advance, ½ upon completion and delivery

Actors Provided – You or up to 2 of our Staff Actors
Scenes Locations Provided – Green Screen, Office Location, or Wall Backdrop or location that you provide.

Avant-Garde Director Video

A creative video with actors, sets and a theme:
• Professionally Shot HD Video of a creative commercial or viral video, interview, or mini movie
• Even More Branding Options and Improved Visuals
• More Actors, More Locations, More Studio time
• Our creative staff will help improve your ideas by assisting int he creative process
• Distributed Online to Video Sharing Sites
• Put your video in our creative portfolio exposing it to additional thousands of viewers.

Good for:
• Creating a creative video designed to grow virally online and send your website permanent traffic.
• Impress your website audience with your creativity and generate ‘wow’ factor
• Enhance your brand image and social media marketing campaign
Details and Specifications
• Up to 10 hours Shooting Time (in our Studio or on location)
• Up to 10 hours Pre and Post Production ( video editing, graphics, screenwriting)
Actors Provided – You or up to 2 of our Staff Actors and 1 casted actor(ess)
Scene Locations Provided – Green Screen, Office Location, Wall Backdrop, Ocean Condo, Library, Conference Room, Pool, or location you provide.

$1487 – Payable ½ in advance, ½ upon completion and delivery

Executive Producer Video

• Professionally Shot HD Video of a series (at least 3 separate episodes) of a creative commercial or viral video, interview, or mini movie
• Even More Branding Options and Improved Visuals
• More Actors, More Locations, More Studio time
• Distributed Online to Video Sharing Sites
• Our creative staff will help hone your creativity with an idea / brainstorming session.
• Distributed Online to Video Sharing Sites
• Put your video in our creative portfolio exposing it to additional thousands of viewers.
• User generated or collaborative call to action – can use members of our collaborative filmmaking team.

Good for:
• Building an audience and subscriber base around your brand and marketing message.
• Attracting ongoing permanent traffic to your website
• Launching a new idea / product / or service
• Television Commercial Advertising Spots
• Community Building projects, where your fans and audience can contribute to your marketing / advertising (user generated content collection).

Details and Specifications
• Up to 25 hours Shooting Time (in our Studio or on location)
• Up to 25 hours Pre and Post Production ( video editing, graphics, screenwriting)
Actors Provided – You or up to 2 of our Staff Actors and 2 casted actor(ess)
Scene Locations Provided – Green Screen, Office Location, Wall Backdrop, Ocean Condo, Library, Conference Room, Pool, or location you provide.
Choice of 2 collaborative talent sources from our screenwrtiting meetup, actors, audio and post productions (basically we’ll use more team members to improve the quality of the results, so for example we could bring on an outside screenwriter to give their creative input.)

$3920 – – Payable ½ in advance, ½ upon completion and delivery

Add a Social Media Website, or any bundled solution to Cinematographer (above) or a larger video project,  and pay only 1/2 price for the website bundle add-on!

If an advertising agency is compensated based on a percentage (it is usually 15%) of what I spend, what incentive do they have to find for me innexpensive, effective, leveraged advertising that is cumulative and gets me more and more business with less and less expenditure like any effective campaign should?

The obvious answer is: none at all!  The fact is that there is a built-in conflict of interest in the way that advertising companies are compensated: it is not in the ad-agency’s best interrest to do a good job:
In this alrtice in Adweek by Brian Morrissey:

“I think traditional ad agencies have very little contribution to make,”  Bryan Simkins, a marketing specialist at FedEx, told TNS:

“They are mostly driven by their compensation models which are made for closed media. Those models don’t apply in open media.”

Not only is there a built-in probelm with the compensation method, there is also another inherent conflict of interests: ad agencies typically target a vertical market or two: that is they represent primarily a certain type of business: for instance doctors, manufacturing, retail…

But if I have more than one client seeking the same market share, who do I represent best?

In my opinion, they not only must separate what you pay for advice from other compensation if you are to get good advice, they must also be exclusive to you for your market, or you cannot, and should not trust their advice.

A much better model is one where you pay for a bundle of services to a consultant who represents you exclusively.  The consultants job is to do the best he can on your budget.  If he is successful, you will be successful and spend more.  If he represents you exclusively in your market, your bread is buttered on the same side: if he does not do a good job, he cannot profit from your market, and vice verse.

This is why we recomend things like organic search as apposed to PPC (pay-per-click), and blogging over print.  Viral video distributed on the intrnet can greatly leverage the effects of advertising with video.

But don’t belive me: use your logical mind: you are a businessperson, and you are not stupid.

Here at http://socialmediasystems, we believe that our model is better.  What do you think?

From
‘What happens if I’m charged with a felony in California’ to what sentences are customary, and where to get help: Kardon Law provides this online resource for free. You can get a free consultation and decide if you want to go further with no cost and no obligation, at this online legal questions and answers blog: http://thegalanswers.net

Get started in California legal defense here:

What happens if I’m charged with a felony in California? Legal Answers.
Posted by in Tuesday, May 26th 2009 under: Criminal Defense Answers California Courts

What happens if I am charged with a felony in California?
A felony is a serious crime punishable by a prison term of 16 months or more in a state prison. Depending on the circumstances of the offense, as well as other factors, a sentence for a felony conviction could …click here to read more

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