Great Book: "Be The Media"

Be The Media by David Mathison is a great book that helps independent bloggers, authors, and entrepreneurs create and distribute content without selling their royalties, rights or souls in the process. It's deemed as the "ultimate independent media handbook".

Recently released, the book is full of 536 well-written pages of research, tips, and guidelines on how to maximize publicity and revenue while minimizing your budget. Interestingly enough, the book is NOT available at Amazon.com or other online retailers because that would defeat their message of selling independently and keeping more of the profits.

I haven't read the whole book yet, but it's definitely a good read. So far, I would easily say that this is the best book I've seen on this topic. Not only is it well-endorsed by other industry vets, you can easily tell that the author spent years compiling research. Despite this, the tips are very relevant and up-to-date with modern technology and practices.

Mathison is well-respected for his insight and is an internationally recognized media expert with more than 20 years experience. I visited his booth at the recent Book Expo America conference in NYC, and I was thoroughly impressed about his company's techniques and philosophies.

I highly recommend that you buy and read this book.

To purchase the book, visit www.BeTheMedia.com

"If You Lose Your Job, We'll Make Your Payments For You."

This is what auto companies are telling people nowadays in order to get them to buy new cars. Hyundai started it, and now Ford and GM have announced their own variations.

While Hyundai's walkaway program offers to absorb car payments for three months and will accept a returned car without any additional payment, Ford is offering to pay $700 a month up to one year and GM is offering to cover up to nine payments of $500 each.

This sounds like an interesting marketing strategy, and it may work somewhat to increase new car sales. However, it doesn't address one thing: It's still a better deal to buy a used car vs. a new car. That's the route that many people are taking, and therefore used car dealers are faring much better in this bad economy.

The U.S. government and automakers have to find a stronger incentive to get people to buy new vehicles. Perhaps, a drastic decrease in pricing, a "buy one get one" free special, a huge tax break, or even free mechanical services for a year.

Consumers are much smarter these days and much more economical than ever before. Put simple: Buying a new car at nearly double the cost but with free "job insurance", is not a better deal than paying half the price for a used car with no "job insurance".

Colleges Aim To Stay Profitable

In case you didn't know, colleges and universities operate like companies. They have to make money, and they have to be profitable. Thus, in a bad economy, they suffer. Obviously, if people are losing jobs and getting their salaries cut - they can't afford to pay for their kids to go to college.

However, many institutions have a unique plan. The Washington Post reports that "some U.S. schools are looking anew at an old idea: slicing a year off their undergraduate programs to save families time and money." That's right; They are introducing the three-year undergraduate degree.

This is actually a pretty big deal because "the four-year bachelor's degree has been the model in the United States since the first universities began operating before the American Revolution." But during a bad economy, sometimes you have to break tradition if you want to stay afloat.

I think its a great idea. Even though they will make less money off each student, they will be enrolling more students who can now afford to attend.

In my opinion that's what entrepreneurship is all about: Breaking tradition, bending the rules, thinking outside the box, and doing what's ethically necessary to stay in business.

10 Million Cars Sold Is Not Enough

When I heard that automakers were expected to sell 10 million new cars and trucks in the U.S. this year, I thought that was a good thing. I said to myself: "The recession is finally coming to an end."

But as I continued to read the USA Today article, I learned that that figure makes 2009 one of the worst years the auto industry has seen in the past three decades.

Apparently, before the auto collapse last year, car companies routinely sold more than 16 million new cars and trucks annually in the U.S.

While 10 million may sound like a lot, it's simply not enough to make these car companies profitable. Chrysler's already in Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization, and General Motors will likely do the same on June 1st. Even normally healthy automakers such as Toyota and Nissan are losing money.

Many people don't understand this part of business. They think that when money is being exchanged, it means that companies are profiting. That's not necessarily true.

All companies have debts and expenses that have to be paid for first before a profit can be declared. It's very common to have most of your revenue allocated to paying bills and taxes, and not having much left over after that.

To prevent this, entrepreneurs should always be thinking of ways to lower their overhead. In fact, this should be heavily considered before you even pursue a business idea.

Overhead kills a lot of companies before they even launch. Others die off in a bad economy. I'm willing to bet that the companies that are still afloat right now are the ones that have figured out how to minimize their expenses.

Step Up Your "Sales" Game

Apparently, more people are getting into sales or at least are investing more into tools that can help them generate more sales.

According to BusinessWeek.com, sales management software maker Salesforce.com's profits have nearly doubled this past quarter. The company claims to have added 3,900 new customers in the past quarter, bringing its total to over 59,000. Their revenue rose to $304.9 million from $247.6 million a year ago.

What does this mean for you?

Well, every entrepreneur is a salesperson and apparently many will step up their sales efforts during a bad economy. This makes sales more competitive for you, and so you have to be more competitive yourself.

If you make cold calls, learn to be effective within your first 10 seconds. Understand that likely you are not the only salesperson to have called, and that vendors today are working with limited budgets. Don't be demanding. Instead, quickly convince them that you have what they need.

If you like to email your potential clients, learn to be short and simple with your message. Don't spam, and don't subscribe people to your newsletter without their permission. If they don't respond immediately, be patient. Sometimes people can fall behind on email. Don't be too quick to send another inquiry; That can be a turnoff.

My best sales advice is to target your audience. Only contact people who want or need what you're selling. Also, learn to ask for and identify the right person that you need to talk to. A lot of times, it may appear that you're talking to the right person - but you're not. Before you even start your sales pitch, get in the habit of saying: "Are you the person in charge of _____?" or even "Can you direct me to the person who's in charge of ______?"

The Future: More Multicultural Families, More Low-Income Consumers, and Less Children

According to TargetMarketNews.com and Nielsen Media Research, here's what we can look forward to regarding American consumers:

1) More Multicultural Families.

While households with children will continue to decline, ethnic (non-white) families are expected to grow at a faster rate than the total population. According to Nielsen, more than half of families with children are expected to be multi-cultural by 2025. By 2050, that number is anticipated to be greater than 60 percent.

2) More Low-Income Consumers

According to Nielsen, household incomes are expected to stagnate or fall slightly over the next ten years. Based on these projections, household spending will grow at a very slow pace-especially when compared to the previous ten years. Nielsen data show the lowest income population segments growing the fastest (as much as 17.8 percent in some scenarios), with affluent and wealthy segments declining (9.2 percent and 5.5 percent respectively).

3) Less Families With Children

Nielsen projections indicate a continued decline of households with children and fewer children per household. By 2036, households with children will outnumber those 65 and older without children by just 5 million, compared to a 17 million difference in 2007.

For the full article, visit:
ww.targetmarketnews.com/storyid05180902.htm

Be Careful About Online Travel Agencies

Online travel agencies like Orbitz, Expedia and Travelocity can be twofold - helpful and troublesome. Yes, they allow you to see multiple rates at once and may even offer you a discounted price - but be careful because they can also screw up your travel arrangements.

Just recently I bought a one-way ticket for United Airlines from Washington Dulles to Columbus Ohio. The ticket was only $100 bucks on Orbitz.com, but was $380 on United.com. Naturally, I bought the cheaper ticket.

Here's where the problem came: The day I was supposed to leave, I received a text message from Orbitz saying that my flight had been delayed by 2 hours. When I arrived to the airport later that day, it turned out that my flight had never been delayed. Not only did I miss the last flight of the day, I had to pay to stay in a hotel another night - and they couldn't even get me on the first flight the following day. Eventually, I got home on the 2nd flight out.

Of course, I called Orbitz to tell them about what happened. They denied sending me a text message, but did agree to give me a $50 credit. They said they would do more if I faxed them the original text message that I received.

Once I finally figured out how to do that (yes, there is a way to fax a text message - at least from the iPhone), I called them to plead my case for at least a $200 credit. Of course, they denied it.

Their excuse was that United Airlines originally delayed the flight, but change it back to an on-time status. I'm thinking: "Why didn't you idiots send me another text message?"

Moral of the story: Use online travel agencies to find the best deals, but don't buy from them. Buy directly from the airline. However, if you do insist on buying from the agency and you get a text message from them about your flight status, call the actual airline to double-check.

Radio One Looking To Hire An Online Editor

Radio One, Inc., one of the nation's largest radio broadcasting companies and the largest radio broadcasting company that primarily targets African-American and urban listeners, is looking to hire an online editor for www.Radio-One.com

It looks like a pretty good gig for freelancers and entrepreneurs who specialize in writing and content management.

Here is the job description:

The Online Editor is responsible for all aspects of programming (i.e. developing and managing content) for Radio One’s radio station websites in the Washington, DC market, WKYS, WMMJ, WPRS, WOL and WYCB. The position is responsible for increasing the sites’ online traffic and engagement through the maintained programming of celebrity news, entertainment and local events, and by linking the stations’ on-air and off-line marketing and promotional activities.

Job Responsibilities:

* Writing, editing, and assigning posts about news, celebrity, entertainment, and gossip on both a national and local level

* Constant aggregation of material from around the web and the stations’ other network partners including, but not limited to, other Radio One station sites, BlackPlanet.com, TV One, and the content verticals of the BlackPlanet Universe.

* Reporting on, and engaging with, local Washington, DC and surrounding area events and activity

* Working with radio personalities to assist in the creation and maintenance of daily blogs

*Working with the stations’ Program Director, Operations Manager, and/or Marketing/Promotions leads to maintain the vision, voice and brand direction of the stations online

* Working with the National Director Of Online Content for Radio to leverage national programming opportunities, tools and services

For more details and/or to apply, visit:
http://blackjobs.com/cgi-bin/jobs/searchJobs.cgi?job_id=904164

Why Fly Without Wi-Fi?

More and more airlines are offering passengers the ability to connect to the Internet while in-flight. Its a concept that's long overdue, but it has finally arrived.

Southwest and Delta were the first to do so - but Wi-Fi is only installed on some of their planes. Just recently, however, AirTran announced that by the end of July, all of their planes will be Wi-Fi enabled. Virgin America too announced that by May 25th, all of their planes will enabled.

The price to connect via a handheld device or laptop will be $7.95 to $12.95 a flight, depending on the device and the length of the flight.

Jack Blumenstein, CEO of Aircell - the Chicago-based provider of the wireless service of more than 1,000 jets, says that "a typical narrow-body jet can be equipped with the 125 pounds of necessary equipment and fiber-optic cable during an overnight stay at an airport for about $100,000."

$100,000 per plane is a hefty investment, but remember that millions of people fly every day. Imagine an airline getting 50,000 people a day to buy into a $12 internet fee. That's $600,000 a day.

The only catch is that Virgin America is the online domestic airline that provides an electrical outlet to plug your laptop into while in-flight. For other airlines, you just gotta make sure your battery will last long enough.

Those 5 hour coast-to-coast flights will be tough.

New Study Says 'Babyface' Look Can Help Black CEOs

The Associated Press reports:

Black Fortune 500 CEOs with a "babyface" appearance are more likely to lead companies with higher revenues and prestige than black CEOs who look more mature, an upcoming study says.

In contrast with research showing that white executives are hindered by babyface characteristics, a disarming appearance can help black CEOs by counteracting the stigma that black men are threatening, according to the study from Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

The study is scheduled to be published in the journal Psychological Science in September.

A babyface is characterized by combinations of attributes, including a round face, full cheeks, larger forehead, small nose, large ears and full lips, the study says.

Decades of research has shown that people believe babyfaced adults to be more trustworthy, and respond to them with greater patience, sensitivity and compassion, according to Robert Livingston, co-author of the study and an assistant professor of organizations and management at Kellogg.

In the study, a group of 21 college students was shown photographs of 40 current and past CEOs of Fortune 500 companies. Eleven of the students were white, 10 were Asian and 10 were female.

Of the 40 CEOs, 10 were black (only 10 blacks have ever led Fortune 500 companies). For every black CEO, a current or former white CEO from the same company was included. Another 10 CEOs were white women, and 10 white male CEOs were chosen at random.

Participants rated each photo on scale of 1-4 for "babyfaceness," leadership competence and personal warmth.

To account for differences in perceptions about blacks or whites in general, participants gave separate ratings on warmth and competence for "blacks," "whites" and "women," which were factored into the results.

The results showed that Black CEOs who rated high on the babyface scale worked for companies that ranked higher in the Fortune 500 and had higher annual revenues than blacks with more mature faces. The reverse was true for whites - the more babyfaced CEOs tended to work for companies that ranked lower and had less annual revenue.

Black CEOs also were described as significantly more babyfaced than white CEOs. The female CEOs were rated as having more mature faces than both blacks and whites.

The study was duplicated with 106 student participants, with similar results.

Livingston said the study indicates that "disarming" characteristics, which have been shown to hinder white executives, can help black leaders.

For the full article, visit:
www.blacknews.com/news/babyface_look_can_help_black_ceos_study_says101.shtml