Catch up on the week’s news from SIPAlert Daily
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Randy Greenberg, President/Owner, Greene (& Associates), an RMG Direct company
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
GREENBERG: Like many students, I worked various part-time jobs while attending classes. One of these jobs was as an account executive (inside sales rep) for Tele-America, Inc., a business-to-business telemarketing
Trends That Fellow Publishers See Coming Your Way
Ten SIPA members spotlight a trend or path that they see a need to lock onto in the coming months.
1. Lucretia Lyons, President, Business Valuation Resources, LLC
Expand our definition of marketing. This means embracing the “new” such as social media, etc., but also—and I would say just as
Taking Away the Pressures to Stir the Mind
MacArthur Fellows “genius” grants were awarded this week, with 23 winners getting $500,000 each over the course of the next five years to do with as they please. The awards usually go to people like scientists, linguists, social historians or artists who have pushed their fields forward. The
Deciding What Price Makes the Most Cents
Pricing continues to be an interesting point of discussion in the specialized information industry. At the SIPA 2010 Conference, Knight Kiplinger, editor in chief of Kiplinger, said that young people have shown that they will “pay per drink. The challenge for us is to sell small pieces of information
Bob Coleman, Publisher, Coleman Publishing, La Canada, Calif.
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
COLEMAN: Management trainee position with a West Coast bank. After a few twists and turns, I became a small business lender. It was in Hollywood that I became aware of the newsletter
Need Grows for Strong Mobile Web Presence
In a September 14 posting titled Rise of the ‘Apps Culture,’ Pew Research Center wrote that 82 percent of Americans are now cell phone users and about one-fourth of all adults live in a household that has a cell phone and no landlines.
That’s kind of the taking-off point for
Awards Finalists Start the Creative Juices Flowing
The finalists for min’s Editorial and Design Awards were announced today, and it provides a good chance to look at some of the best in categories that are close to our mission. Winners will be saluted on Nov. 8, 2010, from 8:30 – 10:30 a.m. at the Grand Hyatt
There’s Only One Way to Find Out. Ask (and Answer).
Apparently, lots of places want to know what I think.
In my email box now sit surveys from a lecture that I went to over the weekend, the DC Shorts Film Festival that I attended last week, and United Airlines and British Airways following flights that I
Florin Campeanu, General Manager, Rentrop & Straton, Bucharest, Romania
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
CAMPEANU: My first job was in mass media, back in 1993. I was a journalist for one of the most important Romanian daily newspapers, “Jurnalul national.” It wasn’t “out of college,”
Improving Your Website, Renewals and Social (Media) Skills
With the Miami Marketing Conference coming up in less than two months, we want to spotlight some of the accomplished speakers who are on the agenda along with a sneak peek of their knowledge.
On marketing.
1. Eric Hellweg, editor at Harvard Business Publishing, will be joining Mequoda’s Don Nicholas
Videos Make Presence Felt on SIPA Member Sites
Two weeks ago we gave you Part 1 of our Video Review about what equipment to buy, rules for creating video and rules for promoting them. So today, let’s look at the Websites of 10 SIPA members making good use of video. (Special thanks to Ed Coburn for
Your Pass to Building Profitable Subscription Websites
When you log onto MLP Profits, you immediately see substance—and potential. (MLP stands for Master Limited Partnerships.) The substance lies in the weekly articles in the left column and features such as How They Rate and Alerts and Getting Started in the middle. A welcome video from the co-editor
Ed Coburn, Publishing Director, Harvard Health Publications, Harvard Medical School
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
COBURN: I got into this business in college. For several summers, I worked for a landscaper as a kid. One summer I decided I had had enough of hard labor
e-books Milestone Ignites Lively SIPA Forum Chat
An interesting discussion took place recently on the SIPA online marketing forum. (This is one of the top member benefits.) It began when someone posted the item about Amazon.com reaching a new milestone, selling more e-books than hardbacks over the past three months.
“I mean, downloaded books didn’t just pass
Is Fractured Consumption the ‘Write’ Thing?
Trapped miners. Taylor Swift. Tom Brady. Binary death star.
Now that I’ve gotten your attention, Robert Lerose wrote a fascinating article in the August Hotline that deserves a second look. It’s about a new book titled The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr—and it wonders
More Dumb Things and Their Successful Solutions
Complicated spread sheets, over-crowded Websites and courtesy-reply envelopes are just three of the next 10 of 50 Dumb Things Publishers Stopped Doing and So Should You that we started in this space last month—based on a popular session at SIPA 2010.
Denise Elliott and Greg Krehbiel, both from The Kiplinger
IdeaSlam I Ready to Show the Way
I once watched this incredible German film where the protagonist had to travel to a small city in the Arctic Circle to compete in a Jeopardy-like game show that focused on trains and the fastest way to get from place to place. (If you’re in Europe, you understand. If
Marketing to a Diverse Audience, Part 1
I wrote an article a few years ago about a newspaper in San Angelo, Texas, that scripted a series of house ads starring their very own employees. The series was called “Get Connected Every Day with the San Angelo Standard-Times” and was part of the paper’s “Passion Campaign” that
Aim, Shoot, Post. But First Get Some Equipment
Last week, 3D, the DMA Daily Digest, led us to a website called Target Marketing that published a nice piece on “Creating and Promoting a Viral Video.” (More on that below.)
Fortunately—since you definitely need some equipment before undertaking these videos—SIPA’s June Hotline published an article by Alan Prochoroff,
Karen Piontkowski, Founder and President, Direct Answer, Inc.
Katie Rogers, Vice President, Direct Answer, Inc.
Editor’s Note: We give you a pre-Labor Day special today of two-for-the-price-of-one.
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
Karen Piontkowski: Printing broker…doesn’t everyone in direct marketing start in printing? Once the ink is
Tips From SIPA UK Conference Become Session Starters for Miami Meeting
David Foster, CEO of BVR in Portland, Ore., sat in on the marketing directors’ roundtable at July’s SIPA UK Conference in London, and sent back some thoughts from the participants. We’ve now added interesting tie-ins to sessions at the Annual Marketing Conference in Miami. It’s
Londesborough Proves Popular With His Sales Habits and Best Practices
At the last session of the SIPA 2010 Conference—Best Ideas From SIPA 2010—host Andy McLaughlin did a wonderful job of keeping the pace moving and getting a lot of people to give their ideas. But one name seemed to come up more than others when it
New-Product Ideas Range From a Relaunching to a Repurposing
Here are 10 new-product development ideas to put on your gold-seeking plate (from SIPA 2010).
From Torry Burdick, senior vice president, Marketing, Mortgage Success Source
1. Webinars are not new, but they have taken on a new flavor at MSS. We have used free webinars in the past to
Amir A. Khosrodad, President, Cranium Softworks, Silver Spring, Maryland
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
KHOSRODAD: My first job out of college was with a small local publisher called AKA publishing that produced a foreign-language weekly dealing with political events in the Middle East. I initially
Examining the Ties That Bind Between Marketers, IT, Copywriters and Customers
At the much-anticipated Marketing Conference in Miami, Nov. 10-12, Greg Krehbiel of The Kiplinger Washington Editors will lead a session titled Top 10 Things Marketers Need to Know About IT. “With online marketing more important than ever,” the description reads, “marketing managers need to have
Change-Up of Delivery and Content May Be Just the Pitch to Sell at a Higher Price Point
During a roundtable titled How to Market High-Priced Products at the SIPA 2010 Conference, Robin Crumby, managing director, Melcrum Publishing Ltd., presented a very interesting case study. Here was the challenge: How do you turn a 300 euro ($387)
Kaiser’s Advice to the Arts World Also Travels Well for Publishers
You’ve heard of Around the World in 80 Days? Michael Kaiser, the highly accomplished and admired president of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., recently went around the United States in 450 days. Normally no great feat, but in this case
Anne Holland, Publisher, Anne Holland Ventures Inc.
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
HOLLAND: Data entry operator for the World Aviation Directory, which is when I first became obsessed with order form design and how simple changes can increase publication sales. I then weaseled my way
The Heat Isn’t the Only All-Star Team in Miami; Check Out These Speakers!
Reach out to bloggers, evaluate your renewal series, find the most successful direct marketing material and read it. With the speakers assembled for this November’s Marketing Conference in Miami, tips and solutions will be flying. Here are a few:
1. Copywriter Robert Lerose will
BLR Profile Gives You ‘Backstage’ Information To a Very Audience-Friendly Company
“We do everything we can think of to get visitors to the site,” says Bob Brady, founder and president of BLR—Business and Legal Resources. “We use paid search, organic search optimization, email promotions, demo disks…. anything that makes sense, because you’re never really sure what
In This World, Engagement and Relationships Build Online Communities, Not Marriages
Creating relationships in online communities.
In his presentation at the SIPA 2010 session on Building Online Communities, Sift CEO Ben Heald crossed out the word “conversations” from the above slide and put in “relationships.” Conversations aren’t enough anymore, he implied. You need to engage people.
Based in
Tom Lynch, CMO, Astek Consulting
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
LYNCH: First job out of college: Selling “plain paper” copiers in Chicago for a large company out of Minnesota—lots of cold calling. Did it for about a year and a half. The earliest heat fusion
Not-So-Great Ideas Lead to Some Pretty Great Solutions
Setting up too many promo codes, over-complicating audio conferences and still printing things you shouldn’t. 50 Dumb Things Publishers Stopped Doing and So Should You proved to be one of SIPA 2010’s most popular sessions. We don’t want to give away everything in this space—and we have our
Price Points, Loyalists and Renewals: SIPA Online Forum Leads by Examples
“How are publishers REALLY helping long-time subscribers who genuinely have no budget?”
This was a question posted a couple months ago to the SIPA Online Marketing Forum, one of seven forums that SIPA members can access through the Website. The others are Editorial, Information Technology (IT),
Lucretia Lyons, President, Business Valuation Resources, LLC (Portland, Ore.)
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
Lyons: By some stroke of good fortune, I landed in publishing and marketing early on in my career. My first job was as marketing coordinator for University Press of America (UPA),
Build It Well and They Will Come, Says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos
The Internet is a word-of-mouth accelerator. If you build a great product or service, people will talk about it.
—Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon.com
In a week when PBS’s Charlie Rose Show had such entertaining guests as actors Steve Carell and Paul Rudd and baseball writer
A Summer of Content: Bailey Counts The Ways to Create New Web Posts
Leave it to Matt Bailey to tell us about an online “tax rap” competition hosted by Vanilla Ice on Intuit (TurboTax)—where they drew about 700 entries to post online. Because when it comes to talking about marketing, analytics, and in this case, building
The Search Is ‘On’ for SIPAlert Daily Articles
Good news: SIPAlert Daily articles are now searchable on the SIPA Website. To commemorate the occasion, here are some popular clips of information from the past three months.
From the very first Road Taken member profile, the two most important concepts for Melcrum’s Robin Crumby:
First, keep it simple: Information
The Road Taken: An inside look at a SIPA member, the choices he or she has made on the road to success, and the challenges ahead
Dave Garrett, president and CEO, gantthead.com
SIPA: What was your first job out of college and how did you get into this business?
GARRETT: I was an Allstate Agent for about a
‘Touches’ of Class May Lead to New Sales and Keeping an Old Habit or Two
Pulitzer Prize winner Kathleen Parker wrote a fascinating column yesterday about a newly released study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The study reported that “dimensions of touch—that of weight, texture and hardness—can unconsciously influence judgments and decisions about unrelated
SIPA’s New Report Gives All The Latest on Subscription Websites That Sell
Here are snippets from the much-anticipated, just-released, 53-page SIPA Management Report titled Building Subscription Websites That Sell: A Marketing Perspective. The report features six archetypes—newsletters, magazines, reference, application, membership and periodical—numerous case studies, an evaluation device and a conclusion. It can be found on
Whether on ‘Front Porch’ or in Your Own Backyard, Communities Are Rising Up
Micro-communities have received a lot of publicity lately.
Here is Robin Crumby, group managing director of Melcrum Publishing Ltd., describing micro-communities in an article in the June Hotline: “The creation of micro-communities is being widely heralded as a robust model for specialized information publishers.
Week in Review Columns Can Prove Effective for Both You and the Reader. “Numerous publishers, including our BusinessManagementDaily.com, are having success with a Week in Review e-letter,” wrote Phil Ash, publisher, Capitol Information Group, on a recent SIPA online forum.”The format is typically five headlines and teasers representing the single topic stories that ran Monday
A New Survey on Public Relations Provides Some Up-to-Date Answers. In 1963, John Marston wrote a book, “The Nature of Public Relations,” saying that “public relations is planned, persuasive communication designed to influence significant publics.” Almost 50 years later, the definition hasn’t changed all that much, but how we go about those “persuasive communications” certainly
THE ROAD TAKEN – An inside look at a SIPA member, the choices he or she has made on the road to success, and the challenges ahead. In honor of Canada Day on Thursday, July 1, we present…
Michael McLarney, Managing Director, NRHA Canada, Editor & President, Hardlines Inc.
SIPA: What was your first job out of
Meeting of the Minds – an article about sessions and keynotes from the recent SIPA 2010 Conference.
Here are more teachable moments from the recent SIPA 2010 Conference and the link to order your audio archives.
1. In his keynote, Do We Really Need to Be Concerned About eReaders?, Forrester Research’s James McQuivey said that your
On the Growing SIPA Listserves
Here’s your quiz for today: Where did we find the following four very interesting discussion fragments?
on pop-ups
I’m particularly fond of the delayed pop-ups lately. They allow people to have a look-see and make sure they’re in the right place and interested in the content before we promote to them. I think
It’s Summer Solstice; 10 Reminders To Fill Your Extra Hours of Daylight
Here are 10 key informational items to serve as reminders as we all move forward into the days of summer.
1. Segment your bounce rates. “I love investigating why bounce rates are so high for Websites because usually what you find is that it’s not
Live and In Person! Interweave Builds Its Brand in Style
We know the value of live events for SIPA; just watching firsthand the incredible networking that took place at last week’s SIPA 2010 Conference tells you that.
But there is incredible value to live events for publishers as well; just watching firsthand David Pyle, vice president and
