Monthly Archives: October 2011

BrandingBlog Radio: Shortcut Blogging Announcement

This podcast is an announcement. The multi-talented Paul Boomer and I are starting a business. It’s a podcast/blogging business designed to help people who simply don’t have the time or energy to blog.

You can click on the image above to go check it out. You can listen to us talk about blogging. (You can skip ahead to about 23 minutes in to hear about the business.)

Here it is in a nutshell:

  • We’ll create a 10-minute podcast for you each week, transcribe it, and post it to your blog.
  • The recording will be done by a professional radio announcer interviewing you on the topics of your choice.
  • The transcription will include some light editing to make it read smoothly.
  • Our editors will post the entire enchilada to your site for you, paying attention to headlines, keywords and linking.
  • Your only responsibility is to show up once a month on Skype and be interviewed (and pay the bill).
  • Cost: $597/month…no long-term contracts.

At the end of a year, you’ll have enough written words to turn into a book, a seminar, etc.

We are taking email addresses of people who desire to know more. That’s the only way to sign up for right now. Just go to our little web site and pop your email into the little box. We’ll do the rest.

Shortcut Blogging: Easy Blogging for Busy People

Marc Maron and Paul Reiser on Getting Started

I was out on a walk today listening to episode 192 of Marc Maron’s WTF Podcast. (One of the podcasts that inspired me to get started with my own podcasting.) Maron is one of the best interviewers I’ve every heard and his podcast is a wonderful window into the world of all your favorite standup comics.

In this episode, he’s got Paul Reiser in his garage studio and is reflecting on getting started in comedy.

A 19-year-old Maron first met Reiser on a trip to NYC to see comedy. He walked up to Reiser’s table and asked him how to get started doing comedy. Reiser told him, “You just do it.”

A few minutes later, Reiser tells him about some advice he got on writing screenplays shortly after his appearance in Diner. He asked Barry Levinson, “How do you write a screenplay?” Levinson told him, “OK. You write, ‘Fade in’ and you keep typing.”

Good advice for starting just about anything you ever wanted to do.

BrandingBlog Radio: The Art Of The Offer with Craig Arthur

The terms of a sales offer and how you position it in the minds of customers is paramount to determining success. Craig Arthur, our Australian marketing expert, joins me this week for a look at a few examples where tweaking the offer has made a big difference in sales…sometimes in the very existence of the company.

We talk about the solar industry, auto sales, cell phones and give the example of how changing the offer in the early days made a difference in how Cabela’s grew from a kitchen table home-based biz to a multi-billion dollar retailer.

I didn’t get all the details of that very first Cabela’s offer exactly right because I was going from local folklore. I found an article that will give you even more depth if you’d like to read about it. It’s a great story.

I hope you enjoy this podcast. If you have any questions or would like to recommend guests, please do so in the comments.