Archive for the ‘Random posts’ Category

<rant>Matt Giraud seriously ticked me of today.

I have a search running on my tweetdeck for “web designer” at all times – it allows me to respond quickly if I see someone is in need of my services. Today, I saw one come through from Matt Giraud, explaining he was looking for a web designer and the details were on his facebook page…

For those of you who don’t know who Matt Giraud is, he was on American Idol, season 8 and placed 5th. Since then, he has been on the AI CD, launched 2 of his own CD’s, gone on multiple tours and one would assume made a small chunk of change. He has over 29,000 fans on facebook, a solid 59,000 followers on twitter and while he is no Carrie Underwood, he is also not your every day guy. So, when a guy like this is looking for a web designer, you would expect that he is not only looking for the best of the best, but also looking to pay someone very well for their work, right? Wrong.

Here’s what his Facebook page said:

Let’s break this down…he is looking for a web designer to work for free to “build their portfolio” and get some free CD’s and concert tickets? You have got to be kidding me. This reads like an awful ad for a designer from Craigslist, not the request from a celebrity for a website design. Sorry Matt, but concert tickets, meeting you and a few CD’s does not pay my bills. I own a business because I want to help other businesses succeed, create awesome websites and get paid for it. I did not start this to help prima dona celebrities get their sites up for free.

I know there is a simple solution if I don’t like what the guy is doing – just don’t send my info in - but what bothers me is that he is even making a request like this. My irritation is all on the principle of the thing – the fact that  he sent out a request like this is just disgusting, rude and shows how little he really cares about people. Just a couple years ago, he was a no body just looking to make it – and would never have had the gall to send out a request like this. Give him a little fame and money and all of a sudden it’s ‘Why should I have to pay for other people’s work’.

The sad part is that he’ll find someone who is willing to work for just concert tickets. “Celebrities” always get what they want, because for some reason, our culture has determined they deserve it. The simple fact is, work should be paid for and being “famous” does not give you the right to ask for work for free. You are not that cool. </rant>

What are your thoughts on celebrities asking people to do work for free?

What was your dork moment today?

It is time once again for the yearly boys trip and girls trip!

My dad and hubby set off to the wilderness of Rubicon to meet up with 35 other men for 4 days of dirt bikes, off-roading, camping and drinking. And while the view may be amazing…

the view from the guys campground

…me and my mom prefer 4 days of relaxing, shopping, eating and drinking in the comfort of civilization and real showers!

wine tasting at last years girls trip

During this vacation, I will be checking emails once a day…probably around 10am, just in case there are emergencies. So, if you need me, send me an email and I will get back to you when I can. Otherwise, I will catch up with you all when I get back to real life on Tuesday, the 16th.

Of course, while I am gone, feel free to browse through my archives for any great content you might have missed!

Okay, so this has nothing to do with business at all – but today is my husband and my 3 year wedding anniversary!

So, we are both taking the day off work, and heading down to Laguna Beach (where we got married, and this picture was taken). While I’m gone, feel free to enjoy my archives or come see me tomorrow!

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog posts from Wright Creativity to fill you in on a couple new things going on!

1. I have officially moved my facebook business page from being under Kirsten Wright to Wright Creativity. So please, click on over and “like” my page…you know you want to! Oh, and by the way…there is a special offer over there you won’t want to miss
2. I have submitted a proposal to speak at blogworld and am very nervous, but will let everyone know the minute I find out.
3. Phone Photo Friday is in full swing, so if you are a reader and haven’t sent in one of your favorite pics you’ve taken with your cell phone…well, why not? You don’t have to fill out the form, just snap the pic and email it to me (kirsten(at)wrightcreativity.com)
4. I have an opening for a new blog management client starting in July. Because I work so in depth with each client, I haven’t had the time available to take on a new client until now! If you or someone you know is looking for some extra help getting started or keeping moving with their blog, you know where to go
5. Coming soon, I will be running a very special contest for all of my subscribers. It involves a 15% discount and one of my design services…so be sure to stay tuned, and make sure to send your friends so they can participate too (it might just be around an upcoming holiday in July).

…Tomorrow we will be back to your regularly scheduled content

Getting sick kills all creativity and productivity.

Tip: Don’t get sick.

That is all, you may now go on with your day, I am going back to bed.

How many of you have a sticker like this in the upper left corner of the windshield in your car?

How many of you aren’t sure and have to go look now that I’ve asked you? (feel free, it’s okay, I won’t judge you )

For those who don’t have one or have zero idea what this is, it is a sticker (easily removable) that was placed on the inside of my windshield, on the drivers side, last time I took my car in to get service done at a Ford dealership. I get a new one every time I take my car in, always placed in the same location, with some of the details updated.

From living with an automotive technician (Hubby works for Volkswagen) I know that a good service department is one of the biggest money makers for a dealership – and some of the bigger service departments bring in more money to the dealerships than the car sales. With that in mind, it is no surprise that car dealerships do a lot of advertising for their service departments – mailers for specials, mailers for reminders about warranties, etc. But, out of all the marketing tools they have, I honestly believe that this simple sticker is probably their most inexpensively effective.

Let’s take a look at the reasons that this marketing piece is so successful:

1. These stickers probably cost the dealership 5¢, which means that if I were to just throw it away, it wouldn’t be a huge loss. And, if I were to come back in, the cost to get me there was very minimal.
2. It is placed in the upper left corner of my windshield, always there for me to see, a constant reminder left there without being too obtrusive.
3. At the very top, in big bold letters is Genuine Parts & Service Next Appt. – It clearly states what it is for and constantly reminds me that it is high quality (genuine), which is reassuring. There is no looking at it and wondering what it is or why I have it.
4. It says the name of the dealership that I went to, their address and phone number, which makes it super easy to contact them, and makes sure that if I do need them for any reason, it is accesible. Imagine if I were to be out driving and have an issue with e car? This sticker does double duty by also being a resource should I need a service department quickly.
5. Rather than just including a hint to come back, they give me the exact miles and date that  appointment should be. And, this is not just a generic mileage and date, it is specifically put there based on my driving habits based on length of ownership, number of miles and condition of my vehicle.

Of course, no matter how clever or inexpensive a marketing tool is, if you don’t have the customer service to back it up, the marketing will just go to waste.

What inexpensive but effective ways can you market your business?

While I was sitting and drinking my second cup of Portola Coffee today, reading email in Microsoft Outlook on my custom built HyperPC‘s computer, I began thinking about traveling and creativity. Being surrounded by the same things day in and day out can be frustrating…there is nothing new to inspire you. One of the simple ways I have found to fix this is head to my local Corner Bakery (great food and free wifi) to work. But, despite the visual changes, it isn’t enough. The more I talk with people who travel, the more I see creativity at work. But, since I rarely travel, I have never seen this creativity in action – never seen how traveling can change an outlook.

So I started looking for flights on TravelZoo and found a great Virgin America flight tomorrow to San Fransisco. I needed a couple days of creative motivation somewhere different. I booked my room at The Orchard Hotel and stared planning what I would pack – of course I would need my Sony Vaio laptop, my Blackberry Curve 8530 (with Verizon service of course!) and my small Tumi travel bag (I was only going for 2 nights) and my Coach laptop bag (which doubles as a purse). Despite not traveling a ton, I have always had a knack for packing, and was ready for the trip in just a couple hours. With packing done, I needed to plan what I wanted to do while I was there. I knew work would be no problem, since with Gotomypc, I would have full access to my home computer while working out of town (backed up online with Carbonite just in case, of course). But, I also wanted to get some serious creativity flowing…so I jumped on twitter and sent out some mentions that I was going to be in San Fransisco. Pretty soon, I had booked dinner at the SupperClub, gotten tickets to go see a play and plans to walk the Golden Gate Bridge and talk branding with the folks at Ghiradelli.

Okay, let’s get serious – does the above paragraph’s sound ridiculous to anyone else? I should seriously hope so! While this is a bit (only a tiny bit) of an exaggeration, more and more bloggers are turning out posts that read like this – a list of all the companies who give them free stuff to promote them. No content to benefit the readers, no lessons to learn, no thoughts to take away, no business/life/any kind of advice. Just garbage about their sponsors mixed in with some normal sentences so it doesn’t look so “obvious”.

These are bloggers that I read (well, used to read) and 6 months ago, had great content. Then, they start getting more popular, getting more sponsors and unfortunately, start spewing this drivel instead of real content. I understand why businesses target top bloggers to promote their products, and I am so happy for these bloggers because the sponsors mean the bloggers are getting popular. I want bloggers to succeed! I want businesses to succeed! I am perfectly happy to see advertisments all over the sidebars! What I don’t get is why bloggers feel like any of their readers want to read blog posts about the sponsored crap.

Would I love to get sponsored by everyone mentioned above, receive free product/stays/programs? Absolutely!!! If I did, would I write blog posts about them? Nope. Personally, any time I see a post that only really talks about where someone stayed/went/who they met with (all for free of course) it starts to make my skin crawl. I know why it was written, it was written to promote the company who the blogger is being sponsored by and that is that. There is no other reason. The posts read like bad advertising and make both the blogger and the advertiser look bad. Seriously people? If you want to promote a product, that is totally fine with me – put ads on your sidebar, but leave it out of the content. I’m tired of reading it.

Oh, and by the way, there are no links in this post, the companies are all in blue to prove a point. These are all great companies, in fact most of the companies/products/services mentioned, I do use (and love). But, I am not sponsored by any of them, I did not receive anything free from them, and in fact, other than 2 of the companies, these companies have no idea who I am.

Last year, I wanted to go to Blogworld so badly, but just couldn’t figure out the logistics of getting there or how to afford the weekend of events and staying in Vegas. This year, however, I am going no matter what and am very excited about starting to plan the trip (yes, I know it is 6 months out…it’s the type-A in me).

Anyway, last week, I was thinking about the wine tasting event I had with the girls last month, and how much more we were able to learn about each other in the 3 1/2 hours worth of limo time, and how much more effectively we are able to help each other in business because of the stronger connections – which led me to think about Blogworld, and how one of the most important pieces of a trip like this is building stronger networking. There are tons of people from the Southern California area that are attending Blogworld – some will fly, some will carpool but very few will get to network with each other until they get to the event. So, I am thinking about fixing this problem, by organizing a limo tweetup trip from Southern California to Vegas! This would give a group of 25-50 people (depending on the limo size) a chance to network, connect and learn more about each other prior to arriving in Vegas.

But, as with any big plan, there are a lot of things to consider:

1. Who would even be interested in an event like this? Am I the only one who thinks it would be fun?
2. We would have to leave on Wednesday evening, 10/13, so that we can all get checked in before the conference starts on 10/14 – but what about people who are only coming for the weekend events? What would they do/could they still come?
3. Where would we leave from? I want LA County, Orange County, Riverside County and San Diego County people to be able to come on the trip – so logistically, leaving from Orange County would make the most sense (in the middle), but Riverside County is on the way out to Vegas, so then the limo time would be shorter…
4. What would the cost be per person? The trip would be between 4-5 hours, depending on where we left from and how many stops we had – so pricing it out, we’re looking at probably $150/person for the big limos. Is this a reasonable cost?
5. What about getting a limo sponsor/partial sponsor that we could promote to help eliminate costs? Or a sponsor that has nothing to do with the limo but still could benefit from a large group – wireless cards? Cell phone provider (we’ll be tweeting from the limo’s)? Food?
6. Can we expand it so more people can come? The largest Limo (I don’t want to do a shuttle bus..those are no fun) I found fit 44 people…but we could do multiple Limo’s and have a train headed out, that way we could get as many people as we wanted!
7. Has there ever been something done like this before? Would it be an expandable idea that other cities could do as well?
8. How would everyone get back to California? Would we want to do limos back or would people fly home? And then if they flew home, how would they get their cars from where the limo picked them up?

As you’ll notice, I have a lot of unanswered questions – which is where all my readers come in! I want your thoughts on the idea, would it be something you would be interested in? What about helping to make it happen? Any ideas of sponsors or how to turn this into a reality? And of course, I want to know who would want to come so I can see if the interest is there for the trip…

Let’s get talking!

A cat who hits it’s tush for photos? Taken by Annmarie Hill, in Alison Viejo, CA on her Blackberry.