#1 – Its not too late to get into Affiliate Marketing

2) Affiliate Networks Make Affiliate Marketing Easy

3) Successful Affiliates Can be Very Helpful Mentors

4) Age Doesn’t Matter. Gender Seems to.

5) Stop Waiting for the Perfect Path or Time

Without further ado, lets get go it.

Two Key Prep Items (repeat from last blog):

1)      Learn How to Convert Inches to Pixels
PowerPoint works in inches.  The web works in pixels.  To create a banner, you need to know how to convert from one to the other.  To get the right measurements go here to either download the tool or bookmark this page for when you need it.

2)      Update your Power Point to Export Higher Resolution Graphics
Do this only when you need to develop graphics for PRINT, or else it will mess with your pixel size.  If your graphics are for the web skip this step.  But for print, your graphics may look fuzzy or pixelated because the standard Power Point export setting is 96 dpi.  To fix this, you change your MS Registry files to 300 dpi.  Microsoft gives great instructions on how to change it –and its easy to change and later change back. Visit this Microsoft page to do it.

P.S. If you do this step and later you want to develop web graphics you can also go back and undo.

Now Let’s Create a Web Banner!

Lets say you’ve been given a size to work with such as 750 X 200 pixels. From here:

1) Use your pixel / inch converter : to find out what your pixel size converts to in inches. Write down the answer in inches.

2) Open a new Power Point file

3) Size it – go to design –> page setup –> type in the inches you need to create.

4) Go back to see the new layout and there you will see your new size.

• Pro tip: when you get your first header set up in the size you need, save this empty file as a Power Point presentation with the size in pixels in the name aka “750by200banner.pptx” so you can use it again later.

5) Now it’s time to insert / create your banner graphics.

• To create images that bleed off the page insert them and scale them up or down to do so.  While you will still see the whole graphic on the page, the file will only export the size you articulated in the page setup and will cut off anything around it.

6)    Add graphics as you desire and manipulate them as you desire (check out my video for more suggestions).

7) Click view slide show at any time to see what your banner will look like.

8 ) Choose save as –and select other format – choose png or jpeg.

These same instructions could be followed for a printed logo or graphic.  That is it!  Now that you know this there is no excuse. What graphic will you now make today?

If you’re visually inclined but Adobe CS poor, and you want to create graphics for web sites, business cards or other logos, you probably feel stuck.   How do you create  web banner in pixels? How can you create a simple business card graphic?  For years my choices were to:

a) download Gimp and learn the steps from YouTube videos recorded by 15 year-olds,
b) to find a 15-year old to do it for me, or
c) to hire an agency who’s going to charge me $150/hour to micromanage them to draw what’s in my head.

Outside of buying the Adobe Creative Suite and spending 100 hours to master it (which admittedly is on my list), what’s a girl to do? Here is what – Microsoft PowerPoint! I can’t believe that nobody taught me this before now, but it appears to be a little known trick and it is really, really easy to do it!

Two Key Prep Items:

1) Learn How to Convert Inches to Pixels
PowerPoint works in inches.  The web works in pixels.  You need to know how to convert them so you can build your graphics the right size.  Google this topic and you’ll find other resources but this one works well. You can download the tool here or just plug in measurements on this tool each time you need them.   Bookmark this site at least.

2) Update your Power Point to Export Higher Resolution Graphics
Do this only when you need to develop graphics for PRINT, or else it will mess with your pixel size.  If your graphics are for the web skip this step.  But for print, your graphics may look fuzzy or pixilated because the standard Power Point export setting is 96 dpi.  To fix this, you change your MS Registry files to 300 dpi.  Wait… don’t run! Microsoft gives great instructions on how to change it –and its easy to change and later change back. Visit this Microsoft page to do it.

P.S. If you do this step and later you want to develop web graphics you can also go back and undo.

Now Let’s Create Some Graphics!

We are going to create a website button.  PowerPoint is actually perfectly suited for this – especially version 2007 because you can use the Smart Art feature to add depth and shadows and more.

Pro Tip for creating web graphics – any time you create a web graphic it will look better and load faster if you create it in the exact size it needs to be rather than resizing it once it is live.  That is why the pixel size converter is important.

How to Create Website Buttons
Open PowerPoint, go to Home –> Insert –> Smart Art  then choose a style button you like. You may select one wqith 4 or more on the same page – just delete all the extemporary items you don’t want.  When you have one button,  type in your data you want to show.  Now comes the cool part. Spice it up a bit by double clicking your button and exposing the Smart Art Tools.  Select a pre-drawn design option to access pre-built shadows and glows you don’t have to create yourself.   When it looks good, here is how to save it:

1. Click on your graphic to select it.
2. Size it. If your graphic is smaller than the graphical area, then cut it and then re-paste it on the same page outside that larger graphic area that you started with.  This is to prevent you from saving a big white square around your graphic.
3. Group all the items you have created together if more than one by selecting  them all (hold shift button while you select each one) then right clicking to “group”
4. Save as picture – right click and select this option when everything is looking right.
5. Select a format that matches your need such as jpg, png.   Tip: Png typically saves a little higher quality.

Next week we’ll create a web banner in no time!

Then yesterday at Boulder Wordcamp 2010 I met a fellow blogger and online manager who works at Jive Software and we began discussing the age-old conundrum of Mac vs. PC. The conversation quickly turned to the topic of using Microsoft Office products on a Mac; at which point I found myself staring face to face with my first true non-Microsoft Office using person. Fascinated, I dug a little deeper into this world to ask how he really gets things done – and where he stores all of his un-polished and not-ready-for-prime time thoughts and documents.

His explanation sounded to me like it would if he was showing me how easy it was to get from San Fran to New York via United Airlines when I’d never heard of airplanes. It became clear that I obviously had not yet embraced this new way of getting things done that involved online collaboration, constant feedback and document sharing that he and his colleagues live daily.

As a result, I can’t fully explain his answers here except to say, for him not using Microsoft Office is a non-issue. He builds presentations for others in some online tool instead of PowerPoint, he keeps word-like docs in Evernote, and he really has no need for managing things like Excel spreadsheets (not his job). I asked if it was a problem to organize hundreds of documents and he assured me it was not. He also uses the Jive software environment (no surprise there) for complete flexibility to share, have others comment and update docs on an ongoing basis.

I woke up this morning still scratching my head on this topic and what I’ve decided is this: there is clearly a shift in work-flow thinking taking place today, driven primarily by the proliferation of social networking and collaboration tools that will take office workers way beyond the patchwork process of creating docs, saving them to a shared drive and emailing others to come take a look at them. This is the promise of “social” that most of us have yet to embrace but we’re seeing take shape in things like Google Wave, Google Apps, Jive Software, and the throngs of other community building tools out there I can’t even name but have only seen in product demos at places like Web 2.0 conferences.

What remains unclear is how we will all ubiquitously share information with those OUTSIDE our immediate network – aka I send you a Word doc you can read it now and what happens when I go to XYZ format you can’t read? And what happens when I’m NOT online? But perhaps again I’m not seeing the whole picture.

Bottom line we are shifting here. And no matter what the end social networking tool will be we’re going to see this as our future more and more. So is Microsoft Office dead? Not yet, but I’m not afraid to say – I think its reign as the de facto standard seems to be coming to an end.

Being an early adopter of a technology is not for the faint of heart, nor pocketbook.  But as Apple launches the iPhone 4 to a raving fan base an estimated 10 times the size of the 3G launch, its does make one wonder… “who the heck are these people?!”

Well, this time I’m one of them.  And I’m making the best of it by taking my blog to video and my video on the road. Follow me as I capture this historic launch on film from June 15 to June 24, 2010.  This short blog is the prequel.  Check it out then come back in a few days for some footage on what actually happens on launch day. And please give me feedback – do you like this format? Is it effective or cheesy? Be honest

Twitter

Recently, I was once again baptized into the world of social media via the Web 2.0 show in New York City. I cannot say this was the first time I was brought into the fold – and almost harangued – that I need to be make it a top priority to get connected to the ultra connected on Linked In, Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, Xanga, Ning, and Plaxo – to name just a few. And like all times before, I nodded and believed and agreed with it all, and I began ferociously tweeting from the conference, hoping to shorten my “21 days to a new habit” to just two. But as the conference ended and my plane departed from La Guardia headed toward Denver, I watched my mindset shift from the free thinking lifestyle of the conference back to that of the daily grind of a corporate marketer. And with that, I knew that soon my Tweet stream was about to again be as dry as the Santa Ana River Bed.

“But WHYYYY?” all the Twitterazzi cry? “How can you not see how important this is? Do you not want to be a thought leader? A visionary? Don’t you want to connect with like minded people? Don’t you know the market is already talking about you and you need to be part of the conversation???”

As I ponder the many reasons, I want to say for the record, I am not alone in this conundrum. In fact, a recent study by Weber Shandwick recently showed that while 73% of Fortune 100 companies have a Twitter account, fewer than 25% of them Tweet very much at all. And when they do Tweet, it’s pretty dry stuff. Surprised? Well then you must have never read a corporate press release.

I’ve taken my own little poll and asked a number of colleagues about their Twitter habits. As a result, I’ve come up with three main reasons corporate types don’t Tweet.

Reason #1 – Big Corporations are not Yet Fully Ready to Let the Lunatics Run the Asylum.
I know… it sounds ludicrous to you, especially if you are into social media. But organizations are understandably hesitant to let folks put in writing things that may not be fully baked. I mean, what if one of the customer service reps at Charmin Tweeted in his off time that he thought the Safeway brand was just as good? And is it ok for him to Tweet about his job one day then brag later about his after hour drinking excursions? Yes we all need to be responsible for our “personal brand” but even the thought of this loose arrangement strikes fear in the minds of not only execs but employees there is not a clear policy in place. And policies take time.

Reason #2 – We Really Have no Time
You can say it’s a matter of priorities and I will listen. But the truth is most of us in corporate America spend 75% of our days in meetings and the other 25% just catching up from those meetings. And when you are in a meeting – we all need to be focused on the work at hand, not taking a mental break to check our Twitter stream for interesting tidbits to write about! And yet we all are smart enough to know giving it to the intern doesn’t work if you want to be a thought leader and not just a promoter of junk news. As a result, Twitter chat suffers.

Reason #3 – Our Days Are Filled With Work We can’t Talk About “Socially”
This is probably the biggest reason of all that corporate types do not Tweet. At work, we deal with clients and issues that are undeniably off-limits for sharing in the Twittersphere. Whether we are innovating new products, making strategic marketing decisions, dealing with clients who demand our complete privacy, closing deals or working the internal politics inside our companies, the thoughts and topics surrounding this are to remain inside the corporate walls. And while we often bring outside information in to mix with our internal thoughts, it is rarely a good idea to Tweet about them for fear of just letting on where exactly things may be headed.

In the end, all of this leaves us with not just an obscure policy but nothing to talk about and no time to do it. But since social networking and the Twitter lifestyle shows no sign of slowing down, we do need to shift our thinking a bit. I would argue the first thing is that if you are a non-Twittering corporate type, take a breath and drop the Twitter guilt. It’s ok and you are not alone. Your role does not make Twittering a sound use of your time given the current infrastructure. Don’t force it.

Instead, we need to think about how we can formalize our social media strategy by bringing it deeper into the daily work our companies do. For those of us in marketing, it should be a major part of our strategies for 2010. Don’t give this role to the newbies, yet don’t just try to do it yourself without giving up something else. Instead, develop a more web-centered marketing and media strategy where Twitter and social media can become the domain of some or all of your team members as part of their official role. And if you don’t have a policy, perhaps it’s time for one.

It’s your turn. What is your company doing about corporate Twittering? How do you manage your time as it relates to social media?

Ok call me an old curmudgeon – I suppose I almost qualify.  But for those of us who don’t even have the time during the day to fill up our coffee mugs, social media is just NOT something I WANT TO EMBRACE! Yes I know it’s all the rage… it’s all the thing to do and saying this pretty much disqualifies me as marketer of the year.  In fact, I know marketers everywhere who are building their PowerPoint decks, pitching their expertise and even running to the bank to cash their checks after helping their clients get up and running on “social media”.

Let me clarify – you cannot blame me for just being ignorant. Oh contraire!  I am all TOO in the know. I have a blog, a Facebook page with gawd knows how many “friends”, Linked in and Plax profiles with 140+ contacts, and I even have two Twitter accounts.  Yes I’m there.  And I get it – it’s easy – it’s NOW and it’s viral.  It helps with SEO, it connects you to the world, and it even does your laundry.

 But really…  are we so distracted and suffering from Attention Deficit Disorder that we all need to get our news in 140 characters tidbits and constantly alt/tab back and forth 100 times a day to see what our high school friends are doing RIGHT NOW?

I just came back from the Forrester Marketing Summit where social media topics peppered every conversation – how X company used it to rally the troops, how we need to get into it because our readers/customers/clients/competitors are there now and talking about us, and more. Yes I know we need to be there.  But I don’t wanna! Without dedicating someone to do this full time (good luck with that!), all us marketers and customer service people and everyone else are  just supposed to add it to the pile of growing things we all already do every day.  I’ve got to cut out something – and I cut out sleep a couple of years ago so I’m not sure what else to give! Professionally, it’s a pain. And personally, unless you really have no life… really who has time for it?!

Question – how would you like to spend your Saturday? Jeeping in the mountains, getting a pedi at the spa, or updating your Facebook page with pictures from your 1986 yearbook? 

I have had very heated debates about this with the now famous Twitterer Holly C Hickman who is both following and has 250+ followers at last count.  To check her procrastination meter I just visited and found she Tweeted today approx 2 tweets every hour pretty much all day today.  Ok, so it’s like her smoke break.

“But seriously,” she says, “you can use it connect with like-minded souls, express your brand, find new clients, get to know others on new levels….”  And I add, “to feed your obsessions, let your narcissism shine and spy on your competitors.” 

If Dr. Suess were alive he’d no doubt be saying, “You can tweet from a bar, or Tweet inside your car, you can Tweet from train, tweet with others in Spain, you can tweet it from a mountaintop, or Tweet inside the hardware shop.  Tweeting is all I do, Tweeting is for me and You!

Do I sound like Any Rooney?

Old school marketing purists would say that marketing drives – or at least layers a thick coat of public veneer onto a company’s corporate culture that is believable and sellable to the end user as a differentiator.  But as those of us on the inside know all too well, what is purported to the public as a company’s prime differentiator often has nothing to do with the internal realities the employees live on a daily basis. Yet, in today’s increasingly transparent one-to-one marketing world where a single angst-ridden customer can make or break your next quarter with one well-positioned You Tube video, and where disgruntled employees are free to vent company dirty laundry to the world unfettered, organizations are fast realizing it is high time to ensure their external messaging and internal realities are in sync.

Alex Frankel wrote a book Punching In, The Unauthorized Adventures of a Front-Line Employee, about which I recently listened to a podcast on the AMA web site.

To write this book Frankel went undercover for a couple of years as a “front line” employee at a number of well-known retail brands while clandestinely writing the book on his experience.  As such, he lived the relationship between corporate culture and external branding from the perspective of UPS, Apple, Starbucks, the Gap and a few others – including the Container Store who chose not to hire him because he (admittedly) didn’t have much passion for what they sell and through their arduous interview process it seemed they could sense it. 

As an employee of each of these companies, Frankel attended training programs, wore outfits proudly and watched how each company’s vision was put forth to employees in how they were expected to act, think and represent the brand on the front lines. His experiences on culture and brand solidified for him the belief that in the best and most successfully branded companies, public messaging and internal messaging were closely intertwined – and more importantly, fed off one another.   

Translation – you can hang a sign saying “customer service is our top priority” but if it’s not, it won’t take long for your customers to smell a rat and run the other way.   Conversely, if you promote a service mentality as your differentiator and not just “tell” your employees as much, but truly empower them to take that message to heart and act always with that thought in mind – you will be amazed at the passion, creativity and effort they put toward making that service brand true. 

So what is the takeaway for today’s savvy marketers?
Your people are living, walking, and talking representatives of your brand everywhere they go.  BuildHire  people who want to drink the Kool-Aid and fire those who refuse or think they are too good for it.   Train people on the vision and get them to engage in its message and internalize what it means to them with every action they take.  Then give them the freedom to make that vision their own and to have a little fun with it.   your brand based on a consistent vision and driving passion that comes directly from the top that says who you are, why you are different and what are your goals as an organization. 

Lastly, only after you’ve branded your company on the inside, can you successfully take these differentiators to market on the outside and have them stick.  Sure, now its time to ramp up those mass market advertising campaigns, media parties and new media strategies.  Write your ads and pitch your stories about your company surrounding this amazing differentiator, and don’t neglect to contemplate how you will use the new media to put forth your message as well. 

Brainstorm about new ways you can engage your customers and your front line staff in meaningful conversations that further your sales and your brand every chance you get. Whether its through blogs, social networking sites, the creation of a customer service portal or any other number of innovations, take time to think through them and try some new ideas on for size.  Test the waters and don’t be afraid of failing as long as you remain true to your brand. Through this, you will build not only customer conversations and evangelists but find new markets and long-term success.   

That was life before transparency.  All this fun happened before companies figured out just how much extra the ad agency was making on the media buys …  before customers could make or break brands with blogs and videos and emails the company had no idea were even happening… and before marketing was expected to justify its existence with metrics like every other department in the organization.

Oh, we marketers fought metrics tooth and nail – because as any true marketer believes, marketing is indeed a mix of science and art.  But in the data-driven society we now all live, marketing metrics are here to stay.  This is a double-edged sword for marketers but if used correctly, I think we can learn to love it. 

Consider for example, the consulting firm Communications Consulting Worldwide (CCW), who uses a statistical model to help companies put a dollar figure on their brand equity based by reviewing a sophisticated mixture of data.  As profiled in BusinessWeek,  CCW mixes metrics such as historical stock prices, satisfaction surveys, views of stock analysts, magazine clippings and financial data together in a sophisticated statistical model to derive a dollar value of the company’s reputation.  CCW then feeds this information to the marketing teams, who use it to devise and strategically place market messages that have shown historically to resonate with key audiences. The teams then monitor the stock price as they place these messages, measuring how the market responds.  While not everybody is sold on this model, their information seems to show that boosting one’s reputation amongst investors can have huge financial impact.  The article cites that if CVS Pharmacy had the reputation of Walgreens, its stock would rise 6.9% representing a $4B boost in market value.  Other examples cited: if Coca Cola had the reputation of Pepsi, its market value would increase 3.3% or $4B.  And if Walmart had the reputation of Target, its value would rise 5% or almost $10B in stock value.

Most companies don’t have the budget or inclination to go to this extreme, but as marketing leaders struggle to show the value of their work, finding a way to calculate and display meaningful metrics to senior leadership is more important than ever.

I keep Marketing NPV’s “Marketing by the Dashboard Light” book close at hand for this purpose. It provides a thorough explanation of the process of selecting metrics to monitor, and a number of good examples along the way.  For marketers struggling to prove their worth inside the board room, it may just be invaluable.