Archive for category Social Media
Defending your value
Posted by Steven Buehler in Social Media, business on March 5, 2010
Get over the 22K price tag. It’s amazing what this has brought out of people. I’m seeing a lot about you from how the negative folks responded. I have lots of other price tags, too. 10K-30K for a whole month of New Marketing Labs time. See that? You can get plenty more value if you buy my team instead of just a day of me. I could do this all day. It’s what I’ve chosen to charge, not what you have to pay. Pay what you want. It’s called a marketplace. It’s part of MARKETing. Right?
Years and years and years of free stuff shared all the time and folks get a bit worked up over rates. How do you think I afford to do what I do? How do you think I can afford to flit around and visit everyone face to face and spend time at free and inexpensive events, and why do you think I travel away from my family so often? I earn my living. I earn every hour of it. Begrudge me that and I don’t really know what to say.
Just wanted to take a moment to repeat what I twittered to Chris Brogan after reading his post (he stopped following me on Twitter shortly afterwards; I’m not going to speculate whether this was related to my comment or not):
@chrisbrogan You don’t need to defend yourself. Those who see the value will pay for the value. Those that don’t, won’t. End of topic. about 15 hours ago via Seesmic in reply to chrisbrogan
I know enough about business to understand the law of supply and demand and the rules of competition. Chris charges $22,000 for a day of his undivided attention applied to your business, because he chooses to. It keeps his client base down to two or three clients a month, which I assume affords him the ability to do his best for those two or three clients instead of trying to divide a finite supply of attention to too many clients if he were to charge less. People and companies that are genuinely interested in Chris’ knowledge applied to their specific environment will pay the amount he asks for it.
In defense of Mr. Brogan, it’s not like he’s reserving his “special sauce” for those paying clients. He gives away the same advice on his blog for free; his paying clients get the same advice in a means specific to the client’s particular situation and objectives. Clients pay his bills, keep the lights on, put the food on his table; clients are what give him a living. And I’ve seen the cost of living in the Boston area—it’s the only reason I haven’t moved up there yet (central Florida’s cost of living is about half Boston’s). I for one am grateful that Chris has chosen to publish his advice for free via his blog because it has some good nuggets not just for marketing, but for life in general. And, Mr. Brogan also takes the time to give credit where credit is due and take note of people that make a difference to him.
Credit where credit is due—J. C. Hutchins
Posted by Steven Buehler in Credit Where Credit is Due, Social Media on February 25, 2010
J. C. Hutchins (via Facebook)
Bravo to thriller author J. C. Hutchins for his valiant effort in bringing together podcasting, multimedia, social networking, and print to create the 7th Son series of thriller novels.
Unfortunately, in spite of the valiant effort put forth by grass roots movements across the Internet, St. Martin’s Griffin, after determining that the response to the first volume of 7th Son didn’t work out financially, decided not to publish the rest of the series; Hutchins has also decided not to pursue another publisher and move on to other creative pursuits, according to his blog.
J. C.’s work made a number of firsts:
7th Son: Descent made history in the way it was promoted: It was the first mainstream novel to be simultaneously released in free serialized audiobook, PDF and in text format (at BoingBoing.net). It was the first book to use serialized prequel audio short stories as part of its release promotion. It was the first novel to have an accompanying music album (the Anyman EP) sung by a character from the book, timed to its release. I am very proud of these groundbreaking accomplishments.
But he also notes something important that people hoping to make money online really need to know:
Put simply: The new media model viably supports only the most blessed and talented of authors. The time, effort and money I invest in entertaining you for free pulls my attention and talent away from projects that can generate revenue. While podcasting, podcast fiction, and — most importantly — your support and evangelism has positively impacted my life and career in ways I’ll never be able to fully express, I cannot continue to release free audiofiction if I wish to make a living wage with my words.
One of the major obstacles of publishing over the Internet is that the millions that use it now expect to obtain the content they want for free, and until the current “Great Recession” we’ve been spoiled by companies who sacrificed their revenue streams to grant our wish. Now many companies are reevaluating that model. “Free” is not a model that is going to ever create sustained, workable revenue.
Social media update
Posted by Steven Buehler in Social Media on February 13, 2010
Verizon cancelled my FiOS account a couple of weeks ago after trying to catch up on my bill, so I’ve been forced to change providers (back to Bright House) and also change my contact information for Yahoo! and its services.
- Flickr® – My original account stevenwbuehler is still there, but I’m not able to update it anymore because it’s tied to the verizon.net account that’s now cancelled. So, I had to open a new Flickr® account as sacredproject. If you’re currently a contact with swbuehler, stevenbuehler, or stevenwbuehler, you’ll want to update it to sacredproject.
- Yahoo! – My Yahoo! ID for IM and other stuff is stevenwbuehler.
Credit where credit is due—Chris Brogan
Posted by Steven Buehler in Social Media on February 4, 2010
As a fellow participant in the blogosphere, it’s good when one of our own receives major recognition in the public mainstream. So, this post is to congratulate Chris Brogan (@chrisbrogan) on his recent inclusion in Forbes’ “Web Celeb 25.”
Chris is a social media and internet marketing blogger, mover, and shaker who’s also an author (“Trust Agents” with Julian Smith [amazon.com affiliate link
Credit where credit is due—Christopher S. Penn
Posted by Steven Buehler in Credit Where Credit is Due, Social Media on February 1, 2010
Christopher S. Penn
…to Christopher S. Penn (@cspenn), who has left the surly confines of Edvisors for Blue Sky Factory. Wish I could get a new job that quickly!
(image stolen from his web site 
)
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I'm a 30-something blogger, sometimes writer/musician, and geek-of-all-trades starting life over in Plant City, Florida, with the faith of my youth, the love of my life, and prayers for a job before my unemployment compensation runs out in April 2010. I'm also the host of The Sacred Project Podcast—This Ain't Your Grandma's Church Music!
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