Today I (tearfully) retire my email signature

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I’m a strong advocate of having an email signature that helps me know who you are.  I want you to know who I am, and what I can offer you.  Thus, I created and have used this email signature for a long, long time:

In Outlook (with html):

In Gmail (no html):

After getting a comment on my LinkedIn blog (it’s pretty funny), and another comment on Young PR Pros (in jest, of course), I decided it was time to try something else.

So here’s my new signature:

I could only do this since I redesigned JasonAlba.com (it used to just be a blog, but now has a landing page with all my other stuff).

I worry that people won’t know about all the cool stuff I do, and not know what I’m about.  It’s kind of scary.  However, I wonder how many people previously sifted through my other signature… how many JibberJobber signups I got because of my sig, how many book sales, blog readers, CEO Webinar purchases…

It’s kind of like when you come up with your 30 Second Commercial… you feel like you are leaving so much out, and how in the world could you cut stuff out??  But you have to.  And so did I.

It’s a new day, and perhaps I’ll regret it, but I doubt anyone will suggest I shorten my signature.  Scary but good… that’s my gut feel right now.

What it takes to Go Big from the Go Big Always blog

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When I first read this blog title it reminded me of Amway.  I thought it was going to be a lot of hype.  It would be the same ol’ cliche things you always read about:

  • be brave
  • be creative
  • be intuitive (in touch with the market, etc.)
  • nurture relationships
  • and, of course, execute.

If it were a post about that stuff, with the same ol’ cheer leading, I wouldn’t talk about it here.

In fact, each of the five points above are the same five points in the What it takes to Go Big blog post.  But you HAVE TO click over to see the post.  It’s fascinating, and even if you don’t READ any of the descriptive paragraphs, the images say it all.  AWESOME post.

Hat tip to Chris Brogan on Twitter who shared the link.

The Yahoo Group Movement

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I’ve been preaching Yahoo Groups as social tools, and recently started a new Yahoo Group as part of my marketing makeover.

I got the idea a few days ago and it got me really jazzed. Kind of (KIND OF) modeling it off of what FlyLady has done (not as intrusive, though), I’ll send out ONE actionable career management tip each day (probably limited M-F). I came up with about 30 things already, and am tapping into my partners for more.

Since I set up the JibberJobber One Thing Group, I have made a few necessary changes as a Group owner:

  1. Change all permissions so members can’t see other members, add links, etc.  Privacy is key, but I also want to have control over what’s going on here, and not worry about moderation.  Kind of non-social, I know, but the purpose of this tool is not to create community and a collaborative environment, rather to get information out. 
  2. Update my JibberJobber logo.  I set the Group up on Wednesday and had two short sentences.  Today I put in a tiny bit of eye candy… well, I put in a logo with colors and stuff.  Definitely a must-do imho.
  3. Updated the copy on the front page.  Two sentences aren’t enough… I now have a few short paragraphs AND links to relevent websites (JibberJobber and LinkedIn).  I went to the My Virtual Power Forum for ideas on what could/should be on that front page.  I hope this is compelling but can update it anytime I want.

I also blogged about it, and I tweeted it a few times, and there are 47 members.  I need to promote it elsewhere, which I’ll do over time.  For now this is a good start.

Next on my list, read Kathie Thomas’ posts about Yahoo groups:

What you should and shouldn’t do at Yahoogroups

Moderating a Yahoogroup

Being a member of a Yahoogroup

How To Use Yahoogroups for Forums

Let me know what else I need to know!  I think the key for me now is to GET THE POSTS OUT daily!

My mind is in marketing mode

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I’ve realized two things since I’ve started my business:

  1. My business evolves and matures, and is differnet than what I thought it would be (and will probably be different in two years than what I can conceptualize right now).
  2. I have a lot of cool stuff that I can put a value on.  Aside from JibberJobber, I have books, webinars and consulting.  All of these are revenue stream opportunities.

Over the last few months I’ve been thinking a lot about revenue streams… or should I say opportunities?  There are many things that make up the composition of “ideal” in my business:

  • Automated.  Has to be something that won’t require me to do any fulfillment.  JibberJobber upgrades are one example.  Book sales through my publisher is another example.
  • Repeat value.  I have to provide *stuff* that is valuable, or else I won’t feel good about hawking my warez.  Is this stuff that helps people, or businesses (more of an emphasis on people)?  Really??  If it’s just vapor-value, I don’t want to do it.  Don’t want to worry about returns, complaints, and certainly not diminishing my brand.
  • Complementary.  I hear you can make good money selling stuff on ebay.  Or getting into an MLM.  Or flying a plane, or doing brain surgery. Okay, that’s extreme, but you get my point.  I want to stay within a certain boundary of what I provide, produce, offer and sell.  Would any of the people who buy one product be interested in another product, or other products, I have?  
  • Seizing the window (of opportunity).  I hate to miss a window of opportunity, so the info has to be timely.  LinkedIn is timely, so the book does well.  What else is timely, and what might I be doing that isn’t timely?
  • Not fad-based.  Would have been nice to have gotten in on some fads, but really, I am not interested in producing a fad unless I can sell for a grundle of money.  I want something with long-term, sustainable value.

Understand, I have my “product line.”  I’m not looking for other mousetraps, or products, or services… I’m just thinking about how to better market my stuff.

Want to join me on the journey?  Your welcome to – I’ll blog about it here!

I hate binding books

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I’m working on the second edition of my LinkedIn book.  It’s going to come out very nice.  

I went through the first book and red-lined all the stuff that needed to change… mostly grammar and spelling.  I am amazed at how many changes needed to be made – I’m not sure how many but I’m guessing at least five per page, and there are about 100 pages.  

How could 500 errors get through????

It pays to have a good editor… that’s what I learned.

I also learned, as I went through and incorporated the edits into the manuscript, that it pays to have the book spiral bound.  Not something I like to do, and it actually took me out of commission for a few hours while I was waiting to have it done (so I canned peaches with my family while I was waiting), but WOW – what a huge difference it makes to be able to lay the book out and not worry about it closing while I’m typing.

I think I’m going to keep this spiral-bound book, with markings and highliter, as a reminder of things: 

Like how I thought the first book was the bomb, but it really could use hundreds of edits/fixes.

And how a $4 investment in spiral binding really saved my sanity during the process.

Amazing how valuable $4 is sometimes!

Google Help : Cheat Sheet

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I love Shally’s LinkedIn Cheatsheet, and just happened across this Google cheatsheet (this one is actually endorsed (made by) Google folks).

I went there because the search on my wordpress blog sucks, and I needed to find something.  I was checking to see if I had done a post on “job search tips” before I wrote Job Search Tips: What I Should Have Done In The First 30 Days.  Here was the search I finally did:

“job search tips” site:www.jibberjobber.com

There’s a lot more you can do with any search engines, but a heartfelt thanks to Google for posting this cheatsheet 🙂

Twitter tools at a conference

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(I mistakenly made this a PAGE instead of a Post… this was from spring, 2008)

I’m presenting at the newcommforum.com conference and it seems that over 60% of the audience is twittering (tweeting) DURING the presentations. In fact, perhaps the conversation on Twitter during the presentation is more interesting than the actual presentation?? Talk about disruptive, especially as a presenter.

Anyway, here are some links to help you track a certain “thing” in twitter…. people here are using the hash mark (pound) like this: #sncr (sncr is the name of the group, pronounced “snicker”):

This definitely makes the list of top 5 valuable things to do with Twitter (and makes the information manageable).

Dabbling in affiliate marketing, only when it makes sense

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I get requests to join affiliate programs weekly.  One crossed my virtual desk and after a few e-mails I decided to sign up to see if it would really.  My key criteria is that it has to make sense to my JibberJobber users, as I don’t want to cheapen the offering I give them now, only enhance the value.

That’s where RevResponse comes in.  I now have a cobranded site where my readers/users can find publications they are interested in, from magazines to whitepapers.  The value-add criteria for me was that this was free for my users to sign up for, and no bait-and-switch later.  My contact told me that was the case… sounds too good to be true, right?

Check this out – just for blogging about it, they are paying me $50 buckaroos…. I’m not sure how they make their money but they seem to have a good group of affiliates, and I’m happy to be associated with them.  I’ll start introducing their publication offerings in the blog soon, and then during the JibberJobber user experience after we get some demographic information from the user.

Sound cool?  If you are a blogger, you can do this to. What do you get when your reader subscribes to a magazine or signs up for a white paper?  At least $1.50 per signup… and up to $20 per signup (let me know which ones those are!).

If you are interested, click on the image to get started!  What do you think?

Analysis of UPS e-mail scam/spam

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In the olden days I was an IT manager, and had significant hands-on responsibilities with corporate computer users as well as e-mail stuff (once we brought the e-mail server in-house).

I hated spam, but knew that it was a battle that we would never win.  Anti-spam technology wouldn’t win out against spammers who have tons of time and talent on their hands, and lots of patience.  And, as long as there are people who continue to click on it (and it happened all the time, from the n00bie to the CEO, from the non-techie to my tech team, everyone clicked on stupid stuff (except me, of course)).

Anyway, check out this image, and the descriptions below for each point I bring out:

  1. This looks pretty legit… based on this subject line, I thought it was real.
  2. This is the first red flag – look in the brackets.  Why is the UPS coming from an @bowenrealestate.com address???
  3. This slipped past me the first few times I looked, but guess what – I don’t use this e-mail address!  They scraped it from the web somewhere.
  4. This is one of the biggest red flags – a zip attachment.  No legit company should send you a zip file from out of the blue.  If you get a zip file from anyone you don’t know, delete the entire e-mail.  Harsh, perhaps, but it beats spending days messing around trying to fix a virus.
  5. “July the 1st?”  Who would write that??  Also, an e-mail from UPS would have proper formatting, which means a space between the two paragraphs.
  6. This was kind of subtle also, except I’m a nut for the period… which you’ll notice is missing.  Doh!
  7. This is not an e-mail signature I’d expect to see from a legit company.  If nothing else, I’d think they would put in a gray-font disclosure statement… this looks too bare.  Not to mention, “Your UPS” is not the way they would refer to themselves… perhaps Your UPS Team, or something like that.  Oh yeah, forgot the “sincerely,” did ya?

I think this post will help those offshore spammers more than the poor, unsuspecting recipient.  Nothing helps the poor, unsuspecting recipient, and they keep the anti-spam vendors in business as much as the spammers themselves!