Practical Tip #1: You Cannot Do What I Have Failed To Do Here

Do you see that gap?

Check the date from the last post to now. Yep, 8 months. Embarrassing!
Sometimes an honest conversation isn't pretty, but it has to be said.

So I'm making the commitment to posting daily with fresh, timely, practical, and honest conversations.

When you engage with customers and the world, you have to say something every day. After 12 years of marketing online, content is still king. It had better be timely and relevant, too.

Did you make a customer so happy that they told someone else about what happened? Did you start the conversation about making your product or service better? Did the conversation somehow improve the process of interacting with customers quicker, faster, better, more fun, or exciting?

That's the genesis of great content. They are the fundamentals of what you're trying to accomplish in your organization. In a networked, online world, producing that content is the new road to a business competitive advantage, or a transformation of someone's life.

Eight Things to Look For When Hiring for the Web

John McWade was the first desktop publisher in the world. He beta tested Aldus Pagemaker in 1985, and the rest is history. He recently had an excellent post on his blog called "Hiring A Designer? Eight Things To Look For." The same criterion fit for hiring anyone to improve your organization's web presence.

They are:

1. Passion, vision, and self-motivation.
2. An Understandable Vocabulary.
3. Inquisitive intelligence.
4. Good conceptual skills
5. A portfolio.
6. Total Projects - Websites, Social Media, Design, Print.
7. Real-world experience.
8. Production skills.

Visit the article for a deeper discussion about each one. It's time for an honest conversation. We don't take work that does not fit the first criteria. We must also share your passion and vision, first and foremost. If we do, I truly believe we can help any small to medium sized organization with #2 to #7 on this list.

Making the Commitment

In the next few weeks, I'll go through the process of certification from Google on Google Analytics and Google AdWords. I'm really looking forward to it.

Will keep you posted and will be happy to show off my shiny new official badge from Google on the home page.

Also, I wanted to state the following for the record. Honest Conversation.com does NOT focus on marketing that is known as shilling, stealth marketing, infiltration, or spam. We are a "white hat" search engine optimization (SEO) outfit.