Advertising Jedi vs Sith, Episode 4, The research is ON!

OK, here's the skinny. The store front and back end is getting a major rework this summer. Which puts the online side of things on the bottom of the list. Now that doesn't mean I can't do my own thing in the mean time. Down here in central Florida, there are very few types of collectibles that sell through the summer months. So at this point it seems to be best to sit back, collect more money and do some more research. For instance, I can always use more info about offline sales. There are a ton of different ways to advertise. With in, there are over a thousand ways to fail miserably and waste a lot of money quickly.

With this known, I'm going to start here, http://astore.amazon.com/todpas-20/detail/0749473401. This book should offer some great in-sight. Here's what ya get, "Presenting modern marketing communication theories and tools in an accessible and jargon-free way, this new sixth edition of Marketing Communications, has been updated to specifically focus on integrating online and offline techniques with a social media approach.  All the chapters include new mini-case studies and real-life examples to reflect the many digital developments which have occurred since the fifth edition's publication in 2011."

So to end this post I also want to include this simple fact. Any and all advertisers should always keep in mind that specific generations use totally different types of media to find what they seek these days. In today's marketing world, it is crucial to know your reach and your followers, hope this helps.

Advertising Jedi vs Sith, Episode 3, best free advertising on and offline.

As an entrepreneur, we know that change is a guarantee. So instead of attempting to explain every aspect of whats going as planned and what's not. I am simply going to post about the flow of what I'm doing in the now.  Successes, failure, trials and content. So as this series grows, I am going to let the readers give points to the Jedi or to the Sith, for each post. Because, ...hard to see, the future is.

So, for this post we'll simply check out a basic advertising rule. But first, here is what I'm doing in the now. First and for most, I'm slowly setting up a main income stream. Buying and selling, takes money right ? Not to mention, paying bill's and etc. In the mean time, I've been testing the local area with helping a few people find and sell things. Basically, by word of mouth and some free advertising. So far, one item has been sold and 2 items were sent back. Doing things this way takes time, because you have to really feel out the territory. To get a good idea of what people seek for the right price. Pending that the items can be found and re-sold at a fair price. So this conversation is a (to-be-continued), situation.

Now getting back to how I'm going about finding and selling merchandise. With free advertising online and offline. Here in good ole' Highlands County, we have news papers and little paper shopper guides (coupon booklets), etc. As I'm sure most if not all cities have them these days. These are simple and free advertising tactics which can be used online and offline for the same item. But like other free ways, they don't even closely compare to this tactic, which I will now talk about in the next paragraph.

Yes, I am talking about the number 1 free offline advertising tactic of all time. Do you know what it is ? Your most likely correct, "Word of  Mouth". With the right pitch, story-line or incentive. One person will tell someone else. And the hope is that they tell more than one person and those people tell several people, etc. Yup, basic knowledge this day and age right ? OK, so does anyone know what the online equivalency of this would be ?

I'm sure at least some of you already know. And I can say it's definitely not online classifieds or shopping guides. What I'm talking about targets the exact audience you seek, free of charge and of course, that would be, "Organic Traffic." Search engines, blogs, articles, etc. Basically the key content points of the internet, that can be fully utilized 100% free. Instead of word of mouth it becomes the word of the page. And yet it still yields the exact same result.

Well, that about sums it up for this month. If you've read this far, feel free to leave a comment and your opinion (Sith or Jedi !??!).

Advertising Jedi or Misleading Sith Series, Episode 2.

As I enter the room to speak with the Jedi council. The force becomes stronger than ever. This month my focus is the web site I hinted about last month. But, there are some changes coming that were not apart of the original plan. It seems the hosting company for the site is shutting down. As of now, the site or at least some of it still works. And is suppose to stay live into March of 2016. So as it sits, this site was named, "Kenilworth Consignments." since the link will be null and void soon, I'll just print the link, ( http://fineartsmt.acoxi.com/ ). Simply copy/ paste it in a new window or tab to check out the web site until it closes.

With this knowledge, I now have to adapt and overcome this simple situation. As an entrepreneur, little issues like this don't even slow me down any more. You see, I just decided to re-arrange the site before receiving the news. The company that this site represented is owned by a man named Mike Tellshow. Which Also owns other small companies. And eventually, these other companies will have an online presence by me "Troy Merriam," as well. So to keep it simple, I will create a much larger site on a better hosting program. This way, all the keywords and companies will be defined by their own niches and still be on one site.

So this months focuses are as follow, Find better hosting, create a new but simple web site, Create inner pages based on key words for each business and tie it all together with the home page. As this comes together I also have to make sure it connects to an advertising campaign I'm working on.

I am hoping this campaign goes well because it is an offline campaign. So far I have these keywords set, Antiques, Arts and Collectibles. But with in the new site I mention above, there will be many more. But, this will have to wait till the next post. I wouldn't want to give up too much info too quickly. I hope you check back in the beginning of march for my next post. Revealing I hope it is. hard to see the next post is becoming. Thanks for reading and may the force be with you.

Advertising Jedi or Misleading Sith Series, Episode 1.

In the intro post I talked about creating an advertising set up. That should focus on, online/ offline sales and advertising. Since your reading this I can assume you've figured out I have completed this goal. To accomplish this goal, here's what I did.

Step 1: I created a Facebook page, "Highlands County Fl. Buy & Sell Market." This page gathers Fb groups that buy, sell and trade with-in Highlands county Fl. Doing this helps centralize buyers and sellers over the entire area. This not only helps each individual group grow, but also puts my page in front of them.

Step 2: A Facebook group was created,"Highlands and Heartland free Advertisements." Here the group allows it's members to advertise and/ or Sell anything. While focusing on Florida's Heartland. Which is about two thirds of the state. Now, I didn't create this one. A co-worker and friend which is my dad, made this group to help out.

Step 3: I re-vamped an entire website, "Ocger's, The Force Social Network." In order to focus on a global buy sell trade market. I knew this would have to be huge. So, what a better way than to give hundreds of thousands of people a free business profile to advertise their business, sell-ables or causes. As a plus, the site is already search engine optimized, and advertised for everyone.

Since the Facebook page and group are new. I'm going to let them simmer for a little while. In the mean time I have a few tweaks to accomplish on the force site and I'm bring another web site into the mix. Yes, another website. So stay tuned, revealing, ...episode 2 will be.