Brandonomics // Trends, Tips & Resources for (Wannabe) Dot Com Moguls

March 8th, 2008 // Brandon Hauber

Being labeled an introvert doesn't necessarily mean your not a "people person" but it does often mean that you will avoid human interaction whenever possible. Unfortunately in the creative world, people often like to meet face to face before handing you their business. For introverts like me, these meetings can cause an increase in stress and anxiety, yet are required to be successful. Here are a few tips I have learned along the way to help cope with the unnecessary fears of client meetings.

Make an Agenda
When you feel anxious, nervous or stressed out, your mind becomes more forgetful. It's always important to prepare an agenda with everything you want/need to cover in the meeting. This is also a good time to put yourself in the client's shoes and think of possible questions they might throw at you at different parts of the meeting. Use your agenda as a script and rehearse it prior to the meeting.

Meditate, Exercise or Yoga
The days and hours leading up to a meeting are often the most stressful. Even if you don't fit healthy activities like meditation and exercise into your daily life, you should definitely make time when your feeling stressed about a meeting. Being too stressed about a specific event can lead to more serious health problems like depression. Meditation will help relieve unnecessary concerns or doubts you may have which will give you a more positive attitude in your meeting. Exercise or yoga can relieve physical stress which will also help your mental attitude prior to a meeting.

Dress Your Style
I once worked with a guy that believed you always had to wear a suit if you wanted to be taken seriously. He was clearly not comfortable wearing suits and the one he always wore didn't fit right and made him look like he borrowed his pants from MC Hammer. The end result was him looking flushed and nervous in meetings while he was constantly wondering if the client thought he looked as unnatural as he felt.

It's always important to feel comfortable in a meeting. If you're a "creative type" (designer, developer, photographer etc.), people often even expect a more casual style. If your style is sweatpants and a hoodie, you will need to step it up a bit; you don't want to look like you wandered in straight out of bed. Best judgment should always be used in determining what is appropriate for each circumstance but remember that the more comfortable you feel, the more comfortable you will look when talking or presenting to your client.

Be Dynamic
It is often hard to gauge your client's attitude and personality prior to a meeting. You're client may be a straight to the point business shrew or a down to Earth free spirit. They might even be a freaking psychopath. Either way, you need to stay mentally present and be prepared to adjust your strategy. If the client mentions having a busy day, skip the small talk and get to the point. If your client is talkative, engage them in a conversation (but eventually get to your agenda). Being dynamic and on your feet will keep your client interested and result in a more happy client experience.

Gain Experience
Have a post meeting roundup and think about what worked well and what did not. Keep some type of record or journal that you can look at before future meetings to prepare. Every meeting will not go as planned but it won't be all for nothing, as long as you learn from your mistakes and focus on you strengths.

Additional Reading

8 Essential Tips to Overcoming Shyness & Making a Good Impression

10 Phrases Every Freelance Should Kick-Out of Their Vocabulary

Meeting a New Client

10 Things you Need to Know About Your Prospects

Apparently it Really Sucks to Work at Adsense

March 5th, 2008 // Brandon Hauber

Like many others, I am yet to receive a response to specifically why my Adsense account was unfairly banned. Maybe the problems with Adsense can be blamed on the fact that Adsense and Adwords are reportedly the crap jobs of Google where promising college elite have their spirits broken with bad management and 45K salary. A current Google employee tells Vallywag:

"I'm surprised that you guys don't shed more light on this, but AdWorders only make $45,000 base plus meager bonuses that are only a few hundred per quarter. It's the worst department because everyone hates their job "Hello, this is AdWords, how may I help you?" The dreaded phone shift, chat shifts, answering emails is the core job. They don't tell you that when recruiting and hiring kids from elite universities."

So if you happen to be the unlucky Adsense representative finally getting around to reviewing my appeal, I want you to know I understand that having a crappy job sucks but give me my damn account back. It's not my fault Google killed your dreams.

[via Vallywag]
[photo by: altemark]

UPDATE: Google recently reinstated my account with no mention of why it was suspended. At the risk of being called a hypocrite, I will eventually put Adsense back into a few advertising spaces on this site but for the most park my replacement ads are matching or out performing the Adsense ads that I was using prior to getting temporarily banned.

Google Cant Handle the Truth. Another Example of Why Adsense Sucks

March 3rd, 2008 // Brandon Hauber

Anyone who uses Google Adsense to display advertising on their website has probably seen the many warnings online about how Adsense will unfairly disable publisher's accounts without explanation. While this well known practice is shady and goes against the Google pledge to "do no evil", it is within their legal rights because users agree that "Google may at any time, in its sole discretion, terminate all or part of the Program, terminate this Agreement, or suspend or terminate the participation of any Property in all or part of the Program for any reason".

An Adsense account may be banned for many unfair reasons such as an increase in regular traffic or even by simply having a malicious user clicking on ads repeatedly. In my case, Google recently disabled my account with no mention of suspected fraudulent activity but rather because my "AdSense account has posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers" and that keeping my account in their network "may financially damage our advertisers in the future". Really? My little blog may financially damage Google's advertisers? How can that be?

I guess someone at Google didn't like my recent post about the sad truth of online advertising where I suggest that lost and confused users make up the majority of ad clickers. I highly doubt I will receive any official answers to if this was the reason but given the timing and the tone of the email I would say that Google is scared of advertisers finding out the truth of who really clicks on their advertisements.

The thought that a simple blog post could get my account banned and months of hard earned ad income stolen is alarming to say the least. While my post may be harsh to the online advertising industry, I never once suggested that advertisers should stop advertising. I was hoping the post would draw attention to the fact advertisers can run successful campaigns using more traditional brand recognition than relying only on click through rates. The suggestion that I am in any way financially harming their advertisers is way out of line. If anyone stands to be financially damaged "in the future", it's the advertising companies that cling to the out dated advertising strategies of the dot com bubble, not the advertisers.

Like the many other users displaced by Googles actions, I can only piss and moan and offer this post as another warning to anyone currently using Adsense or thinking about using it. In addition to the obvious problems with using Adsense, you also run the risk of having your money stolen if you say something they don't like. I have started to look into other Adsense alternatives and will give more detailed recommendations after I have a chance to test out some other services.

UPDATE: Google recently reinstated my account with no mention of why it was suspended. At the risk of being called a hypocrite, I will eventually put Adsense back into a few advertising spaces on this site but for the most park my replacement ads are matching or out performing the Adsense ads that I was using prior to getting temporarily banned.

Who Clicks On Advertisements? The Sad Truth of Online Advertising

February 15th, 2008 // Brandon Hauber

Simple question: do you click on online advertisements? 99% of people asked that question will answer "no". But with so many internet based companies, all of which relying mostly on advertising to generate income, how is it possible to make money online if only 1% of internet users click ads? Who are these people anyway?

When website owners look to setup advertising on their site, they often try to suit the advertising to the core user base of the website. A sad truth of internet advertising is that nobody who likes your site will click on ads. The average demographic of a typical ad clicker is a middle aged female from the Midwest but that stereotype holds less true with different website niches. Regardless of the website content or its core users, the 1% of users who click on ads will most likely to fit into one of the following categories:

The Lost User
These people make up the largest portion of ad clickers. They are not interested in the content of the site and only click on advertisements that they feel are more suited to what they were looking for. This is why many publishers have success with contextual ad services that place ads somewhat related to the sites content such as Google Adsense.

For example, I recently made a post about how it was ironic that an advertisement for a pop-up blocker usually appears in my post about why people shouldn't use ad blockers. While this appears to be a glitch in the ad server, it actually works out well for me because someone searching for certain phrases related to ad blockers might find my post. They eventually realize it's not what they were looking for and then follow the advertisement for an ad blocking download because that's what they were initially looking for.

The Confused User
While a lost user had an intended purpose when they clicked on an ad, a confused user probably didn't even know they were clicking on an ad or leaving the website they were on. Confused users are of course not very computer and/or internet savvy and are considered very low quality for the advertiser. They typically don't purchase anything online and are hard to retain, making them only useful on per click advertisements and not for more lucrative lead based ads or affiliate programs.

What does this mean?
For me, this means that online advertising is still stuck in a 90's way of thinking. Advertising online should be more about getting a brand recognized within its intended market and less about creating obnoxious per click advertising to compete with content. With so many people using ad blockers and even more users becoming blind to online ads, the entire online advertising world depends on the lost and confused to keep it all from crashing down.

[photo by: ChrisL AK]

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Reads My Blog, wants to acquire Ustream

February 12th, 2008 // Brandon Hauber

Well, Steve Ballmer probably doesn't read this blog. But Microsoft is reportedly in "deep talks" to acquire Ustream for $50 million. Ustream is a video streaming service that was listed in my recent post of 14 companies Microsoft should acquire. Yahoo's board of directors have also turned down Microsoft's $44.6 billion bid, so if the hostile takeover doesn't go well, maybe my idea should be Microsoft's plan C?

[via Vallywag]

An Introvert's Guide to Client Meetings

Apparently it Really Sucks to Work at Adsense

Google Cant Handle the Truth. Another Example of Why Adsense Sucks

Who Clicks On Advertisements? The Sad Truth of Online Advertising

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer Reads My Blog, wants to acquire Ustream