You are here: Home / Archives for Opt-Ed

Google Plus Game Development

August 11, 2011 Leave a Comment

It looks like Google Plus Game Development is being launched.  Check out the announcement on the Official Google+ Blog.

I would have liked to see Google Plus Business Pages first, but I can see why they are doing this.  Games are more likely to create a sticky Google Plus audience, and if they can show a great audience they will be more attractive to businesses to build Google Plus Business Pages.  My theory is that they will actually charge for Google Plus Business because it would cut down on spam and be totally worth it if the cost was low and it created a higher value network.

We all know how successful game apps and FaceBook games have been, so a lot of people will start building Google Plus Games very quickly.  However, it seems like they are going to limit what can be on the site initially.

Critical to the success of the network is to have a way to filter out requests and information from other people’s games.  Right now there are a lot of techie trend setters in Google Plus and if they start getting requests to go to a virtual farm and slop the pigs, people are going to bail.  In fact, I think the Farmville, Mafia Wars and Vampire Slaying on FaceBook is the #1 biggest reason I never became a power user there.  I do not waste much of my own time on games and I do not want to see things from other people’s time wasting.

So if you are going to start doing Google Plus Game Development, please do not ruin Google Plus.  Make it fun for people that care and invisible for people that have better things to do.

Filed Under: Opt-Ed, Social Media Tagged With: ,

Google Plus Business Pages

August 1, 2011 Leave a Comment

I have a feeling that Google Plus Business pages are going to be rather sweet.  I also think that Google may charge for some elements of it, but maybe not.  Keep reading if you are wondering why I say that.

Right now you cannot set up a business page on Google Plus.  If you do, they will take it down.  Google is also being very strict about the quality of profiles.  If you are not a real person and list a real name they are deactivating your access.

Money! © by yomanimus

When you consider the commitment to a high quality network and the delay in Business pages, I see an opportunity I would consider if I was Google.

1.  I would continue to put big resources into building a legitimate and high quality network, even though the raw numbers would be lower.

2.  I would come out with the coolest set of Google plus business tools that blow away other networks, like FaceBook and LinkedIn.  I would let businesses build email opt other things that make sense for a business but are restricted in those networks.

3.  To limit sloppy “businesses” and scams, I would charge a monthly fee to have a Google plus business profile page – or at least I would charge for extended services.  This would greatly decrease the low quality businesses even if it is only a few dollars per month.  And Google could justify the cost because of the quality networks, which costs a lot to maintain.

Of course, clubs and other types of organizations would want to have a Google Plus business page but those could be limited and could include ads.

I do not know if this is what is going to happen, but I would consider it if I was them.  As much as we all love free, charging the small amount for Google plus business pages will increase quality and cut the clutter of all those worthless sites.

Please, Google, make us pay for it and keep getting rid of fake people.

Filed Under: Business, Opt-Ed, Social Media Tagged With: , ,

Lead Generation Software Categories

July 18, 2011 1 Comment

When people are searching for lead generation software online they often do not understand that lead generation tools fall into many categories.  This makes it hard to find what they are looking for because they assume there is one type of software that does all kinds of lead generation activities, and that is simply not true.

Here are the different categories of lead generation software and how I think of it.

Lead Collection Software

Software that goes out to the web based on categories and search terms and mines the Internet for contact information is a lead collection category of software.  While this software is very good at generation lists of contact information for you to work, it is not very good at getting warm leads unless you are very creative with your search terms.

Inbound Marketing Software

Lead Generation Software that attracts leads to a site and captures them usually combine strategies with FaceBook, Twitter, Google Plus and Search Engine Optimization.  This strategy may not produce huge numbers of leads, but the quality of the leads is very high because people are coming to you and they have a need for what you have to offer.  Buzzoodle.com is a system that falls into this lead generation software category as it uses blogging and search engine optimization techniques to attract leads to a site.

Website Traffic Software

This is the broadest category of lead generation software.  The website traffic software category has thousands of different tools.  This includes any software tool that helps you generate traffic back to a website.  Of course, you need to have a website capable of capturing leads if you are going to go to all the trouble of increasing your traffic.

Lead Capture Software

Lead capture software will put forms on the site to actually collect the lead information.  Sometimes you can use multiple lead capture tools to combine the actual form generation with how the form appears on the website.  Tools like Salesforce.com and aWeber can capture the leads, and I have used WordPress plugins and different scripts to do more creative things with displaying the lead capture form.

Lead Generation Business Management Software

At a more pricy end, there is the lead generation as a business software packages.  These do not generate the leads, but they have the capture and management of leads built into the system.  This usually includes the selling of leads at a price to people that want to buy leads.  You may not want to spend the thousands of dollars on these kinds of systems until you have proven you can generate significant levels of leads.

These are the broad lead generation software categories I tend to place all tools in.

Filed Under: Opt-Ed Tagged With:

Family Photos In Presentations

July 8, 2011 Leave a Comment

For many years as a professional speaker, I have told stories about my kids.  Especially my older daughter, who at the age of 8 started her own successful Internet business.

This was always really well received and when I would speak at the same event the next year, the first question I would usually get was about how she was doing.

So having just attended several seminars and conferences, it was interesting to see that nearly every person that presented told about their family and showed family photos.  In fact, the one guy that did not have a spouse and kids seemed at a horrible disadvantage.

So I tried it for myself with intention.  I did a short lead generation speech to a small group at a luncheon.  I only had 20 minutes, and I showed a picture of my kids, told a few good lead generation stories and laid out the basics of building a lead generation website.  Then I told them where they could buy the entire program and answered a few questions.

Amazingly, the family addition got incredible praise and it was the most effective small, short presentation I have ever done.  Not just because of the family photos, but also because of the stories and not trying to cram in too much information.  It produced sales and glowing reviews.

So if you are looking at ways to improve your presentation skills, it seems like everyone that is speaking professionally really tries to make a personal connection through family photos in presentations.  I am certainly glad I tried it.

Filed Under: Opt-Ed, Speaking & Workshops Tagged With: ,