Apple Keynote in 30 minutes!

And they're streaming it live :) So, does that mean we'll see the technology that Apple will be using to now bring everything to our living rooms?

Oh YA! You BETCHA!!

Personally I can't wait. After all, am not down with Vizio's Blue Ray player checking out and not delivering a great performance of streaming netflix from the very same connection that my ipad works quite well from. That tells me that their networking is LOUSY in that player, but the iPad is AWESOME!

So Apple...take the covers off the good and let's see what's on the buffet today :)

Happy Over The Hump Day!

Michael

Do NOT believe everything you read in ADs

Yes, it's that time again folks. Time for me to share with you a little bit of wisdom in advertising.

Bait & Switch is illegal in the USA. Hello OvernightPrints.com I was so looking forward to taking advantage of your

"www.OvernightPrints.com/HugeSale - 500 4X6 Postcards for $19.95. Use Code 500PC. Limited Time Offer!"

But you left two very important words out of your Ad; "SINGLE-SIDED"

See when someone like me wants to print postcards for a really great business we want a nice color image on the front and a little bit of black and white text on the back and then we proceed to tell everyone how awesome you are.

But when we get to the shopping cart and find out what's below, we call in and we sound as surprised as your agent does when they say "Oh! no, that's for the Single Sided cards, didn't the ad say that?"

The answer is...NOPE it sure didn't.

So now we take our money and our business back to VISTAPRINT because even though the do a ton of printing and not all of it is the best in the business, at least they have reliable ads and do their best to make the customer experience one that's memorable.

Below is the shopping cart and the order number and...well...am not happy with the price. After all, paying 4 times more than what you said I'd have to pay, before the shipping...well I'd rather give my money to Vistaprint, and I recommend anyone else reading this do the same.

Michael Murdock, CEO

Life in the desert...

This is one of the things that makes life in the desert so special. Any afternoon you can step outside and see a piece of artwork in the sky created by...well...the ONE :)

Enjoy!

Thanks AT&T...

For at least offering to help on Twitter that is. Hope this guy Jason did not lose his job after stepping up and asking what he could do to help with the iPhone situation.

I told him what he could do, but so far only hear the sound of crickets chirping in the form of a response.

Personally not surprised. I'll keep fielding the questions of those writing in claiming to be from newspapers and we'll see which one has the stones to print things. Someone out there will and will probably win a PutzPuller for it...Or was that Pulitzer...either way.

Happy Friday by the time you read this!!

Michael

The Customer Service Difference between AT&T Small Business & Apple Computer is...

When you walk into an Apple Store and say you run a small business, they bend over backwards to get you out the door with a smile on your face.

AT&T on the other hand...Not the same story.

Thanks Apple Computer for helping me this morning. The new Magic Mouse is working fine. And the matter we discussed about the website has been detailed and sent up the line to the right person as I promised it would be. You folks in Scottsdale Quarter Apple Retail ROCK!

Now, with regards to AT&T...first the retail side of things. Let's take a walk back a couple of years to the first iPhone shall we.

Had a few problems with it, did not get serviced by AT&T, was told to take it to the Apple Store and they'd help me out. At the Biltmore in Phoenix...walked in, explained the issue, in less than 5 minutes had a brand new iPhone in my hand ready to go. Biltmore Apple Store...you ROCK!

Come forward to a year ago, my wife decides she wants an iPhone. We try to sign her up on my retail account with AT&T. Oh you can't do that because she has a 415 number and you have a 480 number, the only way you can do that is to get one of our really awesome small business accounts!

So we did. And the ride down in the pits began.

1st off...NO APP for Small Business Customers to use to pay bills and such on the iPhone. HELLO!!!! What the FCK were you people thinking???? AS a retail customer I simply download the app, use my website login, pick a card, any card, and pay my bill, add service, add a line, blah, blah, blah. As a business customer I have to go to a computer, or an iPad (let's hope it's not on AT&T's DATA PLAN) and then try and get into the business website (not always available, the retail site is and was during the iPhone 4 launch more than the biz site).

2nd is that wonderful business website. PREMIER they call it. Premiely CRAP is what I call it. Not impressed. Whoever designed it...take them out and break their fingers and never let them near a keyboard again. Or better yet, let them sit and watch while some 16yr old does a better job cranking one out in wordpress. That will solve their problem.

3rd. The iPhone 4...LAUNCH DAY. Stood in line with many others and was disappointed. AT&T did not order enough inventory to cover what the traffic flow into the stores was. Now, they're retracting their positions that if you bought a 16gb phone on launch day that they'll order and call you when your 32gb phone is in and will not charge you full price for the phone and then do refunds. I only paid for a 16gb phone based on that promise of "customer satisfaction".

I go to the store today and have to talk to some joker who tells me "Well, I've worked on computers for 20 years...and we can't do this because it's against federal banking laws". PLEASE. Do not jerk me off, I am married! I've been doing this longer than he has and I have more of a story to tell, but it's not relevant to the situation. The other thing is that Merchant Processing is part of my business and credits are done ALL THE TIME. Sheesh. Felt like I was talking to Mickey Mouse about Minnie having an affair with GOOFY. Yeah, NOT RELEVANT.

You can't do it because someone in your freaking store does not know how to use an override key and provide what is called Customer Service. It's not your fault that AT&T management does not know how to properly stock stores, or provide great web access to business customers, but when someone stands in line with 60 other people and then gets told one lie after another, it's enough to make us puke.

I downgraded from a 32gb 3GS to get an iPhone 4 because you did not have inventory. I was told that you'd get inventory in and hold a phone for me. I was told that I would have to pay a restock fee of 10% (who freaking cares about the 19.00), and I was told I'd have to pay an additional $100 for the 32gb phone. That's $119.00, it's NOT $299.00!! So...you order the phone, and charge me $119.00, and when it comes in, I give you my current 16gb phone back in erased, and cleaned up fashion with all of the original materials. You credit me for that, and you can then resell the phone as used once it's been reset, and make some additional cash.

IT'S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE. It's called CUSTOMER SERVICE. Because this particular customer can and will have a flow of over 10,000 people per hour coming to his website to read about this if he really decides to promote it and at some level some other people will read and forward it, and eventually your CEO will be on TV explaining to the world why you decided to yank the chain of the one person on the planet that does know how to get attention.

No, I am not angry with Apple. I LOVE AND CHERISH MY iPHONE, BUT I NEED that 32GB phone. I am NOT angry with AT&T. I am disappointed that their "Customer Service" model does NOT extend to the "Small Business" end of their client spectrum and frankly I think it's sad that their CEO has his head jammed so far into the sand as to not know about such things or is simply choosing to ignore them in hopes that people will leave and go to Verizon when the time comes.

Personally I can say that I HAD no plans of going to Verizon, but the more and more things that happen with regards to the PREMIER SMALL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE with AT&T, I can't see any reason not to give AT&T the flying fickle finger of fate and walk over to Verizon and sign up even in advance of the iPhone arriving.

There, for the moment I am done. I have two newspaper interviews to do now with regards to this situation. I know they won't print what I've written, but they and the TV people who I am talking to about consumer issues will do something about getting this resolved to my satisfaction.

Look iPad people, NO LAWSUITS REQUIRED! Just a posterous account, some links to facebook, twitter, and a few other places and a few thousand followers some of who write for various magazines, papers, etc.

GAME ON!!!

Michael Murdock, CEO
DocMurdock.com

So all the fuss about Android 2.1 is???

I mean come on people! Let's get real! So I did. I got real. I went down to my local AT&T store to try out a phone on the same network as the iPhone 4 which of course has all these problems to see what I was really missing about Android.

Okay, so the screen is BIGGER on the Samsung...what was that phone model number, give me a minute, the Samsung Captivate...which has a 1ghz processor, 16gb of storage, a larger screen than the iPhone4, and it runs ANDROID Mike!!!! OH MY, get out my boots.

And then there's the iPhone 4. Let's look at that one shall we Johnny!
Here we are Mike, the iPhone 4 from Apple. First exposed by that group of incompetent losers at Gizmodo is some of the worst photographed images in the history of planet earth, sports a 1GHZ processor, 16gb of storage and it runs iOS 4.0.1 from Apple Computer!!!!

So what was the test I chose to do? Simple. Google Earth! Both phones have a GPS in them, of course launching the app should not take that long, and I am sure that the Android phone will just sweep the iPhone under the rug.

Well...I was....


WRONG!!!!!!!!!!

Not only did the UI in the Android version of Google Earth really SUCK badly, the GPS in the phone could even find the location of the store. So in the time it took Android to launch the app while on the wireless network in the store, I used 3G in the DEATHGRIP on the iPhone, launched Google Earth, and using the UI simply clicked the "Find my Location button circle in the lower left of the screen and the Earth spun, zoomed in and the little blue dot on the screen appeared so bright on the screen that people looked out the windows up in the sky and said "Say Man! what's the big blue dot doing above the store!"

And I replied that's the iPhone 4 KICKING some ANDROID ASS all over Scottsdale! Needless to say the laughter filled the store, a few high 5's all around and another couple of iPhones got sold.

And me, I paid my bill and returned home laughing all the way.

Oh wait!! The construction of the Android phone...Samsung take a lesson from Apple and hire some real designers to engineer your next phone. Apple has you beat by a mile. A larger screen does not beat the Retina Display, and your performance on Wireless using a microcell with 5 bars does not outdo the iPhone 4 on 3G with 4 & a 1/2 bars in the deathgrip of the one and only DOCMURDOCK.

Have a nice day everyone.

Michael

$100 to get into NO-BS-SEO?

Greetings,

You've heard me talk about SEO in the past, and more recently with the announcement of my NO-BS-SEO training course. It's exciting to see people really be interested in learning this process of making their websites more visible on the net. It's fun for me to be able to teach it. What gets me though is what I received in an email yesterday from one of my clients. I guess they were in a mood or something, but here's what the email said:

"Dear Michael,

I've been a client for a number of years and I saw your offering for the No-bs-seo course that you have coming up. What a great value you're giving to the people who attend your course. I wish I could have known you were coming up with this a bit sooner. I've had some things happen to me and I can't afford the high price of the course. Even the payments are a bit of a stretch, is there anything you can do to help me? Basically you need to know you're not making it easy for a lot of people to attend your class!"

I sat there for a moment and thought about things and you know what, I think she may have been right!

It made me crazy to think that there were people out there who wanted to attend this series of webinars but needed a little breathing room on the payments.

Being the person that I am in the presence of this guidance I made a decision and the result of that is this:

$100 is all you need to pay to join the 1st NO-BS-SEO Webinar on the 19th of August. Just $100 and you can sign up right now at:

Now, there is a commitment on the other side of this deal and the deal is limited in scope. This will not be available past this weekend, and it could even come down if we get too many people signing in.

Here's the commitment part of it:

a. You'll pay the $100 today to reserve your seat. By doing that you are committing to show up and be present on the webinar to learn as much as is offered during this session.

b. If you're not satisfied at the end of the webinar you'll let me know and we'll cancel your attendance in any of the other classes. You'll forfeit any bonuses that you'd normally get.

c. If you're leaving you will get 30 days of SEO at no charge as a thanks for trying us out. There are no refunds whatsoever, and you'll not be allowed access to the 4th Bonus webinar.

d. If you decide to stay, you'll pay before the 2nd class on September 2nd $316.16 and then be obligated to pay that same amount in 5 more payments spread over 30 days a piece. You'll also be committing to attend each webinar and take your website higher and higher on the web by following all of my instructions as given.

See, in the great scheme of things I am happy to discuss SEO with you. I am happy to give you a price break because we all need one from time to time. But please do note that I don't read minds and even though I am very perceptive, the true movement in the universe through law of attraction always begins with the asking. If you never ask for a break, you'll never know that one is waiting for you.

You've asked through my client above, and now you've received. You only need to take the inspired action of going and signing up, paying your $100 and getting ready for the most awesome SEO training ever offered. Without the hype, without the extra garbage, nuts and bolts, made for everyone (yes ladies especially you) SEO training that will help you get your site listed on PAGE 1.

We look forward to you joining us, bringing your website or blog with you, and let's get you more visible on the web to your target market and increase your sales. After all you've already made an investment in the web, let's get one returned to you.

If you have any questions about this, please email me at: doc@docmurdock.com

Thanks for your time today. Happy Friday.

Michael

Where's my website?

That's the trouble, most people build a website but have no idea where it's listed...

So you went out and had that wonderful new shiny website or blog built, you were promised instant customers, but none have shown up. You've gone to google and tried to find it, but it's not listed...the designer said all you needed to do was get the site up and people would magically show up.

NEWSFLASH - YOU WERE MISLED!

And believe it or not this happens more than once per day. Actually it's a number we're not even going to print here because the number of times per day that this happens is staggering, and if you could turn that number into dollars...Tiger Woods would be showing up to party with you.

There's certain steps that you need to take when placing a website onto the internet to get it noticed, to get those magical people to show up and pay attention. They are:

a. get the site built

b. get the right code added into the site to make it attractive to search engines.

c. have a plan to promote the site and your business

d. execute that plan to your target market (and no, your market is NOT everyone).

e. adjust the code in the site

f. promote the site

g. reexamine the site

h. adjust the code in the site

i. promote the site

j. is any of this sounding like a process?

You see, letter J is key in this. It IS a process. It MUST be repeated. It can NEVER be a one time thing.

It's called Search Engine Optimization and it's as relevant now in the internet as it ever was and it's not just about adding code to the site or blog, it encompasses so much more than that, and it requires that you reexamine and refine the things that you do over and over again.

Even after you find the right recipe of elements to be used in combination with one another to achieve that desired PAGE 1 exposure for your website or blog, there's always more to do to supplement the exposure.

See SEO includes interacting in social media channels. Nobody tells you that or classifies it in the same regard. It includes being present to discuss in groups, to post things potentially daily in various places.

But SEO as it's called is a foundational element of true website exposure. If you're not doing it, or having it done, you're missing out.

"I don't have the time for this!" I hear that a lot. Actually you'd be surprised at how much time you really do have for this and how easily it is to automate a lot of it so that you spend less and less time and gain more and more exposure into your market.

"How's that possible?" Well, when you interact with people who have been doing this long enough, you find that there are tools that they use that you can use to do things that took them weeks or even months a few years ago. Now they can take you a couple of hours or even minutes. Technology is a wonderful thing that allows you to have an advantage over those who came before you.

You can do more in a day on a computer NOW, then 10 people could do in a month 10 years ago.

If you want to find out some great information on SEO there's a class coming up you'll want to check out:

Google the following term: NO-BS-SEO and you can learn more.

You'll like this guy and what he has to offer. He's the real deal and you'll benefit because in this class he's giving, he's going to help you add in the right elements to your site and he's going to support you in your efforts to become more widely exposed to your target market.

Thanks for taking time to read, and I'd give that web designer a call and ask why they did not implement SEO for you.

Best,

Michael

Your Ecommerce needs...

When the maker of a piece of website creating software sends out an email to clients and it shows up like this, it indicates to me a hole in their ecommerce plan. One that can easily be solved by using a site that allows you to sent out a newsletter with images from a secure location, speedily that fill in the blanks so your emails don't look like a jigsaw puzzle and don't get deleted.
What system do I recommend you use to avoid this type of issue?

PROSPERITY CART of COURSE!!

http://www.prosperitycart.com has a secure image library that you can load up with images that you wish to include in your newsletters and each time someone opens up the newsletter the images are pulled from a secure location such that they show up and the newsletter is complete vs. what you see above.

See the example below of a properly constructed newsletter with images all intact. Notice the date of the email in the picture below. January 2010. Here it is in July and the email looks the same, images in place because they're in the secure area, I open the email, they're pulled in and the email is complete. No empty spaces.

Do your business and your brand a favor. Use a shoppingcart system/ecommerce system that supports your brand, your message and does not charge you to remove someone else's brand in order to do it. Use a system that's fast, easy to use, and one that's well supported by people interested in your success.