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Monthly Archives: September 2009

The Business Change That Is Social Media

Posted on September 29, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Imagine you’re in business, and you want to keep in touch with all your clients, friends, contractors, and everyone else you’ve ever touched. What do you do, write a newsletter? Do you mail that? Does anyone read it?

Today, of course, it’s likely that you don’t mail your newsletter, or even most of your promotional pieces. You send them out by e-mail (using permission-based standards, of course!). Or maybe you realize that even that’s become inefficient and ineffective, because most of your recipients never open those e-mails. Check out the article “FREE IS BAD” here. I wasn’t kidding when I wrote this!

Enter Social Networking. There’s never been a bigger business change, and I’ve never seen a better starter example of why you must begin thinking about these methods than this one. ... READ MORE of this article, The Business Change That Is Social Media from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (223 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

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Google’s New Business Change: Do Evil with Net Neutrality

Posted on September 26, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

I don’t get to defend telcos very often. AT&T, Verizon, and the like make up rules, enforce government regulations in a way that hurts their customers, and generally are questionable corporate citizens so much that it’s hard to be on their side.

Today I am. Thanks, Google.

AT&T is all over Google for violating Net Neutrality. Umm . . . AGAIN.

Google’s approach on this particular business change is wrong. No, as pointed out in this article from the New York Times they aren’t obligated to do the same things that regulated telcos do. But in holding themselves out as poster children for “don’t be evil” (this is an actual Google slogan, in case you weren’t aware), they’ve taken on an even more important position.

Very bad move, Google.

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Life Change? Business Change? Default on Your Mortgage?

Posted on September 25, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Hey, I have an idea . . . let’s all default on our mortgages!

It isn’t really a surprise, is it? Enough people now see this kind of thing as  “standard operating procedure” that the Los Angeles Times is reporting on an epidemic of folks walking away from their mortgages as a strategic financial planning maneuver.

So today’s question is this: Is taking whatever actions are necessary to come out ahead an acceptable way of dealing with your existing contractual obligations?

I’d like to counter-argue this point as “it’s what the banks do, so do it to them!”, but it isn’t, actually; what banks do is work according to existing contracts. And yes, they take advantage of every possible loophole to see that their desire for more profits through business change can be made into your life change. But you signed that contract. ... READ MORE of this article, Life Change? Business Change? Default on Your Mortgage? from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (224 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

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Where’s Net Neutrality? Google’s Business Change Kills It

Posted on September 24, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Sounds like fait accompli, does it not? Google enacts one form of business change or another pretty much every day, and every one of their changes puts someone else out of business. Yesterday, they outdid themselves.

Google’s business change (and business changing) idea o’ the day was the introduction of a feature that lets Google Toolbar users comment on web pages they visit. Interesting? Stupid? A little of both? I say “genius”.

If we start with the very idea of people being interested in other people’s comment on the items they’re reading, we immediately get to what’s driving the Internet. For better or worse, we’re all reading the rantings of strangers who may or may not have expertise in the subject they’re writing about. You’re reading this because you’ve come to believe that I have some expertise in business change, business operations, technology, business ideas, or . . . something. OR: you’re here because you followed a link. And that link may have been one I planted out there to draw you here, or it could have been put up by somebody else who thinks I’m smart. BUT YOU’RE HERE. ... READ MORE of this article, Where’s Net Neutrality? Google’s Business Change Kills It from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (357 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

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Blog. Create Business Change. Nobody Reads You. Get Fired!

Posted on September 23, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Did you hear the one about the blogger who lost his job because not enough people were reading his words?

It’s not actually a new idea. The companies that aggregate blogs figured out quickly that if nobody was reading what one of their bloggers had to say that they were paying for nothing of value. The Gawker Medias of the world have been ruthless toward their mostly-underpaid staffers for years.

Now, The Washington Post is in on the act.

Is this bad business, or just another example of necessary business change? More of the latter, I’m afraid, but imagine you were writing a column for a big newspaper, were asked to do the extra work of writing a blog, had that blog promoted via means you weren’t told about, didn’t understand, and had no control over, and as a result of not enough traffic finding its way to your blog entries lost the job you had been doing for years. Ouch. ... READ MORE of this article, Blog. Create Business Change. Nobody Reads You. Get Fired! from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (279 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

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Broken Education Models, Business Change, and Computer Care

Posted on September 22, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

I hate textbooks. I hate pedagoguery. And I’m having a hard time finding a way through that in a world where computers and the Internet play such a large role.

Actually, I’m having an incredibly easy time of it, but the models aren’t changing fast enough.

I’m now in my personal ‘year four’ of watching children go to college and be told that old models still apply. Textbooks are mandatory, and not only cost too much, but cost WAY too much. Professors want their feet kissed.

So here’s a business change: outlaw textbooks. Then, outlaw people who tell you how to do things and instead create relationships that run both ways (PC-VIP’s Computer Care is an example). Then, look at your business models, and enact the same kind of business change that what I’ve just suggested would force upon schools and textbook manufacturers. ... READ MORE of this article, Broken Education Models, Business Change, and Computer Care from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (278 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

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Business Change: US Government Mandates How Bandwidth Providers Work

Posted on September 21, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

And so it Begins. Or Ends. Or Begins to End . . .

Does the company from which you get your internet access have the right to decide what you get or how fast certain things get to you? Maybe. In the USA, though, that right may be about to come to an end.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, an FCC proposal limiting the way that your favorite bit purveyor moves your information gets outlined. Business Change, indeed! Now, the way your stuff gets to you might become set in stone.

Let’s back up: the Verizons and AT&Ts of the world have been threatening to control our web browsing habits for a few years now. Their rationale is that certain things take up more bandwidth, thereby changing both the economies of scale for their businesses and the overall experience that their customers have. So besides charging more for higher-bandwidth customers (an idea I can get behind as long as there are clear and flexible options), your provider wants to be able to exert some control over what you do/say/see/etc. on-line. ... READ MORE of this article, Business Change: US Government Mandates How Bandwidth Providers Work from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (280 words, estimated 1:07 mins reading time)

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When The Government Controls Salaries: BIG Business Change

Posted on September 18, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

So here we go: The government is finally going to do what everyone thought they would do months ago: it’s time to control bankers’ compensation packages. Talk about Business Change!

Start here: I think these guys make WAY too much and there’s NO reasonable way to justify it.

Continue: as “investors”, the government has every right to have and attempt to put forth/impose an opinion.

But combine those statements with federal position when Goldman Sachs et.al. started showing good numbers again. There was an outcry, and they said that the goal of the bailout was SO good results would happen, and the position that the government needs to intervene at all fell down, hard.

What’s lacking is consistency. And even in change, consistency matters

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Computers Care That They Killed Newspapers

Posted on September 17, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

OK, So Computers Don’t Care that the ongoing demise of the printed word is their fault. The Internet doesn’t care either. But there sure is a lot of talk about this kind of change floating around lately!

This week, there’s an article in Time Magazine bemoaning not the death of newspapers, but their new form as they struggle for life. And the answer? Maybe newspapers need to be in the local news business.

I was watching RealSports on HBO the other night, and Mr. Gumbel and Mr. DeFord were bemoaning the death of local sports coverage. And their point was well-taken: where will analysis of local content (like sports) come from if newspapers die?

The bigger question of course, is about the form of change, and not merely that change in business, the world at large, the media business in particular, or whatever is happening. Newspapers have always been best at serving their local audiences; listen to how almost everyone talks about USA Today, for example. Do you know anyone that likes it? ... READ MORE of this article, Computers Care That They Killed Newspapers from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (234 words, estimated 56 secs reading time)

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Loans? Insurance? Computer Care? Where Do They Connect?

Posted on September 16, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Imagine someone asked you to completely change the way you do business. Then they offered you insurance to make sure that the business changes you were taking on would work. Would you do it?

Your answer is probably “yes”, if only because of the insurance component. Or maybe it’s still no because change scares you, but the insurance part at least made you consider the idea.

There’s a fascinating article in TIME magazine this week, about how in poor countries where insurance is a new idea it’s viewed with suspicion. The very idea that you are protecting against bad things happening makes insurance a tough sell, even if the ‘price’ is free. Even when, as in the case of poor people receiving micro-loans, it clearly improves their lives! Look; it’s universal: change is hard. Change needs to be managed. But how can you manage something that’s new to you? Seems hard, right? ... READ MORE of this article, Loans? Insurance? Computer Care? Where Do They Connect? from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (264 words, estimated 1:03 mins reading time)

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Hacking, Cyber-Bullying, and Software Licenses

Posted on September 15, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

Q:When is Microsoft just like your wife? A:When they nag you into doing something you don’t want to do.

Did all my female readers just unsubscribe? Come back; I didn’t mean it. That was just the easiest and most-universally understood way I could think of to make my point: Everything has become about influence, and the way you exert it.

Last month, a case in which a Midwestern woman had been accused of a crime that caused a teenager to commit suicide was thrown out of court. Read from the link, and then come back; there’s so much information in that one piece that you’ll want the background.

So now here’s the question: When does intent BECOME intent, and when should the answer to that question matter? ... READ MORE of this article, Hacking, Cyber-Bullying, and Software Licenses from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (334 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

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More on Medical Reform: What Doctors Are Doing Wrong

Posted on September 14, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

This post may be a bit self-serving; one of the things we do here is medical practice management, and I’m going to talk about a very large problem that many doctors have in running their practices.

We’re hearing more and more stories of doctors who “can’t make ends meet”. And the stories are true, to a point; established businesses are getting into trouble because the manner in which they DO business is collapsing in on them.

Why? Because their business is changing and they don’t know how to use those changes in their favor.

This is an old story. Most doctors didn’t see medicine as a business when they were 20 years old or so and decided to be doctors, and the ones that did see it that way thought they could do business the way existing doctors do it, without making any kind of change. Oops. ... READ MORE of this article, More on Medical Reform: What Doctors Are Doing Wrong from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (463 words, estimated 1:51 mins reading time)

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Rumor: Barack Obama is a Pimp. ACORN Runs His Hookers

Posted on September 11, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

WHAT?????

With President Obama’s every breath going through the latest round of overexposure reserved for the most powerful man on Earth, let’s take a side trip: Did you know that President Obama’s favorite grass-roots community action group ACORN is teaching underprivileged people how to be prostitutes?

Wow.

First, let me be clear that I have no idea what Barack Obama’s connection to ACORN “really” is. Nor do I care. No one (with the possible exception of Ashton Kutcher) is better connected than President Obama, and owing to his days as a community organizer for ACORN we do know that he had a connection and almost certainly maintains some sort of link to the group. We also know that whatever your politics the idea of community organization is a good one. It helps people better themselves; and more so when they take part in the process. ... READ MORE of this article, Rumor: Barack Obama is a Pimp. ACORN Runs His Hookers from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (422 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

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Has President Barack Obama Offered Health Care Reform?

Posted on September 10, 2009 by --Jeff Yablon/The Answer Guy-- Business Change & SEO Consultant — No Comments ↓

“YOU’RE A LIAR”

OK, so that clown has had his moment in the sun under the magnifying glass. Let’s move on.

I’m not sure we’ve really seen much of a proposal from President Obama on Health Care Reform. Oh, he’s given us an outline now, and it goes way farther than we had heard, details-wise, when I last wrote on this subject. But the details are still short, and President Obama’s Health Care Reform Opponents still have plenty to complain about. And complain they will. Out loud. And you’ll listen.

Is “The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Grease” the whole secret? ... READ MORE of this article, Has President Barack Obama Offered Health Care Reform? from Answer Guy Central, your Business Change, SEO Consulting / Search Engine Optimization & Computer Support Source by Clicking Here (272 words, estimated 1:05 mins reading time)

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