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I didn’t start this blog to do this but sometimes things get me so mad and mobile phone marketing has done just that and I need to get this off my chest.

Well to be fair it’s not exactly mobile phone marketing itself but the actions of some marketers who frankly I think should know better.

The latest bandwagon has just rolled into town and we are all expected to ride out on the wave of euphoria that is marketing using people’s mobile phones.

Get the headlines:

5 billion people use mobile phones

There’s a 97% open rate

Sounds good until you really think about it: -

How targeted is the message?

Why are people opening the messages?

Answer 1 - it cannot possibly be targeted

Answer 2 – because people think messages on their phones are from people they want to hear from!

And there’s the bigger problem and what I would call this method of marketing:

How to piss off 97% (no, make that 96.9% since there’ll always be some people brain dead enough not to mind such a blatant intrusion into their life) of mobile phone users.

SIDENOTE – sorry about the language but I really am mad at this!

"Doing anything special? No you sell away"

So who will make out of this?

The guys telling you how to make money from mobile phone marketing that’s who!

Let me state this loud and clear here and now: -

If anyone, and I mean anyone, ever sends me a marketing message on my mobile phone I’ll throw every possible resource at you to get you closed down. That means Data Protection issues, that means spam rules, that means cold calling rules, that means some obscure rule laid down by some government department. I’ll find something and there WILL be something to find rest assured. It’s bad enough getting cold calls on the landline. Don’t start on my mobile as well!

Let me say it very loud –

I do not want to receive marketing messages on my mobile when I’m:

With my kids;

When I’m at a football match;

When I’m driving my car;

Wwhen I’m at a restaurant;

In the middle of the night (I live in a different part of the world to some people!);

When I’m working;

When I’m not;

At anytime, night or day, Spring Summer, Autumn or Winter

In fact I don’t ever want to hear from you

Now I’m actually a student of marketing. I love the innovation and the tactics and I’m happy to receive emails pitching me for products when I’ve agreed to receive them. I’m even happy with the emails I get on my mobile but don’t start texting and / or calling me. Perhaps you guys should go back to door to door selling?

A mobile phone is for keeping in contact with people you want to keep in contact with. End of story.

So not only has the whole idea of mobile phone marketing – the so called Gold Rush, seriously hacked me off it has also caused me to unsubscribe from several email lists already today alone. How many more will get the chop by the end of the week?

Come on guys, have your say, am I right or wrong on this?

By the way, ever had the mobile in your pocket or bag when taking a visit to the bathroom? Be great to get a sales pitch then wouldn’t it!

Many of our members have asked for recommended plugins to add slide shows of multiple photos / images to their blogs.

I’ve tried most of the plugins at some time and have found most to need either a lot of care, a lot of technical knowledge or a lot of patience. In most cases all three!

Recently I decided to do some more research and came up with a solution that I think is fantastic. No only do you not need a plugin, you can expect more traffic and the results are just superb. You end up with your Flickr photos showing up on a really cool 3D Photo Wall provided free by Cooliris

Watch this video to see exactly what I mean.

You’ll need to sign up for Flickr and use Cooliris (if you haven’t downloaded the Cooliris plugin for Firefox yet you are really missing out)

I’d love to see what you’ve done with this so leave me a message on the Contact page.

Following on from my post about the Easy Video Player – Video Marketing Made Easy – here’s a great video I think you’ll like.

By the way the site is now live and the one-off payment option is still available.

Talk is it will go to a monthly fee very soon – watch this video now – it may be too late later!

Easy Video Player Video

And here’s a video I created for another site – watch what happens at the end – now that’s cool!

I’m a great fan of video marketing – and with WordPress plugins it’s really easy to install on your site. But…

…if you’ve ever tried to upload all of the files you need to a normal site you’ll know how complicated it can be.

Even with WordPress there’s a danger of the videos crashing if there are too many views at once and unless you are really good technically it’s virtually impossible to add Opt-In boxes and automtatic re-directs (to say affiliate sales pages) when the video ends – certainly without spending masses of time.

That’s all about to change.

The marketing activities of so many people using video (or wthose who would like to but have avoided it to date) have just become really simple…

This software is really cool.

You can add Aweber Opt-In boxes that display automatically when the video finishes.

You can add automatic redirects so that when the video ends the visitor is redirected to ANY site that you choose. That could be your own sales page, an affiliate product, a blog, you are limited only by your imagination.

As you know I don’t do hype but I’m told the program will be available for a one-off price (you can use it on as many sites as you like for life) initially only. After a certain number have been sold there will be a monthly fee. Whether that’s sales hype or not I don’t know but personally I prefer a one-off so I won’t take the chance!

The product launches on Tuesday 12th January but in the meantime there are some great explanatory videos and some sales techniques at the site that are well worth watching.

If you use video marketing (or plan to) this is well worth looking at:

Hot on the heels on the “new” disclosure regulations, the Google Sidewiki disaster waiting to happen has thrown up some extremely interesting debate.

I was first alerted to the Sidewiki by Howie Schwarz back in September and I’ve been researching and paying close attention to what is being said by other marketers over recent weeks.

First for those of you who haven’t heard of Google’s Sidewiki there’s a brief introduction followed by the two main arguments for and against. If you ever venture online (and if you don’t give me a call – I’d love to hear from you lol) you must read this – it will have far greater implications than the new FTC rules.

First – What is Google’s Sidewiki?

Back in mid-September Google released it’s new tool which on the face of it could be a great way to gain extra backlinks to your sites. Essentially it is a browser based “comments” system. It is downloaded as an Add-On to your browser as part of the Google Toolbar and it can be viewed as a “sidebar” when browsing the internet.

Visitors to any site can then add their comments about the site to the Sidewiki, including links leading elsewhere, and whenever any other visitor using the Sidewiki arrives at the site the comments will be seen. The comments are stored on Google’s servers not on your site(s).

The site owner has no control over the comments other than the ability to have their own comment show up first and the option to flag any spam. But that spam is only removed IF Google’s moderation team choose to do so. As this thing grows how much time will that take? Every single page on a site can have it’s own comments.

The Argument For Google Sidewiki

Clearly in an ideal world and if everybody was reasonable and ethical then the system would work. Visitors are able to leave their comments about the article, site content, experience, products etc etc. So far so good. Indeed if a site is promoting rubbish then having an independent tell you that is a good thing.

The ability to add to the disccussion – a bit like any of the social bookmarking sites but effectively there, right in the margin of the actual site, sounds like a great step forward.

And from the visitors perspective adding backlinks to other resources and even your own site where the conversatioin can be expanded could be great. More traffic and targeted visitors to everyone’s sites.

The Argument Against Google Sidewiki

We don’t live in an ideal world and probably never will.

Not everbody is reasonable or ethical.

How do you fancy unscrupulous competitors placing false comments about you and / or your site right next to your sales page? What about adding some links to their own competing products right next to yours?

What about you affiliate marketers. You work hard to get your readers to click an affiliate link but when they reach the sales page they see a “Sidewiki” comment that offers a far greater bonus package than you can if the visitoor clicks their link that is sitting right there in the comments next to the But Now button!

Out and out spam comments that you cannot control may show up and will remain in full view until Googl;e decides to remove them (or not!)

Outstanding resources

This is a “must read” on Paul Myer’s Talk Biz News – Google Steals the Web – it’s a huge article but it is a real eye opener to the potential problems the Google Sidewiki can cause for us regular site owners.

Please don’t take this issue lightly. How would you like visitors to your family friendly site to see a comment in a Sidewiki, think it’s approved or somehow directly associated with your site and be led to a porn site? And you have no control over that.

Here’s Google own official information

The Official Google Blog

WizzerSays

If we were to sit outside a major store in our city with a placard putting down the store, the store owners and/or their products and telling them to visit our own shop can you imagine the outcry?

I believe that would be construed as illegal and some judge would put an end to it.

Will that same judge put a stop to the Google Sidewiki?

I am at a loss to see how this development is in anyone’s best interest – unless of course Google decides to monetize by way of adverts to fill their own coffers still further.

Everyone is entitled to their opinion and in mine nobody could possibly think more highly of the Google Sidewiki than me – and I think it stinks!