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Sunday, January 31, 2010

The book (2)

Today, on the real Construction Marketing Ideas blog, I posted five sample covers for the new Construction Marketing Ideas book, and already have started to receive constructive feedback.

You can vote for your favorites there. Tomorrow night, I will prepare the next issue of the bi-weekly newsletter.

Substantial and useful information is now found at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com. I will continue posting here daily until the blog finds its way to second place on the search engines; but for useful information, and to save time, you can just bookmark the active Construction Marketing Ideas blog.

Saturday, January 30, 2010

The book

We are getting ready for the final editing and indexing of the Construction Marketing Ideas book, and next week I'll invite readers of the Construction Marketing Ideas newsletter to vote on their favorites for the book cover.

In the meantime, you can read someting a lot more substantial than what you are seeing here on the actively-maintained Construction Marketing Ideas blog at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

Friday, January 29, 2010

Writing time

Much writing to do in the next few weeks as I co-ordinate the editorial content for Ottawa Construction News, The GTA Construction Report and Ontario Construction Report. And of course I must also write the daily installment for the real Construction Marketing Ideas blog, now located on its own domain at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Expanding directions

At the meeting of the Ottawa Renovates! committee, we agreed to look beyond our Ottawa roots to expand the business. Meanwhile, my Construction Marketing Ideas book is moving to the final design, proofing and indexing stages.

I'll have more thoughts on effective construction marketing ideas at the real blog site, http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com, tomorrow morning.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Return from Washington

Just returned from Washington. A long, but productive day. I'll post observations tomorrow on the "real" Construction Marketing Ideas blog at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

To washington . . .

Tomorrow morning, I head to the airport, and a flight to Washington DC. I'll attend an event of the SMPS Washington Chapter, the Design and Construction Network "happy hour" in Alexandria, VA, and meet a couple of candidates for the publisher of the Design and Construction Report.

It will be a busy, intense day, and provide substance for future blog entries at the actively-maintained Construction Marketing Ideas blog, at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

Monday, January 25, 2010

Ideas

It's plenty of work to come up with ideas each day for the Construction Marketing Ideas blog. I can certainly come up with something original each day but twice a day is a bit much.

Nevertheless, until the new Construction Marketing Ideas blog reaches position 2 on Google, you'll see postings here every day. However, you can shortcut the process and go directly to the new blog if you would like to actually read significant content.

Sunday, January 24, 2010

Seeking substance

This weekend, as I attended the Ottawa Renovations Show and reviewed galley proofs for the Construction Marketing Ideas book, I thought about what is most important to you. In the perfect world, you would like just the right number of "perfect"clients to appear on the scene, exactly when you want them to be there, without spending a cent of effort, time, or money on the process.

Sometimes this happens; work seems to fall into your lap without effort, and one of my book's themes is to explore how this happens, and how you can modify your circumstances to make these easy sales more likely and much more predictable.

But we need to get real here, and tomorrow I'll explore how to focus your priorities and efforts to achieve the best possible marketing results.

Of course you won't read these insights at this site -- as the Construction Marketing Ideas blog is now actively maintained at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.blogspot.com.

Saturday, January 23, 2010

Lead warming with stuff

Tomorrow, I'll explore how to develop campaigns to reach hard-to-reach people with solid (literally) material.

All substantive postings for the Construction Marketing Ideas blog are now at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com. Please bookmark there.

Where possible, I will use this site to preview the next day's postings on the actively-maintained blog though of course things can change between the time I think something will happen, and the actual posting.

Friday, January 22, 2010

Next week in Washington

Next Wednesday, I head for an intensive day of meetings in Washington DC, as we work on building the Design and Construction Report into its full potential.

Today, I had some important conversations in preparation.

Of course you won't see anything substantial here. All the key content and information on the blog is maintained at our new Construction Marketing Ideas site at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Copyright and construction blogs

Today, I discovered myself in the middle of a copyright dispute involving two prominent construction industry bloggers. I won't identify anyone here, and am happy to say the situation has been resolved.

The person who violated copyright didn't intend to cause harm -- he simply didn't understand the rules. So I'll probably post a bit about that tomorrow on the real Construction Marketing Ideas blog at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

Remember, I am posting here daily not because you will find much inspiration, but to hold the spot until the actively maintained blog catches up to position two in search engine rankings.
So if you have hyperlinks to this blog, please feel free to switch them to the new one.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Inquiries, inquiries

This blog attracts some intriguing and surprising calls. Today, someone in Trinidad called for my marketing advice. I tried, in the brief conversation, to help, but realistically I am not familiar with local market conditions on the Caribbean island. The call relates perhaps to the sidebar box on this blog which invites these calls -- I haven't posted a similar offer on the current blog at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

However, I also received another call, from a representative of the Construction Writers Association, inviting me to write an article on blogging for their upcoming newsletter. This, I will be happy to oblige, and in fact will provide them with a link on the current active blog site when I update it tomorrow morning.

Please remember that daily construction marketing ideas posting entries are intended to maintain this blog's status within search engines until constructionmarketingideas.com reaches second place on the search engines. If you want to read substantial stuff rather than placeholder content, please bookmark to the new site, and if you have links set, reference it instead of this blog (which ultimately I will maintain for archives only).

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Making choices

Today, I received an affiliate marketing proposal from someone who undoubtedly discovered me (and this construction marketing ideas blog) because of its relatively high search engine rankings. I've decided to keep an open mind to all proposals so will review it, but a tinge of wariness remains: Which products and services should you associate with, and which should you avoid? Can you harm your primary brand by engaging in businesses and relationships which do not match this business's core style and approach? Can you be too "stuck up" and unwilling to listen, to change? (That is a dig at myself).

Readers here -- and the people every day who are trying to post comments to this blog -- should realize that the heart and soul of the Construction Marketing Ideas blog is no longer on this site, but I will find a way to post daily here until the "real" blog reaches second spot on the search engine rankings.

As for the commenters, I know you are trying to win search engine ranking points rather than sincerely comment on postings here because, if you really cared about the content, you wouldn't be commenting on this blog! (With allowance for the archived postings, some of which are quite useful, of course.)

It is a wasted effort. Even if I posted the comments -- and I won't -- you would still be hit by the 'no follow' rule.

Why not make a useful site, or comment with sincerity without worrying about the site's search engine status?

Monday, January 18, 2010

Another day of rebuilding

An intense day of work today -- I'm still the acting editor for our Canadian publications, and have to write most of the advertising features and stories myself. This isn't too hard in itself, but then I need to keep up with the blog, the Construction Marketing Ideas newsletter (distribution will be tomorrow) and, yes, the general business management.

I can sustain this pressure, in part, because I generally enjoy my work and this is the primary theme in today's real Construction Marketing Ideas blog. (These postings here will continue daily until the new blog is #2 on Google -- may be some time -- but the real heart and soul of the blog is at Constructionmarketingideas.com.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

Facebook marketing success

In today's real Construction Marketing Ideas blog (at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com), I review a Missouri contractor's success with Facebook.

If you want to see our own Facebook page, you can visit here.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Construction Marketing: SEO Progress

Regular readers here know that I moved the blog to the new constructionmarketingideas.com site over the Christmas holidays, and the substantive content is now posted there. But you'll still see daily postings here, at least until the new blog is comfortably and securely in second place on the Google search engine. This may take some time, as some excellent and long-established blogs and sites rightfully deserve recognition in the Construction Marketing space.

Nevertheless, this weekend, I'm pleased to see that the new blog address has reached position #4, at least in Canada, a big jump from previous standings.

If you actually want to discover some useful construction marketing ideas ideas rather than just look at this type of posting, you can bookmark the new site and don't need to return here!

Friday, January 15, 2010

The business challenge

Indeed, my workload is increasing, and it will likely get much 'harder' before things improve. We are about to add our key third salesperson and resume regular publication of Northern Ontario Construction News -- I'm hoping to find someone soon for the Design and Construction Report. Meanwhile, I'm writing these blog entries, my Construction Marketing Ideas book is in the final editing stages, and I still have to do most of the editorial/writing work for our regional publications.

I would love to hire a full time staff editor, but this needs to wait until our cash position improves, and that will take at least a few months, even as sales increase.
In the meantime, if you are interested in insights and useful resources relating to Construction Marketing, please bookmark and reference the Construction Marketing Ideas blog on the http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com site. I'll continue posting here daily for now, but the real original and creative writing is at the new site.

Thursday, January 14, 2010

The work begins

Tomorrow morning, I'll be interviewing key people for three of several business profile features to be published this month. The workload is picking up -- this actually is a good sign, as the business continues its recovery after a harrowing several months last year as the recession (and some ill-advised business decisions I made) hit hard.

Nevertheless, before I go to work on our regional publication content, first thing tomorrow morning you will find some inspiration relating to this blog's theme at the new Construction Marketing Ideas blog at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com.

The search engines are thankfully recognizing the new site, meaning the day is getting closer when I won't need to write so much supplementary original content for this blog.

Please bookmark the new site.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Best blog competition and insights into winning bidding opportunities

Yesterday, we received several votes in the Best Construction Blog (and forum) competition, and now Remodelcrazy.com has moved to top place in the forum category. I'll updating results soon. You can enter the voting until Feb. 28.

Also, in today's Construction Marketing Blog, you'll read some insightful and disturbing research if you think you really can win open and public competitions without a solid relationship with key people in the RFP-issuing authority.

The new blog is starting to move up the rankings on Google, once it is in Number 2 place, I will reduce entries at this site, and thus complete the switch-over. The core content of the blog is at constructionmarketingideas.com so you may wish to adjust your bookmarks and hyperlinks there.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Social Networking and Construction Marketing (2)

Today I present my observations about social networking and construction marketing for the Construction Specifications Canada (CSC) Ottawa Chapter

The presentation: 'Can you really have 500 (or 5,000) friends on the Internet?" will occur at 3:30 pm. at Royal Canadian Legion (Branch 638) Hall 70 Hines Rd., Kanata (just off March Rd.).

Admission is $25.00 and sandwiches and light refreshments.

You can register at the door, or if you prefer, online at the CSC Ottawa site.

And you can read about how you can effectively implement a marketing strategy for subs and suppliers at the new Construction Marketing Ideas blog.

Monday, January 11, 2010

Some thoughts on trust and blogging

You'll want to visit the active Construction Marketing Ideas blog at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com for today's posting on this topic.

And you can still register for my presentation: Can you really have 500 (or 5,000) friends? on the Web.

You can obtain more information and register at this link.

Saturday, January 09, 2010

Futile comment spam effort

I learned something yesterday I should have known long before. All of those spammy comments with the hope of gaining search engine ranking are an absolute waste to the spammers trying to cheat their way to higher rankings, because of a little thing called "nofollow" that is built into most search engine comment links.

The tag means the comment link looks good, but doesn't go anywhere within the search engine evaluation.

Nevertheless, I'll continue to delete comments which do not focus on the blog's topic and/or are obviously planted by third party content generating agents.

In the meantime, you can view an original video on social networking and marketing at the now-primary Construction Marketing Ideas blog.

Friday, January 08, 2010

Changing Construction Marketing bookmarks

If you've been bookmarking -- or even better, linking to this blog -- consider adding or changing to the new Construction Marketing Ideas site at http://www.constructionmarketingideas.com. I'll continue posting here every day and sometimes add some really useful material, but most of the postings will simply guide you to the new blog.

And if you are working at some offshore "comment generating" factory, you can continue posting, but they will all be deleted. I encourage genuine comments here and at the new site, of course.

Thursday, January 07, 2010

Speech preparation

Today, I'm working on the draft for my presentation on social media/networking to the Construction Specifications Ottawa Chapter next Tuesday.

For more information, and to register, you can visit the CSC Ottawa site, http://www.cscottawa.ca/Events/Network2010.html

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Best Blog competition update tomorrow

Tomorrow, I'll provide an update on the progress in the Best Construction Blog competition at the new Construction Marketing Ideas site.

If you wish, of course, you can cast your ballot here.

Tuesday, January 05, 2010

Can you have 500 (or 5,000) friends?

I'll be answering this question at 3:30 p.m. next Tuesday, January 12, at a special presentation about social networking and marketing at the Construction Specifications Ottawa Chapter.

For more information and to register, you can visit the CSC Ottawa website and, more specifically, the events registration page at http://www.cscottawa.ca/Events/Network2010.html

Monday, January 04, 2010

Facebook and Linkedin

In my posting at the new Construction Marketing Ideas blog, I outline the success of the DIY approach to online marketing -- and throw in a couple of links, one to the new Facebook Construction Marketing Ideas page, and the other to the Construction Marketing Ideas Group on linkedin.com.

Saturday, January 02, 2010

A look at Bill Caswell's website

Bill Caswell's Caswell Corporate Coaching Company has introduced a website which offers some instant and free answers to key business questions. See the reference to the special joint venture webinar with Construction Marketing Ideas on the right.

The story is at the new Construction Marketing Ideas blog. If you wish to save a step, please set your bookmark to the new site.

Friday, January 01, 2010

What a difference a year makes . . .

You'll see how I've updated a posting from this blog last year on the new constructionmarketingideas.com site.

You can save time by adjusting your bookmarks. If you are using an RSS feed, please let me know if you are having troubles receiving the feed from the new site as some kind of glitch may be embedded in the system. You can email me directly at buckshon@cnrgp.com.