If you are in digital marketing chances are you have a online marketing budget that you are trying to maximize to full potential. I here a lot of people says that social media sites don’t help with anything. Maybe they are right maybe they are wrong. The bottom line is that you wont know until you give it a try.
Check out this cool infographic from Neil Patel over at QuickSprout.com.
Do you know or think you know SEO? Have you ever been in this cycle before? I know I have a couple of times throughout my five plus years in the industry.
Welcome back to another edition of my Sneaker Friday’s. I don’t think most of you look forward to reading as much as I look forward to writing but its ok. I enjoy going back down memory lane and revisiting some of the shoes I had or never got the chance to own.
This week takes us back to about 1989 when I was about 10 or so years of age. I think the first time I saw these shoes was on a commercial with Dominique Wilkins. The shoes are none other then the infamous Reebok Pumps.
Shoes that You Could Pump
I don’t know who thought of the idea to put a system into your shoe that would allow you to increase or decrease pressure but that the time that person was a genius.
Basically the shoe had basketball image on the tongue that if you pressed you could add air to your shoe causing it to give you a better fit. Also at the same time if you just pressed and held the basketball down it would release all the air.
Honestly I at that time it take much to impress me and having something I could actually do to some shoes excited me the most. Also at that stage in life I think I thought that things like pumps would give me an advantage.
I was playing sports and major basketball players endorsed these shoes. So of course I thought look how great these guys are and they wear these so let me go get them. Kids what can I see we use to think the weirdest things.
I also love the black/white color and when I did wear them it wasn’t so bad when some stepped on them.
The major difference from these shoes and most of the other sneaker’s I purchased was that I only used them for play basketball. The other shoes that I was buying at the time were strictly for fashion.
The Reebok Pumps got used and then used some more. I played basketball religiously in them and never worried about minor scratches or creases in them like with some of my other shoes.
I say truly say that I got my money’s worth when I purchased these.
The sad truth is that no matter how much I pumped those shoes I was no better then when I played before. That was a reality that I learned the hard way when I was playing a cousin of mine.
He was like shoes don’t make you play better you are still going to lose. He dared me to go get my Pumps and play him at a game of 21. Well I went got my Pumps, pumped them up and proceeded to get my ass handed to me on the basketball court.
The pumps were a classic then and even now. The shoes have be re-release several times since their debut in 1989. There is even a release coming up in 2013 for the summer.
It’s amazing how many things I grew up watching and wearing are now coming back in style. I never so many other people thought this shoe to be a classic.
Have you ever purchased something that you thought would make you better, stronger, faster or smarter just because you wore it? If so what was it and why did you think it?
Photo Credit: Reebok Pump OG, Retro
My wife is a very loving, caring, intelligent and beautiful woman whom I love dearly. However, when it comes to finances and how we see things we were not even close to being on the same page.
She is about going on nice trips, enjoying life and having the finer things. Me well in one word I am cheap. Not in the sense of not wanting to ever to do anything or spend money but rather I am rational.
I can’t for the life of me agree to spending money on something I want if there are other things out there that we as a family need. Needless to say we have had plenty of disagreements and most ended up being about finances.
The last two cars that my wife owned have been the Audi A4 and C350 Benz while my last car is a 96 Honda Civic Hatchback. She has the fully equipped Benz with leather, sunroof, AMG kit, navigation, and the works.
I drive a hatchback that is almost 20 years old with no A/C, no power locks or windows, no sunroof, and it has a large dent in the back from a rear-end collision from a few years ago. Oh and did I mention I am 6’2 and drive a hatchback?
Sadie as my wife calls her gets a measly seventeen miles to the gallon, costs more then I would like to discuss, cost an arm and a leg to fix, dents and scratches stick out like a sore thumb.
While Betsy the Civic is on the other hand sips gasoline, is low to maintain, gets me from point A to B, doesn’t require full coverage, and only cost $35 to fill up.
Without going into to much detail on how much we end up spending on Sadie the Benz from Hell lets just look at the cost of tires. I was reading a post the other day were someone mention that they were able to spend $150 per tire.
Heck I would welcome the opportunity to buy tires that cheap for my wife’s car. Tires alone for her car run about $230 for the front and $320 for the back. Yes you read the prices right, and no I cant get them cheaper I have tried other tires and the ride is just horrible.
Mind you this doesn’t even include the cost of the mounting, balancing and alignment. If you think this is a lot you should try buying the tires from the dealer. This is a steal from TireRack.com and you can add about another $30-45 per tire if we go to the dealership.
Well for comparison everything on Betsy runs about $500-750 per year but just for giggles we will only compare tires. I don’t need to replace the tires on the Civic that often. We she does need tires I can go to any local tire shop and they usually have what I need in stock.
The tires new usually only run about $65 and yes the ride is horrible but what do you expect the car is older then my son. I don’t get soft tires as they wear a lot quicker the hard tires that seem to last forever.
When we first got in engaged my wife was in love with her car. But that love affair wore off after the first couple of payments. Then a little more when people started hitting it with grocery carts and car doors.
I could care less if someone hit my car with a baseball bat and I have no monthly payments. Though I really don’t like the Benz because of the up keep and cost I like it as a car.
The big difference the Benz has made is that my wife now understands that there are a lot more important things in life and a car is well just a car. When you buy an expensive car you have to be ready for everything.
Sadly too many people just see the car payments and not how much the upkeep costs and how many of these cars get poor gas mileage. She once thought that have a car payment was something she would have for life.
Now my wife has turned a new leaf and vow that once this car is paid for never again well she get a car payment.
Another thing Betsy has been able to do is help me teach my son about money. One day I was taking him to school and my son said, “why do you drive this old car?” What do you say to that? Most people might have thought it would be time to get a new car.
I used this as a teaching opportunity and gave my son an example. I asked him if he would rather have a nice new truck that cost him $700 per month and another $300 in gas or would he rather have a used car that is paid for and be able to spend the $700 on other things. He chose the used car!
Why do we spend so much money on cars? Do we really need them? I have a friend who says it’s different for men then it is for women. He said if he drove a car that was old and beat up woman would just him.
Though he doesn’t think its fair he says that how he rolls up makes a difference in how women see him. Per him he could care less what a woman drives and she could on roller skates. I think it’s an excuse for him to own an M3 but I do admit there is some truth to it.
Personally I just need a reliable car to get me from point A to B. I don’t need anything fancy as I have a lot of other things I need to focus money efforts on.
Women do you spend just as much money on cars as men do, if so why? Do cars help to prove that we are successful and to show to others that we made it or are we just using that to help stroke our egos?
Photo Credits – Benz, Civic, Inside C350
It’s that time again! Welcome to another addition of Sneaker Friday’s with yours truly. I know I only did one post this week but I have been visiting so many other sites it would make your head spin.
Last week on my very first sneaker Friday I posted about my love affair and life changing experience brought on by the Jordan 4’s. This week I would like to introduce to you the AirMax 90 Infrared’s.
If I recall correctly these AirMax’s hit the scene more then 20 years ago when I was probably in the 6th grade. I was just really starting to get into sneakers and I saw them on a guy who was jogging.
I actually stopped him and asked him where he got the shoes and sadly he told me he had purchased the shoes in another state.
Being in SC meant that a lot of the colorway’s for certain shoes didn’t get pushed to my little side of the world. The guy told me they were some of the most comfortable shoes he had ever worn.
My mom was actually there when I stopped the guy and for the love of her she couldn’t see what I saw in those shoes. She was like; “you are going to buy shoes with pink in them? Why would you do that you are not a girl?”
That’s was the typical parent in South Carolina around the 90’s and Infrared’s(pink to my mom) was just not something a boy should be wearing.
But I knew better and have always just worn thing’s I like and could care less of what anyone else thought. These shoes were a must have and I knew no one would be rocking them at my school.
I loved everything about them: the style, colorway, and new they were comfortable because I had AirMax’s already. Plus most of the max’s I had seen were all leather and this was the first I saw made of mesh. They would be hell to clean but I needed them, or rather just had to have them.
Back then the only way to find a pair of shoes was to actually go to local places or call stores in your area. I had my mom drive me to the nearest malls and I asked several employees about the shoes.
Much to my displeasure none of them knew what the hell I was talking about. I didn’t know the name of the color so like my mom I kept say the one with the pink. That didn’t help at, boy I sure could have used a laptop or smartphone back then.
I must have look for those shoes for about six months and never got my hands on them. Overtime I forgot about them and they were just never a focus with so many other shoes hitting the seen.
Fast-forward over the past twenty plus years and I was just talking to my lovely wife about wanting to get some new kicks. I told her about the shoes and she was like why not look and see if someone has them.
Nowadays there is a huge market for bringing back shoes from when I was in elementary school. I hit up my old shoe sites and much to my surprise they had been several releases that I missed.
Every place that I did find the shoe was selling them at a premium and I mean a huge one at that. If I recall back then you could get them for about $100 and now you be lucky to pay $250 if you didn’t get them when the first hit the shelves.
Now copping shoes and reselling them is a business. People are buying 3 or more pairs and selling them. With limited supply and such high demand kicks are going for 3-4 times market rate.
I wasn’t about to spend $200-$300 on some shoes that were only $120 at most retail. I just know I could get them for cheaper. But that was early February 2012 and I just got tired of looking.
New York is known for vast things but those who know anything about sneakers know that there are a lot of sneaker heads in NYC. I mean just walk around and you will see shoes in pawnshops, jewelry stores, you name it.
I must have seen about 20 pairs of sneakers that I could find anywhere while I was up in the Big Apple for the SMX conference.
By the time I left New York I had purchased a pair of Infrareds from a store in Manhattan. Honestly I just couldn’t take it anymore and just spent the money and got the shoes I had been wanting since 6th grade.
A lot of people who know me look at me and question why in the heck would I spend so much money on a pair of shoes when they know me to be a saver. Well be frank, I wanted too!
My wife is the only one who truly understands my affection and bond with those kicks. She knew how long I had wanted them and in fact I called and asked if she thought I should get them. Without hesitation she was like, are you kidding you have been looking for them for years!
Much to say I am happy with my purchase and to be clear I am big on finances and saving money. I also believe that saving and not enjoying some of your money could be a problem.
The money I spent on these shoes is small when you consider that every year a few of my friends and I make it a point to go on 2-3 trips together. We planned to go to Amsterdam didn’t happen. Wanted to go to Rio de Janeiro didn’t happen. Heck we even planned to hit up the Dominican Republic or Vegas again and that didn’t happen.
Basically I had money to waste. Every year I set aside money for my wife and myself to spend on having fun. Well this year that money didn’t get spent like I planned so I copped me a fresh pair of AirMax 90 Infrared’s!
Readers have you ever wanted something that you just never ended up getting? Was it because of cost or just the fact you couldn’t find it? If you were to find it now would you be willing to pay a lot more for it? Why or why not?
Photo Credits by NiceKicks
A few a weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending SMX East 2012 in NYC. My company sent me on a trip with my director in hopes that we could learn something new that would take our marketing to the next level.
I was hyped for the conference and had my laptop already to take notes and meet new people and learn some new strategies. But when I got there I was a little taken back by what I learned.
On the first day I really wasn’t expecting much as I figured it was the normal meet and greet and learn you way around. However as the days went on I started to see a trend in the conference. Most of what I was learning I already knew.
Yeah you can call it weird, strange, I knew too much or old things still worked. Well I would say that it’s a combination of them all mixed with sales pitches. The biggest of them all was that most of the people at the conference were newbies.
While in a Google training session one of the speakers asked us all to raise our hands. Then as he said years of experience we had to put our hands down. At the end only few of us had 5 or more years of experience. I was shocked and felt like I had so much I needed to learn but here I am one of the more experienced people in the room.
Well what I got out of the conference and my expectations were just completely off track. You see I want to the conference hoping to find so many new and improve ways to make our marketing better. Didn’t really happen!
The reason this didn’t happen was because I already follow some of the top sites and blogs on SEO and digital marketing such as: SEOmoz, Searchengineland, Point Blank SEO, SEO Book and many more.
Most of the same people I already follow were the same ones presenting at the conference. What I learned was that people are there to help you with the basics and well the basics aren’t what I personally need.
Though the conference wasn’t what I truly needed, though I did learn one or two tips to make the trip more then worthwhile I can’t blame the speakers. Why you ask? Well look at it this way, most of the speakers own companies and need business.
Are you really going to give away your advantage to everyone else? Do you want everyone to know what you know or are you going to keep that to yourself to make you and your services that much more valuable.
Yeah for those who are experienced it kinda of sucked! That’s me putting it lightly, but for those with just 1 to 2 years of experience I am sure that this was more then they expected an even more.
This brings me to Search Marketing Expo for the years to come. No I am not in charge and no one asked me my two cents but here they are anyways. I would suggest that things be more defined.
I mean yes they did have things broken into levels like beginner, novice, advice etc but even advance was a little watered down if you asked me. Maybe there should actually be two SMX East Conferences one that is set up the way it was this year and another the it really more advanced but you pay more.
To say it in the least more advance needs to be well MORE ADVANCED! Don’t get me wrong if given the opportunity I would definitely go again because the 1 or 2 things I did learn have surely help but it was like finding a needle in a haystack.
There were several things going on at the same time which meant I had to choose one and possible missing out on important information in the other. You have no idea which presentation will have those gems.
State up front whether the speaker is going over old techniques, new ones or forward thinking approaches. I guess I am asking them to think like they were giving presentation for information as if they we in my shoes.
I am still looking at going to the SMX East in 2013 but hopefully my experience will be a little better. I also want to check out MOZconn and several others.
Readers have you ever had expectations of something and didn’t quite get what you were expecting? What did you attribute your disappoint too? Was it the high expectations you had or did it just not live up to the hype?
Yeah I know, who has sneaker Friday’s? Well I do of course, heck you did come here to see what’s new and going on right? My site is new I figured this is the time for people to get to know me.
Let’s just say I really enjoy sneakers! When I say I enjoy kicks I mean all kinds, not just Jordan’s and Nike’s but all things sneakers in general. I remember when I would spend so much money on shoes I would make my mom’s head spin.
But hey back then I didn’t have a wife and child so no one cared. I spent many a days outside in the hot sun mowing lawn to save up for those first pair of J’s.
Man I can still remember my first love; they were the Jordan IV. The sad part is the first time I saw them I was in elementary school and this girl I had a crush on had just copped a fresh pair in the white, military blue, neutral grey color way.
Can you imagine that? The girl I was head over heels with was rocking the shoes I was head over heels with. Man I remember this like it was yesterday; I think that made me like her that much more.
Well going forward every Friday I will pick a pair of shoes that I had, wanted, or will be getting. At least this is the plan as I have so much going on its hard to say I will stick to a blogging pattern but this is something I really look for to.
Shoes are one thing I really enjoy and if you have a passion for kicks please feel free to hit me up. I know they can be a bit expensive but that’s only because of the resale market.
I saw a post on Nice Kicks where some guy is buying 20-30 pairs of the same shoes. Well that’s ok but when people then turn around and sell them for $1500 it make the sneaker game all mess up. I just finally copped a pair of Air Max 90 Infrared’s and ended paying more then I would have liked.
Well if you read or saw the photo above then you probably guessed it, Jordan IV. These shoes were one of the first sneakers I had really had a chance to see in person. Up until that point mom’s was about just taking me to Wal-Mart and just getting me some no name brand kicks.
I had seen the shoes MJ were rocking and always wanted a pair but my parents just couldn’t afford them. To see those shoes on a girl that I already had a crush on just made things worse.
Even at that age I was like how in the hell am I going to get that girl when she rocking kicks that look better then what I have? My mind was made up that from point on I was never getting shoes from Payless or Wal-Mart ever again.
From that point on I think my whole mindset changed about life, working and getting things done. My parents never had to ask me to do chores or anything of that nature. That next summer though I was too young to get a “real job” I found things to that would pay me.
I went to every one on my street and asked if they needed my lawn services. I would wash cars and anything someone needed help with I volunteered for a fee of course.
For some it may be hard to understand how a pair of sneakers could change a person’s life but they did for me. I never even ended up getting that color way but I plan to some day.
Because of those shoes I learned to work to the things in life that you want. To value money and to understand that nothing in life is ever free. I worked so hard to get my first pair of expensive shoes I made sure to keep them clean and always boxed.
Has there ever been something like a pair of shoes or video game that changed you? What was it and how did you end up getting it?
We all know that stupid ish will happen no matter how you try to avoid it. That person you held the door for won’t say thank you, the car in front wont put a turn signal on and will cut you off or even worse your best friend will talk about you behind you back.
These are minor things compare to some of the things people deal with on a day-to-day basis. But why do we tend to dwell on the things that we can’t control? I hear more people complaining about stuff that happened two months ago more so then the thing that are in there control.
If the bitch at the store was rude to you don’t take it personal. I know its easier said then done for some but what are you going to accomplish by sweating it? What are you still upset about? Does she know you personally?
See what I have found is that people spend more time on the things they can’t control versus the things that they do. I use to see my wife looking at food and saying why does it have so many calories.
What difference does it matter if it has a lot of calories or not? You have a choice to eat it or not eat it. Complaining about the damn calories isn’t going to change the calorie content.
No matter how nice you are, no matter how good a person is to you and no matter how good a day you are having shit is going to hit the fan sooner or later. Its not going to always be avoidable and you are going to have to deal with it.
The key though it to handle it then and there, knowing that you did the right thing and handle the situation like an adult. I always tell me wife remember we have kids and act like you want the to act.
It may take a few minutes to calm down but you shouldn’t be stressing about certain ish for days upon end. I mean its one thing to get fired out of the blue and you have a family to feed but most people know that they have been slacking at work or that the company is starting to layoff.
Not saying its easy but you can’t control it and worrying and complain doesn’t make it easier. Move on and start looking for a new job or plan ahead and make sure you have savings a rainy day.
You have to learn to be strong in difficult situations, and as more and more ish happens you will get stronger and learn how to deal with those problems. People dying, losing jobs, and homes are not the stupid ish I am talking about.
What I am talking about are the minor problems that we make big shit like they really matter. So what the person didn’t say thank you or don’t like you who cares. You are probably better off anyway don’t let people and situation get you worked up.
Sometimes you will just be in the wrong please at the wrong time. Think about eating out at a restaurant and your waitress is not up to your standards. She isn’t coming to check on you and filling your glass.
Yeah I know many will say but that’s his/her job but people have bad days. Can you imagine have to wait tables for five different tables and at one table someone curses you out and calls you a bitch or whore?
Are you telling me you could just let that ish pass? Probably not but you would like them to and move on though right? We have to not worry about things we cant control and fix those you can.
I saw a quote on SEOmoz.org from Will(IPullRank) basically saying “real life shit”, well in the real world shit happens. Its best to keep it moving and fix what you can and not dwell on those that you can’t.
Have you ever had a situation where you just couldn’t let it go? If so what was the issue? Were you able to solve the problem? And how did you solve it? I’m curious to see if you were better off just letting it going in the end.
