Category Archive for Uncategorized

Will Water be the New Oil?

30 Jan, 2011  No Comment

By Shel Horowitz, painlessgreenbook.com (666 words)

In the year 2050, I predict that there won’t be an oil crisis anymore. The world will have largely moved away from fossil and biomass fuels, in favor of sustainable, renewable, and clean energy solutions such as solar, wind, hydro, and geothermal.

But if we don’t shift our behavior, what our grandchildren will be facing could be far, far worse: a water crisis.

As a society, we don’t just waste water—we squander it. Billions of gallons of good fresh water go tumbling down our pipes and sewers, gone forever. And when our children’s children struggle to find enough clean water to live, they will be pretty angry at our generation for letting it get so bad.

See, unlike fossil fuels, which can easily be replaced by safer, cleaner, sustainable alternatives, there is no substitute for water. We can protect our water supplies by keeping them clean, we can make them last longer by using less. But we need water to live. When we’re born, our bodies are 78 percent water. As adults, 55 to 60 percent of our bodies is water, and some of the most important parts of us use even more: 70 percent of our brains, 83 percent of our blood, and nearly 90 percent of our lungs.[1]

And while much water use goes to agricultural and industrial processes over which we as individuals have no control, the good news is that there are many easy free or cheap steps we can take to drastically reduce our home water waste and conserve this vital resource for future generations.

In fact, for many people, it’s probably easier to reduce water use in and around the home than any other resource—because so few people have even thought about it. A typical household can easily reduce water consumption by 50 to 80 percent, just by thinking differently.

Here are four easy no-cost steps among many every household can take:

Reduce Toothbrushing Water Waste by 90 Percent or More: Wet the toothbrush with a small trickle of water, and then turn the water off! Turn it back on to rinse the toothpaste off the brush at the end. A family of four could save hundreds of gallons every month just from this simple trick.

Switch from Bottled Water to Filtered Tap Water, if you live in a place where the tap water is good enough to drink (which it is in many parts of the world). Too often, bottled water is an environmental disaster! Bottling consumes petroleum and typically wastes or contaminates several times as much water as goes in the bottle—and bottling plants can draw down the local water supply, causing problems for agriculture and for local residents. Plus, the carbon footprint of transporting the water around the world is significant. For comparable flavor and health, use a simple, inexpensive home water filtering system, which will lower your costs and produce far less waste. For times you need a water bottle because you’re out and about, fill a reusable bottle or cup from your water filter—or invest in a reusable bottle with a built-in filter so you can fill up from unfiltered taps and fountains without worry.

Stop Temperature-Related Water Waste: Don’t let the water run until it gets cold enough. Fill a bottle and refrigerate it so you always have cold water with no waste.

Recapture and Reuse: When you have old water in your tea kettle, cooking pot, or reusable water bottle, use it to water plants, presoak dishes, etc., instead of dumping it down the drain.

These four simple tips are only the beginning. We can all save tens of thousands of gallons of water in our lifetimes by looking for ways to let the water run less often, and with less force.  You’ll find 28 different water-saving tips in my <a href=” https://painlessgreenbook.com”>e-book, Painless Green: 111 Tips to Help the Environment, Lower Your Carbon Footprint, Cut Your Budget, and Improve Your Quality of Life-With No Negative Impact on Your Lifestyle</a>.

Shel Horowitz, shel at greenandprofitable.com, shows you how to “reach green, socially conscious consumers with marketing that has THEM calling YOU.” He writes the Green And Profitable/Green and Practical columns and is the primary author of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green (John Wiley & Sons, 2010).


[1] https://ga.water.usgs.gov/edu/propertyyou.html

January 2011

6 Jan, 2011  No Comment

Please note: Starting next month, we’ll be shifting our publishing schedule to on or about the 15th–so don’t panic when we don’t show up between the 5th and 8th as usual. It’ll be between the 15th and 18th from now on.

In This Issue…

Column Update: Like to Make $200 Per Sale?

Did you see in last month’s newsletter that I’m self-syndicating a monthly column called Green And Profitable? It’s off an running, and there’s quite a bit of news—including an opportunity for you to earn some significant bucks. Here’s a quick update:

  1. Along with the green business column, Green And Profitable, I’m introducing a companion column for consumers: Green And Practical.
  2. In addition to offering both columns to media (at $10 per column insertion, currently), and to individuals ($10 for a six-month subscription), I’ve decided to offer the columns to corporations and organizations who might want to “private-label” them: issue them as if they had published the columns, and distribute to their own subscribers, customers, or prospects. I’m charging these organizations just 25 cents per subscriber, per year, which works out to about two cents per reader per issue.
  3. This new model presents an income opportunity for you: if you connect me directly with a specific person who buys the right to private-label the columns ($1200 and up), you can earn a commission. Here are the specifics:
  • If you set me up directly with a client who buys column rights, I’ll pay you $200—that’s if you make the introduction.
  • If you don’t set me up, but give me the contact and I can use your name, I’ll pay you $100 if your contact makes the buy.
  • If you don’t give me a specific contact but are the first to suggest an organization that buys the rights, I’ll pay you $25.
  • Suggest either or both of the columns to a publication that you read or subscribe to, and if they agree, I’ll give you your choice of any of my e-books (sorry, but with total sale of only $60 for six months or $120 for a year, I can’t pay cash commission; there are costs in administering and writing the column).

Think about who you know. I’ll be here :-).  shel (at) principledprofit.com

Are You Throwing Away Your Opportunities? Shel Horowitz’s Clean and Green Marketing Tip, January 2011

Happy New Year! I love symmetrical dates like last Saturday’s 1/1/11. We’ll have three more dates with all 1s this year: one later this month and two in November.

Looking out over the fields of the farm I live on, I was reminded of our luscious organic garden. This year, we had a particularly bountiful harvest of hot peppers—to the point that I went down to the garden, picked five pounds of surplus, and brought the whole big bag to my neighbors’ farmstand. They sell produce from a bunch of local farms, usually labeled with the farm of origin and the town, and of course, the price.

So I was figuring mine would go out with something like “Grown right here on this farm by our neighbors, no pesticides or chemical fertilizers” and the price per pound (they can’t legally say organic, because for our home garden, we don’t go through any certification process.) With a sign like that, I would have expected my chiles to go flying out the door, and I would have had a steady market for the remaining two months of the season. But for some reason, they put my beautiful peppers in an out-of-the-way spot, with no sign at all. And there, they slowly shriveled over the next week or so. Needless to say, I didn’t bring them any more to sell.

A less personal example: I recently bought a box of crackers that had this message: “100% of the electricity used to manufacture these crackers and this container come from green power sources,” and has a nice little accompanying graphic of a windmill. Just above this is a Forest Stewardship Council certification logo denoting sustainably harvested timber sources for the box.

Unfortunately, both of these logos and statements are on the bottom panel of the box, where no one can see it unless they’ve already bought the crackers–or perhaps if the prospect accidentally knocks the package off the supermarket shelf, happens to land the bottom facing up, and somehow notices the small logos while picking up the box.

The lesson in both of these situations is that you have to be willing to talk about the advantages of dong business with you. Not in an obnoxious way, but sincerely, and in ways that show you’re proud of what you’ve created.

An additional lesson from the farmstand: make it easy for your customers to get the information they need. Failing to put a price on the display meant that anyone considering the peppers would have to go to the counter and ask—and that extra step is a disincentive.

After all, if your sets of benefits don’t convince yourself, why will they convince anyone else?

I have learned not to be shy about this. So let me remind you: If you’d like to know more about smart green marketing, pick up a copy of my award-winning and Environmental category bestselling eighth book, Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green: Winning Strategies to Improve Your Profits and Your Planet (co-authored with Jay Conrad Levinson)—and register your purchase (from anywhere) on the Bonus page to collect more than $2000 worth of extra goodies.

Hear & Meet

January

February
  • Yesterday, you should have gotten a mailing from me about a fantastic no-cost conference series that really focuses on my core values of social entrepreneurship: business as tool of social and environmental change, and of growing a conscious planetary  community. I taped a great call with host Ryan Eliason, and it will air February 16, 2011, 1 pm ET/10 am PST. But you should register for the whole series. It includes such wonderful people as tree activist Julia Butterfly Hill, former Obama green jobs czar Van Jones (I’ve heard both of them speak and they are superb), brain researcher/philosopher Dr. Bruce Lipton, the writer Marianne Williamson, Green America head Alisa Gravitz, Bioneers co-founder Nina Simons, and my eco-biz friends George Kao and Tad Hargrave, among others. Ryan should be charging big bucks for this–but you get this incredible education at no charge. (He will be charging for the replays, though.) https://shelhorowitz.com/go/RyanEliason
  • If I can work out some logistics, I’ll be a panelist (not the same thing as a speaker, in this case) at Ken McArthur’s next JV Alert, Orlando, February 18-20. I’ve heard amazing things about these conferences, including some legendary and very profitable deals and partnerships. I’m eager to experience it.  If you’d like to go too, click here for the very impressive speaker lineup and registration link https://shelhorowitz.com/go/JVAlert
March
  • Social Media for Terrified Authors: How to Turn Scary Into Success: Wednesday, March 30, 2 pm ET/11 a.m. PT, with Shel Horowitz and book coach/social media maven Judy Cullins.
    * Have an impact on the three major social media networks in just minutes a day: control social media and keep it from controlling you
    * Understand how to spread your content around the Internet with just a couple of clicks: more ROI for less work
    * Turn social media connections into website traffic, book sales, and client gigs without spending any money to do it.
    *Increase your credibility as a savvy expert.
    *Define and find your book’s target audience on the big 3 social media marketing sites–and market directly to the exact people who can benefit from your book.
    * Get your website or blog pages highly ranked on Google and other search engines.

Just $19.95, and includes several valuable bonuses. Click https://www.bookcoaching.com/shel-judy-teleseminar.php to get all the details.

April
  • April 8-10 I plan to attend the National Conference on Media Reform, in Boston. I’ve attended two previous conferences and am always blown away.
  • Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 10 AM-4 PM, my wife and I will exhibit again at Amherst Sustainability Festival in downtown Amherst, MA
May
  • Once again, I’ll be attending Book Expo America, May 24-26 in New York City, and probably IBPA University May 22- 23

Friends Who Want to Help

My co-author, Jay Conrad Levinson, “the Father of Guerilla Marketing,” has a few seats left in his next Guerrilla Marketing Intensive, at his Florida home (where I visited recently). 21 hours of training over three days, for $4997 (payable in up to four installments). Limited to just ten people, so this is pretty in-depth. https://shelhorowitz.com/go/rfHHY8Y

Another great no-cost teleseminar series, from Ken Foster, has invited many prominent social thinkers (like Stephen Covey (7 Habits of Highly Effective People) and Spencer Johnson (Who Moved My Cheese?), as well as a host of prominent Internet marketers like Lisa Sasevitch, Stefanie Hartman, Alex Mandossian, my good friend and book marketer extraordinare Penny Sanseveiri…a star-studded cast of 18 speakers. The URL isn’t live yet, so watch for a special mailing on or around February 1 giving all the details.

Unrelieved stress is a significant risk factor for heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure, autoimmune disease, fibromyalgia, chronic pain syndromes, irritable bowel syndrome, insomnia, and asthma, among many other illnesses too numerous to name. THE WORRY SOLUTION, by Dr. Martin Rossman will teach you how to use your mind and brain to eliminate unnecessary suffering and the negative health impacts caused by worry. Buy the book today @ https://worrysolution.com/book/ and get a ton of amazing gifts!

NY Times bestselling author Marci Shimoff interviewed more than 150 Love Luminaries and uncovered 14 Love Keys to living in a state of unconditional love. She shows you how in Love for No Reason: 7 Steps to Creating a Life of Unconditional Love. She offers a breakthrough approach to experiencing a lasting state of unconditional love-the kind of love that doesn’t depend on another person, situation, or romantic partner. This is the key to lasting joy and fulfillment in life. Get it Today and get a TON of free gifts: https://www.TheLoveBook.com

Current Issue: October, 2010

6 Oct, 2010  1 Comment

In This Issue…

  • Lots of Exciting News
  • Deep Sustainability
  • Another Recommended Book: Twelve by Twelve, by William Powers
  • Hear & Meet Shel
  • Friends who Help

Lots of Exciting News

Goodness! So much going on here at Clean and Green World Headquarters—let me fill you in on some of it.

First, this month’s issue has both a bunch of really cool advice on copywriting for the Green market AND a review of a new, important yet not-well-known sustainability book (see the two main articles)

Also some very big deal speeches coming up, starting with my talk for Green America’s GreenFest at the DC Convention Center Saturday, October 23. I think it may be the largest group I’ve addressed so far. (See the Hear & Meet section).

Now, here’s some of what’s going on:

  • My newest site, Green and Profitable, is up and running, although not in final form. This will be the new home of my blog and is also the launching pad for  a self-syndicated column: Green And Profitable. If you or someone you know would like to run my column on Green business success, please visit the site and get in touch. There will be a third sample column posted soon.
  • Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green is now available in Kindle format as well as paperback (click on the link and scroll to the bottom to direct links for several retailers).  And don’t forget, if you register your purchase of any format on the bonus page at https://guerrillamarketinggoesgreen.com, there are about $2000 in extra bonuses coming to you (use the same link to preview the bonuses).
  • New and much more affordable ad rates and options for FrugalMarketing and FrugalFun—and, for the first time, including in-context ads. Prices start at just $9.50 per month.
  • The International Association of Earth-Conscious Marketers continues to move forward. And it really is international, with people expressing interest from Bali, Dubai, Britain, and elsewhere. We hope to accept memberships early next year. Meanwhile, you can ask to be notified by leaving your e-mail or subscribing to the RSS feed at the organization’s website.  If you’d like to be actively involved in shaping the organization, please Tweet the words “IAECM Steering Commitee” and your e-mail address to @ShelHorowitz

Deep Sustainability

The old Green messages are beginning to look a bit pale. Accusations of greenwashing are rife, and often, those charges have more than a little substance—does anyone really believe BP is a Green company anymore?

So does that mean Green marketing is dead? What’s a conscious marketer to do?

First of all, I don’t for a moment believe that Green is dying, let alone dead. But just as parents stop diapering their babies once they’ve been toilet trained and expect them to wipe their own tushes from that point on, so we as Green marketers need to take greater responsibility for our messaging. Like those toddlers who are mastering not only toilet training but walking and talking and table manners and a whole bunch of other stuff all at once, we have to stand on our own feet, even if it feels a bit wobbly at first.

So here are a few marketing guideposts on your own wobble toward sustainable marketing:

  • Be clear and specific. Today’s informed consumer doesn’t just want to hear “we’ve gone Green.” They’ll respond better to something like “by introducing this new, efficient packing machine, we’ve reduced solid waste by 18 percent and cut carbon emissions by 368 tons a year.”
  • Make consumers understand what each of these accomplishments means to them: “That solid waste reduction means we don’t have to bring nearly as much to the landfill, which means lower costs passed on to you, longer landfill life, and fewer non-degradable materials clogging up the landfill. Lower carbon means 68 fewer asthma cases in our county every year, as well as reducing catastrophic global warming.”

(If you’re familiar with the concept of features vs. benefits, you’ll note that the first bullet stresses features—which are by themselves seldom enough to sell successfully—and the second bullet translates those features into direct benefits both to the consumer and to the world. Features provide the gear-heads (who already understand what they mean, and can supply the benefits themselves) something to look at; benefits speak to average consumers through their own emotional needs and wants, and are much more powerful—but you need both, in many cases.)

  • Raise the bar on your industry’s standards for going Green. Have you achieved zero waste in a facet of production? Have you switched to compostable plastics—that you’re actually composting? Have you figured out a way to cut energy or water use by some huge percentage? Are you sourcing a larger percentage of materials from sustainable-practices vendors? Say so! You’ll get the competitive advantage of doing this before others—and once your competitors start imitating, you can still get good marketing mileage out of having been first.
  • Stay away from messaging that won’t be believed. If you’re promoting nuclear power or large-scale biomass, for example, any attempt to portray your company as Green will come back to bite you. Best, of course, is not to promote those products at all, but if you have to promote them, get out of the Green space and find other ways to market (or should I say, defend) these environmentally toxic technologies. Both of these have been promoted as Green alternatives, and neither one passes the sniff test.
  • If the Green content of your practices is questionable or largely unknown, be prepared to document it in your messaging. Thoroughly. I went to a solar festival this summer where a couple of the exhibitors were talking about “biochar.” From their materials, it looked to me like just another variant on burning wood: points for renewability, certainly, but NOT for clean emissions or carbon impact reduction. By failing to convince me that they were truly Green, these companies left me highly skeptical of other claims they (or their competitors) might make.
  • Involve your supply chain. Just as “no man is an island,” neither is a corporation. You have vendors who sell to you, and customers who buy from you. You have ancillary services involved, such as transportation or security. And you have both carrot- and stick-flavored leverage you can exert to help these companies go Green. The carrots: not only will they get more of your business, but you will promote them in your Green marketing campaigns. The stick? If they fail your sustainability criteria, you’ll choose another vendor who is more earth-centered.

Another Recommended Book: Twelve by Twelve, by William Powers

“Enough is the sweet spot between too little and too much.”

—William Powers

Normally, the books I recommend here are quite easy to see as business books. Twelve by Twelve: A One-Room Cabin Off the Grid & Beyond the American Dream, by William Powers (New World Library, 2010) isn’t like that. In fact, it’s kind of a look at what life might be like if we all *stopped* doing business as usual.

Something of a cross between Annie Dillard’s Pilgrim at Tinker Creek and Thoreau’s Walden with more than a dash of wider social visionaries like E.F. Schumacher and Hazel Henderson thrown in, this gorgeously written book chronicles the author’s sojourn of several months in a 12′ x 12′ handmade cabin, without electricity or running water, in the North Carolina backwoods but within an easy drive of Raleigh-Durham. Documenting the journeys toward sustainability that he, his wildly different assortment of “eccentric” neighbors (racist refugees from urban squalor on one side, a Mexican immigrant craftsman on the other) and his urban friend undergo separately and together, he also looks penetratingly at what it means to be sustainable in modern society…how “primitive” cultures such as those he’d lived in as an aid worker in Liberia (Africa) and Bolivia (South America) offer some lessons to the industrialized world, and vice versa…and what happens when government regulators, megacorporations, or even well-meaning, philanthropic land developers stand between homesteaders and their dream. These different dramas play out in both optimistic and pessimistic ways.

Most of all, we look into Powers’ own soul, as he struggles with a whole series of physical and psychological dynamics that weave together his past, his time in the cabin, and his unknown future.

To me, as a Green business activist and consultant, the questions Powers raises are questions we need to address if we want to Green the world. I see Twelve by Twelve as a book to reread every year or two, going a layer or two deeper each time.

As he notes in the final pages, “we decide what gets globalized—consumption or compassion; selfishness or solidarity—by how we cultivate the most valuable place of all, our inner acre. (p. 258)


Hear and Meet Shel

October

  • Tuesday, October 12 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT: My third annual presentation to the MUSE Online Writers Conference. This time, Selling a Self-Published Book to a Traditional Publisher
  • Wednesday, October 13, I’ll be interviewed again for the Guerrilla Marketing Association’s weekly calls–this time by Alexandru Israil from Romania, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
  • Saturday, October 23, 2 pm ET, Green America’s Green Fest, Washington Convention Center, Green Business Pavilion, Washington, DC. Live talk: Green and Ethical Messages to Reach Green and Ethical Customers. Contact: Denise Hamler, denisehamler (at) greenamericatoday.org
  • Wednesday Oct. 27th, 1:30p.m. ET/10:30 a.m. PT, Dr. Vitt Argent interviews me for KIVA Talk Radio,

November

December

January
February
  • Second Annual Communication on Top Forum, Davos, Switzerland, February 17, 2011. Tentative title: “Social Media, Internal Activism, and Corporate Social Responsibility: How to Build Customer Loyalty AND a Greener Brand”
April
  • Saturday, April 23rd, 2011 10 AM-4 PM, my wife and I will exhibit again at Amherst Sustainability Festival in downtown Amherst, MA




Permanent Links to Audios and More (partial list)
Articles By Me

Friends Who Help

Wow! Where else can you find a teleseminar series with 30 faculty like this: Kevin Kelly (founder of Wired, part of the legendary Whole Earth Catalog, and author most recently of 1,000 True Fans)…Janet Switzer (coordinator of major marketing campaigns for people like Jack Canfield and Mark Victor Hansen of Chicken Soup fame, and quite possibly the real reason for their success)…Peter Shankman (founder of HARO, the no-cost journalist/source matching service I’m always raving about–you ARE a member, I hope)…Joan Stewart (The Publicity Hound)…Warren Whitlock (co-author of what I believe is the first book on Twitter marketing)…Susan Harrow (expert on getting on Oprah and author of a book I love, Sell Yourself Without Selling Your Soul)…and many others. And it’s put together by David Mathisen of Be The Media (an amazing book). Yes, it costs—but the first three calls are no-charge previews. (Dave recently interviewed me—you can find the link in the Hear and Meet Shel section). https://shelhorowitz.com/go/jcUpEX

My friend Paula Langguth Ryan, author of Bounce Back From Bankruptcy, just released a no-charge 10-page special report called How to Know If It’s Time to File Bankruptcy. Paula wrote this report to give people a sense of peace as they ponder whether or not taking the big step toward bankruptcy is in their best interest. Paula confesses, “If I’d had someone to walk me through this when I was considering bankruptcy, I might have chosen a different path.” In this report, she also offers a paid (but optional) 30-minute Considering Bankruptcy Consultation: She could you see your situation with fresh eyes, so you can make an informed decision about which path you want to take.  Get your copy at https://bit.ly/bfQnT8

Accurate Writing & More, 16 Barstow Lane , Hadley, MA 01035, United States

Some of the above links are affiliate links that earn me commissions if you purchase.

Current Issue: September 2010

6 Sep, 2010  1 Comment

Let Jingles Jangle Your Cash Register: Clean and Green Marketing Tip

Fill in the blanks:
Double your pleasure, double your fun with _____________
You wonder where the yellow went when you _______________
___________ can put good food in your family and chaaaange back in your pocket
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, ____________

Bonus question for those who grew up in or near New York City and northern New Jersey:
Palisades from coast to coast, ____________
Palisades Amusement Park.

If you’re over 50 or so, chances are you know all the answers:
Double your pleasure, double your fun with Doublemint, Doublemint, Doublemint gum
You wonder where the yellow went when you brush your teeth with Pepsodent
McDonald’s can put good food in your family and chaaaange back in your pocket
Plop, plop, fizz, fizz, oh, what a relief it is
Palisades from coast to coast, where a dime buys the most.
Palisades Amusement Park. (Hear the whole 31-second jingle at https://www.palisadespark.com/sounds_comeonover68.html.)

In July, I mentioned that if you’re doing branding campaigns, you want to engage as many of the senses as possible. Whether it’s about branding or a call to action, engaging more senses makes your message far more memorable.

The fill-ins above are all from ads that haven’t run in decades. Palisades closed in 1971, nearly 40 years ago! What made them memorable? The jingles! While a good slogan can make an ad memorable, a jingle adds the elements of music and rhyme—and a mediocre jingle has much more staying power than a mediocre slogan. As a marketer, I really don’t understand why they’ve largely gone out of fashion.

If you use jingles, be smart and include the brand name right in the jingle. Note that all the above examples except for Alka-Seltzer include the brand.

So if paid advertising is part of your marketing mix, and if those paid ads include radio or TV, think about commissioning a really powerful jingle. Even if you’re not dong paid ads, think about using jingles on your website.

Friends Who Help

Lots of stuff for you this month!

Benefit Gulf Oil Spill Victims

Raise money for those impacted by Deepwater Horizon’s massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, and get a cool song, too. Scott Blum and his group Wilderland are donating *100 percent(* of the proceeds for Scott’s music single, “Fragile Day.” Scott, by the way, has worked with Peter Gabriel, Toby Wright, and other music superstars. He and his associates hope to make this “the biggest viral event ever.” https://www.fragileday.com/

Scot writes, “The Gulf Restoration Network is a charity that has been operating in the Gulf of Mexico for over 16 years and because of their proximity to the disaster, they were first on the scene and has been working around the clock to help the habitat directly affected by the spill. The second charity is the WILD Foundation, which is looking for a long term solution to ensure these tragedies never happen again. Their first initiative is enacting a formal recognition for the Marine Wilderness that can be protected from all development, and eventually ensuring that ‘Nature Needs Half’ to heal herself while we live on the other half.”

Excellent New Book on Customer Service: And the Clients Went Wild! I got to preview a really excellent book on marketing and customer service: And the Clients Went Wild! by Maribeth Kuzmeski. Read a little taste:

“Perfect clients” are those who will pay for the full value of your product or services, rave about what you do, and go wild for anything that you offer. Lots of businesses have good clients; but only an elite few have passionate, loyal, vocal clients. This type of client is one that not only keeps coming back for more, but also finds the need to share you with family, friends and even strangers. Perfect clients are often what drives a firm’s explosive growth. And although the perfect client is found only in a perfect world (which doesn’t exist), there are a lot of businesses that can enjoy the results from the enthusiasm of the nearly perfect passion of their clients…

I have ultimately been searching, as many of us are, for the “secret sauce” that some businesses have mixed together to create incremental success…

People nowadays are far less likely to become loyal, given the overwhelming noise of the countless marketing messages they face. The objective is to get clients into the game — your game. And to accomplish this feat in today’s “new media” world, businesses are being forced to change…

Businesses that have effectively created a loyal following of passionate and vocal clients have followed some, if not all, of five fundamental marketing principles.

And then 19 chapters on the principles and their practical application. I think this is one of the best marketing how-to books I’ve seen in a long time. I’m hoping to get an excerpt posted on my site, down the line. But meanwhile, do yourself a favor and mark your calendar for September 14. I’ll send the link in a special mailing mid-month so you can get yourself a copy and a whole bunch of bonuses, including one from me.

Monetize Your Passion: Powerful E-Book at No Cost

We all want to turn our passion into a good living. Even though it took him two years to write it, Rich German is *giving away* e-copies of his new book, Monetize Your Passion, filled with good advice on doing just that. You’ll have a chance to donate to rich’s favorite charity, Generation Why, helping America’s 1.6 million homeless children–but that’s optional. Rich’s 238-page book is your blueprint for living a life of passion, indescribable abundance, and happiness–not just his own experience, but also those of people like the book Gary Vaynerchuk, David Riklan, Mari Smith, and Marci Shimoff . I highly suggest you click now, https://shelhorowitz.com/go/richgerman2, and collect your free copy of Monetize Your Passion.

Deepak Chopra’s New Book on the Prophet Muhammad

The one and only Deepak Chopra is releasing his third book on great religious teachers (having already done books on Buddha and Jesus). September 21, HarperOne releases Muhammad: A Story of the Last Prophet. I haven’t seen it yet, but I’m betting it will be amazing. You can hear Deepak talk a bit about his motivation and read a brief excerpt on this video https://blog.beliefnet.com/intentchopra/2010/09/muhammad-a-story-of-the-last-p.html. I don’t have the order/bonus link for you yet; look for a special mailing mid-month with that, and possibly some other goodies.

Superstars of the New Consciousness: No-Charge Audio Series

Here’s an awesome-looking no-cost teleseminar series from Michelle Bersell: The New Consciousness Evolution Audio Series features such experts as Marci Shimoff, Janet Attwood, Arielle Ford, Jo Dunning, David Wolfe, Joan Borysenko and Marcia Wieder–wow!

Kids around the world love The Wild Soccer Bunch!

I’m told the book motivates kids to get involved in team sports and supports values such as diversity, sportsmanship, teamwork, leadership and self-acceptance. The book “exudes passionate storytelling and an equal passion for the game kids love: soccer, as well as a nice root-for-the-underdog adventure,” according to the promoters.

Purchase the book on September 9, and receive dozens of free bonus gifts for yourself and the kids in your life, including a copy of my Painless Green e-book: https://www.wildsoccerbunch.com/launch. Plus, you’ll automatically go into the draw to win 2 tickets to Hollywood, to the filming of The Wild Soccer Bunch Television Ad, featuring Landon Donovan.

David Mathison’s Blockbuster Online Success System Webinars

Mathison, author of the remarkable book Be the media (which I recommend frequently) is a very smart guy who understands how traditional media, self-made media, social networks, and progressive social change all fit together. He’s assembled an awesome group of instructors for this set of webinars, which include both no-charge and for-pay events. The course covers blog and web traffic, mining your content, self-publishing, licensing, even music–to name a few–and the faculty includes such luminaries as Janet Switzer, Katheen Gage, and Joel Comm. https://shelhorowitz.com/go/dmathison

Hear & Meet Shel, September 2010

I’m especially thrilled about partnering with Green America for a webinar on September 28 and a live event in Washington on October 23. (BTW, I’m looking for another gig while I’m in DC. If you find me one, you could earn a very nice commission).

September

  • Tuesday, September 7, 1 pm ET/10 a.m. PT, Lillian Brummet interviews me on Conscious Discussions Radio (646) 478-4758
  • Monday, September 20, 5:30 to 7:30 (program starts at 6:00), at the Media Education Foundation, Northampton, MA: Claudia Gere and I present on Book Publishing in the Digital Age
  • Monday, September 20, live interview for CreateChatter.tv https://getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62b&lc=mi1u&mc=m&s=ANhX&y=j& 9 pm ET/6 pm PT
  • Tuesday, September 21, Ronda Del Boccio (The Story Lady) interviews me about Green marketing (90 minutes). Noon ET/9 a.m. PT. Listen in by calling 646-478-0823 (it will be featured for a week).
  • Monday, September 27, 8 pm ET/5 pm PT: Sandy Lawrence interviews me on the creative book marketing strategies we used for Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green., for the Perceptive Marketing Hour.
  • Tuesday, September 28, 2 pm ET/11am PT: Webinar for Green America, Green and Ethical Messages to Reach Green and Ethical Customers. Preview call for our live event October 23 in Washington, DC. Contact: Denise Hamler, denisehamler (at) greenamericatoday.org
  • Wednesday. September 29 at 5 pm ET/2 pm PT, Dave Mathison from Be The Media interviews me about green guerrilla marketing (postponed from July). https://getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62b&lc=mi1x&mc=m&s=ANhX&y=U&

October

  • Saturday, October 2, I’m speaking at the second annual Self-Publishing Book Expo in New York City
  • Tuesday, October 12 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT: My third annual presentation to the MUSE Online Writers Conference. This time, Selling a Self-Published Book to a Traditional Publisher
  • Wednesday, October 13, I’ll be interviewed again for the Guerrilla Marketing Association’s weekly calls–this time by Alexandru Israil from Romania, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT.
  • Saturday, October 23, 2 pm ET, Green America’s Green Fest, Washington Convention Center, Green Business Pavilion, Washington, DC. Live talk: Green and Ethical Messages to Reach Green and Ethical Customers. Contact: Denise Hamler, denisehamler (at) greenamericatoday.org

November

December

  • Thursday, December 2, 1:00 ET: 90-minute webinar for Association of Strategic Marketing (this one costs money and I believe provides certified continuing education credits) Writing Copy That Sells: Case Studies from the Green Market. Contact: Erica Rokus, 866.226.0828, erokus (at) associationofmarketing.org. Please tell you friends and colleagues about this one.

Shana Tovah! Happy 5771 to all my co-religionists. Happy Ramadan and a blessed Eid to those who celebrate that.

Accurate Writing & More, 16 Barstow Lane , Hadley, MA 01035, United States

Some of the above links are affiliate links that earn me commissions if you purchase.



Hear & Meet Shel, August 2010

5 Aug, 2010  No Comment

* Friday, August 6, 1:35 pm ET/10:30 a.m. PT (and Arizona time, which is where Hollis is), Hollis Chapman interviews me over Blog Talk Radio on Green Guerrilla Marketing, 30 minutes. https://getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62b&lc=HYWO&mc=m&s=ANhX&y=F&

* Friday, August 6, 4 pm ET/1 pm PT, Maureen Kedes from Vertex PR interviews me, also on Green marketing. https://www.voiceamerica.com/voiceamerica/vshow.aspx?sid=1409

* Friday, August 20 ,1-1:25 p.m., “Reaching the Green Consumer.” Boston GreenFest  (the entire event  takes place August 19-21, 2010). One of the cool things about this event will be a display of cars that traveled
100 miles (from Greenfield, MA, near me) on a single gallon of gas. https://getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62b&lc=HYWW&mc=m&s=ANhX&y=R&

* Tuesday, September 7, 1 pm ET/10 a.m. PT, Lillian Brummet interviews me on Conscious Discussions Radio, https://www.blogtalkradio.com/consciousdiscussions or (646) 478-4758

* Monday, September 20, live interview for https://createchatter.tv 9 pm ET/6 pm PT

* Tuesday, September 21, Ronda Del Boccio (The Story Lady) interviews me about Green marketing (90 minutes). Noon ET/9 a.m. PT. Listen in by calling 646-478-0823 or visiting https://www.BlogTalkRadio.com/jvqueen (it will be featured for a week).

* Monday, September 27, 8 pm ET/5 pm PT: Sandy Lawrence interviews me on the creating book marketing strategies we used for Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green. Info: gayla@perceptivemarketing.com

* Wednesday. September 29 at 5pm ET/2 pm PT, Dave Mathison from Be The Media interviews me about green guerrilla marketing (postponed from July). https://getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62b&lc=HYW0&mc=m&s=ANhX&y=9&

* October 2, I’m speaking at the second annual Self-Publishing Book Expo in New York City, https://getresponse.com/click.html?x=a62b&lc=HYWi&mc=m&s=ANhX&y=r&

* October 12 at 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT: My third annual presentation to the MUSE Online Writers Conference. This time, Selling a Self-Published Book to a Traditional Publisher

* October 13, I’ll be interviewed again for the Guerrilla Marketing Association’s weekly calls–this time by Alexandru Israil from Romania, 7 p.m. ET/4 p.m. PT. Contact: alexandru.israil (at) gmail.com

Does Visibility Marketing Ever Serve a Purpose? Part 1: Frugal/Green Marketing Tip, June 2010

7 Jun, 2010  No Comment

I used to be really scornful of “visibility advertising”: campaigns that had only a branding purpose, didn’t try to sell anything and in many cases didn’t even try to pass on a message. For most of my career, I thought this kind of marketing was only the province of corporate giants with unlimited budgets: companies like Coke, Nike, and McDonalds.

But ten years ago, I had an experience that caused me to change my mind. We were in the middle of a deep, multichannel campaign to block a particularly nasty housing development going all the way to the ridgeline of our local mountain (right next to a state park on the next mountain over, whose gorgeous view would be ruined). In addition to the press releases, the media campaign, the lobbying, the massive turnout at public hearings, and all the other tactics we were using, we did lawn signs and bumper stickers.They just said “Save the Mountain” (the name of our group) and gave our website. Of course, this was not only branding the organization, but also the idea that the mountain could actually be saved; our action mission was right there in the organization’s name.

One day, some of our canvassers were working a local farmers market when who should stroll by but the developer and his wife. And she turned to our people and said, Read the rest of this entry »

Clean & Green Club Spotlight, March 2010

10 Mar, 2010  No Comment

-> Turning Birthday Guests Into World Citizens: Clean & Green Spotlight

If the consumer pressure directed to kids is an issue for you…if you’re disgusted by over-the-top parties for 6- or 10-year-olds that cost thousands of dollars…if you want to raise your children with an awareness of how they can make a difference in the wider world—here’s something I found remarkable and inspiring.

A mom-run Canadian company, EchoAge.com, has completely turned traditional birthday parties inside out.  Instead of… (click here to continue reading)

-> All Pre-March Clean and Green Memberships Extended

Note: Because February presented some logistical challenges in getting the Club rolling, if you joined the Clean and Green Club in January or February either as a paying member or for the two-month no-cost trial, we are counting your membership as starting from March 1; trial memberships will run through March and April.

There are now well more than one million exact-match hits on Google for “Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green”–wow! I don’t think I’ve ever been involved with something that had this much buzz.

This book is going to make some serious waves. It’s a completely different approach to the business mindset, based in ethics, cooperation, and environmental principles, and it’s generating some significant buzz. Reporters who’ve been interviewing me have been asking a lot deeper questions than I’m accustomed to getting–which is great.

Grab your copy and run your business according to its principles. You may find you suddenly have a significant competitive edge, and that it’s easier to be profitable even during a downturn.

Three formats available: paperback, Kindle, and traditional e-book. However you buy it, be sure to visit

https://guerrillamarketinggoesgreen.com/bonuses to claim the $2600 worth of bonuses (that’s about 120 times the price of the book!).

For paperback, your choice of five bookseller links from the bottom of the home page and several other pages at https://guerrillamarketinggoesgreen.com

For e-books for B&N Nook, Blackberry, iPhone, iPhone Touch, PC and MAC: click here

For Kindle: click here

Oh, and if you’d like to help out with the launch, and at your option earn some very healthy commissions, please visit https://guerrillamarketinggoesgreen.com/submit-a-bonus/jv

-> Hear and Meet Shel

  • John Ritskowitz, a/k/a the Marketing Medic, will be interviewing both me and my Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green co-author Jay Conrad Levinson Tuesday, March 16, 3 pm ET/noon PT. This should be interesting, because John is coming up from Connecticut to do the interview live, and Jay will join us by phone from Florida. John and I have known each other online for several years, but have never met. So he’s coming up for the afternoon, we’ll have lunch together, I’ll show him around the farm, I’ll tape an interview with him for my Clean and Green Club, and then he’ll interview me and Jay. By that time, we should be all warmed up and will probably head into some pretty advanced territory. https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/481396353
  • Dave Mathison from Be The Media–a wonderful book, BTW–interviews me on Green markerting. david (at) bethemedia.com
  • Just Added! I’ll be speaking in NYC Friday March 19 at GoGreenExpo’s Business Day, 12:30 pm ET, and then signing copies of Guerrilla Marketing Goes Green. Business buyers get in at no charge on Friday (with a relevant business card). If you’d like to attend Saturday and/or Sunday, here’s a discount code (gets you into the Architecture Fair also): visit https://www.gogreenexpo.com and use promo code NYSPEAKER when registering for tickets.
  • March 24, I’m doing a teleseminar for Stacy Karacostas on Green and ethical business success: stacy (at) success-stream.com
  • April 15, 9 pm ET/6 pm PT: Tweleseminar, “Communicate the Value in Your Values.” Justin Sachs, justin (at) justinsachscompanies.com
  • April 24, I’ll be exhibiting at the Sustainability Expo in downtown Amherst, MA: CiccarelloS (at) amherstma.gov
  • April 25, I’ll be speaking on collaborating with a co-author at the American Society of Journalists and Authors conference in New York. https://asja.org/wc/2010/
  • April 29, 3 pm ET/noon PT, I’ll be presenting on Grassroots Book Marketing Strategies for Stephanie Chandler’s virtual Nonfiction Book Writers Conference: Contact janica (at) authoritypublishing.com
  • May 8, I’ll be speaking once again on book marketing at CAPA University in Hartford, CT: https://www.aboutcapa.com/capa_university_writers_conferen.htm
  • It looks pretty likely that I’ll be speaking on Green Marketing at SolarFest, sometime the weekend of July 16-18, in Tinmouth, Vermont. This is a wonderful event; I attended several years ago, and you can read about it here: https://www.frugalfun.com/solarfest.html
  • October 12 at 7pm ET/4 pm PT: My third annual presentation to the MUSE Online Writers Conference. This time, Selling a Self-Published Book to a Traditional Publisher

-> Friends Who Want to Help You

  • I’ve listened to several calls with Jack Zufelt over the years, and read a number of his newsletters. He’s smart, aggressive, and not afraid to be direct. $1 gets you a trial of his DNA of Success membership program – read all the details at https://bit.ly/b0C7Cg (affiliate link)
  • If you’re a freelancer, consultant or solo professional in any field, I have a book recommendation for you. My friend Ed Gandia and two co-authors just released The Wealthy Freelancer: 12 Secrets to a Great Income and an Enviable Lifestyle (Penguin/Alpha). This book is brimming with practical, proven strategies the authors have used to consistently attract great clients, earn high incomes and enjoy a flexible lifestyle. And if you pick up a copy by midnight this Friday, you’ll get up to $321 in extra goodies. To learn more, visit https://www.TheWealthyFreelancer.com/amazon
  • There’s no better way to get traditional press (a/k/a mainstream media) covering you than to answer inquiries from reporters looking for sources. I’ve used this strategy to be cited multiple times in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Entrepreneur, even Woman’s Day (among many, many others). I subscribe to every service I know about that connects journalists and sources. My old friend Steve Harrison from Radio TV Interview Report has just launched a new one, with no charge for leads. https://bit.ly/bD6WzG (affiliate link). Given how much it costs to advertise in RTIR, this is a real bargain, at zero cost.

-> New on the Sites, March 2010

-> Media Coverage of Shel

-> Which of Shel’s Books is Right for You?

-> Administrative Information

Subscribe, unsubscribe, back issues, etc.

Published monthly since March 2010 by Shel Horowitz
16 Barstow Lane, Hadley, MA 01035 USA
413/586-2388

Another Recommended Book: Tipping The Point, by Tom O'Brien

15 Aug, 2009  1 Comment

Reviewed by Shel Horowitz

As I complete six years of writing this column, I believe this is the first time I’ve reviewed an e-book instead of a physical book. Not only that, but an e-book with a absurdly low price of $9.95 US. I’ve seen a lot of those, and the vast majority I’d never recommend. They tend to be shallow, fluffy, and to exist only to upsell various other offers.

Tipping the Point is different. It has far more practical value than many e-books I’ve seen at five or even ten times the price.

Basically, it’s a quick-start guide to viral marketing, using integrity and ethics–and incorporating many examples (yes, including upsells). It starts with a theory section, but one made accessible and clear even to people who haven’t studied a lot of marketing–and one emphasizing the importance of building a real relationship. He covers force multipliers, the difference between viral ideas that spread via influencers and those that spread through the general public (a much larger group, of course, and therefore able to spread your idea or product much faster), and even looked at where Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point may have gotten some of its best ideas. He also covers some niceties as the ratio you need to become self-replicating and the ease with which you can get others to pass your stuff on.

Other goodies:
* 21-item glossary
* 11-point checklist for creating a message that people welcome and pass along
* More in-depth coverage of 14 different strategy success factors (not the same as those on the checklist)
* 12 problems that can sabotage your campaign
* 29 tactics to draw attention to your viral offering
* Plus a gazillion specific URLs for resources (more than I’m willing to hand-count!)
* A software bonus called The DOT (Do It Now), which claims to support you in achieving focus and concentration. It’s PC only and I’m on a Mac, so I can’t vouch for it.

Tom walks his talk, too. In the little over a year we’ve known each other online, I’ve noticed that he’s always doing little favors for me and others, without expectation of a direct return: a principle he espouses repeatedly in Tipping the Point (and one that I recommend in Principled Profit, as well). Oh yes, and he’s set up some nice charity stuff in this e-book, in keeping with the work he’s been doing at JointWinWin for a while now.

The book isn’t perfect. Yes, it does suffer from a few of the typical e-book flaws, like the occasional instance of poor proofreading and amateurish clipart illustrations. And while I prefer to think of his Britishisms (not just spelling, but idioms) as charming, not everyone may feel that way. (It’s honest, though–he is based in England.) But there’s an awful lot of good stuff here.

In fact, there’s so much good stuff that I took the very unusual step of becoming a dealer and putting it up for download on my own cart. And let me tell you, something has to be really good for me to do that. I still can’t believe he only wants $9.95 for this!

Please click here to get your own copy, and yes, I do benefit financially (a little, anyhow) from your purchase.

https://shelhorowitz.com/go/tippingthepoint/

Note: There are two volumes in Tipping the Point. Volume 1 is free and you can download it from this link. Volume 2 is available for $9.95 with the “add to cart” button on the page linked above.

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