I'm not posting less over Christmas and New Years because I don't want to or don't have the time to - there's less to comment about right now as most other bloggers I read are taking time off or blogging less.

However I did find something Seth Godin wrote  today that reflects my philosophy with my own SEO and Web Analytic clients (and I wish I could apply it to myself so I can make my first million - I digress).  Ideas constantly "appear to me" so there's a lot more where this comes from.  Being an Artist - I feel i must "touch" my clients data in order for these ideas and insights to arise in my mind.  

Finally, I have the personal belief that in order to continue to receive ideas like this I must give them out - I must speak it. I receive by giving out and only ask for clients willing to go all the way with it.

"…..Bottom line: growth, if it's growth you're after, doesn't come from acting like you are already the dominant force in the market, able to deliver average products for average customers. Growth always comes from the edges."

That's what I say to all my existing clients - no one has taken me up on it although there's interest.  Most businesses want growth - they're simply afraid of being remarkable - standing out - taking a strong stand apart of what everyone else is doing.  

On my part - I have delivered the strategy and the metrics (as much as possible given what's available and what the client has to work with) - but I have yet to find a client that's willing and able to go all the way with me ….. as far as we can go…to stand apart. 

One of my wishes for 2007 is that it will contain the opportunity and the chance to prove my strategies (as I come up with them) and prosper fairly from them, as well as provide the concrete metrics to prove we're succeeding.  Here's more of Seth's advice on how to be a millionaire..

"….It's pretty compelling logic–look at super big, super-profitable companies, do what they do and boom, you'll be successful.

There are two problems. The first is that they already did what you are setting out to do. So copying them doesn't give anyone a reason to switch. Filling a filled niche is incredibly difficult and doing it without something to give you a significant edge doesn't work.

The second problem is that long ago, every one of these companies you'd like to emulate was remarkable. Dell, for example, wasn't boring when they invented so many of the tactics that remade the industry. Wal-Mart faced down skeptics for decades."

People are coming to me for search engine traffic (and analytics) and I come back with ideas of being remarkable (along with the search engine traffic and analytics).  Here's some of the ideas I came up with in the last two years - when they were implemented - it was by someone else and my clients lost edge and opportunity to stand apart which they could have had.  It's all about the customer anyway….and that's the problem - most businesses are not thinking about the customer - that's partly why they don't stand apart, they're not exceptional.

 Innovations proposed to Architects

Idea 1: Cost to Build House Plan Search Engine:  Originally Proposed to a former client during spring of 2005.  Implemented by Better Homes and Gardens  in early 2006- much along the lines of what I planned.  The client was only one step away from doing the same thing - but stopped short for some reason only they understand.   Benefit: Put in zipcode and how much money you can spend to build a house and the BHG Cost to Build Search Engine will tell you what plans in it's collection you can afford to build and how much they'll cost to build in your zipcode. 

Nice.  I don't know how long the Cost to Build Search Engine was out there because I did not know about it to earlier this year - when one of the architects I supported noticed it.  I could not find any press releases from BHG.com about it either.

Idea 2: Build / Preview your house in Second Life, first. Proposed to one of my existing clients - December 2006.

This is not really that radical as StarWood Hotels built a new Hotel in Second Life to test the design of it before building it in real life.

"….The owner of the Westin, Sheraton, and W chains is testing out a new loft-style hotel with prototypes in the suburbs and in virtual reality.  You won't be able to check into aloft, Starwood's (HOT) new line of moderately priced, loft-style hotels, until the first quarter of 2008. But in September, you can wander into the lobby of its digital Doppelganger inside the popular online world of Second Life "

OK, it's not that radical - but it's not mainstream either - and while the population of Second Life is only 2 million today, pretty soon it's going to be much, much more than that  - IBM sees this and is building a business unit to help businesses succeed in Second Life (and they're not the only corporation going in that direction) - and clearly - Architects should be able to pretty easily build their plans online since they already have a blueprint and a CAD Image - sometimes 3D views - you'd think this be a slam dunk……but it's not - mainly due to the radical nature of this for most architects - I've found.  They're simply not ready.

Idea 3: Up loadable Movies to House Plan Style and Plan pages - use of YouTube to deliver more user generated content.

This idea was not unique to Architects, I also put forth the strategy for a couple of travel sites to Ireland that could benefit from the same approach.  In fact, this idea would benefit many businesses yet few have the daring to to it.  

Most businesses are afraid of user generated content - for all the talk about it - they want to control their brand - and they're living in the past - it's no longer possible to do as the Internet has opened the door for everyone to get expert information that used to be in the hands of a few.  My strategy is to embrace User Generated Content - stand apart.  Here's how it would work for a travel company.

1. A trip or tour would include clips from other people who took the tour and user feedback about the trip from them.
2. YouTube Videos of the Locality of the Tour or Landmark would be included on the Tour Booking page.  No attempt to hide any opinion would be made as the Web is about transparency.

It would be easy enough to just give people who book a tour a cheap 20 dollar video camera to take pictures of - and an account to login and upload their information. 

This would also help search engine rankings by creating more content
to on the tour pages.  The same idea for Architectural Plan pages.

Idea 4: BRAND (possibly Personal) Online Video Toolbar - Proposed to an existing client in 2006.

Online video is HOT - but the content is really created by someone else (IE: YouTube's videos are created by the world - the content varies based on what is going on and what people want to share).  What makes a company streaming online videos standout? Branding and features.

Anyway - there are four ideas of several I've had - they come to me as I'm trying to solve traffic and branding problems problems that I detected for my clients - and I'd love clients next year (including my existing one's) to go all the way with them and other new ideas I come up with.

This is a long post - took me about 2 hours to come up with the material as I had to think it all through and recall the last two years or so.