One of my more creative ideas was to use postcards to reach the rental market in Boise.  The idea was to send a postcard to a specific zip code (the one I had in mind had nearly 5,000 apartment dwellers and renters).  I wanted to sell short, 20-word classified-style ads that described the basic...
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The World Is Run By Those Who Show Up. I’m not sure where that quote came from but it does make an interesting point about value added marketing. When I lived on Bainbridge Island the first time I went through the motions of just being a member of the community.  I had a job at a...
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One of the key elements to building and maintaining traffic is the passion of the market.  People have to want to be involved with your business.  They have to see that it adds value to the quality of their lives in a way that is positive and significant. I found an excellent example of touching...
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A friend of mine once told me that he lived in the “Magic Kingdom“.  He was referring to his area of Boise where real estate holds its value regardless of what is happening elsewhere. When the economy began to experience challenges, the idea of the magic kingdom came to mind again for businesses.  Overall, businesses...
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Blogging has become one of the easiest and fastest ways to become a self-publisher, especially with the development of WordPress.  The software is easy to learn and is extremely flexible. One trend in Blogging is toward hyperlocal publishing.  The form of Blogging takes many different forms: Writing about your community and connecting your Blog to a...
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The Chocolate Index is something I came up with to explain inflation over the past forty years in the cost of goods and services as compared to increases in salaries in the same period.  It is not scientific, to be sure, but it does provide a perspective on how things have changed. It starts with...
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