MTS is International

I mentioned on the last podcast that I would be attending Podcamp Ireland in Kilkenny on September 27.  Krishna De, one of the organizers, asked if I would make an audio comment for the Podcamp Ireland podcast.  I did and the podcast episode is available today on Blog Talk Radio.

I’ll actually be giving a talk which may set US-Irish relations back a few centuries.  The subject will be age demographics, specifically baby boomers, and how they relate to web 2.0 usage.  If you have any suggestions or sources of information on the topic, of course I’d love to hear them.

testing ping.fm. Do I really NEED another service?

I’m an Idiot!

I’ve been complaining for four days that we don’t have air conditioning at home.  A/C man is coming tomorrow to install a new furnace.  My wife and I were talking about it today at lunch and the waiter pointed out that the high temperature is almost always 110+ in Iraq where our service men and women are risking their lives for our protection.

I should be ashamed of myself.  God bless our troops!

Episode 9, Our First Remote

Episode 9 Our First Remote

Welcome to Mining the Store, the podcast for small business owners who want to mine more gold from their businesses.  This is Episode 9.There’s no “I” in podcast, so your comments are very important.  You can leave a comment here on the show notes page.  Or, you can email your comment to mike@miningthestore.com.  If you’d like to leave an audio comment, you can attach an mp3 file to your email.

Skype users can leave an audio comment at mike.buckley3.

My Twitter ID is michaelbuckley and you can also find me on Friendfeed.

Mining the Store is a member of the blubrry podcast network, http://www.blubrry.com.

This time on Mining the Store

:50    Me whining about being hot.
1:25  Call for comments
1:48  Help a Reporter Out
You could be come famous or at least recognized for your expertise.
4:02  Would you fly an airline called Derrie-Air
People respond to creative advertising, even when the company’s made up.  Thanks to              Patrick  Byers at the Responsible Marketing blog.
6:00  Mark Cuban’s tax plan.  You’re going to like it.
7:34  Podcamp Ireland.  I’m going to camp.
9:25  Common Craft, computer stuff for dummies.
10:32 The Podcast Sisters
Krishna De
Anna Farmery
Heather Goringe

Episode 8

Thu, 17 July 2008

Episode 8

Welcome to Mining the Store, the podcast for small business owners who want to mine more gold from their businesses.  This is Episode 8.

There’s no “I” in podcast, so your comments are very important.  You can leave a comment here on the show notes page.  Or, you can email your comment to mike@miningthestore.com.  If you’d like to leave an audio comment, you can attach an mp3 file to your email.

Skype users can leave an audio comment at mike.buckley3.

My Twitter ID is michaelbuckley and you can also find me on Friendfeed.

Mining the Store is a member of the blubrry podcast network, http://www.blubrry.com.

The Twilight Zone

This episode we focus on bad customer service.  But first, notice our new blog page.  We’ve moved the show notes page from our podcast host, Libsyn to WordPress.  We hope you like the new look.

3:15  Poor customer service
4:25  Macy’s fails to deliver.
8:20  Zoli Erdos and expired Milka chocolate from Belgian Chocolate Online.
13:21  A hospital drops the ball when it comes to looking out for the customer.
17:25  Conclusion.  We have to put the customer first to survive.

Direct download: Episode_8.mp3

New and Improved

Welcome to the new look Mining the Store.  Obviously the appearance of the page has changed since we’ve moved it from our podcast host Libsyn over to WordPress.  I hope you like the change.

There another, more important change I want to point out.  The new site has no ads.  Ironically, I have John Chow to thank for that.  In case you don’t know, John Chow is the king of web site monetization.  He claims to make $27,000 per month from his sites, all from ads.

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with that, if it’s what you want to do.  More power to him.  But after reading his white paper on how to make money, it occurred to me that that’s not what this blog/podcast is all about.  It’s about you making money and not about me making money.  How serious can you think I am about helping you if all you see are ads?

Right now MTS is a labor of love.  I have a full time job and a part-time ministry, so it’s something I do nights and weekends and sometimes at lunch time.  I don’t need to make money here, so why try if it dilutes or takes away from the content.

I will continue to recommend products and services if I believe they can help you make more money in your business.  On the chance that someone wants to give me something free in exchange for a review, I’ll always let you know that, but I won’t let it influence what I say.  If I give you a link to a book on Amazon.com, it’s there for your convenience.  Personally I think you should buy your books at your local book store.

Finally, I’m 59 years old.  I do expect to give up the nine to five grind at some time in the not-too-distant future.  When that happens, then the economics of this operation will surely change.  I will be looking for some new income streams.  What that will look like, only God knows, and He’s not telling.

As always, thank you for visiting and I hope you keep coming back.  It also wouldn’t hurt my feelings if you told your friends.  I will be adding links to del.icio.us, digg, twitter, etc in the near future. (As soon as I figure out how.)  Meanwhile, if you have the social bookmarking buttons on your browser, I’d appreciate it if you’d Stumble and digg us.

This project has taken a little longer than I expected it to, so the 7/15 podcast is a little late.  Don’t despair, I expect to have it up tonight or tommorrow.

Episode 7

Episode 7

Welcome to Mining the Store, the podcast for small business owners who want to mine more gold from their businesses.  This is Episode 7.

There’s no “I” in podcast, so your comments are very important.  You can leave a comment here on the show notes page.  Or, you can email your comment to mike@miningthestore.com.  If you’d like to leave an audio comment, you can attach an mp3 file to your email.

Skype users can leave an audio comment at mike.buckley3.

My Twitter ID is michaelbuckley and you can also find me on Friendfeed.

Mining the Store is a member of the blubrry podcast network, http://www.blubrry.com.

Today we’re going to take a look at inexpensive, but very effective, ways to promote your brand, both your personal brand and your business brand.  We’ll talk about ways to turn the dozens of random contacts you make every day into prospects for your business.

01:08 How many prospects have you talked to today?  You may be surprised at the answer.
03:25 The value of gift certificates.
05:43 How to turn casual meetings into B to B sales.
06:41 Logo clothing is a conversation starter
07:56 So is a professionally produced name tag.
08:20 Say “cheese”.  Why you need a supply of good photos.
08:55 The “elevator speech”
12:10 Generation “Y”, baby boomers, and social media

Helpful links:

Marketing Your Retail Store in the Internet Age by Bob and Susan Negen.
The Profitable Retailer by Doug Fleener and Patricia Luebke
Baby Lock Sewing Machines Dealer Locator
Elevator Speech Dos and Don’ts
The Perfect (Elevator) Pitch

Direct download: Episode_7.mp3

Episode 6

Episode 6

Welcome to Mining the Store, the podcast for small business owners who want to mine more gold from their businesses.  This is Episode 5.

There’s no “I” in podcast, so your comments are very important.  You can leave a comment here on the show notes page.  Or, you can email your comment to mike@miningthestore.com.  If you’d like to leave an audio comment, you can attach an mp3 file to your email.

Skype users can leave an audio comment at mike.buckley3.

Our music is called “Shenandoah” and it’s by Larry Allen Brown from the Garage Band web site, find it here.

Mining the Store is a member of the blubrry podcast network, http://www.blubrry.com.

Happy Father’s Day!

1:50  The long-awaited Firefox version 3.0 will be available this coming Tuesday, June 17.  They hope to set a world record for the most copies of software downloaded in one day.  The new version is said to be more secure, faster, and less of a memory hog.  There are other new features as well.

4:17  LifeClever offers a list of ten free on-line photo editing applications.  We tried one, Splashup, and it worked pretty well.

5:35  High gas prices, the economy, the Internet, and small business.

10:00 Question of the week.  Do your loved ones take your on-line work seriously?  If not, how do you deal with it?  Let’s talk about it.

Direct download: Episode_6.mp3

More on Baby Boomers

As a follow-up to episode 5’s discussion of baby boomers, here’s a link to a post on the same topic from Mine Your Own Business, the Tacony Corporation blog.

Episode 5

Mon, 2 June 2008

Episode 5

Welcome to Mining the Store, the podcast for small business owners who want to mine more gold from their businesses.  This is Episode 5.

There’s no “I” in podcast, so your comments are very important.  You can leave a comment here on the show notes page.  Or, you can email your comment to mike@miningthestore.com.  If you’d like to leave an audio comment, you can attach an mp3 file to your email.

Skype users can leave an audio comment at mike.buckley3.

Our music is called “Shenandoah” and it’s by Larry Allen Brown from the Garage Band web site, find it here.

Mining the Store is a member of the blubrry podcast network, http://www.blubrry.com.

2:04   Harvey Korman
2:45   Missouri Department of Revenue–How not to do customer service.
6:57   78 million Baby boomers are a diverse group.
US boomers range in age from 44 to 62
They ARE on the internet
44% of internet users age 50+ have broadband service
They use the web for a variety of purposes.
If you’re not reaching out to boomers, you’re missing business.
10:45 Contact me on Twitter and Facebook.
http://twitter.com/michaelbuckley
11:16 Anna Farmery–Healthy Business Relationships
http://www.theengagingbrand.typepad.com
12:23 More Anna–The Engaging Brand Episode 167, Joe Medina
Brain Rules
13:12 Minor League Baseball, the Gateway Grizzlies, and good marketing.
16:34 Donna Papacosta–Adding time codes to show notes
http://trafcom.typepad.com/blog/

Direct download: Episode_5.mp3