NaNoWriMo and Natural Childbirth

November is just around the corner and I am gearing up for the annual National Novel Writing Month competition. This is a communal endeavor to write a 50,000 novel in one month. With the support of an online community and copious amounts of coffee, you get to be one of the few people in the world who can claim that you have written a book, instead of suggesting that you want to…someday.

But as I prepare my outline, shuffle my index cards, grind the coffee beans and block out my schedule, I am reminded of my child birth classes. I determined early that I WAS having natural childbirth and I did everything to prepare myself for my children’s births. I was always puzzled by the women in the doctor’s waiting room who claimed they were going to “try for a natural childbirth.” TRY?

I know myself…if I gave myself any loop holes, I would have signed up for an epidural in the parking lot. I made sure to tell everyone I was NOT having drugs so I’d be too embarrassed to recant later. I prepared as best as I could for natural birth with education, plans and a tremendous coach. I walked into the hospital both times declaring first thing, “I want no drugs.” (Okay, so I was wheeled in one time. His birth broke my tailbone so I couldn’t walk.) I made sure the drugs were never offered. And even though I am a tremendous wimp, I made it through two births with no drugs before or after.

So I am here to declare, I AM finishing NaNoWriMo this month. I have prepared by educating myself on my topic and writing a complete outline. I have budgeted my time and created a complete schedule. I have addressed the roadblocks in my way. And I have even enlisted my six year old daughter as my coach. She has 100 thumbtacks on a cork board and she is going to remove one for every 500 words I write. I can break promises to myself in a heart beat, but I am not likely to break them to my daughter.

I am sure the road will get rough this month and I am sure that my output will not be the Great American Novel that I envision in my head. But there is no TRY in writing a novel. You either do or you don’t. I choose to do.

New Glasses

I got two new pair of glasses recently. I don’t really like wearing my glasses but my contacts are having issues and I haven’t determined if the problem is my eye or the contacts. But since I started wearing my glasses more frequently, I get a lot of unsolicited comments.

“Oh, you look different today. Did you get your hair cut?”
“What did you differently? Is that a new outfit?”
and my favorite…
“You look different. Have you lost weight?”

People know I look different but can’t figure out why. To me, though, it is as plain as the glasses on my face. But only I am intimately acquainted with my face. Others just notice that “something” is different.

Your web page is your “face” to the Internet world. You probably spent a long time and lots of money to get it looking just right. You like it just the way it is. But your guests—especially frequently visiting guests—notice the slightest changes. They aren’t emotionally invested in your home page and the carefully crafted text. They like new content and a changing view.

I believe this is why Google changes their logo every so often. It breaks up the monotony. Plus it reminds the surfer that you are still involved in your website. Countless web pages sit languishing, unattended and your surfer has stumbled across far too many of them.

So how can you shake up your web pages? What tweaks can you implement that makes your customers wonder “Have they lost weight?”

Hey Applebees!

The AP Press writes "A 6-year-old boy was hungry and decided he'd go to Applebee’s. So he grabbed the car keys, took his booster seat from the back seat of his grandmother's car and placed it in the driver's seat, then made a go of driving himself to the restaurant Tuesday."

I find this story horrific in the sense that I have a six year old daughter that I don't intend to let drive for at least 10-12 more years. But I also see this as marketing gold.

Can't you just envision the many, many angles of advertisements you could get out of this news story? I see cute commercials with first graders lined up at stop lights (looking over the wheel, not unlike the Wendy's Where's the Beef lady.) What about making the boy a spokesperson, like Subway did with Jared? You are in the news for FREE so capitalize on it, for Pete's sake!

But here's the rub. By the time the Powers that Be at Applebee's get motivated, plan a bunch of meetings, talk to their ad agency and implement said ad, the public has forgotten. This is the advantage of a small business. You don't need a board of directors to Yeah or Neah your decisions. You can implement plans faster.

So if sudden unexpected media attention was pointed your way--positive or negative--how would you capitalize on it? Me? I intend to retire early when Applebee's execs read this blog, fire the newly hired McCann Erickson agency and hire me with a hefty bonus.

Woot and a Half

Have you ever been to Woot.com? Its brilliant business angle is to offer one—and only one—product for sale each day. The products—knives, keyboards, flash drives or a wireless mouse—are solid deals but it’s the quirky blog, product descriptions and community keep Wooters come back every day.

The clever and dryly written product description number just 400+ words. The basics are relayed but it’s the stories and unique voice that draws new and returning customers. They sell things that can be purchased at most department and computer stores yet people clamor to be the first Wooter to buy or to contribute to the conversation.

So I was surprised when I bought my first product to receive a rather vanilla follow up email. Woot’s unique voice carried from their product descriptions to their sign up forms. But they dropped the ball when it came to the automated response. There is no reason they couldn’t keep the quirky tone consistent through all their written materials. In fact, it stuck out like a sore thumb when it was missing.

Check your website and marketing materials. Is your message and voice consistent? What simple changes can you make?

Pokemon Pizzazz

Who knew selling Pokemon cards could be so lucrative?! Mom to six, Dawn Meeghan, posted a standard pack of Pokemon cards on eBay along with a humorous novella about how she came to be in possession of them. (Hint: The kids snuck them into the cart when she wasn’t looking.) Her self-effacing rant about grocery shopping with kids resonated with Moms and Dads webwide.

Her modest eBay auction for a pack of $8 Pokemon cards became a viral marketers dream. She received 179,000 page views in one week’s time, thousands of comments, encouragement to write a book, a platform to promote her blog (www.mom2my6pack.blogspot.com) and $178.50. Not bad for a simple eBay auction.

Was this just lightning in a bottle or yet another example of storytelling in product descriptions? I hope Dawn capitalizes on her new found web fame. What can we learn from her success? Are there ways for you to interject some humor into your website or marketing materials?