This blog is longer operational. Please join me at one of two blogs here:

Keylocke Services Blog
This business based blog offers tips and advice on creating simple and effective marketing strategies, as well as copywriting tips. This is in conjunction with my independent business, Keylocke Services, a marketing consulting and copywriting firm for small businesses.


Nicole Amsler's Keynotes
This is my personal site which offers writing tips, writing samples and free snippets of my books and articles. I also review books and movies as well as let you know what I am reading.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope to see you at my other blogs.

N@

Nicole Amsler

Book Marks

First in a six-part series about books, ebooks and your business

I am a book junkie. I have written a few and read a few thousand. I still remember the first book I ever “read”—Richard Scarry’s "Nicky Goes to the Doctor". The first book I wrote was in second grade and was called "The Bear and The Fly"—complete with illustrations. (I still have it.)

My new favorite book is "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen. (Note: my favorites change weekly but this one will probably stay in my top ten for awhile.) And several years ago, I hated one particular book so passionately that I threw it out my 14th floor hotel window in Atlanta!

Books are an integral part of my life and not just because I am a writer. I even like ebooks—-sometimes. I still remember the first ebook I ever downloaded and read—Seth Godin’s "Unleashing the Idea Virus". It was the first time I had heard of ebooks and I was anxious to read his thoughts. And so I bought the ebook, (I forget the actual cost) I downloaded it and I printed it out! (I probably still have it.)

I buy ebooks by the fistful now, I have edited several and I have written a few. But I can count on one hand how many were worth the paper they weren’t printed on.

One advantage traditional publishing has on ebooks is the check and balance system. Publishers still occasionally print garbage but in general, many hands went into making that printed book a solid piece of work. The same can not be said of ebooks. Anyone who can make a PDF can make an ebook.

For the next six sessions, we are going to discuss HOW to write an ebook, WHY to write an ebook, WHERE to sell your ebook and WHY an ebook might NOT be a great idea.

Method to the Madness

I just love Target’s Method products. I always try to buy ecologically sound products but I also hate to overspend, especially on household cleaning products. (Or it just might be that I hate to clean my house…)

Either way, I love that Target carries all the Method products which are natural, safe, non-toxic and environmentally friendly. I also love Method’s voice. If you read their website, you can read their Method Humanifesto and information on their many products. But how often do we go to a company’s website just for random fun?

So I love that they sprinkle their voice and humor onto their packaging. On my Method Aroma Ring, the back of the package instructs me to “Tear off the foil cover. As tempting as it is, do not puncture disc. Fragrance will naturally diffuse through the protective membrane within a few hours. Trust us on this one.”

And at the top of the box, these product advantages are bullet pointed:

Natural Essential Oils

Kid and Pet Friendly

Never Tested on Reindeer

I am so glad to know that! But honestly, I will remember reading this packaging. It adds to my customer experience. And I will likely buy reindeer-friendly Method products again over my boring Pine-sol and Lysol products.

Practice What You Preach

As I’m writing a teleclass that’s being presented later this month, I’m feeling a bit convicted by some of the business sense I am passing along. My seminar is about creating a marketing calendar for 2008, filling it in with all the marketing duties and campaigns you are going to complete in the next year. I especially recommend this technique to my blogging clients so they can have three full months of topics to draw from, in case their business really takes off (their hope and my goal.)

Enter conviction.

My calendar has been full for months now—new and old clients, exciting assignments, editing my NaNo book and hiring some help. It’s been so full that I have neglected my own marketing duties. Just like I nag my clients, you never know when the pipeline will run dry. I spend my days writing other people’s text, web copy, eBooks and blogs that I’ve neglected to write my own.

So I am going to take my own advice. I am filling out my marketing calendar, complete with scheduled blog dates and a spreadsheet of potential topics. I’m going to treat my business like one of my clients’s and give it top priority.

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.