It's that time of year. Yes, holidays, winding down – one hopes – and looking forward to the start of a new year. It's never too early to begin laying down the foundations of a business, marketing or personal plan for 2010. Here's a simple R-E-C-I-P-E.

Take a RETROSPECTIVE look at 2009. Look at the good, the not-so-good. You've lived (almost) another 12 months and you've experienced (almost) another 12 months. That's a year's worth of wisdom. You've probably learned much more than you realize and you can put that all to good use in your plan for 2010.

EVALUATE the successes. What were your goals at the beginning of the year? Did you have any? If not, resolve to change that immediately! How does your year end appear to be shaping up relative to those goals? What were the successes in 2009. Were they planned or unplanned? Write them down and figure out what you achieved. Plan to do it again if possible.

CELEBRATE your successes. Give yourself a pat on the back! Even the smallest achievement is step in the right direction. It's something to build on. Experience is a success in itself, so at minimum, you've got that to celebrate.

INVESTIGATE the failures. I hate to use that word, but I couldn't think of a better one. What didn't work as planned in 2009? If you had a plan and something didn't work out, try to understand why. Accidents happen. The unforeseen happens. The saying "the best laid plans of mice and men..." exists for a reason, as does "if at first you don't succeed...". You now have the benefit of hindsight.

Begin your PLAN for 2010. Yes, I know 2009 isn't over, but it's almost December and the year end will be here before you know it. Your plan should include measurable goals (see A SIMPLE GAME PLAN). Looking back over this year, include possible pitfalls you need to watch out for. Try and add a goal that you didn't have this year. On your calendar, put a short-term objective for each month and a method by which you can measure success. Don't wait until the end of next year to get yourself back on track. If 2009 didn't go as expected, pick yourself up, dust yourself off and plan to try, try again.

ENJOY yourself. It's the holidays. Season of goodwill and time to be grateful for all the big and little things in our lives. Next year will be a challenge, but you're going into the New Year with a plan and a whole 12 months of additional experience and wisdom. Let bygones be bygones and resolve to begin 2010 with a clean slate and a whole year of potential.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving (and Holiday Season)!

As a web designer, part of my Quality Assurance (QA) testing is to verify that my websites work in a number of different browsers. One cannot "assume" that just because it's okay in one, it's going to be okay in another. Beyond just working, the appearance of the site is often affected by the browser as well. Sometimes the behavior difference can be quite dramatic.

Some of these differences are due to the fact that there are differing standards for browser and web design behavior. Though there are a fundamental set of "rules" that everyone follows, the difference in "tweaks" can be very frustrating at times, but the ultimate result is worth it.

As a result of all this testing, I've come to develop a fondness for certain browsers. While Microsoft's Internet Explorer used to dominate the browser market, others have begun to develop a following of their own. I thought I'd share some of my experiences with you.

The "Big 5" browsers are, considered by many, to be:

• Internet Explorer
• Firefox (Mozilla)
• Chrome (Google)
• Safari (Apple)
• Opera (Opera)

I used to be a big fan of Internet Explorer (IE) (www.microsoft.com/windows/Internet-explorer). However, as the version numbers went up so did the complexity of the browser. I've found that many "built in" features of Windows suffer from a tendency of trying be all things to all people and IE is no exception. In addition, the changes from one version to another have been very dramatic, both from a visual and usability standpoint. According to w3schools.com's month-to-month "Web Statistics and Trends" report, Internet Explorer, with no less than three major versions out there, has seen its heyday (mid 2008) and it's market share, though still significant at about 35% has dropped a lot. Whether this is due to security or usability concerns, who knows, but I'm betting that the numbers will dwindle even more as awareness of other browsers grows.

From a personal standpoint, my major complaint about IE has been the speed at which it loads and the continual having to unload or "switch off" various components. I also don't like software that interacts with my operating system at a level that makes me feel as though it knows better than what's good for me. Added to this have been security issues for years now. My use of IE has simply been reduced to testing. Yet, Microsoft does claim that IE is one of the "safest" browsers out there.

The lion's share of the browser market belongs to Firefox (FF) by Mozilla (www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/firefox.html). In the Windows world, Firefox became a big rival to Internet Explorer in 2006. I believe that much of this was as a result of the whole legal drama that surrounded Microsoft's including IE in Windows, along with what seemed to be one security issue after another. Firefox was there and took the lead.

I used FF for about a year as my primary browser until Google Chrome came along. I became increasingly frustrated with loading times that seemed to grow and grow, along with what seemed to me to be an incredible number of updates. Perhaps it was no more that IE, but the fact that the updates were installed when I loaded the browser, gave it the appearance of being perpetually updated. I always liked the "tabbed" browsing windows that Firefox, I believe, was first to adopt. Yet, over time, I feel as though the browser has suffered a little from the IE habit of trying to be too much. So, as with IE, I use it primarily for testing purposes.

Google Chrome (www.google.com/chrome) made it's debut in 2008. It was heralded (by Google) as being a fresh browser, built from the "ground up". Early reviews were positive. It was certainly different, and took a little getting used to. Gone were many of the text menus that I'd gotten used to. It behaved differently too. One tab crashing didn't wipe out the others. I also rather liked the way it tracked my browsing history.

Yet, there were some early problems. Some addins, such as Flash, were a little "iffy" and some sites refused to load in Chrome, telling me to use IE or FF instead. I'm glad to see that this has changed and, as Chrome's use has grown over the past year, many of the early problems have been ironed out.

From a personal standpoint, Chrome is my current browser of choice. It's fast. Very fast. Once you get used to piloting it, I've found it very reliable. It does what I expect it to do: allow me to browse the web. Sounds simple, doesn't it?

Safari (www.apple.com/safari/) used to be the "Mac" browser. It still is, but the Windows version has been adopted by a growing segment of the browser marketplace. Safari is what Apple products tend to be: glossy, streamlined and functional. It's a nice browser. It feels "clean" and "light". Many consider it to be the "fastest" browser out there.

My personal use of Safari has been for testing purposes, but I do like it and will continue keeping an eye on it as a potential alternative for Chrome should be need arise...

Finally, the last of the "big 5" is Opera (www.opera.com/). While this browser still has a relatively tiny percentage of users (about 3%), it's growing. Like Safari, Opera feels "clean" and "light". It loads quickly and does a good job.

Opera is the only browser that has not crashed once since I've started using it. I like the way it "remembers" the last site I was on, and this, straight out of the box. There is little "fluff" with Opera, like Chrome and Safari. I personally believe that it's popularity will grow as people become aware of it.

As the mobile platform usage grows, I expect both the mobile versions of the above browsers as well as new ones to make their presence felt. As a web designer, I do have to take mobile browsing into consideration. Most "airtime" costs when it comes to browsing, so sites need to load quickly and the amount of content needs to be "bare bones" to keep costs down. My mobile browsing testing has been limited to IE and some "emulators" from the mobile phone companies which allow me to do some limited testing. That said, Opera has a nice feature built into the desktop version which easily simulates a mobile browser. It was the original reason I downloaded Opera and, from a developers standpoint, I'm very glad I did.

As a designer, I also test my sites using Lynx (lynx.isc.org), which is a pure text browser. This allows me to see my sites in a mode that might be used by a visually impaired visitor as well as how search engines view the sites.

So, there you have it, the Dave Segrove opinion on the major browsers. To summarize, I think Internet Explorer and Firefox have become too "bulky" and slow to be practical. Chrome is where it's at, right now, but Safari and Opera show a lot of promise. You can download and run all of these browsers on the same PC and try them for yourself. It always comes down to what you're comfortable using, but it never hurts to try something new...or old again...

I was working on my laptop the other day in at a Paradise Bakery in Phoenix (free Wi-Fi and an excellent "frequent flier" program) when I looked around at several other people, like me, all busily tapping away at their laptops.

Whether it was the potent mix of a particularly strong coffee coupled with a ray of sunshine that hit me just right I do not know, but I suddenly thought..."hey – all that advertising space".

• How many people have laptops?
• How many people use them in public places?
• How many people glance at them while walking by?

Imagine a simple ad on the back of the laptop lid...

"Ask me about...[insert product or service]"

or "Need [insert product or service]? Visit www.[insert website].com"

Nothing elaborate, and something that can be read from ten to twenty feet away. Buy a simple clear or white weatherproof label, print, stick and voila!

In this economy, anything's worth a shot, right? Who knows what sort of conversation might ensue...

I write about different marketing strategies and techniques, both traditional and non in my online newsletter Webby's Updates which you can read at www.JDELtd.com and subscribe to if you so choose. You can download this and other articles from by Small Business GENetics site, www.sbgenetics.com

It's funny what you can come across when browsing for something completely different, but then again, it shows what a good blog article title can do...

BLOGGERS BUSTED BY COURTS

The article on legalzoom.com (here's the link), discusses the 2009 case of Liskula Cohen, a model, who was called some rather unpleasant things in several anonymous blog posts. She decided to sue. Since the poster was unknown, her attorney's had to go after Google, owners of Blogger.com where the comments were made.

The case made it to the New York Supreme court where it was decided that the comments had been defamatory and Cohen had rights to claim compensation. More specifically, they quoted a similar Virginia case and stated that anyone suffering "damages" as a result of "tortious or other actionable communications on the Internet" should be able to "seek appropriate redress by preventing the wrongdoers from hiding behind an illusory shield of purported First Amendment rights."

Back in 1995, the US Supreme Court had ruled the opposite, citing that the First Amendment guarantees protection, is vital to any democracy and "Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority".

A quick Google search for "bloggers sued" brings up a host of results (add 2009 to the search for more current stories) from here and abroad. It that there isn't a part of the world that doesn't have a blog-related lawsuit in progress somewhere.

So, what does it all mean?

Well, other than I shouldn't be so easily sidetracked, it goes to show that "anonymous" isn't necessarily so. Of course, many of us already know that once we step foot into the Internet world, we're about as anonymous as a polar bear at a penguin convention. Yet, that aside, it also goes to show that what you say really can matter online. What you say can come back to haunt you, whether it's a comment you make on a personal level, or, I'm guessing, a professional one too. The "offense" may not have been intended, but that's up to the "offended" party. There are, I'm sure, some very legitimate cases that deserve a look, but that has to be balanced by the First Amendment (or other freedom-of-speech laws around the world) and allowing people to say what they want to.

The legal lines are very shaky in this regard. Quite literally, the jury is out when it comes to what's okay and what's going to end someone up in court. As an enthusiastic blogger and writer myself, I hate the thought of censorship at any level, but such is the world we live in. It's going to be interesting to see how it develops, but in the meantime...if it's something I wouldn't say I loud in a public forum, it might be worth keeping to myself...that makes sense to me.

Oh - and this blog is my opinion and is not intended to offend anyone...sigh.

I write about different marketing strategies and techniques, both traditional and non in my online newsletter Webby's Updates which you can read at www.JDELtd.com and subscribe to if you so choose. You can download this and other articles from by Small Business GENetics site, www.sbgenetics.com

What is it about that "Friday Feeling"? The anticipation of two days of no work? Having survived another week of the rat race? Sleeping in? Happy hour?

What ever the underlying cause for that slightly excited 4pm sense of excitement, many people feel a sense of accomplishment; and many wish they could feel that way every day. While this post comes under the broad heading of "marketing", it can apply to other aspects of personal or professional life.

The old proverb "an apple a day keeps the doctor (or dentist) away" has some conventional wisdom within. Take the proverb and substitute "goal" for "apple" and "apathy" for "doctor" and we're on to something.

Last week I posted an article comparing a marketing campaign to a military one (see VENI, VIDI, VICI). In the article I illustrated that, like it's military counterpart, a marketing campaign is comprised of a series of goals, each building on the former to achieve the ultimate goal.

Okay Dave, but what's this got to do with-

Hang on – I'm getting there.

Take a look at your marketing campaign plan. Hopefully it's broken down into strategic milestones, monthly or weekly goals. If not, perhaps you could consider doing so, and while you're at it, break into daily goals too.

That's a lot of work, Dave...

Is it really? The more detail you can break a plan down to, the easier it is to adjust the smaller components. But most importantly, you can set daily goals. This might be something as routine as "complete 10 marketing calls" or "5 ideas for flyers", but at the end of the day, it can be something you can put a line through and say "done". It's a part of your campaign. You're a step closer to reaching your goal and getting where you want / need to go.

Is it a "Friday Feeling"? Perhaps not quite, but you can look back at the day with a sense of having achieved something relevant to you and your business.

Happy Friday.

I write about different marketing strategies and techniques, both traditional and non in my online newsletter Webby's Updates which you can read at www.JDELtd.com and subscribe to if you so choose. You can download this and other articles from by Small Business GENetics site, www.sbgenetics.com

"VENI, VIDI, VICI"

Julius Caesar is attributed with saying these immortal words (translation "I came, I saw, I conquered") in 47 BC. The Romans, for a many years, quite literally conquered the world; and they did it one battle at a time.

A marketing campaign is like a military campaign: there's a short-term goal and a tactic for achieving it. Notice I said "short term". A war is (alas) medium or long-term and a marketing program likewise. A marketing program (like the a war), is made up from a series of campaigns, each leading to what is an ultimate objective.

VENI

Now, this is "marketing according to Dave Segrove", not something I read somewhere else. While I consider long-term marketing strategies okay, I think they belong in the realm of larger companies or, preferably, nowhere.

Ooh – he's picking a fight...

Not really, and here's why.

I see this particularly with small companies, but the marketing plan (or campaign), becomes another word for "vision" : In two years, by doing this and that we're going to achieve....

In order for a marketing plan, like a military campaign, to stand a chance of working in a small company (in my humble opinion), is should:

1. be short term (less than six months);
2. have clearly stated and immovable and tangible goals;
3. have a start and end date;
4. include a method to measure success;
5. have a plan to get there;
6. includes the necessary resources;

VIDI

The immovable and tangible goals should be engraved in stone. Again, I go back to the military analogy. The campaign to conquer a city will help win the overall war. Once the objective has been stated, is should not really be changed. The other parts of the plan may change, heck, plans do all the time, but if the goal changes, then a new plan must be called for.

When I work with clients, we often have to go back to basics, determining what their business goals are for, say the next couple of years, from which we can develop a marketing strategy, which is broken down into short-term plans. If plan A succeeds, we develop plan B. More often than not, we run several at once, building fail-over and backup into our game plan.

A marketing plan can be one page, but (in the Dave Segrove method), must include all 6 items. If you cannot develop a plan that includes all six, then perhaps you should question then plan idea and take a step back and look at your overall strategy.

VICI

With the proper planning and goals, you're all set to go-a-conquering. Hail Caesar - and steer clear of anyone called Brutus.

I write about different marketing strategies and techniques, both traditional and non in my online newsletter Webby's Updates which you can read at www.JDELtd.com and subscribe to if you so choose. You can download this and other articles from by Small Business GENetics site, www.sbgenetics.com

The cursor flashed. The screen was blank...

There I was, sitting at the keyboard. It was time to blog, then put the word out on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Digg, Reddit etc etc. But I was stuck. “It was a dark and stormy night” sounded less cliché than anythign I could come up with.

Then it me...and I wrote. I wrote from the heart. I was an oracle, a prophet...I was Jerry McGuire...I wrote with passion, with love...and the words flowed...

One article and it happened. Someone on one of the press feeds got hold of my post and the next thing I knew, the phone rang. “How”, “why” and “what's next”. The phone rang all day, into the night and the next. At first it was just small press. The next thing were the TV stations. Local, then national and then BIG TIME TELEVISION.

All within a day.

The most amazing call was from the White House. Could I see the benefit of a cabinet-level position dealing with Internet and social media issues?  Would I consider filling that role? Would I come to DC and...

...Iwoke up. The cursor flashed. The screen was blank. 

I called it a night and went to bed.

When we arrived at our cabin my wife turned to me and said "skunk". I sniffed my armpits thinking that wasn't very nice...

But she was right, there was a faint odor of skunk in the air. We'd smelled it on our previous trip. It was a lot like that whiff you catch when driving down the freeway. There was one living nearby we figured. Oh well, such is life in the "domesticated wild" in which our cabin resides.

The next morning was weeding time. With much moaning about how I always seem to be pulling weeds...grumble grumble grumble...

I froze when something caught my eye.

Next to the air conditioner was our skunk. He appeared curled up and, dare I say, asleep?

If there is a world record for reverse long jumping, I broke it when the skunk moved. Everything I'd ever learned about being sprayed and the long-lasting effects were foremost in my mind. We didn't have any tomato juice...did we?

But it was alright, he settled down again.

The next hour was spent phoning pest control companies all of which either didn't pick up, return calls or deal with skunks. Finally, a call to the local police for information got us the name of my hero, Steve Gouker. "Skunk?," he said, "I'll be there in twenty minutes."

Within half an hour a pickup truck with Steve and son Cutter arrived. Steve got out and walked towards the air conditioner. I was expecting something out of a science fiction movie, radiation suit, oxygen tank etc, but not Steve. He strode up to the vicinity, looked at the skunk and called to Cutter. "Cutter, bring the stick and a trap."

The battle began. The skunk was squirting his foul-smelling liquid and it was nothing like that brief whiff on the highway. This was full-blown, pure evil-smelling burnt rubber and it burned.

But the skunk didn't budge.

"He's got his head stuck under the AC," explained Steve.

There are a series of small holes under the unit. Somehow, our skunk was inspired to insert his head in one. He hadn't been sleeping. He'd been wondering if his day could have gotten any worse. It was about to.

"I can't get him out. I think he might die." Steve wasn't able to move the critter who now had our sympathy. While we watched, Cutter told us that they'd seen this sort of thing before, though the skunk was usually dead by the time they were called out.

"Got him!"

Steve stepped back holding his snake stick with skunk on the end. Not a very happy creature, probably embarrassed, certainly all out of stink.

Into the trap he went, to be relocated to a somewhat more remote part of the White Mountains.

Steve told us that he'd been called out a lot this year, skunks were everywhere it seemed. Well, we'd built our cabin in "skunk land", so it was hardly surprising. We were glad the little guy survived and was going to new pastures.

Steve and Cutter drove off into the morning sun with one smelly passenger and two loyal customers...and a stink that would remain a few days...out of sight, but not out of mind.

If you're in the White Mountains area and need critters removed, I would heartily recommend Steve Gouker (and Cutter), owner of Critter Ridder and Sons.

While this isn't exactly real estate related, many people in this industry (as well as others) do use a cell phone while driving...

I write this in response to an excellent article by Helen Popkin on the MSNBC Technology site titled "Hey stupid! Drop the cell phone and drive". In the article Ms Popkin asks the obvious:

"Seriously. Dang. Isn’t it time we, as a people, owned up to the cognitive dissonance going down whenever we tsk-tsk terrible tales of texting bus drivers, then yack away behind the wheel while driving way the hell over the speed limit or coasting through a four-way stop with a carpool full of kids? "

How very true and well said. Her article goes on to address the political situation that, territorial bounds and the recently-released 2002 and 2003 NHTSA reports and recommendations. She concludes with a passionate discourse (and I mean that in a nice way), about the lack of consideration for others, both in terms of safety and politeness of those of us who dial, talk, text, email etc etc while driving.

What is it about us that makes us so selfish? Why do we not take action before someone we know (or know of) is hurt or killed?

As Ms Popkin points out, people who are on the phone talking (not texting), are as much of a risk as someone with a bac (blood alcohol content) of .08. Yet we don't stop doing it. It's like drinking and driving. I'm always blown away by the number of DUI arrests at holiday time. After all these years, all the education, the warnings etc etc etc you'd think we'd get it!!!

We've all heard about or seen people reading, putting on make-up, eating, drinking or combinations of these at the same time, while driving. We tsk and shake our heads and then go do one or more of the above ourselves.

Before I'm accused of being a hypocrite, I add myself to the list of the guilty, though I do not use my phone and drive unless it's an emergency. What defines "an emergency" may need to be clarified for many of those people whom I know who seem to have no qualms about phoning while driving what is a potentially lethal weapon.

What struck my in the post by Helen Popkin was her willingness to not get into a car without warning the driver "you get on the phone and I get out" and her willingness to hang up the phone is someone calls her while their driving; no questions asked.

Personally, I think cell phones have become the bane of society. I can't go into a store, restaurant, board a plane, train or even walk my dog without someone in the vicinity having an overloud conversation. I've heard people talking on the phone un public restrooms...and not while standing! Most of the time the conversation is about nothing, but they love to say it out loud. People "forget" to switch their phones to "vibrate" in meetings or other places and there are some ring tones that have allowed me to understand what the saying "to see red" really means.

Calm down, Dave...this is about driving while on the phone.

Thanks Dave.

Driving takes skill. It takes coordination and concentration. Anything that interferes is a distraction and therefore a liability. Some experts have noted that even listening to the radio can be just distracting enough to make the difference in reaction times that turn a bump into a crash. Throw in food, DVDs, MP3s, CDs, newspapers, laptops and phones...how much distraction is too much?

Anyone who has driven at least a little in recent years has seen or been in a near-miss situation, only to realize that the other driver was...you guessed it...on the phone, and with no clue how close they just came to killing someone.

It's unfortunate that we'll probably have to wait for serious legislation to stop the practice of phoning-while-driving and it's even more unfortunate that the kind events that drive this sort of legislation are usually the ones in which people are killed.

So, rant over and a new day. Forthwith, I commit to be more like Ms Popkin. Like drinking and driving, I have control over what I do. The phone is there for my convenience and not that of others. Yes, there will be times when a true emergency requires that I make or take a call while on the road. But those should be few and far between...or like drinking and driving: never.

Can you hear me now? I hope not.