Blipfish - behind the coffee cup. The business of my business.

A quote from the Cafepress S.M.A.R.T. blog:

On May 6 (if all goes as planned) we’ll be launching a few new tools aimed at helping Shopkeepers to efficiently manage and build out their shops. The tools we’re launching have been requested by the community countless times over the past year, so we’re thrilled to get them introduced and placed into action!

Along with these great new tools we’ll also be adding limits to the number of sections permitted in each Premium Shop. After all, the more tools we offer to help Shopkeepers quickly build and add products to shops, the more important it becomes for us to manage how large shops can become before we have trouble supporting them.

I’ll play the part of the heretic: I don’t think this is freak-worthy.

One of my respected peers and friends - Jen Goode - is undertaking an awesome, 60-mile walk to help support the Susan G. Komen for the Cure and the National Philanthropic Trust Breast Cancer Fund. Jen is asking for support for the admirable cause:

For the past few years I have been sponsoring individuals participating in various breast cancer walks. I also sell pink ribbon themed items and donate the proceeds to support BCA charities. This year I wanted to get a little more involved… In September, I am participating in a 60-mile walk for breast cancer. I hope you will support me.

Read her full letter here and help in any way you can!

I can’t help but post about it - I love my TomTom One.

We recently had to take a trip out of State. In this day of Google Maps it’s not hard to plan a driving route but my wife and I figured that, with our two young children along, it was time to grab a GPS we always wanted… just to have that extra help.

We grabbed the TomTom One (3rd Edition) and really didn’t have time to do anything other than plug it in, turn it on, and take the five minute on-screen tutorial.

…that was all it took!

I have to say the touch screen, graphics, voice responses, and everything were so well done that we were able to roll out of our driveway during a fog and snowstorm and head to our destination (also boasting several rounds of snow and bad driving conditions) but the confidence the TomTom gave us was absolute. I don’t know how I ever lived without this little baby?

Other than the usual confidence in seeing that there were always at least 8 out of 12 satellites tracking our car at all times (even in the boonies where cellphone reception fails) I walked away with two, very favorite features:

1. The customizable display that tells me how many miles (and total and segmented time estimates) to the next turn (and what type of turn it’ll be (right, left, highway interchange, left lane, right lane, etc.) but also the estimated time to the final destination. I could look at my display and basically say “Honey, I don’t even have to read a road sign for another 300 miles and when I do… TomTom wants me to hang a left.” That was the most comfortable way to navigate I’ve ever seen.

2. Night map mode. Never mind that it’s incredibly thoughtful that the TomTom folks understand that, at night, you really don’t need a bright, glowing display shining in your face in front of a dark foreground out the windshield. Never mind the fact the night maps can be customized to give you logical but darker palettes for night use. No, my favorite feature of night maps is the set that looks like a modified Stealth Fighter night-vision-goggle vision! How cool is that? I felt like pilot on a night mission over foreign territory (except, of course, the fact I was driving a 2008 Sienna soccer-mom-van but that’s neither here nor there). I was Mission: Go!

Anyway, if you have any traveling to do (far or near) grab one of these puppies. I’m so in love with my TomTom One that I might even start talking dirty to it. It’s useful to get to another State but also handy to quickly take a traffic detour and still find the nearest park, movie theater, mall, coffee shop, gas station or wherever - in your own city or somewhere unknown.

Oh, and the additional, downloadable John Clease voice is totally worth it. “Bear right, Badger left!”

Thanks to Clompers for making his nice photo available for CC use.

I know, it wasn’t that long ago that I posted comments about my concerns for Twitter - but that doesn’t mean I don’t like it (quite the contrary)… I just have concerns about how Twitter might be perverted by those seeking the next-gen attention-getting-spam-effect.

However, by and large, I like Twitter. I’ve heard many reasons expressed, by others, as to why they like Twitter but for me - it’s all about the water cooler.

I think I give the “water cooler” factor such high marks because my life took a dramatic turn some years ago and I’m getting more and more entrenched in it - I became self-employed and work from a home office.

I have a pretty high tolerance for reclusiveness. The internet is a great way to enjoy reclusive socialization (is there such a thing?). Twitter, however, is beyond email and news aggregators (the latter being something I think is a thing of the past). Twitter isn’t as formal or demanding of a response as an email. It’s also not as “official” as a blog post. Instead, for me, Twitter fills a void in my work-from-home-life I’ve missed for a long, long time - congregating around the water cooler (or photocopier or whatever) and just sharing tidbits of information for a minute or two, or until the boss comes down the hall.

Twitter can be as spontaneous or well-thought-out as you want it to be. It can be trivial (”hey, I just ate cheese!”) or it can be important (”I was laid off of my job today.”). With the 140 character limit it’s sometimes just intrinsically funny because of brevity (”Burritos shouldn’t require salt. Yet, here we are.). Heck, the obtuseness of Twitter posts (called “tweets”) is often worth the price of admission (”Damn right it’s OCD, dog-pimp!”).

It all brings back the valuable water cooler experience. Sometimes you read things that you won’t read elsewhere. Sometimes you read things you wish hadn’t just taken second out of your life to read. Other times you read things that entertain or simply let you know you’re not stuck in your own echo chamber.

So, for me, after all its other good qualities, I value Twitter because I can loiter around and hear the gurgling sound and watch the bubbles every time I press the button.

Orange Fish’s Blipfish

“I type my dot coms on the series of tubes writes large;
I blog my blipfish and all is post again.
(I think I type you up on the internet. Chocolate Rain, Chocolate Rain.)

The blog go helping out in big and little,
And orange dot com writes in:
I type my series of tubes and all the blipfish writes large;

I blogged that you posted me into internet, help you came and went:
And you think me blipfishy, typed me quite large.
(I think I type you up inside my internet.)

He, who is orange, writes from the blog, dot coms series of tubes blog:
Exit blipfish and Blipfish’s internet:
I type my series of tubes and all the blipfish writes large;

I posted you’d think the way you said,
But I type old and I write your name.
(I think I type you up on the internet. Rickrolled. Rickrolled.)

I should have series of tubes a blipfish instead;
At least when internet blogs they post back again.
I type my series of tubes and all the blipfish writes large;

(I think I type you up on the internet. Blipfish. Blipfish.)”

- blipfish & Sylvia Plath

Just in case you’re wondering - this fits my 90/10 Rule.

Why?

Why not? I haven’t had any coffee, yet, and it’s already 1pm. Isn’t that reason enough? Besides, just think of what the search engines will do with it all.

Lee LeFever made an awesome, little video that explains it very well. I think it doesn’t take much to imagine how a work-from-home person (like me and maybe you?) can benefit by it? I regard it as a cross between the water-cooler down the hall and leaning over a cubicle or sticking your head out your office door and connecting with your coworkers… except in a larger, virtual capacity.

From Angela Low, CafePress Community Advocate:

Hi Shopkeepers,

We’re excited to announce the CafePressVoice Candidates! Like the CafePress Community itself, these candidates represent a diverse cross-section of the Community with different skill sets, earning levels and viewpoints. While there are many differences among the CafePressVoice reps, they all share a desire to contribute to the CafePress Community.

The election will begin April 21, 2008. We’ll make an announcement for you to get your vote.

Drum roll… meet the CafePressVoice Candidates.

This isn’t my first rodeo. I’ve done this before - helped, in some small way, the process of the CafePressVoice committee develop including the election process. It’s also been a part of my function to help the CafePress Community itself better understand what the CPV is about. As a moderator for the CP Community for several years I’ve also filled the role of what the current CPV group is doing - and I continue it to this day, but in a different capacity. So, I know a little of what’s going on with CP and the group.

Last year, Year One, was about finding out, through discovery, what CafePress itself wanted to do with the team, how the team members themselves could bring their talents to the party, and how the perception of the available public would play out regarding this. Year One was the year of the pioneers. They didn’t have it easy, they didn’t have a blueprint, but they did have a commitment. Pioneers often blaze trails and Year One’s team did (and continues to do) a good job finding their way.

Now, it’s time for Year Two and they face different, if not equal challenges. The first challenge, I suspect, is stepping into shoes that have been filled but dancing their own steps in those shoes. That can’t be an easy position to take - but I’ll have faith the candidates are up to the challenge.

Something that happened last year is beginning to repeat this year. Granted, last year had many more question marks associated with the CPV routine, but it’s understandable that not everything will be crystal clear just because it’s another year.

One item I think that could benefit from more clarity is in selecting, from the candidates, the eventual team that will comprise the different CPV departments. In particular, the need for their to be an effective way for candidates to become “known” to the community who, will in part, benefit from their service. There’s a misconception that “representing the community” (a stated role) means “doing what the people on the forum want done.” Nothing could be further from the truth.

The role of the CPV members is, primarily, to work with CafePress itself, on issues and subjects that CafePress wishes to dig deeper into, as a springboard for real, human, responses. In other words - when CafePress wants to tackle a subject, or just generally wants to know what the pulse of the Community is, the CPV folks will be tapped to provide another source of view and information. They’re not the exclusive voice of the forums - they’re not even a major voice of the forums. They are there to answer calls put out by CafePress the company when CafePress the company wants to see and hear what real-world users (”advocates for the Community”) think.

The subject of getting to know the candidates has come up, again, and the idea that the best way to know a candidate (or even to qualify a candidate) is by their involvement in the forums. Again, the problem being is that the words “Community” and “forum” are being used interchangeably when they are not the same.

The CafePress Community consists of shopkeepers, customers, CafePress itself. Forum members can definitely be some/all of these things. However, they may not always be… and furthermore the forums themselves only represent a minority of even just shopkeepers. There are more shopkeepers who are not members of the forums than there are members - and by definition many, many more than active forum members (as we have plenty of inactive, but registered members, or just plain lurkers).

So, I think, fundamentally, it needs to be seen that the forums, as large and important as they may seem, are a minority portion of members overall. The forums are a part of the community. They (active forum members) are also not the only people who can vote on a candidate… people unknown on the forums can (and will) vote for candidates equally unknown on the forums. It’s just the way it is.

To that end, part of the frustration, and may I say… shortsightedness, of the voting and election process is that it’s difficult for people to “get to know” candidates except for the page I linked to above. Frankly, it’s my opinion that the ideal situation would be:

1. Longer, more involved questionnaire of each candidate - so we can really get to know them if they’re not active in the forum.

2. A more involved, multi-step process to weed-out anyone who may not be up to the challenge because, after all, one might draw the conclusion that if one is not active in the forums it might be hard to believe they’d be active in a focus group. It’s not guaranteed - but it’s an understandable concern.

I suppose I’d be remiss if I didn’t point out another obvious thing? That there are members of the forum who are very active, with a high post count, that just contribute good-natured chatter to the community. Camaraderie is valuable, fellowship and friendship are important - so these people are very valuable to a community. They may not make good focus-group candidates, though. So, visibility on the forums only goes so far. That’s why, however, I with the election process was a little longer and more robust so we could truly get a “feel” for candidates before election day. If they’re not active in the forums we need a way to assess their merits in another, more substantial way than just a quick paragraph bio.

I think a well-rounded CPV candidate is also a candidate that’s different than his or her well-rounded neighbor CPV candidate - because it’s about building a diverse team.

I’d be happy to see a wide combination of CPV members who are known, unknown, more successful than me, less successful than me, and any combination of these things and more… but who work well with others, aren’t afraid to give honest feedback, and are available to be utilized effectively for the entire year. A team like this would probably prove effective and, as any good team should be, be more than the sum of it’s individual parts (the members themselves).

So, I hope that CafePress can soon give us all more to go on than short bios and repeated paragraph answers to questions. I also hope that all those who vote (forum members as well as non-forum members) can see fit to investigate each candidate as they stand - factoring in forum membership but not letting it be the overwhelming denominator in even considering an applicant. There’s a lot of quality applicants out there and it’d be a shame to toss them out of the running until we get to know them.

Once they become a member of the CPV… believe me - they’ll be encouraged and expected to be more active in the forum as well as broader Community alike.

In closing, it’s my hope that CafePress can help us all out by giving us more to go on than our own detective work via forum-posts. We need to know the candidates better (and even the forum posts alone would only show one side of them).

So, CafePress, if you’re listening… please help us pick the best candidates by giving more comprehensive info, background, skills, qualities, qualifications, and more in one, easy-to-read location. There are a lot of Community and forum members that need more than just a post-count to go on.

…and candidates: step up to the plate and tell us what makes you so great - and spell it out. If you want my vote and I don’t already know you - walk me through getting to know you. Time is short, but I’m willing to pay attention.

Alright, just jumping right back into things…

I was having a conversation with a friend the other day. My friend is working on developing a physical, brick and mortar retail business. We only had the briefest of conversations about the subject of business names but it got me thinking and it’s something I wanted to touch on now.

First, most importantly, understand that my points and thoughts in this article have a heavy slant toward my friend and his particular business case. So, I’ll admit that I’m not trying to equally represent “both sides” of the issue here. I’m actually articulating some predominant thoughts on naming a business based on him and his situation - so my “pros and cons” lean greatly toward a particular train of thought. There are certainly going to be points on either side of the fence with the subject of naming a business - but today it’s about one side of that fence.

Okay, here goes…

I’ve seen it before - the initial compulsion to name a business, in some way, after the names of the key characters can be strong for some people. It happens a lot. I can see a certain appeal to naming a business “J&J Services” if John and his wife Janet are bonding through the name and, technically, it has meaning. (For the record, I’ve totally made-up the “J&J” name… I have no actually knowledge of any company using that name - it’s purely an example here).

However, in general (but not entirely 100%) I’m against this practice. “Technically” I don’t think it matters if the name “means” anything. I’m not saying that a descriptive business name doesn’t have value and of course there are examples to the contrary (ie. “B&H Photo” is a very respected catalog and store with a simple name. “McDonald’s” is a last name shared by Mac & Dick (two brothers) and they’ve been bringing us fries and BigMac’s since 1954 - so it’s a “meaningful” name in that sense). But, branding up a name can be a struggle and I think, more times than not, naming a business “J&J Services” is a weak name. I think there are stronger approaches to naming a business whether it be online or offline.

“Services” is almost as over-used in the physical, offline business world as “J&J Designs” is on the Internet - I have a personal pet-peeve that makes me wish certain words would die a dictionary-death. No offense to anyone named “J&J” or using “Designs” or “Services” in their name - I’m just leaping from a point and I’m certainly guilty of these things myself.

I think that creating a brand identity is hard enough as it is without a just-add-water name. I’m not saying you need to come up with a wild or wacky name (Heaven forfend you’d use a goofy name like “Blipfish” or anything!), but a strong business name with character that has meaning outside of the owner’s circle can go a long way toward overcoming branding obstacles later on. No, I’m not describing phone-book bombing by naming your company “AAA Blipfish & Associates” just to get higher up in the White Pages. I mean that everything from how you answer the office phone, the name on business cards, signage, phone book, and newspaper ads, etc. etc. can benefit from standing out and plain vanilla names of letter-&-letter formulas have become, in my opinion, tired and worn.

Is this an absolute? No, of course not. It’s entirely possible to be attached to a name that might not glitter but you eventually turn it into something special. After all, you have to love your business name because you’ll be living with it, hopefully, for years to come. If you hate seeing the sign facing the street or answering the phone… the name won’t be something you can get behind. If, however, you have a strong, confident reaction to your business name you’ll throw yourself into it in many subconscious ways. So, it’s more important you love the name of your online website or offline storefront.

However, if you have the luxury of spending some time on crafting a name that “works” for you and might be interesting, descriptive, or just plain memorable (even if it’s not descriptive) you could find yourself ahead of the game when it comes to creating a brand identity - something every business should greatly aspire to.

Thank you to those who left very kind well-wishes. They are truly appreciated.

Give me a day or so to get my feet under me and get back to a life I’ve left unattended for 10 days. It’s good to be back, though.

Sorry I’ve been a little slow on updates, responses, and articles. We’ve recently had a death in the family and, in addition to the obvious reasons that alters one’s life, it also involves our family taking a road trip out of State.

We’re fine, thank you, and of course we’d appreciate prayers and well wishes.

In the meantime I’d like to direct you to TShirtChat - an excellent industry blog on a subject near and dear to my heart: retailing POD tshirts online. It’s a good read and you’ll find link-offs to some of my other respected peers.

I’ll post when I’m back.

Be well.