Instant Outdoor Advertising Campaigns Made Easy

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An instant outdoor advertising campaign is one of the most cost effective ways to communicate your message to your potential and current clients who live and work in the area. Signs work to remind people you are there, implant thoughts, sharpen an identity and state a brief message. They are the original Geo-targeted advertising!

Many small businesses think outdoor advertising is just for big brands. The think the cost is prohibitive and never even consider it as part of their advertising mix. That is a big mistake.

Dollar for dollar and pound outdoor advertising is is one of the most cost affective methods you could use to target local markets.

Instant advertising campaigns can be set up where your customers live work and play in …well in an instant. The artwork is often included in a monthly fee for leasing a location and it doesn’t have to be a full size billboard costing thousands a month. Prices start as low as $50.00 a month for things like bus benches and usually reflect the traffic flow. Competition for return on investment guarantees this media is priced right because unlike newspaper advertising and other print media there is a limit to the number of locations available.

Street furniture like bus benches and recycling bins can be found in hundreds of cities in Canada and the US displaying advertising to local markets.

Outdoor advertising like this is a great place to start an advertising campaign, drive traffic to a website, build a local brand and remind your customers you are there for them.

Many of the businesses using this method start with one unit and scale up as businesses increases.

Does it work?
Well I manage advertising campaigns in 263 locations for over 100 clients. Most of them stay with me year after year, on average more than 5 years on a single location and some have been on several locations for more than 25 years.

Instant outdoor advertising campaigns are custom made for businesses on the street looking to master local markets. All kinds of businesses.

Our services are custom built for shop owners, doctors, lawyers, dentists, plumbers, real estate agencies, pharmacies, drug stores, dry cleaners, restaurants, garden centers, boutiques, publishers, physical trainers, pool cleaners, grocery stores, bookkeepers, therapists, insurance brokers and anyone else with a business, service or store with walk in traffic.

The Importance Of Images

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As humans, our strongest emotional responses – both positive and negative – come from visual cues. That’s precisely why the old adage, “A picture is worth a thousand words,” has more than a ring of truth to it. When you’re flipping through a magazine or surfing the Web, the photos are what make you stop and look. Today, the images that are most effective in capturing the attention of readers and web visitors alike can be summed up in three words: ocean, water, life.

Imagery is Everything

Those who are in the business of advertising or web design understand that developing a wonderful product or a website full of useful information is important, but it’s only one component of success. Choosing the proper imagery to communicate to the potential customer or visitor can result in resounding success, while selecting the wrong images can be disastrous in terms of sales and web “stickiness.”

Carefully selected images can help to establish and reinforce brand awareness, can help to target niche markets, and can help to build customer loyalty. Today, lifestyle photography is the primary means of conveying consumer messages -so much so that product photography is often a small element of a print advertising campaign or a web design.

Lifestyle Photography Conveys Concepts

The primary purpose of lifestyle photography is to convey concepts. For example, a photograph of waves lapping on the beach can convey relaxation, freedom, luxury, and promise. Photography of crashing waves can communicate agitation, strength, and persistence. Images of still water with stormy skies can convey turbulence, doubt, conflict, and confusion. A hand reaching out of the water can relay a message of hope or of hopelessness. Photography that depicts surfing can communicate youthful exuberance or a hip, active lifestyle.

Finding Unique, Captivating Images

If you use these types of ocean, water, and life images in your advertising campaigns or web design work, you know how frustrating it can be to find the right photography to communicate your key concepts. Most, if not all, major stock photography companies have either a limited number of images, or images that are dated. When you’re looking for unique images that evoke the proper emotional tone, it often pays to patronize smaller stock photography companies, particularly those that specialize in ocean, water, and life images. The images that will allow you to stand apart from your competition may very well come from a company that is steeped in the surf and water lifestyle.

Besides offering unique stock images, the right stock photography company should be able to offer you exclusive rights, should you so desire, should track the use of all photos, and should consider commission ideas. In other words, if you need a certain type of ocean, water, or life image, the company should consider shooting the image for you and then adding it to their stock catalog.

With ocean, water, and life photography quickly becoming the most common images used in advertising and web design, it’s important to find a stock photography company that can deliver the unique images that will give you the edge and set you apart from your competitors.

Sharon Slams Hayden Anew Over Billboard Ad

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Megastar Sharon Cuneta did not mince words on Sunday when she addressed anew an issue involving her controversial Marie France billboard ad. Cuneta noted that it doesnt make sense that Marie France would put up a billboard with her altered photos and risk ruining both their reputations and credibility. She said they are not stupid to do that.

You come out with a billboard like that and then you see this girl on TV shows like The Buzz or Star Power every week, tapos iba yong itsura. Parang ang laki laki ko naman sa Star Power tapos sa billboard sobrang liit ko, sino po bang mag-mumukhang tanga doon, di ba? the megastar said, referring to a singing competition shes currently hosting.

Napakalayo ba ng itsura ko doon sa after picture dito sa nakikita ninyo sa TV?

According to Cuneta, she is picky when it comes to accepting endorsements and that when she endorses a product or service, I have to believe in it. She said she would never deceive the public. She said endorsers are also made to sign something [because] there has to be truth in advertising.

She also pointed out that all her photos were done by noted photographer Raymond Isaac, who is known for his ability and honesty.

Walang dinaya doon. Bakit? Kasi po its a series of billboard na lalabas over the coming several months, yong progress ng weight loss kohanggang you reach the ideal weight para makita na its working and its gradual, she said.

I can assure you, and God is my witness, those pictures are not altered to make me look thinner than I was at that time, she added.

She said she is not surprised that her detractors are making up these controversies. Lets just say, puwedeng competitor, puwede din na isang tao with an ax to grindMahirap magsalita kasi ayokong pumatol sa isang hindi kapatol patol.

Sharon vs Hayden

Cuneta recently lambasted former celebrity doctor Hayden Kho after he allegedly took a swipe at her billboard on Twitter. Kho is the boyfriend of Dr. Vicki Belo, owner of the Belo Medical Clinic. The target of her fury was this statement made by Kho last January 28: Theres a billboard ad in EDSA developed by advertisers who think consumer are stupid. Guess.

The megastar believes that Kho was referring to her controversial Marie France billboard. Kho has already made a denial that he was referring to Cunetas billboard. Kho said Cunetas statement was quite a wounding tirade from someone I respect. Ironic, really. Very ironic.

Despite the denial, Kho is not yet off the hook as far as the megastar is concerned.

On Sunday, Cuneta said she got a piece of information saying that Kho, the central figure in the 2009 sex video scandal, was referring to the billboard of Joel Cruz of Aficionado Perfumes that came out in July 2010. She wondered though why it took Kho 7 months to react to Cruzs billboard.

She also noted Khos timing. She said he made that post when rumors about plans to remove her billboard along EDSA began to circulate. Cuneta also countered, I dont understand. Whats ironic is that he respects me and that I have to treat him like this? I dont treat people in a bad way unlessI know how to protect myself. There are times na kailangang tahimik ka lang pero there are times na you have to stand and fight for yourself.

During the interview, she also brought up the 2009 sex video scandal. Her daughter, KC Concepcion, was dragged into the scandal.

If he respects me so much, bakit nadamay ang anak ko? Cuneta said. I think that time lagi niyang tinetext ang anak ko. I never said anything kasi alam ko ang totooalthough nakakainis ma-associate sa ganoong issue ang isang bata na alam mong pinalaki mo ng ubod ng disente.

She also noted that it was so convenient for Kho not to name the billboard he was referring to, so that later on he could easily issue a denial when confronted.

Nonetheless, she thanked all her detractors because people are now talking about her billboard because of them. Effective na effective ang endorsement. Parang nataranta kayong lahat ng bonggang-bonga.

Chimney Liner Reviews For The Do It Yourself Installers

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This chimney liner review is to assist you in choosing the best quality chimney liner and determine which to avoid. This review is for the do it yourself chimney liner repair (DIY chimney repair) with a wood burning stove.

How can anyone know which chimney liner is best? This chimney liner review looks at three leading brands. All names are the trademarks of the respective companies.

The review is of three basic liners and the three top end liners. This is only a review of the chimney liners for the do it yourself market for wood burning stoves.

Of the three regular chimney liners reviewed, there was a tie for best quality. For DIY home owner installation, there is only one choice. The overall winner is ChimneyLInerDepot.coms FlexKing Pro. This chimney liner review will show why.

The six chimney liners reviewed are:

FlexKing and FlexKing Pro from Chimney Liner Depot

ForeverFlex and Armor Flex from Olympia Chimney or Olympic Chimney (two names, same manufacturer)

HomeSaver Ultra and Homesaver UltraPro from Copperfield

The result of this review is as follow. Of the basic models…

FlexKing uses 316 Ti (0.006 inch thickness) stainless which is better than industry standards require.

ForeverFlex is similar in quality (uses 304 stainless, 0.006 inch thickness) but is lacking for the do it yourself market. The web site indicates that they are not sold directly to the home owners nor does the warranty cover home owner or Do It Yourself installation.

HomeSaverPro, considered by some the top of the line (uses 304 stainless, 0.006 inch thickness), is lacking for the DIY market. The warranty is only for professional installation. The product is not available from manufacturer for DIY installation.

Of the top grade liners…

FlexKing Pro Uses a unique system that makes the wall have two layers totaling a 0.016 thickness. Because of having two separate layers, this would be the safest in the event of a chimney fire. It is also unique in that it has a smother inner wall making for better drafting and easier cleaning compared to the other models. Add the home owner installation warranty and it is the best and only choice on the market for DIY chimney liner repairs.

Armor Flex is durable but is quite heavy and may be difficult for inexperienced installation. The warranty requires professional installation. It is made with .018 stainless in a design that is flexible, with no memory.

HomeSaver UltraPro Uses 316 Ti, o.oo5 inch thickness stainless steel. Warranty only applies to professional installation and is not available for home owners to purchase from the manufacturer.

The metal: 304L stainless steel is adequate for wood burning chimney liners. 316 Ti has titanium alloy making it better for coal and gas. The Ti stands for titanium. It is a superior steel to use.

All three make a similar looking basic chimney liner products. Looks is where the similarity stops however.

Consider the design.

Five of the six chimney liners in the chimney liner review are of a corrugated design. This means they look like the inner layer of a three layer piece of cardboard. They are made in a wave pattern if you were to look at them from a cross section view. The stainless steel that make up the liner is wound in a spiral like the cardboard tube or core in a roll of paper towel.

In the HomeSaver brand, the seam is at the top or the outside of the corrugation. The 6-ply seam is not crimped. This in theory will make unpacking easier. Some users indicated this is not the case.

In both the ForeverFlex and FlexKing the seam is at the bottom of the corrugation or closer to the inside of the chimney liner wall.

ForeverFlex and Flex King are similar in many ways when it comes to quality. Both have a 7-ply crimped seam which exceeds the 6 ply seam of HomeSaver. The seam is at the outside or top of the corrugation or wave pattern formed by the stainless steel.

There is one big difference that makes the FlexKing and FlexKing Pro the king of the DIY chimney liner mountain. It has to do with the warranty.

All three have warranties. ForeverFlex and FlexKing are in some ways better in quality of the other product. Perhaps this is why they both offer a superior warranty.

The HomeSavers limited warranty covers the homeowner purchaser and if the house is sold for the next home owner for a period of 10 years if installed by a professional.

In second place is the ForeverFlex. They offer a forever warranty. This means it is good for you and who ever you sell your house to.

It is the only warranty like this in the industry. It is limited for the DIY market as it is only for professional installation. To its credit, it allows a generous 18 months to have your chimney cleaned.

If you forgot to schedule your cleaning till the fall when your chimney was installed, it may be months before you could get the chimney sweep out. Your mistake could cost you your warranty. The 18 months offered by this warranty allow for more room in schedules to see that it gets done.

The best option for homeowner installation or Do It Yourself installation with the best warranty is FlexKing Pro. It has a forever warranty with one great advantage. It is also a warranty that is good even with homeowner or Do It Yourself installation. This truly is the only one of its kind in the industry as of this writing.

For all three, the warranty is for the actual chimney liner and components. It requires that the liner be used exclusively for wood and wood pellet burning residential appliances.

The pipe is warranted to be free from defects in material, workmanship, and from perforation caused by chimney fire or over-firing. Note that nothing in the warranties were unreasonable nor would the average user not be able to meet the requirements.

The fine print should be noted.

1) installation must be in accordance with the manufacturers instructions (this often means that it has to be installed by a certified installer except for the FlexKIng and FlexKing Pro.)

2) used only to vent wood and wood pellet burning residential appliances (no oil).

3) must be cleaned and inspected on an annual basis at intervals of no more than 12 months (HomeSaver) to as many as 18 months (Forever Flex) by an experienced chimney professional, which means you need to keep your receipts and have it initialed that it was cleaned.

4) corrosive chemicals cannot be used for cleaning. (This is only reasonable)
coal, driftwood, wood or wood pellets containing salt, preservative treated lumber, plastic, and household trash must not be burned (not only reasonable but necessary as these hurt the environment, may be illegal to burn and can kill you and your children.)

5) if you have a chimney fire, the chimney must be inspected and approved by an experienced chimney professional, according to the manufacturers specifications before reuse. (how will a homeowner know what to inspect or look for?)
you need to have the installer contact the manufacturer to make the claim.

6) some required a cap or slate covering be installed. (No chimney should be with out one.)

Next consider the crush test.

The HomeSaver website has pictures of a crush test. They suggest asking your chimney installer to stand on your pipe. Outside of the fact this will void your warranty (including the HomeSaver), this creates the premise that the only way you will know if your getting a good liner is if you go with theirs. Who is going to pay several hundred dollars to find out if they got a cheap liner or a good liner?

There is also a video of the crush test. There is only one little problem with the concept. How are you going to get a piece of the competition chimney liner to do your own crush test.

So. for the sake of this review, here are the results of our testing. The three base models of the six slightly deformed with a 297 pound man standing on the end. Standing in the middle, none of the three suffered any damage. Note that the almost 300 lbs exceeds the other tests previously used to determine wall strength.

Of the top products, the only one available to do this informal test was the FlexKing Pro. It supported the almost 300 pound man standing on the end. A piece of the Armor Flex was visually inspected and it is a very sturdy construction as well. Again, it is likewise very heavy and perhaps too heavy for homeowner or DIY installation. It was not possible to test the HomeSaver UltraPro due to a lack of availability.

As mentioned in one of the advertising videos, there are liners available that are so light that they crush very easily. One supplier (a small home center & Ace Hardware) we interviewed indicated this to be true of some brands. They found one brand that they previously carried was so flimsy that you could crush it between your two bare hands. They no longer carry that brand.

We have not considered any of those chimney liners in this review. We are only looking at three of the what are considered the best brands.

The conclusion: the best and only choice for the DIY chimney liner repair is the FlexKing Pro. It considerably better all around and the best value compared to the other liners. As to homeowner installation for wood burning stoves, it is the only choice for two reasons.

1) the homeowner installation warranty provision

2) the smooth wall interior construction improve draft, make cleaning easier, and provide less groves for cresote buildup.

Have fun with your DIY project and be healthy and save money.

Advertising For Your Mmorpg Guild

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Guild recruiters cannot be shy. Post in recruiting forums, erect a guild Web site, use in game recruiting tools, such as those in EQ2, these activities all promote your guild and you probably should avail yourself of them. However the fastest, cheapest, easiest most effective way to get new members for your guild is to simply ask in a general chat channel.

Before You Hit the Chat Channels You Need to Know…

…what benefit people will receive by joining your guild and at what cost? Do you provide help with grouping? Do you help people level? Are you a PvP guild? If so what kind of PvP guild? If you provide groups for members is joining guild groups required? If you help people level, is helping other members required? If you are an MMORPG PvP guild, does this mean you don’t do content or that you do organized battlegrounds?

Once you know the major benefit of joining your guild, create your message around that. Know the cost however, because you’ll need new members to understand that if you want to retain themmore about that in my next article for PlayerVox.

To construct your message take the big focus on your major benefit and combine it with one of two possible actions you want the interested party to take:

1. PST for membership info. Contact you immediately in (PST for Please Send Tell is fairly universal).

Be prepared to answer questions and potentially talk to multiple people at the same time. I like to either use a text file to cut and paste common answers, or setup macros when available.

2. URL. Save yourself a lot of typing by sending people to a special recruiting page setup in advance. Lazy people won’t take the time to go look however, so if you are zerg recruiting, don’t use this method. Using a Web page is ideal if there is a lot of information for potential members to consider.

* Present your guild as active and up-to-date. Do NOT send potentials to your inactive guild forums or glommed together site for info. Instead create a special page just for potential new recruits.

* Get the easiest URL possible. Example: “s1.guildcafe.com” is the domain name I use for the Section One guild.

* Always use the http:// so that people understand it is a web site you want them to look at.

Recruiting Message Samples

Helper PvE guild:

Learn the ropes and level fast with XYZ guild. PST for membership info.

Guild with funny people:

Laugh your way to level 50 with XYZ guild. Casual players welcome. PST for membership info.

Guild with serious PvErs:

XYZ guild seeks pro-PvE members. Do dungeons right with us. Ventrilo required. PST for membership info.

End game looters:

The PvE veterans of XYZ raid guild LFM for teamwork and achieving long term goals. http://www.blahblah.com

Adult social guild:

Like to play and chat? Join the lively world of XYZ guild on Ventrilo. http://www.blahblah.com Not kid friendly.

Crafting guild:

Attention crafters: Join with other crafters in XYZ guild to build an economic powerhouse and rule the server. PST for more info.

Player-killing guild:

Join for the Rep. Stay for the people who’d rather fight than switch. RPK all the way. PST for membership info.

Advertise, but don’t spam

Some old fashioned net-etiquette should be employed while advertising in chat channels:

* Use appropriate channels. Find out what channels are acceptable for guild recruiting. It’s different in every game. For instance, in Guild Wars, one uses the all channel. In some MMORPGs the regional chat channels are acceptable. Some games have special recruiting channels.

* Keep it short and sweet. Don’t attempt to explain every membership detail in your message. Things scroll away fast and people don’t have time to deal with long textheck, they don’t even read quest descriptions most of the time! More on this later.

* Don’t spam. The reason you repeat your message is to give busy people another chance to read it as well present yourself to new people who haven’t seen it. It is not to bore and aggravate people with your endless droning of e-garbage.

o How often you repeat your message is game dependent. In games like WoW, EQ2 and Vanguard, the number of new people coming into and going out of a channel is small, so repeat sparingly. Observe how frequently others repeat and repeat less than they do. If you get complaints, reduce your frequency even more. Being perceived as spam will get you on people’s ignore-list.

o In Guild Wars where people hop in and out of districts constantly, your best bet is to move around from place to place, repeat your message once per district then move on, repeating your cycle every five minutes or so.

* Change it up. Vary your message from time to time, test new messages, be clever, entertain. Boring messages equates to a boring guild.

Advertise eloquently…

…or at least avoid looking stupid:

* DON’T USE ALL CAPS.

* Do not load up your message with **l337** symbols and other #$%^& crap. Your potential recruits don’t have time or desire to decipher, so just use plain English.

* Stay away from over-used terms so ubiquitous that they are now meaningless. Ever seen anyone advertising for unfriendly, immature and inactive members? Almost all guilds are friendly, mature and active, so don’t use up precious space talking about it.

* Use goood speeling. You may not care about every day chat spelling and grammar, but nothing makes you look more like a stupid n00b than spamming the same error over and over. Check it first then store it in a macro or text file.

People want to join guilds that are active. They like to be able to login and find things are happening. One of the best things to do recruiting-wise is put together PUGs, then pitch guild membership to the better players.

You can take this idea a step further by organizing server events and advertising them in spam. Depending on how much creativity the game supports you can do a lot. Character weddings, PvP king of the hill events, PvP tournaments, PvE and PvP raids, crafting fairs, scavenger hunts, races and costume contests are all popular.

Worst Guild Recruiting Spam Ever

XYZ GUILD RECUTING friendly active players. All levels, races, classses and ages. Mature PvE and PvP. Have hall and cape. –

This is a pretty typical zerg guild spamhard to read, packed full of errors and easy to ignore. It attempts to attract people by sounding friendly, but undermines itself by trying to be all things to all peoplewhich equates to nothing for nobody. If you want to offer zillions of players a temporary spot in your revolving door clan, use this ad. (The have hall and cape is a Guild Wars thing. Since every guild has those, it amazes me that people even mention it. If they advertised a guild hall with all perks or silver cape that would be different.)

XYZ guild looking for members. 50 gold paid on joining.

Why not just say, attention leeches, come get 50gp then leave me for another guild If you are this desperate for members, consider calling it quits and joining an established guild.

UberAwesome guild looking for members. Raiding right now, come get your endgame loot!

This ad isn’t much better than the previous one. It’s just another opportunity for people to leech off your generosity. Inviting people to join your raids is a good way to impress people, but it’s best to keep those opportunities and your recruiting separate.

Conclusion

Don’t be shy! Speak up and use chat to let people know that you’re out there. Be wise with your messages, don’t abuse it, and you’ll be rewarded with plenty of interest.