Add Me to your
Book Mark Sites
Click the +

If you make sites,
have a blog or do
affiliate marketing -
You need Genie's
Web Links Organiser

If you own sites,
have a blog or do
affiliate marketing -
You need to learn 
how to get traffic.
Sign up for GenieTips
and get yours free.

Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing but nobody else does. 
_{Steuart Henderson Britt, New York Herald Tribune, October 30, 1956.}

A long time ago when I was fifteen and working for the first time in a bookshop, a customer gave me his business card for a book order. His name was Reuben Scarfe. I had no idea who he was or what he did.

I kept it for a very long time but eventually it was
lost when my wallet was stolen.The image on the front has always stayed with me. It was slightly smaller and black and white but essentially, this is it.

Printed on the back were his business details.

Why would I remember a casually given business card, so clearly, after all these years; and why is it important?

 How can three tiny images say so much?

  "I am the centre of my universe", 
  "I am (or not) a part of a community", 
  "I am nothing in the great scheme of things."

  "I am who I say I am.", "I'm not who I say I am."
  "If I speak up I will be heard","No-one's listening."
  "I may be small but I've got something to say".

The intricate linking of Arabic geometric shapes made me think of the Internet web. I started to imagine just how BIG it is and how small my site is in comparison.

Google should shine like a huge radiant sun in this picture! Imagine it off the page and this but a beam.
That large red star in the centre is your web site.
The smaller red star is your blog. Linking to you, maybe, are a few filaments from Google, from Yahoo, from MSN. Maybe you have a few green blog links, or cream links from other sites or search engines.

Multiply this picture by a few billion. Are you BIG?
What are you going to do to make people remember you?

Promise, large promise, is the soul of an advertisement.
_{Samuel Johnson The Idler (1758-60)}

Reuben F. Scarfe was an Australian business man in the clothing for men business. I really don't know much more about him except that his advertising was memorable to me. We think of advertising as flashy pictures to grab attention, big promises and cheap prices, but there is more to it than that.

Advertising is a conversation between a seller and a buyer. If you touch someone they remember. If you do not then like that cheeky wink in the dark, no one will know what you do, except yourself. In former years there was a scarcity of things, a 'smaller' world. It was possible to be a quiet mouse then and still do ok. The web is like a galaxy of stars, if you want to be heard over the singing of the celestial spheres, you'd better learn how to speak up. Building it is not enough. People need an invitation to come and you'd better promise them some fireworks because there's a party happening every night here.

The immensity of it all can be discouraging can it not? We should bring to mind the story about Robert the Bruce. It is said that in the midst of war, a discouraged Robert the Bruce watched a spider weave a web. Each time it failed to make a link, it would try again - and again - and again. He was so inspired by this, he never gave up hope and though often he had to retreat, he kept on fighting despite many defeats. The spiders don't  care if you are big or small, they hook to you if you give them something relevant to link to.

If you have something, make it memorable, offer value, benefit someone and make a big promise - to yourself. "I will advertise my site." There are few promises that are more important to keep than those we make to ourselves. The key is not to prioritize what's on your schedule but to schedule your priorities.