It’s been a wild summer. The world recession seems to be in the process of ending – people are starting to go out and spend money. Our WebMedley clients are reporting their businesses are seeing improved sales and more traffic on their sites.

This post is the first update in some time. Since the last one, I simplified the blog (new design) and added in a few plug-ins for facebook and Twitter. Both add ins are free – another reason we love using WordPress.

We’ve launched about 20 web sites, 20+ social media pages for clients, and helped them receive millions of impressions for the ads. If you know me well, you’ll know we don’t measure by impressions – we measure by sales. But the word “millions” sure does sound good, huh?

If you’d like to stay in touch with everything we’re doing at WebMedley, you can sign-up for our internet newsletter or join us via facebook.

What’s coming up this fall? Quite a bit.

WebMedley will be officially 2 years old (10/1/10) under our ownership.

The new Coach Calipari web site will launch (in about a week). It’ll be a great new site – incorporating feedback from viewers while using the latest Net tools to enhance the experience.

We’ll have specialty t-shirts out – only 500 made – and release them in a series.

The WebMedley designed silly bands will hit the shelves this week.

Two more guys in the office get married (already had one this summer).

We’re slowing down growth. I’ll talk about this a bit more in the WebMedley blog, but here’s the gist: we’ve done a good job turning the company around, establishing a firm foundation, and now we have to really knock it out of the park to get ready for the next stage. We’d like to offer two distinct levels of service and we’ll need a smooth machine with referral-happy clients to do so.

I’ll leave you with this – one of the greatest motivational scenes from a movie.

Well, I’d like to thank our clients for helping us grow, my team for putting in the time, and our contractors for filling out our needs.

An update is coming soon!

Google’s Android (mobile phone software) will get a lot of hype and developers will flock to it – generating true competition for Apple and the iPhone.

Apple gets a lot of flack because of the stringent rules and illogical way apps get approved. It’s set up that way so Apple can ensure a good experience for iPhone (and Touch) users. The only problem: Apple’s staff is drowning in the flood of new app requests and updates from developers. There are over 100,000 apps in the App Store.

Google correctly recognizes the future of the Net is a mobile one. They built Android and are now going to sell their own mobile phone. Instead of an approval process for the apps, people can build and issue their own apps – even outside the official Android marketplace.

Freeing up the market and development process will create hundreds of thousands of apps – and like many in the iTunes App Store they will be terrible. But many will not be terrible. They are freeing the market and great apps will be developed. The phrase, “There’s an app for that” will apply to phones outside the iPhone. 2010 will be the rise of Android.

Social Media integration will become a part of all application development.

We’ve witnessed the rise of social media with an incredible amount of media coverage. You may not have noticed it, but all kinds of web sites now use Facebook or Twitter logins to allow people to share their experiences of the site.

Social Media software plug-ins exist for many common programs: Outlook and web browsers being chief amongst them. You can see this in the excellent plug-in from Xobni – which allows you to see someone’s LinkedIn or Facebook profile when you click on an e-mail from him/her. This trend will continue and the original software manufacturers, like Microsoft, will begin including them in their development process.

Facebook’s Ad Management System Improves

OK – not much of a prediction here – Facebook does a good job, but it could be a lot better!

They should offer shared access to ads, better reporting from the demo and profile data, and alerts if an ad stops running.

Wireless Data Devices Prep for Gigabit Speeds

Without being too techy, the 802.11n standard for wireless was ratified recently. This means that device manufacturers will roll out more devices on this standard and begin to work towards improving the speed.

Gigabit speeds are next. Apple and other computer makers are putting gigabit network “cards” in their computers already. We would really benefit from wireless devices on gigabit speeds.

The benefits to us?

• Streaming HD movies from any location in the house (or across the Net if your home/office bandwidth is that high!). 
• Video conferencing from the home – in resolutions that are great.
• Better online gaming
• Sharing files across a network requires much less time

Turn by Turn Navigation on Mobile Phones Renders GPS Companies Like Garmin and Tom Tom into Software Companies or Bankrupt

When Google released turn by turn directions on their Android phone, the GPS device makers must have cringed. In a year, there will be no reason to buy a dedicated GPS device.

The GPS device makers have caught on. As of today, January 2, 2010, Tom Tom has the 11th highest grossing (earning) app in the iTunes App Store. Expect more of this in the future or for them to yield to Google Maps…

Web Sites and Site Management Benefit from HTML 5

HTML enters its fifth generation and allows us to begin managing media better, enables offline storage, and continues blurring the line between desktop software and web sites.

Firefox and Chrome already support it. As developers build more features in HTML 5, sites will become easier to manage and use. One of the features I’m looking forward to the most: drag and drop.

Case law will be created from lawsuits related to social media

I’m no attorney, but I do try to stay breast of the law surrounding the business I’m in. When we start working with a client, we’re inevitably asked about refining the organization’s computer and internet usage policy to address social media.

There’s a problem with social media, the law, and human nature. Sites like Facebook allow one to publish very personal information and have it connected to the organization employing the person. When John Doe goes out and drinks too many beers, takes pictures, and then posts them online he links that behavior to his employer. How far can the employer take the mandate to “represent the company properly at all times”? 2010 will be the year we find out.

Three little boys in my house turn one year older

Yes, this is guaranteed to happen….

The slides and video (in a playlist) are below.

Timeline:

Early 90’s – I establish my personal account at Fifth-Third

Late 90’s – I establish my first business account at Fifth-Third – just a checking account. In a few months, people started telling me I’d need a line of credit for operating expenses. At the time, I didn’t know I would ever need one, but I talked to Fifth-Third about it. They declined since I was 23 and didn’t own a house. A National City (now part of PNC) guy heard about it and gave me an unsecured line.

2001 (approx) – opened another business account for Dotson Ventures (my consulting company)

2004-5 – after I sold the business, all accounts stayed at Fifth-Third.

2008 – opened 2 new business accounts for WebMedley.

2009 — 1/12 – I apply for the line of credit. The application includes all 2008 financials, current A/R, personal financials, a description of our business, the industry, etc..

1/16 – declined for an unsecured line since the business is less than 24 months old; my branch manager is applying for a secured line and an unsecured line for Dotson Ventures. There is a bit or irony here…Dotson Ventures has no plans for revenue in 2009 and beyond. So if it is the entity that receives the loan, the system Fifth-Third uses is asking to be gamed.

1/20 – Dotson Ventures is approved for an unsecured line at half the amount we want – but its a start. The funds are available in 24 hours so that is one nice thing.

From that date until 2/5 everything was OK. Then, for some reason the Fifth-Third rep did not know, my line was reduced. When I asked my local folks, they got it fixed.

And its not just Fifth-Third who has issues. When I called my personal Banker at National City, she met with me and got the process started. They Nat. City folks sent me an even longer Personal Financial doc to fill out. I filled out most of it except the numbers – since I provided them in the documents in my loan package. These were returned to me a few times and I chose not to fill them out.

Why wouldn’t I fill them out? Because I’m the client and I already provided all the info they needed. They chose not to fill it in. To me, that says that they do not want the business. It may be that they do not want to take on liability by writing anything on the form or its a “test” to see how interested I am in getting a loan.

Finally, a manager at another branch heard about it and called me to make sure things were handled. He should be given a raise.

One thing they let me know is that the bank will never loan money to me to buy another business unless I have enough free cash flow to pay the whole loan from our main company. To me, this says: “If company A is buying company B and its easy to integrate and has monthly subscribers, we still think B could fail and you’ll owe us the loan amount.” While it is a possibility, the likelihood is small and that attitude will not help any growing business. We owners go to banks because we’re risking our assets (which guarantee the loans) to grow.

Today is 3/17 and they told me I’d have an answer on how much the line of credit will be.

It’s 3/18…Nat City called and will not grant the line of credit due to “new formulas in calculating free cash flow”. The local branch manager did offer to connect me with some community banks that may work with me. I let her know I’d be happy to talk to them and hope she can put me in touch with banks that make decisions locally. And, she did say she’d love to have our regular checking business, but knows that would only happen with the loan.

So, now what?

Well, it seems I’ll wait for another few days to hear from 5/3 and look at some other banks.

8/20/09 — 5/3 has no money so they cannot increase our line. It would be much cheaper for us to pay a bank than to pay the guy’s we bought the business from. So, I’m now looking at two other banks.

September – I was introduced to Traditional Bank through a friend. The experience has been 180 degrees from any other bank. They’ve taken care of a line of credit to allow us to pay off the original owners of WebMedley, to get a mortgage to buy our office condo, and even called to check on things a few weeks after we became clients. I highly recommend working with Traditional.

So what did I learn?

1. Banks are not required to have the same level of customer or personal service as other companies because for the majority of account holders the banks hold the power. They hold the power b/c they have the money.
2. We are a relatively small account to large banks (and probably small ones)…for now…
3. Local banks trump national banks.
4. The entire process (rigmarole) is known by my entire office. So, who will my co-workers bank with in the future…Hmm, I wonder?

As a result of the decision, Traditional Bank now has two of our bank accounts, a commercial mortgage, and our merchant processing. We have recommended them to other area entrepreneurs.

Service matters.

The process of buying, restarting, and running a business requires the participation of a number of people – especially after you have children. My biggest thanks goes out to my wife because she’s taking care of our most precious assets (the two-legged kind) while I’m at WebMedley or with WebMedley clients.

There are people beyond my family who have also given me support and I appreciate the help. (Let me know what I can do to help you.)

Here’s to another 12 months of growth and helping clients. – Bear with me, Jen!!!

We know that its rare when someone does not have internet access. However, there are those times when you are in a plane (already changing in some planes), in a cave, or in the middle of the ocean. We build FanStream on the iPhone first because it has the coolest interface and a lot of “wow” factor. Each time you open the application, it looks for the latest content from our servers. If you do not have a net connection, it’ll still work fine — just without the up to the minute updates. If you do, you’ll have the very latest news, updated schedules (for when the TV station changes the time), and roster.

Here’s another cool feature for the iPhone users…we’ve integrated location-based services to find out where all the FanStream viewers are when they are using the application. Want to test it out? Take your iPhone, open FanStream (link to FanStream in the App Store), and choose any team’s news. Click on a News article and read the summary. Then, to read the full article click “View WebSite”. When you do this, the iPhone Safari web broswer will ask you if its OK to use your current location. Tell it Yes. This sends data back to us of the date, time, and location. We’re able to plot your location on a map and you’ll be able to see where other FanStream viewers are in real time.

Right now, you cannot tell who is exactly where since its not integrated with a user management system. Stay tuned…

Want to help make the app better? We’re looking for the following:

• Photos to be used for specific team backgrounds – these need to be taken by you or able to be used in our app (no licensed photos!)
• Game commentators – each game in our system needs a pre-game and post-game comment from fans. We want opinions from fans on both sides of the game.
• Your ideas: what would you like to see in the app? We’re sports fan and want FanStream to be your game companion.

If you have ideas, thoughts, etc, e-mail me or post it in our forums over at the site.

In a few more weeks, we’ll have FanStream for the BlackBerry and other phones.

If you want to be updated when we have more news, join our the FanStream Fan Page on Facebook. All Fans receive a scoring update for major games and all UK games (of course!) each Saturday.

One of the most common questions I get: “How do I limit who sees my Facebook posts?” The posts (status updates) can be limited by going into the Settings area. Follow these instructions to limit who sees what…

1. Mouse over Settings in the upper right after you are logged into the Facebook site
2. Click Privacy (the page will change)
3. Click Profile (the page will change)
4. Choose the drop down option in the “Wall Posts” section and click “Customize”
5. A new window appears. You can make change here and at the very bottom choose to exclude specific people or people in any of your Lists. (I suggest putting all Friends in Friend Lists so you segregate work, personal, family, etc…)
6. When finished, save the settings.

That’s it. Easy to do and very valuable….

Bill

The slides and video (parts one & two) are available below.

Hope you enjoy them!

Bill

Social Media, HR and You (Part 1) from WebMedley on Vimeo.

Social Media, HR, and You (Part 2) from WebMedley on Vimeo.

Zig fell a while ago and has some balance and short term memory loss. He did not let this slow him down though.

Learning…he always learns and tries to learn…described his time in the car listening to other speakers.

You can get whatever you want in life as long as you spend time helping others get what they want.

When he was in school, he did not excel. He passed though. Never read a novel. He founded a center for ethical leadership.

His first job was in Fifth Grade at a grocery. His boss did not allow him to speak with any grammatical errors.

Learned you cannot make a good deal with a bad person.

He never worries. Its interest paid before its due. Always tell the truth and do the right thing and you don’t have to worry.

Funny one: “Read the Bible and newspaper every day so he knows what both sides are up to”

He and his daughter look at his recent injury and decided to write about it. Its a great way to make the most of the problem. His daughter reminded him about the things he repeated (due to the memory loss). He’s very good natured about the problem and I hope we all have the kind of support he does.