Really Easy Not so Sleazy SEO Marketing tip: No Website Required.

For my LOTC readers, and other mom-and-pop service contractors, and for anyone who pretty much is the "Chief Cook and Bottle Washer" of their enterprise - any biz where your customers know your business by you and your name.

Here is a Really Easy Not so Sleazy SEO Marketing tip.

You don't even need a website to do this. And, you'll want to do this, because it is a really good way to bridge the problem with us humans' inability to remember the ten digit telephone number we are plastering on the sides of our vans and on our yard signs.

Finding you with a Google keyword is infinitely more effective than memorizing your phone number. Just Google my keyword, "mudduckk". Google will first ask you if you meant mud duck. Nothing I can do about that, 'tis the title of an important book apparently. But if you click on, "return results for mudduckk", all roads lead to me.

I had no intent to be tops on the page results for mudduckk, or all over page one. I did it by by accident not design. Also, I did this over time. Time and effort, not money, are key ingredients of SEO marketing. Now, I'll tell you how you can do it on purpose. Who knows, you may find you've already done it.

Make your Google keyword the username of all your social media accounts:

I have multiple social media accounts under the name mudduckk. I'm mudduckk on Scribd, Blogger, Stumble Upon, JohnBridgeTileForums to name a few.

Choose a keyword that fits you – how people would intuitively remember you, when you share your keyword:

Why mudduckk? I'm a tile guy. I lay ceramic tile. We tilers work with mud. Also, Toledo is the home of minor league baseball's Mud Hens, affectionately referred by some fans as the Mud Ducks. Soo...There has to be a tiler tiling in Toledo named mudduckk. In fact there can be many, but the mudduckk in Toledo or anywhere in the world for that matter who sits all over page one of Google's page results for mudduckk is me. Priceless.

Utilize your accounts frequently:

Chances are you do. Utilization is more important than account creation, because utilization is content creation, and Google's SEO algo is a content organizing son-of-a-gun. Not an account counter.

How it works, No Website Required:

Every time I utilize these social tools to interact with others, the media app creates a unique web page somewhere up in the cloud. Cool hunh? So, I don't even need to be a web geek like Dharmesh Shah, author of Inbound Marketing: Get Found on the Internet Using Google, Social Media, and Blogs. I don't even need a website and I don't need a marketing spend. This is great news for my LOTC pals. We're a real low overhead bunch, don't cha know?

Twitter, the killer app:

Twitter is wickedly effective here. All those individual tweets cost you at max only 140 characters of mind power or depending on your take with any given tweet, mindless power; regardless, just type a bit, hit tweet, and BOOM! you hatched a web page with your Google keyword on it.

Embed Hyperlinks in your tweets:

Tweets with embedded hyperlinks are especially juicy. Even more so if you get the scoop on something important or you create a link to a really compelling piece of lit in your blog. Like this one. (That's a hard hint for you to hit the like button up top. Yo! Hit it now!) Popular or not, those hyper-linked tweets end up creating a unique web page with traffic coming and going.

Its gooder than good, Better than a trademark:

Needless to say all of these pages and page views along with so much clicking to and fro have two things in common, your social media moniker and the attention of Google's page ranking algo. As we all know, getting that high page rank on your keyword through SEO is sticky. It's a barrier to entry by others. In fact, It is better than a trademark, because it is highly effective in directing traffic to you...or me in this case. That’s gooder than good.

Need a tileguy? Google: mudduckk

heavy on d's and k's please.

Putting that on my van and all my yard signs for sure.

Since Mighty Casey struck out, there may be no joy in Mud Ville, but there is a tiler who is wayyyyyyyyy...

Happy Tiling!

And blogging too. :-)

Really Easy Not so Sleazy SEO Marketing tip: No Website Required.

I Love Mud!

Today, just finished a mud shower floor with waterproof pan liner. Once this cures, the shower is essentially ready for tile, a dramatic moment on the job where every nook and cranny of the job seems to go from rough to finish. Colors begin to pop as the drywall elsewhere go from sanded to primed and from primed to painted. Like the first flowers of spring, so too does the intense dust and filth clear like snowshowers and dirty snow pack meltaway down the drain, never to return till summer has had its full riot of green growth.

an ode to Mud

But its the mud I like best.

Yep along with the complex inner workings of the preslope,

the rubber upturned the wall studs nailed up high

never down low

folded with care and tucked into corners.

Hanging the durock over plastic lapped over rubber,

taking care not to drop any screws or tools onto the rubber,

and never ever putting screws along the bottom edge of the board - defeating the point of zen waterproofing in its entirety - leave the final slope of mud to lock in the bottom of the board.

Oh how I love the eternal flexibility and usefulness of mud.

But before I pack you in place

and before I establish control screeds

high and low

left to right

and front to back.

Nay, before I strike my screeds

and pack your bed

and cut you to grade.

I carefully cut your rubber pan and place your drain's clampping ring - always a cast iron by Zurn

never those cheap PVC jobs with the tin strainer like some cheap pop-metal car toy that would not pass for a Matchbox.

Oh Zurn how I love your heft,

your large weep holes

and your robust threaded strainer with the brushed metal top available in nickle bronze and/or brass

and with four real screws to secure your strainer plate.

Craftsmanship you become thee, Zurn.

And mud pan, let us not forget your curb,

concrete throughout formed with lumber

but no wood inside to get moist down the road

and pop the grout joint in the tile bullnose,

and render the shower door useless as you heave.

No never ever wood inside for that is the place for rubber upturned toward top of curb.

That is the place for a few sixteen penny nails or 3" screws driven partway into the deck - outside the rubber of course - acting as gentle reinforcement

to protect your elegant tall thinness from being toppled by some short sharp shock.

Curb, I pack you in your form with my very fingers,

the butt of my trowel handle making sure your rubber stands tall, upright and in the middle of your body.

Integrity.

I pack you just as I pack the body of the shower floor pan below you, beside you.

Yet you and the floor are all one.

And now I strike thee toward the drain all 1/4" per foot.

Finally I smooth you

troweling back and forth

sprinkling dry pack as I go

closing your face

smooth

beautiful

like a porcelain doll.

And now you are done.

And so am I.

Happy tiling!

posted from Bloggeroid

I Love Mud!

Quote from George Washington Carver

When you do the common things in life in an uncommon way, you will command the attention of the world.

-George Washington Carver

Quote from George Washington Carver

Mosaic Joins BidClerk Network

Midwest Mosaic, Inc. just joined bidclerk.com, the construction search engine. Mosaic's affiliation with bidclerk is one of strategic marketing importance.

For LOTC's like me, there are so many ways to market our services. For instance, lettering your van, setting up a website (blogging will suffice), or mass mailing a brochure, and so on. You really can't go wrong so long as your approach is a good fit for your target customer and an effective use of your precious investment capital. No matter how you choose and how much you choose to spend, you will soon be out of business if you do not pay attention to your firm's marketing.

Subscribing to a construction news service is one marketing approach of which I am very comfortable. It provides me with access up coming bidding opportunities on projects of all sizes throughout my geographic area as well as a list of my potential customers also bidding on that project. The bidders are my customers and plans and specs in the bid opportunities are my targets, this is also known as plan and spec work.

For about the last three months I have been considering a subscription to one of the many construction news outlets out there. Of all the choices, I liked bidclerk best. For one low price, they give me access to the entire U.S., if I need it. I doubt I will, but anyway its good to know they go where I want to go.

I have 20 plus years experience with plan and spec work. In my time I have seen the state of the art move from physical plan rooms with secret passwords, to microfilm machines, to the early days of ftp data exchanges to where we are now - search engines with social media components...bidclerk. I guess you could say I am an expert on the subject. One thing I do know is I have fed my family on plan and spec work for a long time, and now I am pleased to be affiliated with bidclerk.com

Happy Tiling!

Mosaic Joins BidClerk Network

Progress on the Locker

Here are some photos from the Locker project.

Details: 1300 square feet of 8x8 porcelain tile, laid on a 45, thinset installation, standard cement grout. We considered changing the job name to the Sauna on account of the persistently high heat and humidity.

Enjoy the photos and...

Happy Tiling!

posted from Bloggeroid

Progress on the Locker

9 Factors of Leadership

Continuing in my series exploring what makes a professional, I bring you these nine factors of leadership. Most recently I discussed the formation of professionalism in The Significance of Humility and Own Tools. While that one was based on my own personal experience, these nine are brought to you from my notes on a CEO presentation. Can't remember who it was because the notes are dated summer 2008, and no speaker subject is noted. I was simply going to file these away, but felt better value would be gained if instead I reflected upon them here while sharing them with you.

1. Vision - Vision is undeniably universal in the leadership discussion. The future is always uncertain. People don't like uncertainty, it triggers fear; hence, follower-ship - a prerequisite to actually being a leader - is earned through having a vision and that it not suck. Recently I was asked by a fellow who is embarking upon a new career path for some words of advice. This is what I said to him, "Learn the Biz. Figure out where it is going, and make a plan to add value in that future space. Look ahead. No stopping you." Come to think of it, I was encouraging him to develop his own vision.

2. Communication - Communication goes hand in hand with vision. The speaker placed emphasis on this factor highlighting the need to communicate your vision and the organizational priorities as frequently as possible. He also stressed the need to find different and engaging ways to communicate the same thing, so your message stays fresh and memorable. This is marketing 101: The message and the sender and the receivers of the message. It's how ad jingles end up in our heads. Here, I am reminded of how you can develop a child's taste for a new food. Introduce it on 30 different occasions. Don't take the initial 29 rejections personally. Eventually we all come around to like most of the foods our parents like.

3. Keep but a few priorities - This is never more true in this age of rapid change and constant interruption. I am a list maker. Have been for years. I do believe list making is essential to goal accomplishment; however, in my time I have come to achieve sudden death from to do lists. This is somewhat similar to analysis paralysis. In that while you are managing and prioritizing what you should do, the thing that you should do - should have already been done; and now you are in deep do do. Hence, list making if taken too far becomes a form of procrastination, a character flaw akin to greed and laziness. Let's face it, we all have far too much to do and we are far too under-resourced to accomplish all that we must do; however, we can choose to do a good job on the most important things in our sphere of control. Good leaders make good decisions about what must be done from among the clamoring noise of everything else begging to be done.

4. Relentless preparation - Note this one does not say complete preparation or perfect preparation. So, let us not confuse these with relentlessness. But before we go there, let us consider preparation. If we take preparation to simply mean planning it would not be enough. Refer to keeping a few priorities above and recalling to do list sudden death syndrome. Perfection is but another symptom for procrastination, a flaw through and through. Do not be tempted to reach for perfection or completeness in your preparations. Rather take time each day, week, and month to make plans while you are doing what you should be doing. Because, preparation is everything you do to make what you do remarkable. It is in the research and due diligence you do for the things you will do or about the people you will meet - learning what must be done to get it right, or how to respect the customs and traditions of those with whom you do business; discussing with your team ways to accomplish goals or ways to successfully interact with others. Preparation also means checking yourself in the mirror both literally and figuratively; that your fly is zipped, all belt loops looped, and no spinach on your teeth; that you have taken care to be sure that your obligations and responsibilities to others are met. Always keep in mind, your followers are watching you to see how to be. Relentlessness here is a commitment to do these things and to defend your focus to doing only those things which make you and what you do remarkable. Refer also to Calvin Coolidge's quote on persistence.

5. Conviction of belief - Beliefs are at our core. They shape our values and motivations. Formed over a lifetime, our beliefs are very hard to change. By the time we enter our 30's our beliefs are intractably in place. Yet at times we are unclear about just what it is we believe. We betray our beliefs to get something we want or to prevent something of ours from being taken. People are not stupid, once we betray our beliefs we betray their trust, and so goes their follower-ship. So what do we do with this? We must become convinced our beliefs are worth defending, because there is precious little we can do to change them and a great deal we can accomplish by accepting them.

6. Willingness to take risk - Nothing ventured nothing gained should be a proverb. Yet we so often ascribe to the idea, "I will try that when I..." fill in the blank. Usually financial security fits here, but it could also be an emotional trigger such as, "I'll wear that when I lose a few more pounds". Only most of us never loose the weight or get better off. We play it safe and never live the dream while getting fatter and deeper in debt along the way. The point is, if something you believe is worth striving for above all other options, go for it. Fact of the matter financial and emotional security are tenuous at best, things easily lost once attained. Besides, even if you start out with the bank roll or with the hot bod, events can and will conspire to take away what you've got anyway. Point is no matter whether you win or lose by taking risk, you will be engaged in something worth fighting for. You will be doing something you love, and for some reason this never feels like work.

7. Optimism - Optimism is the mother's milk for your followers. Mother's milk contains special antibodies to protect baby from harmful diseases, immunity is imparted though the milk. Just as these antibodies transfer immunity from mother to child, so does your optimism transfer immunity from all the environmental negativity to your followers. And there is always negativity; hence, optimism is a choice in the face of a difficult reality. As a leader, you are contagious. You infect others with your disease. Make it a good virus. Make it optimism.

8. Stewardship of others' resources - Under the file taking care, leaders are blessed with follower-ship. That is the people in your organisation give you permission to lead. They give you their time talent and treasure with the expectation that you will not waste them. They do this contingent upon the benefits associated with your tenure. Trust is the principal attribute in this transaction. Trust is granted so long as you set realistic expectations (refer to vision and communication), and take care to meet them (refer to keeping few priorities relentless preparation).

9. Passion - Leaders are a bridge to a vision. They carry followers over to a preferred reality. It must be a reality for which you are willing to stake the time of your life. There must be something about your vision which stimulates your emotion, energy, and personal power. Because if what you are seeking does not get you excited, how can your followers be expected to get motivated just the same?

What do you think about these 9 factors of leadership?

Thanks for reading and Happy Tiling!

9 Factors of Leadership

TEC Specialty Unveils its Big Tile Mortar

For those of you in love with big tiles, and the tiles just seem to get bigger and bigger, TEC Specialty has just launched its Ultimate Large Tile Mortar.

Big tiles mean big installation challenges
If you’ve installed large format tiles, you know how difficult and time-consuming it can be. Before now, there was no single solution that addressed the multiple challenges faced by installers:
1. Slumping on Floors: Large, heavy tiles on floors slump in mortar, creating unevenness or lippage across the installation and can cause a tripping hazard
2. Slipping on Walls: Tiles on walls can slip unless mechanically held in place, creating extra labor steps, wasting time and costing money
3. Lack of full transfer: Tiles need 100% mortar coverage to avoid hollow spots and bond failures

TEC Ultimate Large Tile Mortar solves any large tile challenge in one solution. Saving you time and money. Click (here) for the dope sheet.

We look forward to using this product on our next Big-Tile tile job.

Happy Tiling!

TEC Specialty Unveils its Big Tile Mortar