Place a $2500 order -- get an Ipod shuffle

The fine folks at Proforma World Headquarters have just announced a sales contest. The cool thing about this contest is that everybody wins!

To win, all you have to do is place an order for $2500 or more between now and Dec. 1. If you do, you'll receive an ultra-chic Ipod Shuffle.

The best part of the contest (especially if you're cheap like some of my relatives) is that the Shuffle won't be branded -- that is, it won't say the Proforma name on it anywhere. Why's that good? Two words -- re-gifting.

Yup, you can actually get something just for doing business with us, and if you don't want it you can wrap it up and give it to someone as a holiday or birthday gift. How cool is that?

For more info, send us an e-mail at Creative.Services@proforma.com or call us at 856-753-0200.

Breast cancer & bowling -- a touchy subject

So we're cruising the aisles at the recent South Jersey Chamber of Commerce show, and we run into one of our new favorite people. Mary Hunter, who I know from a networking group, is at company's booth, smiling, chatting, pleasant as usual.

I know that Mary is running an event to raise money for Breast Cancer awareness. She dubbed the event "Bowling For Boobs." Now you have an idea of why she's one our New Favorite People List.

So I'm talking to Mary about the event, asking her when it is and how the fundraising is doing. I then casually drop the idea to sell a t-shirt at the event saying "I spared the pair"... a risque double-entendre about a bowling and boobs. She laughed and sort-of laughed off the idea.

Until the next morning.

"I talked to my husband about your idea," she said. "He loved it. Can we do it? The event's next week."

We quickly huddled with our designers and combined some of Mary's ideas with some of our own. We modified the awareness "ribbon" to incorporate two bowling pins. We put he name of the event on the shirt, two well-positioned bowling balls and the "I spared the pair" tagline. We had 50 white shirts printed with the design printed in pink and dropped them off a couple of hours before the event. And the shirts sold out...success all around!

We told this story to a few people, and were surprised at the reaction. While most enjoyed it, one person thought we were making light of breast cancer. Another thought the placement of the "bowling balls" was in poor taste.

My response...."oh well."

I admire Mary's gumption for taking a serious health threat that is generally talked about in hushed terms and having a bit of fun with it. Most men are reluctant to talk about "breasts" -- and especially breast cancer -- but have no trouble with the word boobs. And the fact that Mary was able to combine all of this on a t-shirt -- which helped raised money for an admirable cause -- is especially satisfying.

What do you think about the idea and the shirt? Feel free to post your response...

The magic of trade shows

Tried a little something different at a recent trade show. We decided to set up a table at the recent Builders League of South Jersey expo (http://www.blsj.org/). This show is designed to let area builders know what services are available from other members of the organization.

Last year, we kinda went overboard. We invited one of our clothing suppliers to bring a display of outdoor and work clothing. We also had former Philadelphia Flyers player Brian Propp signing autographs at our booth. While we generated a lot of interest at our booth, we weren't able to convert that buzz into many sales.

This year, we invited our neighbor, magician Richie B (http://www.richiebmagic.com/, in case you're interested) to be at our booth to entertain people. Our thought was that he could at least get people to stop for more than a second or two.

Mission accomplished.

Not only did Rich entertain a LOT of people, he also created some tricks specifically concerning our printing and ad specialties capabilities. Additionally, at the conclusion of each trick (most lasted 1-2 minutes, he would place one of our brochures into the spectator's hands and then introduce them to us.

Very classy, very professional, and very successful.

We just started our first round of follow-up phone calls to people who handed us their card and expressed an interest in our services. I'll keep you posted....

A warning about internet shopping & Vista Print

A number of people buy business cards and other printed materials from Vista Printing (also known as Vistaprint.com). While we're going to badmouth our competition or tell you how to do your business, this news article might be enough to give you a reason to want to deal with a human instead of the faceless monolith known as the internet. The following article is printed verbatim from the Advertising Specialty Institute website:

VistaPrint Named in Four Federal Class-Action Lawsuits (8/28/2008)

Four class-action lawsuits have been brought against VistaPrint, a small business marketing company with over 15 million customers worldwide, regarding unauthorized charges of the credit cards and bank accounts of customers who purchased items on the company's U.S. Web site. VistaPrint Limited and its U.S. subsidiary, along with Vertrue Inc. and its subsidiary Adaptive Marketing LLC, were named as defendants in all four cases. VistaPrint revealed on Thursday in a press release that pending cases were filed in New Jersey and Texas, but Counselor has learned that additional class-action suits were filed yesterday in both Massachusetts and Alabama.

"As we allege in the complaint, we believe that VistaPrint and Vertrue are acting in concert to access consumers' credit card information and then begin charging them relatively small amounts," says Jerome Noll, counsel for the plaintiff that filed the Massachusetts suit. "You're talking about $14.95 a month or $12.95 a month, hoping that consumers just won't notice."

Dolores Gordon, the plaintiff in the Massachusetts case, claims that there were six unauthorized charges on her credit card of $14.95 each after she purchased business cards from VistaPrint on Sept. 1, 2007. One unauthorized charge was allegedly from VistaPrint and five were from Shopping Essentials, a trademark of Adaptive Marketing. Gordon says she canceled her card to stop the charges. "She had contacted the defendants many times over the six months asking them for credit and for them to stop charging her," says Noll, whose firm has also filed a lawsuit in Connecticut against Vertrue. "They would tell her, 'Yes, of course, we'll give you the credit, of course we'll stop charging you.' They never did."

The complaints, all filed in federal courts, allege that the defendants were in violation of the Electronic Funds Transfer Act (which protects from unauthorized charges) and the federal Electronic Communications and Privacy Act (which prohibits the unlawful access of financial information). VistaPrint could not comment due to pending litigation. Its press release states, "VistaPrint believes it has meritorious defenses to these lawsuits and intends to defend these matters vigorously."

Interesting trade show stats

I recently attended a seminar on tradeshows, and one statistic during the presentation really stuck out.

According to the speaker, statistics have shown that only 12% of the tradeshow attendees are your customers. Think about that -- for every 100 people in a trade show on any given day, only 12 of them are potential customers for your business.

Crazy numbers, isn't it? If you expand on those numbers, if there are 5000 people in attendance, only 600 are potential customers.

So what are you doing to get those 12% -- the right 12% -- to your booth? And once they're at your booth, what are you doing to convert them from potential customers to actual customers?

We'll be posting lots of trade show ideas over the next few weeks. Feel free to e-mail us if you have questions..

Tradeshows -- not quite the beginning

To continue from our last discussion, you (or your company) has decided to attend a trade show. The booth space has been reserved and (hopefully) airline and hotel rooms have been booked.

Now what?

Now is when people gather in a room, look at each other, and say in their best Chris Farley impersonation from "Tommy Boy", "What are we gonna doooooo??"

Good question. And even better, good timing.

Far too often, companies don't plan what they're going to do at their booth. Hard to believe, but you almost believe that companies think that showing up is "good enough." Or, worse yet, there may actually be a conversation that goes "check and see what we have left in the supply closet. We'll give that stuff away."

Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.

Luckily, we're still early enough in the planning stages to actually plan something. For instance, are we going to hand out information? If so, what type? A flyer? A brochure? A sell sheet? A folder? Maybe we should decide now, get the handouts designed and printed and avoid rush charges.

Or, are we going to have some type of theme for our booth? Maybe an island theme? A futuristic theme? A golf or sports theme? If so, let's decide now. Will we need special decorations? special props? special clothing?

What are we going to wear? Will it tie into the theme? Will we be shirt and tie, business casual, Hawaiian shirts, golf shirts, etc?

How about an activity? What we will be doing on at our booth? A hole in one putting contest? A spin-and-win wheel? A trivia contest? Decisions, decisions, decisions...

How about what you'll be distributing at your booth? Sure, you may have literature on-hand (see above), but are you going to also have promotional items as well? There are only about 600,000 different items you have a company logo affixed to -- it may be tough to pick one.


In our next post, we'll come up with some answers to these questions... and then continue toward the show!

Tradeshows -- the beginning

I don't think I'd be understating the importance of tradeshows in today's business environment. There is no more better way to introduce yourself, your company, or your products to a large number of potential customers at one time.

So how come some companies are so bad at it?

The truth is, many companies see trade shows -- whether it's an industry show, a consumer show or even a Chamber of Commerce show -- as a necessary evil, rather than a potentially huge part of their marketing plan.

So, before we really begin, let's state some basic truths about trade shows. First, and more important, they are not a sales opportunity. The percentage of companies that make an actual sale on the show floor is very, very small. The salesperson, marketing person or company owner who complains about the lack of sales at a tradeshow is basically missing the entire point of being there. A trade show is a chance to start or build relationships, introduce or reinforce your brand, or introduce a new product.

The results of setting up at a trade show are almost never seen immediately. Rather, they can be discovered in the post-show followup or possibly weeks, months or even YEARS afterward.

OK, now that we have that piece of info out of the way (not that we won't be referring to it in follow-up posts), let's start with how to effectively utilize trade shows...from the beginning.

First things first. You've decided to set-up at a trade show. Congratulations. You've sent your down payment into the show organizers and you've made your transportation and lodging arrangements (if necessary, of course). Now what?

Now you have to figure out what you're going to do at the show. And that's where the fun begins.

And that's where we'll continue our discussion next time...

Coming soon...tradeshows!

In the very near future, we're going to writing an entire series of articles on tradeshows. This will (hopefully) have all the information you need to ensure that you or your company gets the most bang for its tradeshow buck.

We'll be discussing everything from what to wear, what to distribute at your booth, what activities to have, pre-show mailings, post-show follow-up and lots more. We think it'll be very helpful information for you, whether you're a one-person business thinking about setting up at your local Chamber of Commerce show, or the tradeshow coordinator for a multi-national corporation.

As always, your questions and feedback are welcome.

Help us with a mascot!!!

Hey all:

I spent way too much time this weekend watching all kinds of sports events. In the interim, I was reading some marketing magazines and articles and it hit me -- we need a mascot! No, not a real-life furry thing like the Phillie Phantic, just a two-dimensional character to give us a bit of a personality. Someone (something?) who represents who we are and what we do.

So, here's what we're going to do -- we're going to have a two-part contest.

For the creatively-challenged, we get to come up with a name for this new mascot.

For those who are more creative (read: those who can draw), you get to try to come up with a character or image.

I'll find some cool stuff to give away as prizes to the people who help us out the most.

Submit your ideas via e-mail to: Rich.Bradley@proforma.com. In the subject line, use the word "mascot."

Thanks!!!!

Going green

There's been a big push in the promotional products industry to "go green." It seems like everyday we receive another catalog or mailing or e-mail about a new "green" product.

Now, I'm a big fan of the earth. I haven't really found a much better place to live up to this point. However, I haven't received one call or e-mail from a customer or prospect asking for something "green" -- even from companies that I thought might be heavily in favor of promoting a green effort. In fact, the closest I've heard is "we're just looking for ways to not use as much paper."

OK, I guess you have to start somewhere, but that hardly seems like corporate tree-hugging.

I'd love to hear from anyone whose company has really embraced the green movement, and what they've done.

Having some fun on Cinco De Mayo

OK, so maybe Cinco De Mayo isn't the biggest holiday here on the East Coast, but don't tell that to any of friends back in San Diego. Not that we're ever at a loss to celebrate something, but we figured we'd take a break from our usual "stuff", and have a little bit of fun with a trivia contest.

Since I'll be giving the answers at the end of the column, there won't be any prizes if you get everything right, but some smug satisfaction of knowing that you know a lot of little-known facts. Test yourself out..some of these are a bit tricky (and depending on your political slant, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama or John McClain are not correct answers to any of these questions).

1. Name the one sport in which neither the spectators nor the participants know the score or the leader until the contest ends.

2. What famous North American landmark is constantly moving backward.

3. Of all vegetables (yuck!), only two can live to produce on their own for several growing seasons. All other vegetables must be replanted every year. What are the only two perenial vegetables?

4. What fruit has its seeds on the outside?

5. In many liquors stores, you can buy pear brandy, with a real pear inside the bottle. How did the pear get in the bottle?

6. Only three words in standard English begin with the letters 'dw' and they are all common words. Name two of them.

7. There are 14 punctuation marks in English grammar. Can you name at least half of them?

8. Name the only vegetable (more vegetables???) or fruit that is never sold frozen, canned, processed, cooked, or in any other form except fresh.

9. Name 6 or more things that you can wear on your feet, that begin with the letter 's'.



Answers:
1. Boxing
2. Niagara Falls
3. Asparagus and rhubarb
4. Strawberry
5. It grew inside the bottle. The bottles are placed over pear buds when they are small.
6. Dwarf, dwell and dwindle
7. Period, comma, colon, semicolon, dash, hyphen, apostrophe, question mark, exclamation point, quotation marks, brackets, parenthesis, braces and ellipses.
8. Lettuce
9. Shoes, socks, sandals, sneakers, slippers, skis, skates, snowshoes, stockings, stilts.


How'd you do? E-mail me the number of correct answers at Rich.Bradley@proforma.com. For the record, I got four right...but at least I know the names of the two actors who played Darren on "Bewitched." So there!!

Don't look now, but we're worldwide

Back in the hair-crazed '80s, that Little Old Band from Texas, ZZ Top, proclaimed that "they're bad, they're nationwide."

Well, to paraphrase from that rockin' trio, "we're worldwide."

Through the technology of the internet, we've been able to see to clients in 10 states during our brief time in business -- including California and Idaho. But just recently, we've been able to add merry ol' England to our customer base. Not once, but twice.

OK, the first one technically we didn't sell to England. One of our long-standing clients, EP Medsystems, is having their European sales meeting in England, and we provided the awards for their best salespeople and distributors. So even though the plaques were produced right here in beautiful New Joisey, their intended destination was across the pond.

Our second trip to England took us to Oxford University (and they said we'd never get in there -- so there!). Our sister company, Studio One22, designed a brochure for the school to use in its recruiting efforts. Definitely cool.

Of course, that doesn't mean we're abandoning the Delaware Valley. It's still our home and where we do about 90% of our business, and the place where we learned how to correctly pronouce "atty-tood." But it's kind of fun to visit other places -- if only as part of a plaque or a brochure.

The wonderful sticky note

Sometimes, you wonder how we survived without sticky notes....

A new year, a new project

Hard to believe that it's already 2008 (although I'm still waiting for all those Jetson-like appliances to become part of my every day life).

With the new year comes a new project. Like most people, there are little things that seem to bug me. One of my pet peeves is going to a store, buying something, swiping your credit or debit card, and then then having a clerk hand you a pen to sign it. And the pen has the name of a bank, their accountant, or some other business printed on it. Here's my peeve -- don't these businesses realize they're missing a prime opportunity to advertise THEIR business, and not someone else's?

Chances are good the answer is no. Too often, the owners of these small businesses are so concerned with the day-to-day operations to think about marketing themselves. An ad in the yellow pages, some poorly printed flyers, and open the doors is a marketing plan. And that's hardly a plan.

We've developed a very simple way for businesses to combat a small part of their lack of advertising plans. We've developed a website -- http://www.yournameonapen.com/ -- where businesses can download a simple-to-follow form and order imprinted pens. All of the color options are right there to make it as simple as possible. Hopefully the price -- $175 for 300 Bic Clic Stic pens -- shouldn't scare anyone off. At less than 60 cents per pen (which includes tax and shipping), we think it's a highly effective, low-cost way to promote a business.

If you own a small business, we recommend to you give it a try. Sure, it's not the Jetsons, but it's still pretty cool.

Happy 2008!

Complete pendemonium!

It's amazing how something so small can create some large problems.
We were doing some cleaning the other day and came across a pen that was leaking slightly. Luckily, the pen was in a coffee mug, so it didn’t ruin anything major. However, it got me to thinking about all of the things that could possibly go wrong with something as minor as a pen.
Pens are the most commonly purchased promotional product, easily outdistancing calendars and drinkwear. So obviously, there are a lot of pens being brought and handed out to customers and potential customers. And with the majority of pens costing less than $1, it’s a bargain. Amazingly enough, despite their relative low cost, many people want to pay even less.
(Time to cue up Rich's Mantra: "Cheap is not always good. Good is not always cheap." Repeat until you're convinced).
Anyway, getting back to our "bargain" pens. If something goes wrong with one of these pens, just how much of a bargain is it? And when we started thinking about everything that could possibly go wrong, we found 14 potential problems. From a pen! Yikes!
1. Information on the imprint is wrong
2. Imprint color is wrong
3. Imprint is bad/comes off easily
4. Pen barrel color is wrong
5. Pen trim color is wrong
6. Ink color is wrong
7. Plunger mechanism is broken
8. Pen doesn’t write
9. Ink skips
10. Not enough ink
11. Ink leaks from pen
12. Pen cap is missing
13. Pen is broken
14. Pocket clip breaks off easily

OK...now we're talking 14 potential problems with something that usually costs about 50 cents or so.

Ah, but wait. I can hear the skeptics among you saying "So what? It's just a pen. If something goes wrong, I'll just throw it out and use another."

Good argument. Except that the pen then becomes A WASTE OF MONEY. No matter if it cost 30 cents, 50 cents, 75 cents or $1, that company has just wasted some amount of money. And if that's the way they want to spend their advertising dollars, that's just a shame.

And let's not forget what happens if that leaking pen happens to leak in a pants pocket, a shirt pocket, a purse or on some very important papers. The cost of that leak is now MUCH MORE than the price of that pen.

Which is why you need to be extremely careful when buying pens. Ask for recommendations. Ask for samples. Ask for whatever else you need to make sure that you don't fall victim to one of the 14 problems listed above. Or even one of them.

The cost of doing business

I'm always amazed at how prices -- unless they're printed out and stuck onto an item -- seem to be negotiable. It's as if a sign attached to an item means "This is the price. Pay it." No sign, and it's haggle city, baby!

We recently came across a situation that reinforced that notion. We created a brochure for a customer. When he received his bill for the design services, he balked at the price -- big time. "I could have done this for a lot less... like nothing."

Of course, as we all know, nothing hardly means nothing. We'll conveniently overlook the cost of his time and the cost of the computer to do the work. But still, there was something about his argument that struck a nerve.

I pointed out that yes, he could have done it himself. Just like he can fix a leaky faucet himself, or rewire the electricity in his house. And yes, in the end it would be done. But, I cautioned, would it be done right? And would it really be free?

I don't know what a plumber costs these days. Let's say, for the sake of using a round number, a plumber is $100 per hour. So you have a leaky faucet, the plumber comes to your house, you explain the situation, he looks at the faucet, goes to his truck, gets one of his "never seen that before" tools, goes under the sick...twist, twist, grunt, grunt, grunt -- and he extracts himself from under your sink. "Done," he says.

As you get the bill, you think "Damn, I could have done that myself...and for a lot less."

Of course you could, if:
-- you had enough experience to know what you're doing
-- you owed the right tools
-- you knew you could do the job right, the first time.

Cause if you didn't have any of the above, you might have to spend some money to get:
-- a book to help explain what you have to do
-- the right tools to do the job
-- a chance that your sink won't leak into your basement and flood your house.

But if you did everything right, it wouldn't cost you anything (except the book and the tools).

We used this analogy with our customer. Our designers already have the books (in their heads, based on years of experience). They already have the tools (computers and programs to do the job correctly), and if the artwork isn't prepared correctly, we can fix it (without the basement getting flooded).

You can use the same example for fixing your car, painting the house, bringing down a tree, etc. There's a reason these things are referred to as "professional services." Best to let a professional do it.

We're growing...

We recently hired our first employee. Below is a copy of the press release we sent out...

Amber McGoff Joins Proforma Creative Services

Atco, NJ – October 25, 2007 – Proforma Creative Services is pleased to welcome Amber McGoff as the newest member of its design team. Her main function will be to create and design graphic communications and marketing collateral to help local businesses to meet their printing and promotional products needs.

Rich Bradley, President of Proforma Creative Services, says, “Amber has 3 years of design experience and is extremely familiar with the printing business as her family owns a printing company in her hometown. Her expertise in design and printing will enable us to better serve our customers. We are very excited to welcome her to our team, and offer our customers even more design capabilities.”

A native of Scranton, Pa., McGoff is a recent graduate of Drexel University’s Antoinette Westphal College of Media Arts and Design. She was previously employed with Duplicraft Printing and Euro RSCG, and is a member of the Phil Sigma Pi National Honors Fraternity.

Proforma Creative Services, established in 2003, is part of a Proforma network of 600 independent offices throughout North America. With state-of-the-art technologies, Proforma Creative Services enables its clients to grow with innovative marketing solutions such as direct mail, promotional products and business document printing.

With 29 years of experience, Proforma remains clearly focused on providing solutions to North American businesses for their printing and promotional needs. A leading provider of promotional products, printing, business documents, and e-solutions, Proforma has received numerous awards and is recognized as one of the top five largest companies in our industry. Proforma serves over 50,000 clients through more than 600 member offices in North America. The Proforma Worldwide Support Center is located in Cleveland, Ohio. www.proforma.com.

The "other side" of the table

We're still recovering from working at our booth last week at the Builders League of South Jersey Associates Expo. It was our first time setting up a solo display at a trade show, although we previously set up with two other Proforma owners at a Chamber of Commerce show about 4 years ago.

Trade shows are, by nature, a huge challenge. There are dozens upon dozens of small and large details that need to be done just to make sure the show runs smoothly. And even if everything runs smoothly, there's no guarantee of success.

Our biggest decisions involved what to do at our booth. We made arrangements to get the Proforma corporate booth, which showed up on time as promised. The only problem was, the booth was much smaller than we had anticipated. We expected an 8- to 10-foot booth. Instead, it was a 6-x-5 tabletop booth. After setting it up on the ground, we decided at the last minute to put it on a table, like it was supposed to be. As I looked at this booth sitting on the ground, I had this really bad image of the drawfs dancing around the paper mache copy of Stonehenge in the movie Spinal Tap.

However, once we moved the booth, then our display didn't quite work. After some bending, folding, and generous amounts of duct tape, we had our booth looking good.

We set up our samples and handouts -- golf ball markers and gooey brains (no, not together). We also had lots of our sales literature available. So far, so good. (Editor's note -- if you want us to send you a sample of either the brains or the golf balls markers, send us an e-mail).

However, 60 minutes before the show was to start, our partner (who had all of the clothing that we were going to display) hadn't shown up. Calls to her cell phone went unanswered. However, she showed up, set up and was ready to go as the doors opened. Whew!

Our next challenge was hoping that our autograph guest, Philadelphia Flyers Hall of Famer (and current radio announcer) Brian Propp, would show up. Luckily, was early.

The last detail was my wife (and the company's graphic designer) showing up on time. With the parking situation being a bit challenging, she was a bit late, but arrived with her samples in time to chat up the numerous guests who stopped by our booth.

All in all, the show was a great success. We made numerous contacts that hopefully will turn in to clients int he coming months. Brian Propp was a fantastic guest -- extremely cordial, willing to chat with fans, pose for pictures and autograph everything that was asked of him. Our booth even won second prize in the booth display contest. All in all, a good evening.

Of course, we probably would have taken first prize if it weren't for those dancing dwarfs at our booth.....

My apology -- for everything, to everyone

I'm sure I'm not the only person who finds this whole Michael Vick thing tremendously fascinating.

A celebrity athlete, in the prime of his career, charged with a heinous crime against animals that ends up putting his football career in jeopardy sounds more like the plot of a bad made-for-TV movie than something that could actually happen in real life. But what I found particularly interesting was how Vick crafted a very generic apology. It's become almost as interesting to see how people implicated in wrongdoing "apologize" for their crimes without ever admitting to anything.

A few years ago, Jason Giambi made a very carefully worded statement about his use of steroids (or not). It was tough to tell what he was apologizing for, since he never actually admitted doing anything wrong.

Vick's apology took that to a whole new level.

"First, I want to apologize, you know, for all the things that -- that I've done and that I have allowed to happen. I want to personally apologize to commissioner Goodell, Arthur Blank, coach Bobby Petrino, my Atlanta Falcons teammates, you know, for our — for our previous discussions that we had. And I was not honest and forthright in our discussions, and, you know, I was ashamed and totally disappointed in myself to say the least."

OK...good start....apologizing for the "things" he's done and allowed to happen. Of course, we'll expect to find out what those "things" are...

"I want to apologize to all the young kids out there for my immature acts and, you know, what I did was, what I did was very immature so that means I need to grow up."

OK, now he's immature, and done "things." Go on..

"I take full responsibility for my actions. For one second will I sit right here — not for one second will I sit right here and point the finger and try to blame anybody else for my actions or what I've done.
I'm totally responsible, and those things just didn't have to happen. I feel like we all make mistakes. It's just I made a mistake in using bad judgment and making bad decisions. And you know, those things, you know, just can't happen."

Nope, those things can't just happen. Whatever those things are, that is.

"I offer my deepest apologies to everybody out in there in the world who was affected by this whole situation. And if I'm more disappointed with myself than anything it's because of all the young people, young kids that I've let down, who look at Michael Vick as a role model. And to have to go through this and put myself in this situation, you know, I hope that every young kid out there in the world watching this interview right now who's been following the case will use me as an example to using better judgment and making better decisions.
"Once again, I offer my deepest apologies to everyone. And I will redeem myself. I have to."

Yup, redeem away....just be careful not to mention what "things" you did wrong.

Absolutely amazing. He did mention the word "dogfighting" once in his apology, but never to say that he was involved with it. Or that he (allegedly) was the money behind the operation.

Nooooooo.....what he seemed like (to me anyway) was that he was most sorry that he got caught.

And that's truly sorry.

Read! Subscribe! Buy!

I'm one of those people who actually use the internet for information (yeah, yeah...just the they guys who read Playboy for the articles). I especially like to find "experts" on the subjects of Promotional Products (no surprise there), sales and marketing.

Almost always, these experts offer us free e-mail tips, just for subscribing to their daily or weekly newsletters. Seems pretty simple -- you get information you may want to read delivered directly to your in-box. Pretty easy.

In fact it's so easy, I subscribe to at least 6 such newsletters. Of course, all of these "experts" know how to help you sell more, make better profits, regrow your own hair and become rich beyond your wildest dreams. Here's an actual example of one of the marketing "tips" an expert sent (I'm going to paraphrase so I don't get my butt sued).

"When leaving a message on a prospect's voicemail, be sure that the absolute last thing you say is the person's name. This will show a sincere interest in the person and will give them a warm and fuzzy feeling about calling you back."

As if it was that easy.

"Hi, Mr. Prospect. I don't know you and you don't know me. Buy my stuff. I'll call to check in with you in six minutes, Mr. Prospect."

Of course, we know it doesn't work that way. Every salesperson and every customer has their own unique style, and there is no "one size fits all" strategy.

But that doesn't stop the so-called experts from trying. And here's the interesting point -- those experts aren't really trying to get you to increase YOUR sales -- they're trying to increase THEIR sales.

In addition to the free newsletter, there is always an offer to buy their six-month course for $299, with $14,000 worth of free gifts (a bit of an oxymoron, if you ask me. And check this out -- one of the free gifts was an e-book valued at $85 -- compared to a paperback which sells for $9.95). Obviously, someone is buying these. And even more obviously, someone is getting rich off of it.

So... coming soon....our special, three-times-a-day newsletter. This newsletter will be jam-packed with worthless information designed to help you sell more of whatever you sell. And it will be written with lots of short sentences! And exclamation points! And words that are capitalized FOR ABSOLUTELY NO REASON WHATSOVER!! Sign up now! Tell a friend. And you will also want to buy our 66-part companion sells guide for $199 -- which includes over $65,000 in FREE GIFTS!!! Lots of info! Lots more short sentences! All designed to make me FABULOUSLY WEALTHY!!!!

All you have to do is call our toll-free number and leave a message.

And make sure the last thing on that message is my name.

All the best....