by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 30, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Every Monday, I look at a person or company doing something cool online. Got an idea? Let me know about it!
A couple months ago, I noticed Larry Literal on Twitter. He had recently moved here and I saw he started following a bunch of us Twitter users in the Bar Harbor area. I sent in a few questions to see how social media was helping him settle into a new area. Here’s what he had to say:
“I moved to Bar Harbor slowly, starting in September of last year. My godson visits quite regularly and always spoke of the area fondly. I’d visited in the past but not very recently. My brother-in-law owned a vacation house in the area and I decided to go along with my godson when he invited me last summer. I had recently retired and had a lot of time on my hands. Shortly after my visit, my brother-in-law was offered early retirement. This meant he would have to sell the vacation home. I decided instead to take over the payments, he’d already paid off half of the house, I’d make the rest of the payments and we would share it. Upon another visit in September I decided to make it my permanent home. I spent the next few months living part time in Maine and New York and I only finally moved all my stuff up here a few weeks ago. My beloved wife had loved the area in her youth. I wanted to retrace her steps and live for myself the memories she had shared with me from her childhood.
Before I moved I used Facebook a bit. I tend to keep to myself and my godson set me up with a Facebook account and then my Twitter account to make sure I would keep in touch with everyone. Bar Harbor is very quiet in the winter and I love that about the area.
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 23, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Note: The Village Emporium is a client of Breaking Even Communications.
My friend Dorrie runs The Village Emporium, a clothing and gift shop in Bar Harbor and
launched her website a couple months ago. As the summer season approaches, Dorrie was looking for a way to begin populating her email list while getting ready to open the store to its regular full-time hours May 1. She also just started a Twitter account for the store to complement the Facebook page one of her employees started last year.
I told Dorrie she should have a giveaway of some merchandise in the coming weeks and she ran with it.
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 15, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Every Monday, a post about websites, web promotions, and how to do it well. Let me know if you have an idea!
I was going to write about something else entirely until the task of transporting 25 pounds of cuteness consumed my life.
To be clear, let’s take a look at what all this work has been for:
*Sigh* Ok, that was helpful. And gives this whole situation perspective.
Regular readers may be aware that I had to put my dog down in January. She was 15 years old and I had watched her slow decline for almost an entire year. As someone who lives alone and works at home, I’ve missed the companionship of an animal. And while I am not expecting another Sadie (who was irreplaceable), I know my new dog will add a lot to my life… if only there wasn’t the slightest issue.
Corky the Corgi lives in Georgia. And I live in Maine. (Unrelated: Yes, I am changing her corny little name the second I get her.)
I have spent days investigating how I can get this animal to where I am, and would like to offer the folks who run animal shelters a few tips to help people adopt more animals, as I have been ridiculously patient throughout this process in a way that others might not be.
If you’re going to offer it, be ready to know what that entails, and how much it costs.
On the front page of the shelter’s website, they say transport is available to the northeast. The transporter I talked to (an affiliate of but not exactly connected to the shelter) could only get my dog to Rhode Island. Last I checked, there is still a lot of the northeast to go after RI.
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 9, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Every Monday, the Breaking Even blog looks at a individual, business, or website promoting itself in interesting ways online. Have an idea? Do tell!
Most years, I try to make it to my hometown of Fort Kent Maine for the annual Can-Am International Dog Sled Race. It’s been happening for seventeen years and the total purse is up to $40,000.
Usually taking place the first weekend of March, Main Street is covered with snow and racers tackling the 30 mile, 60 mile, or 250 races all start off with cheering crowds around them. The 250 mile race qualifies races for the Iditarod, and a few say this race is even tougher than that.
The event is well organized and well staffed with volunteers, and I think thanks at least in part to social media, this year’s crowd was among the largest ever.
The YouTube video clip from a documentary film flew around YouTube.
The race website is very up-to-date with content.
My friend Sarah’s father is one of the people who
maintains the Can-Am website. While the design is very basic, throughout the weekend it was updated multiple times an hour with times, places, and other information about all three races. There is even a map where each individual musher’s location was tracked through time. (To see the dots on the map,
click this link and then the ‘Track!’ button. You can click on different dots to see a headshot of the racer and track their individual progress in relation to other mushers.)
by Nicole Ouellette | Mar 1, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Every Monday, the Breaking Even blog looks at a individual, business, or website promoting itself in interesting ways online. Have an idea? Do tell!
When I first began my blog in 2007, it was a hard choice between whether I would be talking about money or food. I decided that talking about money would force me to learn more about it but I still love food, follow several food blogs, and overall am interested in food-related issues.
My friend Sarah tipped my off to Foodista, a website startup from a few former Amazon.com employees. It was seeking to be an open source food encyclopedia, not just of ingredients but of recipes. Being the good friend that I am, I followed Foodista’s progress throughout Sarah’s internship there but continue to keep in touch now. (Sarah had to return eastward to finish her MBA.)
Foodista has done a few things well that I’ve noticed:
Foodista has a specific enough focus that it isn’t doing too much but a broad enough concept for it to grow.
As a website, you don’t want to pigeonhole yourself but you do want to give potential visitors an idea what they’ll find in relation to content on your site. Foodista tackles the expected ingredients and recipes but also discusses techniques of food preparation and cooking tools, which is less commonly found information. Having the focus of food (and food in the title of their domain name), however, gives potential web visitors an idea of what this site will be about. (If you aren’t sure what I’m talking about, click here for an example of a much less clear website.)
Foodista allows users to submit content… without logging in.
As a web person constantly exploring new things, having to register for every website is a pain. Sure, it gives the website publisher/owner my contact information but for many people, having to register to do something simple like look around or even comment can be a deterent.
Foodista allowed me to upload my two fiddlehead pictures last spring with absolutely no issue. It also effortlessly connects to accounts you may have on other sites, like Flickr or Facebook. If I use the site a lot, I will no doubt create an account but for now, I feel the pride of being slightly famous in my own head, in relation to cookable ferns anyway.
by Nicole Ouellette | Feb 22, 2010 | Marketing Monday
Marketing Monday profiles a cool person, website, or business doing more online. Got an idea? Contact me so I can write about it.
People always ask me: How do you get by without cable? I say that my Google Reader keeps me in touch with what’s going on in the blogosphere/pop culture and I listen to NPR for my news. Both of these are true, that’s part of the reason I can go without a cable bill. I do, however, get my television zoning out pleasure courtesy of Hulu.
There is two main ways for media companies to make money online: 1) charge users a fee to access the site or 2) get advertisers to foot the bill and offer the users free access. Hulu has opted for the latter, and may or may not be making enough money to support themselves. Regardless of whether Hulu is turning a profit at the moment though, they are doing interesting things online.
Hulu is having customers chose their viewing experience… and getting customer data in the process.
Several times recently, I was given options for commercials. Did I want to watch a 1 minute 30 second long commercial about Nuvaring before the show began or did I want several shorter commercial breaks? Did I want to watch the stylish, tech, or speed-oriented commercial for Google Chrome? (Part of me also wonders also if there is some ad targeting going on based on my age, sex, and other demographics.)
