Strategic Marketing

So, I have been having some speed issues with my web site and went to have a hunt to see if I could find the culprit. Whilst I was sniffing around I noticed that this is my first >1Gb month for bandwidth. So, which one of you is stealing it, eh?

Seriously though, my statistics are looking pretty crazy. My number of visitors has slowly settled down again but I have still had almost 59,000 visitors in the last year. That's a fair schwag of people when you work out that it is several hundred people per day.

Perhaps I am suffering from too much time in the business sector. I am amazed at the pressure exuded now on small business owners to 'blog their way to success' using their blog to demonstrate their prowess to potential customers and win them over as clients.

It is amazing though how hard core the people who take up their gauntlet are. They make bold claims about their success from this and many ply the pressure onto their clients and readership to take up and do the same. These past few months I have felt this pressure immensely.

So, I am settling in for a night of bed-time reading for the night. Wednesday is the night where Michael usually has another commitment to attend to and after wrapping up early from a meeting of the Mitcham Hills Community Housing Association I thought it prudent to look through my weekly foot-high pile of mail and scoop out the larger items that cross my desk, or, in this case, bed side.

So what do I read of an evening? Lots! Tonight though I have 'Australasian Journal of Gifted Education', 'Company Director' and 'inBusiness SA' magazine which includes my fourth copy of the Marketing Week 2008 conference guide. Combine the conference guide with my reminder from AMI this afternoon and I should probably get off my tail and register for a few sessions. (I'll flag those later).

Coming off a week at the SAGE-AU conference I am really tired but quietly excited for the industry. The conversations held during the event were motivating as I could see IT professionals passionate about making a difference to their workplace and their organisation's clients. It is a rare thing to behold and it was great to see.

I was also happy with the way my presentations came together, especially in light that two only came with a couple of weeks notice. It is always a good things when you get questions at the end that relate directly to your presentation - it means they were listening after all! Of course, I would expect this to be the case but IT professionals can be a tough crowd when it comes to feedback either verbal or non-verbal so relevant and thought-out questions are always a good sign.

So, time to settle into that reading...

"Open Source products and associated services should be charged out to customers at a price as high as the market will tolerate whilst maintaining a viable client base."

Agree or disagree, I am putting this to you at OSDC. I am scheduled to present at 2.30pm on Tuesday for anyone who feels like having their business principles challenged! The presentation itself is titled 'Capturing Competitive Advantage'.

See you there!