Writing another ending
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on April 15th, 2009
Tagged as: Projects
How is it when you put a plan together, something big and wonderful that could well change your life, if not the world around you, and bring true value to your existence, obstacles and reasons “why not” simply fall out of the sky?
As I wrote this morning on my Italian blog, how do you get back on track when you’ve spent the past few months assiduously following someone else’s?
Well nothing gets done without a bit of effort so now’s the time to roll up my sleeves and find my own to follow.
Breathe in the future, breathe out the past
Recently, I had lunch with a very good friend who works for a huge TV network. I was absolutely shattered over lunch, having a really hard time stringing sentences together that were anything other than loosely concealed cries for help.
At a certain point, my friend said: “You know what your problem is? You occupy a really important role in a small company, which is why they expect blood whereas I occupy a medium role in a large company - our different blood pressures can be explained right there.”
What he was saying wasn’t that I should look for anonymity in a huge corporation, rather I should get out of the shadows and show the world what I do.
So without further ado, here’s the deal:
I am the de facto senior copywriter for Acer Group inasmuch as I work for the Ad Agency with the worldwide exclusive on Acer’s PR, corporate and product communications. If that doesn’t sound like a big deal, how about I tell you that there are in essence just five of us creating strategies and content for everything from product naming to corporate events? Still not enough? Well that we do this for Acer Group, Acer Inc., Packard Bell and Gateway?
Oh and I haven’t mentioned that I created and run single-handedly the unofficial Acer blog which alone has more than 60 thousand visitors / month.
In any ordinary company, there would be hordes of us, or at the very least a strategy which went beyond “getting it done”.
I won’t hide it - I’m tired. There’s got to be something more.
Bring on change - please!
I’m convinced that the current financial crisis, the general downturn needs to be taken by the horns. I mean if there’s a general sense of gloom, it’s because society is behaving like a herd, following the lead of the next guy who’s just another follower of mainstream depression.
I’m not saying we can just will our way out; what I’m saying is that we’ve forgotten how to offer - or worse - communicate anything of real value, so that when the bubble bursts, the superficiality of the way the world works and what it has to offer inevitably floats to the surface and people simply turn away in the search for something that goes a little deeper.
What’s needed right now is a profound sense of humanity in the things we do, not blind resistance to change coupled with faith in worn-out models that are obviously dying. I personally am sick of hearing exhausted messages that do nothing to add to my sense of well being. On TV networks, radio and web ads, the clutter all seems to follow the same script, no matter what the segment and who the customer is, the thrity-second sound byte has been rinsed and repeated so many times it’s impossible to tell what the original colour really was.
And when I stop and look in the hope of finding things to prove I’m wrong, there’s very little that does, apart from Google, Wikipedia, Facebook, Twitter and a bunch of Social Media sites that bring that all-too-rare value into my life as they’re not selling stuff/ideas/fashions/dreams I don’t need, they’re giving.
So value is where I’m heading.
In absence of any real contenders for true value propositions (no-one I know is seriously considering social media as a means to talk with customers), it’s time I started my own, and this site is where I intend to share how I get on.
Welcome back then, and keep up the good work.
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When time ain’t enough.
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 29th, 2008
Tagged as: Language Is Free, Me, Projects, Social Media
I have just done something I thought I would never have the opportunity to do again.
I took a week off.
Yes I checked my mails, yes I did drive 250 miles back to Milan for a meeting that didn’t need me there. But even though I was still ‘on’, I actually took a week ‘off’.
It’s amazing how a few days can clear your mind, or in my case, make it up.
Now I’m back, I feel refreshed, revitalized and, more importantly, re-focused.
More than thinking outside the box, it’s as if I see the world above the clouds. Possibilities, opportunities, potential, all within my grasp, yet seemingly so far from my clients’…
Shame the real world is fast approaching beneath my feet.
I still have time left. Time to solicit a website I’ve been waiting 9 months to be delivered, time to start the biggest project of my life, time to look my kids straight in the eye, and giggle with them for hours on end.
Soon, routine will settle in with all the unpleasantness of a small dog whose cocky bark repeats incessantly with bone grating persistence. Soon can wait, right now, I’m a star.
Best not to think about tomorrow when today is so sunny, so sweet.
Taking a week off from Twitter, RSS feeds and even newspapers is a very, very pleasant experience for no other reason than you are suddenly presented with an inordinately large dollop of time on your hands. Time to decide… Time to kill… Time to think… Time to breathe…
Remember what that felt like? Didn’t think so.
In the fast connected world, time isn’t actually used by us, we do not hold the keys to our time. More often than not it is used (badly) by our clients to get things done (badly). It’s taken from us, and we readily give it up in return for feeling part of the moment, part of the big equation. How sad is that?
One of my random thoughts concerned a very big client of a client who’s taking too long to get what I can help them embrace. Not just social networks, the whole online caboodle. The web, its codes, conduct and - now - transparency are all beyond what they’re prepared to welcome on board in one fell swoop. They need more time to absorb the message, assess the potential damage and prepare their excuses.
And in my current position of outsourced copywriter, I’m not exactly in a position to help.
Which brings me back to time. When you have enough time on your hands to realize that you don’t have the time your clients need to decide, what do you do?
You start your own project, that’s what you do.
Thanks to the one person I’m always happy to hear from and who has inspired me without knowing it, I am expanding my product portfolio to include conversation marketing. I think I’ll be the only one selling (or buying) it for a while in Italy but at least I’ll be in excellent company 
A new service will allow me to concentrate on using my time well for the benefit of my clients, or in other words: the better I use my time, the better the quality of service I offer my clients.
And the project? Well I’ve just got off the phone with a web design agency in Toronto and am happy to say I’m going to give them the green light. I can’t believe that after twelve years, my little idea will finally get the chance to prove its worth. I hope I don’t make a hash of it as without wishing to sound too full of myself, the world really does need something like this.
Thought that would make you jump.
If any of you know any English language teachers or bloggers/writers looking to participate in something really radical (and get paid for it), please give them my mail. Trust me, they will thank you.
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Left for dead? Not a chance!
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on December 6th, 2007
Tagged as: Language Is Free, Me, Projects, Runaway Parents
It’s been how long?
Wow. I’ve lost all momentum. Kids are the perfect excuse but they’re not the only things that can stop a good party.
Every now and then a manic idea sweeps through the corridors of power on Planet Acer and I’m left to come up with concepts, ideas, and best of all speeches in the blink of an eye. I’m very excited about what’s going down as there’s nothing like a major event to give a dreary copywriter a big, fat, creative kick up the arse!
Good job I’m good - and fast
There’s a breath of fresh air heading in my direction. It dawned on me yesterday as I was reading a really interesting interview about Gary Vaynerchuk and his take on the video blog platform.
What Gary has done is take the technology out of the medium and has replaced it with good, old-fashioned personality. Duh!
This is the kind of vibe I’ve been wanting to model my own initiatives on and may well borrow from it for the online language course I’m in the middle of developing.
Speaking of projects, the new, improved Runaway Parents site is nearly up and running and I really can’t wait to get my teeth into it. This project started out as a way of getting my wife involved in what I do (writing, blogging) and we’re now opening a company that’s going to transform it into a cute little niche site.
So while I’m here I might as well plug what it is we’re going to do: If any of you know of a romantic getaway or restaurant in your neighborhood no matter where you are in the world and/or would like to get involved as a parent who loves getting away from it all, drop me a line. I’ve modeled ad revenue sharing into the site design and have an affiliate system for advertisers so you’ve got nothing to lose!
Does anyone know anything about community video publishing on YouTube? I’m going to start the ball rolling by publishing the first few lessons on the free online language course I’ve got on the boil but what I really want is an open environment where other teachers are free to join in and publish their own lessons (viral teaching???). Again, ad revenue sharing will be built into the site structure so we all benefit but I’m wondering if YouTube is the best medium. I know Blip.tv and Viddler are pretty sharp but they seem to be more suitable for single-user sites.
On Wine Library.TV, only Gary’s doing the videos. How would he organize it if he let visitors upload their own videos?
Plus I know it’s old(ish) but look at YouTube’s popularity.
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So what now?
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on September 25th, 2007
Tagged as: Projects
Read a phrase over on Shel Israel’s blog today: “Constraint spawns creativity.” Constraint has more facets than the business-oriented reality Shel brought up, but the result is always the same. Wise words indeed.
That was some post yesterday, if nothing else as it generates expectation that’s going to be fun delivering. The day after a revalation like that is always slow, as you take time to take things in, see them in their proper light, and shift gears.
Today I pampered myself with a few carefully tempo’ed purchases from iTunes and got the ball off to a surprisingly smooth start.
The reason for this is that the first after-effect of change is some pretty nifty time management abilities. Closing yourself down to certain aspects of your life actually provides an excellent excuse for some strict timelines. You give yourself X for this, and Y for that and to hell with the rest.
“This” is what I’m still paid to do. “That” is what I’m planning on developing over the next few months. They’re great projects:
The first is Runaway Parents. My wife and I had an urge to transform the passion we have to carve out moments for ourselves into an activity and Runaway Parents is the result. Sarah over at the excellent Blogging Expertise site has already given the site a new look and we’re both anxious to get this little project off the ground. It’s the first time we’ve attempted anything resembling e-commerce so it’s a pretty exciting moment for us. Look out for it very soon. Plus we have modelled it on Shel Israel’s brilliant suggestion of sharing ad-revenue so the results could be very interesting to watch.
The second is still on the drawing board but I have spoken about it over at Web-Teach. All those books, all those blogs, all those YouTube videos (thanks Richard) full of wisdom and direction have steered me towards getting this project moving. It combines everything I know on the subject of education and all the principles of social media I have experienced so far into one living breathing project that should turn the established language education systems on their head. Think Blogs - meet - NetVibes - meet - YouTube - meet - Digg - meet - Wikipedia - meet - the - Super-teacher and you’re halfway there. Oh, and it’s free too.
I haven’t asked Sarah what she’s going to charge me for it yet but I will very soon.
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The luck of the Irish
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on April 9th, 2007
Tagged as: Copywriting, Gab Gab Gab, Projects
I have been asked to manage a series of property translations for a major real estate investment company that is going to take a while to set up.
That’s right: set up. I’m no fool. Trados can literally save days on translation projects like this and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone with repeat commissions to trawl through.
As I *officially* no longer do translations, there is the small matter of having to re-install it and set up the fiddly translation dictionaries but it should only take a few hours to get up to speed. Licence permitting…
Note to self: if all else fails I must get my trusty translators in on this as there’s plenty to go around and absolutely no time to waste.
And things could very well fail as there’s a major product launch (or two) coming for another client who should brief me on timing, content and products (minimum 4 brochures) on Tuesday. I fully expect they will have to be completed by no later than Friday.
This is after I’ve finished writing the master copy and headline for their latest 42†Full HD wonder.
And there was me thinking I’d have time to scout out some new clients.
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Social Linking sparks Adaptive Learning
Posted by Michael Walsh (Check me out!) on March 18th, 2007
Tagged as: Long Tail, Projects, Social Media
I am going to be absorbed by two things this week:
The first is something I caught off of Jack Humphrey’s fabulous Friday Traffic Report blog.
Called social power linking, in essence the theory is that Search Engines do not have the monopoly on surfers. By that I mean that surfers don’t start at a SE, visit a site, go back to the SE, visit the next site and so on. Once they’re surfing, they’re probably bouncing from one site straight to the next. I know that’s true for me - I use a non-personalized Google page as my homepage (to get off it ASAP), and only ever go back there as a starting point when my personal search conversation changes.
In between, I’m clicking around a lot, using one site’s links to head off to another, that I probably wouldn’t have found in in SE’s.
Here’s where the “social” aspect comes in and it’s particularly important in blogs, after all we bloggers will link to anyone!
Just like in SEO, Social Power Linking gets you in the way of passing traffic but not just SE traffic generated by a few, carefully guarded keywords. It’s about giving and getting. Being part of communities, throwing up and promoting your feeds within them and getting much more efficient and effective in what Jack describes as “marking your turf”.
There’s quite a lot to pick up on here so I’m going to spread it out over the week ahead and share a little of the experience online every day.
The other thing I’m involved in this week is getting my Web-Teach project into first gear. This is one of those ideas I’ve had in the back of my mind for longer than my pride will allow me to admit, and the reason it’s surfaced now is thanks in no small part to a recommendation by Shel Israel when replying to Tom Shelley of the Economist.
The idea of paying bloggers part of the Adsense (or similar) revenue from their particular page is as simple (and obvious) as it is pure genius and exactly what my Web-Teach project is looking for.
Web-Teach (not its final name BTW) is essentially an adaptive online language teaching project, designed to offer language students access to relevant content (personalized fields of interest) that is also didactically in line with their linguistic needs. A way of giving what they want AND what they need. A kind of B5Media for language-learners if you will.
Trouble is, this idea is so far down the Long Tail it’s mind-bogglingly complex to undertake alone and that’s where Shel’s revenue-sharing idea steps in (if you’re reading this Shel, thanks for that).
So Web-Teach is now almost viable. It’ll have an unglamorous launch but maybe, thanks to the power of social media, a bright future.
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